“Entropic Cycle” swirls into the room like a cold draft from a door you didn’t realize was open, bringing with it the uncanny feeling that something in the atmosphere just shifted.
ИΞOlicious, the 18 year old avant-pop experimenter from Glendale is already known for making music that feels like emotional weather, but this new single pushes that instinct into a sharper, stranger and much more focused form. This is the sound of someone willingly stepping into the mess and discovering something almost comforting inside the chaos.
Built on stacked panned violin recordings that bloom into something cosmic, the production moves like a breathing organism.
The track rises with star lit synths and falls into verses that feel raw enough to bruise, while airplane like textures buzz underneath as if the whole thing is in motion even when you’re still.
If there is a thesis to “Entropic Cycle,” it’s hidden in the contrast. In the push and pull, the optimism and dread, the night and the thin glow of the approaching morning. ИΞOlicious has created a pop track that behaves more like a dream or maybe a recurring thought you can’t shake.
What makes the song though, is its sincerity. For all the glitchy shimmer and lunar strangeness, there’s a core belief running through it: that everything matters. Even the parts that feel like static. Even the parts we wish we could fast forward through.
You can hear this philosophy in the way the track lifts, breaks and reforms itself – in the entropy and rebirth stitched together not as a contradiction but as the natural order of things. It’s the kind of music that feels like it was made at 3 a.m. not because the artist had to but because the night is the only time when these thoughts feel safe enough to surface.
“Entropic Cycle” is the opening chapter of the upcoming album LΞT IT BΞ ИIGHT, and ИΞOlicious is quietly setting the stage for something bigger – something conceptual, personal and defiantly experimental.
This isn’t just another debut single trying to get your attention. It’s a signal flare from a new, weird and wonderful corner of the underground.
KiTe’s new single, “I See You Cryin’,” is the kind of song that slips into your evening without asking permission. It’s gentle, and there is no big dramatic punch or sweeping climax but instead just this steady, slow ache that settles in and doesn’t leave.
The production is the first thing that grabs you, mostly because it is sparse in a really intentional way, like he cleared out everything unnecessary so the emotion could hang in the air.
Soft chords, a pulse of a beat and KiTe’s voice sitting right in the middle of it is all just enough to hold the feeling in place without crowding it.
And his voice is understated, almost conversational at times. He is not trying to show off but is just telling the truth the way you do at 1 a.m. when you are too tired to perform for anyone.
What gives the song its atmosphere is how naturally it came together. KiTe said the melody just arrived. This effortlessness shows because the whole track has a dreamlike quality, inspired by a film about unrequited love that stuck with him emotionally. It makes sense – “I See You Cryin'” is almost like a half remembered story you are trying to piece back together.
The simplicity of the song works in its favor. It manages to capture that strange mix of wanting to comfort someone while quietly realizing that you have lost them already. It’s a lonely feeling.
There’s a touch of influence from artists like Keshi and DEAN, but KiTe is very much carving out his own lane. His sound is cleaner, a bit more airy and a lot more emotionally up close.
“I See You Crying'” is just honest. And it succeeds in this. If KiTe keeps leaning into this softer, more introspective side of his writing, he is going to build a catalogue of songs that stay with the listener.
About KiTe
KiTe is a Singapore born, Melbourne based R&B/Pop artist with a talent for turning small, intimate moments into spacious atmospheric songs. He started producing music at sixteen from a dining table setup, long before he left his engineering studies to pursue music full-time.
KiTe is influenced by artists like Keshi, ASTN, DEAN and Bryson Tiller. When he’s not releasing his own work, he is writing and producing for others – even pitching songs for K-pop groups. With each release, he sharpens a sound that feels both contemporary and quietly timeless.
At just 17, Zoey Madison’s debut EP Electric bursts with the kind of energy that only comes from someone discovering the full power of her voice. It’s bright, emotional and impeccably crafted but what really stands out is Zoey herself – a powerhouse vocalist with a four octave range.
The title track, “Electric” sets the tone with a burst of shimmering pop that captures the dizzy rush of new love and the desire to make it last forever. There’s a touch of cinematic romance in the lyrics, a nod to Romeo and Juliet and a pulse of teenage recklessness but it’s all grounded by Zoey’s voice. She sings with a sincerity which, for any artist is a tricky balance let alone one at the very beginning of their career.
From there, she takes listeners deeper. “Scars” is the emotional centerpiece. It’s a sweeping ballad that strips everything back and lets Zoey’s voice carry the story. Opening with the haunting line “Be gentle, I bruise easily,” the song builds to an almost cinematic release, closing with a whistle tone.
“Move” lightens the mood with its more laid back groove and glowing guitar textures. This is the kind of song that is like summer in motion – a gentle push towards joy and possibility. Zoey calls it “a reminder to take action and embrace happiness”, and you can hear this spirit when she sings “I’m no longer seeing in blue, I’ve got technicolor dreams coming true.”
The EP closes with “Lullabies,” which is a soft, introspective track. It’s about holding on to love that’s already slipped away, and it shows a different side of Zoey – quieter and more restrained. The harmonies swell and shimmer, wrapping around her voice.
Electric may be Zoey Madison’s first project, but it is truly a statement of her talent. She is not chasing trends or hiding behind production; she is leading with emotion, honesty and a voice that refuses to be ignored.
Whether she’s belting out joy or whispering heartbreak, there’s an undeniable spark running through everything she sings.
There’s nothing manufactured about Ray Ray Star’s new single “One Step Away.” This is the kind of song that bleeds truth – a cathartic, guitar driven confession from an artist who’s had experience of every lyric.
Released to coincide with the Canadian Convention of Narcotics Anonymous, “One Step Away” is more than a song about addiction however. It is a deeply personal portrait of endurance, of redemption and the fragile hope that comes with choosing to stay sober one day at a time.
Written over five years ago, “One Step Away” emerged from one of the darkest chapters in Ray Ray’s life. “I was barely holding on,” he recalls, “fighting like hell just to make it through another day.” The song sat unfinished until recently, when a speaking appearance at an NA convention reignited something in him – the realization that his story might serve others who are still in the fight.
That was the spark became the foundation for finishing the song, a raw and honest anthem for those on the path to recovery:
The track itself is a powerful slice of modern rock with soaring guitars and a dynamic production that echoes the push and pull between despair and determination, while Ray Ray’s voice carries an honesty that refuses to let you look away. There is no studio gloss to soften the message.
For Ray Ray Star, “One Step Away” is the culmination of a long, complex journey. A guitarist, record producer, executive producer and entertainer, he’s spent decades moving fluidly between onstage performance and behind the scenes production. His resume includes international tours and co-producing NBC’s Real Music Live, but it’s in his personal transformation that reveals his musicianship. Sixteen years clean and sober, Ray Ray channels that experience into both his music and his psychic work, forging a creative path that blends spiritual insight with true rock ’n’ roll energy.
The title of the song is a direct nod to the first step of Narcotics Anonymous, a concept that speaks volumes. At its heart, “One Step Away” is about the moment when everything could go either way. The choice to give in or to keep fighting. Ray Ray doesn’t romanticize recovery, he honors its difficulty. The song’s strength lies in the willingness to admit that even after sixteen years, the battle still exists, but so does the victory.
This is a track for anyone who has struggle with addiction, but also with the weight of being human. Ray Ray Star takes his scars and turns them into something defiant, something redemptive and ultimately, something beautiful.
There’s a quiet poetry in the way “Nefasphere” came to life. Fifteen years ago, in a college classroom in New Jersey, a young Ethiopian musician named Mikael Seifu met Ben Neill, a composer already known for his experiments with the Mutantrumpet, a hybrid instrument that fuses brass performance with electronic control.
Seifu was a student then, and was just beginning to shape what would become his signature sound: a fusion of ancient Ethiopian tonalities with the pulse and texture of global electronic music.
Neill was the professor, an emerging artist who had already collaborated with the likes of David Behrman, John Cage and La Monte Young.
Fast forward to 2025, and the conversation that began all those years ago has evolved into Nefasphere. The word nefas, from Amharic means “wind,” “breath,” or “spirit” and it’s an apt metaphor for what the music achieves – a flow of energy that moves through both artists, reshaping itself as it passes.
In the Worldwinds Mix, Neill and Seifu create a kind of ambient exhalation with long, flowing tones and circular patterns that expand and contract like the breath itself. Seifu’s electronic grounding draws from the Ethiopiyawi Electronic movement he helped define. It’s meditative yet propulsive, organic yet digitally alive. Neill’s Mutantrumpet threads through this landscape, with its tones resonating like ancient horns re-imagined for a new era. The effect can be felt with the African rhythmic pulse beneath the Western harmonic drift, and yet the music never settles neatly into either world.
The Moire Mix takes the same thematic DNA and refracts it through a more textural lens. Here, beats glitch and shimmer around deeper bass modulations, suggesting the interference patterns from which the mix takes its name. This version is less meditative and more exploratory – a field recording from some unseen interdimensional borderland between Addis Ababa and New York City.
What makes “Nefasphere” so affecting isn’t just its sound, but its story. This is music born from a relationship – teacher and student, mentor and mentee – that has evolved into genuine creative partnership. In Seifu’s own words, the collaboration marks “a rebirth… a reflection of the power of honest mentorship full of mutual respect and insight.” For Neill, it’s the realization of a long held artistic vision to create living, breathing music systems where structure and improvisation coexist in perfect balance.
Both versions of “Nefasphere” invite deep listening. They resist the quick satisfaction of streaming culture, instead unfolding slowly, like a landscape viewed from above. It’s music that rewards patience, music that is unmoored from trends and yet deeply of this moment.
For Seifu, this marks a luminous return following his acclaimed Zelalem EP (RVNG Intl, 2016). For Neill, it continues a lifelong exploration of evolution in his music, from minimalist composition to digital improvisation, from hardware to human breath.
But for both, “Nefasphere” is more than a collaboration. It is a shared meditation on sound as life force, a reminder that in the meeting of air and electricity, something sacred can still occur.
More About Ben Neill
Composer/performer Ben Neill is the inventor of the Mutantrumpet, a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument, and is recognized as a musical innovator who “uses a schizophrenic trumpet to create art music for the people” (Wired Magazine). Using interactive computer technologies, Neill generates unique musical and visual experiences that blur the lines between acoustic and electronic music, minimalism, and visual media. Neill has recorded thirteen albums on labels including Universal/Verve, Thirsty Ear, Astralwerks, Six Degrees, and his own Blue Math label distributed by AWAL/Sony. His first book, Diffusing Music, was released on Bloomsbury Press in 2024.
More About Mikael Seifu
Mikael Seifu is an Ethiopian electronic music producer committed to “Ethiopiyawi Electronic” – a coinage Seifu uses to describe the music he and his peers are producing in Ethiopia’s capital city of Addis-Ababa. Born and raised in Addis Ababa, he moved to the US and went on to study music production & the music industry at Ramapo College of New Jersey, a small school about 45 minutes outside of Manhattan. Here Seifu met a mentor in Ben Neill, the composer and music technologist who trained with La Monte Young. Seifu was inspired by Neill to take serious his calling in music. Mikael’s music does not westernize or electronicize extant Ethiopian music. Instead, Seifu uses Ethio-Jazz’s spirit of brewing estranged styles for his own musical tincturing. Seifu’s passion above all else is to create something befitting of its time, yet “eternally Ethiopian.”
In a world where social media amplifies every trend and grifting scheme, Alex Thomen stands out as a songwriter unafraid to mix sharp cultural critique with wit, musicianship and a touch of irony.
The Nashville based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist began his musical journey playing piano before earning his Bachelor of Music in Composition at Kansas State University and a Masters in Commercial Music Composition and Arranging at Belmont University. Over the years, he has scored commissions, produced cinematic trailer music, and released a solo piano album all while building a reputation as a studio minded artist with a keen eye for contemporary life.
His latest single “Where Did They Go Wrong?” which is accompanied by a striking music video, showcases that narrative precision and sly humor brilliantly.
In this exclusive interview, Thomen talks about the song’s ironic roots, his decision to “perform” it via video rather than on stage, and the full circle collaboration with longtime friend and director Chase Bartholomew.
1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically in this way?
“Where Did They Go Wrong?” explores themes that have become increasingly prevalent in the social media age. In essence, it’s an “anti-grifting” song, but it’s disguised in irony instead of strict, polemic writing. During the writing phase, I approached the lyrics, composition, and pacing as if it were to be performed for a live audience. There’s a minute and a half of setup before the first “punchline” hits – that kind of misdirection is characteristic of live comedy. The problem is I consider myself a studio musician more than a live performer, and I enjoy producing studio recordings of my songs.
My solution, therefore, was to make a music video that essentially captures the visuals of a live, in-studio performance. Those moments where the lyrical delivery is communicating something ironic, facial expressions and body language help drive that point. Irony is best communicated with the eyes – I believe this is why jellyfish are famously unfunny.
2. What was the inspiration behind this new video (visuals, storyline, etc.)?
Each topic addressed in the song (manosphere movement, MLMs, alternative medicine) warrants its own in-depth conversation, because the reasons for each one’s existence is culturally complex. My goal was to critique these different trends/movements, pointing out some of the flaws in their ideology. While making it rhyme. While it’s inspired by real conversations and real people, all of the specific characters in the song are made up. I did not have a boyhood friend named Danny.
The lyrics are a self-aware, reductive type of argument – a thorough rebuttal of these beliefs would require more words that I can fit in a song. But I did my best to make it as thought-provoking as possible while keeping it entertaining. Plus, I got to put in lots of words that I’ve never heard in a rock song before. What the song lacks in brevity it makes up for in affectation.
3. What was the process of making the video?
The video was shot at Colorado Sound Studios in Denver, Colorado. It was directed/produced/edited by Chase Bartholomew. He’s one of my best friends from high school (he is also not a self-proclaimed alpha male, not involved in an MLM, and not a practitioner of alternative medicine). In fact, we used to spend our weekends scripting and filming videos – either for school projects or just for fun (we would do this while other guys were getting invited to parties). He ended up studying film and is now a professional videographer. It was kind of a full-circle moment to collaborate again on a creative project. We have also improved in our video-making skills since high school.
I gave him creative control over the video – I’d give thoughts/suggestions here and there, but he’s the expert when it comes to the visual component so I wanted to let him run with his ideas. I think his vision for framing/editing/coloring helps amplify the message of the story. There’s a whole science of how different colors can evoke certain emotions. Chase is a bit of a perfectionist, so he focused on how small details could change the final shot. He focused a lot of his energy on subtle lighting changes to best capture the performance. For Chase, it was a long video shoot with tons of lighting changes. For me, it was a relaxing day sitting at the piano.
Modern Mystery 