Music
Stephan Folkes tugs at the soul with new single “Is this paradise?”

Stephan Folkes’ new single “Is this paradise?,” is one that stops you in your tracks. “Is this paradise?” the evocative lead single from his upcoming album Hazard, is a moving and thought-provoking meditation on loss, remembrance, and hope. Folkes weaves an all-encompassing landscape that’s closer to stepping into memory than pressing play on a song. His voice, sweet and rough, threads through the production with a subdued urgency, summoning the kind of questions that don’t require answers.
What elevates this track is that it feels heavy with emotion and the way it’s conveyed with maturity. Whereas some might have leaned into melodrama here, Folkes finds space for every note, every word a willingness to let you sit in the ache, if not drown in it. It’s a musical slow burn, gorgeously held in check but profoundly felt, like the glow of an old photograph that you never quite have the nerve to hide away. The lyrics do the heavy lifting with grace, telling a story of someone clutching the past not from weakness but from preference. There’s suffering in the mix here, yes, but there’s also power, a reminder through recollection to heal. At a time when culture craves authenticity, Folkes provides it in spades, peeling away the slickness to reveal something real, something human.
“Is this paradise?” is at once as intimate as a journal entry and as anthemic as anything else out there. It’s music designed not just to be heard but felt in the quiet spaces, the late nights, the silent drives, and the moments when we reach for what has been lost and touch something sacred in our longing to remember. In this debut, Stephin Laing introduces himself as an artist and offers listeners a hand through the fog of grief, lighting the way toward a brighter place. If Hazard keeps this up, that will not merely be an album. It will be a turning point.
Music
Shara Strand hits the emotional regulator with soulful single “My Green Light”

Shara Strand allows us to pause and think with “My Green Light,” her radiant new dance-pop single. The track is packed with such sincerity that nothing feels artificial. This soulful epic of a number takes listeners on a journey through the emotional intersections of life and love. Leading with her hallmark warmth and vulnerability, Strand’s let and notes remind us that sometimes the bravest act is saying yes to healing, to growth, to love, and most crucially, to ourselves. The Billboard chart-topper Strand has always been an artist who makes music that isn’t just noise.
She began writing her music early, motivated not by a desire for fame but by a desire to create songs that connect with the heart and soul. That mission comes through loud and clear in “My Green Light,” a song that doesn’t play as a performance so much as a conversation with an intimate. It’s a ballad of gentle might, crafted with lush imagery and earthy sentiment that can only come from a seasoned storyteller such as Shara. It never feels like his production takes away from the piece’s raw heart, although it’s fully polished. Strand’s voice, fragile but strong, slips over that melody like a steady current and pulls the listener in that subtle direction. It’s a song about the times when you’re frozen and don’t know what happens next.
Shara gives you the map, but more importantly, she gives you the go-ahead. “My Green Light” is an intimate song for anyone taking their power back, rising from a setback, or just starting to trust their own timing. It’s further proof that Shara Strand isn’t interested in chasing trends, so much as making art that makes a difference. As a musical contribution, this one does not just gleam. It glows. For longtime and new fans, “My Green Light” is just the reminder we need to know that the clearest path forward is often the one that creates the light within ourselves, and Shara Strand is there holding the torch.
Indie
JMT and Daniel Hex shares detroit’s dance DNA with genre-bending anthem “Yes, I Can”

Detroit’s underground is being completely redefined by JMT, who represents tradition and evolution in a single stroke. On his latest single, “Yes, I Can,” a collaboration with Daniel Hex, the genre-blending producer has released a world-reversal of GhettoTech that’s sultry, soulful, and fiercely future-forward.
Taken from his new album GHETTOTECHTROPOLIS, “Yes, I Can” is a chameleon combining the pulse of GhettoTech, the precision of Techno, and the velvet soul of classic R&B. Still, there’s an audacity to this cocktail nonetheless, one that manages to feel both nostalgic and next-gen at the same time.
The story of the song is about as rich as the song itself. Born out of a gloomy afternoon spent at Heaven Studios – founded by none other than Royce Da 5’9 the track started life as a slow burn groove, with Daniel Hex’s sultry, luxuriant delivery existing over an easy-moving 125 BPM. But in post-production, JMT pulled a reverse. He turned up the tempo, let the percussion bang that much harder, and invested the track with a restless energy that one would expect to find only in the dimly lit basement of some smoky party: 3 a.m., if we’re lucky.
What makes “Yes, I Can” so magnetic is its twin natures. It’s a dancefloor fire with a soft heart. Hex’s own vocals dance effortlessly over the beat, providing the track with a human pulse under the hood of the machine’s perfect drive. It’s a deliberate contrast, Detroit’s grit and soul conjoined. Ultimately, “Yes, I Can” is the driving force of the future. On it, they are a fearless, finely calibrated clash of vibes that designates JMT a visionary voice in the city’s next musical chapter.
Connect with JMT: Instagram
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