The name of this album "Incandescent Fire," by the incredible Katsy Pline, is one of the first things that made me curious about the music contained within. Fire is by definition incandescent (or rather, emitting light created by heat). However, incandescent can also mean "full of strong emotion, passionate". Katsy Pline is the incandescent fire, still burning after all life has nearly disappeared. On the title track, singer Evie B. sings, "Molten flows of dreams... fill my flesh with incandescent fire." That hope contained within even the saddest and most bereft tracks on the album are what keep these masterful songs ever-giving. I find something new and fresh every time I listen.

"Incandescent Fire" seems to be a straightforward Americana album, until you start noticing the odd time signatures, the synthesizers, the jazz compositions that float beneath the western sound like gentle waves. Like the best country music, this album manages to be uplifting amidst palpable sorrow and regret. On the first track, Evie B. quavers in a gorgeous falsetto "Well she's long gone and I just can't sleep/And I close my eyes, well it's her that I see." I felt saddened and moved to tears when I heard her signature yodel in the song "Guess I'm Always Leaving" which is the album's breakout hit. There is really deep emotion woven into the arrangements of my favorite songs which include "Do You Ever Miss Me" and "Standing All Alone." On the latter track, she sings "I'm dancing with my shadow" as a shimmer of eerie arpeggios flutter all around these lonely figures. You really begin to wonder, are there actually two people in that lonesome embrace, or just one? Katsy Pline has a way of making lost loves and ghosts seem as real and alive as the living. 

All throughout Katsy Pline's works (Incandescent Fire is the third album from this talented band), it is obvious that Katsy the person (aka Evie B.) has suffered, pined, cried, screamed, and wondered the proverbial why? This is probably showcased the best on the final track, "Lost and Lonesome Too," which is a sweet folk song conveying child-like innocence in a big mean world. There isn't an ounce of anger, just a longing mixed with a child's curiosity, and maybe even a little resignation. To end the album here is truly the checkmate of this sophisticated work of art.

Just like her namesake Patsy Cline, our Katsy could easily be found at the bar crying away her mascara, or dancing on the table in drunken (or perhaps hallucinogenic) delight. Although I suspect the musical arrangements are more technical and complex than they might seem, there's a beautiful simplicity in the delivery of each song. The production makes no bones about showcasing Katsy Pline's best feature: Evie B.'s delicate vocals and poetic songwriting. It is at once wonderful and tragic, capturing the moment that heartbreak becomes heart-opening. Hard to forget, and hard to leave behind, "Incandescent Fire" is one of the most glamorous albums I have heard coming out of the Bay Area music scene in a long time. Someone hand me a whiskey because I'll drink to that.
5/5 🥃 🥃 🥃 🥃 🥃 

A song called “Blondie’s Gonna Die” kicks down the door to an album of 12 fiery songs in a taut 33 minutes. Lead singer Tess Stevens radiates rizz and decides she’s going to tackle you with her pain and leave you on the floor when she runs out the door. The songs are sharp and the laser production makes every tom hit and guitar strum shine through without ever covering up the real magic: Tess’s voice.

The world she sings about is a world of too many drinks, titular runaways, damaged people and the damage they do. It’s a dark world, but it’s also an irresistibly fun world. I saw them over the summer at Trixie Rasputin's Ever Higher Festival at Jerry Garcia Amphitheater. Tess & The Details really brought it, crackling with energy and filling the summer afternoon with thrilling rage, turning their aches into raucous shout along choruses.

There’s so much to love in this pop punk burst of an album. “Take a Number” is a shit-kicking pit starter before down shifting to deliver its message, then punching you in the face with the ending. “Unnatural Disaster” soundtracks a yet to exist coming of age movie. “Jester” rips power chords out of guitars like pages from a diary, and ends with a turn-up-the-dial key change. Whoa-oa-oas get deployed like weapons. Tess can turn a phrase on a dime: “it makes you want to cry so turn your eyelashes inside out tonight” “I’m hypercritical borderline pitiful but goddamn I know how to lie” and one of my favorites: “I only sing in the key of the dead.”

The band's mission is to use its platform via lyric messages and social channels to address vital topics such as mental health, gender equality, and the promotion of optimism. A strong emphasis is placed on fostering connections with their audience. The only thing I don’t recommend is trying to do your taxes while you listen to it (it’s been a multitasking day). It’s a blast! 5/5 horns 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘 

Alchemy, according to Webster's Dictionary, is "the medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy whose aims were the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for diseases, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life." Like the alchemist that she is, Tess Posner has transformed pain into pleasure on her truly inspiring EP 'Alchemy'. 

I was first introduced to Tess Posner around the time that 'Alchemy' was released in September of 2023. She brought wildflower seed packets to her EP release show in San Francisco as a gift to each attendee, something that made me feel instant magic and connection. I had not yet listened to the music but I remember thinking right then that this was a confident and mystical artist, already a unique voice rising above the din. Once inside, It felt like I entered a secret society, or maybe even a witches' coven. Rose Haze was there that evening, and Joyce Lee, and it occurred to me that perhaps some kind of female revolution was happening, or needed to happen. Perhaps it was the beginning of alchemy in the Bay Area music scene.

What I often notice is that women are speaking the language that men speak, but it is rarely the other way around. Why is that? Is our secret female language actually our power? There are many ways to turn this question around in your mind, but I would recommend listening to 'Alchemy' before you draw your final conclusion. The first song, 'Feral Child', is a deeply descriptive story of finding intimacy with the hidden parts of ourselves. The fragility of Tess' voice and lyrics on this opening track bring you into her world like a finger beckoning through a slowly opening door. From there, the critically acclaimed song 'Volcano' suggests that a woman's fury might actually be the source of life. "What if I can't control it/I don't want this world to choke/On the anger that has smoldered/Into ash and smoke... I'm a volcano/When I let my fire go/I make diamond sands, fertile lands/You will know, you will know." It's so visceral, and I think every person can relate to the unpredictable mother figure in this song.

​All of the music on this EP is darkly danceable, but the lyrics are never lost in the music. Her producer Rob Wells keeps Tess' pristine voice up front on every track. 'My Heart Is Dry' is a greatly metaphorical song about lands that have dried up due to neglect, with only a single wildflower to give this arid landscape any hope of returning from the brink. This leads into 'Ghosts,' a song which gathers it's strength from a less is more approach to the music. With just a piano and voice, we are taken through a dimly lit hallway, or maybe a cemetery, and it is up to interpretation whether meeting the ghosts is something to fear, or something to cherish. Finally, the EP comes to it's conclusion with the song 'Black Cloud' and it is the perfect ending. After you hear this song, you realize that the EP is just a slice of a larger epic. As listeners we have been invited into the middle of story. There was more where it came from, and after our main character goes through the "black cloud" of someone else's pain, there is an inevitable cliffhanger. You know that she makes it through the harrowing journey to the center of herself, but what is next? Can she save the drowning on her way back home? If we are lucky, the next album will give us the answer.

Alchemy does everything it promises for the listener. It squeezes water from stones and turns pain into power. Like the volcano she professes to be, Tess doesn't hold anything back simply because she is not able to do so. This is a brave artist who is going to speak her truth at all costs. With flawless production and music that is satisfying to listen to over and over again, this EP puts Tess Posner in a league all her own. 
5/5 🌋🌋🌋🌋🌋 

Ready to get hot and heavy? Because I feel like another title for this EP could have been “Smash Time.” It’s sweaty, it’s erotic, it’s oozing sex and it doesn’t hide behind metaphors. Here’s an example: “Open up my body let you satisfy me sexually.” I mean come on! That’s from “Look at What You’ve Done to Me,” a cosmic trip to a warehouse party orbiting Saturn. Cardboard People want to feel good and they want you to feel good too, so get ready!

Opening track “Devour” invites you to get lost in ecstasy, while also asking the question what planet are we on? This is R&B from the future, this is sultry cyborg music, this is a club scene from Ready Player One. If the goal of Interstellar was finding a new planet for smashing instead of living, this would be the soundtrack.

“Bend It Ova” makes things even more clear. This is actual blood-sugar-sex-magic, this is a celebration of bodies and how good they can make each other feel. “Lovecraft (Mind Games)” is the party at the end of “Return of the Jedi” but zoomed in on all the babies that were being made. And if all that weren’t enough, final track “Push Up” tempts us to skip the Netflix and get right to the chill. Personal favorite lines are “get with the times got this ass in cyberspace” and “I ride the cocky good.” Love it.

Cardboard People is the alt-pop-r&b project of vocalist Yunoka Berry and producer Jim Greer. Their music ranges from deeply cerebral to extraordinarily funky, somewhere between hip hop and avant-garde pop music, landing on a genre planet orbiting alt-indie-soul-artpop. Influences can be heard from Prince, Stevie Wonder, Tyler the Creator, Kate Bush, and Hieroglyphics. For this EP I humbly submit the genre name: Rhythm & Butts. Pairs well with Enon, LOUIZA, Melissa Jones, and Extra! Extra! It’s awesome.
​5/5 moans 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵