Posts by Ryan Dillon

There has always been a warm, welcoming familiarity to Thundercat’s voice. The innovative contemporary multidisciplinary artist expresses a charming humanity through his dream-like falsetto, and more of the world takes notice as time goes by. The artist’s jovial approach to the harshness of reality and expert jazz fusion work has led him to A-list collaborations, […]

Theoretically, there are no two record stores that are identical. Like a collection of Ethiopian jazz albums, each shop has a distinction from the others, almost as if these stores are as much an expression of self as the albums they’re selling. Some shops lean on a gimmick, some aim to reimagine the shops of […]

On March 27, the Free Jazz Collective Irreversible Entanglements released Future Present Past, their moving and daring new LP. The spellbinding ten-song album successfully balanced the band’s dark experimentation and refreshing takes on spiritual jazz traditions with an urgent message meant to uplift and alarm, featuring a tracklist that ranges from risk-filled cacophonies, like the […]

Spring is officially underway, but the trend of having jam-packed New Music Fridays dates back to the distant early days of 2026. Our engineers at the Caustic Factory have been tirelessly updating our machinery to ensure the safe delivery of these essential items, and thankfully, everything is in tip-top shape. This week, we have a […]

It was only a short few weeks ago that the beloved virtual band Gorillaz released The Mountain, their ninth studio album. The stunning journey through worldwide psychedelia and hypnotic melodies pushes the Damon Albarn-led band into yet another exhilarating new direction, marked by its whimsical flutes and ethereal textures. The Mountain continues the Gorillaz trend […]

Meditation is an ancient practice that allows one to enter a deep state of blissful solitude. There are the practices of Shamatha, which stabilize the mind, and Vipassana, which help one uncover a path to understanding the true nature of reality. Meditation requires an all-encompassing focus on the present moment, clearing the mind to enhance […]

Movie soundtracks have proven to be a terrific and expansive source material for Hip-hop. While the idea of dramatic, swelling strings and romantic crescendos isn’t one of the first things that come to mind when you picture your favorite Hip-hop instrumental, the art of sampling is directly tied to the element of surprise. Producers throughout […]

Call it luck for being in the right place at the right time, or the result of a hard-fought journey, but how the electronic duo, Fcukers, ended up as one of the most anticipated young bands in a burgeoning New York City scene is nothing short of cinematic. Since the duo of Shanny Wise and […]

Flea is a man of many talents, none of which need a proper introduction at this point in the artist’s career. The famed multi-instrumentalist has seen the pinnacle of success in music with Red Hot Chili Peppers, navigated side projects that allowed his more eccentric side to flourish, as if it was ever subdued, and […]

In recent years, the icy terrain of Buffalo, New York, has become a hotbed of artistic talent and a cultural cornerstone. What was only known for its harsh weather, proximity to the Canadian border, and fantastic wings has blossomed into a thriving area with promising sports teams and a Hip-hop scene that exploded into the […]

We’re propping open the doors and cracking the windows to the Old Caustic Factory for the first day of Spring. We first want to congratulate anyone who pushed through the brutal winter weather, but it’s all in the past, and that sun that someone promised us would come out tomorrow has finally arrived. The blinding […]

If you approach a Wilco fan and ask where the band really hit their creative stride, a large majority of them will point to their fourth studio album, 2001’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The ambitious and influential LP marked a change of pace for the beloved alt-country rockers. The 11-song project introduced a more poignant, experimental […]

There is a twinkle of magic in every melody lifted from a classic and revitalized through Hip-hop. When a certain chord progression hits the right producer’s ear at the exact time they need to hear it, and the ethereal nature of inspiration enters the room, there is an otherworldly presence that inhabits the artist, the […]

The pressures an artist or band faces when releasing a debut album have been discussed in countless articles. Still, when it comes to young shoegaze hopefuls Ringing and their Julia’s War Recordings-released LP Another Cycle in the Cosmic Wash, there are even more layers of stress for the band to deal with. What started as […]

The old Caustic Factory is fired up and ready to go for another exhilarating edition of New Music Friday. Our conveyor belts have been cranked up, and our fine machinery has been tweaked in order to keep up with the prolificness of 2026, but just like always, we’re more than happy and prepared to deliver […]

Every genre has a select few albums that pushed their beloved sound beyond a niche corner of the world. Albums like Nas’s Illmatic and The Clash’s London Calling sent these anti-establishment genres right to the industry’s doorstep, leaving an undeniable mark on pop culture, pushing their genre to new heights of popularity while maintaining an […]

Hip-hop has always been about individuality, defining your own corner of the genre with a style so specific to each artist that it becomes nearly impossible to duplicate. The art of sample searching works similarly, as some of the most memorable samples were unearthed from deep pockets in pop culture. Some samples, though, are just […]

In the digital age, there are several ways to account for a band’s growth. From their social media following to the number of streams attached to each release, labels, fans, and the bands themselves can watch their career grow through calculations and manipulate that growth through expert analysis of algorithms. With all this technology and […]

Transmitter is the latest addition to the Cut Worms universe, but this is a very different artist from the one we’re used to. Led by singer/songwriter/musician Max Clarke and started as a solo home-recording project, Cut Worms was once a lo-fi outing with daring tendencies to stretch their limited recording equipment into universal moments of […]

Shoegaze is entering a renaissance period before our very eyes, and it couldn’t be a more invigorating revelation for the beloved genre. For the past few years, shoegaze acts have been exploding out of every corner of the world, some dedicating their sonic adventures to preserving the heyday of the sound. In contrast, others see […]