Ultan’s single, "The Tempest," erupts not so much into the room as it does through the floorboards, dragging with it the scent of wet wool and imminent confrontation. This Dublin solo musician, a cartographer of past agonies, presents an energetic rock piece that feels less like a song about history and more like a fragment of it, throbbing and urgent. The main riff careers...

Listening to Highroad No. 28 navigate the emotional geometry of "Likethelast" feels a bit like watching a bruised prizefighter suddenly break into a joyful, intricate tap dance. It is disarming, slightly confusing, and entirely magnetic. Andrew JC, the sole architect behind this sonic landscape, has constructed something that defies the dusty expectations one might hold for an outfit born in the late 90s alternative...