Cabra‘s What’s The Word? effortlessly bridges the gap between nostalgic R&B smoothness and contemporary UK rap swagger. Built around an infectious groove, playful lyricism, and a memorable hook, the track radiates confidence without ever feeling forced. Its laid-back flow and polished production evoke the golden era of early-2000s crossover hits while maintaining a distinctly modern edge. Catchy, charismatic, and packed with feel-good energy, What’s The Word? is the kind of track that slips naturally into late-night drives, summer playlists, and repeat listens alike.
The background of Leoni Jane Kennedy is well documented. PRS Guitars official artist, chosen by Roger Taylor and Brian May for the Freddie Mercury Scholarship and a regular contributor/performer for the RUSHfest Scotland Songs for Neil albums. She is also responsible for the fine New World Woman Rush covers release in 2023.
Years in the making, this remarkably talented singer and guitarist is now poised to release her debut album, Synthetic, and the wait is worth it. It is not an overly long record, seven songs stretch just over 34 minutes in total. But they say it is quality, not quantity, and, on this occasion, that is spot on.
Given her association with the world of progressive rock, one could be forgiven for anticipating the meandering noodling sometimes produced. Not so. There is a smoky, slow drawl on the opening title track, which slowly builds.
It is a gentle introduction to the album, subtle and calming, yet possessing the potential to get just a bit more wild at any moment. It does not explode instantly, yet the chorus that does kick in has ample dramatic elements. The pace is perfectly crafted, the clever and intricate guitar work reminding you that whilst Leoni has a stunning voice, she is a great guitarist as well.
Each piece of work has familiarity yet presents something new. There is plenty of blues rock in here, but she switches to semi-bluegrass, pop, and alternative styles with such ease that you quickly see and hear why there is such a bright future for her.
One listen to Closer is ample demonstration of her talent, as it morphs from one style to another.
The songs are emotional, wrapping imaginary arms around you as they ease along. It is impossible not to be drawn deep into the web, for there is a passion that runs deep.
Sloe is absorbing, switching tempo with an ease that is too often taken for granted. There is something incredibly special about the punctured style that mixes with some lush Hammond.
Synthetic works in many ways. Ideal work accompaniment, it is also perfect for a lazy evening deep dive with decent headphones and a glass of red. The punchy beat of Test The Water compliments the laid-back Different Woman. Both tracks work superbly, but together they add a delicious yin and yang that fits neatly.
This is an album that is both instant and yet demands attention. Yes, you can give it a cursory listen, but there is plenty to unpack and enjoy in more detail.
Closing track Temple shows the perfect way to conclude this release, with some delicate strings stirring in the background as the track slowly unfurls.
I feel it is one that will get repeated plays for some time to come, and I will be watching this talented woman with great interest as her career unfolds.
With support slots to Solstice and the incredible Walter Trout coming later this year, as well as a slew of summer appearances, you can only see one direction for Leoni Jane Kennedy. And that is up.
Leoni Jane Kennedy releases Synthetic on 15 June 2026. A pre-save of the album is available from here.
Muse have showcased another epic set to appear on their upcoming new album ‘The Wow! Signal’, and it sees them indulging in a different spectacular sound.
Titled ‘Nightshift Superstar’, it finds the trio playing around with the sort of sonics that have made the likes of Justice and Daft Punk global superstars. Sexy, thrilling, and pulsating in all the right ways, it is French disco pulled through the band’s mesh of stratospheric rock and progressive intent. The result is funky, catchy and thoroughly addictive, a reminder to expect the unexpected and always know where your nearest dancefloor is. Just in case.
Have a listen for yourself.
Muse’s new album ‘The Wow! Signal’ is set for release on June 26. Here is previous single, the extraordinary ‘Hexagons’:
The band are set to hit the road across the US with support coming from Bloc Party, Portugal. The Man and The Temper Trap next month.
So it’s going to be very special, basically.
Here are all the dates that you need to know:
JULY
05 – ST. LOUIS Hollywood Casino Amphitheater * ~ 07 – NOBLESVILLE Ruoff Music Center * ~ 10 – TINLEY PARK Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre * ~ 11 – CINCINATTI Riverbend Music Center * ~ 13 – CLARKSTON Pine Knob Music Theatre * ~ 15 – TORONTO RBC Amphitheatre * ~ 18 – MANSFIELD Xfinity Center * ~ 22 – HOLMDEL PNC Bank Arts Center * ~ 24 – SARATOGA SPRINGS Albany Med Health System at SPAC * ~ 25 – WANTAGH Northwell at Jones Beach Theater * ~ 28 – COLUMBIA Merriweather Post Pavilion * ~ 29 – CAMDEN Freedom Mortgage Pavilion * ~
AUGUST
10 – CHARLOTTE Truliant Amphitheater – ~ 12 – ATLANTA Lakewood Amphitheatre – ~ 14 – DALLAS Dos Equis Pavilion – ~ 15 – AUSTIN Germania Insurance Amphitheater – ~ 18 – GREENWOOD Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater – ~ + 20 – WEST VALLEY CITY Utah First Credit Union Amphitheatre – ~ 22 – RIDGEFIELD Cascades Amphitheater – ~ 23 – AUBURN White River Amphitheatre – ~ 26 – WHEATLAND Toyota Amphitheatre – ~ 27 – MOUNTAIN VIEW Shoreline Amphitheatre – ~ 29 – CHULA VISTA North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre – ~ 31 – LOS ANGLELES Hollywood Bowl – ~
* support from Bloc Party – support from Portugal. The Man ~ support from The Temper Trap
DIØN‘s Taka Tribe is a relentless fusion of hardcore techno, industrial energy, and tribal euphoria. Blending Korean, English, and an invented language into a hypnotic vocal framework, the track feels like a futuristic ritual unfolding at peak rave intensity. Pounding kicks, raw textures, and infectious rhythmic hooks drive the momentum forward, while the tribal elements add a distinctive identity that sets it apart from conventional peak-time techno. Fierce, playful, and unapologetically high-energy, Taka Tribe is built to ignite dancefloors and leave a lasting impact.
Ambient experimental avant-garde duo Pulsar1081 from Athens have just released their first full-length album L’inizio Della Fine, meaning the beginning of the end, in digipack format, having originally released it last May in digital format only. One year later, this hard copy features an extra and very symbolic track, Dead Star, one of many pre-production pieces the duo had prepared. The track has been released as a tribute to one half of the duo, Eterno, who sadly passed last August.
The duo Eterno and Momento had, over the years, played significant roles in shaping the underground DIY scene in Greece, never caring about the commercialisation of art, only the journey of creation and awakening consciousness. They have participated in dozens of releases with bands covering the entire spectrum of rock, Metal, Hardcore, dark wave, post rock punk, etc.
So the purpose of creating this Pulsar1081 project was the experimentation in musical paths that they had not explored, having collaborated, in around the same time frame, with the cult Norwegian Avant garde / Black Metallers Dodheimsgard on extra material for three tracks for their Black Medium Current album.
This culminated in appearances at Inferno Festival (Oslo/Norway) and at Roadburn Festival (Tilburg/The Netherlands). “I remain with Vasilis’ last words in my mind,” Momento said, “words that I will never forget. ‘This trip was the best thing I’ve ever done in my life. This whole experience is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever had.’”
Regarding this Pulsar1081 album, Momento and Eterno said last April, just before the original release of L’inizio Della Fine, “In the dark times we are going through as humanity, we take you on an astral journey where everything is magical. The clarity of mind, the purification of the soul, and the inner peace help to emerge the power that we all hide deep within us.
“Over the centuries, mankind has proven countless times that it can become destructive to an unimaginable extent. On the other hand, we observe its resilience after unbearable situations. This proves our endurance within the universe.
“We suggest, if someone wants to fully immerse and comprehend our effort through this project, to be in a relaxed mental state and listen to the album through headphones. Enjoy.”
L’inizio Della Fine is a seven-track offering spanning forty-nine reflective and contemplative minutes, in which you can completely immerse yourself.
Opening with Dyp Samptale, an eerie, crawling noisescape ebbs and builds, delivering an icy, dark feel that intrigues as much as it unnerves. With a fade out that is subtle and gradual, allowing the next piece, Darkness, to fill the empty void that has been left.
Here, a hypnotic drone, eerie echoes, whale song and haunting distant voices, reminiscent of monk chants, can be heard along with other sounds that build and seem to get closer. The sudden explosive element in the latter part pulls you out of any reverie you might have slipped into.
Inferno builds gradually into a raging wall of sound permeated with a mix of drone, strange, unearthly vocalisations and tolling bells. It is expansive, all-encompassing and fascinatingly dark and disquieting.
Album monster at around fourteen minutes, Aglaf has a more contemplative and meditative mood as it opens. As it progresses, there is a sense of a dark side and a light side, a yin and yang, moving together across the duration of the piece. With gentle ebbing and building, twisting and turning, but in perfect balance, this makes it eerily harmonious.
In the second half, there is a brief reflective swathe of distant bluesy rock guitar and a hypnotically repeating note pattern. An excellent listen.
From the offset Maerd has a very celestial and soaring atmosphere with a haunting vocal undercurrent. It is a very engulfing piece that wraps itself around you and is, at times, almost overwhelming to your senses. A hugely powerful listen.
The following piece, 0, is more of a straightforward thinking musical piece, mixing electronics and vocal samples, some spoken and some sung, and despite being the shortest piece at two and a half minutes, it feels very full in terms of content.
The final piece, Dead Star, Momento, explains “one of its two meanings reflects the personality of Eterno (Vasilis). A truly enormous talent and a pure soul. The second symbolism is between his death and, at the same time, the birth of one of the two Pulsars that make up this particular project. Let’s not forget that Pulsars are created from the death of other stars.”
As you might expect, it is a very astral and hypnotically reflective listen, musically keyboard-led, and a beautiful tribute to Eterno that reflects his energy as it soars and floats through the cosmos.
I do like these pieces. They make a fascinating, different and thought-provoking listen, and there’s also a dark quality to them which appeals to me.
L’inizio Della Fine is available via FYC records in limited Digi CD Deluxe Format, along with merch (T-Shirts, Patches, Logo Pin). Pulsar1081 will continue as a solo project, as prior to Eterno’s passing, they had already prepared a lot of material.
“Music was his whole life,” Momento said. “It was his outlet, his oxygen and his breath. So, I will continue to create for him, too.”
Eyes wide weary to a midday sun Oh! what could have been The Monolithic slab of this endless drab We’re living, in the cracks between
NAUT’s latest single, Liberation, comes barging out of Bristol as both a warning flare and a love letter to the goth club as a sanctuary: a room set against the technocratic nightmare of compliance, optimization, surveillance, and dead-eyed productivity. Outside, the world measures, manages, and flattens the self into data. Inside, under low light and heavy sound, outsiders gather, move, and become whole.
That opposition sits at the heart of goth itself. Gothic romanticism has always been the enemy of clean systems and obedient surfaces, answering utility with mystery, control with desire, productivity with ritual, and rational order with the unruly intelligence of grief, beauty, fear, and longing. For NAUT, this is no abstract pose. The band were born on goth dancefloors around the world, forged in the spaces where the strange find recognition, and where night offers a freedom the day cannot authorize.
Liberation treats the night as a force of release: the hour when fear loosens, false selves fall away, and the dark night of the soul becomes a kind of transformation. The track confronts both personal darkness and the wider machinery of control and compliance, treating inner turmoil and outside pressure as parts of the same struggle. Its death-rock heft comes across as disciplined rather than gaudy, with coldwave restraint folded into a thicker, more physical frame. The guitars descend in heavy black planes, sharpened at the edges, while the synthesizers sit at a glacial remove, throwing the bass into relief. Beneath it all, the drum machine advances with bureaucratic menace, each strike suggesting the dull violence of systems that never need to raise their voice.
The lyrics to Liberation aim their anger at the systems that shape modern life: work targets, digital metrics, managed desire, and the dead-screen obedience of a world lived through devices. NAUT set private ambition and historical burden inside that same tightening mechanism, where the self is measured, monitored, and made useful until little remains but exhaustion and performance. The song treats the daylight world as a monolithic slab of endless drab, a regime of polished surfaces, shrinking choices, and constant compliance, where the human soul is expected to survive in the cracks between.
Against that machinery, the club becomes a counter-institution: a place where the body is no longer something to discipline, optimize, or make productive, but something to release. The chorus rises with the severe grandeur of a vaulted ceiling, while the bassline keeps the song locked to the floor, reminding us that transcendence can begin with movement, with hips, shoulders, boots, and bodies finding freedom together before anything reaches the heavens.
The DIY video, filmed in Bristol, sharpens this idea by refusing elaborate explanation in favour of pressure, performance, and nocturnal momentum. It carries the charge of a horror film opening in real time, less through plot than through atmosphere: bodies caught in artificial light, faces moving through darkness, the band appearing as both witnesses and accelerants.
Watch the video for Liberation below:
Following the release of Hunt, and after tours alongside Creeper, The March Violets, She Past Away, and Katatonia, NAUT sound tighter, meaner, and more club-minded here. Liberation is gothic post-punk built for boots on sticky floors, for mascara running by choice, and for freedom from the status quo.
Listen to Liberation below, and order the single here.
Evanescence are rock survivors. Despite the internet rumour that the entire band died years ago, they are very much alive, and after five years of soul-searching, have emerged from the studio with a stronger, bolder sound in the form of their sixth album, ‘Sanctuary’.
It’s a record that firmly feels like frontwoman Amy Lee went to therapy, came to terms with a lot of her negative experiences which occurred in her MTV darling era, and then decided to re-do the sound that characterised her peak fame but on her own terms. It’s the sound of second chances and taking on the world when you’re ready to do it, with more than a dash of heavy fuzz courtesy of roping in the producers behind BMTH. Will this be the record to convert those who aren’t already into Evanescence? Maybe not, but it’s a solid statement about not caring about that crowd anyway.
“I don’t belong to you, so don’t tell me what to do.” If ever an opening line summed up a record, it’s the first salvo of ‘Beautiful Lie’. Feminine strength and the distorted, open beats which have characterised Evanescence’s recent sound are out in force, instantly reminding us that they aren’t here to mess around. In fact, if we’re judging by the first single, ‘Who Will You Follow’, Lee and co are out for karmic retribution against some unnamed oppressor and giving voice to the desire to win. The force of pulling yourself back up from a pit of your own making feels like the main inspiration behind this outing, and it’s satisfying on a truly cosmic level.
Of course, it wouldn’t be an Evanescence album without a candle-lit piano ballad, and ‘Sanctuary’ drops two just to keep the average up. First up is the desperate ‘How Do I Heal’, tender and plaintive in its evocative heartbreak, but the more interesting is the second. ‘Forever Without You’ contains the rarest of all Evanescence emotions; acceptance. There’s no wailing, raging or hoping here, only a golden warmth and calm which flows through the entire song, and this sense of peace marks a new turn for the band after two decades. They’re finally at peace with the twists and turns of life in the spotlight, and it feels good for both us and them.
Ironically, the title track is the opposite of the contemplation on the ballads, despite the name. ‘Sanctuary’ is the vanguard of the updated side of the Evanescence sound that we’ve got on this album. Glitching, anguished and with only the lightest twinkle of piano, they’ve put everything they’ve got into guitars and poised, elegant rage. The serenity amid whirling emotions which has always characterised Evanescence has been turned up too, especially on tracks like ‘Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough’. What could easily have been teenage posing back in the day has now been distilled into graceful fury at its finest.
There’s a reason that Evanescence have survived this long, far beyond the expiration date that gets stamped onto superstars that earned their stripes in a specific time or era. Rather than retreat into nostalgia, they’ve taken a look back at what made them great in the first place and given it a spruce up with even more impassioned screams, more ballads and more fuzz in far higher doses. It’s one for the fans, sure, but it’s also a lesson for the rest of us on how to rise above the turmoil with rage in your heart and grace in your step.
