Seishin Takeno's "Echoes," a sonic postcard from Kanagawa. Nine instrumental pieces, I've been told. Not nine songs, mind you – more like nine shaded windows into a particular kind of quiet. This isn't music that yells; it leans in, like a friend confiding a secret you half-hear on a summer porch. Immediately, you're not so much listening as remembering. Or maybe anticipating. It feels...

Naomi Jane has gone big with her latest single, "Pretty Boys", which promises artistic maturity going higher proportionally to the pace of her growing stardom. The fifteen-year-old girl's voice travels beyond her age to convey a message about the love of self and beating any superficial ruse. The story of the one, with its explicit and underlined feel of independence and self-worth, captures the hearts...