20 July 23 - 29, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Llora The worst thing to happen to music was the abandonment of the synth. The best thing to happen to music thereafter was Llora. The dark wave artist’s music is an homage to the lost days of ‘80s post-punk goth glory, with heavy distortion and synth sounds that bleed into one another, creating a never-ending cy- clone of alien rhythms, perfect for uninhib- ited late-night twirls and gyrations. From behind a turntable and a control panel, Llora plays rainmaker, showering inescapable mel- odies over sonically parched crowds, with guttural groans and yelps cracking through like thunder. Their entire discography, lim- ited to an eponymous 2024 album, is hyp- notic enough as casual listening, but at a live show, the frequencies whisper spells, putting the audience in a trance, transporting them to bygone club days, when leather and liberty spikes were the standard dress. If you can break the spell that commands a compulsory, unrestrained sway, Llora’s lyrics offer an inti- mate peek into the artist’s struggles. Llora frequently plays venues that serve as landing pads for the city’s alternative community, so if you stumble upon them, prepare to dance the night away, like it or not. David Forsyth If you haven’t heard of David Forsyth, you may not be talking to enough local musi- cians. Forsyth is the backbone of the local rock music scene, a friend to all, and a mas- ter guitar technician. As proof of his musical talent, he also builds guitars from scratch, so give your ears a treat and listen to the strums of the person who tied the strings. His mel- low music relies on simple chords and melo- dies that have created the American classics that play on cross-country highway trips, the type that make you appreciate the blue- ness of the mountaintops, the flatness of the prairies, and the endlessness of the shining seas. His work paints a panoramic vision of boyhood, strung together by introspection and tales of friendship. Forsyth is the truest hidden gem in North Texas music, a humble servant of sound and an expert in the kind of sonic simplicity that makes you warm. Kali Flower Last year, Kali Flower told us she was in an era she dubbed her “lost girl SZN.” If that’s to be stacked against her string of 2026 sin- gles, it’s clear she wasted no time working to dispel any doubt that might have lingered from it. Flower’s sound, both lyrically and sonically, synthesizes the allure of R&B and self-assurance of pop music — run “Never Going Back” for this amalgam at its most de- licious. She filmed the music video for her newest single, the Britney “Blackout”-esque “Test Drive,” at the Rose Room at S4, and if you know anything about that iconic stage, you already know it’s a launching pad of countless Dallas showgirls. Darling Farm Denton is home to many bands, a small per- centage of which are anything more than a few guitar lessons from middle school used to make something that could only be described as noise rock, with an emphasis on noise. But occasionally, the ragtag group of garage musi- cians playing at a rundown venue is actually good, usually because, underneath the old flannels and dingy dungarees, lie classically trained musicians. Darling Farm is the best example of this. The five-piece has a raw sound with aggressive amelodic beats that naturally progress into an unyielding swarm of emotion. The band’s live shows are an un- deniable display of musical catharsis; it’s the kind of release that leaves those who can’t carry a tune believing in a genetic mutation for musicality. If you don’t believe us, London indie rock band Palace actually stumbled upon Darling Farm and was so impressed that they invited the band to open for them on their North American tour. If anyone on this list is most likely to break through to full-time musicianship the fastest, it’s Darling Farm. Twin Spell Twin Spell may be the most green addition to the local music scene. The budding duo bap- tized themselves with their first live show in 2025, and an impressive, albeit limited by a small discography, performance proved their potential. The band, accompanied by a woodwind trio at their live shows, fills a gap in the Dallas music scene left by unsung rockers, teeth-cutting rappers and a healthy roster of two-steppers, offering romantic or- chestral swells not found elsewhere. Their music makes us believe love is undeniably real, and cigarette smoke won’t taint our lungs. Still in its infancy, Twin Spell’s devo- tion to creating an atmospheric and intimate live listening experience is part of their charm. If Dapper had a sound and dreams had a melody, they would be Twin Spell’s. Ceci Ceci In some ways, Ceci Ceci has already “con- quered” the Dallas music scene. Originally hailing from Nicaragua, the Latin music art- ist credits moving to Dallas with helping her truly discover her sound. Her lyrics are en- tirely in Spanish, but her delicate storytell- ing and the texture of her Latin-folk-inspired instrumentation tran- scend seamlessly. And you don’t need us to tell you that Latin music’s global dominance is palpable. Ceci Ceci’s next single, “La Bur- buja” (the bubble), drops on August 10, but you have plenty more cuts of her warm, minimalist sound to discover before then. It won’t take a deep dive to quickly understand why she’s on the list, though. Paul Schalda Paul Schalda is a troubadour who summons. This Staten Island transplant made Dallas his home base, and he’s been quietly build- ing a voice that feels ripped straight from the rowdy, ragged glory of the 1970s. Think Harry Nilsson if you dropped him onto a bed of easy-listening warmth and let the whole thing simmer. There’s rebellion in it, but there’s tenderness too, and that rare mix is why Midlake and Built to Spill scooped him up for the road. His new single “Between Two Cities” plays like the score to an indie adventure film, the kind where barefoot kids chase something bigger than themselves down a dirt road. It’s “Where the Red Fern Grows” meets “Tom Sawyer,” wrapped in melody. Catch him now, before the rest of the country catches on. Alex Irish No matter which way your ear leans, you’re likely to find a favorite in the genre-flirta- tious catalog of Cleburne native Alex Irish. Her rock music rips – see her “Twisted Metal” EP – just as hard as her flow on alt- hip-hop tracks like “Follow Your Plan.” The layers to her clever songwriting continue to emerge with a just-released Latin R&B sin- gle titled “Ballerina,” which is a slick, bilin- gual cut she deems a mix of her Black and Mexican cultures. In this post-genre stream- ing age, that’s all proof that she’s got every- thing necessary for an inevitable breakout. And, she has already been tapped for South by Southwest’s “Future of Indie” showcase for two years in a row, so we’re holding onto her here in Dallas while we still can. Queued up from p19 Photo by Preston Barta Photo by Kamyrn Morales Paul Schalda Selûna
