Donte Thomas "An APPLE a Day"
In the heart of Portland’s ceaselessly vibrant hip-hop scene, Donte Thomas has been something of a secret weapon for a decade—his sharp, introspective lyricism fused with lush, melodic beats that grab both the die-hard aficionados and the casual passerby. His latest venture, “an APPLE a day,” is less a collection of tracks and more a manifesto on survival and growth amidst the chaos of modern life, filtered through the lens of an artist who refuses to lose his footing.
Thomas’s “an APPLE a day” is a full dive into the deep end of life’s complex currents. Through tracks like “GOTTA GET UP” and “RUNNIN,” he takes us on a tour through daily grinds and personal reckonings, his words etching vivid sketches of struggle and triumph against a sonic backdrop that bridges boom-bap nostalgia with the avant-garde edges of contemporary sound. It’s a narrative thread that pulls tight with each beat, weaving a tapestry that feels both intensely personal and expansively universal.
Teaming up with producers like the notable Kaelin Ellis, Thomas crafts each track as a multi-layered experience, where the production serves not just as a backdrop but as a dynamic participant in the storytelling. The result is an album that feels both grounded in tradition and daringly fresh, pushing the boundaries of what hip-hop can be while staying true to its roots.
“an APPLE a day” stands as a testament to Thomas’s growth as both a craftsman and a chronicler of the human spirit. With a poet’s touch and a philosopher’s insight, his music captures the nuanced dramas of everyday life, turning personal anecdotes into lessons on resilience and authenticity. This album isn’t just for Portland or for hip-hop heads; it’s for anyone who’s ever faced a challenge and decided to keep moving forward. It’s a reminder that in the complexity of our lives, there’s always a new day, a new note, a new story to tell.
Sandman Project "Where Did You Go?"
Sandman Project’s long awaited debut album Where Did You Go? is a borderless amalgam of brass heavy sounds, a document of a band whose musical tendencies mimic their open-minded ethic where Ethio- jazz, Afrobeat, American soul music and psychedelic, Mediterranean funk traverse.
Led by guitarist and composer Tal Sandman, Tel Aviv based Sandman Projects’s last release was in 2018 on their debut EP, their only existing recording. Six years later and it is no surprise this expansive work is positively brimming with an ocean of ideas, rooted in jazz, exceptionally crafted and boasting a myriad of musical pivots with a subtle but crucial production and synth touch by producer Tomer Baruch.
Absolutely key to this new recording and Tal’s adult musical upbringing and education is the ongoing influence of saxophonist Abate Barihun, sometimes known as the Ethiopian John Coltrane who is an Ethiopian Jew who emigrated to Israel in 1999. Whilst he doesn’t feature directly on the record, Tal has long been mentored and stewarded by him and she affirms that “his inspiration continues to play a crucial role in my creative process.”
And so, to the album’s title track Where Did you Go which oozes film- noir with Tal’s omnipresent Tizta sound using the Tezeta scales from Ethiopia dictating the mood whilst synths transcend and build an immersive soundscape something akin to Mulatu Astake jamming with the Fleet Foxes with Brian Eno-esque electronic manipulation.
Perennial "Art History"
From Ernest Jenning Record Co.:
Perennial is an art project: Mod pop, post-hardcore, 60s soul, ambient electronic music, midcentury design, abstract expressionism, French New Wave cinema; it’s all collage material for Perennial.
The band — electric organist Chelsey Hahn, guitarist Chad Jewett and drummer Ceej Dioguardi — is equal parts manic basement show bombast and studio-as-instrument headphone listening. To see the New England three-piece in person is to experience a 20-minute burst of kinetic energy: dynamic, reckless, electrifying. To put on one of Perennial’s records is to spend almost the same amount of time with impeccably layered studio-as-instrument punk modernism.
Art History, the band’s newest full-length album (out June 7 via Ernest Jenning Record Co.), finds Perennial further experimenting with their angular cut-and-glue aesthetic. An adventurous 20 minutes of impressionist punk energy, British Invasion guitar pop chic, and Mod-inflected rhythm and noise rave-ups, Art History is both Perennial’s most giddily accessible and most artistically daring record to date.
Akira Kosemura & Lawrence English "Selene"
Atmosphere and gravity lean into each other. They are simultaneously expansive, and anchoring. They hold us, and lend a sense of perspective. They provide a stability and a knowingness which is essential in the absolute, and yet we can’t help but find ourselves gazing upward, outward and reaching towards that which sits outside those things and ways we know. Selene is a record about that this lingering desire for that which sits beyond. It is work that seeks new perspectives snatched from familiar vistas, and it meditates on that sense of anchor and perspective. The work is also a speculative hymn to the visions of the celestial zones that spill ever outward. These visions, once merely what we could perceive with the naked eye are now so much more. Our minds eye is fed in equal parts by radio telecopy, filmic dreams and fiction renders of a place most of us will never know first-hand. This recording ties into a linage that reaches back, while stretching forward. It is just one story of so many, told across places, across cultures, across generations. It sits in the in-between of before and after, and in that moment invites us to situate ourselves and lean into it.