We Speak Music

Myshkin’s Ruby Warblers Turn Up the Heat on ‘Hot Night in Paris’

Published

2 months ago

April 5, 2026

If Hot Night in Paris proves anything, it’s that patience can swing.

Out now, the new album from Myshkin and her long-running outfit The Ruby Warblers is a vivid, brass-laced ride through styles, cities, and states of mind. It’s playful without being lightweight, sophisticated without losing grit, and above all, it sounds like a band fully alive to the moment.

The record wastes no time setting the tone. The Light bursts forward with a driving pulse before giving way to a series of sharp left turns: the eerie sway of Birds on the Line, the smoky tango of Peace, the crisp, dry snap of Cut Set Polished. Each track feels like a different corner of the same nocturnal landscape.

And then comes the parade.

Thanks to drummer Danny Frankel, whose credits include work with Lou Reed and k.d. lang, the album periodically slips into a second-line groove that feels lifted straight from a New Orleans street procession. It’s loose, celebratory, and just a little bit unruly, in the best way.

But what really makes Hot Night in Paris land is the interplay. This is not a solo record dressed up as a band project; it’s a conversation.

Bob Furgo’s violin lines weave through the arrangements like commentary, while Victoria Williams’ guzheng introduces textures that catch the ear off guard. The horns, trombone and sax, don’t just decorate; they push, tease, and occasionally steal the scene. Beneath it all, upright bass and rhythm guitar lock into a groove that keeps everything grounded.

At the center stands Myshkin herself, delivering each line with a storyteller’s instinct for timing and tone. Her voice, silky but edged with steel, carries songs that tackle big themes without losing their human scale: power, beauty, courage, redemption.

There’s also a sense of release here. Many of these tracks were longtime live favorites that never made it onto previous records. Captured at last in Joshua Tree, they arrive not as archival pieces but as fully realized performances, sharpened by years on stage.

The result is an album that feels both lived-in and immediate.

For an artist whose career has spanned New Orleans clubs, international festivals, multimedia experimentation, and a recent chapter in Scotland, Hot Night in Paris acts as a kind of creative snapshot, one that somehow captures movement itself.

It’s a late-night record, a road record, and a band-at-full-tilt record all at once.

And it swings.

We Speak Music

Mané’s ‘The Goddess in the Room’ Turns Self-Discovery Into Sonic World-Building

Published

3 hours ago

June 2, 2026

Philomena Marie

There is a remarkable sense of intention running through The Goddess in the Room, the latest project from Swiss artist Mané. Blending alternative electronic pop with ritualistic percussion and spiritual symbolism, the album presents itself as both a personal statement and a carefully constructed narrative. Across its nine tracks, Mané explores identity, healing, queerness, and empowerment with impressive clarity of vision.

The opening track, “The GODDESS in the Room,” functions as both invitation and thesis statement. It introduces listeners to a world where intuition and self-trust become guiding principles, while establishing the atmospheric production style that shapes much of the record. The song’s spacious arrangement creates room for reflection, a quality that becomes one of the album’s defining characteristics.

That introspection deepens on “perles de sang” and “sappho.” The former grapples with inherited pain and bodily experience, while the latter offers a moving celebration of queer identity. Throughout these songs, Mané avoids reducing complex themes to slogans, instead allowing emotional nuance to emerge through carefully crafted songwriting and evocative imagery.

Musically, the album reaches some of its most intriguing moments on “)O(” and “moonstones.” Both tracks highlight Mané’s growing confidence as a sonic architect, blending electronic textures with organic rhythmic elements inspired by shamanic practice. The resulting sound feels immersive and transportive without losing its emotional immediacy.

Meanwhile, “j’serai tjr là” and “chocolate con sangre” provide some of the record’s most vulnerable moments. Here, Mané strips back some of the conceptual grandeur to focus on connection, memory, and emotional endurance. These songs reveal an artist equally capable of intimate storytelling and ambitious world-building.

The penultimate track, “Witches,” injects a surge of collective energy into the album’s narrative. Drawing on themes of resistance and feminine power, it stands as one of the project’s most direct statements while retaining its atmospheric sophistication. It is both politically resonant and emotionally charged.

By the time “ALIGNED” closes the record, the journey feels complete. Not because all questions have been answered, but because the search itself has become meaningful. The Goddess in the Room succeeds through its commitment to authenticity and vision, establishing Mané as an artist unafraid to follow her own path, wherever it may lead.

TOUR DATES