Earl Patrick pivots sharply away from his usual indie-folk and guitar-driven comfort zones for his newest release, the wildly inventive album "Conditioned By Machines". The Portland, Oregon-based composer, singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has spent over two decades building a dense, eight-album catalog. Here, however, he entirely flips the script. Feeling that classical flute music too often prioritizes gesture over pure melody, he set out...

Some songs slink into existence like they’ve emerged from a digital jungle, chrome vines and all. Super Massive’s latest single, "Caught In A Web," doesn’t just step into the foliage; it practically swings from the branches. Glenn Abbott’s tight, pulsating drum rhythms instantly provide the scaffolding, while Malina Hamilton-Smith’s vocals glide, entangle, and occasionally sting like the titular web’s arachnid inhabitant. It grooves like...