Following in the lineage of songwriters such as Lana Del Ray and Ethel Cain, april june is a Madrid-based artist whose Gothic brand of synth pop muddies the line between desire, fantasy and reality. With a full-length edging closer, april june has been releasing a steady stream of singles in recent times, and the latest ‘it’s all my fault’ serves as the ideal introduction for those not already onboard. Shimmering nostalgia, heartbreak and loneliness marble into something enveloping, with a melodramatic gloom that is nevertheless shot through with shining longing.

ARXX – Baby Uh Huh

Earlier this year, Brighton duo ARXX released their album Ride Or Die via Submarine Cat Records, a record which saw Hanni Pidduck and Clara Townsend push the garage rock sound which made their name towards polished, soaring power pop. To close out the year, ARXX have returned with another evolution, this time of single ‘Baby Uh Huh’. Developed in collaboration with trans collective charity We Exist, the reimagined version collects a bunch of friends to celebrate the Queer community’s communal power, taking an already affirming track and elevating its joyous spirit even higher. “We were looking at the world around us, at all the attacks on Queer lives and in particular Trans lives and we wanted to do something to show our support with our Queer community,” the duo explain. “‘Baby Uh Huh’ is about finding the right people to surround yourself with to make you a better version of yourself, which is a very Queer experience.”

You can grab the charity single on Bandcamp. Ride Or Die is out now via Submarine Cat Records.

body / negative – sleepy (feat. Midwife)

Back in October we introduced body / negative‘s forthcoming album everett, with multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Andy Schiaffino enlisting the help of Midwife to create an incredibly personal memorial to her parents. “An attempt at communication through planes of existence and accumulated time,” as we described of the title track, “reaching across seemingly impassable gaps to ensure the line between loved ones remains open, regardless of how distant they might come to seem.” Latest track ‘sleepy’ is no less poignant, its sparse arrangement and layered samples playing like an evening in an empty room. Only within the stillness something else stirs, echoes of past days returning to dispel the apparent solitude, as though time is not a straight line but a stack of superimposed snapshots.

everett is out on the 8th December via Track Number Records and you can pre-order it from the body / negative Bandcamp page.

Haley Heynderickx & Max Garcia Conover – How Does The Horse Go Home?

Both Haley Heynderickx and Max Garcia Conover have been regular fixtures here at VSF over the years, so it was a real treat to have the pair join forces for Among Horses III, one of a series of collaborative releases from Son Canciones. “Whether writing confessions about themselves or imagined fictions about others, the genius of both Heynderickx and Conover is their ability to draw a relatable emotion from their subject matter,” we wrote, “tapping into a universal sense of nostalgia and longing and presenting it back to us, shaping and polished into its most gleaming form.” To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the EP, the pair have returned with a new extended edition, featuring new songs like the ‘How Does The Horse Go Home?’—another deft, striking contemplation on love in all of its changing, persistent forms.

Land Dweller – Losing Touch

Having previously recorded under the moniker Varsity Dad, Denver‘s Dan Harvey has now taken up the name Land Dweller and is preparing to release the project’s debut full-length Past Life. With Harvey on bass, guitar and vocals and Larry Shaw lending drums, the album establishes the Land Dweller MO—a blend of slacker and garage rock which melds bright rhythms and nostalgic textures. Take lead single ‘Losing Touch’, where the sound’s fatalistic reflection is counterbalanced by a rising rhythm, allowing for something at once despondent and cathartic.

Luah – To Relate

Luah is the recording project of Brendan Paul Sullivan, a Florida-born, Baltimore-raised and Kingston, New York-based songwriter, alongside an assortment of friends. The first taste of a forthcoming album, new single ‘To Relate’ is a slow unfurling of a song. Downbeat vocals bob along a meandering arrangement, so what might at first appear to be a morose mood is gradually revealed to be something more varied and natural. As though in committing to the flow, Sullivan not only accepts the changeable currents but finds beauty in every small eddy and pull.

Other Suns – To Adrianne

The cornerstone of debut full-length album Songs About Death, ‘To Adrianne’ introduces the hushed, introspective sound of Other Suns. Opening with the gentle lap of the tide, the song uses a spare folk sound to conjure something both warm and searching. A space outside of normal things in which to voice questions or share sentiments in the aftermath of loss. Or perhaps just to listen, to attune to the quiet sadness inherent in all things in an effort to sense the connection which exists between them. As the final line offers: “If everything dies, I’m not alone.”

Touch the Clouds – Dissolve

“A study on retrospection itself, calling attention to the artifice of memory and the rose-tinted fictions it has us believe.” That’s how we described ‘Gordie and the Cruisers‘ by Detroit‘s Touch the Clouds back in 2022. A bright indie rock anthem which held a more ambiguous message underneath. New track ‘Dissolve’ is no less dichotomous in style, its driving momentum and impassioned vocals detailing a headspace altogether less certain. As though only in leaning into forward motion can one shake free of the baggage of modern living. “I’ve been goin’ through a lot / trying to find a little peace / in all the yuck / racing around inside of me,” as the song opens. “Like dogs on the loose / running the street / howling a tune / into the moonlight.”

The Wolf In Our Own Backyard – God Help Me

The songwriting project of Kevin Gigler, The Wolf In Our Own Backyard is a Providence, Rhode Island-based outfit that works within folk’s best traditions. New album Stuck in Useless Country is full of wry humour, self-deprecation and dissatisfaction, all delivered with an upbeat and often scrappy folk rock style which twists and bends conventions as it sees fit. Single ‘God Help Me’ is perhaps one of the more traditional tracks on the album, though is shot through with the same spirit. Think John Prine’s ‘Paradise’ updated for a slightly later stage of capitalism, where the citizens of said useless country are left with no recourse but to mourn its perpetual decay.

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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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