’Holy Roller’ was a lesson for me, a song that happened with no planning, no ‘trying to write’, but a pure, detached channeling. That metaphor made perfect sense to me after the fact, there is a voice in my heart that I have a complex relationship with that tells me to move around, be somewhat nomadic, not really settle down in one specific place. During that writing session, that bittersweet feeling of moving from my home state kept returning.

Hiding Places have now unveiled their brand new album The Secret To Good Living, to be released later this spring, and have shared a couple of new tracks to preview the record. First came ‘Waiting’, a song written by vocalist/guitarist Nicholas Byrne which sits in the middle of a Venn diagram between grunge and alt country, laden with the weight of mortality and its portentous shadow as it extends across industrial America. “Heard it from around the corner / The whistling wind,” Bryne sings with trademark despondence. “The burlap bag in the barbed wire / Was ripped to shreds / Broken glass beside the highway / Crushed cement / Blinding headlights cut / the cold air /A painless end.” Again the sound not only mirrors the track’s themes but the very conditions of its creation. “I recalled the slow death of my uncle, and the painful anticipation that filled the interstitial space between here and gone,” he explains. “I wrote the verses six months later in the freezing cold on my way home from my studio in the industrial part of our neighborhood. I sang this song to my aunt years later as she was dying. We both cried.”

‘Waiting’ comes complete with a video directed and animated by Byrne himself, with additional live show footage by Sam and Ky:

Described by Keelin as “a meditation on how we can be so hard on ourselves in the face of keeping up long-distance relationships and friendships,” subsequent single ‘One Hand’ is no less evocative or foreboding. The main body of the track is expansive and stark, almost hypnotic in its slow unfurling, yet always stalked by the possibility of sudden change. As though within the sound’s gradual procession, something is coalescing. A storm perhaps, some dark mass gathering itself to the point in which a threshold is reached and thunder might be unleashed. Only this violent potential is never fully realised, the weight always at a distance, the front breaking one valley over. The result is therefore lonely in its own way, yearning for that which is unfolding beyond its horizon.

I took too long to call for some reason
I took too long to write for some reason
I want too much, too many friends to count on one hand, or two, or ten
I took too much too quick because I want to win just like they did
They want too much
You took too long

Watch the video directed by Henry Cutting below:

The Secret To Good Living will be released on the 3rd April via Keeled Scales and you can pre-order it now from the Hiding Places Bandcamp page.

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Within this context, it is tempting to view ‘I Thought Love Meant’ as a kind of epiphany. The conclusion which sets out the wisdom gleaned up to now. The track which sets out exactly what love means after all. But while there is an undoubted clarity within the lush yet understated arrangement and Natalie Jane Hill’s delivery, the insight here is that no such realisation could ever be reached. Love cannot be defined or explained away, even appears to actively resist such attempts. Like an apparition shimmering on the edge of your vision which shifts should you attempt to look at it directly. Love is a mystery. That’s the conclusion Hill offers with Hopeful Woman. It will grow bigger and smaller according to rules beyond your understanding. Accepting this fact is the only path to being okay.

Watch the video filmed at the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern North Carolina below, directed and edited by Spencer Kelly, along with director of photography Gray McClamrock and colorist Kyle Messina:

Hopeful Woman will be released on the 6th March via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now.

Photo by Charlie Boss, album painting by Bobbye Fermie

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The release is only days away, and the title track serves as a fitting final single. The one song which binds together all of the others, as though providing the environment in which the rest take place. “Every song on this record seems to have its long lost twin,” Alexa Rose explains:

One falls in love while the other falls out. One relaxes into an ordinary day while one grieves what is forever altered. One is settled into the memory of an old mountain homestead, and one barrels down a highway, restless and unrooted. Eventually they meet, estranged, but undeniably related. ‘Atmosphere’ is the sky above all these scenes, heavy yet weightless at the same time. When I set out to make this record, I knew I wanted it to feel like a gradient of a storm, like having the clouds move through you. My hope was that this song would serve as the beginning of that, a shift in the air pressure, a few pleasurable drops of rain while the sun still generously warms your shoulders.

Atmosphere will be released on the 31st October and you can pre-order it now from the Alexa Rose website.

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Writing of Astra Forward back in 2022, we described how the London-based artist combines “classic folk stylings as well as a timeless ethereal atmosphere channeling a bond between human emotion and the natural world that feels somehow ancient.” New single ‘Ben’s Birds’ again possesses a link to nature, though this time the real focus is memory. Joe Taylor (drums/percussion), Callum McGuinness (production/bass/nylon strung guitar) and Laura Hussey (violin) help create a sound capable of conjuring thoughts of a past friendship in vivid detail, and thus breath new life into something precious. “With writing ‘Ben’s Birds’, I hoped to bring into colour ageing memories that felt like they were fading,” the artist explains. “The song seeks to reflect something of this gentle soul’s beauty and our connection, while expressing broader themes of memory, endurance and grief.”

Bennett Heidelberger – Eater of God/100usd

Having been around the Nashville music scene for a number of years, Bennett Heidelberger finally decided to release some songs of his own in 2024, starting with EP Wood Ducks. That record was a collection of small, tender tracks which centred on loss in various guises, from bereavement to the end of a romantic relationship. Now Heidelberger is back with new double single ‘Eater of God/100usd’, a pair of songs no less heartfelt in their execution yet showing a newfound sense of scale and weight. The former opens in a sincere hush before developing into something bigger and bolder, and ‘100usd’ follows suit with Heidelberger’s weightiest sound to date, the tone slightly more wry but lacking none of the emotion.

boyhood. – looking for you

Back in August we wrote about boyhood., a project which represents “an attempt […] to consider what has been gained and lost through the slow process of self-actualisation,” as we put it. “To save the parts worth saving, and potentially fill in the gaps.” Like previous single ‘wes anderson (your dog)’, new track ‘looking for you’ rises from restrained, downbeat beginnings into something richly affirming, as though the track’s confessional tone coaxes the sound to life. An exploration of love and grief most striking for its authenticity, delivered with the ambience of the moment left intact. “I recorded dozens of ‘clean’ vocal takes between October and now, and ended up just keeping the crude demo and bringing in friends to help me build around it,” boyhood. explains, “keeping the imperfections and clicks and bits of conversation to maintain the emotional space I wrote it in.”

‘looking for you’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Lavender Blue – Wishbone

Based in the mountains of Asheville, NC, Lavender Blue is the recording project of Kayla Zuskin. Following on from 2022 EP Slow Down, Lavender Blue is back with new singles on Ghost Mountain Records. The latest of which, ‘Wishbone’, takes inspiration from the image of a tree split in two yet continuing to grow, something moving in different directions but fundamentally united at the root. “[The song is] about the cognitive dissonance we all can experience when people or places inherently grow apart but alas remain connected,” as Zuskin puts it. Mary Steinbrecher (bass, vocals) and Jack Victor (drums) lend the talents to bring to life a sound that owes as much to emo as it does folk or dream pop, combining sharp and smooth textures to evoke the duality at the track’s heart.

Lofi Legs – Chain

With a new album on the way, San Francisco indie rockers Lofi Legs have returned with the single ‘Chain’. We previously wrote about how they melded “garage rock and bedroom pop with psych and surf sensibilities […] to capture the highs and lows of life,” and the new track builds upon the vibe to gloriously hazy results. Harking back to the buzz bands of the early 00s, ‘Chain’ delivers a brightly carefree spirit within a bundle of scrappy energy and fuzzed-out textures, leading to a sound that is entirely committed despite not taking itself too seriously. Watch the suitably surreal video below:

‘Chain’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Matthew Squires – Song of a Cactus

‘Song of a Cactus’, the latest single from Matthew Squires, was penned during the pandemic, though its sense of lost direction was familiar before the virus, and has persisted to the present day. “I have that annoying songwriter habit of wanting to defer to the work itself rather than my explanation of it,” Squires says, “but I’d say it’s about finding some quiet sense of desperate hope in an apocalypse.” Fans of the Texas songwriter will recognise the idiosyncratic and heartfelt tone, with a newfound use of synths deepening the mood without sacrificing the raw immediacy so key to Squires’s work. The result feels like an urgent dispatch from within an uncertain present. As Squires concludes: “I wanted to make sure I released it before the election as my little quixotic attempt at creating a psychical place of refuge in anticipation of whatever direction the world might lurch.”

Routine Caffeine – Philodendron

We first wrote about Routine Caffeine at the beginning of the year, describing how single ‘In The End Now’ embodied the Louisville outfit’s “penchant for rich, bittersweet soundscapes” and introduced their EP, Weeds Under Concrete Stones. With the full release now out in the world, Routine Caffeine have shared new single and opener ‘Philodendron’. It’s a track which marries a taut central rhythm with a dreamy haze, and hints at a sharp bite too, all highlighting just how much control Katie O’Brien Kelley (vocals, guitar), Madison Elizabeth Case (bass, synth, background vocals) and Emma Treganowan (drums) have over the mood of their work.

Sarah Swire – Tight!

Recording under the moniker Sister Swire, Toronto songwriter and actor Sarah Swire has caught our attention with with a delightfully idiosyncratic brand of art rock, from the nuanced, ominous take on psychosis on ‘I Shot the President’ to the unapologetically malicious fun of ‘Pulleys and Gears‘. Released under her own name, new single ‘Tight!’ is every bit as inventive as its predecessors, and has no less force in its bite. Owing as much to the weird fiction of Joy Williams as it does Captain Beefhart or Nick Cave, the track is a monologue delivered in the manner of a wound spring, twisting tighter and tighter until it unravels in a moment of chaotic release. The video—directed by Swire and shot by Nicole Cecile Holland, with animations and editing by Eric Stephen Martin—only furthers the surreal intensity of the track, Swire’s movements charged and contorted by her words as if not so much speaking or singing as channelling a deeper energy.

‘Tight! is out now and available from the usual places.

Shady Baby – Held In

Released to celebrate a successful year including a performance on the main stage at Y Not Festival and shows with Malice K, Shady Baby‘s new single ‘Held In’ is a fitting way to cap off 2024. With the Brighton outfit leaning further than ever into the bittersweet drama of nineties alt rock, the song finds Sam Leaver and co. pairing weighty crescendos with emotional depth, leading to what might be their most assured, evocative sound to date. A sense of control binds the majority of the track, though the constant simmer of its energies pays off in the soaring conclusion. Watch the video filmed by Meg Sweeney and directed and edited by Leaver below:

‘Held In’ is out now and available from the usual places.

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After the success of previous LP Cola, A Beacon School (AKA New York songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Patrick J Smith) has announced a return with brand new full-length yoyo later this year via Grind Select. The previous album was notable for its ability to combine bright pop with shoegaze and electronic elements, and lead single ‘Potion’ suggests the new record furthers this style. A song of sunny tones and pressing energy which provides all the lush textures of dream pop without sacrificing any of the detail or momentum. “‘Potion’ was written in one sitting back in 2019 and has been a live staple since then,” Smith explains. “It’s about feeling a burst of excitement about something new but also the fear that accompanies it.” Check out the video by Chase Wagner below:

yoyo is out on the 13th October 13 via Grind Select and you can pre-order it now.

Bo Milli – Making Friends

Be it the digital age dramas of ‘FOMO‘ or the climate anxiety of ‘Good Kid‘, Bergen-based songwriter Bo Milli is an artist dialled in to the pressing issues of the contemporary moment. Latest standalone single ‘Making Friends’ is no less immediate in its concerns, though its focus has a more timeless quality. A track which charts the rollercoaster ride of young life through the prism of a hectic night out, capturing a sense of both the carefree abandon and creeping loneliness of late nights, new faces and a sense of endless possibility.

‘Making Friends’ is out now and available from the Bo Milli Bandcamp page.

Cal Rifkin – Break My Heart

Based in Washington D.C., Cal Rifkin is the project of Erik Grimm (guitar/vocals), Keith Butler Jr. (drums) and Robin Rhodes (bass) who bonded over a “shared love for greasy Ledo’s pizza, early 90s baseball aesthetics, and rock ‘n’ roll music.” Late last month, the trio released Better Luck Next Time, a five-song EP that plays like a distillation of their signature style, namely hook-laden power pop with singalong choruses, vocal harmonies and enough noisy rock ‘n roll grit to keep the rock heads onside. There’s absolutely no filler across the record, but current favourite ‘Break My Heart’ might be the best introduction. It’s an energetic rock song that skirts the line between cool and sincere, complete with a ludicrously catchy chorus.

So come on and break my heart in two
Could be the best thing you could do

Isabel Crespo Pardo – la l​í​nea será

Based in New York, Isabel Crespo Pardo is a Latinx vocalist, improviser-composer and interdisciplinary artist. Combining music, visual art, text and performance, their work is a web of both composition and improvisation that sets out to explore (and then evolve in response to) what they describe as “the intra/interpersonal spaces they inhabit.” Later this month, Pardo will release an album, el rostro (des​)​cubierto, on Lobby Art Records, “forty minutes of wondering and wandering with hand over heart,” as they put it, “aching in solitude and giving and craving forgiveness.” Lead single ‘la l​í​nea será’ introduces the record’s sound, which sees Pardo joined by Afarin Nazarijou (qanun) Skyler Hill (electric guitar) and Seajun Kwon (acoustic bass) to create something that sounds somehow novel and timeless.

Katie Von Schleicher – Elixir

Since her last record Consummation released in 2020 on Full Time Hobby and Ba Da Bing Records, Katie Von Schleicher has released a handful of singles; first two b-sides from the album and then standalone piece ‘could’ which she described as “a fun foray into the world of strings.” Fast forward a couple of years and the Brooklyn-based artist has unveiled a new single, ‘Elixir’. Released via Durham, NC label Sipsman, the track is a duet with Aly Spaltro (aka Lady Lamb) and showcases a lighter, more playful side to Von Schleicher’s work, all droll delivery and cuttingly sincere lyrics. “How can I reach out to the poems that I’ve loved, embrace plain speech more,” Von Schleicher asks of the song’s inspiration, “and how, for just one goddamned time, can I bring my sense of humour into my music?”

my body with blood – Time and Again

‘Time and Again’ introduces the music of Asheville-based slowcore project, my body with blood. Together with Eli Whitlow (drums), Ivo Pestana (bass) and Cass Dayton (backing vocals), they make a melancholic but never morose sound, probing into the frustrations of a repeating pattern. “I lost a friend, his father tried / To bring me back to Jesus,” goes one of the verses. “The year will end / And I’ll count the ways that I’ve failed.” But there’s a certain sense of reflection to the tone, a perspective only gained by some modicum of distance, and with it the prospect that such cycles might at least be weathered if not entirely conquered.

It’s the same
Time, time and again
I’ve memorized the cycle
The cycle by now

You can find my body with blood on Instagram.

Pony Girl – Laff It Off

Following on from last year’s shadowy Enny One Will Love You, Pony Girl are returning later this year with new LP, Laff It Off, on Paper Bag Records. A release described as a sister record to the previous album, examining many of the same themes and situations but this time with a focus on the playful side of things. The title track is itself the twin of previous single, ‘Running in Circles‘, which we described as “a slow-burning pop number which slowly unravels into something more chaotic as another crushingly mundane day in work pushes the narrator to the brink.” The new single presents us with the same situation but reacts differently, a refusal in the face of the employment grindstone which emerges with bright humanity intact. “We first wrote [the refrain] ‘I don’t wanna be working every day’ as a lark,” the band explain, “but ultimately fell for it as a chant to get through the next shift.” Watch the video below produced by K Collective and directed by DELGATZ:

Laff It Off is out via Paper Bag Records on the 27th October and you can pre-order it now.

Quinn Devlin – Movie Scene

Back in April we featured ‘Lilian’, a single from Pennsylvania-born multi-instrumentalist Quinn Devlin, a track we described as “solo intimacy blown up into something communal, the sound’s careful richness developing into an affirming final chorus.” Devlin has since been picked up by Lorkin O’Reilly’s A For Effort Records, and plans to release full-length album Pair Of Threes later this year. In the meantime, new track ‘Movie Scene’ gives a taster of what’s to come. Its winding folk style paints a summer afternoon in all of its ideal fondness, channelling the country classics to invoke a nostalgically golden hue.

Pair Of Threes is out this September via A For Effort Records.

Stephen Steinbrink – Cruiser

With new album Disappearing Coin coming later this summer on Western Vinyl, Stephen Steinbrink has unveiled a brand new single, ‘Cruiser’. The record’s title refers to a magician’s trick Steinbrink saw on Youtube—where a coin is made to vanish in front of a viewing highschooler—speaking to the blend of ordinary and extraordinary which marks the songs. The new single aims to reach for the perspective of this amazed, awkward bystander. An attempt to write from the perspective of a character embedded within the “conservative defoliated suburban environments,” a landscape familiar to Steinbrink from his own youth, with Boy Scouts (AKA Boy Scouts) lending vocals too. As he continues:

This character feels he has to hide what he loves, hyper-vigilant for opportunities to mold himself into a shape that will be accepted by the people around him, independent because no one is paying attention. There are parts of myself in the character, but it’s mostly an amalgamation of friends I grew up with in the punk/DIY scene in Phoenix in the late 2000s before we all moved away.

Disappearing Coin is out on the 18th August via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

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Originating from Asheville, North Carolina and now based in Los Angeles, Adriana McCassim introduced her distinctive brand of folk rock back in 2020 with the EP Quiet Sides. It was a release equal parts visceral and ethereal which looked for sparks of beauty and solidarity amid difficult circumstances. With debut full length See It Fades coming next year, McCassim has shared the new single ‘TOUCH’. A track which builds upon the previous releases, stripping out all excesses to place the vocals front and centre, left to work through unreciprocated desire with nothing to hide behind. “This song is about finally allowing myself to take up space,” McCassim explains. “To be naked, ugly and loud.”

Arima Ederra – Steel wing

Discovering the Ethiopian spiritual music mezmur in a Las Vegas Ethiopian Orthodox Church during childhood, Arima Ederra was convinced of the power of music from an early age. Her work since 2016 debut Temporary Fixes has been geared towards capturing this joyous, healing force, and latest album An Orange Colored Day feels like the most confident yet, applying everything learned from a life steeped in music to process any and every pressing issue at hand. Single ‘Steel wing’ is a good place to start for a window into what this entails, its inventive and relaxed style imbued with an infectious, toe-tapping rhythm, inviting you in to sit a while and leave your concerns at the door.

Credit Electric – summit sipper

Fresh from single ‘here 4 u‘ on the Royal Oakie Records tenth anniversary compilation, Bay Area outfit Credit Electric have released their latest full-length record, out of love in the face of a shadow. Germinating within the limitations imposed by the global pandemic, the album represents a new era for the Credit Electric style, their moves to adapt to the novel conditions opening up new avenues of inquiry. Which is how the liner notes can describe the album as one drawing from acts as diverse as Hiroshi Yoshimura, American Football, Dire Straits and Magnolia Electric Co. Single ‘summit sipper’ is just one snapshot of this style, a laidback yet affirming pop number penned after a hike in the Sierra Nevadas, overcoming mountains both figuratively and literally to delve into themes of resilience and recovery.

Denitia – My Weakness

We’ve previewed Highways, the new album from Denitia, a few times in recent months, first with the title track in April and then ‘All the Sweet Tea‘ a little later. Wrapped in a wistful atmosphere, the latter “tap[ped] into bluegrass sensibilities to evoke the American landscape in all its nostalgic idealism,” we explained, and served as an introduction to the bittersweet tone of the album and Denitia’s quest to reimagine the concept of home. Final single ‘My Weakness’ sits at the heart of the record, another track of conflicted moods which possesses real depth beneath its controlled burn.

Grace Hellen – Bubblegum Pink

Hailing from the coast of North Carolina and now based in Nashville, singer-songwriter Grace Hellen cut her teeth in jazz and bluegrass but is now turning toward a more indie pop/rock style. Latest single ‘Bubblegum Pink’ is a great introduction to this aesthetic. A combination of psych and surf sensibilities laid over pop tones sweet enough to live up to its title, though the sugary energy belies the tension beneath the surface. “Bubblegum pink when you spit in the sink this morning,” Hellen sings, twisting the tone. “Flash forward, last night’s an empty dream.” Because this is a song “about fighting depression with hyper-femininity and candy-coated optimism,” as Hellen describes it. As though to keep moving is to stay ahead, no matter how exhausting.

‘Bubblegum Pink’ is out now and available to stream from the usual places.

h. pruz – what a long way i’ve come to be destroyed

h. pruz is the recording alias of Brooklyn-based Hannah Pruzinsky, who will soon release debut EP again, there via oof records. Lead single ‘old car’ introduced the style, which finds emotional power in a gentle, intimate hush. Now h. pruz has unveiled the record’s second single, ‘what a long way i’ve come to be destroyed’, another folk-slash-bedroom-pop song that burns with quiet intensity. Lyrically sparse, the song captures one of the EPs main themes—of recognising life’s cycles and rhythms and the feeling of uncertainty experienced after breaking out of them and moving on.

Jenny O. – The Natural World

Following on from ‘Prism‘, a single we described as allowing “us to see fine cracks in a seemingly unscalable wall of disempowerment, and begin to realise we might not be completely helpless after all,” Jenny O. is back with a brand new single on Mama Bird Recording Co. No less ambitious and heartfelt, ‘The Natural World’ confronts the ecological emergency from a new angle. Turning away from the usual visions of doom and destruction to instead offer a vision of what might be. “This is a declaration of wonder and reverence for the living Earth,” Jenny O. explains. “As we phase out fossil fuels, the way through the climate crisis is by the regeneration of this planet’s incredible natural systems. This song is for alignment with life on Earth (including one another). The future requires us to consider everything and everyone; love and curiosity are key.” Check out the suitably celebratory video filmed and edited by Sam Gezari below:

‘The Natural World’ is out now via Mama Bird Recording Co. and available from Bandcamp.

Joe McCarthy and the Faders – Hey Dom

With new release Outpost Truck Stop out later this week, Joe McCarthy and the Faders have unveiled new single ‘Hey Dom’ to raise the anticipation. An ode to friendship, the track captures the road trip spirit of the EP. One following in the footsteps of Craig Finn or The Boss himself, built on a togetherness and camaraderie which faces down life’s difficulties through equal parts compassion and momentum. The result is bittersweet but undeniably joyous, and better yet its triumphant energy invites the listener along for the ride. Check out the video edited by Zach Pulls below:

You’re just as dumb as me
And we’re as thick as thieves when we can stand
Hey dom!
Why don’t you take my hand

Outpost Truck Stop is out on the 21st October and you can pre-order it now.

Poolblood – shabby

Back in July we wrote about ‘twinkie‘ by Poolblood, their first single since signing with Next Door Records. Now the project (Toronto‘s Maryam Said) has announced their debut album, mole, which will release early next year. To celebrate the announcement, Poolblood has unveiled a brand new single ‘shabby’, a song which they says “celebrates the intimacy of friendship.” Fittingly then, the song is reflective and introspective, pairing bedroom pop sincerity with just the faintest hint of country twang. There is also a video featuring friends and collaborators Shamir and Drew Harmon, which you can watch below:

mole will be released on 13th January and you can pre-order a copy from the Poolblood Bandcamp page.

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Back in August we wrote about ‘Sarehole Mill‘, the debut single from EP Wandering Worlds by Birmingham-based artist, composer, producer and singer-songwriter AGAAMA. It was a song, we described, “rooted in physical place but also the psyche of the individuals and collectives with pass through it, carrying with it all those people’s energies and anxieties.” Now out via The state51 Conspiracy, the EP continues this examination of spaces, gradually moving from a place of uncertainty to one of love. With its patient intimacy, closer ‘In This Life’ completes this journey, drawing a line between healing and empowerment, championing the healing of wounds as the path to more fully becoming oneself.

Alexia Avina – Let This Die

Fresh off the back of recent album A Little Older on Lost Map Records, Alexia Avina returns this month with a brand new EP, Crush. Focused on vulnerability and smallness, the previous record probed at tender spots we might usually ignore or protect, choosing to sit and contemplate pain instead. But Crush emerges from the aftermath of this period. A fresh start where new feelings germinate and sprout through the ground. Composed entirely of synths, the result is something freer, more fun, ready to give itself over to joy and desire, even while understanding such emotions might only stay for a fleeting moment. Check out the video for lead single ‘Let This Die’ below, shot, directed and edited by Sara Laufer.

Crush releases on 14th October and is available to pre-order from the Alexia Avina Bandcamp page.

Alicia Clara – I Let My Plant Die

Following last year’s EP Outsider/Unusual, Montreal-based dream pop artist Alicia Clara returns this month with a new four song release. Titled Velveteen, the EP is something of a message to her teenage self, and finds Clara at her most assured, combing confident musicianship with impressionistic and introspective lyrics that display an admirable vulnerability. Latest single ‘I Let My Plant Die’ was written on the pandemic’s one year anniversary and is full of both yearning for “normal” life and gentle self-admonishment for living passively and taking small things for granted. “The inspiration behind the title came from three baby plants I inadvertently let die when I left my apartment to go stay with family outside of Montreal in March 2020, thinking I’d be back in the city come April,” Clara explains. “I recognized a parallel between this and a tendency I have to put off tackling tasks or situations that scare me, thinking time will do the work on its own.” Check out the video directed and shot on the Swiss-French border by Alix Bortoli below:

Velveteen is out on the 28th October via Hot Tramp and you can pre-order it now.

Brody Price – It Was You

Later this month, Dallas artist Brody Price will release his latest album Win a Trip to Palm Springs! On Niles City Records. Price refers to his style (only semi sarcastically) as “doom country,” a tag which goes some way to capturing the record’s blend of folk, country, noise and sludge. The album’s second single, ‘It Was You’ exists on the gentler end of the spectrum but still captures the wider tension and stormy atmosphere which mirrors the lyrics’ exploration of the turbulence of life. Price is joined by Robert Ellis (piano) and Andy Baxter (vocal harmonies), who together create a folk song that, despite its twang and gentle melodies, actual explores the difficulties we all face and sometimes try to hide. “This song is about being aware of my own internal turmoil and realizing that everyone has the same thing in some form or fashion,” Price explains. “Even if someone may appear to have it all together, you still can’t tell what’s racing through their mind when they lay awake at night.”

Win a Trip to Palm Springs comes out on 28th October and you can order a copy now from the Brody Price website.

Doctor Delia – Whoa

Based in Portland, Oregon, Doctor Delia is a self-described “entity specializing in tinctures, alchemical transubstantiation, and old-time new-time music.” We first featured their work last summer, when we reviewed Parlor Songs, a collaborative album with Mother Juniper that we described as possessing “an intangible sense of homespun communal spirit.” Their latest release is Sunroom Vloop // Whoa, a double single which again takes a traditional instrument (here the violin) and creates something that feels both fresh and somehow timeless. ‘Sunroom Vloop’ is a bright and playful expression of the titular sunroom, all clear warm air and vivid reflections, while ‘Whoa’ is a violin loop altogether more mystical. “If you listen closely you can hear a great Spirit moving through the bones of the violin,” Doctor Delia describes. “It is my spirit; it is more than what I can put into words. So I play.”

Sunroom Vloop // Whoa is out now and available via the Doctor Delia Bandcamp page.

ghost orchard – rest

This November sees the release of rainbow music, the new album from ghost orchard on Winspear. The project of Grand Rapids, Michigan’s Sam Hall, ghost orchard has made its name with a distinctively sincere blend of folk and electronic styles, and their latest record develops this aesthetic further. A picture of calm and patience amid loss, where the quiet stillness holds the latent warmth of things now gone. New single ‘rest’ is the perfect introduction, its palpable, physical details holding something less tangible too. As though the world itself mourns that which is lost, and the correct arrangement of objects might summon it back once more. Watch the video by Nik Arthur below:

rust on its bearings
links in the chain
scars intermingled
the feeling wanes

and like the moon still crests as its’ hue ruminates
like thick smoke fills the room
and brings you back again

rainbow music is out on the 4th November via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

Greta O’Leary – Body, Now

Written during an autumnal drive through the mountains of the South Island, ‘Body, Now’ is the latest single from Aotearoa folk artist Greta O’Leary. It’s a delicate, careful track which places the body into this context of the environment, charting its subtle changes in the face of grief in the manner one might watch the seasons pass across a landscape. But for all its isolation and heartbreak, the song emerges as a balm against outside forces. A return to the self as not only a mode of protection, but a way in which to reconnect with the most fundamental of things.

‘Body, now’ is available from the Greta O’Leary Bandcamp page.

Hang Linton x LeBron Aggressive – SALE

The work of Leeds-based interdisciplinary artist Hang Linton has been described as “a rebellion against clean aesthetics,” his work across music, performance, video and installation inspired by time spent amid countercultural collectives in Berlin. Debut single ‘SALE’ sees Linton enlist the talents of LeBron Aggressive for a synth-based meditation on consumerist culture, the catchy and playful sound simmering underneath sardonic lyrics. Essentially repurposing the strategy of advertisements to send the attack in the opposite direction. A crystal clear message dressed up with shiny adornments. “Discounts on discounts but don’t discount the fact,” as Linton sings. “We bought it all for cheap, with the sweat off someone else’s back.”

Kierst – Phone Call

South Carolina raised, Brooklyn-based songwriter Kierst has a new EP, Thud, coming next month on Sad Club Records, and latest single ‘Phone Call’ sets the tone for the release. A reflection on longing and self-worth which owes as much to Grouper and Mazzy Star as it does contemporary bedroom pop, the intimate vocals and pressing rhythm lifted by an ethereal soundscape, resulting in a mood which transcends the immediate pain for heartbreak. “I think it’s important to know how to sit with yourself, and not depend so much on romantic fulfilment, Kierst explains of the track. “You can only be as good to someone else as you can be to yourself, and the song’s about knowing when to respect that.”

Platonic Sex – Exhausted Competing For You

Meanjin/Brisbane outfit Platonic Sex are gearing up to release a brand new EP this November, and latest single ‘Exhausted Competing For You’ gives further indication of what to expect from the four-piece. The single is a track based around the tensions of a mismatched relationship, where the initial rush of excitement has dissipated and issues of compatibility are brought into relief. The temptation to persevere in the face of such doubts is clear, but struggling to make things work comes at a cost. “It’s exhausting to keep something alive for the sake of fighting for it,” says lead Bridget Brandolini, a realisation which becomes apparent across the song, its energy picking up into an affirming catharsis. Check out the video directed by Bridget Webb below:

‘Exhausted Competing For You’ is out now on all your favourite streaming services.

Puck – Best Friend

Having cut her teeth touring in the bands of SZA, dhruv and Maggie Rogers, Puck might have already announced themselves as keyboardist, but upcoming debut album Best Friend feels like a proper introduction. The record draws upon a childhood immersed in Seattle’s grunge and alt-rock scene but reaches out toward folk and jazz too. A highly personal blend used to conjure the experience of love but also violence, ultimately directing its energies into processing trauma and grief within a society seemingly arranged to reinforce such phenomena. “I wanted it to be catchy enough for the words to sneak under people’s skin,” Puck explains of the title track. “I didn’t really have much music to heal by, so I made some.”

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After releasing their sixth album See Through You on DedStrange last February, post-punk icons A Place To Bury Strangers are sharing a series of remixed singles from the record. After offerings from the likes of The Pleasure Majenta and GIFT, the most recent sees Annie Hart take the reins for a reimagining of album opener ‘Nice of You to be There For Me’. A version which strips the harsh immediacy of the original in favour of something reflective and shining, the original’s needle replaced by an ethereal air. Where Oliver Ackermann previously railed against greed with a building volatility, here his words carry the melancholy of hindsight. Mourning mistakes rather than threatening to set them straight.

Illbe – It’s Time

Described as being inspired by the “‘beyond the grave feel’ of Nick Cave’s radical introspection,” Illbe’s latest single ‘It’s Time’ introduces the dark and alluring tone of forthcoming EP, Long Gone. The project is the alter ego of Liège’s Gauthier Gilissen, a musician who draws upon cinema as the source of his sound, aiming for something between the nocturnal paranoia of neo-noir and a Lynchian surrealism. ‘It’s Time’ finds its narrator navigating such a world. Searching for answers within an unforthcoming environment, the patient Cave-esque delivery furthering the existential mystery at the heart. Check out the video directed by Corentin Cuvelier below:

‘It’s Time’ is out now and you can get it from the Illbe Bandcamp page. Long Gone will be released next month.

Kelsey Magnuson – Faking It

Following on from previous single ‘Beep Beep‘, Olympia‘s Kelsey Magnuson has unveiled another track from forthcoming debut Don’t Budge on Earth Libraries. Closing out the album, the song again highlights Magnuson’s ability to sound at once earnest and playful, as though the thoughts communicated are entirely meant, yet delivered with a certain self-awareness. But ultimately the needle settles on the sincere side of things, ending on a sense of hope which feels all the more heartfelt for its plainness. “Cuz growing up feels like were faking it ’til we learn to fake it better,” Magnuson sings in the final lines. “Growing up up feels like were faking it so why don’t we fake it together?”

Laveda – Surprise

The music of Laveda always promises lush textures and heartfelt emotion, and new single ‘Surprise’ is no exception. Introducing an upcoming second album to be released later this year on Papercup Music, the single offers a bright, upbeat sound which belies the turmoil of the lyrics. A juxtaposition which both embraces the nostalgia of the dream pop/shoegaze style while also refusing to retreat fully from the realties of living and working through pandemics and other challenges. “Being alive is just getting old,” Ali Genevich sings, “I’m not surprised that I’m not sober.” Check out the video directed by Genevich herself and shot By Derick Noetzel and Valerie Barbosa below:

‘Surprise’ is out now and available from the Laveda Bandcamp page.

Mali Obomsawin – Odana

Mali Obomsawin is a Wabanaki bassist, composer, and songwriter whose work opposes the Western idea that indigenous cultures are somehow inflexible and backward looking, highlighting the continuous process of resistance and adaptation required to survive in the face of colonialism. Obomsawin recently announced a new album, Sweet Tooth, on Out of Your Head Records. A collection of songs which draws on many threads—jazz, folk, Wabanaki stories and Catholic hymns—to explore contemporary indigenous life and celebrate its endurance and creativity, even when faced with great violence and cruelty. “My people have had to innovate endlessly to get our stories heard,” Obomsawin explains. “Learning to express ourselves in French, English, Abenaki… but sometimes words fail us, and we must use sound.” Lead single ‘Odana’ introduces the record perfectly. A ballad first written in the 1700s, it pays homage to the Abenaki reservation in Quebec, Odanak, founded by Obomsawin’s Sokoki and Abenaki ancestors in 1660 as they fled to modern-day Canada to escape Royally-sanctioned persecution by English colonizers.

Pale Angels – Casper

Based between the Welsh city of Swansea and Rahway, New Jersey, Pale Angels make what label Specialist Subject Records describe as “transcontinental punk trash.” They have just announced a brand new record, their first in six years, titled Plastic Legacy pt II and lead single ‘Casper’ is a glimpse of what to expect. For all of its punk rock fuzz and grittily desperate vocals, it’s actually a lot more sincere than SSR’s label suggests. Founding members Jamie Morrison and Michael Santostefano are joined by Vacation songwriter Jerome Westerkamp on drums to create something with a real emotional punch.

Rival Consoles – World Turns

Rival Consoles, the recording project of London-based musician and producer Ryan Lee West, is set to release new album Now Is via Erased Tapes next month, and latest single ‘World Turns’ welcomes listeners into the blended, digital and acoustic soundscapes West creates. There’s a certain minimalism to the Rival Consoles sound, even if the tag doesn’t quite do justice to the detail of the songs. A sense of clarity developed via a central repetition. This single, for example, is “built around this pendulum-like bass, that constantly drives the piece forward,” as West explains. Minimalism in the way of fine machinery. An elegant coherence to design. “I like having parts in music which are repetitive but everything else is changing around it,” West continues, “almost like a kind of hidden structure, because the repetition becomes more subliminal.”

Secret Shame – Luxury Bitch

“A ferocious, no holds barred descent into the depths of a psyche, emerging if not triumphant then somehow born again.” That’s how we described ‘Hide’, the last single from Asheville post-punks Secret Shame. Next month sees the release of the band’s long-awaited new album Autonomy, and new single ‘Luxury Bitch’ is every bit as intense, barrelling headlong into anxieties surrounding mental health and the knock-on effects such struggles can bring. “Will you still be there / to hold me when I am trying,” asks lead Lena Machina, “when I am losing and when I lose?” If Autonomy represents Machina pivoting towards a new direct approach to songwriting, then ‘Luxury Bitch’ shows exactly what you can expect.

Sheenah Ko – Eyes of the Ego

Montreal electronic artist Sheenah Ko makes introspective and sophisticated pop music in the vein of Kate Bush or Björk. Earlier this summer, Sheenah Ko released her sophomore album The Future is Now, what she described as “a cautious reminder to take advantage of the little time you’ve been given in our wonderous world.” Since the record’s release, Ko has unveiled music videos for several of the tracks, the latest being for ‘Eyes of the Ego’. Directed by Anne Marie Munoz, the video was made with a 100% female, majority LGBTQ+ cast and crew, starring filmmaker/artist/actor Katharine King So and Le Couleur vocalist Laurence Giroux-Do alongside Ko. “Passion and anger are manifestations of the ego; that can drag us deeper and deeper into our minds, into a dream where we can’t escape,” Ko explains “This video is a representation of the exploration of the self, to identify and accept the ego as a part of us, but it does not have to be us or define us. To realize we are the eyes behind our ego and that we can be the observer of the ego.”

Future Is Now is out via Lazy At Work and you can get it from the Sheenah Ko Bandcamp page.

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This ambience is apparent on latest single ‘Chirin’s Bell’, but the song also shows the work of Ethan Woods to be far more than a study of place. The track is partly inspired by Masami Hata’s 1979 animation Ringing Bell, where a curious little lamb gets separated from his herd and stumbles upon a wolf. Despite a taste for sheep, the wolf takes Chirin under its wing, training him in the ways of a predator, and over several years transforms the lamb from a helpless youngster into something strong and ruthless. When Chirin eventually returns to his flock, it is as a hunter alongside his adopted parent, his identity now in complete opposition to that with with he left.

Ethan Woods repurposes such a transformation into an Appalachian cowboy ballad, charting a loss of innocence as hooves become claws, pining for the truth even while life forces teeth to be bared. “For me, this song is about the struggles to remain true to yourself, your art, and your community when faced with the transformative power of the desires to earn clout, wealth, and notoriety,” Woods explains. “I think of it as a shout-out to all the artists out there who struggle with marketing themselves, who try to keep their soul from being crushed, who know the paradoxes of trying to market one’s self authentically.”

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Secret Shame are about to head back to Asheville’s Drop of Sun studio to work on a follow-up, and to celebrate they have unveiled a brand new single, ‘Hide’. Despite its relative youth, Drop of Sun has quickly become renowned in the area, welcoming Wednesday, MJ Lenderman, Indigo De Souza and Angel Olsen among others, but ‘Hide’ holds the honour of being the first ever single recorded at the studio back in June 2021.

Far from being a throwaway single, ‘Hide’ is every bit as intense as any other Secret Shame track. A ferocious, no holds barred descent into the depths of a psyche, emerging if not triumphant then somehow born again. Seeing the world anew. As Machina writes:

The abysmal valley you’ve been sleeping in for your entire life sparks into a fiery horizon without warning. You’re too caught off guard by this sudden change to notice that flames are growing. Rapidly, they eat up everything on the outside of your shell and pursue the light inside of you. They pull it from you and exfoliate you with sharp teeth and burdens. The flames leave no room for judgment or improvement; they only leave room for denial and the harsh stripping of what once made you who you are. You twist and burn.

Slower this time and with even less thought given towards it, the heat grows cold and lonely. The cold towers over the flames and extinguishes them, ready to move on to better meals. It washes over the embers and creates a consistent ash, smoking on your rubble. Once the heat has subsided and all that’s left is isolating cold, the emptiness makes room for a blinding and spectacular light. Everything parts to reveal something clean and new. It’s a beautiful feeling, but still sharp. This new iridescent light has you realizing you don’t know who you are anymore. You’ve been scalded repeatedly and you can’t recognize yourself. You can’t sink into this. You don’t know how to handle the beauty

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