The sophomore effort from Minnesota's most enigmatic sonic architect arrives with all the weight its title suggests, yet carries itself with surprising buoyancy. "Forgiveness" finds Blunt Blade expanding upon the genre-fluid foundation established on his self-titled debut, crafting what can only be described as a masterclass in controlled chaos.

Farbod Biglari's "My Past" arrives as a haunting meditation on love's lingering presence, delivered through the most elemental of arrangements. Recorded initially with nothing more than a single microphone and acoustic guitar in Iran before receiving delicate enhancement in Vancouver, the track achieves that rarest of qualities: intimacy that transcends language barriers.

Fourmarks trade in contradictions, and their latest single 'Reflection' is perhaps their most beautifully paradoxical statement yet. Here's a band that bills itself as purveyors of "progressive, omni-faceted noise loaded with invective," yet delivers their most tender and transcendent moment to date – a meditation on connection that burns with the urgency of a manifesto.

Ferdinando Ritrovato – who performs under the moniker Iberico – arrives with the weight of a circuitous musical journey behind him. Born in Calabria in 1989 and transplanted to Milan, his path to "Non fare rumore" reads like a cautionary tale about artistic persistence. From childhood performances of 883's "Come Mai" through university-imposed exile from live performance, Iberico spent years accumulating songs that existed only in notebooks and half-formed melodies rattling around his consciousness.