The RingMaster Review

The industrial and alternative music communities are mobilizing a coordinated fundraising and tribute campaign to support pioneering bassist Charles Levi at a difficult time. Known for his foundational work with My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult and Pigface, Levi is facing severe, ongoing medical complications that have left him in urgent need of housing stability, long-term care, and essential…

photo by Lucie Logier As always, there is a constant stream of releases to get excited over but one album that we suggest you should not allow to simply pass by is Re: GenX, the latest full-length from THE NOISE WHO RUNS. It is a collection of tracks that unite to make a damning statement, an examination and accusation that though inspired by a certain moment will continue to echo this seriously…

photo by Yumiko Takagi This June, NYC indie-folk artist JULIA GREENBERG released her keenly awaited EP, Born Sentimental. It is a collection of deeply personal songs that reflect upon, some through experience, some of the deepest life changing shadows that may come our way. Greenberg has previously released two albums in Past Your Eyes and Greenland but her presence and creativity within the…

Still trying to search out the coolest spots in the ravenous heat around us, finding cool encounters to lose oneself in within Shauna, our Canadian musician and PR guru buddie’s latest discoveries has been effortless. So we continue with tracks that fired up ears and the imagination alike….      This July, Portland’s psych-gaze outfit SUN ATOMS will be on summer run of dates with MODEST MOUSE.…

Through the heat haze consuming both sides of the pond, what we assumed was a mirage stepped forward. Joyfully, a few wipes of the eyes and an ice cold drink allowed us to truly focus and there she was, our Canadian musical trailblazer Shauna from the band Ummagma and of Shameless Promotion PR with a new bounty of sonic richness. Fair to say, that the temperature only rose as our exploration…

Pic Alvaro Gekko Looking for escapades of adventure and longing for inspiriting drama and viscerally imposing jeopardy, than enlist in The Outfit. That cinematic invitation encapsulates all that lies beneath the title of the new album from UK metallers OPENSIGHT and across eleven tracks that take ears and the imagination on a shadowy ride to the most compelling sonic drive-in. For anyone new to…

After time away “prompted by personal circumstances”, Italian quartet DESIGN returns with a new album in the darksome shape of Faithless. It is described as “an intense and deeply conceptual work that explores loss — both personal and symbolic — as a lens through which to interpret a present stripped of meaning.” It is a record that pulls the listener into a place as rayless and desolate as its…

Pic Anton McMahon_ As raw and untamed as it can be there is often certain beauty to DIY/lo-fi driven music too that is epitomised within the 5 Notes EP from TRIAL TAPES. It is a five-track offering of indie/synth rock spirit and enterprise fuelled by honest intimacy, a proposal best described as being a real treat for the ears. TRIAL TAPES is the project of Liverpool-based queer songwriter and…

Baltimore-based indie pop/ alt-rock outfit THE GREENBERRY WOODS is back and with a brand new collection of songs. It is their first full-length since their acclaimed Sire Records released albums in Rapple Dapple (1994) and Big Money Item (1995) and the first thing that is plaintively clear is that age and time has not diminished their power pop prowess. After the second of those two notable…

At certain times we all slip into deep contemplation of our lives, past and present and of possibilities to come and maybe at times with an almost cinematic glaze around such thoughts and vision. Presenting a soundtrack just as richly evocative and darkly poetic to accompany such moments is the Wicked Wicked Ways EP, an offering of three tracks that are as haunting as they are enlivening. The…

What Happens in the Dark is the perfect example of why with any release we never start tapping keys until we have been greedy with the play button. It is the new album from Los Angeles based trio BLACK MARKET HEART and an encounter that, across our first outing with its nine-track body, did make a good impression. Since then though and across numerous involvements, the record has become an itch…

Brew a sonic potion embracing the DIY punk oddities of TELEVISION PERSONALITIES, the post punk dissonance of DIAGRAM BROTHERS as well as the curious peculiarity of Young Knives, and the untamed pop mischievousness of THE PIRANHAS, and you might come up with something akin to the sound that fuels another album to wax lyrical about in these early months of 2026. It is The People’s Cub, the third…

Released a handful of weeks ago, Sux Sells is an album that could quite easily slip you by. It is one of those records that might make a big splash on arrival but its ripples quickly dissipate in this crowded social media dependent world rather than have the tsunami like effect it should have. Often there is no justice for greatness but as its creator’s home populace of Seattle will roar, it is a…

Pic by Christina Sahene With the release of a remastered version of their debut album, Low Sunday Ghost Machine and soon after the Low Sunday Ghost Machine White EP, it can be argued that 2025 saw US darkwave-shoegaze outfit LOWSUNDAY have one of their most potent and acclaim courting years in their 30-year history. The second of those releases was especially notable with it offering the first…

Merely one step behind the first part of our latest exploration of the ear and imagination sparking sounds our Canadian friend Shauna, she of the band Ummagma and of Shameless Promotion PR  brought our way mere days ago, part 2 is a place for shadows, drama, and beauty to gather as too fascination across a handful of must explore offerings..      It is only a week or so since France-based UK…

Once those familiar steps made their way to the door familiar excitement was eagerly guiding hands to the door handle. It was the latest visit from our sonic adventurer buddy Shauna from the band Ummagma and of Shameless Promotion PR and once more she was bearing a bagful of musical goodies. Her explorations fear no boundaries or particular avenues of sound and once again we have had a fevered…

Pic Ellen Dixon We first found ourselves irritated by IRKED in 2024 through their self-titled first EP. It gave us a physical and emotional itch that has never lessened, and indeed, recently found itself being further inflamed by the UK outfit with the single Who Asked? It is irritancy though that only pleasure has derived from with their sound a delicious aggravation that an instinct for…