One of the world's most prominent oud masters fled his native Iraq in 1991 after being imprisoned twice for political outspokenness. Now the two-time GRAMMY nominee, augmented by a string quintet and percussion, tells the story of contemporary Baghdad based on letters he received from Iraqi women and children that depict a country in crisis but not without hope.
Contact: Andrea Evenson
The Chicago-native soul singer, a first-generation Indian-American Muslim, combines Southern soul with traditional Indo-Pakistani music while narrating, through the prism of his parents’ immigrant experience, tales of injustice, unrequited love, urban despair and youthful ecstasy. This debut album was recorded at Memphis' legendary Ardent Studios and was produced by Lester Snell (Isaac Hayes, Al Green, Mavis Staples).
Contact: Kyle Kisicki
Produced and created by Brian Burton and Sam Cohen, 'Resistance Radio' is an imagined soundtrack to the Amazon Original Series, 'The Man In The High Castle,' that features Beck, Kelis, Norah Jones, The Shins, Angel Olsen, Benjamin Booker, Karen O and more covering songs from the show's early-1960s time period.
Contact: Amy Bailey
Ellis Ludwig-Leone is a master storyteller, a poet observer who has made fans of the New York Times, Rolling Stone, NPR and more. Now the Brooklyn bandleader writes his first songs from a personal perspective, confronting themes of disconnect, displacement and everyday anxiety. The results are assured, gorgeous and, according to TIME, “soaring [with] feathery vocals, grounded with touches of rock-band sensibility.”
Contact: Amy Bailey
The Dublin music sensation, already selling out club gigs across the UK, releases his proper debut. Featuring production and co-writes from Stephen Kozmeniuk (Kendrick Lamar, Dua Lipa) and Charlie Hugall (Halsey, Lapsley), the EP channels a sound that’s both ethereal and gritty, weaving together Kennedy’s varied influences from hushed acoustics to spoken word to hip-hop.
Contact: Spencer Foster
One of LA’s leading modern country artists releases an anticipated sophomore LP that fine-tunes his “SoCal Country” sound: a sun-bleached, Baja-influenced twang that deftly points to country’s neo-traditionalists and LA’s legendary singer-songwriters.
Contact: Amy Bailey
The Kinks founder and songwriting legend enlists the Jayhawks as backing band for his first solo album in nearly a decade. Using his 2013 memoir of the same name as both source material and creative catalyst, Davies digs through his rich five-decade long American Experience.
Contact: Amy Bailey
The New York-based duo consisting of former college roommates Hana Elion and JJ Mitchell releases a lush debut album produced by Nicolas Vernhes (The War on Drugs, Dirty Projectors) and Autre Ne Veut. NPR’s All Songs Considered says the music “unfolds with disarming intricacy” and praises the “splendor of its deliberate harmony.”
Contact: Spencer Foster
Austin’s psych-rock masters wrote and recorded most of their new record during the recent election cycle, so the music serves as part protest and part emotional catharsis in a climate dominated by division, anxiety and unease while presenting the group's signature menacing fuzz guitar and slow-building psychedelic earworms.
Contact: Amy Bailey
Eric Pulido and other members of Midlake team with Ben Bridwell (Band of Horses), Alex Kapranos (Franz Ferdinand), Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) and Fran Healy (Travis) to form this indie supergroup, or as Pulido puts it, "a poor man's version of the Traveling Wilburys!"
Contact: Spencer Foster
Tamsin Wilson’s debut album with bassist Drew Arndt and guitarist Johnny Simon captures an almost impossible sense of delicate quietness, at once hushed yet heart-racing. NPR praises this intimate folk as a “major revelation,” calling the muscular yet restrained sonic experimentation “softly intoxicating…a spare but sparkling arrangement.”
Contact: Max Lefkowitz
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