Ninet Tayeb is an Israeli musician, actress, and transplant living in LA. The 35-year-old singer-songwriter’s visceral rock’n’roll belongs amid America’s love for guitar-based carnal energy. Think Alison Mosshart with a Middle Eastern twist. Back in Israel, Ninet is one of the country’s biggest stars. She has played there alongside Alanis Morissette, Jesus & Mary Chain, and Cyndi Lauper. At 19, she won the first series of televised talent contest Kochav Nolad, Israel’s own American Idol. Her debut album Barefoot went platinum in less than 24 hours and gleaned five Number 1 hit singles. But she hadn’t yet found her true voice. Ninet cites influences in Nirvana, PJ Harvey, Joy Division, and Jeff Buckley. She taught herself guitar and began to pen authentic, exposed rock anthems.

In Israel, Ninet stars and acts in the series Where Heroes Fly, which won the Best Series at the Cannes Series Festival. Her sixth album Paper Parachute (2016) earned plaudits from Billboard, Nylon, and NPR. Its follow-up – her third English-speaking LP – will arrive in its wake, written during a month of creative spurt. It’s based in soul-baring vocals and philosophical lyrics. The first single, “Self Destructive Mind”, is a tumultuous, introspective ripper about sleepless nights and is set to build upon Ninet’s already sturdy breakthrough in America.

In 2022, Aubrey Haddard’s vision is guided by the great European songwriters of the 1990s and 2000s. On the New York-based singer-songwriter’s second full length release, Awake And Talking (out August 2022), Haddard arrives with an explosive, avant-pop catharsis in tow on “Just A Wall,” the music of Stereolab, Cocteau Twins and Björk presenting their arty influence.

Awake And Talking is a far cry from Haddard’s soulful and knotty debut, 2018’s Blue Part. Since relocating from Boston to New York in 2019, six months before the world turned, Haddard and her trio—made up of writing partner and multi-instrumentalist Charley Ruddell and drummer Josh Strmic—methodically and meticulously fleshed this group of songs with the intent of perfection: To truly capture a sound that was created in the likeness of their heroes. What resulted was an album that constantly smacks and pulses, each song standing alone as its own body of work, the throughline of which is an unmistakable reverence to melody and self-examination.