ES Music, 2010

Breathing Blue’s upbeat, driving pop-rock sounds a bit ordinary on first listen, but a closer examination suggests there’s something more clever lurking beneath the surface, especially in the frequent nifty guitar lines and the adventurous vocals. The New Jersey quintet don’t pull it together yet, but you get the feeling they might well on their next release.

No Sleep, 2009

I’m still uncertain about this one – on one hand this four track 12” could comfortably fit the slick, modern post-hardcore bracket, on the other there’s murmurings of more depth below that commonplace surface: 90s emo-indie influences, a sureness of songwriting, an adventurousness in the progressions. A full-length will be the litmus test.