Bavarian solo project MICHAEL & THE GUILLOTINE returns with “The Hydra Blues,” a ferocious blues-rock single fueled by sheer defiance and hard-won survival. Built around an uncompromising rhythm, the track immediately sets up an immovable boundary against moralizing critics and self-appointed messiahs. https://open.spotify.com/track/0TSO5mklMtr7tAyLJS0YMZ?si=6478248449204129 The instrumentation crawls forward on a massive, relentless stomp, shadowed by a distorted, high-pitched wail that weaves throughout the mix like static on...

With the release of the single "Play Me A Christmas Song", Stephen Dowd manages to bottle the very specific, blue-hued silence that falls over a living room once the wrapping paper has been cleared away. It is a curious thing, really, how a melody can act less like a sound wave and more like the smell of a candle that was blown out five...