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Alternative

The Disenchanted Divinity of Feeling Ill-Fitted: Useless Wonder! by The Mercury Sounds

Posted on 24 April 2025

If the sanctuary within the tonality of Useless Wonder! is anything to go by, The Mercury Sounds have become masters of carving relics of nostalgic experimentation that border on divine intervention.

The Baltimore-based duo, Jason Stauffer and Josh Krechmer, have been long-hauling their sonic telepathy since primary school. Two decades later, they’re still refusing to colour within the lines. Their fusion of indie-pop vitality and folk-rock introspection culminates in Useless Wonder!, a cosmic lament steeped in lo-fi 70s alchemy. Through natural vocal proclivity and delicate lyrical agony, they sculpted an aching confessional that stings with the sentiment of not being built for a world that keeps shifting beneath your feet.

The way the vocals bleed with weary existentialism against the gauzy swell of warm distortion and glimmering, melancholic strings carries the same weight as a memory you can’t outgrow. The verses tether you to vulnerability, while the chorus throws you into an orbit of quiet resignation.

Even though it would be impossible to crown a Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell or Bob Dylan in our modern and fractured industry, it’s clear that if Useless Wonder! had surfaced fifty years ago, it would be playing through grainy AM radios as a national folk treasure.

The Mercury Sounds exhaled a truth for the quiet disenfranchised who’ve long since given up pretending they fit the mould, if you can align to that particular branch of melancholy, hit play.

Useless Wonder! is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Stephanie Braganza Sparked a Pop Rock Revolt Laced in Anthemic Catharsis with ‘Feel a Little Less’

Posted on 24 April 2025

Feel a Little Less by Stephanie Braganza is an electricity and self-empowerment-charged pop rock anthem which takes the anatomy of an earworm and injects it with steroids. As the guitar lines chug, amplifying the energy and anticipation for the drop of the chorus, Stephanie Braganza’s soaring vocal lines rise above the pop-punk-adjacent instrumentals while painting a vignette of what it means to reclaim your mind on your own terms.

For anyone who knows how hard it is to feel with intensity instead of psychologically scratching the surface of everything you emotionally touch, Feel a Little Less is an anthem that will console until you feel a little more whole and infinitely better about your tendency for your emotions to dive right off the deep end. This radio-ready anthem will undoubtedly take Stephanie Braganza to brand-new heights.

Nine years after her last release, the powerhouse vocalist makes her return with the fire of someone who has battled through the darkest chambers of the psyche and come back with the flame still in her hand. The track was first penned in 2015 while Braganza was clawing her way out of mental confinement. It has since evolved into a sonic exorcism, sculpted in the defiance of distorted riffs and cathartic vocal conviction.

With accolades including a Guinness World Record and recognition from CBC Music as one of the top South Asian Canadian artists to hear now, Stephanie Braganza’s comeback is set to make a tsunami of waves.

Feel a Little Less is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Blue Violence. Became the Definitive Sad Boi of Synth Pop with ‘My Feet Are Sad on the Dancefloor’

Posted on 22 April 2025

Blue Violence. turned the emotional weight of disconnection into a dancefloor confession with ‘My Feet Are Sad on the Dancefloor’, the keystone single from his 3-track EP, ‘Ugh…’. With synths set to shimmer and sardonic melancholy laced through the beat, this melancholic indietronica lament spins the disco ball on its axis to reflect a darker spectrum of inner turmoil.

Through anthropomorphised sorrow, Daniel Fischetti—writing and producing as Blue Violence.—exposes the paradox of internal desolation amidst external euphoria. While glitter rains and basslines throb in euphoric unison, his feet remain heavy with the weight of unshakable emotional inertia. There’s funk in the Depeche Mode-esque rhythm and pain in the lyricism, stitched together with the same magnetic gloom found in the works of John Grant.

Hailing from Southern California, Fischetti started Blue Violence in 2019 during a collaboration with producer and engineer Chris Caccamise of CJE Productions. Their work on the debut album Modern Love cemented Blue Violence. as a name worth noting in the shadowy corners of synth pop. Since then, Fischetti has remained self-contained in his sonic pursuits, refining his signature style without sanding away the raw emotional contours.

‘My Feet Are Sad on the Dancefloor’ doesn’t fake the catharsis—it coils around it, examining every nuance of numbness through neon-soaked textures and darkly sweet tones. Blue Violence delivered the funked-up synth pop hit we never knew we needed. He’s the definitive sad boi of synth pop.

‘My Feet Are Sad on the Dancefloor’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tequila Wave’s Lies: A Darkwave Post-Punk Sermon from the Shadows of Inner Conflict

Posted on 21 April 2025

You’d be forgiven for thinking that Sisters of Mercy had a new sibling after the emergence of Lies—the darkwave earworm by Tequila Wave that also teases Joy Division-esque guitar lines into the production, where the synths sink percussive gravity into the track as much as the beats. As the moody vox reverberate shadows through the mix, the danceable kinetic energy lends an air of transcendence; an invitation to pull away from the weight of your weary soul and sink rhythmic catharsis into your veins. Tequila Wave may not have reinvented the darkwave post-punk wheel with Lies, but why ruin an already perfect formula when you can inject fresh lifeblood into it?

Channelling discontent and transformation into every brooding note, the Mexican artist Jorge Luis Niño proves that Tequila Wave is far more than an alias—it’s an emotional vessel. With a sound rooted in goth, post-punk, and darkwave, but never limited by them, the artist’s bilingual approach and unfiltered self-expression reach far beyond the surface. The themes aren’t theatrically dressed up—they’re unvarnished truths, stitched into pulsating synths and shivering riffs that hold enough weight to carry listeners through their own internal reckonings.

Where previous releases like Take Away the Mask peeled layers back with surgical precision, and Café offered a deeper look at his cultural identity, Lies digs into the emotional marrow. It’s less of a song, more of a séance.

Lies is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Implant Soul Ignites Metal’s Dark Inferno with ‘Drawn to the Flame’ ft. Kyle Thomas

Posted on 20 April 2025
ARTEFACT by Implant Soul

With black, death, and progressive metal woven into a searing elegy of spiritual desolation and carnal temptation, Ukrainian Avant-Garde metal outfit Implant Soul unleash ‘Drawn to the Flame’, featuring Kyle Thomas. This seven-minute epic eases listeners in gently as guitars drip with folkloric nuance before the metal hammer lands in the hands of instrumental juggernauts, igniting the atmosphere into a blistering inferno straight from hell’s seventh ring.

The production is relentlessly battered by blast beats, while white-hot guitar riffs slash through the sonic landscape. Vocals from Kyle Thomas stretch beyond human limits, shifting through a myriad of chameleonic guises, each persona intensifying the narrative force of the track. There’s no room for complacency in this expansive musical onslaught; avant-garde twists reminiscent of Mr Bungle spiral into the relentless furore, dragging listeners into a rabbit hole of rabid despair.

Implant Soul, conceived by guitarist Ivan Lozovskiy and shaped alongside drummer Dmitry Kim, bassist Tata Early, and the creative guidance of Eugene S. Robinson, embodies dualism—organic yet synthetic, tangible yet illusory, the agony tangled with pleasure. Influenced by collaborations with artists like Niklas Kvarforth of Shining and conceptual insights from Nader Sadek, Implant Soul carves an uncompromisingly intense vision in ‘Drawn to the Flame’, setting fire to metal’s comfort zones with fearless sonic experimentation.

‘Drawn to the Flame’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

All Violet’s ‘Animals Domestic’ Fires a Sonorous Bullet Through Indie-Rock’s Corporate Cage

Posted on 20 April 2025

Soft yet sonorous, All Violet’s single ‘Animals Domestic’ pulls you into a vortex of emotion refracted like a prism, a kaleidoscope channelling echoes of Pavement, Badly Drawn Boy, and The Goo Goo Dolls, where the jangly edges of 90s alt-indie collide unapologetically with Americana twang. It’s a sound that settles deep in your chest even as its earworm burrows relentlessly deeper, determined to make its home permanent.

Penned as a war cry against the rising corporate tide, dulling our minds and chaining us to cubicles, Animals Domestic is bathed in venomous vitriol spat at advertising overlords and the sportification of politics, questioning the existential malaise that comes from clock-watching and sleepwalking through life. With a hook that laments, “Is this all it means to be alive? Busy counting sheep until you die,” the song confronts modern existence’s psychological confinement head-on, pleading defiantly for something more tangible than neon-lit consumerist illusions.

Anchored by satisfyingly slick riffs and lyrics sharp enough to pierce the facade of commercial comfort, ‘Animals Domestic’ leaves a lingering mark—a salve for anyone who’s bruised themselves trying to decode life’s absurdities. All Violet, fronted fiercely by the enigmatic BT, ensures their indie-rock revolt resonates loud enough to crack corporate cages wide open.

‘Animals Domestic’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jack Fargo Hits a Natural High with Alt-Pop Anthem ‘Drugs on the Weekend’

Posted on 20 April 2025
Jack Fargo

Jack Fargo’s latest release, Drugs on the Weekend, is less Class A and more A-List radio-ready material—delivered as a wavy lo-fi mash-up of RnB, Hip-Hop, and pop. The track is an exposition on how the oxytocin rush from someone who scintillates your soul as much as your skin surpasses every synthetic high imaginable.

With funk-infused grooves and a horn section lifting the vibe even higher, Fargo turns this bedroom-pop musing into an indie anthem choked with infectious appeal. Fargo’s zealously electrifying vocal lines prove he did more than perform when stepping up to the mic; his verses pour straight from a soul bright enough to illuminate any room or arena. The harmonies and rap-infused verses warm the dreamy, lush layers of saturation, making the track an effortlessly magnetic listen.

Fargo, born Jack Fargotstein, is a Memphis-raised musician who sharpened his artistry through hip-hop mixtapes as Bigmac Jack before earning acclaim in LA as half of The Motel Brothers. Post-duo, Fargo returned to his solo roots, pulling influences from Ed Sheeran’s pop-rock effervescence, Mac Miller’s legendary ease, and classic R&B richness, all vividly showcased in this latest sonic concoction.

Drugs on the Weekend perfectly captures Fargo’s lyrical exploration of authentic connections, resonating through melodies that mirror the intimate rush of genuine chemistry. Fargo isn’t chasing superficial buzzes here; he’s illustrating that the purest high flows naturally.

Drugs on the Weekend is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

FATHER THEA Channels Heaven and Hell in the Hymnal Howl of ‘I STILL PRAY’

Posted on 19 April 2025

FATHER THEA didn’t bow in reverence for her debut; she ripped through the silence with I STILL PRAY, a siren-esque tour de force that haunts as much as it heals for anyone struggling with a lack of faith, or a lack of ethereal metal earworms on their playlists. Dropping with a seductively atmospheric, artfully dark official video on February 28th, the track is a testament to her ability to crawl under the skin and stay there. Thematically anchored in the torment of unanswered pleas and the defiance it breeds, it’s a metal prayer soaked in catharsis and the sonic equivalent of staring into the abyss and it screaming back.

Born in Greece to Albanian roots, FATHER THEA has remained entirely independent while unleashing a sound that commands attention far beyond fledgling status. Her vocals reverberate around the same spectral arena as Evanescence, Nightwish, and Within Temptation, but instead of chasing shadows, she conjures them. The vocal register soars and sears, elevated by instrumentals that bare the teeth of chaos.

Midway through the track, the middle-eight detonates any illusion of restraint. FATHER THEA doesn’t just hold her own against the cataclysmic breakdown—she becomes it. Her screams carry the same raw conviction as Poppy and King Woman, swerving into noise-drenched territory without sacrificing melodic magnetism. It’s impossible not to be desperate for the sophomore after being taken along for the visceral ride with I STILL PRAY.

I STILL PRAY is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Leirbag X.O. Threads a Sonic Scalpel Through the Ether in the Avant-Garde Electronica Cut ‘Earth Paradise Hell’

Posted on 18 April 2025

Earth Paradise Hell is just one of the viscerally affecting hits in Leirbag X.O.’s discography—if this release is anything to go by, no one will be in line to tell the French producer to watch their tone. Starting out in the vein of a pulse-pounding deep-house anthem, the single quickly transmutes into transcendence to sonically visualise the paradise alluded to in the title. Through arresting quiescence, the cultivated producer compels you to lean into the instrumental soundscape far enough that you can feel the textures bleed into your anatomy, leaving you at the mercy of the concluding chapter of the single which feeds disquieting motifs into the ambience, reaching the epitome of harbingering while never forsaking the diaphanous euphony.

Clearly, Leirbag X.O. grabbed a cleaver and ensured he was a cut above the rest through Earth Paradise Hell—a cut deep enough to expose the full contrast between serenity and dissonance without losing control of either. As part of a growing discography which has earned him over 5,000 monthly Spotify listeners, this release showcases his ability to structure tracks as psychological arcs rather than passive audio wallpaper.

Based in France, Leirbag X.O.—real name Gabriel—is already working on his second conceptual album Awakening of Light, following his debut Annihilation of Darkness, released track by track from October 2023 to July 2024. With ambitions of collaboration and a beatmaker’s instinct for sonic architecture, he’s a producer wired for deeper conversations through sound.

Earth Paradise Hell is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Ian McFarland Used Pop Punk to Augment Optimism in His Latest Single, You Are So Loved

Posted on 18 April 2025

If there’s any justice left in indie’s distorted underbelly, Ian McFarland will be recognised as the artist who gave serotonin back to pop-punk. The Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter has already earned a presence across regional charts and NYC live haunts, but You Are So Loved deserves to break much further beyond.

Following a sticky-sweet synth-pop intro, the single throws the genre right back to the golden era of visceral expression with its pop-punk crescendo of unfiltered optimism. But the stylistic transgressions don’t end there. Jangly new wave indie-pop nestles into the volition of the punk-tinged foundations, allowing McFarland to exhibit one of the most distinctive sonic signatures we’ve heard this year.

It’s not just the sound design that makes You Are So Loved cut through the cynicism often used as a crutch in alt scenes. McFarland weaponises sincerity as if it’s a subversive act. There’s bravery in broadcasting this much raw affection, especially within a genre known for self-deprecation and detached irony. But McFarland knew what he was risking—being written off as cloying or sentimental. He bypasses that pitfall entirely with his unshakable authenticity.

Born from a need to pull joy from bleakness, You Are So Loved is an adrenaline shot of altruism for anyone who needs to remember that the world can still look beautiful through a cracked lens.

You Are So Loved is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast.