Robin James Hurt’s “A Song, A Story Told” arrives with a sound you can almost run a thumb over, like worn corduroy. In an age of sterile, diamond-polished productions, this album is a defiantly handmade thing, tracked onto vintage cassette machines. The result is not a flaw, but an ingredient. A faint, persistent hiss breathes alongside the instruments, a ghost in the machine who...

Kobe-based solo project Garbage Garden has unleashed an absolute tempest of a single, "busy. being. Real." Drawing profoundly on Japan’s "Lost Generation" and the heavy psychological toll of navigating a rigidly hyper-efficient world, this new release is an abrasive jolt to the nervous system. https://open.spotify.com/track/68L3xHjofvZzyl1PT6gspO?si=64dd4dbb738f41f2 Garbage Garden continually wraps deep trauma exploring everything from emotional neglect to natural disasters in glaringly bright, video-game-esque textures. The result...