‘It’s Only a Matter of Time’ is the perfect example of the style. A track lead Nora Predey wrote after revisiting the home of a childhood friend years down the line. “Someone else lived there now, but was thankfully not home,” Predey explains. “Therefore I could snoop. I took the opportunity to walk into the backyard to the water and the loneliness of memory overcame me. My memory of the way it was visually superimposed itself on every contrast, clashing with the unpeopled space of the present.” Brought to life with a subtle yet intricate folk rock sound, the result is something dreamlike yet somehow more real for it. As though the truth of experience lies not within the plain state of any given moment but what exists beyond it. Be that the long chains of memories both traumatic and fond, or wishes for what might come next.

on the floor helpless
an arrested state
out of phase, off center
out of reach and turned away

The coexistence of so many conflicting emotions is central to the Large Brush Collection sound, and that they maintain such a delicate and complicated manoeuvre across Off Center is a testament to the sincerity with which it was written. ‘Arm’s Length’ “ebbs and flows between dreamy and anxious,” we wrote previously, “floating along sedately before rupturing with stabs of stormy guitar and clattering percussion.” The effect is to reduce the distance between the telling and the emotional experience itself, as if Predey doesn’t so much contemplate life from a remove but pull the listener right into its trenches. “I always wanted to be somebody / Who could treat their life like a game,” as she sings on opener ‘To Be Somebody’, “but I can’t.”

Off Center is out now and available from the Large Brush Collection Bandcamp page.

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The recording project of Oakland-based illustrator and lettering artist Kyle Benson, Company Vacation uses music as a way to delve deeper into the everyday, and in doing so invites the listener to notice and appreciate the magic in the small details. Out at the beginning of Feruary, new album Okay Headspace feels like the culmination of these ideas, and succinct single ‘I Have a Little Room in My House’ serves at the nostalgic, buoyant prologue. “As a kid, I dominated the family computer. It was steroids to my tiny brain,” Benson explains. “My parents kept it opposite the TV, centrally located in the family room, to keep anyone from using it to look at porn. Having a computer room felt like the luxury of the rich.”

Lately, I’ve been feeling small
But I feel a whole lot cuter
When I play computer

I have a little room in my house
it has a chair and a desk
it’s where I get on the Internet

Watch the video below, with animation by Jared Clark Gay and illustration by Benson himself:

Okay Headspace is out on the 9th February and available to pre-order now.

 Creekbed Carter Hogan – If I Was

With a self-titled album on its way Gar Hole Records, Austin songwriter Creekbed Carter Hogan has released single ‘If I Was’ to introduce their unwavering style of folk. The record sees the trans artist both catalogue the past and confront the present, with Hogan searching for ways to survive and find community in a society which too often seems to have been built to prevent such endeavours. “If I was a loaded gun / You might / Treat me better,” they sing, hinting at the defiance which sits at the heart of their work, an anti-capitalist song which yearns for something more.

Watch the video directed by Jordan Moser below:

Creekbed Carter is out via Gar Hole Records on the 22nd March and you can pre-order it now.

Den Der Hale – Donkey Skin

With their evocative blend of psych, folk and post-rock, Sweden‘s Den Der Hale established themselves as a mysterious force back in 2019 with EP Harsyra, and having now signed to FatCat Records, forthcoming album Pastoral Light looks set to build upon these foundations to paint a bleak picture of humankind’s decimation of the natural world. After the foreboding simmer of Bela Tarr-inspired ‘Horse From Turin’, the five-piece are back with new single ‘Donkey Skin’. A track which draws on the seventies animation of the same name to create an ethereal sound at once alluring and dangerous, doing for French fairy tales what Lankum do for Irish folk tales.

Hatis Noit – Jomon

Having featured in David Lynch’s Manchester International Festival showcase in 2019 and appearing in Rick Rubin’s Showtime documentary series Shangri-La, Japanese voice artist Hatis Noit released the superlative debut album Aura on Erased Tapes in 2022. “Words cannot describe everything we feel,” she explained in the liner notes. “How can one accurately verbalise the sensation we feel when we’re a newborn and our mother holds us in her arms, and we feel her skin on our cheek […] Music is a language that can translate that sensation, feeling, the memory of love.” The description goes some way to describing the album’s tactile, enveloping sound, one all the more impressive for the fact that it is conjured exclusively from Noit’s voice, looped and layered into entire worlds. Made with Berlin-based Taiwanese-Japanese media artist NAOWAO, the new video for the single ‘Jomon’ brings this to life even further, matching the almost shamanistic sound with visuals every bit as mystical, collapsing the apparently divided spheres of human, natural and spiritual experience onto a single plane.

Aura is out now via Erased Tapes and available from Bandcamp.

Kaia Kater – The Internet

Born in Montreal and now based in Toronto, Kaia Kater makes music inspired by Canadian folk music, her father’s Grenadian heritage and the Appalachian music of her college years in West Virginia. Planning to release a new record sometime in 2024, Kater kicked off the year by releasing a new single, ‘The Internet’. A bright and tumbling folk song, it captures the strangeness of communicating with loved ones at a digital remove, replacing physical proximity with a stream of ones and zeros pinged around the world via satellites and fibre optic cables. “I can only talk to you through the Internet,” Kater sings, “in bits and in bytes and right angles.”

Large Brush Collection – Arm’s Length

Back in September we wrote a preview of Off Center, the forthcoming record by Austin folk rockers Large Brush Collection. “The band combine intuitive rhythms with intricate detail to conjure soundscapes able to explore the most personal of things,” we wrote, impressed with their ability to explore thorny issues with nuance and tenderness. The album comes out at the end of the week, and in anticipation Large Brush Collection have unveiled one last single. Titled ‘Arm’s Length’, it is perhaps the most important track of all. “This was the first song I brought to the group when Dan (Magorrian) and Gaby (Torres) and I began playing together,” describes songwriter/bassist Nora Predey. “And we all really connected over it. In a way, I think it became the foundation of the band.” With Torres’s flute and snaking melodies, the song ebbs and flows between dreamy and anxious, floating along sedately before rupturing with stabs of stormy guitar and clattering percussion.

LOUD HOUND – Comet

The project of New Jersey singer-songwriter Tommy Florio, LOUD HOUND is a project that crafts polished pop songs made emotive and interesting with lo-fi guitar and introspective lyrics. Following last year’s album It’s Okay To Be Lonely Part II, LOUD HOUND has returned with a brand new single ‘Comet’, which exists at the quiet, melancholy end of Florio’s stylistic repertoire. This is due to the circumstances in which it was created. “[I] rented a house in the middle of the mountains of Pennsylvania so I could clear my head after the most gut-wrenching break up,” Florio describes. “I needed to isolate myself from the world to understand what just happened and process my emotions so I could slowly get back to myself.” But it’s not all hushed heartbreak, Florio’s tired voice reaches out for hope and healing, and the energetic electronics that support the chorus suggest they might be on the horizon.

Lutalo & Claud – Running

‘Running’ is a joint single between Vermont-based songwriter Lutalo and Brooklyn’s Claud, a song which lands at the super catchy sweet spot between indie rock and pop. Both artists released records last year, Lutalo with AGAIN on Winspear (which we described as “blend of folk, rock and soul which…critique capitalist and racist systems”), and Claud with Supermodels on Saddest Factory Records, both of which established them as some of the freshest new indie pop talent around. The new single is no different, an upbeat, driving indie pop song which explores a tricky relationship with a domineering parent. It comes complete with a video directed by Eleanor Petry which sees the pair act out this relationship in a beautifully warm and grainy seventies colour palette.

‘Running’ is out now via Winspear. Listen via streaming services and purchase a download from the Lutalo Bandcamp page.

Sam Evian – Wild Days

If the soulful psych pop of 2021’s Time To Melt saw Sam Evian embrace a retro aesthetic, then forthcoming album Plunge sees the New York songwriter take things to a whole other level. Carved from the lush pop that marked the seventies, the record is written from the perspective of Evian’s parents, tracing a story of love in all of its complexities and complications. A team of friends including Liam Kazar, Sean Mullins, El Kempner (Palehound) and Adrianne Lenker (Big Thief) all offered their talents, following Evian’s orders to keep things fun and immediate. “No-one knew the songs or what the plan was,” he explains. “We kept it loose and fun. This was the spirit of the sessions. No headphones, no playback, minimal overdubs, or bleed. Fast and loose.” Lead single ‘Wild Day’ gives a glimpse as to what to expect from the album, where the nostalgic haze is leavened by the spontaneity of the process.

Watch the video by CJ Harvey below:

Plunge is out on the 22nd March via Flying Cloud Recordings/Thirty Tigers and you can pre-order it now.

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But Predey broached the subject with real nuance, ensuring to be both honest and empathetic in her assessment, and the resulting track weaved love and pain into something as graceful as it was convinced. The style carries through into latest single ‘Better Be’, a song no less willing to delve into the thorny depths of family. It’s defiant in tone but tender too, standing its ground without burning a bridge.

“‘Better Be’ is a song about being in a conflict that has no end in sight, where you have all these expectations for what resolution might look like, but no real way to get there,” Predey told Paste Magazine. “I was dealing with some complicated family stuff when I wrote it and was being really disrespected, but I was so indignant about it all that the feeling of disrespect sort of looped around to empowerment. Sometimes, you just need to dig your heels in.”

Off Center is out in January 2024 and you can pre-order it now.

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With album Catastrophe Darling out now, California trio Artemisia have unveiled new single ‘Spider’ as a window into their sound. Finding inspiration in everything from Appalachian mountain music to the vivid synths of eighties movie soundtracks, the band conjure songs somehow both organic and ethereal, and ‘Spider’ serves as the perfect example. Born upon seeing the titular creature weave a web over their harp, the track hones in on the intricate splendour of nature, emerging as something as delicate and dreamlike, transporting the listener into a space between the real and the spiritual, where nature takes on an exalted status and beauty and sorrow are one and the same.

Catastrophe Darling is out now and available from the Artemisia Bandcamp page.

Beryl – All Things

Consisting of Gabriela King and Alex Jasprizza, Sydney-based art folk duo Beryl are preparing to release album Dry Peel Crack in the coming months, and latest single ‘All Things’ introduces the central themes. It’s a picture of a relationship crumbling and a lesson in learning to accept the fact, something captured in everything from King’s compassionate croon to the album artwork itself. Blain Cunneen (Julia Jacklin) joins the pair on guitar, bass and drums, helping to bring to life a sound at once melancholic and fond.

Carlos Truly – Much 2 Much

Aside from being a founding member of Ava Luna and a collaborator with the likes of Frankie Cosmos and Princess Nokia, Brooklyn‘s Carlos Hernandez also records solo under the moniker Carlos Truly. Released via Bayonet Records, 2022’s Not Mine highlighted his sleek, ever-inventive brand of pop, and new single ‘Much 2 Much’ continues the play with new directions. Again on Bayonet, the track is the funkiest ode to life’s habit of overwhelming us you’re ever likely to hear. “Not to be too much of a bellyacher,” as Hernandez says, “but sometimes you just want to yell about it.” But loose-limbed and full of swagger, the song is anything but angry, playing like the soundtrack to a late 80s/early 90s city caper where a luckless protagonist can’t help but be the coolest guy around. Watch the video with cinematography by Stefanie Santana below:

‘Much 2 Much’ us out now via Bayonet Records.

Diners – Someday I’ll Go Surfing

Diners, the recording project of Blue Broderick, might have made a name with a dreamy sound straight out of the halcyon sixties, but new record DOMINO looks to skip ahead a decade and lean into unapologetic rock. The album is out via Bar/None Records later this month, and new single ‘Someday I’ll Go Surfing’ sees the shift towards newfound energy occurring in real time. A surf pop jam whipped up beyond the languid nostalgia of the genre, choosing instead to set its eyes on the horizon. “‘Someday I’ll Go Surfing’ isn’t exclusively about surfing,” as Broderick confirms, “but rather confronting the unknown and moving on to the next big thing.”

Eldridge Rodriguez – The Strange Things That Happen to People

We’ve followed the work of Eldridge Rodriguez for the past few years, describing recent work as “capturing the strange blend of panic, depression and monotony” with “a tone somewhere between fondness and weariness which builds its own urgent compassion.” With new album Atrophy coming next month, the band have shared single ‘The Strange Things That Happen to People’, continuing the evocative mood of the previous releases by facing up to the accumulated regrets of life. “You burn a lot of bridges when you’re young because you think you’re king shit,” explains lead Cameron Keiber. “You get older and self reflective and you want to repair a lot of the damage you’ve done. I suppose it’s a call to be aware of your surroundings throughout life, really. It’s hard but then you wouldn’t have to make amends later.”

Intac – Strange Soles

“Strange souls / Comin’ out the woodwork / Lookin’ for some good work / Before we go to town.” So goes ‘Strange Soles’, the latest single from Somerville, MA artist Intac. The self-described “Digital Americana / Cyber Folk” artist descends from the likes of kissed her little sister, laying a bed of easy-going pop beats upon which to build a world both slightly surreal and tangibly emotive. For within the languid summer swagger rises a mist of nostalgic longing, a sensation which hangs over things long after the track has faded off over the horizon.

jer – portland, ca

Having featured in a variety of bands across his home of Portland, Jeremy Murphy has become a familiar face in the local scene, though it is only now he’s stepping out into the limelight alone for a solo release under the moniker jer. Out via Bud Tapes, the self-titled album took shape over a number of years before Murphy travelled to Philadelphia to mix the accumulated songs with Nathan Tucker (Strange Ranger, Cool Original). The result, as shown by single ‘portland, ca’, offers a distinctively personal statement from an artist finally in total creative control. Where authentic sincerity is achieved by mixing lo-fi bedroom sensibilities with the polish of indie pop.

Large Brush Collection – Tell Me Again

With debut album Off Center scheduled for release in January 2024, Austin-based folk rock outfit Large Brush Collection have shared their first single, ‘Tell Me Again’. A picture of a child-parent relationship painted in all of its conflicted complexity, where failed expectations and the baggage of the past is counterbalanced by a persistent love, leading a cycle of friction exhausting for all involved. Lead Nora Predey approaches the subject with tender care, pulling no punches in their assessment of the situation while acknowledging the bonds that still remain. “[My mom has] been trapped in a cycle of conflict with me and with herself,” as Predey explains. “I feel a lot of frustration and pain from our relationship, but a lot of love towards her too.”

Ribs – Claws

Originating as a solo piano-led project of Boorloo/Perth-based musician Georgina Cramond, Ribs has now morphed into a full-fledged indie pop band ideally suited to Cramond’s searching, affirming style. With a focus on both dealing with and recovering from trauma, new track ‘Claws’ is an encapsulation of the Ribs aesthetic, its weighty sound offering a marbled image of vulnerability and strength to explore themes of intimate partner violence. “Growing claws is about learning what you will no longer accept,” Cramond explains of the song’s repeated refrain, “how anger can be a protective and productive force, and regaining control over the jagged parts of your history.”

‘Claws’ is out now and available from all the usual places.

The Sizzos – No Big Sky

Led by singer-songwriter George Zaninovich, Eugene-based outfit The Sizzos have just released their latest record Glitter in Gravel, and single ‘No Big Sky’ is the ideal point to jump in. An ethereal combination of indie folk, classic rock and new wave as wide as the desert heavens, though its themes are altogether more grounded. An attempt to find meaning and solace amid personal loss which evokes the album’s title in its search for brightness within an otherwise bleak milieu. “Like winter clouds under cement and steel / Today I’m grey but I keep moving,” as Zaninovich sings, casting the listener alongside the song’s burdened narrator. “And like a sinner vows to love and to heal / Today I pray but you do the choosing.”

yfjesse x Old Man of the Woods – Wednesdays

We’ve long celebrated the work of Seattle-based artist Old Man of the Woods, most recently with album Votives on Totally Real Records. A dream pop album which offered “a collision of reality and unreality, or rather a disintegration of the boundary between the two.” Miranda Elliott has now teamed up with Portland producer yfjesse for new track ‘Wednesdays’, a song which takes the Old Man of the Woods sound and blows it up into lush widescreen, the sound seductive in its languorous rhythms but full of elaborate detail too. A style fitting for a track which takes on the pleasures and pitfalls of a fickle summertime tryst.

‘Wednesdays’ is out now via Totally Real Records and available from the usual places.

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