Seema Farswani’s single, ‘Got My Mojo Working’ featuring Dem-C, has been looping in my head, and it feels less like a track and more like a beautifully vexing predicament set to a very groovy beat. The premise is so disarmingly human, isn't it? This notion of possessing a potent personal magnetism, a kind of everyday folk magic that bends the world just so, only...

Listening to the new DownTown Mystic EP, "Mystic Highway", is a bit like finding an old, perfectly worn-in roadmap in the glovebox of a brand new car. It has the feel of something essential, something foundational, yet it’s being used to navigate a landscape of blindingly modern anxieties. Robert Allen, the architect behind this project, isn’t just playing classic rock; he's conducting a seance...