applied communications – donna deegan
In the lead up to the release of new applied communications album applied communications bites the big one via Rare Noodles and Bar/None Records later this month, Max Wood has been sharing a number of singles, most recently ‘tarot sans tinseltown‘ back in August. A track inspired by a trip to LA which delved into the almost hallucinogenic nature of the city, an encounter with Beck over a free lunch at the Scientology celebrity centre being only the start of it (“however idiosyncratic the track might seem,” we wrote, “it is only bringing to life the bizarre details of the time and place which inspired it”). But if you thought US hyperreal strangeness was specific to California, then think again, because latest single ‘donna deegan’ jumps to the other side of the country yet is every bit as zany. “Donna Deegan is the current mayor of Jacksonville, FL,” Wood explains. “She used to be a news anchor who was married to the sports commentator and there was a wild local scandal in which she was caught having an affair with the weather man, whom she later married. anyway, she’s great and this song is a scatterbrained tribute to growing up in my hometown.”
applied communications bites the big one will be released on the 25th September via Rare Noodles and Bar/None Records and you can pre-order it via the applied communications Bandcamp page.
Asha Wells – Gift Horse
“Highlighting how thinking outside the box can lead to the more intuitive, authentic expressions of emotion, and collaboration need not preclude a singular style.” So we wrote of The Lesson by Asha Wells back in 2025, a three-song collection which used both personal idiosyncrasy and communal cross-polination to build on Wells’s debut full-length Water Words and evoke its own distinct world. Now Wells is preparing to release Sleeping Sand, a brand new album with Anxiety Blanket Records which looks to build upon these foundations and offer a proper follow-up to her debut. As lead single ‘Gift Horse’ shows, the result is equal parts ethereal and tactile, working to dissolve the boundary between dreams and the physical world in order to more fully explore the subconscious. “‘Gift Horse’ is a final fleeting glance at a once love,” as the artist explains. “Lyrically alluding to what goes unquestioned in our lives. A returned glance towards a former love. Dallying in a slice of life romanticism. A picture of unapologetic reflection, and the clarity that hindsight can bring.”
Sleeping Sand will be released via Anxiety Blanket Records on the 13th November.
Essy Sparrow – Naked As We Came (Iron & Wine Cover)
Hot on the heels of of recent single ‘Weak at the Knees’, which we labelled “a bright folk song in which any bittersweet rumination or self-deprecative confession is vastly outweighed by the fondness at its core,” British songwriter and multi-disciplinary artist Essy Sparrow has shared her own version of Iron & Wine’s ‘Naked As We Came’. The cover is part of Best Day of All Time, a new compilation album featuring over thirty covers of iconic tracks from the 2000s. The likes of Jackie Oates, Eliza Carthy, Alice Faye, Beans on Toast and Chisara Agor feature, with takes on songs by Lily Allen, Beyoncé, Outcast, System of a Down and more. Sparrow’s offering is the ideal introduction. A song every bit as earnest and honest as her own work which paints a picture of a living relationship in little over two minutes.
Best Day of All Time is available to pre-save now. Sparrow’s Gossip From a Coastal Town will be released on the 2nd October and you can pre-order it now.
The Human Hearts – Still In Error
After leading SoCal rock band Nothing Painted Blue through the nineties and then recording under his own name, indie songwriting stalwart Franklin Bruno formed The Human Hearts, a new full band featuring Matt Houser (drums), Pete Galub (guitar), Brandon Kalber (bass) and Bob Bannister (bass). At once socially aware and dialled into the joy of good old fashioned rock and roll, the outfit have released a number of albums in recent years, each as urgent in theme as style, though never heavy-handed or ideological. The sound has been perfected on The Human Hearts’ latest full-length, Faith and Credit, an album which draws influence from a wide gamut of rock predecessors to paint a picture of life in the US today. With the release coming this autumn via Dromedary Records, Bruno and co. have shared lead single ‘Still In Error’, complete with a video directed by Scott Jacobson (The Daily Show, Bob’s Burgers) which sees Bruno learn to ride a bike for the first time.
Faith and Credit will be released on the 13th November via Dromedary Records.
Jan St. Werner – Squares Will Fall 7″
After making a name as half of celebrated Düsseldorf electronic duo Mouse on Mars, Jan St. Werner is set to announce himself as a solo artist this November with the release of debut album Squares Will Fall via Thrill Jockey. The record has been in the works for over a decade, originating in a thirty-minute composition made back in 2012 which went on to form the spine of an improvisation by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and St. Werner when Mouse on Mars were in Vernon’s Wisconsin studio to record 2018 album Dimensional People. From here, ‘Squares Will Fall’ became multidirectional loudspeaker choreography for the Ural Industrial Biennial in 2021, before St. Werner headed to the studio with fellow Mouse on Mars member Andi Toma in 2026 to hone the work into an album, which represents both a continuation of this journey and a musical adventure in its own right. Listen to the title track now:
Margo Cilker – Molly and Me
Next month, Margo Cilker will release new album Little White Cross via Fossil Records, the label she set up with fellow alt-country artist ISMAY. “You could definitely call it a concept record,” Cilker describes wryly of the album. “If that concept is that I got really sad and went to Texas.” That’s because she travelled to The Bunker in Lockhart, TX to work with Bruce Robison (who has written and produced for the likes of Charley Crockett, Lee Ann Womack, George Strait, and The Chicks), and together they worked through Cilker’s heaviest and darkest material to date. Latest single ‘Molly and Me’ is a great example, a sober and emotional song about the sister of a suspected spree shooter. It’s told from the perspective of a third character, a woman now in her thirties thinking back to her relationship with Molly when they were teenagers. There’s a Nebraska-era Springsteen feel to the song’s narrative focus, which retains an impressive understated quality even as it reaches its shocking denouement. “I often feel haunted by stories,” Cilker explains of this urge to share stories that move her, “kept up at night by a kind of external pressure to tell them. I’ll write a song just to alleviate the grip it has on me.”
Oldest Sea – Lake Spooky (original recording)
“A vessel built to navigate the heaviest seas of experimental folk, pushing into dark, tempestuous waters in order to most fully explore soundscapes at once elemental and otherworldly.” So we wrote of Sam Marandola’s Oldest Sea back in 2024 upon the release of Judith Slaying Holofernes, a double single featuring Have a Nice Life. A number of releases have since followed, including a live version of Judith Slaying Holofernes, a tribute to Jason Molina and a track featuring Kathryn Mohr, but the latest Oldest Sea song ‘Lake Spooky’ is in fact the very first. Recorded over a decade ago, the track is a fascinating window into the project, lacking the sonic heft and depth that would come to mark Marandola’s work, yet somehow possessing the suggestion of that they were to come. A stark, imperfect germ from which a wider body of work would emerge. “[The song] was never intended to be released—I recorded it simply to document the song, and it sat quietly in the archive for a decade,” Marandola explains. “There’s room noise, imperfection, and no attempt to polish away the moment. Listening back now, I realized that’s exactly why I wanted people to hear it. It feels less like an old demo to me than a small artifact from the beginning of Oldest Sea.”
Slow Rosary – Melanie
Described as “an album of encounters with individual people, known and historical,” ALL TROUT is the third full-length from Rene Duplantier’s Slow Rosary, a release which uses acoustic guitar, a Casio keyboard, a DAW and recordings from friends to portray meetings both real and imagined and thus dig into the complicated layers of human connection. The figures in the songs range from next-door neighbours to John Prine and Jackie O, but lead single ‘Melanie’ keeps things very close to home as Duplantier focuses on his then girlfriend (and now wife) to offer a typically compassionate and humanistic view of a close bond. Despite the relatively humble components, the arrangement is suitably rich in execution, inviting the audience into a warm flow as though to mirror the safe harbour of the relationship depicted. The song “is about domestic bliss and being thankful for what you have, even when you’re depressed or need therapy,” he explains. “In the song and in life, I am astonished by the good times and try not to dwell on the bad. I am looking forward as best as I know how.”
Stella Dunai – Move On
Naarm/Melbourne-based songwriter Stella Dunai has announced herself with a couple of singles in the past year, songs like ‘Can’t Sleep’ and ‘I Love You Too Eagerly’ introducing a decidedly warm and compassionate style, and new track ‘Move On’ continues this thread. With the likes of Adrianne Lenker and Haley Heynderickx as touchstones, the song is an ideal introduction to Dunai’s ability to weave both atmosphere and narrative within her tender folk sound, celebrating the importance of friendship with a refreshingly optimistic air. “People come into our lives for different reasons and lengths of time and those exchanges shape who we are and who we become,” as Dunai says. “I find myself taking pieces and inspiration from the friends in my life and feel so honoured to see how we all shape and support each other every day. This song celebrates that constant evolution, while holding onto the joy, the silliness and innocence of meeting someone new, like making a friend on the playground as a child.”