Brooklyn’s Alexei Shishkin might describe himself as a “DIY nobody of the internet void,” but that hasn’t stopped his prolific run of releases, with three in 2024 alone. That trio, dagger, Open Door Policy and Greenwich Mean EP showed the wildly varied style of Shiskin’s work, veering from rock to bedroom pop to jazz and back. Fast forward almost a year, a relative age in Shishkin-time, and he’s back with a brand new full-length, Good Times. To be released this September on Rue Defense, the album takes the level of invention to a new level, as demonstrated by lead single ‘Disco Elysium’. It’s inspired by the eponymous video game, Shishkin even incorporating sounds from the game into the track itself. “You’re a degenerate, amnesiac detective coming off a crazy bender, and you’re trying to solve a murder that happened in a small post-revolution town,” Shiskin explains of his inspiration. “The game covers everything from psychology to politics to lost love to life, death, and introspection. It’s honestly one of the most well-written, exciting things I’ve ever experienced.”

Josie – My Boy and I

Josie are a group from Copenhagen who make scrappy, jangly and impossibly catchy indie pop songs. Their debut album, A Life On Sweets Alone, comes out in September via perennialdeath and K Records, and the latter in particular should give you an idea of what to expect. Think sugary hooks, raw punky energy and lyrics and vocals that continue the long lineage of K Records-associated twee pop. Lead single ‘My Boy and I’ is our first taste of what to expect, barrelling headlong into two and a half minutes of indie pop as endearing as it is infectious.

Watch the video, directed and shot by Little Richard Perusi, below:

A Life On Sweets Alone will be released on 26^th September and is available to pre-order from the Josie Bandcamp page.

Lathe of Heaven – Aurora

Aurora, the second album from Brooklyn’s Lathe of Heaven coming later this summer on Sacred Bones, promises to function like a collection of sci-fi short stories. It takes inspiration from the work of authors like Ursula K. le Guin, Octavia Butler, Greg Egan, and Peter Watts to explore worldly themes in bold, imaginative ways. Loosely inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s short story ‘If I Forget Thee, O Earth…’, the title track introduces one such tale, combining New Wave colour and post-punk cool into something not only transportive but almost devotional. “In the story a man and his son take a trip from their colony on the moon to a lookout point where Earth (long abandoned due to nuclear war) can be seen rising across the vast gulf of space,” the band explain. “Playing with this concept, I took a more personal and romantic approach, exploring similar themes of loss, love, and devotion at the end of the world.”

Watch the video directed by Devan Davies below:

Aurora will be released on the 29th August via Sacred Bones Records and you can pre-order it now.

Michael Nau – Smokeflowers

His first new music since 2023 album Accompany, Michael Nau has returned with a double single, Smokeflowers / Sing To via Karma Chief Records. Something of a departure from the previous record’s full-band arrangements, both songs were recorded at home alone, written and recorded without a new record in mind. “I was testing out a new tape machine that I had, and then I sold it,” Nau explains. “They’re single songs that just kind of happened without other songs around.” The result is something unhurried and almost devotional and its soft and shimmering atmosphere. ‘Smokeflowers’ in particular is oddly powerful in it’s understated majesty, Nau’s opaquely poetic lyrics unfurling in a syrupy, waltzy melody.

pôt-pot – WRSW

In September, Irish/Portuguese quintet pôt-pot will release a new record, Warsaw 480km, on Felte Records. The band, led by vocalist/guitarist Mark Waldron-Hyden, deal in a raw and hypnotic blend of psych, krautrock and post punk, a sound rich and multi-layered, but somehow delivered with taut economy. Many of the songs were penned during a period of grief and personal upheaval, and lead single ‘WRSW’ is the prime example. Waldron-Hyden explains the song is based on his experience of “being driven in a very nice car to collect and deliver my father’s ashes,” and captures feelings both of grim forward motion and numb unreality perfectly. This journey is also where the record gets its title. “At one point the driver told me about a journey he’d taken from Ireland to Poland,” Waldron-Hyden continues, “where after days of driving, in the dead of night, a single road sign appeared, reading WARSAW 480 KM. I identified with that image of blackness punctuated suddenly by some faraway but tangible relief.”

Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats – Our Detour

When touring Japan together in 2024, Joseph Shabason and Nicholas Krgovich met Saya and Takashi Ueno of Tenniscoats, who played as a backing band. The four had little time to rehearse but quickly discovered they did not need it, the subsequent shows fluid, unpredictable and spontaneous, successful in the way only genuine artistic connection could allow. So successful, in fact, the quartet took the opportunity to further the collaboration, spending two days at the Guggenheim House in Kobe with nothing prepared and only their mutual curiosity for direction. The result, released as Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats with Western Vinyl, is full-length album Wao, and first single ‘Our Detour’ is the first glimpse at this lightning-in-a-bottle creative process. A lesson in instinct and invention which reaches for inspiration from the everyday and returns it back to us as something bright and magic.

Wao will be released on the 29th August via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

Simple Shapes – Mallard

Portland indie rockers Simple Shapes have just announced their debut LP Sundial, which is slated for release later this summer. Their first new music since 2022’s Soundtrack EP, the record promises to build on the foundations of previous releases (think late 90s alt rock meets contemporary indie pop) and expand the Simple Shapes sound in new directions. Lead single ‘Mallard’ is a great start, introducing the band’s sonic range and loud-quiet dynamics. It opens with a spry and sunny energy before erupting into yelled vocals and blasts of noisy emotion, effortlessly moving between the two until a final cathartic denouement.

Studio Electrophonique – David and Jayne

The solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, Studio Electrophonique has made a splash in its local Sheffield and beyond, releasing two EPs which use a warm, nostalgic brand of indie pop to mine the mundane everyday of its inherent emotional resonance. With his self-titled debut full-length coming this September via Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records, Leesley has unveiled bittersweet new single ‘David and Jayne’. The first song he wrote for the album and the one which paved the way for the rest. “It felt like the opening scene to a film; the words came to me more as dialogue, or script, than lyrics,” Leesley explains, “and that opened up a new and very appealing writing perspective—I was almost tempted to pretend to be Alain Resnais directing an imaginary film at the British seaside.” Watch the video directed by Leesley himself below:

Studio Electrophonique will be released on the 26th September via Valley of Eyes Records.

Tan Cologne – In Resin

“Represents both a continuation of [their previous] style and a broadening of its horizons,” was how we described Tan Cologne‘s new album Unknown Beyond with back in June. “Almost literally, in fact, with [Lauren] Green and [Marissa] Macias turning their attention skyward with the same curiosity, openness and longing which has always underpinned their work.” Lead single ‘Cool Star’ showed how central grief is to the record, possessing what we called “a vibe again ambivalent in its meaning, sounding at once like an otherworldly escape from our terrestrial suffering and some mournful elegy delivered in its aftermath,” and new single ‘In Resin’ is no less nuanced and dramatic. What the band describe as an encapsulation of the past few years, which uses its gauzy layers to present the various lives we live simultaneously, a series of selves superimposed.

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The Fabulous Truth, the new album from Brooklyn‘s Eve Essex forthcoming via Soap Library, uses the full spectrum of styles and genres in attempt to offer the elusive phenomenon of its title. “Trip-hop, outlaw country, kosmische, spiritual jazz, avant-garde classical, and—yes—musical theatre,” are all cited as touchstones in the press release, as Essex moves with an improvisational freedom in search of a sound capable of capturing the full duality of intimacy and expansiveness which exists within the boundaries of our selves. The style is encapsulated by latest single ‘Room with a View’, in which a hauntingly patient sound evokes the strange geography of our interiors, where whispered secrets and vast expanses can feel like one and the same. Watch the animated video by Andy Cahill below:

The Fabulous Truth is out on the 21st June via Soap Library and you can pre-order it now.

Fine – Coasting

Recording under the moniker Fine (that’s feen-uh), Copehagen-based songwriter Fine Glindvad Jensen collides folk sensibilities with those of dream pop and electronic genres, stitching together guitars, drums, samples and synthesisers to form ambiguous, often minimal soundscapes for her vocals to drift across. So while debut album Rocky Top Ballads might be full of the melancholy and longing of classic country music, its intentions are far more evasive, drawing the listener into a shimmering world where ennui and fondness are marbled into one. The result, as highlighted by single ‘Coasting’, are songs whose apparent simplicity belies the true depth of meaning, Fine’s minimalist style allowing the listener to feel they are edging closer to the elusive heart of each track with every repeated listen.

Rocky Top Ballads comes out on 7th June is is available to order from the Fine Bandcamp page.

Hearsing – Montauk

Consisting of multi-instrumentalists Avery Murphy and Jordan Taylor, Hearsing look to offer a new flavour of western music by drawing on the surf punk roots of its founders (who were both founding members of the ensemble SUBPAR). The band have a new EP Pastoral on the way, and single ‘Montauk’ gives a glimpse of the expansive, nostalgic quality of the Hearsing sound. Ellington Peet (drums, percussion, synthesizer, production), Cole Brossus (lap steel guitar) and Kemper Thornberry (additional vocals) complete the line-up, helping to create a vivid soundscape which feels like a world of its own. Because as ‘Montauk’ suggests, Pastoral sees Hearsing push beyond personal experience into a more allegorical and creative style of lyricism, and it is fitting the sound comes to feel like an environment you might step inside.

I live behind a truck stop
North of Jersey
Every day I smell the sea
I work inside a steel mill
Cause veneration is better than defeat

Check out the video by Diego Diaz-Lundquist below:

‘Montauk’ is out now and available from the usual places. Pastoral is coming soon.

La Bonte – Marching In A Field Of Wheat

Following on from 2022’s Grist For The Mill, La Bonte is returning this summer with Economy Play, a new EP again released via Anxiety Blanket Records. Garrett La Bonte has made a name with a considered, reflective sound able to examine grief and love with the kind of thoughtful tone such subjects demand. Living up to its title, the new EP continues this sensibility with a measured hand, choosing to not overextend itself within an environment of financial constraints to instead deliver a shorter release that does justice to the ideas underpinning it. Single ‘Marching In A Field Of Wheat’ confronts this society of precarity directly, sparking with the tension between capitalism and creativity as it comes to understand the empty promise of the American dream. But while the less-is-more descriptor might apply to the release’s quantity, the sound refutes such ideals, rising with tumultuous weight as though directly wrestling with the malevolent forces within.

Mal Not Bad – Come On/Hard Times / Mustang

Following the track ‘No Worries’ back in March, Mal Hauser’s Mal Not Bad has released a new double single ahead of their debut full-length This Is Your New Life which will be released in August by Same Same. Described as “a succinct glimpse” into the record’s sonic palette, the songs inhabit slightly different sides of the LA artist’s style. ‘Come On/Hard Times’ is a sober slice of ambient indie folk adorned with subtle glitchy electronics, while ‘Mustang’ invites LA band Junaco along to create an emotive and haunting downtempo electro pop song. “‘Mustang’ feels like the emotional release of ‘Come On/Hard Times’, Hauser describes, “though both songs remain in moments of reflection and stillness.”

Find yourself inside a new life
Find yourself inside a different mind

Come On​/​Hard Times / Mustang is out now via the Mal Not Bad Bandcamp page.

Steak Blake – Under Knives

Next month, Blake Joshua (of Beige Banquet) will release an EP with his solo project Steak Blake. Titled This One, the record promises to continue the Steak Blake MO we first glimpsed on last year’s ‘Wonderbread’, all sharp post punk guitars, deadpan vocals and introspective, politically conscious lyrics. To announce the EP, Steak Blake has unveiled lead single and opening track ‘Under Knives’, a lo-fi but hook-laden punk song that is certain to appeal to fans of the likes of Gorgeous Bully. “The song speaks to the relentless challenges of modern life,” Joshua describes of the single, “depicting a state where people constantly feel behind and unable to escape from reality. It explores the psychological burden of believing that these struggles are self-inflicted, turning to vices as a form of escapism, a way to momentarily relieve stress and despair.”

STEFA* – differ3nt today

Born With An Extra Rib, the debut album by Queens vocalist, composer, educator and performance artist Stefa Marin Alarcón (aka STEFA*) is something of an amalgamation between autobiography and origin story. Exploring personal stories on a grand scale, the record sees STEFA* blend classical, electronic, punk and Latin styles to capture the different selves they embodied throughout its nine year gestation. Genre convention goes out the window, replaced with a sense of freedom and desire to embrace change. Latest single ‘differ3nt today’ is a great example, a downtempo electronic song that draws on contemporary pop and a decidedly 90s nostalgic sensibility. “I wanted this to feel like an anthem for people,” Alarcón describes of the song. “For everyone – not just for trans people, not just for non-binary people, not just for queer people. We all change so often and we have a right to change, so I wanted it to be an invitation for people to ask these same questions.”

Born With An Extra Rib is out now via Bandcamp.

Tasha – Michigan

Over two years since her last release, Tasha has signed to Bayonet Records and released a new single, ‘Michigan’. Produced by Gregory Uhlmann and written during a “both lonely and extremely creatively fulfilling” writing trip to a friend’s house in the titular state, the track is suffused with the sadness and gladness found in the warm glow of a late summer afternoon. Steady percussion propels things forward, but Tasha’s vocals glide at their own pace, attuned more with the slow rhythms of the natural world than our usual human calendar. “This song is about the missing and the return, Tasha describes,” the reliable comfort of a sunset on a nice day, a friend to sit with, and the shining hope of more comfort to come.”

Drive to Michigan, spend some time alone
Make good friends with the horses down the road
Oh I wish our dog was here with me
But I know he’s barking loudly somewhere warm and free

Wishy – Love On The Outside

Fresh from the success of 2023 EP Paradise, Indianapolis outfit Wishy have wasted no time in announcing their debut full-length album, Triple Seven. Again released via Winspear, the record looks to build on the combination of dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock which we so admired on the EP last year. Lead single ‘Love On The Outside’ plays these various stylistic influences off against one another, granting the track equal doses of heaviness and anthemic release. Such a duality is fitting for a track charting those early days of a relationship, where the tantalising promise of all the possible futures is troubled by an impatience to get to those halcyon days. A song sweet, frustrated and full of the hooks which make Wishy so engaging.

Check out the accompanying video by Rich Smith below:

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

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Fast forward eighteen months and the question is about to be answered with a brand new record. A Lake of Distortion is a marriage of folk and lo-fi pop, the latter wrapping around the former in its gauzy noise to produce what the the press release describes as “10 twisted love songs filled with joy and anxiety.” As such, the album sounds very much a product of Daniel Johnston’s legacy, with the final track, ‘Listening to Devil Town’ making such a comparison explicit.

Lead single ‘Before it Starts to Rain’ is essentially a folk song, delicate and tender though fleshed out with a variety of instruments and samples that lend an extra emotive edge. But the title track, premiering with us today, sees something of a change. Set to sun-bleached home video-style footage, the track is lives up to its name, drenched in feedback and gloriously retro rock vibes. Lyrically however, the song is far clearer. Faurholt sounds clear-eyed and sure, not only declaring his love but promising to prove it.

A Lake of Distortion is set for release on the 20th October and you can pre-order it now from the Jacob Faurholt Bandcamp page, including a transparent orange LP edition.

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Super Glue is essentially a record about a split, written and recorded in the aftermath of a nine year relationship. As Faurholt explains in the blurb:

”Super Glue is basically a break up album. It’s a record that deals with the emotions that follow, when you have to say goodbye to a person you have shared a big part of your life with. But it’s also a record that comes to terms with the madness and points forward.”

Opener ‘Floating in Space’ sets the tone of the album. It’s a bold and confident indie rock song, with a constant thudding drum beat, but sounds steeped in melancholy too, Faurholt’s vocals dripping with a wistful regret. This is a continuing theme across Super Glue. Take for example the sweetly ‘Guided By Voices’, ‘On Top’ with lines such as “It’s not a hollow life / but goddamn it’s lonely not having you by my side”, and ‘Pictures of You’ which sees Faurholt wishing his ex-partner a happy life and highlights the frightening helplessness and uncertainty of the situation, “I see a light at the end / God I hope it’s a friend”. And of course there’s a track called ‘Sad World’, which I’m sure you can imagine isn’t exactly a sunny pop song.

But there is also hope on the album, such as on the title track with its repeated refrain of:

“Sun don’t visit me
unless you feel the need
to make warm and strong
make me believe in myself and the power of love”

There is hope too on ‘Stars’, which has a vague sense of acceptance, of purpose, the big beating kick drum feeling like the first steady steps forward Faurholt has taken in a long time. The first single, ‘Future Wife’, also has this feeling. Bringing to mind Yo La Tengo in the way it uses indie pop to create a sense other than simply sunny good times, it’s a song about how the narrator plans to use his current heartache to make himself better for somebody else

The closer ‘One Last Goodbye’ is a strangely triumphant ending. The problems are not forgotten, but this is the sound of Faurholt coming to terms with them, of one final cathartic farewell to the past and certain people in it. It’s evidence of the fact that no matter how bad things can appear at a certain point in time, there is always hope of regrowth. If you can weather the storm and just hold on, there are calmer shores ahead, waiting to be sailed into. Judging by the end of this record, I think Faurholt is doing just that.

You can pre-order Super Glue on limited edition vinyl, CD or digital download via the Jacob Faurholt Bandcamp page.

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Opener ‘I’m Sorry’ is an indisputable summer jam, full of a sunshiney swagger and effortlessly cool vocals. ‘Girl Of My Dreams’ adds a splash of shoegaze sweetness, with muffled lo-fi drums and aching, pining lyrics about a girl who doesn’t exist. ‘Pipe Dream’ decelerates into a slice of sluggish and slothful pop, while ‘I Don’t See It That Way’ sounds like it’s being played in your neighbour’s basement. ‘You and Me’ shimmers with effects as Eroğlu’s downbeat-but-dreamy vocals snake through the haze. My favourite track is ‘Go’, all strummed acoustic guitars, unhurried percussion and a very languid, surfy electric guitar in the background. It gathers pace in the last third, culminating in a joyous, carefree refrain of:

“I think I’ll go my own way
to the other side
where the grass is green
and the sun will shine
forever”

‘I’m So Needy’ has a laidback tropical vibe, shuffling drums and slacker “oh oh” harmonies, and closer ‘Alphabetical Disorder’ is an alphabet song that isn’t aimed not for the usual target audience of such tunes, a lo-fi rock song with lines such as, “G is for Genocide, H is for hate, I is for idolizing people who are fake”.

You can buy Bedroom Buzz right now via Plastic Response Records or Danger Collective Records. It’s available as a download or on a fancy cassette tape (see below). Green tapes are from Danger Collective, blue from Plastic Response. Your choice.

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Only the title track is available to listen to right now (see below) but it gives a good impression of where the album is heading. Apparently created looking East across Danish scenery in view on Icelandic horses, the sound is understandably rural and rustic, with a bluegrass-y twang and lyrics about snow and sand.

He plans to release Man Riding Backwards in November on Kiowas Daydream.

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