Decribed as “an anthology-like collection” which displays wide-ranging influences including everything from jangle pop and art rock to tin pan alley, americana and progressive folk, Deep Country is the forthcoming album from Albany outfit Bruiser and Bicycle, to be released this autumn. Lead single ‘Waterfight’ shows how this myriad of inspiration registers within songs as well as between them, pairing retro folk with ample melodies and art pop sensibilities to create something inventive and dynamic. But don’t mistake variation for overabundance, because for all the innovation, the track sees Bruiser and Bicycle dial back the maximalist approach that marked their previous record Holy Red Wagon. The result is rich, endlessly surprising and grounded within the natural experimentation inherent to any collaborative act.

Watch the video filmed and edited by Derick Noetzel and directed by Keegan Graziane below:

Deep Country is out on the 8th October and available to pre-order now.

Eric Angelo Bessel – Scavengers

“Plays with our understandings of reality, presenting a version of physical existence which bends toward the esoteric.” That’s how we described the work of American-German visual artist and musician Eric Angelo Bessel back in 2023. Album Visitation offered what we called “spacious soundscape[s] loaded with the weight of reflection yet simmering with a certain foreboding too, the past and future weighing on the present as shadows, echoes emerging from within a granular fog.” This autumn will see Bessel return with Mirror at Night, a brand new album on Lore City Records which again collapses the distinction between the past and the future into something flat and beguiling. Listen to the nocturnal, ambiguous lead single ‘Scavengers’ below:

FONTINE – Home Right Here

Back in July we previewed Good Buddy, the new album from Winnipeg-based songwriter FONTINE forthcoming via Birthday Cake Records, with the lead single and title track. A song which sat “at the intersection of big rig bravado and unashamed sentimentality,” as we put it, “using a blend of good time rock and bedroom pop sensibilities to explore ideas of love, friendship and self-actualisation.” With the record’s release edging closer, FONTINE is back with new single, ‘Home Right Here’, and the song is no less emotive in style. As the title suggests, the track is a meditation on home in all of its dimensions, be it specific locations, special people or even particular times of life. “Running down to the well, through the forests and the fields, with my cousins at my heels,” as the first verse opens. “In the garden with my mom, pulling weeds all day long, picking sweetgrass from the lawn.”

Heaven For Real – Hold Me Back

Hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia and now based in Toronto, Heaven For Real is the brainchild of twins Mark and J. Scott Grundy, offering a genre-bending style of music that draws on everything from post-punk and art rock to psych, ambient, electronic and jazz. The project’s most collaborative release to date, new album Who Died & Made You The Dream pushes this swirl of influences further than ever before, stylistically mirroring the dream logic of its themes to moves between genres with fluidity and subconscious intention. Ahead of release this November via Mint Records, Heaven For Real have unveiled single ‘Hold Me Back’ by way of introduction. A song decidedly dreamlike in style, both in terms of its slightly off-kilter haze and the coiled cryptic meaning which seems to edge closer with every repeated listen.

on relinquishment, I remember the cycle
pinwheel of interest
gone with the wind my genoa sail
on relinquishment;
I surrender to the cycle
fixed on the distance
cured through imagination
on relinquishment;
I remember the cycle

Watch the video by Jordan Minkoff below, though those with a sensitive disposition be warned, it features haunted hair:

Who Died & Made You The Dream? will be released on the 7th November via Mint Records and you can pre-order it now.

Jackie West – Offer

“Content to understand change as a kind of potential, and occupy the present in all of its fluctuating strangeness.” That’s how we described Jackie West‘s Close To The Mystery last year, a full-length which followed its lead character “through a city in the aftermath of a relationship,” as we continued, “the various rented rooms in which they find themselves representative of those liminal days between what was and what will be.” Now the NYC/Hudson-based artist is back with ‘Offer’, a brand new single on Ruination Record Co. which is perhaps simultaneously the most ambitious and laid-back song West has written to date. An almost ten-minute epic that pairs conversational spoken word vocals with a warm and catchy melody, unfolding like an internal monologue as it moves between casual observations, quantum theory, Socrates and a hundred other subjects. “‘Offer’ is about many things,” as West explains:

It’s about propaganda—how it’s difficult to trace a message back to its source; how there’s never been much room to ask why and what do you mean by that? We tend to take things at face value and then wonder why all we see is a mask. Offer is about learning to accept your blindspots and realizing we all have them/ how we see someone is generally how we see ourselves, so we must have compassion for ourselves first—real forgiveness and letting go—to see another clearly. Offer is about being attached to the story, generational trauma, seeing it and loving it enough to say, “you’ve been with me, my mother, grandmother and great grandmother for so long,” now you can go back to them—”I don’t need to live according to your script anymore.

Lefty Parker – Illusions

Taking inspiration from titans like Townes Van Zandt, New York-based troubadour Lefty Parker has released a number of records over recent years, establishing a hushed and heartfelt style tuned to the key of classic folk. Often beset by the weight of loss and longing, yet never quite ready to surrender its romantic hope. Next month sees the release of Ark, Parker’s brand new full-length album produced by Buck Meek and put out by Airloom, and single ‘Illusions’ gives an indication of what to expect. With Meek joining too, the song is restrained yet all the more striking for it, delivered from a state of chronic uncertainty familiar to those down on their luck, though shot through too with a kind of heartbroken fondness for life, no matter how cruel or uncaring it might sometimes be.

Ark will be released on the 21st October via Airloom.

Neti-Neti – Grace In Rot

The self-described “lo-fi ritual project” of vocalist Amirtha Kidambi (Elder Ones, Mary Halvorson) and percussionist Matt Evans (OHYUNG, Ben Seretan), experimental duo Neti-Neti aims to collapse the distinction between the personal and the political via improvision and collaboration. Forthcoming release Echo of Being / Grace in Rot was recorded over a single day, Kidambi and Evans tapping into both individual grief, collective trauma and well-worn traditions to charge the process with a sense of momentum and fluency. Single ‘Grace in Rot’ highlights the palpable energy of the sound and the emotional urgency which follows. “‘Grace in Rot’ heaved its way out of us during the last take of the session,” the pair explain, “an unexpected flame of physicality that came after a long day and a deep discussion about the evil and cruelty we witness daily in the world.” The result is visceral, cathartic and transportive, threatening to unravel under its own chaotic impetus while always reaching towards transcendence.

vireo – catching minnows

Following on from single ‘Cloudgazers’ released back in 2024, a single we described as “a soft and gauzy song that evokes the act of the title with warm textures, gentle electronics and little squiggly guitar lines,” Pittsburgh-based indie pop outfit vireo are gearing up to release a brand new full-length later this year. For now, single ‘catching minnows’ serves as a curtain raiser to the release. Turning to the natural world in the face of personal challenges, the track could be said to embody the vireo project as a whole. One attuned to the curative power of the environment and the small beauties therein, packed full of brightness and wonder as though written in honour of the joy of being alive.

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“A small piece of the colossal, communal whole demanded of us. The imperative to celebrate life and warn of its fragility. To remind everyone of just what we stand to lose should the malevolent forces of this world be allowed to grow.” That’s how we described Anna Tivel‘s new album Animal Poem last month when writing about the lead single and title track. A grand statement perhaps, but anyone familiar with the folk songs penned by Tivel will know she always aims high. With the album forthcoming via Fluff & Gravy Records, latest single ‘White Goose’ is a track described by the artist as ‘a song about the way the natural world shapes our understanding—of life, death, truth and meaning.” The song embodies the spirit of the collection. An attempt to reach beyond the surface of the moment, be it made of petty grievance, mortal dread or chronic suffering, in order to connect to something deeper, richer and more fulfilling.

Watch the accompanying short film, directed Ryland Bouchard and starring Anastasiia Duvallié, below:

Animal Poem will be released on the 29th August via Fluff and Gravy Records and you can pre-order it now from the Anna Tivel Bandcamp page.

Caged Animals – Alligator

“Think JJ Cale scoring a Flannery O’Connor reading,” is how the press release describes ‘Alligator’, the latest single from Vin Cacchione’s Caged Animals. There’s a strong Canadian influence to the release—recorded with Jon Mckie in the Canadian Maritimes with Steven Lambke as a guest and released with You’ve Changed Records—but the song’s Southern Gothic vibe is decidedly American in flavour. A surreal tale of an encounter between two, contrasting Americas that only reinforces disconnection between them, delivered with Cacchione’s playful tones. “Well he was parked there to watch Daytona melt /  He had a pistol hanging off his derriére weighing down The Bible Belt,” as one verse goes. “I told him, ‘love dear is a superpower’ / And he just said, ‘love here gets hungry every hour’.”

The Cindys – Eternal Pharmacy

After a number of years recording complicated, challenging music under the moniker Birth Fury, Bristol’s Jack Ogborne yearned to return to something simpler and more immediate. Enter The Cindys, a brand new band led by Ogborne featuring Naima Bock, Finlay Burrows and members of Belishas which helps scratch this itch, owing more to the retro indie sensibilities of C86 and Flying Nun. With a self-titled mini album coming later in the year via Breakfast Records (UK) and Ruination Record Co. (US), The Cindys have shared debut single ‘Eternal Pharmacy’, a song inspired by Ogborne’s experiences as a touring sound engineer. “‘Eternal Pharmacy was written about the first proper European tour I went on,” he explains. “Seeing places I never would have been able to see otherwise, being spoiled by promoters with 3 course meals and unlimited drink, seemingly living a life of excess while simultaneously being totally broke. The song was an attempt to get a firm grip on the rapid change happening around me.”

Watch the video by Ogborne and Burrows below:

‘Eternal Pharmacy’ is out now, and the debut album from The Cindys will be released later in the year via Breakfast Records (UK) and Ruination Record Co. (US).

Drench Fries – Camera

“The solo project of Brooklyn-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Levi Nattrass, Drench Fries has carved out a niche within a country-inflected indie pop,” we wrote back in 2024, his work “offering equal doses classic western longing and a more coastal sense of brightness and pep.” Now Drench Fries are back and sounding better than ever with ‘Camera’, a song written back in 2019 but not quite coming to life until a full band got their hands on it. Enter Jason Altshuer (pedal steel), Evan House (drums), Alex Heubel (synthesizer), Stephen Vincent Ibanez Jr. (guitar, bass) and Sam Peterson (guitar), all getting behind Nattrass to bring to life the most rock-oriented Drench Fries track to date.

Eydís Evensen – Dimmuborgir

Living up to its title is the mission of Oceanic Mirror, the third full-length from Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer Eydís Evensen, forthcoming this autumn on XXIM Records. An album which looks to reflect the true power of the sea—its power, its depth, its constant movement and mystery—in order to push past the trivialities of contemporary existence and reconnect with the sublime of the natural world. Featuring renowned fellow Icelander Ásgeir singing one of Evensen’s poems, latest single ‘Dimmuborgir’ hints at the scale and beauty of the record, evoking not just the epic expanse of the ocean but also the themes of mortality and renewal it represents. Watch the suitably evocative video filmed by Einar Egils below:

Oceanic Mirror is out on the 10th October via XXIM Records.

FONTINE – Good Buddy

Winnipeg-based songwriter FONTINE is preparing to release new full-length Good Buddy this autumn via Birthday Cake Records and has released the title track as an introduction. Titled after CB radio slang for ‘gay’, the album plays like a series of dispatches from the road, be it touring her own project or as a collaborator with artists Boy Golden, Kris Ulrich, Begonia and Georgie Harmer, and plays with the stereotypes of such imagery. It sits at the intersection of big rig bravado and unashamed sentimentality, using a blend of good time rock and bedroom pop sensibilities to explore ideas of love, friendship and self-actualisation. The title track embodies the style perfectly, and hints at the record’s cathartic promise

In The Pines – Flyin’ Nowhere

Cincinnati psych outfit In The Pines have a slightly different origin story to most bands. The group run the boutique vintage pro audio repair shop Foleytronics, one of the few places in the world able to restore vintage digital effects, tape machines and synthesizers. As you might imagine, such a job accumulates a plethora of musical equipment. In The Pines’ forthcoming album Sunbeam Dream was recorded entirely with such hardware, the instruments and devices once destined for landfill salvaged, lovingly restored, then put back to use. The result is DIY in the purest sense, the band literally building their own sound in real time and working around (or, more aptly, embracing) the inherent limitations. The result bears the fruit of such a degree of control, as typified by lead single ‘Flyin’ Nowhere’ and its heady combination of energy, texture and detail.

Watch the video directed and edited by Adriana Noritz and Michael Shular below:

Sunbeam Dream will be released on the 12th September and you can pre-order it now.

John Calvin Abney – Last Chance

In September, Oklahoma‘s John Calvin Abney will release new record Transparent Towns on his own Tin Canyon Records label, via Well Kept Secret / Secretly Distribution. The folk artist’s seventh studio album, it was conceived during what he calls “a period of introspection and convalescence,” after undergoing vocal cord surgery. Forced to exist in near total silence, Abney used the quiet to delve back into his past, dwelling on the accumulation of small moments of both growth and loss that mark the passage of time. Lead single ‘Last Chance’ illustrates this perfectly, looking back at Abney’s Oklahoma youth and the then-unknown moment when beloved things slipped away. “When you come back to a love, a land, friends, family, or even a bar or a cafe that you spent a brief passage in, you’re never quite sure of the exact moment that marks the end of your chapter there,” he explains. “I try not to be these days, but sometimes I am caught dwelling in the space between now and then, thinking about where I stand today and those final seconds before everything became different.”

LUCKY – Falling Through

“A song full of backward looking despite its forward motion, resulting in a mood at once wistful and affirming.” That’s how we described ‘Traveler‘, the debut single from Bay Area supergroup LUCKY back in April. Consisting of Half Stack‘s Peter Kegler, Andrew St James and Zach Elsasser (Affectionately), the project utilises the experience and ideas of its cohort to bring its folk rock sound to life. Again released by Royal Oakie Records, latest single ‘Falling Through’ builds upon the style, a lesson in the value of intra-band chemistry which imbues its country rock sound with equal parts laidback swagger and earnest emotion. A track earthy and immediate but not without a certain wry self-awareness, especially in the near-spoken sections of the verses.

Lutalo – Cracked Lip

“Described as a time capsule of lessons learnt in their first chapter of life, the album sees the Vermont-based singer-songwriter delve into their past and invite the audience along for the ride.” So we wrote of Lutalo’s full-length album The Academy back in 2024, songs like ‘The Bed‘ and ‘Broken Twin’ highlighting the variation across the release. But the album only scratched the surface of what Lutalo has to say, something indicated by the new deluxe edition of the record which comes complete with four brand new tracks. With the release coming soon via Winspear, Lutalo has unveiled new track ‘Cracked Lip’. A song warm in tone but ambiguous in meaning, highlighting the project’s ability to combine abstract poetry with emotional immediacy. “The walls surround me / I’d like to think that I’m different from you,” as one typically cryptic verse goes. “Oh now you found me / I like to slip that salt in my shoes / And just move.” Watch the video by Noah Lenker below:

The Academy is out on the 19th September via Winspear and you can pre-order it now from the Lutalo Bandcamp page.

Snake Lips – Happy II

In recent weeks we’ve shared a couple of singles from Cat Beach, the new album from Portland, Maine outfit Snake Lips on Repeating Cloud. Both the hectic garage rock number ‘Thumbs Up’ and surf inflected ‘East Coast’ presented a band at the height of their powers, Cody Mitchell and co. burning through a myriad of hang ups and frustrations with good old fashioned rock energy (“There might be no means of fixing this predicament, but the song can remedy one part of it,” as we wrote of ‘East Coast’). With the record now out, Snake Lips have shared the album’s closing track ‘Happy II’ as a new single, and it seems wrestling demons via unapologetically raw indie rock might have therapeutic value after all. Because while the verses are essentially a list of regrets and apologies, the song turns into an expression of gratitude for the small (often four-legged) consolations that help us learn to accept ourselves.

But I’m happy where I’m at
I got the sunset and the dog in the yard
And my two best friends my cats
And I’m finally cool with me
I got the one I love, the dog in the yard
And my friends are hanging out
On cat beach

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