After the success of 2024 full-length Stab!—an album which, as we described, combined “shoegaze textures and post-punk energy into something as immersive as it is momentous”— Gothenburg outfit Agent blå are back with new single ‘Shapes’. Energised by the positive experience of releasing the previous record, the band attacked the new material with fresh vigour, the song coming exactly a decade after their debut release but sounding as committed and impassioned as ever. The result, which offers a picture of a person navigating the choppy waters of trauma with Agent blå’s signature mix of intensity and ethereality, also represents their first step into the future, laying the groundwork for the next stage in their evolution.

Cameron Knowler – La Paz

Writing back in March, we previewed Cameron Knowler new album CRK with single ‘Secret Water’. “Imagine the guitar work of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn combined with the older string band tradition from Appalachia and you’d be getting somewhere close,” as we put it. “But true to the CRK spirit, the result is also specific to Arizona, working to conjure the landscape in both fine detail and broad strokes.” With the album now out via Worried Songs, Knowler has shared another single ‘La Paz’. Set around a ghost town north of Yuma, Arizona, the track is mournful but never hopeless, twin acoustic guitars painting a wistful reflection on the passing of time.

The Convenience – Western Pepsi Cola Town

“The immediate sense of the track is one of bright confidence, though something else moves beneath the surface,” we wrote of ‘Dub Vultures’ from The Convenience‘s upcoming LP Like Cartoon Vampires on Winspear. “A counter force of sharp angles and acerbic attitude which lends an undeniably dark undercurrent […] As though the momentum isn’t some dependable force but rather an unstable chain of motion.” With the release of the album fast approaching, the New Orleans duo has unveiled new single ‘Western Pepsi Cola Town’ to ramp up the excitement. A track no less momentous or changeable in style, typifying The Convenience’s metamorphosis from whimsical indie pop act into something between post-punk and art rock, a transformation which nevertheless retains the sense of playfulness which marked their previous releases.

Like Cartoon Vampires is out on the 18th April via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

Foxtails Brigade – Gimme A Sign

“A poignant ode to those who exist at some kind of angle to the conventional modes of living, too often shunned by the cultural and political gatekeepers of their time.” So we wrote of ‘Forevermore’, the lead single from forthcoming full-length Red Album by Foxtails Brigade last month. Latest track ‘Gimme A Sign’ further introduces the style of a record which sees the San Francisco project push further into pop than ever before. The band say “clockwork nylon guitar riffs and unconventional kitchenware percussion” remains at the core of their sound, but the new single shows how retaining such signature features does not preclude a pivot towards anthemic pop. “Gimme a sign, something I could recognize,” Laura Weinbach demands in the chorus, her words embodying the underlying urgency which propels the track forward.

‘Gimme A Sign’ is out now. You can sign up for early access of Red Album on the Foxtails Brigade website.

Larum – O Choruscans

We covered a couple of singles from Larum‘s The Music of Hildegard von Bingen, Part Two, an album on Puremagnetik which sees Chet Doxas and Micah Frank reimagine the work of abbess, theologian, mystic and composer Hildegard von Bingen to demonstrate, as we put it in a preview “how the techniques and conventions of the twelfth century can used to create novel sounds within the contemporary moment.” Latest single ‘O Choruscans’ furthers this style with a subtle blend of woodwind and electronics, its layered approach drawing the listener into its almost spiritual world. The result is neither medieval nor futuristic but instead collapses the distinction between the two. Not old, not new, but timeless.

Neighbourly – Thread Count

“The concept of this EP was simply to have fun together making it.” So describe Vancouver Island psych rock outfit Neighbourly of their new release Get In, coming this summer on Earth Libraries. A release which promises to champion the possibilities when a group of friends get together and create without pressure or expectation. If lead single ‘Thread Count’ is anything to go by, the enjoyment and spontaneity of the process bled into the music itself. Built around a central bassline and Lauren Giorgio’s sardonic vocal style, the song combines post-punk attitude with an altogether more mischievous air, bending the aloof cool so typical of the genre with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness.

Nymphlord – Call Me Up

Back in 2023 we reviewed Mothers Cry And Then We Die. by Nymphlord on Lauren Records. “If the opening track is a representation of falling into a dream,” we wrote, “then the entire EP is a larger recreation of the feeling. A descent into a memory of a past generation which nevertheless works through the pressing issues of the present.” Now Nymphlord is back with new EP Rough Blue Blanket, and lead single ‘Call Me Up’ introduces the release’s intimate tone. Taking inspiration from sources as diverse as sixties folk and nineties grunge, the song celebrates the small moments within the everyday which together add up to form the fondest of memories.

Rainwater – Shadow

The first single of what promises to be a busy year for Blake Luley’s Rainwater, ‘Shadow’ sees the project lean further towards post-punk than ever before. The song originated as Luley observed his long early morning shadow one day and soon shifted into a wider exploration of associated themes. Namely what Luley labels his ‘shadow self’, which houses the buried parts of his identity. “As I’ve become more and more of a ‘real adult’, I’ve had to strategically bury so many aspects of my identity in the service of productivity and responsibility” he explains. “Having a child and being a teacher both reinforces keeping that shadow hidden, while also allowing little moments of my child-like shadow self to be tall and proud.” With equal parts lightness and weight, the result traces the fluctuations of this shadow as it shifts across days and circumstances—sometimes scary, sometimes shameful, sometimes the small secret that keeps you going through the day.

Tom Lark – Dive On In

With a number of singles in recent months, Tom Lark has gradually introduced the diverse tone of new album Moonlight Hotel. Be it ‘Rock & Roll Baby’ “using a laidback brand of psych folk to take on the rollercoaster ride that is life,” as we put it, or the altgether darker ‘Fuselage’, a song “all shadowy attitude and brooding edge,” as we wrote, “where the [previous] carefree spirit falters, change suddenly something dangerous and daunting.” With the full album now out, Tom Lark has shared final single and focus track ‘Dive On In’. With a languid rhythm that might be read as relaxed or melancholic, the song takes on climate anxiety with Shannon Fowler’s signature sense of juxtaposition. Pay no attention to the lyrics and you might enjoy a calm if slightly wistful sound, but dig any deeper and you’ll discover a dizzying dread beneath the surface. How do we live in a world on fire? How do we live with ourselves when there seems to be nothing we can do?

Triathalon – Down

Funeral Music, the new album from Triathalon upcoming on Lex Records, aims to provide exactly what its title promises. “It is not every day you come across an album built around the maxim ‘play this at my funeral’,” as we wrote back in February. But after single ‘RIP’ heralding what might be the NYC project’s “darkest and most unguarded collection of songs to date,” Triathalon are back with new single ‘Down’. Fans will recognise the spirit of previous releases persisting on the new track, but the extra layers of gloom and grit twist the languid pop into something altogether new. If Triathalon are known for sunny tones then we’ve hit the dusk period, where the light is failing and a long nocturnal dark stretches out ahead.

Funeral Music will be released on the 16th May via Lex Records and you can pre-order it now.

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“Has it been a year or two? Will it be cotton or leather?” asks Abigail Lapell in new single ‘Anniversary Song’. “Mercury and iron, carbon, silver / bind us together.” Taken from the Toronto singer-songwriter’s forthcoming album Anniversary on Outside Music, the song encapsulates the marriage of symbolism and tangibility used across the record. Romantic chemistry as both otherworldly magic and physical reaction. Not that the love on the album is merely of the romantic sort, with a series of personal milestones prompting Lapell to contemplate the phenomenon in all its guises, offering a picture of relationships and commitment with all the complexities left intact.

Agent blå – Rain To You

Last month we wrote about ‘Discount’, the lead single from the upcoming album Stab! by Gothenburg‘s Agent blå on VÅRØ Records (Sweden) and Kanine Records (US). What we described as a song “simmering with eerie menace and charged with forward motion, splitting the difference between familiarity and strangeness.” With the album coming later this spring, Agent blå have returned with second single ‘Rain To You’ to build upon these beginnings. Squally and loaded with momentum, it looks to small details as sources of comfort within an otherwise overwhelming world, and submits itself fully to forces large and mysterious.

Never spoke it with a sober mouth
I’m drawn to the chaos, my sanity grown shy
Keep clinging to no time
You’re the moon to me
I was rain to you

Al Harper – Plaster of Paris

Later this month, San Francisco-based songwriter Al Harper will release album The Analemma Observation League via Take a Turn Records. An album which draws upon the solar phenomenon of its title to explore themes of change and growth. Analemma refers to the figure of eight plot made if one was to chart the sun’s position in the sky from the same position at the same time of day across an entire year, rendering what might otherwise seem a linear process into an infinite loop. Working in such a spirit, Al Harper draws on a variety of memories and experiences to offer the past not as some line trailing ever further into the distance, but rather something forever orbiting around us. Lessons to learn from, patterns to take comfort in. The suitably sunny sound of latest single ‘Plaster of Paris’ is the perfect introduction, and comes complete with a video shot by Harper and Craig Barclift and edited by Simon Linsteadt:

The Analemma Observation League is out on the 23rd February via Take A Turn Records and you can pre-order it now.

bedbug – postcard

We’ve long followed the work of bedbug, charting how Dylan Gamez Citron has taken the project through a trilogy of acclaimed bedroom pop albums before metamorphosing into a full band for a self-titled EP in 2022. This year sees bedbug return with pack your bags the sun is growing, a full-length album which builds more fully upon this change of direction to push the project closer to Cap’n Jazz than the hushed aesthetic from which they originated. A style which only furthers Citron’s ability to weave the personal and the political into a seamless whole. Vitally none of the heart or intimacy is lost in this transformation, as single ‘postcard’ attests, and while any project inevitably passes through various life stages as time goes on, you get the sense Citron and co. are rising towards their fullest potential. The first bedbug to ever sprout wings.

Dead Slow Hoot – Take It Or Leave It

Specialising in a style of atmospheric alt-rock that’s at once melancholy and anthemic, Sheffield/London outfit Dead Slow Hoot draw on a variety of genres to create something unique. Previous releases have drawn on poetic folk, shadowy post-punk and epic post-rock, sometimes within the same song, and new single ‘Take It Or Leave It’ is no different. Opening with just pared-back guitar and banjo, it eventually builds to a dramatic crescendo of wailing guitar and crashing percussion, straddling the line between an intimate acoustic ballad and a monumental rock song. The song is about “making necessary compromises for the good of your partner and growing together through that,” the band explain, “[and also] a more general realism, accepting the ‘competing intentions’ that you might have with another person… and actively engaging with them to make something better.”

‘Take It Or Leave It’ is out now via streaming services.

Emma Geiger – Reverse Bloom

We’ve featured Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter Emma Geiger several times over the last year or so. First with 2022 EP Haven, and then with several stellar singles. Excitingly, Geiger is now putting the finishing touches to her debut full-length, Reverse Bloom, which features those singles alongside four brand new tracks. To further whet anticipation, she has released the title track, a song which moves its focus away from romantic relationships towards the difficult loss of a friendship. Someone Geiger was formerly close to wrote a song detailing the dissolution of their friendship, and this is an exploration of the following emotions. “When I first heard it, I felt her anger, frustration and bitterness,” she describes. “That friendship meant a lot to me, and losing it really shook me. It brought up a lot of questions about who I am, and who I was in that relationship.” Watch the video filmed by Archer Boyette and directed by Boyette and Geiger herself below:

Reverse Bloom is out on 26th April. ‘Reverse Bloom’ the single is available now via the Emma Geiger Bandcamp page.

Eyesore & The Jinx – Float Like a Jellyfish (Sting Like a Subtweet)

“[A song which presents] the gym as the encapsulation of the country,” we wrote of Eyesore & The Jinx‘s ‘Nocturnal Athletes (Ode To Bruno)’ by back in September when previewing their debut album, Jitterbug, “where an assortment of lonely and overworked people run without going anywhere, lift with no purpose beyond some abstract penance, and stare at screens playing Top 40 videos on a loop.” With the record’s release fast approaching, the Liverpool-based outfit have shared final single ‘Float Like a Jellyfish (Sting Like a Subtweet)’, and fans will be reassured to learn it is every bit as twitchy and cutting as we’ve come to expect. Light-hearted, mischievous and a little hyperactive, winding taut with anxious energy to evoke a decidedly contemporary unease.

Jordan Whitlock & Memory Spells – Take My Hand

Memory Spells is the new project of songwriter Matt Bauer which takes the orchestral indie folk he puts out under his own name further towards “his love of contemporary TV, film and video game scores, cinematic post rock, early post punk, and 80s film music.” His latest collaboration is with San Diego songwriter and producer Jordan Whitlock, whose intimate writing and impressive soulful vocals have been wining fans all over. Suffused with the lush, shadowy grandeur of Lynch at his most romantic, latest single ‘Take My Hand’ is what the duo describe as “Emmylou Harris meets Cigarettes after Sex,” not only offering a new dimension to Bauer’s work but opening up a whole world of its own.

You can find out more on the Memory Spells website.

The Lostines – Full Moon Night

The recording project of New Orleans-based songwriters Casey Jane Reece-Kaigler and Camille Wind Weatherford, The Lostines are preparing to release their debut full-length Meet The Lostines this spring on Gar Hole Records. The album draws plenty from the Louisiana landscape, but ultimately conjures a world of its own. One in which time and space has gone a little strange, and a whole host of periods and places layer atop of one another to form something larger than the sum of its parts. Lead single ‘Full Moon Night’ typifies the result, where retro folk harmonies and spectral synths bring to life a languid longing for a love now past.

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Coming this spring on VÅRØ Records (Sweden) and Kanine Records (US), Stab! sees Agent blå expand their reach to include elements of psychedelic and krautrock styles. The result is both their most ambitious album to date and something of a call back to their earliest songs. Single ‘Discount’ introduces the style, simmering with eerie menace and charged with forward motion, splitting the difference between familiarity and strangeness. “I see your outlines in the walls / I see your outlines clearer in the dark,” Alatalo sings, “She’s here / She’s here.” But for all the words’ haunting unease, there’s a cathartic edge to the song too. Finding some kind of comfort or power in delving into the dark.

Pick my brains
Like there’s substance left
Not across
Is my brain across your walls?

She’s here
She’s here

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