We first wrote about Nashville duo Angel Saint Queen back last summer, describing single ‘Diable Lake’ as “a track which highlights the duo’s bittersweet tone, capturing a sadness for leaving and excitement for what comes next.” Latest single ‘You Were There’ is no less conflicted in its tone, evoking the strange blend of sadness and relief left in the wake of a break-up. Though sound’s raw energy embraces the emotion wholeheartedly, building from restrained beginnings into a blaze of feeling. One last conflagration at the end of a fiery relationship before the new dawn arrives.

‘You Were There’ is out now and available from the usual places.

bugcatcher – Desert

The recording project of Rochester‘s Jake Denning and a variety of friends, Bugcatcher operates within the slacker end of the alt-country spectrum, though crafts its DIY aesthetic with a precise hand. With an album coming soon, the outfit have released new single ‘Desert’, a song which both serves as an ode to the titular landscape and a search for meaning within an otherwise barren milieu. “I’m going across the desert / I’ll find the holy land myself,” Denning sings, buoyed by the understated rhythm of the sound. “I’m going across the desert / Got my soul for all my wealth.”

Running across the desert
The walls of Jordan are calling me
Going across the desert
Where dinosaur bones are buried in sleep

C.J. Red Mouth – Red Line

With EP Greenhouse on the horizon, C.J. Red Mouth (AKA Durham, North Carolina songwriter C.J. Yang) has unveiled brand new single, ‘Red Line’. The EP centres on the search from freedom within restrictive systems and relationships, and the single typifies the building catharsis which results. A reflection on an old commute, the slow creeping sound evokes the grimy dark of the Boston subway with guitar from June Isenhart (Miss Bones). The track gathers momentum as though quite literally barrelling toward the light at the end of the tunnel, culminating in an ecstatic finale complete with primal screaming.

Scream over the roaring dark
Scream until I hear myself

Daneshevskaya – Somewhere in the Middle

When Anna Daneshevskaya Beckerman took her Russian-Jewish middle name as the moniker for her songwriting project, she did so with significant intention. Daneshevskaya is also the surname of her grandmother, a poet who helped to cultivate her granddaughter’s creative sensibilities, and ultimately served as great inspiration for Beckerman’s own voice. In this way, Daneshevskaya represents a continuation of her grandmother’s vocation, though one processed through Beckerman’s own distinctive eye for detail, spinning off from poetry into vivid indie rock. Released to celebrate signing with Winspear and an imminent tour supporting Black Country, New Road, new single ‘Somewhere in the Middle’ is the ideal introduction for the uninitiated. A curious, searching song which broaches the subject of identity from an unguarded, almost child-like perspective. “My grandma had two sisters and her parents would say ‘Anita has the looks, Miriam has the books, and Gloria has the charm’,” Beckerman explains. “I used to think about which one I would want to be. I never questioned having to choose.” Watch the video by Mia Duncan below:

‘Somewhere in the Middle’ is out now via Winspear and available from Bandcamp.

Dustin Mayle – Saturn’s Last Ring

Ohio songwriter Dustin Mayle recently released latest album Dear Loretta, a collection of songs which fall into the DIY folk tradition but nevertheless achieve a tangible richness despite their lo-fi leanings. Take single ‘Saturn’s Last Ring’, its intimate acoustic style periodically coalescing into something bigger and bolder before unwinding to its former state just as quickly. Mayle’s vocals add an opaque lyricism, nodding towards the mythic undertones of Jason Molina or Adrienne Lenker, catching onto a repeated refrain as the instrumentation swells, as though having tapped into some kind of incantation.

Hannah Cameron – Smells Like Leaving

Later this year, Naarm / Melbourne singer-songwriter Hannah Cameron will release Holding Pattern, her third studio album. Recorded with producer Matt Redlich in his studio alongside longtime collaborators Luke Hodgson (bass) and Leigh Fisher (drums), the album was written largely on baritone guitar. This is immediately apparent on latest single ‘Smells Like Leaving’, a sombre slow burner that details a post-breakup road trip with wistful pedal steel and evocative lyrics that read like staccato poetry. Watch the very apt video, shot by Cameron herself, below:

The blink and dash
The petty cash
The cigarette that’s burned to ash
Smells like leaving

Holding Pattern releases on 22nd September. Pre-order a copy from the Hannah Cameron Bandcamp page.

Laura Zarougian – Cairo

Self-described as “one part Armenian cowgirl and one part indie rock,” the music of Laura Zarougian draws on everything from mystical desert rock to the wistful classics of Emmylou Harris and Neil Young in order to tell the story of her forebears. New single ‘Cairo’ applies this to the city of its title, casting Egypt as a distant, almost mythical place, one constructed from old tales and holding secrets too. “My father was born and raised in Cairo, Egypt,” Zarougian explains. “What I know of Cairo is from the stories—the ones my father told me, and the ones that were withheld.”

We don’t have the money to bring his body up the Nile
you will marry an older man, remember to smile
Cairo, you’re a gilded frame,
yeah you’ve got the man beguiled
we’re headed on an aeroplane
we won’t see you for a while

I can tell you’re hiding something,
look at you I know you’re bluffing

Nymphlord – Bougainvillea

A combination of “radio-ready pop hooks” and “a ferocious feminist punk energy,” that’s how we described the music of Nymphlord back in May, along with “an ethereal experimentalism that sees acoustic guitar become otherworldly.” With the release of EP Mothers Cry And Then We Die. fast approaching, the LA-based artist has unveiled a brand new single, ‘Bougainvillea’. A song which blurs hectic energy with a downbeat emotional state to paint a subversive picture of California, drawing equally from retro surf rock and contemporary pop to undermine the sunny stereotypes. A landscape where even the prettiest things have teeth.

Hot day
Muggy day
Same thing
Always
I still feel so cold in LA

Mothers Cry And Then We Die. is out on the 25th August and you can pre-order it now.

Wandering Summer – Show Me The Way

Wandering Summer, the new project of Geddy Laurance (Boyracer, City Yelps, Wonderswan), might be rooted in its Leeds home, but it certainly reaches far and wide to bring the sound to life. An amalgamation of bouncy energy and nostalgic fuzz which owes more to New York noise bands or Californian and Glaswegian pop than anything coming out of Yorkshire. Though as their self-titled EP shows, there’s something particular to the sound that marks its place in the world. An ability to evoke both rolling fields and endless terraced housing, simultaneously embracing its surroundings and dreaming of escape. Single ‘Show Me The Way’ sits at the popppiest end of the Wander Summer style, where wistful fondness is only matched by the sense of eager forward motion.

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LA-born, Nashville-based songwriter Alicia Blue has just released her most recent EP Inner Child Work via Magnetic Moon, and opening track ‘DTMTS (Don’t Tell Me To Smile)’ serves as the perfect introduction to her work. A song which seizes upon the pressure to present yourself a certain way, even when the world is overwhelming and smiling is the last thing on your mind. “I’m a real thing,” Blue sings, “If you want to be with me / know that sometimes the sun’s not going to shine.”

Inner Child Work is out now via Magnetic Moon and available at the usual places.

Angel Saint Queen – Diablo Lake

The product of a months-long road trip, Angel Saint Queen’s ‘Diablo Lake’ takes in the range of the American landscape, be it wide-sky deserts of Utah to the rainy mountains of the Pacific Northwest. A track which highlights the duo’s bittersweet tone, capturing a sadness for leaving and excitement for what comes next. A little wistful, a little upbeat, ready to roll the windows down and ride on through to whatever place should pop up next.

‘Diablo Lake’ is out now and available via streaming services.

First Rodeo – Didn’t It Rain Last Night

There’s a certain old-time charm to Portland‘s First Rodeo. A collaborative project between Nathan Tucker and Tim Howe, their sound has more than one foot in classic country rock. But there’s a contemporary freshness to the sound too, meaning wherever their boots are planted, there’s no question they are facing out over fresh ground. Lead single ‘Didn’t It Rain Last Night’ is the perfect introduction, a song contemplative and sometimes melancholic, its Americana roots accentuated by Sam Wenc‘s bowed banjo, though infused with a confident rhythm which rubs off on everything.

Goon – Emily Says

Fresh from releasing album Paint By Numbers, Volume 1 back in February, LA’s Goon are already back with brand new record, Hour of Green Evening. Described as the band’s “most complete statement,” the album sees Goon combine everything which came before to realise their most polished and detailed sound yet. Single ‘Emily Says’ shows off just how evocative this can be. A love song dedicated to frontman Kenny Becker’s wife Emily Elkin which celebrates the transformational power of forming a bond while acknowledging it cannot alleviate all external ills.

it hinges here in the air
a garden in wait
blanket of sunshine
and i’m like “i wanna be there”
and emily says “hope still appears”
and though i know in my heart it’s right
feeling like hurting myself tonight
nobody’s candle is burning bright
the wind inside the blades of grass will unbind it

Hour of Green Evening is out now and you get it from the Goon Bandcamp page.

Indigo Sparke – Pressure in My Chest

This October sees Australian songwriter Indigo Sparke return with their second full-length album, Hysteria, on Sacred Bones. With focus on themes of love, loss, history and reconciliation, the record is a raw yet far-reaching collection of songs, pushing beyond the relative minimalism of debut echo yet retaining the intimacy at its core. Lead single ‘Pressure in My Chest’ pitches the listener straight into the deep and honest sound, building with the slow intensity suggested by the title until its cathartic conclusion.

Jack Keyes – The Moon is Too High

Louisville songwriter Jack Keyes released his second record Dissolving in Dusk this month, an album we’ve described previously as “wrapped in an easy-going sincerity that holds both melancholy and fondness.” After ‘Grey Balloons‘ offered a conflicted picture of a relationship slipping away, final single ‘The Moon is Too High’ searches for a way in which to appreciate the present moment, however difficult and fleeting it might seem, with an endearingly lo-fi and intimate sound.

Kramies – Hotel in LA

With a brand of folk-inflected dream pop willing to combine history with folklore and myth, Kramies has made a name across several acclaimed EPs, but this September sees the release of a self-titled debut full-length on Hidden Shoal. Featuring Todd Tobias (Guided By Voices), Patrick Carney (The Black Keys), Jason Lytle (Grandaddy) and Tyler Ramsey (Band of Horses), the record offers a layered, ethereal sound which challenges the distinction between real and dreams when contemplating the past. Which is something single ‘Hotel in LA’ captures perfectly. “It kind of follows that timeline of my life where there was a beautiful blur between the lines of what was real and what was nostalgia in the making,” he explains. A space in which experiences are processed into memories, and all the emotional significance attached. Check out the video by Derek Lee LaJoie below:

Kramies is out on the 9th September via Hidden Shoal.

Lee Baggett – Fruit Dog

Born in the Philippines, Lee Baggett moved to Sanger, California as a kid, going on to form a band in high school and becoming part of the San Luis Obispo music scene through the eighties and nineties in bands like Unknown Origin and Fever Tree. Work with Kyle Field’s Little Wings and the Be Gulls followed, as well as a solo career which stretches right through to the present with Anyway, a new record coming soon on Perpetual Doom. Single ‘Fruit Dog’ taps into this history, like a long-lost seventies summer jam complete with a surreal slacker spirit which captures that easy-going West Coast swagger.

 Nwando Ebizie – Myrrha

Nwando Ebizie is a multidisciplinary Afrofuturist artist gearing up to release debut album The Swan this month on Accidental Records. A lesson in speculative world building, the release conjures an fictional matriarchal society which feels both timeless and utopian, Ebizie’s use of found sound and footage bending the lines between the historical past and imagined futures. An enthography of what was and what could be. Described as “a lament,” single ‘Myrrha’ confronts the intricate relationship between pain and change, finding space to mourn and celebrate those who have suffered through a process of transformation.

The Pleasure Majenta – Gardens

Hailing from New Zealand and now based in Berlin, The Pleasure Majenta craft a deliciously dark sound which draws upon goth and noise influences with a cowboy twang too. Their latest record Looming, the Spindle came out recently on Dedstrange, and final single ‘Gardens’ serves as a great introduction for the uninitiated. Opening with a palpable foreboding, the track coalesces around itself with shadowy grace, the mood decidedly Lynchian as it unfurls, beckoning the listener further into its slowly sashaying heart. Check out the video filmed, directed and edited by Anna Winslow below:

Looming, the Spindle is out now via Dedstrange and you can grab it from The Pleasure Majenta Bandcamp page.

Sun Kin – I Wanna Believe

Following on from ambient EP Painting Whales, Part 1 earlier this year, Kabir Kumar has turned Sun Kin back toward a more indie pop direction with new single, ‘I Wanna Believe’. A bright, smooth track packed with upbeat energy and heartfelt emotion, its tone never quite erring on the side of irony or sincerity but instead embracing a duality within its retro glitz. On the one hand there’s a playful side (“I wanna believe in love / I’m eating a chocolate bar named for loneliness”) but there’s a more earnest thread to the track too. What Kumar describes as about “gaining love by treating it as a spiritual foundation.”

vireo – Coyote

Following on from 2019’s leaf heap, an album we described as “slow and patient and peaceful as the late autumn dusk,” Pittsburgh‘s vireo are set to return with brand new record, Moss Longing. Lead single ‘Coyote’ introduces a collection of songs centring around “climate anxiety, folklore, wanderlust and children’s books,” its careful folk pop sound blossoming gradually into something bright and affirming, the vocals of lead Chris Beaulieu shaded by a sense of sadness but not beholden to it.

Moss Longing is due to be released on 18th August. Pre-save on Spotify, or keep on eye on the vireo Bandcamp page for pre-order info.

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