Fish And Scale has surfaced from the quiet margins with a massive new pop-rock ballad, dropping the cinematic single "Letter from Paulus" today. The German storyteller and independent folk artist operates with a peculiar mystical touch, one seemingly forged by a childhood near-death experience and years spent tucked away in silent retreats. https://open.spotify.com/track/1tfeCiQX5gSMwbMMdjCfWv?si=8a724fa2787f41b8 All that introspective isolation pours directly into this track. It begins terribly exposed....

A rubber band ball, meticulously constructed and then unceremoniously dropped, that's what Outside Pedestrian's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" feels like. Not the ball itself, mind you, but the brief, elastic snap of unexpected order being momentarily... let go. We know the Bach tune. It’s a holiday staple, often served up with a side of polite reverence. But here, Anthony Fesmire’s guitar, David Lockeretz’s...