Listening to the opening of Michellar’s "Truth Over Lies" is like being dropped mid-sentence into a conversation you desperately need to hear. This track, which features Frankie El, doesn't ease you in; it puts you on the "shaky ground" it sings about, a state of profound vertigo that reminds me of the low, anxious hum an old CRT television used to make just before...

Olivier Laurent’s new concept album, “Solin Anj”, doesn't so much play for you as it does around you. Listening feels like an act of accidental espionage on a life in progress. We are placed in the sonic womb, hearing the muffled arguments, ambitions, and affections of a world getting ready for our arrival. It’s an album that unfolds with the unhurried, jazzy cadence of...