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NY’s The Going Rate fuelled the feel-good fire with their ska track, ‘All This Weight’

The Going Rate

Equally as ‘special’ as The Specials, The Going Rate is ska personified, a breeze of feel-good reverberations that seduce rhythmic pulses as though they’ve never been touched before. ‘All This Weight’ is swanky, soulfully colossal, and tied together with a teasingly progressive tempo that locks you in with unflinching anticipation. Every tonal transition—whether it’s a brass solo bursting with exuberance, a showcase of sun-bleached chanteuse vocal lines bridging the material world with the divine, or quintessential staccato guitars—pulls you further into awe over The Going Rate.

Hailing from Long Island, this multi-gender, multi-racial collective has built a reputation for setting stages alight with high-calibre musicianship, enthusiasm, and an infectious commitment to keeping the dancefloor moving. Their lively horn riffs, danceable grooves, and sharp lyricism have cemented their place in the local scene, earning them spots in venues across New York and beyond, as well as well-earned traction online.

With ‘All This Weight’, they don’t just drop another ska-infused anthem; they redefine what it means to fuse energy with finesse. Whether they’re shaking up intimate clubs or delivering a record that demands repeat listens, The Going Rate ensures every groove bursts with intent. If this track is anything to go by, their mission to become a staple in the greater NYC scene is well within reach.

‘All This Weight’ is available now on all major streaming platforms. Discover your preferred way to listen via this link. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Perenna King Fires Shots at the Elite with ‘Billionaire’

Perenna King isn’t here to play nice with the 1%. Billionaire is a slick, sultry rejection of the pop mould, drenched in bass-heavy afrobeat rhythms that instantly set the NYC singer-songwriter apart. With rap verses that cut through with razor-sharp conviction, she delivers a scathing critique of the ultra-wealthy, making it impossible not to get caught up in the hype of this protest anthem.

In a world where Elon Musk is unavoidable and the rich-poor divide stretches further by the day, King amplifies the frustrations of those grinding to get by, only to realise the system was rigged against them from the start. The track doesn’t just highlight the disparity—it vindicates the ones left fighting for scraps while the billionaires hoard power, influence, and entire economies.

Raised on a fusion of classic rock and literature, King has always had a flair for injecting her music with theatrical drama, but Billionaire isn’t just spectacle—it’s a battle cry. Her latest tour de force breathes fresh air into a genre often too cautious to take a stand. The message is as biting as the beat is infectious, proving that resistance isn’t futile.

Billionaire is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Cupid and the Cowboy’s ‘Beer on My Tramp Stamp’ Is a Shot of Whiskey Spiked with Sarcasm

Evading the clichés of every scene and leaving no room for pretence or posturing, Cupid and the Cowboy delivered a satirically subversive and seductively salacious tour de force of literally and figuratively down-and-dirty Americana with Beer on My Tramp Stamp. With folk and alt-country drippings in the soulfully delivered, foot-stomping hit, they find rugged intersections of euphony while the lyrics prove that they’re so beyond pastiche they’ve reserved a spot for other pioneers in the alt-country pantheon. There’s something delicious in the way they go down old country roads, finding new thematic intersections to explore while taking playful shots at the culture they’re dissecting through sound.

This misfit NYC duo thrive on contradiction. Bronx-born Cupid, a sultry wallflower with songs of unrequited love, collides with Maynard, a Reno Casino Cowboy who delivers his raw energy like an open bar tab on the line. Together, they trade vocals and have a proclivity for pulling in everything from country, Americana, dance-pop, R&B, alt-rock, and folk-punk to craft a sound as unfiltered as their songwriting.

With their first full-length album, Misfit Sessions, set to drop in 2025, they’re proving that country can be taken apart and put back together in a way that pays ode without feeling old.

Beer on My Tramp Stamp is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Seungmin Jung’s ‘Acadia’ Smokes Out Complacency with Sophisticated Jazz Fluidity

For 12 minutes, Seungmin Jung and his virtuosic ensemble take easy listening jazz and give it a smoky revival with Acadia, a composition that reaches the epitome of fluidity. The time signatures refuse to leave room for complacency, locking listeners into a state of mesmerised anticipation. It’s textural tonal alchemy at its finest—low reverberating basslines create a striking contrast against ascending brass notes and the ornate chimes of piano keys, threading together a soundscape as suave as a tailored suit.

Jung’s journey into jazz began in Seoul, where a spontaneous purchase of a double bass at 17 set the course for his future. Now based in New York, he has studied under some of the biggest names in the scene, including Buster Williams and Ingrid Jensen, earning his master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music. His career has seen him grace renowned venues from Korea’s Giwon Art Museum to Dizzy’s Jazz Club in New York, and his talent has been recognised with a second-place win at the Hyunsik Kim competition.

Acadia showcases a musician who understands the elegance of timeless jazz while fearlessly pushing its parameters. Jung orchestrates moments of undeniable intrigue, making every shift in tempo feel like a deliberate seduction.

Stream Acadia on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ramener’s ‘Anything & Everything’ Injects Visceral Emotion into Prog Rock Panache

Ramener, the veritable titans of Long Island’s alt-rock scene, flex their prog-rock muscles in Anything & Everything with an intro that wouldn’t be out of place in Tool’s discography. But it isn’t long before a high-octane melody locks into the monolithic tableau of viscerally expressive hard rock. The vocals don’t just cut through the mix—they soar beyond the riffs, injecting raw tendrils of emotion that twist around the instrumental intensity, making it clear that the aching lyrical delivery is the real driving force behind the crescendos.

Instead of using their technical chops as a means to showboat, Ramener channel their ability into something far more impactful—a sound that tightens around the soul with an iron grip. The sheer force of the track isn’t about volume or distortion; it’s about how much weight they pack into every note, every lyric, every calculated shift in dynamics. The instrumentals are wielded as artistic devices rather than the centrepiece, amplifying the tension until it reaches breaking point.

With a radio-ready sound that sacrifices none of its authenticity, Anything & Everything is a testament to Ramener’s ability to command attention without compromise. Their future couldn’t be much brighter.

Anything & Everything is available now on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ginger Winn Drops the Temperature with ‘Freezing’—A Hypersonic Alt-Rock Storm

Feel the temperature drop with the arcane etherealism oscillating through Freezing, the latest single from Ginger Winn, which was officially released on March 7th. The cinematically shot music video exhibits the NY-residing alt-rock visionary as a creative powerhouse, and the track itself unfolds with superlative emotive tension around pop-pinched vocal lines that toy with pop-punk nuances while lending a sense of maturity to her harmonies rarely found within the genre.

As the single progresses, the momentum seamlessly shifts, pulling you into a tumultuous vignette of bittersweet longing, exposing how carelessly we can be left out in the cold by the connections we cherish most. The hypersonic intensity of the catharsis-laden crescendo compels you to dive back in and take the ride once more. As the first release from her upcoming album Freeze FrameFreezing sets the stage for a darker, more expansive alt-rock sound, reinforcing why Winn is fast becoming one of New York’s most promising up-and-coming artists.

It isn’t every day you encounter an artist whose sonic signature is as unique as it is exhilarating; it’s only a matter of time before Ginger Winn is revered as the alt-rock supreme she definitively is.

Stream the official music video for Freezing on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trip Sitter Resurrects the Ghosts of the ’90s with ‘I Love You All’

Trip Sitter teases sonic serenity in I Love You All before dismantling any expectations of a passive listening experience. The hazily psychedelic intro introduces them as a seraphic offshoot of the Happy Mondays, but it’s not long before a wall of scuzz-constructed noise crashes in, revealing their grungy shoegaze stripes. Even as the guitars snarl through waves of oscillation, the vocals maintain a hymnal presence, bleeding over the instrumentals with an ethereal detachment that softens the bite of the distortion.

With no trace of modernity cluttering the mix, I Love You All allows listeners to slip straight into the nostalgia of the ’90s indie and grunge revolution. Every transgression in sound is as sanctifying as the last, proving that Trip Sitter isn’t here to simply recycle the past—they’re making nostalgia malleable enough to forge a new sonic signature from the ashes of a golden epoch.

Taken from their debut LP, Then Again, It Never Was, I Love You All reinforces their ability to straddle the line between chaos and clarity. By embracing pop/emo vocal sensibilities, fuzzed-out grunge chords, reverb-drenched shoegaze tones, and post-rock ambience, they have become unparalleled conduits of innovation in Boston’s indie underground scene.

I Love You All is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify and Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

JohnnyTheWidower’s ‘My Lady is Gone’ Rains Soul into the Blues

Broken Piano by Johnny The Widower aka The Solar Guy

JohnnyTheWidower, AKA The Solar Guy, doesn’t just touch on loss in My Lady is Gone—he lets it simmer, steeping every note in raw feeling without letting the weight drag the groove down. The Brooklyn-based songwriter, producer, and engineer channels blues, R&B, and afrobeat into a smoky, jazz-kissed atmosphere that feels less like a structured composition and more like a session that caught fire in real time.

With a cohesiveness that gives the impression of a seasoned band rather than a solo project, the track makes space for fluidity without sacrificing precision. The instrumentation carries the kind of ease that can only come from instinct, stripping back the years to a time when music was created for catharsis, not marketability. It’s indulgent without excess, hitting that rare sweet spot where musicianship and emotion are balanced without tipping too far in either direction.

For those tired of surface-level soundscapes, JohnnyTheWidower delivers oceanic depths, leading listeners further out before hitting them with a visceral crescendo in the outro. It’s impossible to walk away unaffected.

 My Lady is Gone is available to stream on all major platforms, including Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Leah Nawy’s ‘ordinary’ Turns Vulnerability into a Cinematic Spectacle

With all the intimacy of an impromptu demo recorded in a moment of creative ignition, ‘ordinary’ by Leah Nawy is anything but. The indie folk-pop progression is cinematically ornate, building crescendos that ooze the golden age of Hollywood while the duality running through the track keeps its emotional weight balanced on a knife edge.

With a vocal range that floats between seraphic and soul-stirring, she lets the narrative unfold syllable by syllable, pulling listeners deeper into an introspective world full of bitter-sweet, close-to-the-bone confessions. Within the abstract poetry of ‘ordinary’, tendrils of insecurity, uncertainty, desire, and regret intertwine, painting a panoramic view of what it means to be human in an era where meaning is something we have to define for ourselves.

A songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist with deep roots in rock and classical music, Nawy’s ability to craft arrangements that feel instinctively right is second nature. From her time playing Jersey Shore venues to earning her Master’s at Berklee NYC, her refined ear and raw experience shine through in every note.

‘ordinary’ is the kind of song you hear once, feel your existence affirmed by, and refuse to let go of.

The single is now on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bronx-based RnB Visionary, BRIEL the Artist, Pulled Listeners Into the Haze of Infatuation with ‘THE BLINDS’

After stepping back from the airwaves following his 2023 debut, QUESTIONS, BRIEL the Artist returns with THE BLINDS, proving just how much sharper his sonic signature has become. The Bronx-based avant-gardist of R&B innovation layers smooth harmonies over syncopated beats and oscillating synth lines that warp into a kaleidoscope of soul. The Lo-Fi production doesn’t soften the impact—it amplifies the emotion, pulling you into a hypnotic immersion where BRIEL lets the leash off his expression, letting it run wild and free in this rich, introspective soundscape.

The track dives headfirst into the push and pull of new attraction—the thrill, the uncertainty, and the way assumptions take the reins before reality has a chance to catch up. Using the metaphor of closed blinds, BRIEL reflects on how we get lost in our own mental stories instead of letting relationships unfold naturally. The lyrical honesty latches onto the ears, while the fluid instrumental textures make sure the hook stays planted deep.

With plans to take THE BLINDS to the stage across New York City, along with upcoming film projects and new releases, BRIEL is clearly playing the long game.

For those ready to get lost in the highs and lows of love, THE BLINDS is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast