Hypnotic Brass Ensemble 'Soon It Will Be Fire' features Moses Sumney, a nearly sacral piece; UK rapper Berwyn offers a lovely hip-hop ballad 'Rubber Bands'; The Mountain Goats share superbly titled 'The Slow Parts On Death Metal Albums'; Hazel English fulfilled her dream - she moved to California and covered 'California Dreamin'', a way too pretty song and a way to nice a cover not to pick it out; AKAI SOLO and Navy Blue share psychedelic rap 'Ocean Hue Hours'; Resynator is a documentary about "a daughter connecting with her late father through the resurrection of a synthesizer from the 1970s that he invented", featuring The National's Matt Berninger and Ronboy doing 'Only a Broken Heart'; The Pleasure Dome share noisy punk 'Pretty Picture'; Wolf Alice keep on promising - 'No Hard Feelings' comes ahead of their new album, out in June; Shannon Lay goes in the best classic singer-songwriter direction with 'Rare To Wake'.

When Mountain Goats hit it, they hit it real good - just like they did with their new folk-rawk 'As Many Candles As Possible'; The Japanese House released a new song 'Dionne', featuring Justin Vernon, an alter pop gem; Coastlands deliver mighty post-rock with 'Dead Friends'; Anjimile's 'Baby No More' is just some sweet jazzy pop.

Brooklyn Vegan has an interesting year-end segment - favourite albums chosen by various musicians. The idea is great, the results so-so. Mostly, the lists are either too narrow or just what you'd expect. Except from the Mountain Goats’ John Darnielle. He's got some straight indie-rock -Purple Mountains and Big Thief, modern hip-hop - clipping., metal - […]

'Sicilian Crest' is the last song on Mountain Goats' album 'In League With Dragons', and it's kinda dramatic in a childish way. About the album, bandleader John Darnielle has said that he hopes it will kick off a whole new genre called “dragon noir" (Rolling Stone). Listen to the song here.