Cloudspeakers

Give a man a beat and he’ll rap for a day. Give three men their pick of two hundred Madlib beats and a guest roster of hip-hop stalwarts and you’ve got Strong Arm Steady. Solid, workmanlike rhyme... Lees meer

If rock and roll taught me anything, it’s that greedy hands love to touch the Hendrix legacy. Remasters, reissues and compilations bearing the guitar god’s name showed me the meaning of capitalism,... Lees meer

Aloha’s fifth LP is named after a quiet suburb in Rochester, New York, but the practiced indie-rock foursome isn’t settling on the front porch just yet. The U.S. band thankfully shifts some of its ... Lees meer

Dios has been fucking with you since 2004, when the band changed names three times. But where 2004 Dios (pre-malos) was all Cali-pop and Beach Boys shimmer, now they’ve got some clever song titles ... Lees meer

Mulatu Astatke’s got new fans to deal with. Whether from the rice-cooker psych-funk of last year’s Heliocentrics collaboration or either of his recent retrospectives, the Ethio-jazz originator’s ne... Lees meer

Volume 1 represents a then-and-now in pop music, a genre once inspired by soul and now consumed by dance. The Bird and the Bee don’t so much recreate Hall & Oates as they modernize them, taking the... Lees meer

Upon his eighth solo album, it’s clear now that Rocky Votolato was most successful during the beginning of his solo career, adeptly navigating the murky waters of whiskey binges and thoughtful self... Lees meer

Thanks to Newsom’s love-it-or-hate-it voice, a creaky eggshell of a thing that splits the difference between crone and infant, some people will pass this one over without even listening. But, itâ... Lees meer

James Pants can conjure space music with the best of them, and his new album, Seven Seals, is a squirming bag of Barrett-era smiles, to be sure. It’s excellent mood music for an Ethiopian restauran... Lees meer

If Iron & Wine, Sufjan Stevens and Wilco had a sordid love-child, you’d have Seabear’s sophomore album, We Built a Fire. The melodic virtuosity is definitely a welcome change to the drab tunes haun... Lees meer