There is a specific kind of quiet you find in the Midwest, and listening to Derby Hill and his self-titled release, "Derby Hill", feels like stumbling into that quiet after a long, noisy shift. It’s not the silence of emptiness; it’s the silence of after. After the argument, after the paycheck clears, after the sun goes down over the Detroit skyline or a Chicago...

With their single "Numbers Game," Grey Jacks has managed to build a deceptively inviting room inside a house that’s actively on fire. The foundation here is a slithering, almost hypnotic rock groove, driven by the lock-step pulse of Teddy Minton on drums and Howard Rabach on bass. It has that cool, coiled tension reminiscent of late-90s Radiohead, a sound that gets in your bones...