Glen Hansard
GLEN HANSARD The inspiration for Don+t Settle – Transmissions East and West, Glen Hansard’s sixth and latest, two-volume solo album, came from a memorable night in The Hague in the summer of 2024. Hansard and his band were performing at the outdoor Zuiderparktheater when the heavens opened, and they had to swiftly recalibrate. The singer immediately […]
My New Band Believe
MY NEW BAND BELIEVE My New Band Believe, led by Cameron Picton, bassist and sometime frontman of black midi, with whom he practiced an explosive form of musical world-building, weaving complex storytelling through thrilling passages of controlled chaos. The moniker serves as an open invitation, a subtle nod to listeners willing to meet the music […]
Ekko Astral
EKKO ASTRAL pink balloons went pop, and now everything’s in black and white. When Ekko Astral dropped their searing debut pink balloons in 2024, it would be another year and change before Trump took office and deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C. Recorded immediately after the 2024 U.S. General Election, Ekko Astral’s second album […]
Lip Critic
LIP CRITIC Theft World is an album about stealing. I’ve stolen a lot, and I’ve been stolen from a great deal. Nothing interesting has been taken from me though, just the things that everybody seems to have, social security number, credit cards, etc. Not long after I turned 25, while at the Lost Lake Lounge […]
Poison Ruïn
POISON RUÏN Building off the strengths of their critically acclaimed works, POISON RUIN return with their new album, Hymns From the Hills. The Philadelphia Punk band have developed their signature approach to grim mythmaking and scythe-swinging aggression in bold new directions, offering up a new body of songs that strike one as equal parts natural, undeniably of this […]
Gia Margaret
GIA MARGARET Every artist has to discover their voice. Gia Margaret didn’t find herself until she lost hers. With a vocal injury that kept her from singing for years, she developed other musical languages, mastering the grammar of an intricate, homey form of ambient music pioneered by Ernest Hood and perfected by The Books. Now, […]
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart
WHITNEY JOHNSONLIA KOHLMACIE STEWART Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart are a trio who utilize string instruments, voices, and manual tape effect processing to craft compositions from alternately tranquil and disquieting improvised music. The three musicians are individually rooted in deep sound exploration, multi-disciplinary composition, and all manner of cross-genre collaboration. The musical ground […]
Swing Kids
SWING KIDS Swing Kids emerged in the mid-1990s as a fusion of obscure punk, hardcore, and region-specific social politics. Their sound was heavily influenced by the ethos of jazz and swing-era ideals distilled through a hardcore lens, resulting in a style that defied traditional genre classifications. Although their time together was brief, the band left […]
Gouge Away & Ovlov
GOUGE AWAY Forming in South Florida with the intention to record a short EP and play one show, Gouge Away were driven by the need to write music and take a stab at topics they weren’t hearing in their local scene. They were influenced by bands like Fugazi, Unwound, The Jesus Lizard, Nirvana, Sonic Youth, […]
Tara Clerkin Trio
TARA CLERKIN TRIO Not far off two years from the day, Bristol’s Tara Clerkin Trio return to World of Echo and the EP format for a five song collection of quixotic, emotional redolence. But do not mistake their absence for inertia. If their musical output has been a little sparse during those in-between years, limited […]