DUG have now announced their debut, titled Have At It!, will be released in September, and offered the title track to further whet appetites of fans. A world away from the darker tones of its predecessor, the single offers an infectiously bright sound which repurposes gospel sensibilities for the contemporary age. Existential musings delivered with toe-tapping rhythm and unapologetically sincere vocals. “Have At It! came from a text message my dad sent to our family WhatsApp group during COVID,” O’Reilly explains. “At the time, there was that short phase when everyone thought COVID could spread through surfaces. My mum was really worried, so she decided to get a will written. She took a photo of it and shared it in the group chat. In response, my dad sent a picture of his will—a napkin with the words ‘Have at it!’ scribbled across the front.”

Watch the video directed by Ellius Grace below:

Have At It! will be released on the 19th September via Claddagh Records/Decca and you can pre-order it now.

Photo by Rosie Sco

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Back in March we introduced the self-titled debut EP from beaming, the new project of Derek Ted and Braden Lawrence, sharing single ‘slow sinkin’. “With Field Medic adding guest vocals, the track possesses all of the earnestness fans of Ted and Lawrence’s solo work will know well,” we wrote, “the bright rhythm and heartfelt tone the sonic equivalent of shaking clarity into a clouded mind.” With the EP out now via Rose Garden, beaming have unveiled new single ‘4U’. “This song is about falling in love and needing to confess how you feel,” Ted explains. “We wanted it to live in a space between glitchy digital sounds and acoustic moments. The chorus is meant to feel like an avalanche of relief—like everything just opens up once you finally say what’s been on your mind.” Watch the video directed by Olivia Alonso Gough and edited along with Braden Lawrence below:

Beaming EP is out now via Rose Garden and you can buy it now.

Don’t Worry – This Time

We’ve been building up to the release of Don’t Worry‘s new album Idealism in recent months, sharing a number of singles which suggest the record will find the Essex punks exploring new sonic ground while furthering their signature blend of sincerity and playfulness. Taking inspiration of the 90s/00s alt golden age, latest single ‘This Time’ sees the outfit reach towards the likes of Smashing Pumpkins in its sense of scale and weight. The result is as cathartic as anything in the Don’t Worry catalogue to date. “‘This Time’ is a song about learning from bad experiences and making sure you don’t make the same mistakes again,” explains songwriter Ronan Van Kehoe. “It’s about growing as a person and coming out of a rough period into a better time.”

DUG – Livelong Day

Having signed to legendary Irish label Claddagh Records, folk duo DUG have shared a new single ‘Livelong Day’ in preparation for their much anticipated debut full-length. Comprised of Jonny Pickett and Lorkin O’Reilly, the project has quickly risen to prominence in the contemporary folk scene, seeing them earn two Grammy nominations and support slots for the likes of Willie Carlisle and Iron & Wine. Though the new track offers a glimpse at a so far unseen darker dimension of DUG, it is easy to see why they have earned such acclaim. A reimagining of the old folk tale ‘The Legend of Knockgrafton’, the song finds its protagonist sobering up amid a drunken dance in a faerie ring. And while the tone might be slightly heavier than previous tracks, it is one nevertheless leavened by its playful spirit.

‘Livelong Day’ is out now via Claddagh Records.

Kaycie Satterfield – ford falcon

Following on from 2024 album Rosie, a release with Earth Libraries we described as “a record which sets out to explore large themes through a personal lens,” Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kaycie Satterfield is back with brand new single, ‘ford falcon’. A song full of attitude and honest truths which faces down the expectations placed upon women with a mix of sardonic humour and steely defiance. “I’m not your fucking mother,” as Satterfield says in the opening lines. “I can’t come tuck you in.” She’s not your daughter either, nor your lover, just a woman in the same room. And she’s here to make sure you realise the fact, even if it is the last thing you do.

kissing other ppl – Ashes of American Flags

Last month we introduced the self-titled covers record from kissing other ppl, the new project that brings together folk duo Viv & Riley and singer songwriter Rachel Baiman. The lead single was a take on Dr Dog’s ‘Where’d all The Time Go’, adding a timeless folk style to the original, and now the trio are back with their version of Wilco classic ‘Ashes of American Flags’. It’s illustrative of the outfit’s experimental sense of collaboration, as Viv jumps behind the drum kit to play a “no holds barred snare smash,” while Riley adds distorted fiddle and Baiman gives her all with the vocals. Altogether, it’s a worthy homage to the original, which is no mean feat. “Growing up in Chicago, Wilco were royalty,” Baiman describes of the source material. “The line at the end about fallen leaves in shopping bags brings up such strong childhood imagery for me.”

kissing other ppl is available now from Bandcamp.

Old Man of the Woods – Meditation

“With a languorous, enveloping sound, again the mood is undeniably ghostly, though its eeriness carries not so much fright or unease as a sense of possibility,” we wrote of ‘Amber‘ from the new Old Man of the Woods full-length Tendrils last month. “As though in connecting the long-dawned past with a gesture towards the future, [Miranda] Elliott invites us to consider just how interconnected the stages of so-called linear time might be.” With the album now out, Elliott has shared latest single ‘Meditation’, a self-described  “breathy, minimal ritual” which performs its own form of transubstantiation, taking a desire which might otherwise appear absurd and changing it into something charged and devotional. Built on strangely hypnotic percussion that wobbles and clatters throughout, it’s almost a dance track, but Elliott’s vocals remain ethereal as ever, drifting in and out like curtains of mist.

Rebecca Schiffman – Bubble of Love

“The record sees the LA-based songwriter grapple with what it means to live a moral life within a society that can appear hellbent on compromising our personal values.” So we wrote of Before the Future, the new album from Rebecca Schiffman coming later this summer with Lost Sound Tapes. No stone is left unturned across the songs, with everything from motherhood, grief, family vacations and the ethics of the pet-owner relationship explored. Latest single ‘Bubble of Love’ employs a peppy rhythm and sweet vocals to turn its attention to the familiar arc of romantic love. The song “traces a relationship from the honeymoon phase when you could spend all your time with someone and anything is possible,” as Schiffman explains, “to a time when it feels claustrophobic and you want to pop the bubble.”

Watch the video by Renata Zeiguer below:

Before the Future will be released on the 25th July, including a cassette via Lost Sound Tapes, and you can pre-order it now.

Snake Orange Cake – Stitch

When covering the work of Berlin-based artist Julia Carlsson in the past, it has been for leoblu, a project we’ve described as making “ambiguous and atmospheric music which situates intimate emotion against the more mysterious forces at work around us.” But now Carlsson has branched out towards a new sound, and has thus adopted a brand new moniker. Snake Orange Cake sees Carlsson elevate her experimental electronic style with spoken-word poetry and extra narrative thrust. The first tase of a forthcoming EP, new single ‘Stitch’ offers a glimpse of the invention and playfulness which underpins the new project, weaving a detailed, rhythmic sound over which Carlsson’s spoken vocals play with disarming closeness.

Star Moles – Fate

“The oeuvre is a lesson in the potential of bedroom pop, refusing to settle for genre conventions to push the style in new directions.” So we wrote of the work of Emily Moales’s Star Moles back in May, describing how single ‘Key Change’ embodied Moales’s “growing boredom with idealised romance of polished pop, choosing to instead get its hands dirty and dig into the messy guts of what love really means.” Now Star Moles has announced full-length album Snack Monster, coming later this summer on Earth Libraries, and opener and latest single ‘Fate’ serves as a mission statement for the release. A song which looks to address contemporary neuroses via traditional styles, looking to break free from the strictures of established narratives and reclaim agency from the impression of predetermination.

Xol Meissner – Hunt [97]

The recording alias of Swiss-born, NYC-based composer Mauro Hertig, Xol Meissner pairs baritone vocals with a singular hammered lap-steel style to create soundscapes as evocative as they are otherworldly. New album Excess of Loss might be Hertig’s debut under this moniker but arrives fully formed, each track functioning with the eerie, unnerving logic of a dream. Take single ‘Hunt [97]’, a song sedate in rhythm, drifting within its own textured arrangement, yet shot through with imagery both violent and strange. “Open field vision / we access the graveyards / ancestors aim / at the holes in our hearts,” he sings in one such typically striking verse. Or elsewhere: “The bodies pile up / to a sculpture of justice / fathers are holding / the hands of their sons.” The result is mythic. Oddly timeless yet sonically unique. Weighted with a meaning slightly beyond our understanding. Something which lingers at the edges of our reality. Alluring, terrifying and sublime.

Watch the video by Camille Henrot (director), Ben Scofield (director of photography and colourist), Mauro Hertig, Camille Henrot (editors), Marie-Christine Statz and Gauchère (costume) below:

Excess of Loss is out now and available from Bandcamp.

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London‘s Automotion, AKA Jesse Hitchman (vocals/guitar), Lennon Gallagher (vocals/guitar), Otis Eatwell-Hurst (drums) and Luke Chin-Joseph (bass), have followed up their debut EP In Motion with a new release that builds upon its ideas. The band identify a multifaceted approach as a key component of their work, and Ecstatic Oscillations sees them lean into dynamic changes. As the title suggests, each song oscillates at its own unique frequency, the fluctuations between tracks lending the EP an almost collage-like style. Latest single ‘Desire’ offers one such example, itself a track of peaks and troughs which plays off the understated, downbeat vocals with real energy and weight.

Ecstatic Oscillations is out now and available from streaming services.

Jackie Cohen – Ghost Story

Back in 2020, amid a personal crisis, Jackie Cohen found herself asking whatever powers might exist for a sign that things would work out alright in the end. At that moment, a large moth swooped in and committed self-immolation via the oil lamp at Cohen’s side. The incident came to inform Pratfall, an album recently released via Earth Libraries which proffers the value of giving oneself up to tension and turmoil rather than fighting against it. To reach for catharsis, find sublime release in motion, heat and light. Single ‘Ghost Story’ weaves an entirely different story to that of the moth, but the abrupt and decisive beauty of its act remains. “It’s a song about annihilation and acceptance,” Cohen explains. “It’s hopeless and serene… Essentially, if you wanna wake up, you’re gonna have to jump.”

Pratfall is out now via Earth Libraries and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Marlais – Out of the Window

Recording under the moniker Marlais, Michael Culme-Seymour draws upon British and Irish folk traditions to create reimaginings of old songs. Tales he can step inside and live within, if only for a moment. Out via Treibender Teppich Records, new album Stream of Forms is a collection of such reworkings, its traditional instruments supported by digital choirs and electronics. Single ‘Out of the Window’ demonstrates how Marlais evades any sense of anachronism or irony in this practise, the sound coalescing into a convincing whole, the emotions explored readily transposed onto a new place and period. “Time and time again I am amazed at the cut-throat nature of traditional songs,” Culme-Seymour explains. “How hopes and dreams can be dashed in one line or couplet.”

Melanie MacLaren & Lorkin O’Reilly – Clearance Aisle

Ahead of a forthcoming EP, and with a joint tour of the UK and Ireland on the horizon, songwriters Melanie MacLaren and Lorkin O’Reilly have released new single, ‘Clearance Aisle’. It’s a duet which allows both artists to display their storytelling chops and knack for conjuring intimate emotion. The track is set within two distinct spaces, the mundanity of real life, as represented by the Walmart clearance aisle, but also the less tangible plane of hopes and regrets. Just how pleasant and welcoming either of these places prove varies day to day, but the truth at the heart of ‘Clearance Aisle’ is that we have no choice but to inhabit both, day after day.

Queen Kwong – Sad Man

This summer saw Queen Kwong release their latest album, Couples Only, on Sonic Ritual. It’s a record which sees Carré Kwong Callaway confront the despair of loss and deception with caustic anger, its ominous nocturnal tones conjuring a noir-like combo of swagger and danger. Single ‘Sad Man’ is the perfect introduction, showing off both the wrath and wry humour of the album, and a new video directed by Joe Cardamone and starring Johnny Knoxville as the titular sad man takes inspiration from Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant to further elevate this heady blend.

But I just wanna grow up
I’m too old for this shit
Paying rent by selling guitars and DJing shitty bars
I don’t want to be another sad man in another sad band Dropping the same names
Playing the same games
I just wanna grow up
He’s a sad sad man

Couples Only is out now via Sonic Ritual and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Raavi – no bodies

“Its nods to the 90s are evocative without feeling derivative, and for all its blunt honesty and self-deprecating worry, it rocks hard enough to bring a genuine sense of catharsis.” That’s how we described ‘Lazy Susan‘ from Raavi‘s last EP, It Grows on Trees, back in April. Since then, Raavi Sita has wasted no time in working on new material. Released as part of the Hardly Art Records 15th anniversary single series, the project has just unveiled brand new single ‘no bodies’. A meditation on the pitfalls of striving for success in the music industry, where reaching the top of one ladder merely sees you emerge at the bottom of a bigger, more dauting climb.

Remember Sports – Leap Day

Philadelphia‘s Remember Sports returned this month with Leap Day, a brand new four-song EP on Father/Daughter Records. With a slightly less frantic tempo than the sound they’ve perfected over four records, the release offers a more reflective, patient side to the band, though do not be fooled. The emotional ferocity and immediacy that has so long marked Remember Sports has not been lost but redirected. Their energies channelled into a newly layered sound with drum machine, electronics and distortion complimenting the pop rock anthems we’ve come to love.

Leap Day is out now via Father/Daughter Records and you can get it from the Remember Sports Bandcamp page.

Ruby Gill – I’m gonna die with this frown on my face

Last year we wrote about South Africa-born, Melbourne/Naarm-based artist Ruby Gill, describing single ‘You Should Do This For a Living‘ as “setting its sights on the overbearing, patronising force of male entitlement,” and “aris[ing] from a very personal situation but end[ing] up speaking to a far wider experience.” Gill has now released her debut full-length I’m gonna die with this frown on my face, and the title track shows that the same combination of fury and compassion underlines these songs too. “I’m gonna die with this frown on my face / they’re going to lower me down,” she sings in the opening lines. “Asking why I’ve been this angry all of my days / even when you came around / and I don’t have the answers.” Check out the video directed and edited by Samuel H. Galloway below:

I’m gonna die with this frown on my face is out now and available from the usual places.

Yara Asmar – it’s always october on sunday

Yara Asmar is a multi-instrumentalist, video artist and puppeteer based in Beirut who recently unveiled her debut release on Brighton label Hive Mind Records. Titled Home Recordings 2018 – 2021, the album is a collection of pieces Asmar recorded to cassette and her phone in the last few years, utilising a range of instruments from piano and synths to deconstructed music boxes and an old accordion she found in her grandparents’ attic. Add in field recordings of Lebanese hymns sung in churches across the country and you’ve got an ambient/classical collection quite unlike any other. Opening track ‘it’s always october on sunday’ is a good place to start, its pensive atmosphere capturing something about the record as a whole. As the label put it, “The atmosphere of melancholy that pervades the album should be familiar to anyone living in the twenty-first century.”

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