Methexis Potential Deltas

After 2 album releases, Methexis, a "loose ends" band formed around prog-rock mogul Nikitas Kissonas (ex-Verbal Delirium, ex-Yianneis), have done it again. 'Topos', their third studio album, is going to make any serious art-rock lover melt with joy. Two side-long tracks that recall the finest from the past, still carrying some timeless quality that make Methexis one of the finest exponents of the art of progressive rock.

Jessica Hernandez & The Deltas have arrived at last with their long awaited European debut, 'Secret Evil'. The album follows their well received 'Caught Up' EP and sees the Detroit-based band serving up a brilliantly polyglot sonic stew - equal parts rockabilly and surf pop, cabaret jazz and funky reggae, Latin psych and Gypsy punk - all cooked up on the hot Motor City pavement and seasoned by that distinctly Detroit combination of blasted R&B, showband theatrics and limitless rock 'n' soul energy.

Two years is a long time to sit on a completely finished album, but that's the fate Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas experienced in getting Secret Evil onto shelves. Produced by Latin Grammy winner Milo Froideval, it was recorded for Blue Note, but indefinitely shelved after the label's acquisition by Universal. Hernandez got her record back and signed with Richard Gottehrer's Instant Records. Demons, an EP, appeared in 2013. ("Caught Up," the single from that offering, is here.) On the album, there's a deep sense of Hernandez's Southwest Detroit culture, and the Motor City's vast musical heritage from Motown to psych, gospel, and garage rock, as well her band's love of surf, punky ska, and blues.

Valia Calda was founded in London by Thodoris and Nikos Ziarkas. A project that combines their mutual interest for composing music which draws influences from the Greek Folk tradition whilst involves through free improvisation. A diverse rhythmic language and a vast variety of sonic possibilities are brought into compositions, merged with arrangements of folk tunes. The material is embraced by each member’s unique approach and creativity, exploring collectively the group’s musical boundaries.

Deltas invent a music for patient people , a blues of the River Loire, a blues like them , that brings us together. Richard Bourreau (violonist of Lo’Jo) et Vincent Erdeven (guitar & keyboards in Zenzile) have initited the trio Deltas with the singer and n’goni player, Andra Kouyaté who usually works with Tiken Jah Fakoly. Deltas do not really seek to offer their own version of Mandingo blues or even the Mississippi’s, but to invent a music for patient people , a blues of the River Loire, a blues like them , that brings us together.

Jessica Hernandez & the Deltas are a wide-ranging, high-energy rock & roll band from Detroit. Their mercurial, often gritty sound reflects all of the Motor City's musical traditions as well as some outside its geographical and multicultural boundaries. In its thoroughly modern, driving mix are traces of Motown, tough vintage R&B, Latin grooves, raucous surf, neo-psych, roots rock, cinema jazz, and retro '60s girl group pop. Hernandez is the first-generation American daughter of a Mexican mother and Cuban father. She grew up working in her family's bakery and restaurant, singing in choirs, performing in plays and musicals in school, and soaking up musical influences from the area and her family's heritage. While her first love was design, music was soon to follow.

Potential' is the Domino debut from Brooklyn, NY-based musician James Hinton, aka The Range. The magic of Potential, following 2013's Nonfiction - is as a document of its time. The Range has made an electronic record inspired by Baltimore club, early '00s grime and mid '00s electronica, but also as a member of the last generation that will remember going online for the first time. As its backbone, Potential utilizes a series of vocal samples that Hinton found in the deep corners of YouTube, introducing us to unknown artists expressing themselves unfettered by the constraints of industry.