There's a curious jolt in hearing a title like "Us Against The World" from an act called The Cockney Cowboy. The name itself is a glorious contradiction, a pairing of gritty East London reality with the wide-open romance of Nashville. You half expect a joke, but what Justin Vella delivers is a dead-serious, straight-shooting country ballad that smells less of hay bales and more...

With Twaang’s latest release, "Zone", we aren't so much listening to a collection of tracks as we are stepping inside a distinct architectural layout of the human psyche. This innovative solo project has constructed a psychological journey that feels suspiciously like the progression of a panic attack resolving into a state of zen-like lucidity a transition usually reserved for monks or people who have...