For their fifth studio album, the Geneva-based indie rock outfit Sonic Rade shares "Berlin", an intensely resonant record heavily steeped in the aura of its namesake city. Relocating to the legendary Meistersaal the former Hansa Studios where acts like Bowie and Depeche Mode once operated the band allowed the physical walls of the room to hijack their live tracking. You feel those historical reverberations...

Okay, let’s talk about Blofeld Sands, straight out of Brighton with a debut single, ‘People.’ That's the title, folks, not a directive. I mean, it kind of is, though, isn't it? When I first hit play, it wasn't the jangly guitars or the precisely placed drum fills that snagged my ear, but that singular word echoing in the verses: “loving people”. A simple phrase,...