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F.A.B.L.E. proves himself one of Chicago’s best emerging rappers with Duckweed
Last year Englewood rapper, multi-instrumentalist, and studio engineer Christopher Horace, aka F.A.B.L.E., grew frustrated with his lack of progress on an ambitious full-length and released the EP...
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Chicago-born shoegaze group Fauvely roll back the distortion on Beautiful...
Fauvely front woman Sophie Brochu has built a creative life working with the warm, distorted tones of shoegaze; for much of the 2010s, she explored the style’s indie-pop possibilities in Chicago...
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Bobby Morelli is the sausage king of Bronzeville
A father-and-daughter team sling loaded wieners from a storage container. Bobby Morelli has no professional culinary experience. He's an R&B and pop recording artist with a web design and...
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Gustavo Cortiñas explores Latin American history, culture, and resilience on...
The third release by Gustavo Cortiñas, Desafío Candente (“Incandescent Defiance”), is an epic set of jazz and spoken word inspired by Las Venas Abiertas de Latinoamérica (“The Open Veins of Latin...
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Avner Landes’s Meiselman gets it right
Even though its titular character always does just the opposite Meiselman is put-upon. Everything and everyone in his world is bent on humiliating and belittling him, so he plots his revenge.…
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Vivian McCall documents her transition on her life-affirming debut as Pansy
Chicago multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer Vivian McCall helped turn Andrew Smith’s bedroom project, Jungle Green, into a bona fide six-piece band when she joined in 2017. Since they all...
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Damon Locks & Black Monument Ensemble’s Now is an essential album of the moment
Flipping through television channels. Flicking through radio stations.…
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Chicago ambient musician Andrew CS harnesses the tranquility of nature on...
Multidisciplinary artist Andrew CS moved to Chicago from Rockton, Illinois, in the mid-2010s to study interaction design at Columbia College, and then began booking intimate Sunday DIY shows—but long...
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Natural Information Society reaches a new ecstatic peak with Evan Parker
While it’s impossible to pinpoint a single peak in John Coltrane’s vast discography, Ascension is one of his most intense expressions of transcendental intent. Local musician Joshua Abrams knows his...
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Madison stoner giants Bongzilla blaze through the Badger State on Weedsconsin
It’s hard to believe it’s been 16 years since Madison stoner giants Bongzilla dropped a studio album—surely at least a few people rocking out to their brand-new Weedsconsin LP were in diapers back...
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Quebec trio Big|Brave get heavier than ever on Vital
Quebec trio Big|Brave have always been great at drawing things out. Most of their songs pass the ten-minute mark, and they’ve made a hallmark of deftly adding heady layers of emotion to minimal,...
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Norwegian noise-rockers Årabrot delve into dark pop on Norwegian Gothic
Norwegian noise-rock band Årabrot have undergone many personnel changes over their two-decade career, and front man, composer, and sole constant member Kjetil Nernes has brought forth a different...
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AyoChillMannn and Valee spotlight each other’s strengths on The Trappiest...
A few weeks after COVID-19 shut down the country, Chicago engineer and producer Ayo “AyoChillMannn” Makinde lost his full-time job as a youth national teams administrator for U.S. Soccer. In an effort...
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A multigenerational trio reaffirms the wide-open aesthetic of the...
Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith has made recordings over the past decade that celebrate uplifting movements, such as the Occupy protests and the civil rights struggle, and great jazz musicians, including...
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Jupiter & Okwess capture the musical anarchy of their performances on Na...
My first impression of Jupiter Bokondji and his band Okwess was that their sound resembled Fishbone filtered through traditional African music. That’s not to say that the players in this Congolese...
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Chicago hip-hop duo Mother Nature level up with the BoatHouse collaboration...
Rappers Klevah Knox and TRUTH, known collectively as Mother Nature, have worked tirelessly to ascend through the Chicago scene over the past few years. COVID-19 threw a gigantic roadblock in their...
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Black creatives never stopped creating
This year’s Black Creativity is a testament to the artists and program leaders who didn’t give up on shining a spotlight on Black art. At this year's "Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition," two...
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Sublime Frequencies releases an entrancing field recording of traditional...
First things first. The gyil is a traditional West African xylophone with dried gourd resonators hung below most or all of its hardwood keys.…
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Silent condemn racism and violence with gothic postpunk on Modern Hate
There are probably a dozen memes circulating right now that chart punk subgenres and the philosophical leanings they supposedly embody, and without even finding one, I’m confident saying that goth...
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Chicago DJ and producer Composuresquad draws from pop’s deep well for his...
Chicago DJ and producer Jermaine Collins, aka Composuresquad, became a pillar of the city’s nightlife scene after hooking up with local dance collective and record label Them Flavors in 2013. He...
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