Okay, let’s tumble into Apryll Aileen's “Under My Tree,” shall we? It’s not your grandma’s sleigh-bell jingler, not by a long shot. Aileen, this classically-trained pianist, decides to cloak herself in a Christmas-themed R&B haze, like wrapping a finely-made watch in soft flannel. It’s the kind of thing that makes you tilt your head. https://open.spotify.com/track/6BBE2fTRte3f7HW7NZkTwm?si=JDkhIyolRLeIJS9r8m7PVA The song feels like staring at a snow globe, the tiny...

There is a specific kind of cold that burns, like dry ice pressed against a fingertip, and that paradoxical sensation pervaded my entire weekend spent listening to the latest output from CMD.EXE, their debut full-length album "love.language.model". This collaboration between human musicians and machine intelligence hits with the weight of a pressurized cabin decompressing. It sits in that bruised, purple twilight between Electronic Rock...