Shane Beales: Heavy Clouds

Liverpool based artist Shane Beales is quite the up and coming artist. Since 2006, he has released 2 albums, 4 EPs, and 52 singles—all independently.

Beales’s most recent effort, the EP Heavy Clouds, is an interesting set of four songs.

Heavy Clouds opens with “The Crunch,” which feels like a throwback to the early 90s grunge scene. Beales’s voice and the raw guitar rifts are both reminiscent of bands such as Alice in Chains or Pearl Jam.

“The Crunch” is a hard-hitting song, and leaves the listener wanting more. The strange thing is this: the next three songs on the EP, while good in their own right, are not what “The Crunch” sets the listener up to expect. Instead, the songs are about as stylistically different as putting Rob Zombie and Mozart on the same album.

The grittiness of “The Crunch” is followed next by “Across the Seas,” a very soft, mellow ballad. The song is absolutely beautiful, both instrumentally and lyrically. The piano that starts out and backs the entirety of the song has a delicate, dreamy feel to it, which perfectly fits Beales’s lyrics about committing to someone for life....MORE

Oz Noy: Schizophrenic

It’s always disappointing when an album starts off strong, giving the listener the impression it’s going to remain that way throughout its entirety, but then fails to do so.

This is the case with Oz Noy’s fourth album, Schizophrenic.

The album starts off with “Ice Pick,” which has a sound similar to what you might hear during a Phish jam session. Schizophrenic maintains the jam-band style throughout, and Noy’s guitar playing consistently shines through.

About mid-way into the album, however, Schizophrenic starts to lose its appeal...MORE

Coco Montoya: The Essential Coco Montoya

Coco Montoya is by no means new to the blues scene. He got his start under the guidance of blues legends Albert Collins and John Mayall before going solo in the early 90’s.

With The Essential Coco Montoya, Montoya reminds listeners exactly why he was able to be successful as a solo artist.

The songs on the album aren’t new, but instead are all songs Montoya recorded over a decade ago. Despite the age of the songs, there is nothing old or stale feeling about this album.

Montoya has a voice that catches the listener and leaves them hanging on for more. His voice is powerful, soulful, and oozing with sincerity. You can’t help but believe every word that comes out of his mouth...MORE

ROB: Rise on Belief

If Jimi Hendrix and Lenny Kravitz somehow had a love child and let the Red Hot Chili Peppers raise it, ROB would be it.

These are some big names to compare a new artist to, but ROB is every bit deserving of such accolades.

ROB’s debut album Rise on Belief starts out with the song “Freedom,” which has guitar stylings, and even vocals, that sound like ROB directly channeled Hendrix, and Hendrix complied.

Although there is a definite reminiscence of Jimi Hendrix in ROB’s songs, there isn’t the feeling that ROB is simply trying to imitate Hendrix’s sound...MORE

Knight Area: Realm of Shadows

If you are a fan of progressive rock or Europop, you might enjoy Realm of Shadows, the third album from Dutch band Knight Area. If you’re not a fan of that genre, then chances are the album won’t do much for you.

Realm of Shadows has, to say the least, an interesting vibe to it. It has the fairly electric sound that sets progressive rock apart as a genre, but that seems to be the only cohesive aspect of the album.

On some songs, such as “A Million Lives,” Realm of Shadows has an 80s flair similar in style to that of The Police. On others, such as the second half of “Occlusion” Knight Area sounds closer to one of the definitive prog-rock bands, Pink Floyd. ...MORE

Erin Hunt: Meet Me in the Middle

In a music industry that seems to be moving ever closer to being taken over by synthesizers and electronic backing, anything that breaks away and has a sound of its own is a welcome change.

With her debut EP Meet me in the Middle, Toronto-based singer-songwriter Erin Hunt has given the music world something completely refreshing.

With a sound that can’t help but elicit images of a dimly lit jazz club, Meet me in the Middle is a fusion of soul, R&B, and pop, with a nice dash of Latin flair thrown into the mix to make for an album that is anything but generic...MORE