Amana Melome's new single "Con C.ALMA" drifts in with the ease of a slow tide. It's the first glimpse of her upcoming album Recalibration, a project shaped by years of inner shifts, new chapters and the deep transformation of motherhood.

Rather than returning to where she left off, Amana returns to a truer, calmer version of herself.

https://open.spotify.com/track/0UfFOOuuRrH8O4xJOjzHEu

The song carries the imprint of her global upbringing - born in Germany, raised across continents, influenced by cities like Florence, New York, Los Angeles, Stockholm and now Spain - and of course, her jazz rooted family line.

You can hear that heritage in the warmth and ease of her phrasing. "Con C.ALMA" is lived-in, cosmopolitan and organically hybrid: a little jazz, a little neo-soul, a little folk earthiness, all held together by her quietly assured voice.

Deron Johnson's piano, played with almost meditative restraint, gives the track a glow that is difficult to articulate. It is elegant and intimate. Together, they create a sense of space here that is quite rare.

The title itself reflects the song's intention. Con calma means "with calm", but the dotted Con C.ALMA highlights alma, the soul translated from the Spanish.

That subtle shift says everything. This is music about tuning back into yourself, choosing presence over pressure, remembering that moving slowly doesn't mean moving less. Amana sings it the way she lives it with clarity, warmth and an inner knowing that resonates long after the song fades.

As a re-entry into the music world, "Con C.ALMA" is a very grounded arrival. It's a gentle, borderless track that reflects the full sweep of her life experience and it offers listeners a moment to breathe, to center and to remember their own rhythm.

Every protest song has a spark - that moment where frustration finally tips into expression — and you can feel that moment all over Zoey Tess’s “Knocking at Your Front Door.”

The track doesn’t try to sound global, yet it ends up landing that way because the themes Tess is wrestling with aren’t just American problems. Corruption, hypocrisy, violence, disconnection… pick a country and somebody will recognize themselves in these lines.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/track/46NvKZEH3upSbOYQ4MnO9w

What makes the song work, though, is its shape. It starts small, almost private, like you’re overhearing someone work through a thought that’s been keeping them up at night. Just guitar and vocals, nothing dramatic. And then the band steps in with the drums lifting the floor a little, the guitars start gnawing at the edges, and suddenly you’re inside a much bigger room than you expected.

Producer Spencer Hattendorf lets the whole thing stay rough around the edges in the best way.

Tess isn’t singing from a comfortable distance, and you can tell. She grew up in the next town over from Sandy Hook, and she was home from Berklee when the shooting happened. A close family friend survived the attack. These aren’t details she spreads out for pity — they’re the air she grew up breathing and you hear it in the second verse. There’s heartbreak in her voice, but also anger and she doesn’t pretend otherwise. She’s not trying to be delicate. She’s trying to be honest.

It’s the same spirit you hear in protest music from Lagos, from Belfast, from Santiago. The sense that if you don’t speak now, you’re complicit in the silence.

What’s true is that the song never collapses under its heaviness. There’s a restless pulse that keeps pushing forward, like it’s insisting on the possibility of something better and brighter for the future.

As a lead-up to her debut album, There’s Gonna Be a Reckoning, “Knocking at Your Front Door” feels like a clear announcement of who Zoey Tess is and what she’s here to do.

Elias Schutzman’s project Revvnant has always been difficult to categorize, and his latest album "Death Drive" continues that trend yet it resonates strongly for listeners attuned to the global and humanistic.

It draws from industrial, dream-pop and trip-hop textures, with the album’s emotional reach reflecting human suffering, resilience and the awe inspiring forces of nature.

"Death Drive" was written across Europe and the U.S., beginning in Berlin - a city alive with history, artistic experimentation and urban contrasts, and later completed during Covid lockdown in Baltimore. Those experiences infuse the music with a tension between wanderlust and isolation, hope and despair, beauty and devastation.

Tracks like “Neukölln” capture the bittersweet pulse of a city at the crossroads of culture and hardship, while “Damascus” meditates on cycles of conflict and violence in the Middle East showing a deeply empathetic awareness of global struggles.

Other tracks expand the lens even further. "Rusted Hearts" bears witness to the hidden suffering of urban poverty and addiction, "Rise" contemplates environmental collapse, and "Into the Grey" channels the majesty of mountains, evoking landscapes both sublime and terrifying.

Each piece carries Schutzman’s signature layering of piano, Mellotron, Moog synthesizers, programmed drums and haunting vocals, creating immersive soundscapes.

Collaboration plays an essential role in the album’s depth. Guest musicians provide guitar, bass, drums, keys, backing vocals and pedal steel, adding textures that give each song its unique voice. Vocals were recorded and mixed by J. Robbins (Jawbox) at Magpie Cage Studio in Baltimore and mastered by Paul Logus.

What makes "Death Drive" compelling from a world music perspective is that Schutzman’s melodies and motifs are deeply personal, yet the album consistently gestures toward shared the human experience. Blending local stories, global crises, and elemental forces. It's music that invited contemplation, empathy and an awareness of our place in the larger world.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/album/426WsD9Dg3QK2VfKqrqv7Y

Washington D.C. based singer songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Lakaff has been steadily carving his own lane in contemporary music since 2023. Trained briefly on French horn and euphonium before teaching himself bass, guitar, and production, he developed a sound he calls “heart music” — playful, soulful blending genres, drawing on influences from Oasis, Disclosure, The Prodigy, and 50 Cent.

“may.Be” features Grammy winning saxophonist Johnny Butler and immersive Dolby Atmos mastering by Emmy-winner Cheryl Ottenritter, turning the track into a lush three-dimensional groove of drums, flutes and saxophone.

By contrast, “Jambles” is tighter and more immediate, layering Strokes inspired guitars over trap style hi-hats and punchy basslines, while lyrics drawn from daily life and musical influences like Oasis and Avril Lavigne give it a personal, diary like feel.

Together, the two tracks display Lakaff’s eclectic vision - music that celebrates both collaboration and individuality, combining worldly sounds and modern grooves in a way that is intimate yet expansive.

Listen here:

https://open.spotify.com/track/4yWypGDkeTDsmrGoFqHGL6

https://open.spotify.com/track/4ZWc9tcS3jX6HlWl8nS0NW

In an age when music often mirrors the chaos of the internet, Alex Thomen’s “Where Did They Go Wrong?” arrives as both a mirror and a magnifying glass.

The Nashville based composer, producer and educator draws from a rich musical background that spans continents and genres, from orchestral and cinematic works to solo piano and now satirical rock.

Here, he unpacks a deeply modern question: how do intelligent, well-meaning people end up down the strangest cultural rabbit holes?

Thomen’s song, which doubles as a social parable, takes a sharply observational approach to the modern grifting landscape. Across three distinct vignettes, he highlights stories of familiar archetypes. We have Danny, the insecure friend turned self-proclaimed “alpha male”; Carly, the ambitious young woman seduced by the promises of multi level marketing; and Michael, a med student who drifts into the world of pseudoscience and alternative medicine.

None of these characters are real, but their paths are instantly recognizable in the digital age - reflections of collective anxieties and misplaced aspirations that transcend geography.

What makes “Where Did They Go Wrong?” stand out is how it balances satire with empathy. Thomen isn’t mocking. Instead he is observing, using humor as a scalpel rather than a hammer. He fuses musically the lyrical clarity of American singer songwriter traditions with rhythmic sophistication and harmonic depth that reveal his classical training.

The song’s architecture mirrors a live performance - it's a slow, emotive buildup followed by sharp, rhythmic turns as each “punchline” lands.

Though rooted in the textures of Western rock and pop, the piece carries a universal sensibility. Its layered instrumentation with drums recorded in New York by Aaron Walters, piano captured in Colorado, guitars tracked in Nashville and bass handled in Thomen’s home studio — creates a borderless musical canvas.

The final mix by Joe Costa (renowned for his work with Ben Folds) completes it in a very cosmopolitan sound.

The accompanying music video is directed by longtime collaborator Chase Bartholomew, and was filmed at Colorado Sound Studios. It offers a live in the room authenticity that reinforces the song’s narrative. Thomen’s expressive performance anchors the visual storytelling with his subtle gestures and knowing looks carrying the same irony that drives the lyrics. The video feels intimate and theatrical, transforming a studio performance into cultural commentary.

At its heart, “Where Did They Go Wrong?” is a song about the modern condition. It's about the ways technology, ideology and insecurity collide to reshape identity.

It’s witty, yes, but also deeply human. In its blend of musical sophistication and cultural awareness, it is very much at home within the global landscape of artists using satire as social reflection — a lineage that stretches from Randy Newman’s American cynicism to the storytelling craft of artists like Gilad Hekselman or Jacob Collier, who fuse technique with meaning.

"Where Did They Go Wrong" asks the hard questions and does it with a smile.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/track/3mZXDgQq56dw36P5zMEyPg

In the language of Amharic, the word nefas carries a resonance that feels perfectly suited to music. It means wind, breath or spirit — elements that are both physical and intangible and deeply rooted in Ethiopian cosmology yet universally felt.

With "Nefasphere", pioneering American composer and Mutantrumpet creator Ben Neill and Ethiopian electronic innovator Mikael Seifu harness that elemental power to create a piece that feels at once grounded in tradition and suspended in the future.

Released in two versions, the meditative Worldwinds Mix and the textural Moire Mix, Nefasphere is more of a sound world than a song. The collaboration itself is an international bridge, spanning from Seifu’s home base in Addis Ababa to Neill’s studio in New York. It’s also a bridge across time as Seifu was once Neill’s student at Ramapo College, where his early explorations of electronic music first caught the composer’s attention. Fifteen years later, they return not to the classroom but to a shared creative space, bringing with them years of experience and a mutual respect that flows clearly through the music.

The Worldwinds Mix lives up to its name, evoking vast landscapes carried by cyclical rhythms and breathy tones. Seifu’s Ethiopiyawi Electronic style which is already known for blending Ethiopian scales and modal traditions into global electronic frameworks, gives this track its pulse while Neill’s Mutantrumpet layers harmonic textures that feel alive, almost inhaling and exhaling in time.

The Moire Mix shifts the perspective, adding fractured percussion and glitchy interference patterns that ripple across the soundscape like shifting light. It’s denser, more layered and yet still grounded in the elemental core of breath and rhythm. Where the first mix invites stillness, the second invites motion — together, they feel like almost two sides of the same journey.

What makes Nefasphere so compelling for a world music audience is the authenticity. This isn’t fusion in the superficial sense, but it is a dialogue. With Seifu’s deep engagement meeting with Ethiopian tradition, and Neill’s decades of work at the intersection of technology and improvisation. This is a collaboration rooted in mentorship, respect and curiosity al qualities that infuse the music with warmth and purpose.

For Seifu, whose last release was the acclaimed Zelalem EP in 2016, Nefasphere signals a powerful return. For Neill, it extends a career long exploration of memory, pattern, and transformation. And for listeners, it offers something rare - music that doesn’t just represent two cultures but which embodies the spirit of conversation between them.

Listen here: https://open.spotify.com/album/0YrFAFnD7f8jsrH5LGf5XO

With "Far Inside", Italian composer Marco Di Stefano bridges continents, centuries and styles to create a listening experience that is cinematic and deeply personal.

Out now, the album isn’t just a set of orchestral pieces. It’s a series of vivid emotional tableaux that flows like the soundtrack to a global, human story.

Di Stefano’s background is already a story in itself. He began as a lead guitarist in a metal band before moving into classical study, later earning credentials in film and orchestral scoring.

That unusual path means his orchestral writing has an edge and immediacy rarely heard in traditional concert music. He also draws from his Sicilian heritage, weaving folk colors and rhythms into modern orchestrations - a feature that gives Far Inside its world music heartbeat.

Each track on "Far Inside" represents an emotion or human experience, paired with the ensemble best suited to express it. “The Slavery of Love,” inspired by Pasolini’s Supplica a mia madre, uses muted strings to conjure an intimate and almost whispered obsession. “The Girl in the Woods” feels like a myth retold with woodwinds as the heroes and heroines battling monsters. “Tarantella Noire” gives Sicilian dance rhythms a noir twist, evoking stories of mafia and village secrets.

The album’s lead single, “Angels on Our Shoulders,” is perhaps its most striking moment. Written as a tribute to the dead of WWII, it borrows the solemn dignity of mid 20th century military music and reframes it through a modern cinematic lens. As if a Saving Private Ryan soundtrack were written for today’s conflicts. The brass writing is bold and elegiac, balancing heroism and grief while never lapsing into cliché.

Elsewhere, “The Last Time of Everything” presents a delicate trio about parting and finality, while “Get Out of My Dreams” channels anxiety and waking nightmares through brass and electronics. “Procession of the Just,” scored for full live orchestra closes the album with a sweeping moral panorama of good and bad walking side by side.

What makes Far Inside compelling for world music listeners is its refusal to sit inside a single genre. Di Stefano subtly integrates electronics into the acoustic palette, creating a soundscape that feels at once ancient and modern. His orchestrations are cinematic but rooted in lived culture — particularly his own Sicilian upbringing — and the result is music that resonates far beyond borders.

Far Inside is, at its core, an inward journey. But by scoring those inner landscapes with colors drawn from folk traditions, classical technique and filmic storytelling, Marco Di Stefano has created an album that speaks outward too — to a world of listeners hungry for music that connects emotion, memory and place.

About Marco Di Stefano

Italian composer Marco Di Stefano builds worlds with sound. Beginning as a lead guitarist in a metal band, he later studied piano, composition and media scoring with celebrated European masters, including Luc Brewaeys.

His music merges classical orchestration, folk color and modern cinematic language, making it ideal for film and game projects. Di Stefano personally composes, orchestrates, produces and mixes his work often conducting the ensembles himself.

"Far Inside" which is his newest album is a concept project exploring intense human emotions through live orchestration and subtle electronic textures — a journey inward that speaks to listeners everywhere.

Listen to "Far Inside" on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2Fa0PgKNjJ90JBLfnMYAdT

On the surface, San Diego’s Poems make shimmering, guitar driven indie rock that wouldn’t sound out of place on a British festival stage circa 2005.

But underneath the fuzz and hooks there’s something far more universal happening. Their sophomore EP "Half-Life" is a record about the struggle to grow up, about negotiating anxiety, medication and identity, and about the ways music can become a lifeline. Those are themes that cross borders, languages and genres and it’s part of what makes Poems so compelling for a global audience.

The opening track “Placebo” sets the tone with lightly distorted guitars and breathy harmonies that feel like they’ve drifted in from another realm. “NFS” follows with a more shadowy restraint, while “Afterparty” bursts with live show energy — a portrayal of dressing your best, showing up to a room full of people and still feeling trapped inside your own head.

Across the EP, what stands out is Poems’s chemistry. This isn’t a group of musicians simply layering parts. It’s five players moving as one organism, their contributions interlocking seamlessly. That synergy gives the songs a depth and fluidity that makes them feel bigger than their parts — a trait more common to folk collectives and jazz ensembles than to indie rock outfits.

Poems clearly take inspiration from early 2000's UK indie (Interpol, The National, Hippo Campus, The Wallows), yet the production by Brian Squillace, mixing by John Catlin, and mastering by Grammy winner John Greenham give the tracks a spacious and transatlantic quality. The guitars shimmer rather than bite, the vocals hover rather than dominate. This is a sound that feels open and welcoming.

And then there’s the message. Poems have spoken openly about wanting to channel their platform into charitable work and about their belief that music carries real power. "Half-Life" isn’t just a set of songs; it’s a statement about survival, empathy and growth. That’s why it resonates beyond its regional scene.

Who Are Poems?

Formed in Seattle in 2021 before relocating to San Diego, Poems are Philip Ernest, Grayson Hagopian, Zae Howell, Jeremy Smucker, and Sammuel McCubbin. Together they’ve built a reputation for commanding live shows at venues like The Casbah, The Belly Up Tavern, and San Francisco’s Brick & Mortar. Their collaborative writing process draws on each member’s distinct influences with a sound that nods to indie’s past but pushes toward something uniquely their own.

With Half Life, Poems have delivered a collection of songs that moves across genres and borders, much like the issues it confronts. For listeners who crave indie rock with emotional weight and a global sensibility, Poems are a band to watch.

If you thought you’d seen everything in indie-pop, think again. Los Angeles duo MUNNYCAT have officially thrown the rulebook out the window with their debut full-length album, till death we do art. Equal parts chaotic, infectious, and unrelentingly imaginative, this 14-track experience refuses to sit still—and honestly, neither should you.

From the opening pulse of the first track, it’s clear that K808 and Khaledzou are not here to play it safe. “Honest” waltzes between saloon piano charm and 808-heavy swagger, a song that feels as cinematic as it is sticky in your head. Meanwhile, “follow the leader” dives into darker waters, wrapping late-stage capitalism, cult imagery, and Marie Antoinette references into a triptych of visual and sonic intrigue. MUNNYCAT’s fearless genre-hopping—from pop hooks to cinematic soundscapes to gritty basslines—makes every listen a new adventure.

And then there’s the 3D vinyl. Yes, 3D. This isn’t a gimmick; it’s an immersive extension of the album’s ethos, turning even the artwork into a dimension-bending experience. It’s rare that a release can make both your ears and your eyes do a double take, but MUNNYCAT has done exactly that.

till death we do art is maximalist without ever feeling overstuffed. Every track is carefully chaotic, polished yet raw, manic yet precise. It’s an album that invites you to jump in headfirst, embrace the fun, and trust the duo’s vision. And if their previous singles hinted at genius, this record cements MUNNYCAT as a duo to watch—not just for what they make, but how they make it.

Listen in here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3SC76bLAK3xuGFJegMcmlq

Self-described “genre-fluid” artist Jean Caffeine unveils her new album, Generation Jean, on the Austin-based Flak Records. Across its 10 tracks, Jean shows off her sharp wit and songwriting skills as the album slides between retro pop, Americana, punk-tinged blues, power pop, and art rock.

If there’s a theme that ties the album together its feels and moods: The exuberance and limerence of love on “Love What is it?,” the loneliness and isolation of “Another Crying Christmas,” the irritation and exasperation of “You’re Fine,” the sadness of “I Always Cry on Thursday.”

Side A delivers the earworms (“I Know You Know I Know,” “Love What is it?”), while Side B brings the bite with “Another Crying Christmas,” the PSA-with-teeth “Mammogram,” the catchy but irreverent “I Don’t Want to Kill You Anymore” and the edgy art rocker “You’re Fine.”

Just when you expect Jean to roll out another pop rock or punk pop ear worm, she surprises you with her attitudinal lead single, “You’re Fine,” which is like nothing else in her catalog.

“You’re Fine” mashes up new wave, no-wave and Art-rock. With a sparse low groove it conjures up early Talking Heads and Brian Eno and then takes a turn and sounds like it’d fit on a playlist with Lydia Lunch and Richard Hell and the Voidoids. Initially, minimalist and groove-based, the song mutates into a maximalist, Sparks-meets-Queen crescendo – all in protest of the phrase that irritates her the most, “You’re Fine.”


“So often ‘you’re fine’ is delivered with spectacular indifference by a barista or someone I’ve accidentally and clumsily bumped into,” Jean elaborates. “Even though they are saying, ‘you’re fine,’ it feels judgey and dismissive. When you say, ‘you’re fine,’ you are saying that someone is just adequate. Surely I am better (or worse) than adequate! This song is a (jokey) protest to all the ‘you’re fine-ing’ going on out there in the world.”

Recorded with longtime collaborator Lars Göransson (Sounds Outrageous Studio, Austin), the track brims with sonic Easter eggs – a banged frying pan, a mouth-made synth riff run through vocoder, a fake phone sound, wah-wah guitar, and a metal guitar riff that crashes in for the finale. Frequent co-conspirators Josh Robins (Invincible Czars), Jon Notarthomas, (Ian McGlagan, Rubilators) Shannon Rierson (Utley 3 and Flak Records head honcho), and drummer Zack Humphrey (Megafauna) all leave fingerprints on the song’s shapeshifting arrangement.

Watch the video HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edqelwf_Szo&feature=youtu.be