A&R Factory

Invigorating scarcely scratches the surface when painting a picture of On Time, one of the most scintillatingly synergetic scores by the Sorin Zlat Trio. The Romanian composer and pianist Sorin Zlat, a Yamaha Jazz Artist and university professor at the National University of Music Bucharest, plays like an alchemist when his fingers strike across a set of keys; it is as though...

Jasno pushed pop-pierced nu-metal into the ultimate post-hardcore evolution with their latest caustic alternative anthem, CULT LIKE. Born from the Marquette, Michigan music scene, the trio of vocalist Jack Laurila, guitarist Declan Stratford and drummer Paul Racine bring the kind of hungry, close-quarters intensity that small scenes tend to sharpen fast, especially when every...

As the number of old-school bars dwindles, UK Americana duo Sun-Pinned Leaves, known for their penchant for honky-tonk, roots-deep grooves, penned the ultimate ode to the formative dens of hedonically raucous pleasure with Last Bar in Town. Christopher Brown and Neil Faulkner have carried their creative partnership from schooldays in 1975 through a 2018 reunion and eight albu...

The rabid moral theatre swallowing music whole reached a reverse censorship fever pitch with the Ed Sheeran/Macklemore saga acting as the catalyst. What are we really doing by making musicians’ statements more important than their music? The demand to echo the consensus of virtue now comes dressed as accountability, but increasingly moves with the temperament of surveillance....

Ellory Grace writes with the sort of self-awareness that makes small thoughts feel suddenly enormous. In this interview, she talks through Seventeen Years, her new single about treating anxiety like an unwanted guest who has lived in her head for far too long and finally needs to be shown out. Across the conversation, Grace opens up about writing from questions rather than me...