Jessica’s vocals are a perfect fit for this borderline symphonic rock sound – her soaring sound pierces through the rich wall of sound and is complemented by the string section melodies, which, in my opinion, add enough character to the accompaniment that would otherwise sound pretty generic. Even though the beat is driving and overall very rock-sounding, the softness at the core here is very present, and that is clearly the intention behind the song.

Hellman and Jessica recorded the vocals with no pitch correction – what you hear is her natural tone and control, and that choice pays off on a song that lives or dies by its emotional delivery. Talk in Vain have been building steadily since forming in 2023, and “Her Case” – their debut single and also included on this EP – remains the crowd favourite from their earlier material. A release party is planned for this summer in Vaxjo, Sweden. For a band still relatively early in their run, covering a song this well-trodden is a reasonable way to introduce your sound to a wider audience, and on that front, it does the job.

Sonically, VHS Panty Riot manages to faithfully recreate that 80s soundscape while adding their own modern EDM melodic sensibilities. Those aforementioned sensibilities are clearly inspired by retro video game soundtracks, but this is definitely a chicken or the egg situation – because both those mediums have a symbiotic relationship with each other. The game soundtracks emerge from the EDM scene and a feedback loop happens, and the soundtracks influence the music back. The most impactful textures of choice here are a huge, chorused-out lead sound that tears through the mix to convey the visceral image of peeling the sun, and an energetic, danceable drum groove that keeps the momentum going.

For fans of Carpenter Brut and that specific intersection of cinematic dread and dancefloor energy, this is squarely in the wheelhouse. “Peel The Sun” is the lighter-toned entry point into a project that can clearly go darker when it wants to, which makes it a smart standalone release – it draws a wider circle without abandoning what the project is built on. The EP arriving in June should give a clearer picture of where VHS Panty Riot are headed, but this is a good reason to pay attention before it lands.

Following the darker atmosphere of Such a Burden, Move takes a strikingly different direction. Where its predecessor explored self-doubt and emotional weight, this release leans into light, momentum, and optimism. Yet beneath its bright synth lines and danceable rhythm lies a more personal narrative shaped by heartbreak, healing, and self-reinvention.

The song moves comfortably between indie rock, funk, disco, alternative pop, and unmistakable 80s influences. Sequenced synth textures give the arrangement its nostalgic pulse, while the playful vocal layers add character and warmth. The intentionally “workout-song” aesthetic becomes one of the track’s greatest strengths, creating a listening experience that feels energetic without losing emotional sincerity.

One of the most refreshing aspects of Move is its refusal to fit neatly into expectations. BADSQUATCH approaches genre with freedom, allowing the song to exist somewhere between retro celebration and personal reflection. That willingness to take risks gives the track its individuality and keeps it engaging from beginning to end.

Recorded at Topetitud Estudios in Mexico City as part of a larger fourteen-track project exploring mental health, self-love, shadow work, and growth, Move offers an early glimpse into an album that seems determined to remain unpredictable.

With Move, BADSQUATCH transforms nostalgia into something more meaningful. The result is a track that celebrates motion, embraces change, and reminds listeners that sometimes healing arrives not through stillness, but through movement itself!

⇒ Have you missed our album review? Check here.

A Striking Architecture of Power and Restraint

Climax moves fluidly across diverse sonic territories, traversing heavy rock, hard rock, blues rock, ambient, and cinematic soundscapes. The record intentionally highlights structural contrast and pacing rather than overplayed flash. The album opens with “The Dragon,” a muscular guitar anthem driven by massive grooves and crashing drums that instantly commands attention. To celebrate the launch, an official cinematic music video for “The Dragon” has been released simultaneously alongside the album.

The heavier, riff-driven force of tracks like “The Dragon” and “Dawn of Fire” stands in beautiful relief against introspective, atmospheric pieces such as “Minutes Away” and “Enter the Mist”. In these spaces, delicate guitar leads, soft piano chords, and ambient synths take center stage, proving that space and melodic restraint can communicate profound human feeling without saying a single word.

Preserving Raw Humanity Over Studio Perfection

What truly sets Decadent Heroes apart in the modern music landscape is a meticulous production philosophy that prioritizes raw, honest human performance over digital correction. Recorded primarily in his home studio in Pescara, Italy, Chiappini spent months perfecting his Helix HX Stomp presets before tracking. Because the guitar tones arrived at the mixing stage close to final, he was able to focus entirely on feel during recording, keeping first and second takes complete with their spontaneous, organic imperfections.

To bring this expansive musical vision to life, Chiappini assembled an elite roster of international session musicians to form a living, breathing rhythm section. The album features world-class performances by legendary drummer Dennis Holt (Kansas, Taylor Swift), bassist Fausto Berardo, and additional standalone contributions from Pino Saracini (Eros Ramazzotti), Rich Gray (Annihilator), Marcin Palider, Darrell Nutt, and Francesco Coppola Bove.

An Artist’s Culmination

“In many ways, this album is the culmination of everything I’ve learned as a guitarist and producer up to this point,” notes Luigi Chiappini. “It’s the first time I feel I’ve been truly honest with myself in the studio. What makes it stand out is the balance between raw power and emotional depth. It’s not just another instrumental guitar album; it feels like a real journey with dynamics, contrast, and storytelling.”

The record starts with “The Dragon,” a guitar anthem with a driving hard rock beat that is surprisingly melody-centric rather than riff-centric, as the initial impression would imply. The riff is the hook that pulls you in, but Chiappini quickly reveals that the real architecture of the song is built around the lead guitar voice singing above it. The track has a cinematic weight to it, the kind that instrumental rock only achieves when the composer trusts melody over flash, and the performances from Holt and the rhythm section give it a foundation that feels genuinely massive without sacrificing groove. Chiappini describes it as a meteor crashing into the earth, and that’s not an overstatement: it announces the album’s intentions immediately and without apology.

It’s not all intensity, though, because a guitar-forward album like this wouldn’t be complete without some introspective ballads, and “Minutes Away” is a great example of one. The Andy Timmons inspiration is very clear here, particularly in the sustain and the way the phrasing lingers on single notes, letting them breathe and decay rather than rushing to the next idea. Timmons’ “Deliver Us” is the closest reference point for what Chiappini is chasing sonically, that combination of emotional weight and tonal warmth that makes a guitar line feel like a voice rather than an instrument. “Minutes Away” achieves that. The layered atmospherics give it an immersive quality, and the dynamic contrast with the heavier tracks around it makes the whole album feel more considered as a sequenced experience.

“Hype” remains the standout for me personally. The melody is locked in rhythmically in a way that makes it easily singable, which is the rarest quality in instrumental guitar music and the one that separates the genuinely great tracks in the genre from the technically impressive ones. It sits comfortably alongside the best moments of Joe Satriani’s catalog, not because it’s imitative, but because it achieves the same thing Satriani at his best achieves: a melody so strong and so well-phrased that you don’t notice you’re not hearing words. Chiappini cycles through different scales across the track, Dorian, Phrygian dominant, natural minor, pentatonic, and each shift changes the emotional color without disrupting the momentum. The guitar tone is simultaneously punchy and warm, never fatiguing, and every section earns its place in the structure.

Climax lives up to its title in the best possible sense. It’s not the loudest or most technically overwhelming point, but the point where everything converges: tone, composition, emotion, and dynamics all arriving together in a single coherent vision. For fans of instrumental guitar music, this is exactly what the genre is capable of when a guitarist stops chasing validation and starts chasing truth.

The cinematic quality isn’t just an aesthetic choice; it’s structural. The song moves like a narrative arc, beginning in introspection and expanding into something far more expansive and emotionally charged. It feels intimate, yet it echoes with something almost epic.

Rooted in grunge-metal but stretching confidently across classic and progressive influences, the track leans into a rich, old-school heaviness without ever sounding dated. There’s clarity in its aggression. The production, anchored by Yanick Horner’s precise guitar work, holds everything together with a tight, controlled force, while still allowing the rawness of the genre to breathe. Angelo Spilotros’ drumming injects urgency, never overwhelming but always pushing forward. Meanwhile, Amaury Cha’s keys add an atmospheric depth that subtly elevates the emotional tone, and Juan Diego Poveda Avíla’s bass grounds the entire piece with a steady, resonant pulse.

Lyrically and emotionally, “The Eyes of a Child” centers on something deeply human: the confrontation with one’s own fears. That line, “see his eyes, see the anger mounting,” lingers not because it’s dramatic, but because it feels honest. There’s no exaggeration here. Just a quiet acknowledgment of inner conflict, and the courage it takes to face it. Dan Szyller doesn’t dramatize the struggle, he sits with it, lets it grow, and then channels it into sound.

There’s also an interesting tension at play: the title suggests innocence, yet the sonic landscape is heavy, almost turbulent. That contrast works in the track’s favor. It reflects the core idea, that even within something as pure as a “child’s gaze,” there can be confusion, anger, and the beginnings of self-awareness.

And perhaps that’s what makes this release resonate. It feels earned. Knowing that the track was written years ago and only now released adds another layer to its identity, it carries time within it. It has been shaped by distance, by reflection, as well as by waiting.

With “The Eyes of a Child,” Dan Szyller presents a piece that feels both personal and carefully crafted. The artist skilfully presents a journey through fear, and the quiet, hard-earned resolve that follows..

“Second Time Around” was inspired by lead singer and songwriter Martin Montague’s own experience of holiday romance in Ibiza — one of the rare moments where Don’t Look Now venture into love song territory, albeit with the warmth and wit that defines everything they do. Recorded at The Dream of Ozwald Studios in Warren Row near Maidenhead and produced by Keith James, the track features keyboards from Gini Hogarth and backing vocals from Damian de la Hunty. It is a song that sounds like the first day of a holiday feels — and the fact that it remains the band’s most streamed recording years after its release says everything about its staying power.

Don’t Look Now are not a band that arrived fully formed from a single influence or a single genre. They were not interested in that then, and they are certainly not interested in it now.

The project began as an acoustic and folk-rock outfit, founded by Martin Montague as a vehicle for intelligent, story-driven songwriting. Everything changed with the arrival of saxophonist Ian Thomson, whose jazz-influenced playing transformed the band’s sound across their subsequent albums — adding a dimension that is immediately recognisable and impossible to replicate. Their musical palette now spans rock and roll, pop, soul, funk, and reggae, topped with saxophone work that nods to the jazz greats, all filtered through the distinctly British wit and irreverence of their influences: The Beautiful South, The Smiths, The Kinks, Madness, and Squeeze.

What truly sets them apart, however, is not the sound. It is the subject matter.

Forget the tired rotation of love-you-hate-you, I-want-you-back chart fodder. Don’t Look Now write songs about stamp collecting, bank robbery, tabloid journalism, selling used cars, staying calm in a crisis, artificial intelligence, a particular style of glasses worn by John Lennon, and having an affair with your cousin. They have their own Christmas song, which they will be re-releasing every year until the end of time. And they are always keen to talk about the elephant in the room — especially given that it is the title of their most recent album.

“Second Time Around” sits slightly outside that tradition — but even the band’s love songs have a story worth following.

⇒ Check out our review for “Second Time Around” here.

Don’t Look Now have now released three full-length albums: Like the Do It in the Films, Once Upon a Time, and their most recent, The Elephant in the Room. Lead singer Martin Montague has also released two solo albums, both available to stream. Across all of it, “Second Time Around” remains the band’s most streamed track — a testament to the enduring appeal of a song that captures a specific, universal feeling and wraps it in music that simply makes people happy.

That duality is exactly where the song finds its charm. There’s a light teasing quality in its groove, the kind that draws you in without demanding too much, carried effortlessly by that uplifting saxophone line. It feels playful, almost conversational. But just beneath that surface, there’s a sincerity that grounds it. Inspired by Martin Montague’s Ibiza romance, the track leans into the intimacy of fleeting connection, the kind you know won’t last, yet somehow stays with you.

Musically, it moves with ease. The saxophone isn’t just an accessory; it becomes the song’s emotional compass: lifting, gliding, and occasionally winking right back at you. Around it, the textures remain warm and uncluttered, with keyboards from Gini Hogarth and backing vocals by Damian de la Hunty adding depth without ever weighing the track down. Everything feels intentional, but never overworked.

There’s also a subtle intelligence in how Don’t Look Now approaches storytelling. Echoes of The Beautiful South and The Kinks come through, not in imitation, but in spirit. It’s that balance of wit and warmth, observation and feeling. “Second Time Around” doesn’t dramatize its narrative; it simply lets it unfold, trusting the listener to meet it halfway.

And maybe that’s why it endures. It doesn’t try to be bigger than it is. Instead, it stays close: personal, reflective, and just playful enough to keep you returning.

Second Time Around by Don’t Look Now lives right in that delicate space between a smile and a memory; flirting just enough to pull you in, and confessing just enough to make you stay!

“This song is highly ambiguous and has many potential meanings,” Thomas says. “For me it’s about the post-truth nature of our current existence, and looking for answers in the chaos. Could the answers we seek be you and I?”

⇒ Check out our review for “The Answers” here.

That question sits at the heart of “The Answers” — and resists easy resolution, as the best questions do. The track draws from the oblique, searching quality that defines Beyond Signal’s songwriting: music that does not hand the listener a conclusion but instead opens a space for them to find their own. In a media landscape saturated with noise and competing certainties, it is a song about the particular disorientation of a world where truth itself has become unstable — and the possibility, however fragile, that human connection might be the only honest anchor left.

The fact that Thomas produced the track entirely himself adds another layer of meaning to the release. A lone-wolf by nature and by creative philosophy, he has always been drawn to the idea of complete creative ownership — music made without compromise, without filters, without the need to fit anyone else’s framework.

“I am a lone-wolf in search of existential authenticity and transcendental creativity in my work,” he says. “Music is the most important thing in my life.”

Beyond Signal is more than a project — it is a creative mission. Thomas has coined his own genre, TIM — Transcendental Indie Music — to describe music that reaches beyond received ideas and pre-packaged emotion toward something more individual, more honest, and more hard-won. Influenced by a lifetime of ardent listening across post-punk, indie rock, electronica, and classic rock, his sound draws from artists including Joy Division, Radiohead, The National, PJ Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Nirvana, and Molchat Doma — but belongs, ultimately, to none of them.

His debut album Gaia Algorithmica — recorded at what was formerly Tesla Studios in Sheffield with a professional audio engineer — established Beyond Signal as an artist of genuine depth and ambition, exploring themes of dysfunctional relationships, artificial intelligence, and the quest for spiritual enlightenment. Peer feedback from fellow Sheffield singer-songwriter Charlie King captured something important after a live performance at Hagglers Corner Open Mic: “What stood out to me most was the raw honesty and bravery in his lyrical content. I can tell Tom takes great care with his lyrical meaning behind his songs.”

Live, Thomas has performed at the Penryn Campus Open Mic at Falmouth University and across Sheffield’s open mic circuit, steadily growing in confidence and stage presence. He also played bass for The Pink House — the precursor to the band Heart Worms — before stepping fully into his solo vision.

“The Answers” arrives as the next chapter in that vision: more self-sufficient, more fully formed, and more willing to sit with the questions life refuses to answer cleanly.

“Very proud,” Thomas says simply of the track. It is hard to argue with that.