Latest from the Link
Series
Guide
THE ARCHIVE
Our series covering old releases you may not know, but definitely should.
NEW RELEASE
Our series covering new releases from our favourite small artists, and exceptionally good larger artists.
EDITORIAL
Our series where one of us writes opinion pieces on things we’re absolutely unqualified to talk about.
TASTEMAKERS
Our series with artist guest writers sharing what they’re listening to right now.
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For just one moment, I’d like to paint a scene for you. It’s 12:13 am on a Friday, and you’re partway through your weekly task of finding anything new and interesting that came out in the past week to share with the 6 people who watch your silly little internet videos. You’ve exhausted your purpose…
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It’s not often I’m listening to a song and manage to be astounded by the sheer level of slightly nerdy references it makes. It takes a very specific person to make a track that manages to reference Digimon, Smite, and Ferris Bueller, all while maintaining a level of cool to stick the landing. EDDIE SATURN…
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DO YOU LIKE GETTING PUNCHED IN THE GUT BY BASS? DO YOU LIKE DRIVING WAY TOO FAST IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? DO YOU WANT TO JUST SCREAM FOR THE FUN OF IT? IF YES TO ANY OF THESE DO I HAVE THE PERFECT ALBUM FOR YOU. GLOWSTONE is the collaborative side project of…
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As far as I’m concerned, if you’re old enough to be on the internet you likely remember a time when the internet was full of “free iphone 5 giveaway” on every social platform possible. It’s a period of time online that’s mostly passed by us now, but amidst her own giveaway scandel we’ve been bestowed…
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Sometimes when I’m looking for music, there are incredibly abstract things I go looking for that if I were to try and explain, would likely make me look like an insnae person. Music producers are the worst for this, asking for things like mixes to sound more chocolate (a real thing I observed once), and…
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Linked above is a music video released 4 years ago by the YouTube channel OFFCANNY, featuring Matt Watson of Super Mega. It’s a video I very suddenly remembered existed at 2 in the morning on a Sunday, and much to my surprise it’s held up really well from what I remember. The beat is strong,…
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AuraLink has a lot of moving parts, but truth be told it is mostly run off of peach Monster Energy, and han.irl<3. It is no exaggeration to say that Han’s catalog has been hugely important to the existence of AuraLink, in fact her current long-term album rollout was a huge reason I wanted to get…
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As my bank account slowly continues to dwindle down to nothing I can’t help but think back to the good old days of 2008, when finances were about the same but at least the music was killer. Now if I really want to find the good stuff it’s not as simple as just turning on…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about anything. I haven’t put much effort into hiding my total disdain for Ai music, because as far as I’m concerned it’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to artists full stop. The small bit of credit (which is a strong word in this case) I will give…
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Sometimes when it rains, it pours. And when it’s raining toxic creatures from the depths of the ocean, it… Well to be honest I’m not sure what it does then, but that’s the conditions under which iglooghost’s experimental masterpiece Tidal Memory Exo was set. This album was one of my top albums last year, and…
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It is once again nepotism week at AuraLink! For disclosure sake, I am personal friends with TruePilot and have worked with him extensively in the past, but he doesn’t have the slightest clue that I’m writing this at 4 in the morning on a Wednesday, and that’s because I’m doing it purely because I am…
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I have this toxic habit of putting off listening to an album or diving into the catalog of an artist for prolonged periods of time, despite the fact that nearly every time I do I end up regretting it. It’s something that relentlessly comes back to bite me in the ass, with the best case…
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The biggest issue with developing obscenely specific and niche taste in music is that by doing so you have made it so, so so so so unreasonably hard to find new things within that niche. As someone with a weekly ritual to find new music you’d think maybe I’d be exempt from that proble, but…
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Let’s get a little abrasive. Maybe it’s the part of me that was buying skilled on iTunes in middle school, but to this day there’s still something about a caustic synth lead that hits my brain in all the right ways. It’s part of what’s kept me so engaged with the post-hyperpop/experimental pop space as…
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I know we live in a pretty miserable time right now, but I still can’t help but love music built from the darker corners of the human experience. Nothing brings me more joy and excitement than hearing a track for the first time that’s drenched in tasteful distortion and a rumbling sub bass, and luckily…
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The worst part about telling people I write about music is that they ask what kind of music I write about. It’s not like it’s a complicated question, but it’s a question that if I give an honest answer to nobody will understand what I mean. As it turns out the average person doesn’t know…
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My favourite party trick is that I can make decent estimates on how old someone is based on what their all-time favourite pop songs are. It’s not a particularly useful skill, but it’s occasionally quite fun when you clock someone to a tee because they talk about how much they love The Black Eyed Peas.…
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Would you believe me if I said I have a convoluted way of making that unhinged clickbait headline make sense with real examples? As crazy as it may sound, I think underground music is undergoing a process known as carcinization, which is the theory that all species are convergently evolving into crabs. Now, don’t get…
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For any fellow students reading, you’re likely obscenely busy right now. You’re probably wrapping up the final weeks of your semester, absolutely buried under seven separate assignments that, for some god-forsaken reason, are all due 3 days apart. It’s hell! And for that reason our coverage has been lacking. Last time I wrote a piece…
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It’s not often a song leaves me feeling longing for something that I’m not even able to put my finger on, but weirdly enough, that’s where I find myself today. Through a mix of analog fuzz, detuned doubles, and slow enveloping bass progressions, I sit here in my room wanting more. But more what? I…
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The art direction chosen by artists continues to be one of the most fascinating things I get to observe. It really is such a peek into the mind that created the song you’re listening to, even if sometimes I can’t necessarily make sense of what the takeaway should be. For instance: the new PIAO. I…
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Let’s set the scene. The year is 2020, and for the last couple weeks your friends have been bugging you about this small artist you’ve never heard of. They seemingly are always going on about the neat stuff he does like his double-tracked vocals, and how his production style has this flow to it they…
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11 out of 10 doctors would probably maybe agree that a little bit of screaming is healthy in your day to day life. While I may not actually know 10 doctors to ask, it’s an observation I’ve made over time through music and the way that really letting loose during your daily commute can have…
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Contrary to what most people think, the world does not revolve around them. It would actually be a huge inconvenience if it did, because the world revolving around the sun is a particularly important thing for maintaining the day-night cycle, but I digress. You may have noticed that AuraLink briefly disappeared, which was the direct…
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It’s said that art transcends language, and that at its core it’s about how it makes you feel. It’s a deep sentiment about the moving power of artistic expression and how it cuts past verbal mediums down to emotion at its core, which is all well and good, but admittedly I’m a bit of a…
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It’s not a secret that there’s a weird amount of overlap between the remnants of the hyperpop movement and the resurgence of the punk movement in recent years. Despite being incredibly different from a sound perspective, there’s a lot of the same emotional sentiments in its counter-culture core that has lead of lot of artists…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about… you know what screw that I am qualified to talk about this one. There is a lot of talk at any given time about how AI is coming to take our jobs. As a music journalist, music producer, and advertising student, I’m kinda boned on all 3…
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I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said, “if your bass bumps hard enough, they will come”, and any time I hear an Intentions project it’s an inspirational quote that comes to mind. Sound design is an artform within production that many dabble in, but few truly master in the way this Michigan man with…
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During the early prep for AuraLink we had a recording session where we sat down and argued about a bunch of hot takes on camera for the express purpose of other people debating the merits of our opinions in the comments. Those have slowly rolled out over the past 2 months (with mixed degrees of…
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There are 3 songs that aren’t on Spotify that live rent free in my head at all times. 1 of them is a TruePilot demo from 2020 that never came out, one of them is a secret, and the third one is this. Shawn Wasabi was someone who played a huge role in developing my…
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There’s a consistent narrative in the cultural zeitgeist that young people have zero desire to drink, club, party, and go out at large. It’s an insight I hear incredibly often, but despite even seeing the numbers to back it up, I can confidently say that it’s largely false (or at least blown out of proportion).…
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“This is going to be the first summer of our lives.” One of the most beautiful sentiments in the world. It both means nothing and everything all at once. It sets the tone for the new Bryce Bishop mixtape “Exit” perfectly. Not only is it a great callback to “Spark” (One of my favorite projects…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about anything. Horrible headline aside, I came to a realization this week that’s going to make me seem incredibly stupid. I end up having to explain what AuraLink is on a pretty regular basis in my real life to explain things like “why are you editing a tiktok…
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Every once and a while during my infinite search for new music I stumble upon something that on first listen (and every subsequent listen after) causes me to get excited and physically jam out. It is, to be blunt, completely embarrassing if anyone is around to see (as I have literally no moves), but it’s…
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Somewhere in a drawer in my house sits a black DS lite. Said DS lite played a large role in my childhood, having travelled hundreds of miles, and playing hundreds of hours of games. It currently lies dormant in its drawer with a large dead pixel in the middle of the screen, covered in the…
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I think its a universal experience to think you’d listened to an album all the way through, only to discover you had missed one or two tracks. Lo and behold, those two tracks end up being even better than all the others every single time, without fail. Well imagine my surprise being 90% done with…
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Despite the advent of the year 2026 being upon us, the sounds and feelings of the recession pop movement of 2008 feels more relevant now than it’s been in a very long time. In an era where music is more varied than ever and there’s a niche for any sound you could possibly want, the…
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Because 5 is too obvious, 10 is too many, and 6 is too round. Hello and welcome to the first annual “AuraLink’s 100% objective top 7 songs of the year” awards, where we look at the horrible clickbait list Rolling Stone puts out and we say “hey, we can do that too”. 2025 has been…
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It’s 2:34am as you lay in bed staring at your ceiling. The LED mood lighting you bought on Amazon is tinted a deep magenta as you stare longingly through your phone. The display of your phone flashes photo after photo of your ex, who despite how much you pretend you are not over, and in…
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December is always a magical month, especially if you live in a freezing cold wasteland like myself. Between the time with family, the beautiful lights, and the warm drinks it really doesn’t matter if you celebrate International Ninja Day on December 5th, there is reason no matter what to find joy and whimsy within this…
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By this point, I would describe Kuru as a household name in the underground. If you haven’t heard about him, you’re missing out. Following his come up over the past 5 years has been nothing but wonderful as a fan. His evolution alone is a testament to long term artistry. He has become so unapologetically…
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I found this song too early. Like way too early. Being an early adopter is one of the greatest joys you can have as an avid music listener and I’m not one to take that for granted, but I will also be the first to tell you that there’s a huge difference between stumbling upon…
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One of my favorite things about following small artists is observing the sort of “social cliques” that emerge naturally between them. It’s a super organic phenomenon that really just boils down to musicians wanting to know other musicians, but what’s so fun about it is that it really puts the six degrees of separation theory…
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Jane Remover is on the craziest run right now. Honestly, she hasn’t stopped running since Frailty if you ask me, but when Revengeseekerz came out, something shifted. The mix of experimentation and mainstream appeal hit all the right notes and the internet, Pitchfork, and Danny Brown all seem to agree. It has a finely tuned…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about anything. It’s become a common occurrence among my social circle to utter the phrase “be kinder” to each other accountable for the horrible, terrible things we say and do. Granted this is a phrase drenched in irony, as usually the person who is saying it has said…
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The fun part about doing music journalism is that nobody gets to call you biased. When writing about music all of the silly little words I put on this page are subjective to begin with regardless of how much I frame them as fact, which is kind of a free pass for me to tell…
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[written the week before our content hiatus, so all time related comments are a week out of date] Spotify is witchcraft created by money demons who have set out to ruin the music industry. Bold words I know, but despite that it occasionally does me favors (much like the real devil). Somehow through searching for…
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When I first became embedded in the music communities that have now shaped my taste there was a small handful of names that were synonymous with the scene. The obvious ones are names like brakence, ericdoa, midwxst, but then there’s slightly deeper cuts like login, and notably 50landing. 50 has been a bit of an…
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I’m going to get the obvious out of the way. I absolutely love Christmas. I adore spending time with the people I care about, and as much as I’m not a huge believer in the commercialization of Christmas I am a huge believer in “I love giving people gifts, so capitalism can shut up about…
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They say timing is everything, and it’s moments like today when that couldn’t feel more true to me. If you’ll rewind with me for a moment, you’ll recall that last week I wrote an article covering pnkdrco’s move on! which came out this Monday. What you may not know is that the article was written…
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Did you wake up this morning and think to yourself, “wow my playlist is absolutely phenomenal, but it’s really missing a song that starts by making me think I forgot to leave a discord call”? If you did, please get help, but I by some bizarre means have something to fill your needs move on!…
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The best part about monitoring underground music is that you start to spot trends pretty fast as they develop, and recently I’ve had my eye on a very specific one. By sheer chance this week we released an editorial talking about how bringing back clubbing could fix all the things, which while being a loaded…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about anything. I was driving down the highway on my way home from another long day at the ‘raising my blood pressure to concerning levels’ factory listening to my usual playlist when all of a sudden an epiphany hit me. See, I was shuffling through my usual eclectic…
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It has become a recurring concern of mine that I have set too broad a precedent for the kinds of music I want to talk about on AuraLink. Creating a blog with the intent to boost smaller artists is one thing, but I really have just been writing about anything I like regardless of consistency,…
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Dylan Longworth has a particularly special place in the AuraLink canon. You see, long before AuraLink was even conceptualized I previously wrote for a blog called Itasca, and during my brief time there I wrote about a handful of artists including Sneaker Kids, han.irl, and notably Dylan Longworth. In fact, the very first song I…
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I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s 9:40 in the morning, I’m standing in line for a new pokemon card drop like the nerdy gambling addict I am, and I’m listening to a track that feels somewhere between club ready complextro and the dubstep that sculpted my music taste through middle school. Needless to say,…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about anything When I decided to start a blog my ethos was relatively simple: I wanted to cover smaller artists within a very specific range of genres. The lines for that range are a bit vague, but despite never coming around to the likes of glaive or 100…
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At this current moment in time, I am sitting alone on my bed with a single earbud in with one goal for my evening: to write as many articles as possible. I had an order of operations in mind as well: Write an article about Olga Myko, then one about ratking by bodyimage, then gamble…
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I write this message from inside my cozy little cave in the woods. It’s cold and damp, but it’s got good bones, a well stocked bar (a handful of half empty bottles sitting on a large rock), and great atmosphere. My only complain about my humble abode is that in the night I hear the…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about anything 2020 was a monumental year for human civilization for one big obvious reason: the wealth of niche internet music that flooded all our feeds (and absolutely nothing bad happened all year). It was a time where like it or not the world was introduced to sounds…
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Ah yes, the well known 7 stages of cardinal grief sins: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, lust, pride, acceptance, and… sloth? Wait that can’t be right. Colliding With Mars (not to be confused with Jared Leto’s 0.008333 Hours to Mars) is an artist who’s always played a key role in sculpting the sound of what I…
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Let’s set the scene: you are sitting on your couch doomscrolling through TikTok when all of a sudden from next to you you hear a voice. “Hey babe?” utters your loving partner. As you begin to respond you mentally prepare for what question may follow this. Based of their social feeds you assume the obvious,…
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They say everyone is only 6 degrees of separation away from any other given person. The amount of weird connections to people and places we unknowingly make are numerous and far too complex to catalog, but it’s often brought to the forefront of our mind when something from the background of our past suddenly catches…
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Let’s set the scene. You’re waiting in line at the bank when suddenly the doors literally explode open. There’s rubble everywhere people are in shocked and confused, and amidst the chaos a man with a ski mask and a large burlap sack with a big dollar sign on the side walks through the cloud of…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about most things. Most people if you asked them would argue intensely that they grew up in the best era of pop music. Obviously you’re bound to have some attachment to the music you heard on the radio during your formative years, it’s natural to feel like what…
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Saying that my Spotify algorithm doesn’t know what I want would be a horrific understatement of my current predicament. I’ve slowly been building a mental catalog of artists making this post-hyperpop blend of clean production with juuuust enough grit to keep my brain tingling, but much to the detriment of that search Spotify only seems…
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I would love to sit here and tell you I woke up today and found your new favourite album, but unfortunately that would be a lie. You see dear reader, as phenomenal as the new stecker project is, I have not gone to bed yet, it is currently 2:08 am, so I did not wake…
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Probably the only upside to being a marketing student at the same time as being an artist and running a music blog is getting to truly appreciate when I get to watch an artist I love do everything right. In the cold soulless world of marketing UGC (or User Generated Content) is a strategy in…
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An Editorial by someone unqualified to talk about most things As you can imagine, running a music blog is about 75% rummaging through Spotify suggestions, 31% procrastinating, 17.4% stressing over absolutely nothing, and 100% not knowing how to do math. Contrary to me having gone on record before airing my distaste for short form content…
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If there are 2 things I say repeatedly to the extent that I get tuned out by those around me, its that: If you’re not a music producer or chronically into niche internet genres, that second point may make zero sense to you, so let me elaborate a bit. rot was the first single released…
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I think we all need a little more mystery in our lives. These days, we’re so connected to absolutely everything and everyone at all times that the concept of “wanting to know something and being unable to learn it” is a completely foreign concept in our everyday lives. It’s no secret that when writing these…
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I LOVE THICK CHORDS I LOVE THICK CHORDS I’m a big proponent of the idea that like it or not, hyperpop’s existence had huge implications on sound design as a whole with it’s effects spanning way farther than most people would expect. I’m such a large believer in this idea that should you continue to…
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![han.irl<3 – 404.wav [Review]](https://www.auralink.media/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/ab67616d000082c1648ddb4975e433311e15f05d.jpeg)
han.irl<3 is an enigma even within the niche of glitchpop and other post-hyperpop genres, and I am known to nerd out about her to just about anyone who will listen to me ramble. Compounding my pre-existing “problem”, her latest release 404.wav is a punchy addition onto an already extremely compelling album rollout that has kept…
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![Iglooghost – Bronze Claw Iso [Review]](https://www.auralink.media/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/5056818804151-scaled-1.png)
Incase you needed a rabbit hole to throw yourself down today, here you go. Iglooghost is an enigma among artists, as not only is he an absolute visionary of a producer blending sounds and textures outside most peoples wildest dreams, but also as a storyteller. I was first introduced to his catalog years ago by…
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When listening to a label backed artist (think Blackbear, the weekend, huge names) we’re often greeted with songs polished to perfection by at times 10s of different people from producers to mix and mastering engineers and god knows who else. With small artists, the situation is a tad different, with the crew shrinking to a…
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Almost two years ago I went on a mini binge looking for a combination of music inspired either by early 2000s dance pop with a modern twist, or Phonk-inspired music that dropped the generic, played out formatting and had some fleshed out vocal content. Despite the fact that this was fueled by my need to…