Pryor Stroud

Portable: Alan Abrahams
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Portable: Alan Abrahams

By
 / 1 September 2016
South Africa's Alan Abrahams stretches his idiosyncratic vision of "noir wave, incorporating elements of electronic music, classical, new jazz, and African pop to create an atmosphere of alluring claustrophobia.
Ryley Walker: Golden Sings That Have Been Sung
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Ryley Walker: Golden Sings That Have Been Sung

By
 / 24 August 2016
Ryley Walker parades his influences out unabashedly in his new eight-track LP, concocting a technicolor amalgam of smokey, cellar-club jazz and gypsy-traveler Euro-folk
Young the Giant: Home of the Strange
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Young the Giant: Home of the Strange

By
 / 19 August 2016
Home of the Strange won't convert any naysayers of Young the Giant's straight-and-narrow take on alternative rock, but it underscores what has emboldened their fanbase for so long
Rival Consoles: Night Melody
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Rival Consoles: Night Melody

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 / 10 August 2016

Lifting tropes from IDM, deep house, Eno-indebted ambience, and end-of-days electro, Ryan Lee West creates a borderless shadow-reality that is part somnambulant carnival and part cosmic void on Night Melody.

Looking for an Outlet: An Interview with Sonny Smith
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Looking for an Outlet: An Interview with Sonny Smith

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 / 29 July 2016
Sonny Smith -- the bandleader and chief songwriter of the genre-morphing Sonny & The Sunsets -- sees modern existence as a swirl of ephemeral stimuli and microscopic mood swings.
Palmistry: PAGAN
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Palmistry: PAGAN

By
 / 19 July 2016
On PAGAN, alt-dancehall purveyor Palmistry throws himself headfirst into a world where whispers, sighs, mumblings, and ramblings bespeak great depths of intimacy
Broods: Conscious
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Broods: Conscious

By
 / 1 July 2016
Broods continue to refine their infectious, high-stakes electropop on Conscious. Here, the songs are higher in intensity and wider in scope, and Georgia Nott delivers some of her most arresting vocal performances to date
The Shelters: The Shelters
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The Shelters: The Shelters

By
 / 28 June 2016
The Shelters exist somewhere indeterminately between Tom Petty's "American Girl" and the Strokes' "Last Nite", crafting a high-energy blend of garage rock and old-fashioned Americana.
The Temper Trap: Thick As Thieves
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The Temper Trap: Thick As Thieves

By
 / 20 June 2016
Dougy Mandagi's feverishly operatic voice -- a spectacle in and of itself -- saves Thick as Thieves from becoming just another anodyne, stadium-ready rock trifle.
Classixx: Faraway Reach
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Classixx: Faraway Reach

By
 / 15 June 2016
In Faraway Reach, L.A.-bred dopamine dealers Michael David and Tyler Blake stick to their guns and craft disco-tinged dance-pop that draws equally from '80s new wave and maximalist EDM.
Lone: Levitate
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Lone: Levitate

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 / 9 June 2016
In Levitate, Lone finds himself at a healthy middle ground between subterranean ambience and soaring, sweat-soaked club music.
Moving Units: Damage With Care
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Moving Units: Damage With Care

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 / 8 June 2016
Moving Units has always crafted eminently danceable, melodically infectious dance-punk. With Damage With Care, nothing changes.