Listening to the new EP from Mahto & The Loose Balloons, “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue,” is like opening a wooden box found in an attic. The contents aren't keepsakes, but vows—four jagged promises made to oneself in the quiet aftermath of a great uncoupling. https://open.spotify.com/album/3tCZ38eK4scP2ncv8ga7WM?si=RJGgjZhlQSWNOxxaRbKPZg This is music that breathes the air of the room it was born in. Mahto Addison-Browder’s voice...

London-based band Harsh Language recently dropped their staggering new single "Helium Heart," successfully capturing the untethered, dizzying panic of sudden grief. The three-piece Sean Shreeve, Rob Green, and Alec Albury wrestle with an incredibly difficult headspace here. They boldly smash the raw, muscular grit of progressive metalcore against the bruised melancholy of electronica, forging an aggressively heavy, boundary-defying soundscape. https://open.spotify.com/track/2ObVXZYfe16OiJd44zSSIy?si=00913aad74f2461a Grief is a chaotic animal, and...