New Music

The ordinary still receives the extraordinary and Bazan’s autobiographical leanings on Phoenix are magnetically cathartic. His knack for surprising listeners with realistic grief and dry humor as he works the kinks out towards an existential resolve show him unafraid and invigorated, even if he gets it all wrong.

Juxtaposed between voice/harp and electronic glitch/processing, reveals a previously unseen path. Animate and inanimate passageways converge as Fisher stumbles upon new hues and feminine spark. She eschews previous movements and stages her prowess not solely with trained instruments, but with interpretation and integration.

Danger Diva is the story of a rock singer who allows her voice to be surgically modified (with the inevitable unexpected results), set in a futuristic Seattle that’s just around the corner. Making her cinematic debut Thunderpussy lead singer Molly Sides stars as “Devi,” who gets more than she bargained for in agreeing to the unorthodox vocal treatment.

Like the cover photo, Sutton offers stillness, amongst water’s long game of cutting into fragile, earthen tones. The Deep End’s profoundly canorous sounds trim in similar ways. The crux of The Deep End is not so much a sauna soundtrack inviting one to take a soak; rather the altering experience water plays in our lives.

Mongé’s strongest attraction is found in the fluidity of feeling. These six songs sprinkled by mostly acoustic guitar, bow toward an intimacy achieved by letting Mongé shine in an uncomplicated way.

Shadowgraphs exit before tripping into circling narratives and lost trajectories. Another Time is a welcomed surprise; filled with AM radio discoveries, odes to rock’s over-stretching reach, and earnest songwriting capable of stockpiling numerous time capsules of eras past and present.

Craig goes inward time and time again to reach outward. Frequently void of definable rhythms and inevitable structures, Thresholder is a gift of stirring sounds coming full circle without resembling anything in our astral plane.

Seattle has long been known as the hometown of jazz pioneers from the Jackson Street era with Quincy Jones, Ray Charles and Ernestine Anderson all getting their start in the district decades ago. The Blues Chanteuse aka Nora Michaels also got her start in the emerald city and has been singing ballads and torch songs in nightclubs for over fifty years.