Nick Hakim, Leapling, Jackson Scott, Railings

Raised in Washington, D.C. in a household overflowing with musical diversity ranging from soul, hip-hop, go-go, folk music and more from his Chilean and Peruvian parents, it comes as no surprise that Nick tends to blend genres, mixing the ambient airy sound of psychedelic, with the raw gut-wrenching emotion of the blues.

Nick recorded these EP's with engineer Andrew Sarlo while living in Boston with his band, with an early admiration for Marvin Gaye and Harry Nilsson seeping through these introductory recordings. The vulnerability of Nick's vocals, intimate and silken, is a powerful instrument in its own right that never pushes itself to excess.


Leapling began as the home recordings of singer/guitarist Dan Arnes. After enlisting drummer Yoni David, bassist R.J. Gordon and guitarist Joey Postiglione they released their debut EP Losing Face via Father/ Daughter Records, garnering comparisons to experimental pop luminaries like Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Broadcast and Here We Go Magic. A refined pastiche of groovy krautrock, pastoral pop and skewed art-rock, Losing Face has already been called one of the best of EPs of 2013.

Despite the relative newness of the project, Leapling has a long history in Brooklyn's DIY scene (their members are the hearts and minds behind Bushwick venue Big Snow Buffalo Lodge) and have already been sharing stages with Twin Sister, Total Slacker and Ava Luna. The quartet is currently at work on their full length debut.


If ever a mission statement was made clear, North Carolina's sonic spaceman Jackson Scott couldn't have been plainer about the direction his new album would take; "Going to make another record now," read the text on his blog. "Will be influenced by Nas' Illmatic. Will be influenced by Kubrick. Will be influenced by nihilism and a whole mess of other things. Will attempt not to give fucks about the outcome, we'll see how that goes. There is lots of optimism/hope/love in store so try not to get cynical on me."

Although it's often true that the best laid plans go awry, Jackson Scott is a man of his word. If one thing can be relied upon it's that music will either lift you up to the clouds or drag you deeper into the fog, and here, on brand new album Sunshine Redux both negative and positive influences meet on what's surely the most fantastically curious and cutting edge neo-psych record of 2015 so far.

Take the ramshackle garage sound of lead track "Pacify," which firmly places Scott alongside scuzz contemporaries Ty Segall, Mikal Cronin, or North Carolina neighbour Bradford Cox and his Atlas Sound project; "Pacify is about being happy even when surrounded by total dissonance," explains Scott. "I was feeling weird and writing the song made me feel better. When things are most fucked, it's often when you can be happiest... You can pacify whenever you want."

Recorded in the same Asheville home as 2013's no frills debut Melbourne, Sunshine Redux finds Scott redefining his apocalyptic pop through newly purchased and upgraded gear of his very own; a Jackson Scott Version 2.0 if you like, bolstered by his most cohesive musical undertaking yet. "Sunshine Redux is about my own dichotomy of euphoria and despair," reveals Scott. "I get into a very internalized hyperactive mental state until the album is done. But I wanted to make an album that was totally cohesive from start to finish, not just throw a bunch of songs together."