The Fabulous Truth, the new album from Brooklyn‘s Eve Essex forthcoming via Soap Library, uses the full spectrum of styles and genres in attempt to offer the elusive phenomenon of its title. “Trip-hop, outlaw country, kosmische, spiritual jazz, avant-garde classical, and—yes—musical theatre,” are all cited as touchstones in the press release, as Essex moves with an improvisational freedom in search of a sound capable of capturing the full duality of intimacy and expansiveness which exists within the boundaries of our selves. The style is encapsulated by latest single ‘Room with a View’, in which a hauntingly patient sound evokes the strange geography of our interiors, where whispered secrets and vast expanses can feel like one and the same. Watch the animated video by Andy Cahill below:

The Fabulous Truth is out on the 21st June via Soap Library and you can pre-order it now.

Fine – Coasting

Recording under the moniker Fine (that’s feen-uh), Copehagen-based songwriter Fine Glindvad Jensen collides folk sensibilities with those of dream pop and electronic genres, stitching together guitars, drums, samples and synthesisers to form ambiguous, often minimal soundscapes for her vocals to drift across. So while debut album Rocky Top Ballads might be full of the melancholy and longing of classic country music, its intentions are far more evasive, drawing the listener into a shimmering world where ennui and fondness are marbled into one. The result, as highlighted by single ‘Coasting’, are songs whose apparent simplicity belies the true depth of meaning, Fine’s minimalist style allowing the listener to feel they are edging closer to the elusive heart of each track with every repeated listen.

Rocky Top Ballads comes out on 7th June is is available to order from the Fine Bandcamp page.

Hearsing – Montauk

Consisting of multi-instrumentalists Avery Murphy and Jordan Taylor, Hearsing look to offer a new flavour of western music by drawing on the surf punk roots of its founders (who were both founding members of the ensemble SUBPAR). The band have a new EP Pastoral on the way, and single ‘Montauk’ gives a glimpse of the expansive, nostalgic quality of the Hearsing sound. Ellington Peet (drums, percussion, synthesizer, production), Cole Brossus (lap steel guitar) and Kemper Thornberry (additional vocals) complete the line-up, helping to create a vivid soundscape which feels like a world of its own. Because as ‘Montauk’ suggests, Pastoral sees Hearsing push beyond personal experience into a more allegorical and creative style of lyricism, and it is fitting the sound comes to feel like an environment you might step inside.

I live behind a truck stop
North of Jersey
Every day I smell the sea
I work inside a steel mill
Cause veneration is better than defeat

Check out the video by Diego Diaz-Lundquist below:

‘Montauk’ is out now and available from the usual places. Pastoral is coming soon.

La Bonte – Marching In A Field Of Wheat

Following on from 2022’s Grist For The Mill, La Bonte is returning this summer with Economy Play, a new EP again released via Anxiety Blanket Records. Garrett La Bonte has made a name with a considered, reflective sound able to examine grief and love with the kind of thoughtful tone such subjects demand. Living up to its title, the new EP continues this sensibility with a measured hand, choosing to not overextend itself within an environment of financial constraints to instead deliver a shorter release that does justice to the ideas underpinning it. Single ‘Marching In A Field Of Wheat’ confronts this society of precarity directly, sparking with the tension between capitalism and creativity as it comes to understand the empty promise of the American dream. But while the less-is-more descriptor might apply to the release’s quantity, the sound refutes such ideals, rising with tumultuous weight as though directly wrestling with the malevolent forces within.

Mal Not Bad – Come On/Hard Times / Mustang

Following the track ‘No Worries’ back in March, Mal Hauser’s Mal Not Bad has released a new double single ahead of their debut full-length This Is Your New Life which will be released in August by Same Same. Described as “a succinct glimpse” into the record’s sonic palette, the songs inhabit slightly different sides of the LA artist’s style. ‘Come On/Hard Times’ is a sober slice of ambient indie folk adorned with subtle glitchy electronics, while ‘Mustang’ invites LA band Junaco along to create an emotive and haunting downtempo electro pop song. “‘Mustang’ feels like the emotional release of ‘Come On/Hard Times’, Hauser describes, “though both songs remain in moments of reflection and stillness.”

Find yourself inside a new life
Find yourself inside a different mind

Come On​/​Hard Times / Mustang is out now via the Mal Not Bad Bandcamp page.

Steak Blake – Under Knives

Next month, Blake Joshua (of Beige Banquet) will release an EP with his solo project Steak Blake. Titled This One, the record promises to continue the Steak Blake MO we first glimpsed on last year’s ‘Wonderbread’, all sharp post punk guitars, deadpan vocals and introspective, politically conscious lyrics. To announce the EP, Steak Blake has unveiled lead single and opening track ‘Under Knives’, a lo-fi but hook-laden punk song that is certain to appeal to fans of the likes of Gorgeous Bully. “The song speaks to the relentless challenges of modern life,” Joshua describes of the single, “depicting a state where people constantly feel behind and unable to escape from reality. It explores the psychological burden of believing that these struggles are self-inflicted, turning to vices as a form of escapism, a way to momentarily relieve stress and despair.”

STEFA* – differ3nt today

Born With An Extra Rib, the debut album by Queens vocalist, composer, educator and performance artist Stefa Marin Alarcón (aka STEFA*) is something of an amalgamation between autobiography and origin story. Exploring personal stories on a grand scale, the record sees STEFA* blend classical, electronic, punk and Latin styles to capture the different selves they embodied throughout its nine year gestation. Genre convention goes out the window, replaced with a sense of freedom and desire to embrace change. Latest single ‘differ3nt today’ is a great example, a downtempo electronic song that draws on contemporary pop and a decidedly 90s nostalgic sensibility. “I wanted this to feel like an anthem for people,” Alarcón describes of the song. “For everyone – not just for trans people, not just for non-binary people, not just for queer people. We all change so often and we have a right to change, so I wanted it to be an invitation for people to ask these same questions.”

Born With An Extra Rib is out now via Bandcamp.

Tasha – Michigan

Over two years since her last release, Tasha has signed to Bayonet Records and released a new single, ‘Michigan’. Produced by Gregory Uhlmann and written during a “both lonely and extremely creatively fulfilling” writing trip to a friend’s house in the titular state, the track is suffused with the sadness and gladness found in the warm glow of a late summer afternoon. Steady percussion propels things forward, but Tasha’s vocals glide at their own pace, attuned more with the slow rhythms of the natural world than our usual human calendar. “This song is about the missing and the return, Tasha describes,” the reliable comfort of a sunset on a nice day, a friend to sit with, and the shining hope of more comfort to come.”

Drive to Michigan, spend some time alone
Make good friends with the horses down the road
Oh I wish our dog was here with me
But I know he’s barking loudly somewhere warm and free

Wishy – Love On The Outside

Fresh from the success of 2023 EP Paradise, Indianapolis outfit Wishy have wasted no time in announcing their debut full-length album, Triple Seven. Again released via Winspear, the record looks to build on the combination of dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock which we so admired on the EP last year. Lead single ‘Love On The Outside’ plays these various stylistic influences off against one another, granting the track equal doses of heaviness and anthemic release. Such a duality is fitting for a track charting those early days of a relationship, where the tantalising promise of all the possible futures is troubled by an impatience to get to those halcyon days. A song sweet, frustrated and full of the hooks which make Wishy so engaging.

Check out the accompanying video by Rich Smith below:

Triple Seven is out on the 16th August via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

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Take latest single ‘No Worries’. With its careful balance of lush and glitchy tones, the song not only reflects on the pressing issues of our times, but pushes further to investigate the effects of being exposed to a constant stream of bad news. “‘No Worries’ is this convergence of a protest song and a reflection of the difficulty of communication,” Hauser explains. “I wrote it around mid-pandemic during the chaos of our previous presidency, police brutality, riots, and the pandemic itself—this constant cycle of horrible headlines and events that always exists, though the landscape/names might shift.”

Only faced with this deluge of violence and injustice, we risk becoming desensitised, or else our ability to show our anger is attenuated by the sheer force of repetition. “[The song] points to the disarray that happens when words and photos/documentation lose their power and meaning,” as Hauser continues, “an intense cycle that feels almost impossible to shake and can be dwindled down to everyday conversations we have with the people immediately around us. Understanding this hopefully can slow ourselves down to listen and speak with intention and patience.”

Watch the video co-directed by Mal Hauser and Seannie Bryan below, which features performances created by dancer and choreographer Alyssa Allen:

‘No Worries’ is out now and available from the Mal Not Bad Bandcamp page. This Is Your New Life will be released later this year.

Photo by Jacob Bell

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Though led by poet/fiction writer Mike Young, Clementine Was Right is far more than a solo project. With Young now joined by fellow poet Gion Davis, as well as a core group of musicians based between Denver and Arkansas, the project is one always moving and always changing, adapting to each present moment to best convey the stories which feel most pressing at that given time. So while ‘Dreaming of Dancing in a Different Town‘ offered nostalgic country rock and ‘Takes Tall Walks‘ pushed towards Killers-esque indie polish, latest track ‘There Are No More Almond Trees’ adds a scrappier immediacy. Still falling under the wider ‘Western emo’ tag they’ve made their own, the track is full of the wistful fondness we’ve come to expect, but balances this with a newfound playfulness.

Heartrunner – Faltering

‘Faltering’ is the debut single from Toronto indie rock band Heartrunner. Lead vocalist & songwriter Adina V is supported by Eric Bernhardt (guitar), Chris Parnis (bass), and Aidan Lucas-Buckland (drums), who together craft a lush sounds that’s tinged with sadness or longing. The track opens with sedate acoustic guitar and measured percussion, eventually swelling with electric guitar into a rich and emotionally charged finale. The band say the single “takes listeners through the dissociation, slipping relationships, and failing drive that comes with substance abuse,” and this helplessness and loss of self-confidence is captured in the loaded final lines.

Good God I’m faltering
I’m no good at anything

Jeremy Ferrara – Darkness Is A Bright Sound

Next March,  Portland, Oregon-based songwriter Jeremy Ferrara is putting out a brand new full-length, Darkness Is A Bright Sound via American Standard Time Records and A For Effort Records. Though continuing what we’ve previously called a practice centred “on openness and sincerity” which “conjures warm and welcoming songs within which he invites the listener,” the album sees Ferrara adopt a full band arrangement for the first time, resulting in his richest sound to date. The title track and album opener serves as the door through which the audience can enter this world, highlighting the sense of subtlety and control which marks the Jeremy Ferrara sound.

Mal Not Bad – AP

“Drawing the analogy of an athlete going through the highs and lows of competition to ask how one continues to push forward when exhaustion and disappointment have sapped all will to carry on.” That’s how we described ‘Sports’ from Mal Not Bad‘s Continuous Short Feature Film last year. But push forward the LA-based musician and visual artist did, as new single ‘AP’ attests. The first glimpse of a new project due in 2024, the track displays a newfound depth within the Mal Not Bad sound, leaning further into electronic sensibilities while simultaneously interrogating the impact of technology, resulting in a nuanced exploration of the human experience within the digital present.

The song comes with a video co-directed by Hauser and Seannie Bryan, a solo dance-performance created in collaboration with choreographer Alyssa Allen:

‘AP’ is available now from Bandcamp.

Mia Joy – 4th of July

Mia Joy‘s 2021 album Spirit Tamer utilised a dreamy style to form “a chronicle of [Mia] Rocha’s history,” as we put it in a review. “A way of collecting the seemingly disparate pieces that make up a life in the hope of making sense of them, and learning more about the resulting whole.” Again released via  Fire Talk Records, new EP Celestial Mirror sees the Chicago artist continue this exploration, digging into the way people and events can come to shape your sense of identity. Single ‘4th of July’ fashions a safe haven from its hazy sounds, giving space to drop the armour of self-protection in favour of a more vulnerable, open state. “Time is a teacher,” as Mia Joy sings in the opening lines, “so teach me how to love / without the fear of its cost.”

Moselle – Pesticides

“I think I accidentally / smoked pesticides or PCP  the year before I left for college,” sings Moselle on their new single, ‘Pesticides. “Everything looked like a deep fried meme / I think somebody laced my weed / I didn’t do it to myself I promise.” The first taste of an EP coming sometime next year, the track positions the Ozarks folk punk project alongside contemporaries like Pacing, where deadpan delivery and playful details are fashioned into an image of a specific moment and frame of mind. Self-deprecating perhaps, but full of wry humour too. “What if I broke this stupid glass over my dumb head?” as the chorus asks:

Let all the blood run down my arms ’til the garden’s fed
Wait til the flowers bloom in the same place that I bled
Make a bouquet hoping I’m half as useful when I’m dead

Rosie Tucker – Unending Bliss

Following recent “mini visual album” Tiny Songs Volume 1, LA’s Rosie Tucker is back with a brand new single, ‘Unending Bliss’. Packed with power chords and crashing percussion, the single is a fervent and furious treatise on the power of forgiveness and resistance in a society which seems hellbent on pitting people against one another. “’Unending Bliss’ is about petty personal beef,” Tucker describes, “and, simultaneously, about my fury at the material conditions that encourage us to treat each other like crap in order to survive.”

I want nothing but unending bliss for my enemies

Watch Vanesa De La Mora’s animated video below:

‘Unending Bliss’ is out now via Sentimental Records.

Sonya – God Save Your Soul

With new album At What Cost? on the horizon, California-based alt pop act Sonya has shared the first single, ‘God Save Your Soul’. With a sound that flits between chilled and urgent sensibilities, the song offers the sultry pop soundscapes of the late 00s buzz bands and adds a through line of energy. What results might be buried in a sun-kissed haze, but nevertheless possesses a tangible immediacy, Sonya’s vocals emerging from within the hypnotic atmosphere as though looking to shake you from its hold.

‘God Save Your Soul’ is out now via streaming services.

Sophie Gault – Christmas in the Psych Ward

Having previously recorded as Sophie & the Broken Things, Nashville-based songwriter Sophie Gault is releasing new album Baltic Street Hotel on Petaluma Records next spring, and single ‘Christmas in the Psych Ward’ gives an indication what to expect. The record was produced by Ray Kennedy, collaborator with folk royalty including Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin, and the single very much follows such a lineage, delving into highly personal experiences of bipolar disorder with a tone both steely and wry.  “There’s a guitar they give you if you’re doing good / It’s got four strings and it’s made of plywood,” as Gault sings. “I’m gonna go write down some songs and take them to Nashville / ‘That’s funny, honey, just swallow a few of these pills’.”

Baltic Street Hotel is out via Petaluma Records on the 12 April 2024.

Trinket – Silver Thread

Trinket might have originated as the solo project of Madison Kate Proffitt, but soon welcomed Basil Lee (drums), Nara Avakian (bass) and occasionally Sean Camargo into the fold and evolved towards a jangling, eighties-inflected pop style. Debut EP New Hobby is coming soon on Sad Club Records, and single ‘Silver Thread’ highlights why audiences should be anticipating their potent blend of lush nostalgia and serious self-reflection. “This song is about idealization, getting to a point with someone important in your life who sends you mixed messages,” Proffitt explains. ‘Maybe you want them to be someone they aren’t, maybe you’re projecting onto them […] It’s about stopping that cycle and letting yourself move forward.”

‘Silver Thread’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the Trinket Bandcamp page.

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Latest single ‘Sports’ turns its attention to dispiritedness, drawing the analogy of an athlete going through the highs and lows of competition to ask how one continues to push forward when exhaustion and disappointment have sapped all will to carry on. “‘Sports’ came during a time when I was struggling to find a way out of a stagnant and desaturated cloud,” Hauser explains. “Feeling depleted and constantly losing any bearings on which way was up or down.”  Through a subdued, sluggish sound of acoustic guitar and negative space which eventually rises into a chaotic climax, Mal Not Bad conjures the sensation of running on a treadmill amid a raging snowstorm, a disoriented experience of constant motion which ultimately leads nowhere in return.

Well I try reachin’ out
Can’t catch my breath I feel so spread thin
I can’t keep up
How can you breathe in when there’s nothing left to give?

Left it all behind
Laid it on the line

Made in collaboration with director of photography Seannie Bryan, the self-directed video is part of the wider Continuous Short Feature Film video project which takes inspiration from the likes of Norman McLaren and David Lynch. For ‘Sports’, the footage captures a spontaneous sense of community on Super 8mm film, finding whimsy and melancholy within the textures of the everyday.

Continuous Short Feature Film is out on the 19th August.

Photo by Jacob Boll

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“Strange DIY songs for strange DIY times,” is how we’ve described the work of California‘s Derek Ted in the past, though 2021’s KEEP TRYING hinted at a warmer, sentimental side. Latest single ‘someday soon’ develops this aspect of Ted’s work, finding a ray of light in otherwise dark circumstances and working to persevere if only for the sight of it. “I wanted to capture that pure magic you feel when you’re first crushing on someone special,” Ted explains. “Like a springtime daydream played out in your head.”

gotten used to having my heart wasted
but then you came around
could it be true?
there’s beauty on the horizon
i’d wait around all just if just for you

For Breakfast – Orfordness Lighthouse

Ahead of their forthcoming EP Trapped in the Big Room on Glasshouse Records, London-based art rock outfit For Breakfast have unveiled brand new single, ‘Orfordness Lighthouse’. The single is as detailed and inventive as you might expect from a seven-piece band, each member bringing their own musical sensibilities to achieve a sound incorporating everything from dream pop and noise rock to trip hop and psychedelica. The brass and flutes of ‘Orfordness Lighthouse’ weave a nuanced, playful sound, though this is anchored by a post-rock depth which rises as the song progresses and thunders into the cathartic conclusion.

Horseface – Sanakirjan Takana

Based in Umeå, Sweden, Horseface work at the intersection of dream pop and post-punk to create their immersive songs. Next month sees the release of their latest album Sanakirjan Takana on Sing a Song Fighter and they have shared the title track by way of an introduction. With rhythmic percussion and synths/mellotron from David Lundberg (of Gösta Berlings Saga), the song combines emotive atmospherics with off-kilter charm. The title, which translates as “behind the dictionary,” alludes to a short story by the mother of the lead vocalist which was sadly only found after her untimely passing, and there’s a sense of cryptic fondness running through the sound.

King Ropes – Greedy

Bozeman, Montana outfit King Ropes won our attention back in 2021 with the release of Way Out West, an album which took inspiration from the rural landscape and mindset as well as a healthy slice of weirdness. Songs marked “by odd wisdom and surreal images, all cloaked in a psych-inflected air that only accentuates the strangeness,” as we put it. With trauma, reincarnation and inexplicable ailments, this balance between natural beauty and eeriness is again a feature of new LP Super Natural, out next month on Big and Just Little, as shown by latest single ‘Greedy’. A deadpan stream of consciousness which captures the vibe of an album that is a ramshackle ode to both the grace and difficulty of our strange world.

Super Natural is out on the 26th May and you can order your copy from the King Ropes Bandcamp page.

Mal Not Bad – Oven

The recording project of Los Angeles-based visual artist and musician Mallory Hauser, Mal Not Bad makes a lush brand of indie folk which blurs the line between mundane reality and ethereal dreams. Ahead of new EP Continuous Short Feature Film and a EU/UK tour with Illuminati Hotties, Mal has released the single ‘Oven’. A slow, foggy track which captures this spirit perfectly. “Smells like something’s burning,” Hauser sings, the delivery more sluggish than panicked as dissonant tones scramble the once-pillowy sound, like a nightmare where the terrible is happening but you can hardly move.

Continuous Short Feature Film is due to be released later this year.

Sinead O’Brien – There Are Good Times Coming

Ahead of debut album Time Bend and Break The Bower, out via Chess Club Records this summer, Ireland’s Sinead O’Brien has unveiled latest single, ‘There Are Good Times Coming’. The song captures the idiosyncratic aesthetic O’Brien has developed, one reliant on words and images as much as sound, and able to be at once twitchy and fluid, alluring and menacing, forthright and mysterious. “Throw a coin in the fountain,” O’Brien sings. “A curse in your name / A praise in vein of kindness / There are good times coming / For love or for money there are good times coming.” Check out the video directed by Chloé le Drezen below:

Time Bend and Break The Bower is out via Chess Club Records on the 10th June and you can pre-order it now.

Yves Jarvis – At the Whims

We’ve followed the work on Montreal‘s Yves Jarvis since his days recording under the moniker Un Blonde, always appreciating how Jarvis maintains such a sense of detail and invention in his sound. Ahead of new album The Zug on ANTI-, Yves Jarvis is back with brand new single ‘At the Whims’. Described as depicting “the arc of civilization,” the track uses psych pop as the thread to weave a tapestry of human history, starting with creation and extending out into a time yet to be realised. A future marked by collapsing empires, as foretold in all empires past.

The Zug is out on the 13th May via ANTI- and you can pre-order it from the Yves Jarvis Bandcamp page.

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