Next month the Canadian songwriter Cat Clyde will release Blood Bone Bone, a new full-length album on Concord Records. An effort to reposition or reimagine her relationship with love, the record sees Clyde turn her indigenous Métis heritage for inspiration, as well as the wide natural world, and serves as a expression of everything from exasperation and fury to personal growth and joy. New single ‘Man’s World’ falls at the former end of that spectrum, though repurposes its anger into something cathartic. “This is an expression of the frustration I feel existing as a woman in a patriarchal world,” Clyde explains. “It sometimes feels difficult to be on a 24 hour clock rather than a 28 day cycle, and a 12 month year instead of a 13 month year. I love and crave masculine energy when it’s strong, protective, and emotionally aware. It has been difficult and deeply disappointing to have had experiences dealing with masculine energy that is childish, cowardly, and encroaching on the feminine space. ‘Man’s World’ touches on my own ideas of what being a woman means in this society and how dangerous and violent it can be for a woman’s heart.”

Watch the video directed and shot by Lukas Hyrman below:

Mud Blood Bone will be released on the 13th March via Concord Records and you can pre-order it now.

Dayydream – Proximity

Back in 2025 we introduced Dayydream, the Glasgow-based indie rock project led by visual artist and musician Chloe Trappes. “Straddles shoegaze, slowcore and indie rock to create a sound both hazy and deep,” we wrote of single ‘Fucked Up’, “its title perhaps belying the song’s inviting warmth but describing its confessional tone to a tee, the sound suspended with a light mist yet not without its own internal force.” Now Dayydream are about to release Trace, and EP which builds upon these foundations to delve into the strange, melancholic way the past persists into the present. True to this mood, the sound is often restrained and reflective, the tracks playing as though in the aftermath of something, Trappes and co. left alone but for the footprints on the ground, the fading fog of breath on glass. Single ‘Proximity’ is a good place to dive in, the upbeat rhythm of its opening belying the weight at its heart, a burden which slowly twists the sound into something altogether more hefty and dense.

‘Proximity’ is out now and available from Bandcamp. Trace will be released soon.

jack k – Welcome To The New World

A cross-gen collaboration between composer Jack Kilburn and his father, British poet Mark Kilburn, the forthcoming jack k album 8 Tracks sits at the intersection of music, narrative and memory. Using primarily guitar and piano, Jack creates soundscapes which gesture towards ambient and alt-jazz, and coupled with Mark’s distinctively Brummie spoken-word delivery, the songs come to represent not only reflection on personal experience and family history but something stranger and more abstract. A hauntological sense of imagined pasts and aborted futures which works to evoke the off-kilter, often melancholic sensation of the contemporary British moment. True to its title, ‘Welcome To The New World’ is the ideal entry point into this style. A track spacious and stark, as barren as the society evoked by Kilburn’s plainspoken lyricism, where the new world is not much of a world at all, but rather just the fading echoes of what we imagined as it falls away from us.

8 Tracks will be released soon.

Lamplight – Year 2083

“An exploration of how one’s sense of identity shifts and changes according to any number of present conditions, not least the place we call home at any given time.” That’s how we described the self-titled album by Lamplight back in 2024, the Western Vinyl release seeing Virginia songwriter Ian Hatcher-Williams grapple with a life which led out of a cult in his home state to a job in tech in NYC before eventually circling back around to returning to Virginia to marry a childhood friend. Glimpse at the title of the latest Lamplight single ‘Year 2083’ and you might think Hatcher-Williams has switched focus from the past towards the distant future, though in reality the song is very much embedded in the present. With hemlock adding supporting vocals, the track possesses all of the warmth of the previous album, not to mention the same emotional openness. As though written from within the fluidity of the current moment, with Hatcher-Williams working to establish what is important in real time. Grab it from Bandcamp now, with all proceeds going to MPLS mutual aid.

Lemoncello – Meet Me Halfway

There’s a very contemporary tension within Lemoncello‘s latest single ‘Meet Me Halfway’. A complicated relationship between intimacy and distance. A sense of push and pull. Out now via Claddagh Records, the song sees Irish duo Laura Quirke (guitar/vocals) and Claire Kinsella (cello/vocals) create a soundscape that’s spare yet loaded with latent feeling, as though the true weight of the track lies just outside of the frame. An atmosphere fitting for a song which explores how even though we’re now able to communicate more freely than ever before, we’re somehow as far apart as we’ve ever been. “To be so connected / And yet so disconnected,” as a pertinent line states. “What’s the point in speaking / With so much left understood.” But rather than settle for a dismayed commentary on such conditions, ‘Meet Me Halfway’ pushes further, reaching for the kind of concerted effort required on both sides of a relationship in order to sustain connection. Watch the video below, wih creative direction by Sophie O’Donovan, editing by AK Heisterkamp and title design by Stina Sandstrom:

‘Meet Me Halfway’ is out now via Claddagh Records and available from the usual places.

new body electric – every day

“It all started with a trumpet,” explain Portland, Oregon-based band new body electric (Aaron Peterson, Evan Smoker and Leah Vautar), but their music has come a long way since then. Following on from a self-titled album in 2024 which drew on everything from funk, electro and jazz to enliven its indie pop sound, the band have returned with new single ‘every day’ to continue to explore new ground. Full of easygoing groove, the result is assured in style if not in substance, the track’s lyrics delving into various personas we adopt to get through day to day existence. But no matter how blurry a sense of self might be thanks to the demands of living, new body electric are here to show this need not necessarily defeat us. Better to commit to the rhythm and groove your way on through.

‘every day; is out now and available from the usual places.

Paul Bergmann – West Rock

“A pleading dirge; a manic rumination on the human condition at the foot of a geological anomaly in New Haven, CT.” That’s how musician Paul Bergmann described his latest single ‘West Rock’, a song released in anticipation of forthcoming full-length Connecticut Cowboy. Across a total of sixteen releases, Bergmann’s work has shapeshifted from one album to another, moving from scrappy folk punk to sleek piano-led croons, not to mention psychedelic excursions too. But it has always been bound by an overarching thematic concern with existential ideas of life, death and all the dreams therein. As the above description might suggest, ‘West Rock’ sees Bergman return to the most immediate, raw form, pitching the audience into a shadowy world and barking confessions at us through the gloom. Think of the nocturnal volatility of acts like Bambara crossed with the Jason Molina’s bitter poetry and you’re getting close to the result.

Run Remedy – Jessie’s Girl

The alter ego of US-born, UK-based songwriter Robin Koob, Run Remedy embraces both the serious and silly sides of life in its folk rock sound, something embodied by latest single, a reimagining of Rick Springfield’s 1981 hit ‘Jessie’s Girl’. This version not only plays with the sound, swapping out the guitar solo for banjo, but also flips the gender to transform the track into a queer anthem. “I swear if I’m back home driving around South Jersey, ‘Jessie’s Girl’ will come on within the hour (shout out 95.1WAYV),” Koob explains. “It’s been stuck in my head my whole life. That level of cringey yearning is timeless, so obviously I had to make my own sapphic spinoff.” The single comes complete with a video to further cement the changes. “The original video is pure camp, so I basically Weird Al’d it with rainbow kids,” Koob continues. “We recreated almost every shot in one day, gorilla-shooting around Manchester, spared my bathroom mirror, and ended the day passing around the wig. Everyone looked better in it than I did, which feels correct.”

‘Jessie’s Girl’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Spirited Followers – Returning

Back in September we wrote about Cardiff-based experimental folk rock outfit Spirited Followers, describing how the project reaches across a huge range of influences to inform its singular sound. “With members hailing from Cyprus, India and Wales, Ireland, and England, the diversity of inspiration is perhaps unsurprising,” we explained, “though the work of Spirited Followers pushes beyond those backgrounds too. You’ll hear elements of Appalachian mountain music in the stark guitar, as well as a Greek flavour among several others.” Released via Libertino‘s new sister label BWGIBWGAN, latest single ‘Returning’ is no less ambitious, mining ancient songwriting traditons for their devotional power while still positioning their sound on the cutting edge of the contemporary movement too. It a glimpse at the band’s reflective side, “reframing themes of death,” as the label put it, “through warmth, acceptance and spiritual calm.”

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All that said, latest single ‘summer’s scorch’ shows My sunny oath! is far from a one-dimensional release. More restrained and tender than the EP’s other tracks, the song utilises additional instrumentation from Farrar (drums, bass, guitar, keyboards) and Libby Rodenbough (strings) to reveal the record’s contrasting spirit. A blend of soft and heavy, dark and light tones to create something gritty yet still in possession of real heart.

Get induced with rolling sickness
When I feel my heart get bigger
Don’t watch movies but I’ll try
Feel the earth rest in my thighs

Watch the video by Harrison Shook below:

My sunny oath! is out on the 13th June via Winspear and you can pre-order it now from the Jahnah Camille Bandcamp page.

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With the album out now via Earth Libraries, it is clear this mood persists across the breadth of the songs. Eternity In The Lake Of Fire is a record set against the volatile rains peculiar to Birmingham. Shrouded in the shadow of an oncoming downpour, beset by a strange atmospheric pressure, always anticipating the next deluge. But also having learnt that such ferocious storms tend to burn themselves out quickly, leaving nothing but a dripping quiet. The Bitter Calm sound mirrors this climate, not only matching intensity and placidity, but capturing those interstitial periods—be they foreboding build-ups or shocked aftermaths. Take a song like ‘Sinner’, which blends the confessional weight of Greet Death or Pedro the Lion with almost orchestral detail, like a storm cloud leavened by a transcendent ray of light.

hey man,
i can take it
it’s my pain that keeps this world turning
how’ve you not considered?
i’m a sinner,
i should die for you

But it’s impossible to talk about Eternity In The Lake of Fire without considering the imagery of its title. Not just a descent into the underworld but a one-way ticket. In many ways, the album plays as an attempt by lead Michael Harp to accept the underworld as the default scenery. An effort to perhaps hurdle the worst of despair by coming to understand their lot. See how ‘Surrender’ emerges from the bleak ‘Convenient’, no more reassured against the oncoming black, but finding some solace in embracing it and relinquishing the fight to stay above ground. And if the album charts such a process, then opener ‘Nothin’ is something of a mission statement. There are no joyous epiphanies or arcs towards salvation. There is only the fact of life.

Eternity In The Lake of Fire is out now via Earth Libraries and available from the Bitter Calm Bandcamp page.

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With the release fast approaching on Winspear, Jahnah Camille has returned with new single, ‘roadkill’. Showing off yet another string to Camille’s bow, the song possesses near country sensibilities with its building rhythm, and boasts no small amount of rock swagger too. But again it is the lyrics which really see the artist stand apart. Because Camille has a knack for combining emotion and self-awareness, offering songs entirely committed to the feelings being explored but never lacking a wry wrinkle to add that extra layer of personality.

And now I can’t pretend
Like roadkill, untouched, out of it
We cried because we can’t forget

I’m marrying a florist
I’ll fall in love so slowly
I’ll make them more than boy of the year

Photo by Disney Bagwell

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Now Bitter Calm have returned with ‘Salt’, their first single since the release of Good Grief, which ushers in something of a sea change from the outfit. Because though the song is still concerned with the weighty themes of love and death, the shadowy slowcore sensibilities are replaced with something altogether brighter and more melodic. “When I grow into the light / could I be your little furnace?” Harp asks in the opening lines, hinting at the darkness behind the vibrant strings and guitar. “And if I go out in the night / would I see you in the morning?” Because make no mistake, the themes underpinning the track cut to the bone of human experience. “This song is about the pain of knowing who could be hurt by the irreversible decision to leave this world,” as Harp explains, “let alone who is already hurt by my current expressed desire to want to leave it in the first place.”

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Taking its name from a green space within the urban environment of inner-city Birmingham, new single ‘Sarehole Mill’ conjures one such location. A place where “you share good and bad times with the ones you love,” as AGAAMA puts it. Crafted around field recordings from the site, the song offers a rich and slow-moving ode to the place. Fond if not wholly positive, the track’s palpable love is accompanied by something more urgent and uncertain, its dreamy tones offering a certain unpredictability too. A song, that is, 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.

Wandering Worlds is out on 15th September via The state51 Conspiracy.

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For whatever reason, Johnny Foreigner and I parted ways for a few years. Luckily I stumbled across their new album, You Can Do Better, and was delighted to find that they are every bit as energetic and fun as before. Opener ‘Shipping’ sets the tone and removes any doubts that JoFo had lost their frenetic sound. Every song that follows is of a similar intensity – not just fast or loud but fast and loud. Remember that rollercoaster on Final Fantasy VII, the one where you raced around a neon theme park shooting things? JoFo are sort of like the musical equivalent; hyper, noisy, addictive and prone to sudden changes in direction. The only let up is the (perhaps) unfortunately named ‘Gliff Richard,’ a decidely emo affair full off the melodramatic angst you would want from such a song.

The album is out on Alcopop! Records, and you can get it here. If you are in the US, Lame-O Records are putting it out on vinyl, and you can grab it here.

Don’t stop believing in the band.

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There is something about a fully thought out album that appeals to me, LPs that are designed to be played from start to finish in the prescribed order without gaps. I guess there many over-complicated theories that would cite modern listening habits and the ease of ignoring all but your favourite tracks (sure, you could skip CDs, but you can go as far as to delete MP3s, keeping your three or four prefered tracks) but I think my fascination with these types of albums is just the presumed care and attention which has gone into them. A carefully considered track order suggests an intentional arc in narrative or themes across the record. It suggests real thought, the album as a piece of art rather than a collection of attention-seeking singles.

The Tower of Silence is such an album. Adey’s style has not changed since his debut, with the slow and piano-driven tracks boldly outlined with his melancholic baritone. The effect is best described as emotional. The songs are mournful, desperate, confused and downright sad. ‘Laughing’ (which can be heard below) is a perfect example of his work, with the piano supporting both his mournful lyrics and the ghostly backing.

In the few reviews I have read to date, much is made of his choice to record the album in an Edinburgh church (and the significance of this against the spiritual themes and feelings). This is a fair point to a degree; there is definitely a sort of Biblical feel to the songs, in the way of Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen. However, the idea that all of the themes on the album are otherworldly is misleading. There is much focus on belief (and consequential regret) but maybe not quite in the awesome omnipotent way some would suggest. Instead I see common emotions, regular feelings of regular people struggling to understand and connect with other regular people. The slow pace and quietly engulfing sadness on the record heighten these feelings of reality. There’s no quixotic preaching or impossible promises, just a meandering sense of weight and sadness and absence of control. Where many pop songs are our inner dreams brought to life, here Adey brings to life our inner emotions, empathetic yes, but also susceptible to anxiety and dread, an inescapable and often inexplicable grief.

The Tower of Silence is out on 26th November (today). Buy it direct from his website here.

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