Tag: Rok music

The 3 AM Loneliness of Skylarka’s Neon-Soaked “Somnorine”

There is a peculiar friction to the digital textures of Skylarka and her new album, "Somnorine". It’s supposed to be chiptune-influenced synthwave, but listening to it feels less like browsing the internet and more like chewing on aluminum foil while watching Blade Runner on a CRT monitor that’s slowly degaussing. It’s a sensory contradiction bright, crystalline pop hooks wrestling with the deep, existential dread...

Ken Woods And The Old Blue Gang Releases “Oh Denise”

Some songs are like a time machine. You press play, and suddenly you’re somewhere else, some other time. Maybe it’s a smoky bar in the 1970s, a sweaty punk club in the 80s, or, in the case of “Oh Denise,” the new single from Ken Woods and The Old Blue Gang, a dusty dancehall on the outskirts of Austin, Texas, sometime in the not-too-distant past. The...

From Pac-Man to Pop Culture: “Rok” and the Art of Emotional Synth

If the Pac-Man arcade cabinet at the corner of a musty Scottish pub could talk, it might recount something akin to Rok's self-titled odyssey....