Indie folk, Egyptian American style.
Michael Isaak is an emerging artist from Los Angeles who draws inspiration from both guitar driven folk and classical Arabic music. Having grown up in the US, Isaak shares how music enables him to reconnect with his homeland thousands of miles away.
In 2024, Isaak released Forever is a Scary Word, a six-track EP which he’d been crafting for over almost two years. Self-produced in collaboration with Owen Korzec and featuring Arabic instrumentation by Abanoub Samir on “plane thoughts,” the project presents an intimate glimpse into Isaak’s life and internal monologue, characterized by his distinctive vocals and delicate guitar patterns.
The project went on to amass over 100k streams on Spotify, commencing in Isaak’s largest headline show to date at The Moroccan Lounge in July 2024.
Named one of Music Connection Magazine’s Hot 100 Unsigned Artists of 2024, Sons of Levin is a blues-driven jam band rooted in Boston, MA, led by brothers Dylan and Connor Levinson. Dedicated to delivering high-energy performances, their sound melds classic blues-rock influences with an improvisational edge. At the heart of the band are Dylan’s dynamic vocals, Connor’s captivating guitar riffs, funky dueling keyboards, and a rhythm section that gets audiences moving. Drawing inspiration from rock legends like The Allman Brothers Band, Led Zeppelin, and the Grateful Dead, Sons of Levin crafts music that honors the past while infusing it with a fresh and modern twist. Sons of Levin’s upcoming 2025 EP leans into their vintage rock roots, capturing their live performances’ spontaneity and raw energy through carefully crafted tracks. Produced with an emphasis on live tracking and instrumental jams, the project offers a genuine reflection of the band’s evolving sound.
Lily Lane’s musical journey began shortly after graduating with honors from NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Known for her powerhouse vocals—often compared to Amy Winehouse’s grit and Demi Lovato’s range—Lane infuses her music with messages of body positivity and LGBTQ representation. As a songwriter who pens 100% of her lyrics, her work has been featured on major TV shows like Freeform’s Pretty Little Liars and Netflix’s Get Organized. Lane has also garnered praise from outlets such as Nylon, Just Jared, EARMILK, CelebMix, The Knockturnal, and Curves. She has opened for artists like Madison Beer, Jessie J, and Marina and the Diamonds, performing at venues including Madison Square Garden, the House of Blues, and OutLoud’s WeHo Pride festival.
Multi-talented artist and YouTube sensation CG5 is stepping into uncharted territory with the launch of brand new horror project, PROJECT U MOVE. The series will unfold over the course of three episodes, with each part running between 15-20 minutes, culminating in a feature-length film of approximately one hour. Directed by CG5 himself, alongside co-director and producer William Bradford, this project is designed to promote CG5’s upcoming EP of the same name and dives into the eerie intersection of music, manipulation, and consciousness.
The first part of the series debuted on Friday, January 24, 2025, exclusively on CG5’s YouTube channel. Part 1 is available to watch HERE. In addition to producing the project, CG5 is also creating a fresh soundtrack to accompany the series. The first single, “UMOVE,” will be released alongside a music video on January 31, 2025. This song, along with the rest of the EP’s tracks, will play a central role in amplifying the emotional intensity of the series’ narrative. PROJECT U MOVE ultimately explores how music can elevate consciousness—only to twist it into something far darker.
In PROJECT U MOVE, the music immerses each character in a chilling new dimension. The horror series follows CG5 as he unveils a mysterious VHS tape that pulls him into a disturbing, trance-like state. As the story unfolds, CG5’s life is upended in unimaginable ways, drawing him into a twisted cycle controlled by an unknown force. The series explores how music—through melody and verse—has the power to manipulate and consume the mind, trapping its victims in a perpetual haze.
Part 1 opens with CG5’s innocent New Year’s livestream, which takes a dark turn as his stream glitches and reveals strange red-tinted imagery. His confusion grows as he discovers the red VHS tape, which soon pulls him into a world of unknown horrors. The sequence sets the tone for the rest of the series, combining suspense, surrealism, and CG5’s signature music, leaving audiences on the edge of their seats and craving more. A special highlight in Part 1 is the inclusion of Piper Rubio, best known for her role in Five Nights at Freddy’s (2023).
CG5 shares, “The film has been such a rewarding experience. It has challenged me, and I just love a good challenge. I knew that I had to integrate my music into it too, because that’s more of what the fans expect. Doing that was tricky, but I’m pretty sure I pulled it off. I hope everyone will enjoy Project U Move.”
William Bradford, co-director and producer, says, “Project U Move is unlike anything I’ve ever worked on with CG5. We’ve poured our hearts into this project. I’m excited for the fans to feast on what we cooked up!”
Fans can expect even more from PROJECT U MOVE as it continues to unfold throughout 2025. Following the successful release of Part 1, the next chapter – Part 2 – will be out February 21st, along with the highly anticipated music video for the single LA LA LOVE, dropping on February 28, 2025.
Stay tuned for more as CG5 prepares to take you deeper into the world of PROJECT U MOVE, where the lines between music, reality, and the mind begin to blur.
Jimmy & The Veil, the solo project of James Wright, is an indie/alt-rock artist from coastal Virginia who brings raw and emotional depth to his music. His moniker “Jimmy & The Veil” derives from his childhood nickname, “Jimmy,” and symbolizes the genuine substance he aims to unveil behind the elusive facade of everyday life. This project emerged as a form of music therapy, allowing him to pour his heart into his music and explore the darker feelings he faced.
Wright began his musical journey as a lyricist in high school and later began playing guitar in college. Although music has always been a part of him, he prioritized family and corporate life, which made his musical journey more of a marathon than a sprint. He has been involved in several musical projects in adulthood, learning a great deal from the musicians he has played alongside.
Wright’s approach is mature and sometimes cynical, channeling his emotional battles with mental health, society, and faith. His sound, often likened to Jimmy Eat World getting “beat up on the playground,” promises a moody and introspective indie/alt-rock experience. Jimmy & The Veil’s debut single “Diamonds” offers listeners a glimpse into this raw and heartfelt journey.
South Sudanese artist, author, and former child soldier Emmanuel Jal (new book My Life Is Art out now) teams up with South African producer Bun Xapa (named one of DJ Mag’s artists to watch in 2025) to release a new collaborative single, “Chaak.” The new track is out now via Higher Ground.
The message behind Emmanuel’s hit from last year, “Gorah”—also out on Higher Ground with 75M+ streams and at #1 peak on Beatport’s Afro House chart—was pointed towards checking in with loved ones to ask, “We edian?” (lyrics translated from the Naath/Nuer language to “How is it going?”). Now, on “Chaak,” Emmanuel sings about manifestation and looks ahead to a time when his people can “bathe in milk”—an African expression meaning to be wealthy; not just financially but also physically and spiritually.
Emmanuel Jal and Bun Xapa initially came together at The Alchemist, a creative hub and event space in Nairobi, while Bun was on tour in Kenya. The duo hit it off immediately and started exchanging ideas. Emmanuel handed over the initial demo of “Chaak,” which Bun then reworked with his signature powerful synths and irresistible rhythm.
Australia’s The Jungle Giants return with their first release in over a year, “Hold My Hand.” The foundational taste of the group’s upcoming fifth album, a lot of life has been lived since 2021’s #1 ARIA Chart-topping Love Signs. In 2024, frontman Sam Hales was thrown headfirst into a phase of self-discovery following the end of a decade-long relationship and a jet-ski accident requiring surgery and two months of recovery. Searching for something that felt real in a period of numbness, “Hold My Hand” was the first time he was able to surface for a breath of air and punctuate an old chapter of his life.
He shared, “These are all beautiful, beautiful, positive memories that changed me for the better. It was just really hard to figure out a way to write about it and figure out a way to define how I felt. This song really helped open up a lot of the writing for the album. All the songs I wrote before weren’t feeling real enough. Once I landed on ‘Hold My Hand’, a lot of things fell into place for me. I had this real emotional reaction to it.”
From its inception, The Jungle Giants wanted “Hold My Hand” to feel like a collage of sounds. Bolstered by a live orchestra and layers upon layers of strings, the instrumentation of the song emotes in a way that words can’t. With a hypnotic, repeating mantra pleading “hold my hand,” you feel Hales’ conversation-like pain and release; an experience that will undoubtedly hit a live audience like a wall of sound and emotion — Stream.
The venue is small. Just as well because the Helsinki audience is emphatically not enormous, the quality of youth amongst them unpronounced, the weather depressingly uncrisp. Before global warming it would have been as cold and sharp as an 808 snare. But there is still a grey excitement, a grizzled hope that the (mostly) Canadian provocateurs (more “provo[ke]-” than “-a[u]teur”, if we are to be frank) might, somehow, tonight, dip their electronic buckets deep into the well of a better past, and pull out a clear drink of the old TFD joy. Hope is in the audience’s watery Finnish eyes, under their grey eyebrows.
Doors open, audience filters in. There is plenty of room to move around. The local opener cancelled because they had to record a podcast. So an hour goes by in silence until finally the lights dim (it’s still quite bright outside). TFD does not so much take the stage and collapse onto it. Torquil Campbell, still uninjured, prances out and screams TOTAL FUCKING DARKNESS into a microphone over and over until some laconic Finn or other turns the microphone on. Campbell keeps screaming into it. Stephen Ramsay is also there, as close to stage left as possible. He desperately tries to plug a suddenly malfunctioning and badly bent MIDI cable into some other dented piece of metal. For some time there is no music at all, just Campbell’s voice (a great voice, somewhere between purloined maple syrup and marbles in a can). Also here is Tom McFall, the synthesizing Pooh to Campbell’s seizure-prone Tigger and Ramsay’s electronic Eeyore. Unlike the others McFall seems—this is hard to explain—as if he has chosen to be here. His skin is good. He has a kindness. Used to the disaster, he simply stands behind his devices and waits for circumstances to improve.
Campbell, now amplified, starts to complain that the microphone is a cheap knockoff, that it “tastes wrong.” Finally Ramsay gets his difficult wire to connect. He hits “play,” his major contribution to the evening so far (and his second-major contribution forthcoming, as well). McFall does a series of complicated maneuvers with quiet authority. This is “Desolation Boys,” one of their truest classics. The crowd musters what it cans. Campbell dances, aims for Bez, hits Joe Flaherty as Count Floyd in SCTV. The elklike, barely-moving Ramsay seems to be trying to hide behind his drum machine, which is perched precariously on a stand and suffused with wires. The rumors of his perpetual exploitation by Campbell—decades of late payments and evictions—make you wonder how willingly he has come to the stage. The song, as all songs must, ends. They segue straight into “California Sun.” McFall radiates a surprising contentment.
TORQUIL CAMPBELL, the unelected, legendary leader of STARS, and STEPHEN RAMSAY, the vast soft mind behind YOUNG GALAXY, partnered with legendary studio genius and synthesist TOM MCFALL, to celebrate the GREAT VOID into which all TRUE MINDS must stare. TFD was created when the GREAT VOID demanded to be fed LATE 80s/EARLY 90s HOUSE MUSIC. This is the source of TOTAL FUCKING DARKNESS. The band is the NAME OF THE VOID.
The story of TFD is eternally the story of two thwarted Canadians with unresolvable Anglo-industrial fantasies—men yearning to return to the post-industrial Manchester of 1992, to once more rave with twenty thousand former football hooligans on ecstasy in a sheep field. And yet somehow, on the way to London, the plane always lands in Winnipeg. Or, in this case, Helsinki, a Winnipeg of Europe. McFall, the fifth synthesist to join TFD and the only one not to die, came on board in 1997, after the overdoses and evictions, as things were looking up. It falls to McFall, along in good spirits with a spanner in hand, to remind the other two that their lives are okay, actually, and that Manchester in 1992 was a lot of bright spots amongst an enormous amount of Thatcherian bleak. They never listen.
They play “Attack Decay Sustain Release.” The crowd is unmoving so far but this is more about self-preservation given how many of them have obvious, mild infirmities brought on by too much salted perch and licorice-infused Salmiakki Koskenkorva. To dance might mean injury. All proceeds in this vein, the technical issues gradually being worked out. Ramsay is dressed in a one-piece jumper too tight in the crotch. McFall, multiple times, leaves some arpeggiator running in his immaculate setup, wanders to the confused Ramsay, places his hand on Ramsay’s high, slumped shoulder, and then with his other hand twists some knob into behavior, returning Ramsay to relevance. Campbell notices none of this, whirling nonstop, and his accent gets unaccountably more British with each song until finally he sounds like he’s choking on a Scotch egg. He asks the audience to put their arms up, and they do—he still has that wattage—but it’s slowly, with Finnish reluctance. This is a crowd that rarely raises its arms.
Nashville-based alt-pop artist Caroline Romano returns with her latest single, “IDK These Days,” offering a raw and introspective preview of her upcoming EP, ‘How The Good Girls Die,’ set for release on February 21st. This new track follows a string of successful releases including “Body Bag,” “Pretty Boys,” and “Born To Want More,” all of which will be included on the ‘How The Good Girls Die’ EP next month.
“IDK These Days” showcases Caroline’s knack for blending vulnerability with compelling storytelling. The minimalist arrangement emphasizes her poignant lyrics and heartfelt vocal delivery, making it one of the most emotionally charged tracks on the EP. “I wrote ‘IDK These Days’ during a period of inexplicable anger and frustration,” Caroline shares. “It’s about the little things—like snow and traffic—that used to be trivial, suddenly becoming overwhelming. It’s that unsettling feeling when even your mom notices you’re not yourself, and you’re stuck in this state of discontent, feeling like a middle schooler again.”
Caroline further reflects, “The song speaks to the fear that these emotions might linger longer than desired. It’s about the struggle of being honest when asked how you’re doing and admitting, ‘I don’t know these days.’ While these feelings are fleeting, in the moment, they feel all-consuming. This song is my way of confronting those emotions head-on, admitting them aloud, and finding solace in that admission.”
Jada Kingdom, the vibrant powerhouse voice of Dancehall-R&B, makes a striking return with her latest single, “Only You,” produced by DiNuzzo (MoneyBagg Yo, Trippie Redd, and JT). Get it HERE. The Billboard-charting sensation enchants once more with a steamy bedroom anthem that masterfully blends infectious island rhythms with an irresistible global appeal.
Spanning over four intoxicating minutes, “Only You” embodies everything craved in a chart-topping hit. Jada taps back into her prowess for songwriting, intricately weaving vivid imagery and enticing storytelling through her pulsating lyrics. The song delves deep into a passionate romantic connection infused with genuine emotional intimacy and bold sexual freedom. While the track may seem like a dedication to her “one and only,” the Bad gyal from Bull Bay boldly reinforces her assertive spirit, making it crystal clear that she is the one steering the ship.
This exhilarating release follows the roaring success of her recent hits—“Ready,” featuring the dynamic Dexta Daps, which set the airwaves ablaze last month, and “Somebody Else,” unleashed in September. Together with “What’s Up (Big Buddy),” “Top Tier,” and “Gen Z Jezebel,” these tracks showcase a remarkable 2024 year for Jada, who stands poised to become Jamaica’s next global pop sensation. Her impact is nothing short of phenomenal, boasting over 90 million streams on Spotify, 80 million on Apple Music, and more than 200 million views across YouTube.
Email:neill@outloudculture.com
Socials: @neillfrazer
