Their first release since 2016’s And Then Like Lions, Blind Pilot‘s forthcoming album In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain finds the Oregon outfit having undergone something of a necessary hiatus. “I was struggling with a lot of fear surrounding expectations of who I was supposed to be,” lead Israel Nebeker says, “I’d lost my path with music.” The time away allowed Nebeker to travel to Scandinavia to reconnect with his Sámi heritage, as well as visit places like Mexico City as part of a humanitarian group helping migrants. “I got the idea to write a song that looks at ideas of ownership and othering, and what it does when we tell people, ‘This is our home, not yours’.” he continues. The new record flowed out in less than a month. Lead single ‘Just A Bird’ introduces the new sound, one possessing all the heart which won fans over to Blind Pilot in the first place, but an extra sense of focus for those energies. Watch the visualizer by Lotte Budai below:

In The Shadow Of The Holy Mountain is out on the 16th August via ATO Records and you can pre-order it now.

Coolhand Jax – Everything Changes All of the Time

After moving on from surf-psych band Sunshine Brothers Inc., Los Angeles-based songwriter Jake Weissman took to the road across America and started working on new demos. The songs would eventually make up the first Coolhand Jax releases, which came out via Spirit Goth Records, and the project has never looked back. Latest single ‘Everything Changes All of the Time’ shows Weissman’s knack for combining bright rhythms with intimate emotion, following a challenging conversation during a car ride which turns towards themes of loss and death. But far from emerging as something bleak, Coolhand Jax instead wrap these ideas in a rich, wistful sound that highlights the romance of such themes. Finding some comfort in the concept of change, if only to feel a sense of movement.

Cooza – Blonde

In June, UK folk songwriter Cooza released Getting Better At Knowing You, a brand new full-length on Folk Boy Records. Described as an album “written for and about his sister Ellie,” the songs might have emerged from a period of mourning, but their intent is to do more than evoke feelings of grief. Because while loss sits at the heart of Getting Better At Knowing You, the record actively works against the totality so often ascribed to the experience. Ellie might not be here in the way she once was, Cooza seems to be saying, but she is far from lost. Single ‘Blonde’ is our first taste of this affirming album and the tender, incredibly intimate emotions found therein.

Getting Better At Knowing You is out now via Folk Boy Records.

G. Himsel – Sweet William

You might know Geoff Himsel as the songwriter behind Portsmouth, New Hampshire trio Bird Friend, but after finding his groove in recent times and writing an abundance of material, he has decided to begin releasing music under the solo moniker G. Himsel for the first time. With an album on the horizon, Himsel has unveiled single ‘Sweet William’ for a glimpse into the world of his sound. A sonic representation of the New England landscape, where expansiveness meets intricate detail and whispered subtleties, resulting in something patient, delicate, and fully attuned to geographies both physical and emotional.

hey i’m outside – Frontyard

“You’re in an overgrown front yard at sunset. The worldwide vibe is kinda off right now but you gotta try anyway.” That’s how Medford, MA’s outfit hey i’m outside describe the vibe of ‘Frontyard’, the first single from their upcoming album. The tone is heartfelt if a little woozy, as though clinging on as everything we know shifts off-kilter. It finds a person trying to preserve the small joys and points of interest they stumble across, even if the attempt is doomed to fail. “saw you in the front yard / looking at flowers, just about dark,” as the first verse plays. “I lined up my camera, I tried to compose / but a fragment of time can only come close.”

Jacob Furr – Take Care

“I was thinking about an old junkyard/antique collection that I know of and how those objects were all once important to someone’s life,” explains Jacob Furr of new track ‘Take Care’. The Texas-based songwriter uses the energies and meaning inherent within such ephemera as a springboard to explore care in a wider sense. What results is every bit as warm and compassionate as anything Furr has written to date, serving as a reminder of both the power of kindness and the need to cultivate such feelings to stave off the selfishness and cynicism so prevalent in these days. “Take care of the well that’s in your heart,” as he sings, “draw deeply on its waters but don’t let down your guard / Because the darkness comes without / The darkness comes within / and it’ll try to take everything you’ve been given.”

Jae Soto – Standing

The solo moniker of Brooklyn-based songwriter and producer Justina-Maria Soto, Jae Soto creates music which exists at the intersection of the traditional and contemporary, with classic songwriting sensibilities merging and interacting with various electronic styles. Released via Switch Hit Records, new album Leave the Light On demonstrates the inventiveness and potential of such a style, showing how an exploratory sound need not lack a sense of meticulous crafting. Single ‘Standing’ is a good place to jump in, introducing the themes of growth and self-care that run across the record. It’s a song which represents “an earnest reflection of the solitary, empty feeling a person can have after coming out of a long, stressful period where they were operating in survival mode,” Soto explains. “It can sort of feel like you’re living as a ghost since the rest of your life hasn’t caught up to shape around the new person you’ve become. Ultimately, the message is ‘I’m still here!'”

Julie Doiron & Astral Swans – Last Night I Saw My Love

Following on from the successful collaborative EP Split with Chad Vangaalen, Astral Swans are now preparing to release Split 2, a second joint EP this time with Canadian songwriting royalty Julie Doiron. Released via Stoner Bird Records and as a limited edition lathe cut vinyl via Red Spade Records, the EP finds two artists at the height of their abilities, however contrasting their styles. Doiron with her earnest invocations of love, Astral Swans with an altogether more sardonic slacker contemplations. Focus track ‘Last Night I Saw My Love’ captures the full nuance of the style—an ode to a lover delivered over great distances which chugs and croons its fondness with a building momentum.

Luke De-Sciscio – Only A Woman Knows

Most people might take a few months to themselves on entering parenthood, getting to grips with the inevitable life changes, but for prolific songwriter Luke De-Sciscio, the process only served up a deeper source of inspiration. Where previous LP Papa painted a couple on the precipice of their new life, latest album Theo sees them fully immersed within it. A collection of songs written and recorded in snatched moments during his daughter’s first six weeks, the record offers an unusually immediate picture of new fatherhood, something furthered by the live-recorded style. Single ‘Only A Woman Knows’ demonstrates the release’s delicate power, where anxiety and self-doubt bubble on the surface of a new wellspring of love.

Madam Sad – Hope For You

Madam Sad, that’s Hamilton, Ontario-based duo Maddison Schreiber and Evelyn Charlotte Joe, is a project which exists in defiance of poverty and disability, functioning both as a source of healing and a way to spite the challenges life has placed in their way. New single ‘Hope For You’ shows the heart which underpins the Madam Sad sound, as well as its willingness to confront difficult things with a compassionate face. “The song title is a way of holding myself accountable to make sure I am always hoping for the happiness of those who have hurt me,” as Schreiber says. “I also do get to a more genuine place where I feel compassion for an ex-lover’s success, and that’s a nice kind of sad.”

‘Hope For You’ is out now via streaming services.

Marisa Finley – Hallelujah (Movin Through Ya)

Exploring the timeless themes of love, loss and growing up, the work of Canadian singer-songwriter Marisa Finley uses a hazy, reflective sound to further its wistful charms. Her debut single ‘Hallelujah’ sees her team up with friend and collaborator Peter Mol, a musician and producer known for work with the likes of Father John Misty and Quincy Jones, and the result is as richly heartfelt as it is melancholic. An indie pop song bathed in ambient textures and sound recordings, as though Finley’s voice emerges through the cloudy fog of her accumulated past to make itself heard. What she has to say delivered with a heavy heart, charting the experience of falling in love prematurely and the slow process of realisation, though always with an assured fondness that respects the time which has passed.

‘Hallelujah (Movin Through Ya)’ is out now via streaming services.

Soot Sprite – I Went Swimming

Next month sees Exeter trio Soot Sprite return with I Went Swimming / Home Among Your Bones, a brand new 7″ double single on Specialist Subject Records. Through releases like album Poltergeist and single ‘Lazy‘, the band have established a cathartic, often confrontational style, calling out the slights and injustices of modern living in search of a sense of self-worth. ‘I Went Swimming’ applies the style to personal relationships, its thundering momentum and impassioned delivery typifying Soot Sprite’s willingness to stand up to all that is toxic and wrong. The track is about “recognising a red flag in your relationship and emotionally shutting down to that person and cutting things off,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “Some people describe this as getting ‘the ick’ but that feels like a trivial term. Sometimes we have to learn from our mistakes and protect ourselves and that’s exactly what this is about.”

The sky is filling up with red flags
And you can’t take that back
I went swimming in the water
And now I only see black

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Philly songwriter Alex Barkats is releasing new album Here we are in the garden later this summer via Ghost Mountain Records, and lead single and opening track ‘Jewels’ gives a window into what to expect from the release. A song of conflicted feelings, where the bright folk sound is shaded by something more melancholic. As though every good moment will also be shadowed by the understanding such a time can only be temporary. But Barkats works against this mood in an effort to carve out a more fulfilling frame of mind. “It’s about finding comfort in routine,” he explains. “Especially when the world is still crumbling. You have to go through so much trial and error to know how to build joy for yourself.”

Antonia Estelle – Don’t Know Why

Back in 2023 we wrote about the Edmonton-based songwriter Antonia Estelle with the EP Poser, describing how the title track embellished acoustic guitar with “syrup-heavy drums,” “gusts of distorted guitar,” and “vocals swaying with quiet intensity like a flickering flame” to explore “the strange balance of a dysfunctional relationship and the ultimate unknowability of selfhood.” Now based in Berlin to study Audio Production at Funkhaus, Estelle is gearing up to release her debut full length, and latest single ‘Don’t Know Why’ introduces the idiosyncratic yet intuitive nature of her work. A sleek pop song which embraces a sense of movement and flow. “My goal while creating this piece was to lean into freedom and playfulness,” Estelle explains. “In the past, I have relied heavily on words and finding meaning in music, but with this song, I wanted to let go of meaning and rather create something that made me want to move my body.”

Blaine Todd – Everyman

Based on Alameda, a former naval base and island in the San Francisco Bay, Blaine Todd is a folk artist in the wanderer tradition. The songwriter as a kind of outlaw perpetually passing through. New album Goodbye ‘Til I Do Good By You follows Todd on this journey, its authentic country sound having an eye on the stars as well as the road, its subtly cosmic style charged with equal parts melancholy and wry humour. “Well, my days go like smoke,” as he sings at the beginning of opener ‘Everyman’, I want to laugh but I choke / Must I be the punchline in some cosmic joke / While just around the bend / Another fire starts smoldering / It flummoxes my ass to no end.” What results is a jaunt to the heart of the human condition, as well as the picture of the beauty and cruelty of the world we’re made to walk.

I nearly found it just today
Held hysteria at bay
But all I can recall is my mother sayin:
Every man rides the horse that he deserves

Jack Gaby – Young Adult

Naarm / Melbourne-based songwriter Jack Gaby has made a name with a bright and jangly brand of indie pop, but there’s more to his work than sunbleached positivity. New single ‘Young Adult’ shows an altogether more contemplative dimension to Gaby’s sound, drifting with a slack rhythm as he considers the wonders and pitfalls of early adulthood. “I went through a period at this age when I was a mess,” as Gaby puts it. “This track is about the tumultuous emotions I experienced at the time.” But rather than present this headspace as a chaotic sound, the sluggish momentum makes for a different kind of experience. One suggestive of the real kicker of such periods, where it feels like you might never gather enough energy to escape the pull of negative feelings, and instead drift within their circular currents forever.

Las Nubes – Enredados (Misty’s Mix)

“Deals with the ways in which activism can be co-opted and exploited,” we wrote of ‘Pesada‘, the recent single from Las Nubes‘ new album Tormentas Malsanas, “the sound [as] tumultuous and hefty as you might expect for such a subject, taking no prisoners with its crushing weight.” With the album now out, the Miami, Florida duo have released one final single, ‘Enredados (Misty’s Mix)’. Not sacrificing one iota of the raucous spirit which marks the work of Ale Campos and Emile Milgrim, the song ramps up the rhythm underpinning the sound to offer something more energetic, grabbing the listener and pulling them along for the ride with all the uncompromising attitude they’ve made their own.

Mary Ocher – The Rubaiyat Medley

To say Mary Ocher’s latest album Your Guide to Revolution is ambitious in its intentions is to risk understatement. A kaleidoscopic and politically charged collection of songs which draws on Ocher’s childhood (born in Moscow to Jewish-Ukrainian parents before emigrating to Tel Aviv during the Gulf War) as a way into wider themes of resistance and civil disobedience. A huge array of styles and influences are utilised across the record, both to evoke the gamut of emotions triggered within the contemporary struggle and to ground the release within a wider history of such subversive art. A central part of the album is a series of three tracks which rework pieces by harpist Dorothy Ashby based on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khyyam, a triptych of songs which Ocher has collected into a short film which echoes The Color of Pomegranates by Sergei Parajanov. Watch it below:

Your Guide to Revolution is out now via the Underground Institute and available from Bandcamp.

Narwhals – Moor Fires

Based between Manchester and the West Yorkshire borough of Calderdale, Narwhals is an indie rock/shoegaze project led by singer-songwriter Jacob Patrick. Drawing on The North’s rich post-punk history, the Narwhals style combines needling guitar and dynamic percussion with Patrick’s signature deep and morose vocals to craft something that sounds big and rich and poignant. Nowhere is this more apparent than on new single ‘Moor Fires’, what the press release calls “a track about grief and heartbreak […] about rebirth and finding peace.” It displays everything that’s great about the Narwhals sound, somber and sonorous but full of energy. Perhaps most impressive is the composure and poise that sits at its centre like the tranquil eye of of a gigantic storm. Frequent collaborator Thē Jaffa also makes an appearance, their backing vocals bringing a lighter counterpoint to Patrick’s and thereby leavening the song as a whole.

Peiriant – Taflu Dŵr

With an experimental sound that draws on everything from folk and post-rock to classical and sound art, mid Wales duo Peiriant combine traditional and electronic styles with samples and found objects for semi-improvised pieces. What results is an almost sculptural approach to music, with Rose and Dan Linn-Pearl building out from a skeleton of an idea with layers of drone and dissonance. One which relies on the push and pull between the main components of violin and electric guitar. New single ‘Taflu Dŵr’ is the perfect introduction for the uninitiated, encapsulating both the detail of the Peiriant sound and the duo’s expert ability to utilise space.

Where’s Beth – Quiet

Writing of single ‘Wide Eyes’ back in March, we described how New York’s Where’s Beth channelled the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Connie Converse in embracing and “idiosyncratic style with conviction and grace to create a sense of authenticity.” Ahead of the debut Where’s Beth full-length Bone Broth, Sarabeth Weszely is back with new single ‘Quiet’. The song again uses a fond, intimate sound to explore wider themes. Written during a trip to Romania where she was struck by the low cost of living and wide open spaces in comparison to New York, the song charts the difficulties of urban living with a tangible warmth. “I was thinking about my relationship to land in the context of a competitive capitalist market (realizing how wild the cost of “air-space” in my home city was compared to the fertile and beautiful land I was spending a few dollars a day to live on),”  This song gives voice to a tension that is familiar to many people who choose to live in cities, whether for career goals or the intoxicating thrill of a crowd.”

Wishy – Triple Seven

With the release of Wishy‘s Triple Seven looming next month on Winspear, the  Indianapolis band have unveiled the title track to allow audiences to get a little more acquainted with the forthcoming full-length. A slice of lush dream pop which both pays homage to forebears likes The Cranberries and Cocteau Twins while fashioning the nineties-nostalgic sound into something entirely their own. “A little bit uncertain / I wasn’t really sure / I walked out in silence / I shut that door,” Nina Pitchkites sings in the opening, but the bright sound soon smothers any sense of doubt, instead offering an affirming if slightly wistful track to soundtrack your later summer evenings as the sun dips below the horizon.

Watch the video directed, filmed and edited by Haoyan of America below:

Triple Seven is out on the 16th August via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

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