Three rock acts, three entry points: a Birmingham multi-instrumentalist working from his own studio, a Rome guitarist stepping out after seventeen years in a band, and a New York songwriter releasing decades of writing all at once.
PJD – On New Horizons
PJD makes “On New Horizons” into a brilliant alt-rock stunner: live, restless, and recorded with an genre-hopping urgency that’s loads of fun
“On New Horizons” opens PJD’s album “A New Religion” with its subject matter right there in the title: the human compulsion to keep moving, to believe something better exists beyond the next ridge. Recorded mostly at PJD’s own Newfield Studio in Birmingham, with drums captured at a larger studio to give the rhythm section room to breathe. This reminds me slightly of a Pink Floyd song, possibly in it’s chord structure, or it’s lyrical tone. But it’s definitely a unique piece, shifting between synths, screaming guitars, a great vocal, and an insistent rhythm that I love.
PJD spent years as a session guitarist working prestigious venues and festivals before channelling that experience into a solo project where he controls everything: writing, instrumentation, vocals, production. His touchstones are Bill Nelson’s melodic invention, Gary Moore’s guitar weight, Eric Clapton’s feel and a touch of Bowie. Some big names then, but the result sounds very PJD. Excitingly, the “A New Religion” album doesn’t sound like it will lack ambition, tackling everything from humanity’s relationship with wealth and power to personal loss connected to the 2025 LA wildfires. It’s a great intro to the world of PJD, and we can’t wait for more.
Lipford – THE MUSIC
Lipford makes “THE MUSIC” into a superb hard rock anthem about creativity as survival, and the conviction behind every bar makes that argument impossible to resist.
“THE MUSIC” is a hard rock track about one thing: using music as a lifeline. Lipford’s production keeps the intensity front and centre, guitars crunching over a rhythm that moves with real weight, while the lyrical theme of resilience through art gives the whole thing a personal urgency that goes well beyond generic rock posturing. Released 8th May 2026, it is the first significant statement of a solo career built from scratch after years of ensemble work, and it carries that sense of earned arrival in every bar. The alt-rock production hits hard without losing the melodic thread.
Lipford was born in Rome in 1985 and spent seventeen years as guitarist and composer for Italian rock band MANTRAM. When the group disbanded in January 2019, he faced a choice that many career band musicians never quite resolve: disappear or reinvent. He chose reinvention, stepping out under his own name with a sound shaped by those years of composition but no longer filtered through a group identity. His solo work blends heartfelt melodies with introspective lyrics that draw directly on lived experience, and “THE MUSIC” makes the case that the transition has produced something well worth hearing.
36 Plots – Since You’ve Gone
36 Plots make “Since You’ve Gone” into a genuinely excellent rock track: the kind of song that sounds like it has been waiting years to exist.
“Since You’ve Gone” arrives as part of “12 Reimagined Souls,” a project built around songs AC Cashdollar has written across decades, revisited and released for the first time in 2026. The track sits in the rock territory mapped out by the project’s 80s and alternative rock influences, carrying the weight of material that has had a long time to settle into its final shape. There is a lived-in quality to it that newer writing rarely achieves: the hooks feel certain rather than hoped-for, the emotional themes of struggle and transformation grounded rather than performed.
AC Cashdollar has been writing songs since the age of 14, working as vocalist, bassist, and guitarist across a string of bands and projects before releasing his own acoustic album in 2002. He subsequently moved into electronic music production, which gives the 36 Plots project a broad technical range to draw from. The name “36 Plots” comes from the concept of 12 Reimagined Souls, which treats songs as living things: born, reshaped, and released into the world to mean different things to different people at different points in their lives. It is an ambitious framing, and “Since You’ve Gone” is a strong early argument for it.