Music
SLUG Magazine’s collection of reviews covering the latest and greatest of Utah-based music, covering all varieties of genre, style and type.
Local Reviews: Pablo Blaqk
Born to Cuban parents, Pablo Blaqk picked up the guitar at 18 after his father declined his request for a gun. On his debut album, Sons & Daughters, he proves he made the right choice. Co-produced by Utah favorite Joshua James, each track reveals raw emotion and beautifully composed tracks. … read more
Local Reviews: OK Ikumi
Orem’s Karl Jorgensen has been perfecting this blend of playful chiptune melodies, elegant Komsiche synth lines, and glitched-out beat palate for five years now. While relatively new to Jorgensen’s output, I can’t help but feel like I have stumbled on to something that has taken years to make. … read more
Local Reviews: Muscle Hawk
I like to dance, and Muscle Hawk clearly like to make my booty shake. Their music is relatively straightforward techno in the vein of European greats like Justice or Daft Punk: The bass is heavy, the beat throbbing and the samples dramatic and super-polished. … read more
Local Reviews: Wake Up Nebula
Wake Up Nebula Never Fall In love With Birds Self-Released Street: 02.12 Wake Up Nebula = Metro Station / Shiny Toy Guns Emo-electro has had its ups and downs in terms of popularity—maybe there are still some die-hards out there still listening to Playradioplay!. There always seems to be somewhat of a whiny, perhaps nerdy
Local Reviews: Ferocious Oaks
Things have never quite been the same after Arcade Fire’s Funeral. The Montreal collective’s quiet-and-restrained-to-ramshackle-and-blisteringly-loud dynamic has imprinted itself all over this ambitious yet frustrating EP by Orem’s Ferocious Oaks. … read more
Local Reviews: Sinthesis
You’d think that a fusion of hip hop and blues would be a musical trainwreck, but Phaust and Phingaz, who make up Sinthesis, blend the two genres nicely––especially considering they wrote and recorded Horseshoes & Handgrenades in a little over a week. … read more
Local Reviews: YYBS
Park City kids YYBS (Young Yet Brilliant Sleuths) cover a range of styles over the course of this four-song EP—going from alt-country picking to aught indie yelping in seconds—yet manages to never sound contrived. … read more
Local Reviews: Young Sim
Young Sim is known in Salt Lake City as a humble guy who conveys his message to his listeners in a vulgarity-free and violence-free manner. He does this by refraining from adding curses and glocks into his rhymes while keeping the essence of hip hop in his music. … read more
Local Reviews: Searching for Celia
I reeeeally enjoy Searching For Celia’s sound. I love strings, and I love them even more when they’re moody, frantic and excitable. I love them most of all when their undeniably classical sound is mixed into a modern interpretation, paired with electric guitars, bass and hearty drums. … read more
Local Reviews: Starmy
If you have been living in a cave and don’t know shit about local music, Starmy are Salt Lake legends. When I first moved to Utah, I remember seeing them often and thought, ‘Man, if these dudes weren’t wasted they would fucking kick ass.’ Well guess what … They’re probably still drunk, but they sound soooo fucking good now. I caught them at Urban a while back after a year or more of not seeing them, and they were top-notch. … read more