Near Death Experience's single, "Shake," arrived not so much as music, but as a sudden, urgent insistence. It’s London psych-rock-soul alright, but brewed with something fiercely immediate, demanding attention like a ringing telephone in an empty room. The core quartet – Ian Whiteling guiding the trip with vocals and guitar fuzz, Joshua Van Ness laying down a heartbeat that feels both frantic and locked-in,...

Luma Saint invites us into a shared space with "All of Us," a track that feels like the sonic equivalent of finding a familiar face in a crowded city. There is a specific kind of magic that happens when a musician from Stockton-on-Tees decides to tackle the gargantuan concept of universal unity, especially when collaborating with his son. It grounds the grandiosity. It makes...