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...

Apex4X. Right, let's dive in. "The Fire Within", an album with thirteen tracks; feels like peering into someone's journal, but one that's written in neon ink and scrawled across a storm-ridden sky. It’s not a straight path, this emotional rollercoaster, more like a particularly scenic, but also slightly terrifying, cliffside drive. The whole thing drips with this fascinating paradox - personal pain delivered with...