Daily Yinz – Halloway – Consider

Billie Sue Bracken's latest album as Halloway is the airy, grief-hushed Rhapsody. According to Bracken, Rhapsody's songs are imbued with the memory of a friend stolen away by addiction. The music is delicate and vulnerable, but contains a core of gossamer strength, like that of a spiderweb. "Consider" overlays a sparse piano waltz (the chords' … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Halloway – Consider →

Daily Yinz – mégane – Mona Ray

The "library rock" quartet's debut EP is St. Clair. Opener "Mona Ray" showcases mégane's knack for deft rhythms, immersive guitar tones, and plaintive hooks. Vocalist Justin Crookston pines for the titular figure ("I lost every part of her [...] I lost the dream of you and I"), and the band's instruments follow suit, performing their … Continue reading Daily Yinz – mégane – Mona Ray →

Daily Yinz – Almost Exactly Like Julia – A New Kind of Love

The debut single from Julia Mahncke's solo project. I adopted my cat a few months after moving to Pittsburgh because I didn't have any friends. The night I brought her home from the Humane Society, she bounced around my apartment-- scratching couch arms, knocking things over, brushing against my legs, generally being delightful--and I felt … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Almost Exactly Like Julia – A New Kind of Love →

Daily Yinz – Pharaoh Lum – Phantom of the Blockra

A new single produced by Bilal Ré. Bilal uses drifting keys and gate-slamming percussion to create an air of quiet menace that befits Lum's Phantom, an elusive masked figure forged by "violence, drugs, and trauma"; he's guarded, cautious, "hard to touch," but if you cross him, he'll make you "swallow a katana." He locks into … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Pharaoh Lum – Phantom of the Blockra →

Daily Yinz – Criminal Manhunter – Kyd Darkness

Angel of Death is the latest release from Criminal Manhunter, a solo venture undertaken by Devon Brown (Living World, NASTY NANCY, Invader Lars). Closer "Kyd Darkness" could be the theme song for a superhero (antihero?) whose missions involve lots of subterranean lurking. The thing sounds like its echoing from a sewer grate, but the chord … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Criminal Manhunter – Kyd Darkness →

Daily Yinz – Satyr/Elfheim – Saffron Crush

Tones melds drone, jazz, and vaporwave stylings. The album sees Satyr/Elfheim (the guitar drone moniker of Richard Magnelli, who also records more vaporously as ☆彡ＤｒａｇｏｎＣｅｎｔｕｒｙ９９) working with six-string lava flows and free jazz percussion experiments alike. Opener "Saffron Crush," a prime example of the former, uncoils like a train-sized metal serpent winding its way through … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Satyr/Elfheim – Saffron Crush →

Daily Yinz – Bossy – Insufficient Funds (We’ll be fine)

The emcee's latest single sets course for the sun. "Insufficient Funds (We'll be fine)" begins with a quote pulled from Sun Ra's 1974 Afrofuturist film, Space is the Place. "This music," says the jazz maverick, fresh off a spaceship, "is all a part of another tomorrow." Bossy, backed by Andrew B Selway's sumptuous, meandering instrumental, … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Bossy – Insufficient Funds (We’ll be fine) →

Daily Yinz – feeble little horse – This Is Real

A whiplashing-inducing new single. feeble little horse sure know how to disorient. Their songs--whose lyrics, fittingly, feature disorientation as a prominent topic--wrench themselves shudderingly off-track, then, instead of re-railing, demolish their tracks entirely, and careen into swamps and cul-de-sacs and imaginary realms that don't exist yet. "This Is Real" contains the band's gnarliest heave to … Continue reading Daily Yinz – feeble little horse – This Is Real →