Based in Brooklyn, Ben Van Bonn has made a name combining the traditional and the contemporary, taking a classic American fingerpicked style and reaching in new directions. Debut album Myth of the Middle Rung displayed how evocative this style could be, with singles like ‘Concord, MA’ highlighting a distinctive combination of archaic and digital sensibilities which created something delicate, spacious and shot through with some cryptic ancient power. Now Van Bonn is back with Further Than Thought, a new full-length which strips things back further, forgoing any vocals and removing all instruments but guitar and electric bass. Named after an aquatic portal in the Farallon Islands, first single ‘Great West Arch’ doubles down on intricate fingerpicking to transport the audience to the Californian coast, and serves as a timely reminder that less is often more.

Further Than Thought is out on the 29th November and available to pre-order via Bandcamp.

Blue Deputy – Cypress

Blue Deputy was formed by Andy Bunting in Philadelphia in 2020, and immediately won fans with the self-produced single ‘New Jersey’. Since then, Bunting has moved to Belfast and recruited Caoilfhinn McFadden (bass) and Cathal Francis (guitar and vocals) to form the current Blue Deputy lineup. The band are currently working on their debut EP, and new single ‘Cypress’ is perhaps our first taste of that. Released via new Dalliance Recordings imprint Under The Rolling Y, the song combines everything from soft bedroom pop and lyrical folk rock to the emotional intensity of Midwest emo. Bunting’s vocals smoulder and sway over steady percussion, subtle synths and wistful slide guitar, all coming together to from something that feels soft and raw with a clear-eyed clarity.

Daughter of Swords – Alone Together

Daughter of Swords is the solo project of North Carolina‘s Alex Sauser-Monnig, who you may also know as one third of Mountain Man and one half of The A’s. Their debut album, Dawnbreaker, came out in 2019, and followed a similar folk blueprint to those other projects. But the last few years have been ones of great personal change for Sauser-Monnig, and new single ‘Alone Together’ very much reflects that. Created with help from log-time pals Jenn Wasner (Wye Oak, Flock of Dimes), Nick Sanborn (Sylvan Esso), and TJ Maiani (Weyes Blood, Neneh Cherry), the song pulses with synths and blossoming electronics, driven forward on a stream of potent guitar and muscular percussion. It’s a dispatch from what label Psychic Hotline describe as “[a] fresh chapter of exploration and liberation,” exuding a buoyant confidence as we all trudge on through the barrage of bad news and complicated feelings.

Elori Saxl – Grows Along The River Fast

“Arrangements which combine digitally processed recordings of natural phenomena with analogue synths, MIDI samples and woodwind by Stuart Bogie, evoking not only the interplay between geography, ecology and human development in the area, but also the emotional landscape which results.” So we wrote last month when introducing Earth Focus, the new album from  New York-based composer Elori Saxl on Western Vinyl. A soundtrack to the PBS documentary of the same name, the record evokes the Southern Californian topography, especially along the LA River, highlighting the environment’s rhythms and changes, so it is fitting latest single ‘Grows Along The River Fast’ offers a different take to first single ‘Grows Along The River Slow’. A variation which switches up the length and tempo to offer a different picture of the same waterway, susceptible as it is to the varying conditions of the land.

Max García Conover – coming up low

A new month, a new single from Max García Conover, and this time he has company. ‘coming up low’ sees Buenos Aires’ Paula Prieto and New England’s Ben Cosgrove lend their talents, joining Conover on what is a characteristically sincere and tender track. Because while there are more voices in the mix, the song is a lesson in understatement. Mining the image of the moon in all of its isolation and pale sympathy, not to mention the way it encapsulates the stark power of a simple image. “I watched you dress in the soft light of the moon,” as one verse goes, “I was desperate and I was hopeless except for hoping that you wouldnt notice / I watched you dress in the soft light of the moon.” Elsewhere the night comes crashing down, and worst fears are realised, yet the lasting impression is that familiar blend of melancholy and hope experienced when looking up to see the moon rising again.

All month the moon coming up low coming up low coming up low
I awoke and you were missing and you left me a letter in the kitchen

Pocket Full of Crumbs – Ice Water

This summer, San Francisco outfit Pocket Full of Crumbs released In My Hands I Hold A Lucky Cricket, a full-length album on Cherub Dream Records. With its marriage of post-punk, alt rock and shoegaze, the record embraces the twin forces of gauzy texture and crushing weight to create something which nods to the nineties while keeping its eye fixed firmly forward. It saw an admirable degree of variation across the songs—from the twitchy energy of tracks like ‘Blink’ to the altogether heftier ‘In My Home’. Fan favourite ‘Ice Water’ offers yet another dimension, where increased clarity grounds a downbeat and ambiguous sound which threatens to spill over into dark chaos but never quite does, highlighting an understanding of mood and sense of control which is sometimes lacking within the genre.

Sonya – Inside & Out

Sonya released their debut At What Cost? earlier this year, a succinct collection of songs as comfortable offering late-night emotion as it was an upbeat swagger. If this duality marked the album, then new single ‘Inside & Out’ confronts such an idea head on. Another example of Sonya’s fantastic ability to sound at once confessional and carefree, intimate feelings communicated without sacrificing any of sense of confidence or attitude. With a taut rhythm that pulls the audience in and a singalong finale keeping them there until the close, the song is yet more evidence that the star of Sonya is rising and one to watch in the coming months.

‘Inside & Out’ is now available via streaming services.

Steph Cameron – Today

Having just announced a UK and European tour along with fellow Canadian songwriter Abigail Lapell, Saskatoon’s Steph Cameron has shared new single, ‘Today’. Her first new release in seven years, the single offers a glimpse of a full-length forthcoming next year on Neon Moon Records, and sees Cameron build upon the atmospheric and thematically charged style of folk which made previous records Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady and Daybreak Over Jackson Street so special. A song as assured as it is emotive, simmering with brooding longing as it contemplates complex ideas of identity and history with a straightforward confidence. “’Today’ is a song about reconnecting with both our living and ancestral communities,” she explains. “It is about the pain of turning away from your identity and the strength and pride found in turning toward it.”

‘Today’ is out now via Neon Moon Records. You can find the dates of the Steph Cameron and Abigail Lapell tour here. 

Stephen Becker – Range

The forthcoming album from  LA-born, Brooklyn-based songwriter Stephen Becker, Middle Child Syndrome is a record concerned with change in all its guises, exploring the duality of permanence and decay inherent within existence itself with a distinctively personal slant. “The album sees Becker lean into this unorthodox style with an almost stream-of-consciousness immediacy,” we wrote in a preview, “as though the audience is given a direct invitation into his daily existence.” With vocals from Alena Spanger, latest single ‘Range’ puts forward a more subdued, restrained aspect of the record, the absence of drums creating a kind of torpor into which anxious thoughts inevitably seep, and the slow drift of time offers not peace but unease.

Microcosm of your parents, brother left LA
By this age you already had Michael I was late
Melody recycled wind me up and watch me spin

I’m not lost, I’m just outside my range
I’m not lost, I’m just a little spaced

This Lonesome Paradise – Into the Ether

Led by E. Ray Béchard, This Lonesome Paradise specialise in a dark and mysterious brand of Western noir. Last week they released a new record, Luna Nocturna, via Bad Vibes Good Friends, a collection of eight songs that we previously described as “a meditation on the American Dream with all its brutality, broken promises and betrayals.” Likening it to a Cormac McCarthy novel, the label describe the album as “an evocative journey through desolate landscapes and haunting narratives, capturing the raw essence of the American West.” This is very much apparent on centrepiece and standout track ‘Into the Ether’, a slinky and surreal slow-burn rock song that feels like a midnight cruise along a desert highway, taking us deep into the shadowy heart of the nation.

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Based in Omaha, Nebraska, 37735i6 works in the lineage of ambient folk practised by artists like Midwife and Grouper. Conjuring intangible soundscapes that nevertheless possess a palpable weight, and utilising this contradiction to evoke intricacies of mood and experience that might otherwise be difficult to describe. Taken from 2020’s stay forever EP, single ‘prairie madness revival’ uses layers of reverb and delay effects to encapsulate this style, inviting listeners into a liminal space between presence and absence, darkness and light.

Ailsa Tully – Salt Glaze

Ahead of a spring tour and slot at the upcoming Green Man festival, Welsh songwriter Ailsa Tully has returned with ‘Salt Glaze’, a brand new single on Dalliance Recordings. The song follows on from Holy Isle, an EP which developed on the classic singer-songwriter style with an array of additional instruments, and channels this invention into conjuring the warm stillness of a familiar home. A sensation Tully experienced when staying in the house of her late grandmother during a period of lockdown. “My Grandma passed away a few years ago and the house remained unchanged, it was like a museum of salt glaze ceramics and abstract art pieces which began to absorb into my creativity,” Tully explains. ‘Salt Glaze’ uses the image to explores ideas of preservation and acceptance in the face of change. Check out the video directed and edited by Finlay O’Hara:

‘Salt Glaze’ is out now via Dalliance Recordings and you can get it from the Ailsa Tully Bandcamp page.

Amelia Jackie – All Around Town

For most of her life, Amelia Jackie has moved from place to place. Raised as one of four sisters by a single mother, hers was a childhood of motion and flux. Now based in New York, Amelia Jackie is preparing the release of her debut album, You Can’t Fuck the Internet, a record that promises to “beckon us into the sensual environments that spawned her, where the smell of sweet peaches meets the fumes of burnt diesel.”

In preparation, Jackie has unveiled the lead single, ‘All Around Town’, which offers a glimpse at her uniquely humid, country-tinged sound (what Colin Atrophy Hagendorf described for She Shreds as “Southern Gothic, Bastard Out of Carolina, lesbian Americana”). It’s a song about a passionate devotion, the object of which takes on near-supernatural power as they blaze a trail through towns and hearts.

you were born in the middle of a hot night in july
and your momma couldn’t tell if you were laughing or crying
a storm blew in right off the gulf
so you never did learn when enough was enough

Bri Barte – High Noon

Hex Signs, the new record from Ann Arbor-based songwriter Bri Barte, is an album about loss. Saturated with physical imagery and sensations, the songs shift from sluggish crawls to racing energy with little warning, capturing both the sharp sting and diffuse drudgery of life in the aftermath. Take ‘High Noon’, its picture of ruin heightened by odours, textures, heat and light. Barte wanders amid dead squirrels and flies and beating sun, pining for relief.

I always liked a punishing summer
The kind that makes you pray for rain
But these days I’d rather have you
I get so lonely out here at high noon

Without you

Catcher – Fallen Stones

Hailing from Brooklyn, Catcher are the latest post-punk brooders to capture widespread attention. Taking the shadowy volatility of Bambara and adding a cathartic forward motion, the six-piece walk the fine line between violence and beauty, and the delivery of vocalist Austin Eichler is suitably unpredictable amid the noise. Single ‘Fallen Stones’ captures the mood perfectly, Eichler emerging from the dense foreboding soundscape with the conviction of some half-drunk preacher.

ce qui nous traverse – Point sur la carte

Montreal-based ensemble ce qui nous traverse seek “to capture the intensive vibrations that compose the surrounding ambiances,” something their most recent record Le sacre de Sainte-Barbe tackles with both ambition and invention. Released on Cuchabata Records, the album is something of a study on a specific place, the outfit utilising their collective experimentation to examine the influence of sound on an old house in a North American village. Single ‘Point sur la carte’ is both an introduction to this strange, nocturnal world and proof that ce qui nous traverse beyond the slow haunting tones you might expect. Check out the video by Guillaume Vallée and Larissa Corriveau below:

Le sacre de Sainte-Barbe is out via Cuchabata Records and available via Bandcamp.

Cola – So Excited

Rising from the ashes of Ought, Cola is the new project of Tim Darcy and Ben Stidworthy, along with The Weather Station drummer Evan Cartwright. Ahead of their debut album Deep in View, coming this May on Fire Talk Records, they have unveiled new single, ‘So Excited’. Powered by a sleek, taut groove, the track plays like Ought stripped of its excesses, polished down to something tactile and gleaming yet capable of a kind of perpetual motion.

And if you are so excited
Then you are so invited
To take this stone and right it
If you are so excited

Have a gander at the video by Camille Anais Semprez, Cedar Teionietathe Jocks and Jacob Summers below:

Deep in View is out on the 20th May via Fire Talk Records and you can pre-order it now.

FES – Clarinet

Peterborough/Leeds-based trio FES work at the intersection of a variety of genres, drawing on pop punk, math rock and alternative styles to conjure a sound full of invention and weight. Ahead of debut record With Regards From Home, out via Small Pond this spring, they have unveiled new single ‘Clarinet’ to whet your appetite. Check out the video by Sam J. Lance below:

With Regards From Home is out on the 29th April via Small Pond and you can pre-order it now.

Nuevos Mundos – Mis Plantas

Nuevos Mundos are am indie rock band from Madrid, consisting of John Galilea (guitar, keyboard and vocals), Diego Cendra (guitar and vocals), Jaeson Peña (bass) and Miguel A. Sánchez (drums). They have just released their debut EP, Mis Plantas, a collection of three songs that display their talents. From energetic opener ‘Domingos en Casa’, a roaring throwback to the mid 00s indie rock golden age, to a hazily reflective title track that feels smothered with regret, there really is something for everyone.

Ocie Elliott – With the Lights Down

Victoria, B.C. duo Ocie Elliott caught our attention with their stripped back covers of songs from the likes of John Prine, Big Thief and Gillian Welch, and latest single ‘With the Lights Down’ shows their original material possesses all the same tender and intimate tones. Written after a summer solstice birthday party on the beach, the song evokes a sense of quiet gladness. A moment to remember the things you appreciate while they are still close at hand.

Find out more on the Ocie Elliott website, and check out the covers on their Youtube page.

Wildlife Freeway – Flea

“Let this one thing be known,” says Sunny Atema, AKA Wildlife Freeway. “I don’t play music. I use music.” Debut album Sunny, out via Alex Ebert’s Community Music, was created under this sentiment. An album recorded in the aftermath of the loss of her beloved dog when the world felt distant and sad. A tool to reconnect with life. “A wildlife freeway is a bridge for animals to safely cross over busy roads” Atema says of the project and album. “The name also speaks of wildness and life on the road. The actual road, putting in the miles, brings us eye to eye, connecting without a screen between.” Check out lead single ‘Flea’ below:

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Following the release of ‘Edge’ back in June, Ailsa Tully has returned with a brand new single, entitled ‘Drive’. Described by Tully as a song “about searching to free yourself from the mundanity of everyday life,” ‘Drive’ unfurls in its own time, existing in its own liminal space outside of the ordinary, a space in which new realities seem possible. This effect is accentuated by the accompanying video, shot by Tully herself, which tracks a journey from London across the Severn bridge and into the Welsh countryside, where green hills and narrow wooded lanes feel like another world entirely.

‘Drive’ is out now and you can listen on the Ailsa Tully Soundcloud page.

Photo by by Adam Whitmore

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The record’s rich sound relied on Margaret’s vocals, which acted as an even, compassionate guide through the lonely rooms. The solid force around which everything else could coalesce. But then came illness, and Gia Margaret lost the ability to sing. “This left me feeling like a shell of myself,” she explains, “so I turned to my synthesizer for comfort.” The result, Mia Gargaret, might not be the expected follow-up to There’s Always Glimmer, but the one required in the moment. “These compositions helped me hold onto my identity as a music maker,” Margaret says. “At times this music helped soothe my anxiety more than therapy or anything else could.”

The record brings Gia Margaret’s abilities as a musician and composer to the fore. Crafted mainly from synthesizer, piano and acoustic guitar, the songs also draw upon other sounds and textures, from church bells and lapping water to spoken word samples. Despite this, or perhaps even because of it, the tracks retain a minimalist feel, the samples drifting through the often spare instrumentation like fleeting ghosts. The effect is one of remove,  these elements of life presented translucent and secondhand, like memories projected onto a blank wall by a dying bulb.

The result is both eerie and moving. Like a sadness so sudden and immersive that it scarcely feels real. “Do you ever feel like you’re living your life / but you’re also barely there?” Margaret asks on ‘barely there’, encapsulating the record’s uncanny relationship with presence and absence. “I wanted to capture the feeling of a truly strange time in my life,” Margaret says, “even though I would prefer to forget it altogether.” At times There’s Always Glimmer felt like an out of body experience, floating high above the moment and achieving a new perspective. But Mia Gargaret is a dream departure not from the moment but from what has always been, and one that might never break. An experience not out of body, but out of life.

With this comes a change of tack. The need to be more proactive in optimism. More directly protective. “I wanted to make something that sounded hopeful,” Margaret says, “which is a little ironic because I felt essentially hopeless during the entire process. I was making music to self-soothe.” Take opener ‘apathy’, its warm currents overlaid with mournful piano, the spoken word sample of Margaret’s own vocal therapy playing as though from some speaker in the corner of the room. Sounding like hope abstracted, some artificial thing produced with the correct actions and conditions.

With words from the British philosopher Alan Watts, ‘body’ achieves a humming warmth, that half-panicked feel of hearing one’s suffering put into words. Of someone—some stranger— truly understanding, assuring you that you are not crazy at all. There’s comfort too in the languid tones of ‘no sleep no dream’, though it’s the transient kind that arrives only at the end of things, and tracks such as ‘sadballad’ and ‘3 movements’ offer a keener edge to the sorrow. The closing track ‘lesson’ ensures that the sense of sadness and turmoil remains. “Did I miss a lesson when I was younger / when I should have learned,” Margaret asks in the only real vocals on the album. “How to be a person / and how to believe in what I deserve?”

Of course, the music of Gia Margaret has always been melancholic, and the sound of this new record bears clear relation to what came before. “The palette of [There’s Always Glimmer] is built from shades of sadness,” we wrote of the previous record. “Loss, regret, wistful longing, the arresting trap of nostalgia and plain old hurt—though again and again Margaret provides a counter-shade, as though the darkness’ true purpose is merely to highlight the warm, weak glow within.”

It is in this second half that the difference emerges on the new album. Margaret has not thrown away the colours of her previous music, but paints according to a different end. If There’s Always a Glimmer was concerned with finding the persistent light within even the darkest of moments, then Mia Gargaret acknowledges the fragility of this spark. Because sometimes it is not a matter of perspective. There is no bright side to look upon. The work then becomes not finding the light but working to keep it alive, if only in memories, so that in some undecided future, it might burn bright once again.

Mia Gargaret is out now via Orindal Records (US) and Dalliance Recordings (rest of the world) and you can get it from the Gia Margaret Bandcamp page.

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