“Uses [a] melodic and melancholic style to explore the strange (but recently all too familiar) sensation of being faced with disaster at a distance. It’s laidback and understated, but with a quiet power, and ends on a note of defiance, if not quite hope.” So we wrote of ‘Wide Awake (a.m.)’ by Air Mail back in November, the song which introduced how Chicago-based artist Niko Francis uses a lo-fi indie pop to achieve a striking emotional clarity. New single ‘Moss Song’ might explore humbler themes but is no less resonant, its warm tones and languid rhythms allowing in the outside environment, playing like spring blooming in real time. The result is patient, unhurried and most welcome on a grey February morning. As though within its easygoing flow is a reminder that the world moves slowly yet surely, and the only real path to contentment is to learn to match its speed.

Blue Communications – Australian Summer / Simple Delight

Naarm trio Blue Communications have only existed for about a year, but have already begun to win  over hearts and minds with their eclectic and energetic live set. Now the band have released their first recorded music, double single Australian Summer / Simple Delight, via Southern Exposure Records. The two tracks are a fitting introduction to a band that combine catchy punk, sunny Antipodean jangle and lo-fi experimentalism. Aine Keogh takes the lead on ‘Australian Summer’, which as its title suggests is a hazy and sun-drunk folk-inflected song that evokes long and lazy summer days. ‘Simple Delight’ on the other hand is something of a tempo change, Billie Burrow taking over vocal duties in an urgent and barrelling punky pop song the band say is “about anti-fascist action and queer punk culture.” As captured in the joyously repeated line:

Pushing nazis to the ground
Such a simple delight man!

Australian Summer / Simple Delight is out now via Southern Exposure Records and available via the Blue Communications Bandcamp page.

Brightmoon – Lies About The Sky (Shudder to Think cover)

The recording project of husband and wife duo Billy and Becca Mohler, Brightmoon takes its name from the imaginary kingdom in the animated show She-Ra and the Princess of Power. In the cartoon, the land is dreamlike and shrouded in mystery, and it was exactly such sensations which the Mohlers wished to convey with their hybrid shoegaze, indie rock and dream pop aesthetic. However, make no mistake, Brightmoon offer more edge and emotional bite than simple nostalgia. “Poetry and songwriting are the best outlets for me. It’s cheesy to say this, but they’re like therapy. I put my struggles and demons in my songs,” Becca shares. Billy adds: “Our music is a catharsis. For us, it’s a break from the challenges of daily living, and we want to provide that kind of respite for others.” With their debut EP coming soon via Noon Records, the duo have shared a cover of Shudder To Think’s ‘Lies About The Sky’, the ideal introduction to a band that can provide shimmering textures and pummelling energy in equal measure. Watch the video below with animation and editing by Vincent U.

‘Lies About The Sky’ is out now via Noon Records.

Brown Horse – Twisters

Norwich-based purveyors of “slacker twang” Brown Horse are nothing if not prolific. They announced themselves to the world with 2024 debut Reservoir (which was one of that year’s stand-out records), and returned with sophomore effort All the Right Weaknesses little over a year later. Their style fits the zeitgeist perfectly, a rough and dusty mix of country and indie rock that very much in vogue at the moment, think (roughly) equal parts Jason Molina, Neil Young and Lucinda Williams. And they’re very good at it too. All of which is to say that expectation is high for the next Brown Horse record, Total Dive, which is due for release barely a year since the last one. Our first glimpse is ‘Twisters’, another confident and wearily optimistic mid-tempo country rocker that would sound perfect on a sunny afternoon cruise once spring has sprung in a couple of weeks.

Helicopter Leaves – Moreoff More Off Than On

“I wanted to invest in it myself—take the more adult serious step. Grow up.” So explains Anthony Vaccaro of Sabrina Nickels, the latest album from his solo project Helicopter Leaves. Having made a name as guitarist and co-songwriter in Chicago rock band Beach Bunny, Vaccaro’s solo work has thus far remained very much a side project, 2023 debut Get Stuck In recorded in the basement of his grandparents’ house. However, anyone who spent time with that record would have said considerable vision and potential within the idiosyncratic sound, and now Vaccaro is determined to level up with the new album and give Helicopter Leaves the attention it deserves. The basement was swapped for Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio and longtime Beach Bunny collaborator Sean O’Keefe’s home studio, and a newfound commitment followed, though Vaccaro still plays all the instruments and retains the same personal spirit. Just take lead single ‘Moreoff More Off Than On’, a track charged with all the adventure and experimentation that makes the project special.

Sabrina Nickels will be released on the 27th March via Noyes Records and you can pre-order it now.

JJerome87 – Brush Me Like A Horse

You likely know Joe Newman as part of the critically acclaimed indie rock outfit alt-j, though fans will soon come to know him as something altogether different. For having signed with Mushroom Music / Virgin Music Group, Newman is adopting the moniker JJerome87 and setting out solo. Lead single ‘Brush Me Like A Horse’ serves as the calling card for the new project. Recorded in Los Angeles with producer Carlos De La Garza, there’s a notable Californian flavour to the track, Newman reaching for elements of gospel, Motown and blues. But beneath the sunny spirit is something altogether more surreal. The almost Kafkaesque story of man who, as the title alludes, finds himself slowly turning in to a horse. Something between a cautionary tale and act of wish fulfillment which probes what can happen when the outside world begins to see us differently.

‘Brush Me Like a Horse’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Nice Weather – Room Tone

Based in Philadelphia, Nice Weather in an ambient project which, as per the artist, looks to explore “the baritone guitar as an environment rather than an instrument.” Serving as both an introduction and mission statement, lead track ‘Room Tone’ is atmospheric in an almost literal sense. A song named after the filmmaking term for the sounds within a space with no dialogue or intentional noise, that is, the audio presence of an ostensibly ‘silent’ environment, ‘Room Tone’ is a live to tape improvisation which owes equal debts to the work of Mary Lattimore and David Lynch. A soundscape in which apparently empty space carries its own mood and charge, and the contours of sound itself mark out the emotional landscape of a given space.

‘Room Tone’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Pearla – Be Around

Back in October we wrote about ‘To Love Something’, a single from Nicole Rodriguez’s Pearla which built upon the style of 2023 album Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming, “again searching for those small details which lift an otherwise mundane existence into something significant.” Now Rodriguez has announced a brand new full-length Song Room, and lead single ‘Be Around’ suggests the Pearla sound is continuing to grow. “This song is about the feeling of isolation that comes with being a highly sensitive and emotional person, and worrying that it makes you hard to be around or hard to love,” Rodriguez explains. “It’s about that feeling of being ‘too much’—the fear of what would happen when people see what is really within you.” This tension between interior and exterior worlds is a key concern of the record, notably how the outside threatens to change the inside, the ways in which love might expand or collapse us, and the relative impacts of resisting this change or else submitting to its inevitable pull.

The Rural Alberta Advantage – The Hunt In Edson

We last wrote about The Rural Alberta Advantage back in 2023 when the Toronto based indie rock darlings put out their fifth full-length, The Rise & The Fall. The album saw lead Nils Edenloff shake off the associated anguish inherent within the act of writing songs to pen another stellar collection and put his own self-doubt to rest. Fast forward two years and The RAA are back with ‘The Hunt in Edson’, a brand new single on Saddle Creek that shows Edenloff and co. are ready to put themselves through it all over again. Inspired by a pair of unrelated true events, the song explores the bracing experience of being under the most severe of pressure, be it caught in the jaws of a predator or stood on the edge with a rope around your neck. The result is every bit as thoughtful and cathartic as fans of the band will have come to expect, and we can only hope there’s a sixth album sitting somewhere down the line.

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With the record out next month, Ruby Gill has returned with ‘Touch Me There’. Another single which examines the body in ways both intimate and political, embracing the queer experience both as a means of personal fulfilment and as a wider radical force. This duality is evoked by the interplay between Gill’s searching delivery and the communal backing chorus which sees the likes of Annie-Rose Maloney, Hannah McKittrick, Angie McMahon, Hannah Cameron, Jess Ellwood and Olivia Hally (of Oh Pep!) all lend their voices. The result is the sense of a call being answered. A single voice echoing back as a community. “During the longest dry spell of my life, I came out to myself,” Gill explains:

The first time I said it out loud was in this song—all that sitting by a river waiting for the truth to come out led to me being honest for the first time about who I was attracted to and what kind of sex I wanted in my life. It took almost two years of zero kissing to get to that point of self-knowledge. Not intentionally, haha – everything just felt so wrong and scary after being touched in really unsafe ways before that. I was numb for years, but I finally felt sensation in my body again after writing ‘Touch Me There’. It broke me open. I hope it breaks other people open too, whether it’s about queerness or otherwise. You have a say over your love and pleasure

The track comes complete with a video—filmed, directed and edited by Bridgette Winten, with shoot and lighting assistance by Sophie Christopher—staged within Naarm’s queer workout and community space Pony Club Gym.

Some Kind of Control is out on the 28th March and you can pre-order it now.

Photo by Kira Puru

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Lily of the Valley, the timely new album from 22° Halo, might centre on something intensely personal and difficult, but it’s more widely relevant too as it actively works to fight off despair and let light in on an otherwise dark time. As we described when writing of previous single ‘Virtual You’, the sound is “wistful, yes, and not immune from a certain sense of longing, but always with an overarching gratitude that such times happened at all.” With the album now out via Tiny Library Records, Will Kennedy has unveiled final single, ‘Cobwebs’. A fittingly introspective track which tracks the early days of the diagnosis which sits at the heart of the album, looking to preserve ordinary life while wrestling with an all-encompassing uncertainty.

I’m trying to believe that you’re good
I’m trying to believe that I’m good
I’m trying to believe that we’re good
I’m trying to believe

Clara Mann – Stadiums

UK singer-songwriter Clara Mann has announced her debut album, Rift, the follow up to 2021 EP Consolations (Sad Club Records). A culmination of her young career so far, label The state51 Conspiracy call the record “a tangible expression of Clara’s entire world—a snow globe raised in her palms for the world to see, in all its layers and complexities, containing all her love, relationships, memories, and experiences.” Mann describes her music as “almost-folk”, and the album’s two lead singles introduce this perfectly. Finely wrought and patient, minimal percussion lapping at the edges of the impressive vocals. ‘Stadiums’ is perhaps the standout, precise and emotive in equal measure, swaying around a still and poised centre.

Decant – Rest

Bay Area trio Decant are this month releasing two singles, both in preview of an upcoming EP set for release early next year and to celebrate the fact the tracks appear in the film credits for the movie Rust. The first single ‘Rest’ introduces the band’s evocative style, something folky that splits the difference between shadow and warmth. The result is at once poignant and moody, aching with a nocturnal longing yet holding on to a sense of light.

German Error Message – Lilt

Two decades since the project’s conception, the latest release from Paul Kintzing’s German Error Message is a self-titled collection of songs written and recorded since 2020. First released digitally earlier this year, the album is now getting a cassette release from Lily Tapes & Discs as part of their Fall ’24 batch. It’s both reassuringly familiar and somehow fresh, the warm and hushed lo-fi songs reaching out toward a newfound sense of brightness. As Lily Tapes put it: “Where previous albums may have built insular and hermetic worlds with their hushed delivery, German Error Message sprawls outwards, unfolding as a series of nested home-recording experiments disguised as folk songs.” Check out ‘Lilt’ as a taster.

Hamburger – Frankenstein

Bristol six-piece Hamburger are gearing up for the release of their new EP Beat Back the Ghouls via Specialist Subject Records later this month, and latest single ‘Frankenstein’ shows how the collection both builds upon their previous work and pushes the sound in new directions. Where debut EP Teenage Terrified offered equal parts rawness and invention, Hamburger use the new release to show off a more sophisticated, layered sound without sacrificing any of the personality that fans have come to love. ‘Frankenstein’ is the ideal introduction. A richly wistful track which pines for summers past with equal parts soaring energy and enveloping fuzz.

Lone Striker – Dunno

You might know Tom Brown as part of bands like Rural France and Teenage Tom Petties, but new project Lone Striker moves away from the fuzzy jangle of those projects towards something more akin to Americana, albeit one with an off-kilter wobble. With a self-titled album coming next year Repeating Cloud, Safe Suburban Home and Hidden Bay Records, Brown has shared the title track to introduce the project. Something of a theme song for Lone Striker which doubles as an ode to those old school number nines.

Mumble Tide – The Rails

Consisting of singer Gina Leonard and composer Ryan Rogers, Mumble Tide is a Bristol-based project which has made a name with a maximalist amalgamation of synth pop and country. But new single ‘The Rails’, out now on Breakfast Records, sees the outfit pivot towards a different direction. With help from producer Stew Jackson (Massive Attack), Mumble Tide worked with newfound patience, crafting a slow and careful arrangement in which Leonard’s vocals can be heard in all their nuance and depth. The result draws heavily on sixties folk but elevates such sensibilities with an almost cinematic sheen, and the emotive, assured mood which results is central to the track’s themes. “’The Rails’ is like an angry kiss, or throwing stones at a mirror,” Leonard explains. “It’s about leaning into all the things that hold me back and in the process realising that they’re not as solid as they seem.”

Otala – Patchwork

With a sound that combines jazz, math and post-rock with ambient and spoken word, Nottingham’s Otala are not ones to be held to genre conventions. Having recently signed to London’s Lil Chop Record Shop, the band are preparing to release new EP Fire! To The River next February, and single ‘Patchwork’ gives listeners a chance to immerse themselves within the evocative and inventive Otala sound. A song that has been part of the outfit’s repertoire for a long while now reimagined as something fitting their current level. “’Patchwork’ is a song we have been performing since we began playing as Otala, but one that we’d originally planned to let fade into our history,” the band explain. “After seeing a live video from an old set we decided to put the time in to adapt and reanimate it into something we’re proud to release.”

Watch the video by Rory Allen below:

‘Patchwork’ is out now via Lil Chop Record Shop and available from Bandcamp. Fire! To The River will be released in February.

Ruby Gill – Some Kind Of Control

We’ve previously described the work of  South Africa-born, Melbourne/Naarm-based pianist, guitarist and singer-songwriter Ruby Gill 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.” New single ‘Some Kind of Control’ follows in the same vein to explore the strange blend of agency and restriction experienced during the lockdown period of the pandemic. “I had been grappling with what it meant to have all and no control over my time and body—all at once,” Gill explains:

In a big way, the world was in charge, but also in a day-to-day way, I had all the power: I could move freely through my kitchen and clothes and kindness however I wished—it was a new experience for me after feeling quite trapped in some difficult spaces and systems for a long time—“always babysitting other people’s arguments instead of my own” as the lyrics say. I feel like this song encompasses so much of what I’ve learnt and reclaimed in the past few years, and feels very reflective musically of my true, silly, powerful self and community.

Watch the video filmed, directed and edited by Bridgette Winten, with shoot and lighting assistance by Sophie Christopher below:

‘Some Kind of Control’ is out now and available from the usual places.

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With the album’s release via Third Eye Stimuli Records and Earth Libraries looming, Arbes have returned with a brand new single, ‘One Metaphor’. The record’s closing track, the song represents a suitably epic send-off. One which again combines rock and pop sensibilities and sees a textured, smouldering opening morph into something altogether more intense, the angular guitars and ethereal vocals again offering that trademark juxtaposition which marks the collection. And that’s not the only thing which keeps the audience guessing, with the tempo shifting at the drop of a hat and the mood evolving from dreamy spaciousness to layered complexity and back again.

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This autumn sees the release of Electric Bouquet, a new full-length from Anna McClellan on Father/Daughter Records. An account of the past four years, the album charts a period which saw McClellan go to school to become an electrician, move cross country and experience the end of relationships, and single ‘Endlessly’ captures the release’s atmosphere of bittersweet tenderness. A slow burner which slowly shakes itself from a melancholic piano-led opening into something freer and more affirming, McClellan rising from the blues in real time with an overarching message of hope. “‘Endlessly’ is definitely a mile marker song for me,” McClellan describes. “I think it retains all of the common traits of my songwriting while reaching a new level of maturity. It feels important and urgent to express this idea that we are each other’s truths. We can’t look to the supposed leaders of our system or the media for truth.”

Watch the video filmed by McClellan, Mychal Marasco and Ryan McKeever and edited by Harrison Martin below:

Electric Bouquet will be released via Father/Daughter Records on 25th October. Pre-order it now from the Anna McClellan Bandcamp page.

Anne Malin – River

“I saw my heart beating in a river and left it there for the earth to save / Some muscle wet in the weeds, and flooded through still I will sing.” So sings Anne Malin on ‘River’, the lead single from forthcoming album Strange Power!, set to be released next month via Dear Life Records. The lines not only capture the essence of the song but the wider thematic resonance of the album as a whole. The Durham, NC-based songwriter and poet explores how nature and its inherent motion might possess the key to the process of healing in the aftermath of trauma and loss. The album is being released in tandem with book-length poem, What Floods (published under the name AM Ringwalt), the two not only complimenting and deepening one another, but intersecting on ‘River’, whose lyrics appear within text.

Strange Power! is out on the 25th October via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now. What Floods will be published by Inside the Castle and you can find more here.

El Tee – Baby

Based in Naarm/Melbourne by way of California, El Tee (AKA songwriter Lauren Tarver) introduced itself in 2020 with debut full-length album, Everything Is Fine—an album built around an ongoing quest for self-realisation and acceptance. Building upon these themes, new single ‘Baby’ sees El Tee once against push against the grain in the knowledge that confronting discomfort is the only path towards the truth, and moreover directly calls out those who would prefer to avoid vulnerability via the sly tactic of self-sabotage. “I wrote ‘Baby’ about the experience of doing this to myself, but also about being on the receiving end of someone sabotaging a good thing when it feels hard,” as Tarver explains. “Self-sabotage can be a form of protection—creating predictability can give the illusion of safety. At least, that’s what my therapist says…”

Watch the video by Tarver herself below:

‘Baby’ is out now and available from the El Tee Bandcamp page.

Kareem Rahma & Tiny Guns – Baby I Could Never Win

Kareem Rahma might be best known as the comedian, host and creator behind viral TikTok and Instagram series Subway Takes and Keep The Meter Running, but also records as part of the band Tiny Guns along with Tyler McCauley (guitar), Joe Tirabassi (guitar), Matt Morello (bass, piano, backing vocals) and Dale Eisinger (drums, percussion). With new EP No Worries If Not coming next week, Rahma and co. have shared opener ‘Baby I Could Never Win’ to whet the appetite. A hectic dash of a track which pulls the audience into its forward momentum alongside Rahma’s uber cool delivery.

Oceanator – Get Out

Oceanator has long offered lead Elise Okusami a vehicle to explore the emotional landscape of life in a collapsing world, with previous albums Things I Never Said and Nothing’s Ever Fine wrestling with what it means to love and long for things in a time where the approaching end is so apparent. Their latest record, out now via Polyvinyl Records, is the culmination of these ideas, something written in its very title—Everything is Love and Death. As you might expect, the range of emotions on show is vast and ever-changing, but don’t be fooled into thinking such high stakes sap any of the defiant energy from the songs. Take ‘Get Out’, a promise to meet the world on its own stark terms and seize the moment to make itself heard.

Get up get up get out tonight
I’m not going down without a fight
I wanna be here not stuck in my head
Imagining all the things I never said

The track comes with a video directed by Paul DeSilva which casts Okusami as an actual demon slayer. Watch below:

Everything is Love and Death is out now via Polyvinyl and available from Bandcamp.

Quarterly – Illuminati

Last week saw the release of Adonis, the third album from Brooklyn duo Quarterly. The husband and wife duo Kristen Drymala and Christopher DiPietro work at the intersection of folk and neoclassical, combining guitar and cello in wordless compositions of rich depth and sober intensity. Their most formally adventurous yet, the new record sees the pair throw off the shackles of trying to make something that can be played live in favour of experimental tunings, polyrhythms and innovative forms. Album closer and final single ‘Illuminati’ is a good introduction. What the press release calls an “A24-soundtrack-ready track [which] imagines the sound of pre-Christian folk music,” it’s mysteriously beautiful, Drymala’s cello following DiPetro’s guitar in intricate passages before soaring off on its own.

Sea Lemon – Crystals (feat. Benjamin Gibbard)

Hot on the heels of 2023 album Stop At Nothing on Luminelle Recordings, Sea Lemon has returned with a brand new single ‘Crystals’. The previous record saw the Natalia Lew draw on ideas more typically seen in horror films or literary fiction, with narrators which feel, as we put it, “at once fearful and dangerous, some absence at the heart of their existence pushing them toward the darkest of places.” The new single, which sees Benjamin Gibbard lend vocals too, might not be quite so foreboding, but still bucks expectation with its willingness to forgo escape attempts and instead embrace the gloomy present. “I wrote most of the song after coming to this realization that ‘manifesting’ or looking for signs in nature or everyday life is mostly just a coping mechanism to get by day to day,” Lew explains. “When Ben came on and wrote his verse, I loved his added angle—rather than attempting lighter coping mechanisms, just submitting oneself to being upset and living in that darkness for a while can be a way to cope in and of itself.”

‘Crystals’ is out now via Luminelle Recordings and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Shovel Dance Collective – The Rolling Wave

“A stripped back sea shanty hushed with the inevitable loss of grand adventure, the titular vessel just another claimed by the ocean’s mysterious whims.” So we wrote of The Shovel Dance, the forthcoming album from Shovel Dance Collective on American Dreams. As it progressed, the track revealed itself as more than a simple folk song, landing alongside the likes of Lankum and Shane Parish in its mission, as we put it, “to push old sounds and stories into new dimensions.” With the album’s release fast approaching, the London nine-piece have shared new single, ‘The Rolling Wave’. It’s another example of the depth and intricacy of the Shovel Dance Collective sound, not to mention the intuitive spirit which hangs everything together. The humble three-minute runtime might seem modest compared with the previous single, but with a wistful and inherently playful arrangement, the track again offers a portal through which the audience is invited.

Check out the video by Tom Hardwick-Allan, with finishing and colour by Rafi Siraj and bleeds by Nick Granata:

The Shovel Dance is out on the 11th October via American Dreams and you can pre-order it now from the Shovel Dance Collective Bandcamp page.

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The mononymous creative moniker of songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Allie Cuva, allie has served as a vehicle through which to explore personal relationships, from the study of a break-up on debut album Maybe Next Time to the perspicuous details of connection seen on 2022 single cast iron // infinite jesters. With new album Every Dog coming this September via Snack Shack Tracks and Anxiety Blanket Records, allie has shared new single ‘Radio Shower’. With its compassionate vocals and ache of longing, the track is every bit as heartfelt as anything allie has so far released, with Cuva matching a romantic present against the sense of loss always looming, as though to love is to anticipate the absence of love, and loneliness is always approaching from some distance to reclaim you under its grip.

Arbes – Impasse

Anne Carson once wrote that “perfect desire is perfect impasse,” an idea Naarm/Melbourne indie pop outfit Arbes explore on ‘Impasse’, the lead single from the debut full-length Counterways, coming later this year on Third Eye Stimuli Records and Earth Libraries. “I picture this unruly character, going back and forth on an ultimatum,” lead Jess Zanoni explains of the single, “trying to toy with the emotional limits of a situation—weighing up permanence vs non-existence.” This indecisive spirit is brought to life with a sound caught between angular post-punk twitch and smooth pop grooves, and Zanoni’s vocals evoke a personality full of contradiction too. Where a certain arrogance sits alongside vulnerability, the sense of a person in competition with themselves, their two halves struggling for dominance.

Haley Heynderickx – Seed of a Seed

Her first new music since 2018’s debut album I Need to Start a Garden, ‘Seed of a Seed’ is the new single from Portland singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx. Again released via the good folk as Mama Bird Recording Co., it’s a direct and sincere folk song that strips back  contemporary life’s complications to get at the heart of what really matters. With a wisdom that may be intentional or incidental, what this entails to Heynderickx is not lofty or grandiose, but small and mundane. “It’s so simple, but I didn’t realize how much angst I’d woven into it,” she describes of the song. “A desire for simplicity, and how far away that felt.” What’s remarkable is how, from a few spare lines on modest hopes and dreams, emerges something of a self-portrait. As Heynderickx concludes: “It seems I accidentally pressed my story—the last four years of my life—into a tiny little tune.”

Macro/micro – Balaclava

Having worked as an audio engineer for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for soundtracks such as Watchmen, Mank and Waves, as well as Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts V & IV, Tommy Simpson cut his teeth among some of the best. Now recording his own music as Macro/micro, Simpson works across various fields with his dark electronic soundscapes, the latest of which being the soundtrack for Streets Loud With Echoes, a documentary by Katerina Suvorova. Made on the ground with activists amid unrest in Kazakhstan, the film follows the fallout after the murder of Olympic figure skater Denis Ten and a population’s attempt to instigate political change. Macro/micro’s score is every bit as shadowy and charged as you might expect, with single ‘Balaclava’ introducing the use of field recordings and building rhythm to bring to life the paranoia of the moment.

The Streets Loud With Echoes OST will be released later this year.

Maripool – Twist

“The ostensibly frolicsome nature of the song is undermined by a shadowy edge. Something sinister lurking just beneath the surface.” So we wrote of ‘This Time Again’ by Lisbon-born, London-based artist Natasha Simões, AKA Maripool back in 2022. Now Simões is back with a day that feels like nothing, a brand new EP which builds upon this ambiguous style. The Maripool sound blends bedroom pop emotion with a punk personality to fall between the sincerity of Frankie Cosmos and the deadpan charm of the likes of Patio. Single ‘Twist’ is a great place to dive in, its lo-fi textures ebbing and flowing as the vocals switch between yearning and embittered defiance.

Tape/Off – Paris, Texas, Queensland

With an album slated for release early in 2025, Australian rockers Tape/Off have shared brand new single ‘Paris, Texas, Queensland’ via Coolin’ By Sound. Half love letter, half furious screed, the track does for the band’s home of Meeanjin/Brisbane what Last Quokka’s Red Dirt did for Kimberley, caught between the nostalgic fondness for the familiar and a simmering anger at its many downfalls. Hence sunnies, ciggies, singlets and footy shorts worn by Alfie Langer are matched with images of gentrification and colonisation. More proof the current crop of Aussie punk rock is ahead of other countries in its willingness to confront the imperialistic violence which underpins contemporary society.

I had this dream, you see?
I was holding a lump of coal in my hand
And it exploded in a spray of dead Coral
That covered all of Queensland

Watch the video filmed by Luke Henery and edited by Branko Cosic below:

‘Paris, Texas, Queensland’ is out now via Coolin’ By Sound and available from the Tape/Off Bandcamp page.

Trace Mountains – In A Dream

“You’re in a dream,” sings Dave Benton on ‘In a Dream’, the first single from the latest Trace Mountains full-length, Into The Burning Blue, coming next month via Lame-O Records. “You’re in a dream you feel the world busting at its seams you’re coming clean but you don’t know what the fuck it means.” In an album which sees Trace Mountains explore the whole range of the colour blue, the single and opener finds Benton very much at the darker end of the spectrum. A dispatch from whatever stage of capitalism we’re calling contemporary America as delivered from a breathless nighttime bike ride. The effect is passing through a dark passage full of eerie shadow without quite knowing if there’s an exit at the other end.

Into The Burning Blue is out on the 27th September via Lame-O Records and you can pre-order it now.

Video Age x Esther Rose – Out In The Country

A reworking of the title track from their 2023 LP Away From the Castle, ‘Out In The Country’ is the new single from New Orleans duo Video Age. Except, for this song at least, Video Age are no longer a duo. Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli are joined by alt-country singer-songwriter Esther Rose, who brings her signature vocals to a stripped-back take on the track that dials back the technicolor psych of the original in favour of something soft and swaying. The collaboration was inspired by a live performance of the song Farbe and Rose played in Nashville, a moment captured on video and shared as an added bonus with the proper studio-recorded version. Check out both below:

‘Out In The Country’ is out now via Winspear and available from the Video Age Bandcamp page.

Vince Nudo – Everyone Here Reminds Me of You

Having started out as a drummer, founding Priestess and touring and recording as part of Kurt Vile’s backing band The Violators, Vince Nudo has since turned his attention to composing, with films he’s scored having premiered at Cannes and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). His latest score is for Mary Heilmann: Waves, Roads & Hallucinations, Matt Creed’s intimate chronicle of the New York artist renowned for her abstract geometric forms and use of colour. Nudo’s ambient soundtrack is suitably lush and fluid, drawing on Heilmann’s minimalist sensibilities and overarching playfulness to create something which matches her daydream ethos of creativity.

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The recording project of Chicago-based violinist and songwriter Mallory Linehan, Chelsea Bridge is something of a shapeshifting entity. One as likely to entice the listener in with hazy dreamscapes as it is blast them with intense noise, willing to present sensual and detached sensibilities side by side. Perhaps not a shapeshifter, then, but rather something fluid, an amorphous thing able to exist across and between fixed points. It is therefore fitting that new album K, coming next month via Whited Sepulchre, could be described as both the most accessible and experimental Chelsea Bridge record to date. A collection of songs which sees Linehan reach for pop sensibilities as naturally as she might classical or avant garde, as though to prove such a distinction is of little consequence to an artist fully embracing an intuitive mode of working. Single ‘The Morning’ introduces the result, where plucked violin seems to work hand over hand to tease a lush pop soundscape into life.

cryer mya – Leylines

Based in south London by way of Bristol, cryer mya is the new recording project of songwriter Rishi Saluja. Having previously played in bands with psychedelic influences, Saluja uses the moniker to combine such sensibilities with more personal tastes in soul and folk, resulting in a richly realised sound sure to grab the ears of fans of Sam Evian and Alice Phoebe Lou. Lead single ‘Leylines’ provides the first taste of the cryer mya style, taking a languid summer rhythm and populating it with vocals both heartfelt and searching, the easygoing warmth belying the depth of a track which explores themes of spirituality and mystery.

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

 Ead Wood – Menu

Ead Wood might hail from Bristol in the UK, but their Americana-inflected sound positions them closer to acts like Friendship than any of their British brethren. Following on from last year’s EP A Sparkling Gift, the outfit have returned with new single ‘Menu’ on Breakfast Records. A song which typifies the balance between sincerity and playfulness which marks the Ead Wood sound, delving into an ostensibly mundane situation to reveal the deeper meanings beneath the surface. “‘Menu’ is a (somewhat) lighthearted song about decision making anxieties,” as lead Ed Soles explains. “[That feeling] of being frozen in fear of making the wrong choice, even in those situations where it may not seem to even matter. This is never more apparent than ordering at a restaurant, where I often get the same as whoever I’m with to avoid having to make my own decision, even if it’s not something I want.”

‘Menu’ is out now via Breakfast Records and available from Bandcamp.

Holy Matter – Prince Gloom

This autumn, Leanna Kaiser will release her debut album under her Holy Matter moniker. Titled Beauty Looking Back, the record explores “the changing seasons of life and the passage of time,” featuring intimate meditations on the cyclical patterns of past, present and future that attempt to capture the paradox of time and how we experience it. Namely, how things seem at once immutable and ever-changing. “Holy Matter comes from Leonard Cohen’s novel Beautiful Losers,” Kaiser explains. “There’s one passage that has stayed with me, since – a page with the repeated mantra ‘I change; I am the same.’ This, I would say, is the best description of what this album is about.” Latest single ‘Prince Gloom’ is dreamy and diaphanous, unfurling in a slow, almost tropical swirl.

Japandroids – Chicago

Seven years after their last record, Vancouver indie rock legends Japandroids have announced one last album before they lay the project to rest. Billed by duo Brian King and David Prowse as a parting gift to fans, Fate & Alcohol seems intent on going out in a blaze of glory. “On our last record we wanted to broaden the definition of a Japandroids song,” King explains, “and purposely left our demos quite open and malleable so that we had more flexibility to experiment in the studio.” If lead single ‘Chicago’ is anything to go by, this translates to a sound that’s bolder and more widescreen than anything Japandroids have made to date. Which is saying something for a band who have always been unapologetically maximalist, combining punk rock energy with good-time, fists-in-the-air classic rock.

Kitty Fitz – Laughing Stock

Inspired by both 90s power pop and contemporary pop songwriters like Lorde and Caroline Polachek, the work of London’s Kitty Fitz combines a sometimes chaotic, danceable energy with candid and introspective explorations of turbulent relationships and self-doubt. Less poppy than last year’s debut EP All My Own Stunts, new single ‘Laughing Stock’ has been honed on the live circuit for over a year, forgoing the more bombastic synth pop elements in favour of something a little more poignant. What Fitz describes as “the epitome of me attempting to pass off my own fear of commitment and rejection as character flaw, as being cool and aloof, or once again feeling in a way ‘unloveable,'” the song’s breezy surface is something of a facade, beneath which squirm anxious thoughts and fears.

Maya Ruth – oblivion

“Chapped lips / But nothing like the harshness of smoke / We fall asleep restlessly / Counting the years on our toes.” So sings Maya Ruth in the opening of new single ‘Oblivion’. A song which began life as a poem before morphing into a grungy rock hit, the track mines the banality of every day life for its inherent absurdity, offering a bittersweet sound of sweet textures and edgy bite. The result is both alluring and slightly unnerving, as though beneath the monotony of our normal experience lies something more exciting, something more dangerous. “Die with me here / And you’ll be asking for more,” as Ruth sings in the chorus. “Doesn’t it scare you? / But don’t you feel good?”

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

Merce Lemon – Backyard Lover

Following recent single ‘Will You Do Me a Kindness’, what we called “a song that ebbs and flows between quiet introspection and a wild, barely-restrained energy,” Pittsburgh songwriter Merce Lemon has announced a new record, Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild. Released via LA label Darling Records, the album promises to marry quiet vulnerability with cathartic power, something immediately apparent on lead single ‘Backyard Lover’. What starts as a warm and swaying country song, complete with propulsive percussion and wistful pedal steel, gathers into a sharp point of wailing guitar and emotional release. It’s a glimpse at a theme that winds throughout the record, and Lemon’s work in general.  “So many of my songs are touched by and explore death, specifically in relation to the loss I experienced of my best friend when I was fifteen years old,” she explains. “That loss has forever changed me and who I am in my relationships to lovers, friends, family.”

Watch Me Drive Them Dogs Wild will be released on 27^th September via Darling Records. Pre-order a copy now from the Merce Lemon Bandcamp page.

Nuisance – Holy Basil

Over recent years, few could have done more to work against the traditional studio-based recording process than William Seidel and Ryan Weber of Nuisance. Whether working as part of Eric & Magill or REW<<, Weber has created albums in some of the world’s remotest areas while serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer, while Seidel has worked on music in hotels and mini-cab taxis during his extensive travels. Not to mention their development of the virtual sounds database Poetic Devices which underpins Nuisance releases. The pair are now back with Squash Blossom Necklace, a new full-length which furthers their exploration of possibilities within this frame of working, bending genre conventions in order to incorporate pop, folk, electronic and classical sensibilities into something unique to them. Listen to single ‘Holy Basil’ now:

Sylvia – Found and Lost

With members hailing from all over Australia, Sylvia is a Melbourne/Naarm-based band which is equally diverse in its points of reference. Gemma (vocals/guitar) is one half of dream pop duo Earache, Murray (drums) used to power Brisbane noise-rock outfit No Sister, Dee (bass) also plays in dystopian industrial band Red Hell while Sean (guitar) spent time in powerviolence as part of Canberra’s Hygiene. United as Sylvia, the result draws on all of this past experience to create something straddling shoegaze, power pop and indie rock, while maintaining a certain intensity of noise too. New EP II is a good place to jump in, with single ‘Found and Lost’ seeing noisy rock and twee pop collide in a short, sharp burst.

variety – Plover

Earlier this year, Austin-based outfit variety—That’s Jordan Emmert (Porcelain/Pleasure Venom), Nick Stout (New Strangers), Rhys Woodruff (Borzoi/Leche) and Zach Wood (Borzoi)—released ‘Plover’, the first single of their forthcoming album pencilled for release this autumn. A twitchy rush of anxious energy, the song uses the titular wader and ornithological themes more generally to paint a picture of an ecosystem gripped by a constant tension. As though every environment is a network of individuals with competing desires, be they animal or human, and each organism is set on edge by the presence of everything else. Watch the video directed by Taylor Browne below:

‘Plover’ is out now and the variety album is coming soon.

Wild Pink – The Fences of Stonehenge

Following on from 2022’s hit ILYSM and John Ross’s successful collaboration with Laura Wolf under the moniker lilts, Wild Pink have signed with the good folks at Fire Talk and announced new full-length album, Dulling The Horns. But if Ross’s recent output has seen discursions into dreamy and often ornate pop styles, the new record is a recentering of Wild Pink as a rock band. One ready to be more immediate, less polished and finely crafted. “I wanted to make economical songs,” as Ross explains. “Music that is very much at its core three or four people rocking.” First single ‘The Fences of Stonehenge’ leads the way, heralding not only a fresh collection of songs but what feels like a new era for the band. One which finds them revitalised and ready to commit wholeheartedly all over again.

Dulling The Horns is out on the 4th October via Fire Talk and you can pre-order it now.

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Single ‘Dinah’ introduces these themes, a catchy pop song that wears a whimsical smile to conceal its dark heart. A song which matches the fear preached within Christianity to the fear of existing with Christian spaces, presenting a setting which is hostile towards young woman even as it asks for their guilt and complicity. “For me, ‘Dinah’ is the scariest thing I’ve ever put out,” Zietsch describes. “It’s probably the most pop feeling song I’ve released, but it’s really quite an angry song. I have felt incredibly disturbed and frustrated and sad in the process of writing and putting it together.”

The same thing happened to me when I was only seventeen
Do you think I got what I deserved?
Do you think God’s just trying to be seen?
By us non-believers? By us non-God fearers?

Watch the video, directed by Zietsch & Bridgette Winten, below:

I Get Into Trouble will be released on 13th October via Partisan Records and you can pre-order it now via the Maple Glider Bandcamp page.

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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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Based in LA, Aaron Weits is a self-described “musical explorer”. He uses guitars, computers, and modular synthesizers to craft an earnest, uncluttered style of pop music which explores themes of grief, joy and spiritual development. Latest single ‘Rapid Eye Movement’ is the ideal entry point for those unfamiliar with his work, the clarity of the sound not only reflecting on the loss of his mother as a child but making a space for her to persist alongside him within the present. “The lyrics embody a Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven moment for me,” as Weits explains, “what I might say to her if I could get a message to heaven.”

Abby Johnson – Wonder Why

Nashville-based songwriter Abby Johnson is also known for her film and photography work, and an attention to concision and detail carries through to her music. With a self-titled album coming this September via Earth Libraries, Johnson has shared ‘Wonder Why’, a track which encapsulates her ability to weave narratives with single snapshots. “Sometimes I pretend that I’m your moon / But still the daylight beats me to you,” go the opening lines, carrying the full weight of an emotional history. “I wonder why / I even try.” With band Ornament in tow, the record is full of such poetic clarity, positioning Johnson as a contemporary continuation of a seventies style birthed by the likes of Linda Ronstadt.

Field of Fear – Cold

The recording project of Oakland-based artist Drew Zercoe, Field of Fear is both a meditation on and escape mechanism from chronic depression, looking to chart the depths of the experience with a combination of ambient, industrial, metal and noise sensibilities. With a new album coming soon via Whited Sepulchre Records, Zercoe has released ‘Cold’, a new single which is every bit as evocative as this suggests. A song which is perhaps not as harsh or outright frightening as some of the previous Field of Fear releases, but instead offers a patient atmosphere, as though descending into the depths of gloom with a willingness to sit within it for however long it takes.

Magana – Afraid of Everybody

We first covered LA-based songwriter Jeni Magana, AKA straight Magana, back in 2016 with the Golden Tongue EP, praising the charged pop sound and its ability to evoke the nuances of relationships with yourself and others. A number of releases have built upon the sound, not least 2020 full-length you are not a morning person, and Magana’s latest single ‘Afraid of Everybody’ uses a careful hand and lush synths to weave one of her most searching songs to date. A subdued sound which rises intermittently to capture an introspective topography, coming to capture both vulnerability and strength as Magana shares her innermost fears. Or, as she herself puts it: “Sometimes you just don’t want to go to the party.”

Nora Kelly Band – Horse Girl

Recent singles ‘Roswell‘ and ‘Lay Down Girl‘ introduced the spirit of Rodeo Clown, Nora Kelly Band‘s forthcoming LP on Mint Records. An album which sees lead Nora Kelly ditching the grunge of previous project DIPSHIT in favour of an alt-country aesthetic. Described as a possible theme song for the band, latest track ‘Horse Girl’ is something of an origin tale for this transformation, with Kelly facing up to the difficulties of being a horse girl in stuck in a city with all of the heart and playfulness we’ve come to expect from her work, and ultimately choosing to own the persona. “I’m no ‘Okie from Muskogee’ or ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’, as she puts it, “but I’m not the first city slicker to love playing ‘cowboy’ either.”

I always tip my waiter but I’ve never tipped a cow
I can rob a Dollarama
Never worked a plough
I like Hank Williams
And I like Townes
I could ride the range
But I don’t know how

Check out the video by director/editor Sasha Khalimonova and cinematographer Evangelos James below

Rodeo Clown is out on the 25th August via Mint Records and you can pre-order it now.

Patio – Sixpence

Back in June, we featured the single ‘En Plein Air’ by Patio, the post-punk band’s first new music since 2019. Details were scant at the time, but the Queens trio—Loren DiBlasi (bass, vocals), Lindsey-Paige “LP” McCloy (guitar, vocals) and Alice Suh (drums)—have since announced their long-awaited sophomore record, Collection, which comes out in September via Fire Talk Records. To celebrate, they have released a second single, ‘Sixpence’. “[The song] was conceived within an early seventies daydream of decadence, glamour, and self-indulgence,” the band explain. “It’s about false identities—how money helps us create illusions that affect how others perceive us, and how we perceive ourselves. Inspired by Roxy Music, David Bowie, and the lethargic boredom that remains when ambition is thwarted by apathy.” Watch the video directed by Ambar Navarro below:

Collection will be released on the 22nd September via Fire Talk Records. Pre-order it now on all sort of formats via the Patio Bandcamp page.

Sargasso – Balancing Act

With their second album, Further Away, coming out later this month on Dead Definition Records, New York indie pop band Sargasso have released a new single titled ‘Balancing Act’. What the band describe as a song about “traveling young and making plans, achieving confidence in spite of uncertainty,” it’s acoustic guitar and gentle vocals build an atmosphere that combines quiet melancholy with a sense of hope and boundless possibility. All this comes together with a raw energy and sense of immediacy. As the band put it: “It sounds more like our band in a room in real life than almost all our other songs do.”

Life is short so go wherever you please
Life is hard so hold your love tightly
It’s a balancing act
When to go, when to come back

Taylah Carroll – Monogamy

Naarm/Melbourne-based songwriter Taylah Carroll is preparing to release her latest EP The After Party in the coming weeks, and latest single ‘Monogamy’ offers an indication of what to expect. A soulful, languid track which nevertheless possesses a building tautness through its heart, a tension which ratchets up as the song progresses to reveal the wounded anger beneath the polished sound. “I’ve been blaming the whole thing on myself,” Carroll sings in the opening verse, “But I know you ain’t no good for my health,” and the rest plays as an extended version of this realisation, hurt crystallising into something sharp-edged and brilliant.

Weave me a tale so I’ll stomach your pride,
Say a limp in your gate need not break your stride,
I learned it all fast, the guise of my past,
Selflessness is not self-sacrifice,
And feeling bad is not trying hard

Watch the video directed by Nick Mckk and Carroll herself below:

‘Monogamy’ is out now and available via the Taylah Carroll Bandcamp page.

the world famous – Hollywood Pawn

“It’s nice enough beneath the palm trees, it’s where I go to make ends meet.” So opens ‘Hollywood Pawn’, the new single by power pop band the world famous. It’s a line that captures something about the LA five-piece, mostly transplants from the East Coast—a kind of love-hate relationship with their new home. The track, lead single from the band’s forthcoming debut full-length totally famous, is based around the lead Will Harris’s experience of pawning and then buying back his guitar. It treats the Californian metropolis with a mixture of derision and delight, both ridiculing its oddities and excesses and riding the crest of its sunny, palm-lined feel-good factor.

totally famous will be released via Lauren Records on the 13th October and you can pre-order it now.

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