Longtime followers of Ear Coffee would be familiar with Bex Morton's work alongside her sisters in the band LASKA ; however, following a move to Los Angeles, Morton is branching out and released her first single, "forgiver," as a solo artist earlier this month.  "forgiver" is sparsely orchestrated with an acoustic guitar accompanying Morton's voice as she lays out the scene of feeling heavy with the weight of being hurt. The track blooms as it moves into the first line of the chorus, "Don't burn the bridge." The narrative swaps to letting go and moving on instead of reveling in the pain. Morton says this is in line with her nature to not cut people out of her life, despite them maybe deserving it from time to time.  As someone who has been a major fan of LASKA for a while now, this first release from Morton feels like a perfect gateway into something new for the singer-songwriter. "forgiver's" bedroom folk is a fantastic springboa...

  (Cover design by Anita Velveeta) Anita Bauer has her eyes set on the future. No matter what, her songcraft unfolds to depict what the next few years might sound like. With her main project Alien Book Club , the band shifts around as a unit, but it is often bound to Bauer's determined exploration of the nooks and crannies of rock's history (doo-wop, no wave, jazz, punk). Under her pseudonym Anita Velveeta , she pushes the boundaries of electronic pop. Previous single " Jet Set Radio Futureless " went all in on flamenco-indebted trip hop; now, her latest track "Face Pix," premiering exclusively here on Ear Coffee, takes off for Rainbow Road hyperpop.  "Face Pix" fluctuates in tempo, timbre, and tone. Bauer is spinning a musical roulette faster than a pink-haired Tasmanian devil. At times, I can't help but hear what Newgrounds electronica circa 2007 would sound like if Laura Les got her hands on it. The winkingly retro cover art certainly adds t...

  (Cover art by Kate Malanaphy) An academic mindset tends to deflate all but the most technical music (i.e. some jazz, math rock). It negates the passion that fuels virtually every musician, especially when it's actually an assignment for school. The fear of a letter grade at the end of it all is an overwhelming barrier to creativity. On their latest EP, Taste , Minneapolis songwriter Kate Malanaphy shrugs off scholastic pretension and makes four songs that simultaneously fulfill the requirements of a syllabus and push their art forward in exciting, soul-stirring ways. The Bandcamp-exclusive release might strike a curious listener as a minor release. Maybe our streaming-poisoned minds tend to assume as much about anything that isn't uploaded to Spotify. Perhaps it's the fact that Taste is deliberately styled as a low-key release, serving more as an opportunity to "learn how to record and produce music by simply going for it," in Malanaphy's own words. The d...