To begin, Mahuna's new single “Far-Off Summer’s Night” does not fill the room with sound so much as it hollows out a small, reverent space within it. This is a song that arrives like a fog from the fields of Monaghan, a gentle haunting born of a Belfast past and a Berlin present, carrying with it the DNA of quiet sorcerers like Nick Drake...

Bolidde's new album, Rainbow Galaxy, doesn't so much arrive as it does seep into the room, a ten-track document of flight powered by rock and roll muscle. Here is a veteran of the French scene who understands the architecture of a great pop hook, but who uses that knowledge not to build a summer villa, but a high-speed getaway vehicle. The album’s energy is...