Timothy LaRoque press photo.
Audio By Carbonatix
The year might be rounding into its final quarter, but Miami musicians of all stripes appear bound and determined to make 2025 one for the sonic record books. There’s no letup in the volume (in both the “amount” and “this one goes to eleven” senses), diversity, or quality of the work coming out of the Miami music scene.
If you doubt it, check out the eight stellar new tracks from local artists below. These are good times for music in Magic City — let’s appreciate it while they’re here. (And let’s also thank heaven Churchill’s and Las Rosas are back to accommodate more of it.)
As always, if you’ve got a bead on something new we should be listening to, hit this button right here.
- 84 Sound, &NDRW, & Framez — “Futura Ultra (Remix)”
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We haven’t even yet fully processed last month’s fantastic Electric Glue EP composer/producer/III Points veteran Bryan Andrew Medina (&NDRW) cut with soul-smoldering rock vocalist Steven Delgado (STV.OK?Y)—described in this column as a bridge between “Pretty Hate Machine-era Nine Inch Nails, darkwave, the best of French electro…and early post-punk”—and now Medina is back partnered with “ultra” talented 84Sound and Framez for this stadium-sized electro anthem remix. The track feels something like a cross between a shot of joy-incited adrenaline straight to the heart and the kindling of an ecstatic hope. The futura is bright, indeed.
- Camie Liz & John Lainez — “Villian”
As you may have gathered from the chic, semi-Lynchian official video above, the story of Camie Liz’ affecting “Villian” is…complicated. “I’ve had a guy best friend for like nine years, and he got a new girlfriend and she doesn’t want me around anymore,” Liz says in an Instagram video background on the track. “So, I wrote this song.” Sad origin, sure, but quite beautiful in execution — the tidal power and nuance of Liz’ torch song-worthy vocals are especially poignant and gripping. “I’ll occupy my mind,” Liz sings in the last stanza. “It wanders when I let it. It tiptoes on the line.” Vulnerability and universality like that will stick with you — both as a listener and a human. “While my verse explores the grief of losing someone closest to you and the pain of being cast as the villain in someone else’s story,” Liz tells New Times, “John’s blurs the lines between friendship and romantic love, showing nothing good comes from indecision.”
- Felium — “All I Need”
Barcelona-born, Miami-based DJ Felium has become something of an underground international sensation with his cinematic take on melodic house music — but his driving, sleek latest single, “All I Need,” feels like the kind of track that is destined to break through above ground. You can almost see the amber dusk light and gathering electronica tribes while the beat guides the message and the music home.
- Helio — “Affirmations”
“I am well acquainted with my demons,” Miami singer/songwriter/producer Helio says. “I know all of my emotions. They have become my tools, not weapons against me.” Listen to his new EP Affirmations and you’ll be a believer. These four songs set a subtextual foundation of gospel, pop, and classical from which Helio’s dynamic, assured R&B vocals build up, up, and further up. Add to that inspirational, esoterically-tinged lyrics and you’ve got your next manifestation soundtrack locked, loaded, and ready to go.
- Gabby B — “Playboy Bunny”
Ahead of its release, multi-lingual, multi-talented Miami-based Brazilian funk-pop future superstar Gabby B promised her video for “Playboy Bunny” would “flip the script on the classic mansion fantasy” — and, lord, does it deliver, depicting a takeover of a Playboy Mansion-style estate which our heroine quickly transforms into a playground for unfettered female expression and empowerment. The track from the forthcoming EP, Funklândia, follows the racy clip for the ode-to-booty “Bundinha,” establishing Gabby B as an artist as liberated in how she channels her considerable talents as she is in her sly, playful provocations. “‘Playboy Bunny’ is about knowing your worth,” she says, “and living life by your own rules.” Check and check.
- Isa Marina — “Leltad”
It’s like they always say: “Never cross a classically trained dramatic soprano with a 3.5-octave range who has transitioned from opera into a songwriting career that weaves together reggaetón, R&B and pop.” Well, okay, no one says that yet, but they sure will once this sumptuous, empyrean track about “choosing self-respect over dishonesty in love” from the breathtakingly talented and original Bronx-native Isa Marina slinks and bops its way into the mainstream. As next month’s EP Eros will no doubt ably demonstrate, Marina possesses an unprecedentedly wide sonic palette but has the discernment and trust in her talents to deploy its many colors tastefully, elegantly, and always in service of the song. One to watch.
- Mystix Ft. Sofilla — “Miracle Mile”
Full Keanu, “Whoa.” Are you ready to take a journey to the nexus where quirky, heartfelt eighties electro-pop and sly, modern electronica meet? Mystix has got you: Her latest track “Miracle Mile” — featuring Miami-based neo-soul chanteuse Sofilla — is an off-kilter revelation which simultaneously feels like a plays-by-its-own-rules transmission from a new musical subgenre galaxy even as it, perhaps paradoxically, is instantly inviting and comforting in the way that only melodies and vocal lines well-crafted enough to skip the intellect and touch the heart can be. Mystix describes her mission as to “dive into spiritual mysteries and hidden knowledge and enlighten herself and others with her music and art.” To which, after a few spins of “Miracle Mile,” one can only say…yep.
- Teá Mox — “Sweet”
Could it be that some of the best, most moving indie synth pop around today is low-key being composed in a Miami bedroom? For those of us who have heard the forthcoming Sailors EP (out November 7) that is very much a rhetorical question. Though 2024 singles such as “Vidriolandia” and “Megalodón” showed promise, Mox has made a stunning leap forward as a songwriter in the last year — to such a degree, in fact, that you could reasonably say that her work is now on par with the luminaries of the subgenres she alights between. One reason Mox may be so adept at creating lush, alluring soundscapes is that she is also a very gifted and active painter — and she seems able to translate the visible colors and layers of the canvas over to the aural shades of her solo recordings. “In the end, sound and paint are only mediums,” Mox writes on her website. “I am in love with art itself.” Now, so are we.
- Timothy LaRoque — “The Light”
Seventies and eighties soft rock appears to be in the middle of a major reconsideration — see, for example, last year’s well-received Yacht Rock: A Documentary and Michael McDonald’s instant New York Times bestselling memoir What a Fool Believes — but, perhaps paradoxically, few new artists have taken up the sound. Timothy LaRoque — an old school troubadour with a new school twist — aims to remedy this with “The Light,” which already feels on par with the heroes of the subgenre from Seals & Crofts to Ambrosia. LaRoque is also active with Guitars Over Guns and Musicians On Call, so you know he’s in it for all the right reasons.
- Tund3 & Fat Jesu$ — “Miami at 6”
Crazy amount of music coming out of the Fat Jesu$ camp these days, but you’ve got to give it up for this collaboration EP with Tund3. Jazzy, lounge-y soundscapes prove the perfect match for the nimble, melodic lyrical flows on display here. Likewise, the five songs on Miami at 6 transition so deftly into one another the effect is a cohesive, variations-on-a-theme piece of art that demands no skips and multiple listens. Miami hip-hop renaissance is on.
