The Cherries are Speaking, last year’s album by Dan Knishkowy’s Adeline Hotel, represented “another step in Knishkowy’s exploratory path,” as we described. “One with no set end or direction, but one pressing on with larger goals in mind. A part of a greater body of work which comes into view one record at a time, edging closer to whatever the full picture might be.” This October will provide the next stage of this journey as Adeline Hotel is releasing new full-length, Hot Fruit, again via Ruination Record Co. A record, as per Andy Cush’s album notes, “characterized by that push-pull interplay between composition and improvisation,” with Winston Cook-Wilson and Scree’s Ryan El-Solh, Carmen Rothwell and Jason Burger all lending their talents. The title track captures the blend of craft and spontaneity perfectly.

Beti Masenqo – much of anything

Beti Masenqo is a songwriter out of California who has recently unveiled debut single, ‘much of anything’. A track which introduces her style of delicate, often reflective folk which ties together melancholy and joy with a wistful thread. Here specifically on the subject of love, where tenderness doubles as a kind of tenuousness. A spell to submit to or break. “Fell asleep in Mexico, fever in the night / I know this must be obvious but your were on my mind,” Masenqo sings in the opening lines. “Felt compelled to tell you that, just to prove I tried / your fingerprints were on my chest, my soul was left behind. I know you will be gone / can’t think this will be much of anything.”

Cereus Bright – Chasing the Feeling

Cereus Bright, the recording project of Knoxville freak-folk songwriter Tyler Anthony, has been operating for the best part of a decade, though the sound has undergone a constant evolution in the interim. Having recently signed with Nettwerk, Anthony has been sharing a run of singles to show off the latest face of Cereus Bright. A style which follows the reflective tone of 2021’s Give Me Time with a newfound focus on the future, looking forwards and confronting all the mystery, uncertainty and potential therein. Latest track ‘Chasing the Feeling’ errs towards the optimistic side of things, or at least finds itself unable to shake the lingering possibility there might exist a better way to live. “’Chasing the Feeling’ charts the kinds of longings we all have,” as Anthony explains. “It’s nostalgic… it felt important to make it more subtle and melancholy. For me, that’s what the core of this feeling really is—a quiet desire to return to something better than today.” Watch the video shot by Ross Bustin and edited by Corey Campbell below:

‘Chasing the Feeling’ is out now via Nettwerk and available from Bandcamp.

KMRU – Along A Wall

The first release from KMRU‘s own label OFNOT, new album Dissolution Grip emerged from a period of study at Berlin’s Universität der Künste, where, under the tutelage of Jasmine Guffond, he used field recordings in a novel manner. Rather than including these recordings directly, he used their waveforms as a guide for his own compositions, essentially tracing over the real-world sounds and recreating them as digital soundscapes. Take single ‘Along A Wall’, a bonus track on the digital release, where the wind of Nairobi is recreated in all of its fickle movement with nothing but electronic tones.

Kramies – Days Of (acoustic version)

Back in 2022 we wrote about the self-titled album by Kramies, describing it as “what feels like the culmination of a career to date. Where everything is consolidated and offered in its most fully realised form. Life in all its surreal wonder and visceral reality. Kramies, told as truthfully as possible, whatever form that truth takes.” Having teamed up with VanGerrett Records and with a new album coming next year, Kramies has unveiled the functionally titled EP, The Original Undecorated Takes from the Kramies LP. Four songs from the album as they appeared when acoustic demos. Lead single and opener ‘Days Of’ highlights the difference from the original, the stark depth swapped for a more intimate sound, though one retaining all of the emotional power.

Pretty Bitter – What I Want!

Self-described “psychedelic synth pop gumball machine” Pretty Bitter is Emelia Bleker and Miri Tyler, along with multi-instrumentalist Zack Be, drummer Jason Hayes and guitarist Chris Smit. Together the outfit craft a sound which lives up to their label, where inventive pop sensibilities are blended with driving indie rock energy and some of the sardonic lyricism and delivery familiar to riot grrrl and post-punk. Latest single ‘What I Want!’ utilises this sound to take on eating disorders and the process of recovery. A combination of gallows humour and rising catharsis which eviscerates those responsible for the outside pressures behind such an experience.

If you’re lonely
Try being someone else

If you’re shrinking
At least they love you while you hate yourself

Could you tell I was not well?

Sinai Vessel – Tangled

Aside from some outtakes and demos, ‘Tangled’ is the first release from Caleb Cordes’s Sinai Vessel since 2020’s stellar full-length Ground Aswim, and introduces the next step in the project’s evolution. The Asheville-based songwriter has long won acclaim for his distinctively emotive and searching style, though Cordes truly stands out for the way in which he layers in other emotions too. This is on full display on ‘Tangled’, where a gentle warmth belies the thread of paranoia running beneath the surface. “We are at the mercy of a tangled web of wires / Snaring one another / strung up by our words,” Cordes sings, voice barely breaking a murmur. “Intent is one among a set of signs / if misaligned, you’ll misinterpret.” Once this dimension of the track clicks, you’ll never quite hear it in the same manner, the hushed style no longer sounding intimate so much as lonely, walled off from others and no longer trusting words as a reliable means to bridge the divide.

There’s no poison like
Believing an enemy’s in sight
When there’s no threat at all

Soft Covers – The Real Housewives of Porpoise Spit

In October, Naarm/Melbourne-based indie pop band Soft Covers will release their debut album Soft Serve on Little Lunch Records and Hidden Bay Records. Previous EP Permanent Part Time set out a jangly DIY aesthetic, and the new record sees the trio go bigger in every regard—instrumentally, thematically, and in terms of ambition—without sacrificing the authenticity that made the original songs so great. Lead single ‘The Real Housewives of Porpoise Spit’ is a great introduction for those unfamiliar, taking the nostalgic fondness of retro jangle pop and injecting a certain momentum, not to mention a playful lyricism that blurs the line between wistful and witty.

Tamra – Omens, Silos

Based between Boise and Los Angeles, Tamra is a band, as per the press release, “animated by the idea that, though there’s nothing to do, there’s still something to say.” Their debut EP Light Reading emerges from the dead expanses of the American landscape and lead single ‘Omens, Silos’ introduces this aesthetic with a staccato, opaque poetry. It melds early 00s college favourites with Astral Weeks-era Van Morrison and a turbulent undercurrent of Midwest emo. The result, with its distorted guitar and vocals that rise and fall on sonic updrafts, is oddly captivating, both gloomy and not, full of inelegant beauty like a deserted stripmall under a bruised and stormy sky.

Light Reading will be released later this year.

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“Thriving on a diversity of influences and intentions and underpinned by the constant desire to invent new things.” That’s how we described Hybrid Dimension II by The Allegorist, an album which highlighted the visionary style of Berlin-based artist Anna Jordan. One so committed to the world it created, it was performed in an entirely fictional language. Forthcoming album TEKHENU promises to be no less ambitious, again using narrative-based compositions to conjure a mythical world at least partly inspired by ancient Egyptian imagery and shaped by metaphors for human connection. Latest single ‘Howling With The Wolf’ finds such common bond in the animalistic drivers at the heart of every human, re-establishing our connection to the natural world and embracing the wilderness as a plane of interconnection.

TEKHENU is out on the 5th May via Awaken Chronicles and you can pre-order it now.

American Grandma – Stone Cross

The slowcore project of Denver‘s Jensen Keller and Caden Marchese, American Grandma is prepping to release their brand new album Rare Knives of Light later this spring, and single ‘Stone Cross’ finds the outfit at their shimmering best. Positioning itself at the ambient end of the spectrum, the song does not eliminate the dark heft of the genre so much as leaven it, the ascending tones lifting the entire weight of the sound, shadows and all. So as Keller asks a series of cryptic questions, what emerges is curious blend of the physical and intangible—a mirage you can feel between your fingers, a dream or prayer brought to life.

Does the sun shine bright forever?
Will I commemorate you with a painted sign?

Constant Follower & Scott William Urquhart – Waves Crash Here

Last summer we featured Constant Follower and their beautiful record Neither Is, Nor Ever Was. As we described, the project represents “a struggle between calmness and distress, between the real and imaginary, and indeed between the desire for and fear of such clear boundaries.” But ultimately “embraces this turmoil, and in doing so offers a fundamental reimagining of memory, of the past and future, the real and not.” The band are now gearing up to release Even Days Dissolve, a new album in collaboration with Scott William Urquhart, and lead single ‘Waves Crash Here’ shows a continued engagement with both memory and the natural world. With its evocative sweeps and fine detail, Urquhart’s guitar evokes the duality of permanence and ephemerality of the environment which inspired it, and Constant Follower’s Stephen McAll again turns to the poetry of Norman MacCaig to guide his moving, precise writing. Watch the video by animator George Farrow-Hawkins below:

Even Days Dissolve is out on the 14th April and you can pre-order it now.

Eyesore & The Jinx – An Ideas Man

Liverpool post-punk trio Eyesore & The Jinx return this May with a new double-single 7″ An Ideas Man / Do What You Love. We’ve previously described the outfit’s work as “cutting and hysterical, as though the banality of society has pushed them over the edge,” and ‘An Ideas Man’ finds them no less enraged with the world unfolding around them. It’s a twitchy song about “cult of landlordism and a parasitic ideology which has become pervasive in its wake,” as Josh Miller explains, taking on the voice of the titular figure in all of its self-congratulatory smarm. The sound’s taut angles threaten to spill over into some violent climax, and in a world in which men will kick you repeatedly on a punctual monthly rota and pretend they are doing you a favour, how else should our songs sound? As Miller concludes: “In short, it’s about how much I fucking hate landlords.”

Greg Mendez – Goodbye / Trouble

Later this year, Philadelphia‘s Greg Mendez will return with a self-titled full-length via Forged Artifacts and Devil Town Tapes. Following on from 2020’s Cherry Hell, a record we described as “taking the themes of Townes Van Zandt, Connie Converse and Elliott Smith and casting them in the bedroom pop spirit of today,” the new album sees Mendez continue this honest reflection, digging into the past to re-examine painful experiences while never losing a wry edge too. “There’s a lot of pretty bleak memories in the songs,” he explains, “but one thing that I hope comes through is that nothing is ever fully dark.” Lead single ‘Goodbye / Trouble’ captures the style perfectly, a lo-fi pop number rooted in memories while waiting for some present transcendence. Watch the video by Video by Doug Dulgarian (of they are gutting a body of water) below:

Greg Mendez is out on the 5th May via Forged Artifacts and Devil Town Tapes.

Kassi Valazza – Corners

Back in January we introuduced Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing, the forthcoming album by Portland artist Kassi Valazza on Fluff and Gravy Records (US) and Loose Music (UK). Writing of lead single ‘Watching Planes Go By’ we described how her timeless country singer-songwriter style “bears all the hallmarks of the best retro tracks while refusing to fall for nostalgic imitation.” Now Valazza has unveiled the record’s second single. Titled ‘Corners’, it’s a tender but tentative love song that again draws on psych-styled folk as much as it does from Americana, unfurling with an easy emotional ache as though from a decades-old dusty radio. Valazza’s voice sits at the sweet spot between soft and strong, tired and heartsick but holding onto a golden romantic hope.

I wonder if I called you
would it be alright
to say I loved you

Kassi Valazza Knows Nothing will be released by Fluff & Gravy Records / Loose Music on 12th May. Pre-order it now from the Kassi Valazza Bandcamp page.

Monde UFO – Government Employee

As their name might suggest, there’s something otherworldly about the work of LA‘s Monde UFO, but new album Vandalized Statue To Be Replaced With Shrine, out next month via Quindi Records, shows just how varied this ethereal mood can be. First single ‘Visions of Fatima’ led the listener into a decidedly downbeat mystery, channelling the miracle of its title to speak of shifting wonders and cloaked truths. But described as “a sun-kissed trip of low-key lounge surrealism, bizarro storytelling and shuffling exotica splendour,” latest track ‘Government Employee’ shows off a different dimension to the record. One where the laidback rhythms evoke an alternate version of visitation, the lyrics playing with an almost Pynchon-esque restlessness beneath the languorous surface.

Nyokabi Kariũki – fire head

Last week, Kenyan composer and sound artist Nyokabi Kariũki released FEELING BODY, her debut full-length album on New York label cmntx records. Combining everything from experimental electronic, contemporary classical and East African traditional music, the album explores Kariũki’s experience of living with long-COVID for the entirety of 2021. The record is built around a central motif of the voice, utilizing Kariũki’s full vocal range as well as spoken word recordings and text-to-speech software, what she describes as “a way to express visceral feelings and noisy thoughts.” It also features contributions from violinst Yaz Lancaster and trumpet player Michael Denis Ó Callaghan, their playing manipulated to echo symptoms of the persistent illness. Nowhere is this clearer that on standout track, ‘fire head’, a genuinely unsettling piece which layers a field recording of Ó Callaghan disassembling then reassembling his trumpet with a cacophony of automated voices repeating the line “They stopped asking if I was ok.”

Shalom – Lighter

Later this week, Brooklyn-based Shalom will release her debut album Sublimation on Saddle Creek. We wrote a preview of the album last month, describing it as “a bracingly honest exploration of a young life,” that “combin[es] stories of partying and trauma, love and breakups and feelings of disaffection,” and admiring its mixture of bold, direct indie pop and emotional nuance. Ahead of the record’s release, Shalom has unveiled the final single ‘Lighter’. It’s probably the most pop-oriented song on the album, the carefree atmosphere masking its themes of discontent. “So done with being myself,” Shalom sings in the chorus, “I’d rather be anyone else, I’m tired of being a fighter.” Watch the animated video by Rory Alene below:

Sublimation releases 10th March via Saddle Creek. Order a copy now from the Shalom Bandcamp page.

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A collaboration between long-time friends Katherine Dohan and David B. Greenberg, New Jersey‘s Ambrosia is a project based around spontaneity and sincerity. Their Tears EP draws on elements of bedroom pop, indie rock and psychedelia to realise this goal, their style as stirring as it is playful and full of affirming joy. With its upbeat rock rhythm, eponymous opener ‘Ambrosia’ shows the duo at their most energetic, while ‘I Saw Your Heart’ offers a more cryptic tone—an off-kilter pop sure to win over fans of acts like Dear Nora.

Billow – Swimming Pool

Based in Veselí Nad Moravou, Czechia, Billow is a lo-fi pop three piece led by Lenka Zborilova. Ahead of latest EP IV coming later this month on Z Tapes, they have unveiled a brand new single, ‘Swimming Pool’. Taking an altogether lighter tone from previous album III, the single is indicative of the intimate warmth of the new release, though its fond textures are shadowed by a pervasive melancholy too.

Crake – Winter’s Song

Exploring grief and cruelty through an evocatively cryptic style, Humans’ Worst Habits by Leeds-based outfit Crake take Nan Shepherd’s focus on the natural world and add the unsettling dark of Shirley Jackson. A collision of the organic and metaphysical which sees lead Rowan Sandle conjure a world both alien and very much our own. Such a paradox is just one of the complexities at work on the record, and is nicely captured by latest single, ‘Winter’s Song’. “That time I saw the moon rise / And I swore it was a sun set,” Sandle sings. An image remarkable or ominous, or perhaps both simultaneously.

Fontanarosa – OH ID

Are You There ?, the debut album of Lyon-based Fontanarosa, is coming next month on Howlin’ Banana Records and lead single ‘OH ID’ gives a glimpse into the excitable sound which awaits. Combining agitated post-rock angles with smooth pop energy, the band practices tight execution within an off-the-wall playfulness, leading to something of many moving parts that will get your parts moving too. Check out the video by Documavision below:

Are You There ? is out on the 18th March via Howlin’ Banana Records.

Frog Eyes – When You Turn on the Light

Despite supposedly splitting up four years ago and repurposing as Soft Plastics, Toronto-based indie rock stalwarts Frog Eyes are set to return this spring with a brand new record, The Bees. Lead single ‘When You Turn on the Light’ captures the idiosyncratic style lead Carey Mercer has made the Frog Eyes M.O. A song somehow both sprawling and understated, partially inspired by the time Mercer painted a fresco on the wall of his rented Vancouver apartment. “A hellish umber landscape” which poisoned the air with paint fumes and accelerated if not wholly caused Mercer’s subsequent eviction. Check out the video directed by Derek Janzen below:

The Bees is out via Paper Bag Records on the 29th April and you can pre-order it now.

Granny Smith – Out Of My Head

The recording project of Toronto‘s Jason Bhattacharya, Granny Smith is a one man band indebted to the classic pop of yesteryear. Latest track ‘Out of My Head’ is a bite-sized meditation on the dissociative episodes Bhattacharya faced after being put into a coma by a series of seizures. An unreal swirl of piano and dreamy vocals are underpinned by a variety of bass lines shooting off in different directions. “I wanted to express the feeling of having multiple narratives going on at once,” Bhattacharya explains, “trying to listen but your mind is telling you a thousand things.”

KMRU – shela

Under the moniker KMRU, Nairobi’s Joseph Kamaru has made a name crafting expansive yet intimate compositions through a layered variety of ambient, drone and field recording styles. A sound at once thoroughly immersive and thematically probing, examining the relationship between people and their surroundings, as well as change both spatial and temporal. Taken from latest release there was nothing in between, ‘shela’ exists within the slipstream of the present moment. An energetic bustle already haunted by its coming absence.

Melanie MacLaren – Deep Dark Sleep

Writing of single ‘Graveyard Shift‘ last summer, we described the music of Nashville-based songwriter Melanie MacLaren as “indebted to the past and the present without being beholden to either, managing to possess the timeless country spirit without sacrificing any sense of immediacy.” The final single from her EP Kill My Time, ‘Deep Dark Sleep’ continues this style. Its classic wistful tone rooted in the acoustic guitar, the sound made richer with washes of synths, all coalescing around the piercing clarity of MacLaren’s vocals.

Kill My Time is out now and you can find out more from the Melanie MacLaren webpage.

Ross Jenkins – Small House

Next month sees the release of Free All Day, the latest album Vancouver-based songwriter Ross Jenkins. Building upon the DIY style first shown on 2019’s Green EP, the records sees Jenkins joined by Ryan Jewell (drums) and Barry Walker Jr. (pedal steel) and making his richest, most considered songs to date. Spacious first single ‘Music is Sweet’ showed both the sharp writing and easy-going confidence which informs the new album, and latest track ‘Small Houses’ not only doubles down but opens up new avenues too with a subtle mysticism.

Sadurn – snake

Originally the solo project of Genevieve DeGroot, Philadelphia‘s Sadurn have evolved into a quartet and announced their debut album on Run For Cover Records. Recorded in a DIY studio the band created in an Airbnb in Pennsylvania’s Poconos Mountains, Radiator sees everything that was good about the lo-fi early Sadurn recordings polished up, dusted off and matured into a folk-inflected style that draws as much genuine emotion from its melodies as it does its introspective lyrics. Lead single ‘snake’ is a good example and you can check it out below:

Sooner – Thursday

Ahead of the debut album Days and Nights on Good Eye Records, Brooklyn’s Sooner have unveiled a brand new single, ‘Thursday’. The track is an encapsulation of the band’s style. A melding of dream pop lightness with heavier alt/shoegaze elements, the vocals of lead Federica Tassano proving equally malleable in their ability to pivot from soft croon to urgent energy as they chart a toxic relationship. Juxtaposition lies at the heart of the Sooner sound, and ‘Thursday’ is the perfectly bittersweet introduction.

Days and Nights is out via Good Eye Records on the 25th March and you can pre-order it from the Sooner Bandcamp page.

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In This Light is a slight change from previous releases with drums and guitars more prominent, their familiar loose dreamy ambience channelled into a more focussed shoegaze-y sound. Opening track ‘Easy Goes It’ sets this tone, E&M’s trademark sound boosted with conspicuous percussion. ‘What’s Your Secret?’ continues in a similar vein, some Nintendo-style electronics adding bleeps and bloops to the cacophony at opportune moments. 

With drums leading a plethora of other instruments and samples, it might be expected that In This Light is a disorderly riot of different noises. The opposite is true, with E&M getting a good grip on each song, keeping them succinct and tight, each sound relevant and necessary. Even the tracks that do feel a little looser, such as ‘You Never Know’, are relatively short. Indeed, no song exceeds the four minute mark, meaning that the self-indulgence of some ambient and shoegaze, where it feels the artist is having just too much fun to stop, is avoided. This is furthered by the inclusion of tracks like ‘Holding Onto Light’, restrained and wistful songs that take the foot off of the gas and break up the noisier tracks.

The end result, whether you want to call it shoegaze or dream pop or folktronica, is an experimental album where the experiments were conducted before recording, where the artists are not riffing on their ideas but presenting a complete and structured album.

You can buy the album on a pay-what-you-can basis via the Eric & Magill bandcamp page.

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The album is one of collaboration between yourself and many others from around the globe. How exactly does this process work? Did you have a plethora of material which you shaped into the record that was released, or did everyone do something specific that was initially planned?

So far the way it has worked is that Eric and I begin a song, chords and words etc. Then as tracks come back from people the song starts to evolve, which kind of indicates how we eventually arrange and re-arrange the tracks. It is a process, sometimes times a song takes an unexpected turn as we receive tracks back from people. Often there is a stand out part that we get that we need to accentuate or use for a transition or something. Every time we get tracks from people it is kind of like opening a Christmas present.

I’m not sure where you are in Kenya and what the situation is like with regards to living conditions etc. but do you find it difficult to carry on the musical projects in an environment so different from what we are used to? I spent a few weeks in some remote areas of Kenya and found the complicated stuff receded and I essentially looked forward to eating simple meals and sleeping (in a sweaty tent). Was it a struggle to remain creative in such a different environment? 

I lived in a very simple house and had a very bare bones studio set up. Mic. Laptop. Headphones Acoustic Guitar. Voice. But really at the core of any song or recording are these things whether in remote Kenya, or Wisconsin or Armenia or wherever I make recordings are these same ingredients. As I write, I’m in Laos in a hotel room, and as I’ve been traveling I’ve been trying to write and record a future stripped down record that will just be me in these environments and I think each new environment adds something to the sound, or the vibe to the recording and soul of the song.

The answer to this may be similar to what you have just said but did being in Kenya shape the record into something it would otherwise have never been? I guess what I’m asking here is if you make music because of your location/situation/life or in spite of it, is it intended as a picture of your experiences or an escape from them?

I think for me what I tend to write about is a reflection of my experiences, at least lyrically. I get inspired musically often from travel, but since we collaborate with so many folks I think their contributions add their own feel to the songs making them a bit more universal sounding.

Are there any specific tales from your travels that inspired a certain song?

The song Psycho is about a feud I had with a pastor from a church that was next to my compound in Kenya. The Pastor had a huge PA set up that he would blast the Beauty and Beast soundtrack or instrumentals from the movie Top Gun for the entire village to hear at 5 AM every Sunday. Very odd, funny at first, but it slowly drove me insane after enduring months and months of this. Everyone in the neighborhood felt powerless to confront this guy, or they had just accepted this. On three occasions I walked over to the church in my pajamas to find this guy sitting in the dark alone blasting this maddening music that shook the walls of my cottage. We’d have words, but he never turned the music down or start later in the morning. On the final time I went over to confront this man I found myself in my pajamas in a shouting match with a priest in Swahili as the sun is just rising. After the fight I took my stereo from my house outside and played Led Zepplin’s ‘House of the Holy’ as loud as it could go. Upon greater reflection I wondered who was likely perceived to be crazier, me or this priest. The song is about how we all act like Psychos to other people we’re in a fight with or something, but it was inspired by this.

Which bands would you cite as major influences?

I don’t think I can listen to any band and not get inspired about something they are doing. Even bands I hate, I can listen and find something I like or find inspiring.

Do other mediums play a role in your musical writing? Are there any writers, artists etc. that you feel make up some of Eric & Magill’s sound?

On the last record there was actually a bit of homage to Jean Luc Goddard who is one of my favorite directors / writers. I think possibly some cinema verte ideas might have entered into my music. Sometimes I like leaving in microphone bumps or talking between takes, things like that, but more generally I somehow relate to some of the attitude and mood to his movies. This is just one that comes to mind though from our Night Singers.

Finally, could you name 4-5 artists that you are into right now? Old or new, tiny or HUGE, anything you find yourself listening to repeatedly.

Honestly I peruse soundcloud or bandcamp or lastfm or whatever a lot looking for new music and possible new people to collaborate with, but there is so much it’s hard to think of a few. I just got a ton of music from Bollywood movies from 1960s-1970s while I was in India. I’ve been digesting this a bit lately and just really enjoying it.

Jon: Thanks again to Ryan Weber for taking the time to talk to us. If you haven’t already you can get Night Singers on Bandcamp. The illustrations are by Toby Leibowitz. and the photography by Joe Wigdahl.

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The act is comprised of a duo from Milwaukee, so while that is the location I should be relaying to you, it hardly does justice to the diversity of places that have influenced the album in question. Night Singers was written and recorded when the duo were separated, with Eric Osterman relocating to Brooklyn and Ryan Weber with the Peace Corps in Kenya. The whole thing was put together thanks to the internet, a solid symbol of our advancements in the information age.

The reason I’m telling you all this is that I have a tendency to blank out when listening to shoegaze/electro-pop, the ebb and flow of the music having some sort of hypnotic influence that means, while enjoying it, I sometimes fail to appreciate exactly what is happening. It’s almost another meaning for the dream pop label, the passing of an album in an agreeable but hazy period that doesn’t stick in the memory for too long afterwards. However this time, armed with the curiosity spawned by the unconventional writing and recording process, I made an effort to really listen, and I found a great little album waiting to be heard.

Night Singers is an amalgamation of styles carefully knitted together with the familiar reverb-heavy vocals that featured on their previous release All Those I Know (which we featured here). Opening track ‘What I Say’ is reminiscent of M83, with glimmering electronic sounds framed with cascading drums to create a sprawling epic pop song. ‘Psycho’ is similarly large, with a quick tempo and crescendos around every corner. Others, like ‘Épingles et Aiguilles’ and ‘We’re The Ghosts’, are much slower and restrained, the electronics glittering behind soft vocals like dust in evening light.

Poor metaphors aside, the effect is a superb album. There are a number of feelgood pop songs that should satisfy those looking for that summer single, but those that listen to the entire LP in order are rewarded with something that stretches in a number of different directions, a cycling of speeds or focus that make the album like one long shoegaze hit, complete with hushed lulls and screaming crescendos.

Night Singers is out on the 23rd July on Perfect From Now On and you can buy it here. If you are impatient you can stream it now thanks to AllMusic.

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