“They say it was a failed utopia / but it ain’t failed if you’re flexible.” So sings LA-based songwriter Dolly Creamer on latest single ‘Like Water’, two lines which could be said to serve as the mission statement of the song. With a loose, easygoing spirit, the track embraces this philosophy to create its own small world within the imperfect whole, leaning into the image of the title to stay attuned to the natural world and go with the flow of life. Sarah Harris, Sasha Massey, Joon Voigt, Riley Geare and Joel Crocco lend their talents to flesh out the sound, and Voigt also created a suitably lo-fi video to further bring the mood to life as part of their thunderwurld motion picture co. The result is an affirming reminder of the hope inherent within any community.

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

Erik Hall – A Folk Study (Laurie Spiegel)

Back in November we introduced Solo Three, the closing release in a trilogy of albums by Erik Hall on Western Vinyl which sees the Michigan-based composer and multi-instrumentalist reimagining contemporary classical pieces by passing them through the prism of his own unique minimalist sensibilities. Where predecessors Music for 18 Musicians and Canto Ostinato focused solely on the work of Steve Reich and Simeon ten Holt respectively, Solo Three casts a wider net, the release featuring reinterpretations of pieces by Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine, Reich again and, as with the latest single, Laurie Spiegel. As though led by the title, Hall brings an added tempo and warmth to ‘A Folk Study’, favouring an acoustic palette to tease out the organic spirit of Spiegel’s original.

Hiding Places – Holy Roller

“I’m a holy roller / I move so much.” So sings Audrey Keelin of Hiding Places on single ‘Holy Roller’, invoking a phrase in the Holiness movement for those of the congregation so struck by the presence of God they dance and shake uncontrollably. Released to celebrate the Brooklyn-based outfit’s signing with Keeled Scales, the single embraces this sense of spontaneity in more ways than one, not only in how it explores the restless spirit of its creator but also in terms of its very construction. “’Holy Roller’ was a lesson for me, a song that happened with no planning, no ‘trying to write’, but a pure, detached channeling,” Keelin explains. “That metaphor made perfect sense to me after the fact, there is a voice in my heart that I have a complex relationship with that tells me to move around, be somewhat nomadic, not really settle down in one specific place. During that writing session, that bittersweet feeling of moving from my home state kept returning,”

Howling Bells – Chimera

Back in October we introduced Strange Life, the first new album from Sydney-born, London-based outfit Howling Bells for over a decade. “The album not only breaks the hiatus but reflects on it,” we described when talking of lead single ‘Heavy Lifting’, a testament to the effort and resilience required to persist within the music industry and develop a sense of confidence. Latest single ‘Chimera’ continues this meditation on making art, exploring the double-edged sword of ambition and how it can both cut you down and lift you towards higher achievements. “Chimera is a strange word. It means a few different and curious things; in this context, however, I’m using it to mean something of an absurd nature, unattainable, a fantasy. Such is the relationship we have with music at times,” lead Juanita Stein explains. “This song speaks to my experience as a musician, surviving the perpetual ups and downs of the game. But if you’re lucky enough, you have someone who can cut through the noise and help you realise that the fantasy is half the joy. That the longing is part of the journey and that our achievements along the way are deeply meaningful. At its core, ‘Chimera’ is a song about hope and relinquishing control.”

Strange Life will be released on the 13th February via Nude Records.

Ken Wohlrob – William

“A song is a stubborn thing. It’ll resist you with all its might. As you try to bend it and twist it, it will reject your strokes of genius, leaving you feeling like a damn fool for thinking they would work in the first place. A song will tell you, in no uncertain terms, what it wants to be.” So explains musician and composer Ken Wohlrob of new single ‘William’, a track which seemed to repel all attempts to develop it beyond its core guitar riff. You might know Wohlrob from acts like End of Hope, Swarm of Flies, Northern Heretic and Eternal Black, but his solo work offers space for something more meditative. And it was with that spirit he decided to drop the attempt to complicate the sound and let ‘William’ have its own way. “What I had was a single take of a repetitive guitar riff, played live through a reverse-echo feedback loop for eleven minutes,” he continues. “The feedback loop created oscillations and repetitions that took on a life of their own, extending past the riff, even re-absorbing it. There was a compelling journey in that single guitar line.”

No Singing – Care Takers

In recent years, Ben Godfrey has made a name with baroque, off-the-cuff recordings under the moniker Belaver, offering what we’ve called “a blend of deadpan humour and human heart which proves ideally suited to capturing the bleak and bizarre milieu to which it belongs.” Now Godfrey is back with new project No Singing, and there’s something of a stylistic change. Gone are the live arrangements and wry sensibilities in favour of something more considered, personal and nostalgic. Single ‘Care Takers’ introduces the sound, the tale of a character who intends to find a car and drive until the gas runs out. Only this yearning for forward motion is complicated by its very existence, both the lo-fi sound and Godfrey’s vocals betraying a sense of stasis. The stuck feeling of being young and lonely within a city which barely knows you exist, longing for any sense of speed which might allow an escape.

Sam Wenc – Limitless of Blue

Recording under the moniker Post Moves, Philadelphia-based composer, improviser and interdisciplinary artist Sam Wenc released fifteen albums across a variety of labels, establishing the sonic strand of his work as something intricate, finely crafted yet always surprising (just check out Cut Into Your Own Dimension or Heart Music). Wenc has decided to release latest album Language At An Angle under his own name, though it very much feels a continuation of an ongoing body of work. Inspired by and dedicated to pedal steel virtuoso Susan Alcorn who passed away earlier in the year, the record is a lesson in the possibilities of the instrument, one grounded in years of experience and deepened by an ongoing practice of sitting meditation, as well as a reminder of the raw power of art. Perhaps the only real way we can truly confront the unknowable and create meaning, this record suggests, is to continue the work of our forebears and never stop pushing the boundaries. Listen to lead track ‘Limitless of Blue’ now, and watch the video directed by Mikel Patrick Avery below:

Language At An Angle will be released via Lobby Art Editions on the 30th January and you can pre-order it now.

Sophie Gault – Is There Anyone Out There

We last wrote about Nashville-based songwriter Sophie Gault back in 2023 with the release of ‘Christmas in the Psych Ward‘ from album Baltic Street Hotel, a track which followed a lineage of Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Patty Griffin to delve, as we put it, “into highly personal experiences of bipolar disorder with a tone both steely and wry.” With new album UNHINGED set for release in January 2026 via Torrez Music Group, Gault has now returned with single ‘Is There Anyone Out There’, and the track is no less emotive or evocative. A version of the Gurf Morlix song of the same name, the track preserves the intimacy of the original while reaching towards something more connected and communal. Morlix’s album Kiss of the Diamondback came out in the heaviest days of the pandemic and its sound was very much informed by the isolation and solitude of the period, but Gault adds a certain layer of warmth to create a mood that’s still melancholic but a little more bittersweet.

Unhinged will be released via Torrez Music Group on the 23rd January and you can pre-save it now.

vireo – the great golden gloom

We’ve featured a couple of tracks from vireo‘s forthcoming album The Great Golden Gloom in recent weeks, firstly ‘catching minnows’ back in September and more recently ‘icanicanican‘. Both tracks highlighted the spirit of a project attuned, as we put it, “to the curative power of the environment and the small beauties therein, packed full of brightness and wonder as though written in honour of the joy of being alive.” With the record now out, Chris Beaulieu and co. have shared the title track as one final single. Serving as the conclusion of the album, the track is in many ways a culmination of its ideas and tones. One grounded in the richness of nature yet marked by a trademark sense of invention, its bright style is as earnest as anything vireo have put out to date, and perhaps more accomplished and assured. The sound of a band who have discovered both their musical style and view of the world and have taken great pleasure in committing it to tape.

Weirs – Lord Bateman (Live at Feast V)

“A hymn delivered not from the still air and stone of a cathedral but God’s own Earth,” was how we described ‘I Want to Die Easy‘ from Weirs‘ album Diamond Grove earlier in the year. “Where fellow contemporary traditionalists like Lankum and ØXN highlight the stark, foreboding tones of the genre to push towards the realm of folk horror, the Weirs sound is more in line with the work of Terrence Mallick. Songs heightened not by an emergent dread or the suggestion of the supernatural but rather an abundance of life itself. The humblest of details given the closest of attention and the latent beauty revealed.” To celebrate the album and kick off a new tour, Weirs have shared a live version of the epic ‘Lord Bateman’, complete with a video filmed at their album release show at the 5th annual Feast in Orange County, North Carolina. “Each year in the fall, friends and I host Feast, a harvest meal and music event that spans the first weekend of October,” explains lead Oliver Child-Lanning. “This year, to mark the release of Weirs’ new album Diamond Grove, we opened Saturday night by playing through ‘Lord Bateman’ from the album in its entirety, with shadow puppets by my sister Violet and other friends and family. Everyone gathered around the glowing puppet theater as we played and sang, accompanied by insects and the fall breeze.”

Diamond Grove is out now via Dear Life Records and you can get it from the Weirs Bandcamp page.

Where’s Beth – Overtime Waltz

Following on from 2024 album Bone Broth, a release we described as “a picture of domesticity in the weeks and days around marriage,” which “for all its tender fondness, still finds room for the peculiar and idiosyncratic details,” Sarabeth Weszely’s Where’s Beth has returned with a festive offering that uses the pressures of the period to highlight chronic struggles and loneliness. “I wrote ‘Overtime Waltz’ from a place of burnout,” Weszely explains, “working long hours in NYC, struggling to connect with loved ones even when we were physically together, and feeling a vague and relentless sense of grief.” Abbey Blackwell (Alvvways) contributes upright bass and harmonies while Steve Moore (Sufjan Stevens) adds Wurlitzer and synth, lifting the sound to its full, melancholic warmth.

Is the snow ever coming, will it always be rain?
Will the cold bring numbing to take away the pain?
I’m needing some kindness to show me the way

Watch the lyric video below:

‘Overtime Waltz’ is out now and available from Bandcamp.

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With a sound described as “part pop, part doom, part dance,” Court Jester is the new project from Leicester born cross-disciplinary artist, musician and writer Courtney Askey. New release I’m My Favourite Clown introduces the project’s idiosyncratic tone, its electronic beats and emotive vocals twisted and elevated by an experimental edge. Take lead single ‘Holdem’, a contemplative track which proceeds with a restrained, reflective air for a good portion of its length, though always seems on the verge of spilling over into something larger and less controlled. As the momentum gathers, an electrified intensity enters the sonic palette to make good on this promise, the song suddenly charged with what might be conviction, desperation or else simple stark honesty.

Elisa Thorn – Idle Talk

“I’ve spent years searching for a way of playing the harp that feels true to me, and after a decade and a half of relentless curiosity, I think I’ve started to find it.” So describes Vancouver-based harpist, vocalist, and composer Elisa Thorn, whose brand new album xiik manages to utilise the full range of the harp’s potential without succumbing to the ostentation which can sometimes accompany the instrument. The result is introspective, controlled yet full of invention, marrying pop and avant garde sensibilities into something that refuses easy categorisation. Single ‘Idle Talk’ embodies the style, something which might at first sound like sonic daydream yet soon unfurls to reveal a radical heart beneath the surface, moving with precision and purpose to reclaim the female connection which has been co-opted or taken from them.

Bodies soft enough to hold you
Stories strong enough to kill you

Erik Hall – Music for a Large Ensemble (Steve Reich)

Early next year, Michigan-based composer and multi-instrumentalist Erik Hall will release new album Solo Three via Western Vinyl, the third in a trilogy of records which reinterpret and reimagine contemporary classical pieces within his own minimalist style. Previous releases Music for 18 Musicians and Canto Ostinato focused solely on the work of Steve Reich and Simeon ten Holt respectively, but Solo Three expands its reach across four different composers including Glenn Branca, Charlemagne Palestine and Laurie Spiegel. But for the lead single and the album’s closing track, Hall comes full circle and returns to Steve Reich with his version of ‘Music for a Large Ensemble’, playing every note himself and layering them painstakingly, lovingly, into the full arrangement. “I wanted to conclude this series of albums the way it began, as a sort of bookend and an ode to the process of making them,” he explains. “Beyond the interest of his concept or experiment, Reich’s music also simply imbues a gratifying emotional arc that’s accessible to any ears; something akin to a pop sensibility. The CD of his 1980 recording has lived in my car for years, and it was a total joy to transport this work into the sonic world of my studio.”

Leilani Patao – portrait

We’ve covered several singles from Leilani Patao‘s EP daisy in recent weeks, describing how the release is forgoing the rat race of self-promotion and streaming services in favour of old school word of mouth, “possessing,” as we wrote, “that emotional authenticity which marked the earlier generations of bedroom pop.” With the EP now out via Audio Antihero, Patao has shared latest track ‘Portrait’, and the result is no less compassionate and heartfelt. A song relatively restrained in sound but not in sentiment, giving voice to the experience of falling in love in all of its uncertainties and joys, and learning to submit to the overwhelming feelings of such a process. “In the most plain terms I can put it,” Patao says, “this song is about being loved really well by a wonderful lesbian.”

Natalie Jane Hill – Never Left Me

“[What] emerges is an ecosystem as detailed and changeable as any conjured on Azaela, an interior environment as mysterious as that of the Blue Ridge Mountains. One that holds the best and worst of life and, importantly, holds enough space to sit with both simultaneously, never losing sight of the possibility of change on the horizon.” So we wrote of Solely by Texas-born, North Carolina-based songwriter Natalie Jane Hill back in 2021, praising the arrangements as deft, nuanced and intricate. Now Hill is preparing to release Hopeful Woman, her first album since Solely, and one which continues to develop this style of careful, humane folk an proves what might be her most authentic record yet. Lead single ‘Never Left Me’ offers our first glimpse inside, a song which pairs a kind of domestic modesty with something bright and forthright, Hill’s assured vocals leading the listener into a world where the biggest of questions are addressed not through drastic action or bombast but rather a committed embrace of the small gestures and slow rhythms of life.

Watch the video directed and edited by Spencer Kelly below:

Hopeful Woman will be released on the 6th March 6th via Dear Life Records and you can pre-order it now.

Ohly – Not Today

“The embodiment of the project, as though everything which has come before has coalesced into a single song. A track full of tiny details and huge themes, zooming into the smallest moments of life in order to evoke the intangible joy of existence.” That’s how we described Ohly‘s ‘If I Go‘ back in June, a single the Detroit-based songwriter openly described as his magnum opus. How does one go about following up a song which such clear personal significance? Latest release ‘Not Today’ answers this question. Ohly writing about the temptation to put things off, to not grasp the full potential of things, be that friendship, songwriting or self-acceptance. “Not today, not today / there’s too much standing in my way.” Though of course there’s an irony too, because it isn’t a deferral after all, but is itself the answer to the question.

‘Not Today’ is out now via streaming services.

Robert Stillman – Reality Distortion Field

Described by label Orindal Records as a “speculative suite of jazz, ambient and smooth pop-inspired compositions that challenge the myths of Silicon Valley’s early ‘90s techno-utopianism,” 10,000 Rivers is the new album from saxophonist, improviser and composer Robert Stillman. What originated as an exploration of reality and the ways the assertations and delusions of the tech industry attempt to shape it, the release eventually became something of an unintentional concept album based around Steve Jobs. Stillman follows the work of artist and writer James Bridle (whose books New Dark Age and Ways of Being we’d personally recommend) through to Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, and ultimately follows Isaacson’s anti-hagiographic lead to paint a far more complex, challenging and interesting picture. “10,000 Rivers points to an alternative narrative about a man who is tormented by the instability of his reality, so tries to invent his way out of it,” as Stillman explains. “Ultimately, his tech designs become expressions of his will to replace the messy, disordered, temporary nature of the world with something that strives to be barely physical: streamlined, symmetrical, uncomplicated, and deathless.”

The song comes complete with a video by James Bridle himself, who also designed the cover:

10,000 Rivers will be released on the 9th January via Orindal (US) and Kit Records (UK) and you can pre-order it now.

SIKADE – eleven

“Embodies the balance between intimacy and scale which marks the project, drawing the listener in with hushed, harp-led verses before the chorus arrives in waves of drama and intensity.” So we wrote of ‘body of water‘ by Oslo-based singer-songwriter, harpist and producer Linnea Vestre, AKA SIKADE, back in August. The track was taken from their upcoming debut album which gave, as we continued, “the sense of having been pulled into a portentous dream.” With the record’s release approaching via re:memory, SIKADE has returned with new single ‘eleven’, and the result is no less ethereal or enveloping. A track where the line between sensuality and symbolism dissolves, the harp and strings pushing towards a lushness which is almost cinematic.

‘eleven’ is out now via streaming services. Keep an eye on the SIKADE Bandcamp page for further news on the album.

Spell of Leaves – Defrost

“Sometimes I try counting the stars at night / Hanging out there just like bandits in the sky.” So sings Trevor Brown of Spell of Leaves in the opening lines of the North Carolinan band’s new single, ‘Defrost’. The image is a fitting introduction to a track loaded with mystery, the ambiguous lyrics painting a vista that’s stark and lonely yet pregnant with a sense of possibility too, as though some unexpected force might suddenly arrive in the night. This force might merely be the luck of a gambler, the translucent body of a ghost, the aforementioned brigade of bandits, or else the great flaming tale of a comet as Hale Bopp arcs across the sky. The band cite Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 as an influence on the song and it is easy to see why, the cryptic atmosphere full of strange symbols and existential struggle, a place where some malicious meaning seems to hang out of view, and the dead are never far from mind.

I thought heaven was a place beyond that cold seam of light
Not some distant neon vacancy sign
A pattern against all that emptiness, I guess
The bigger the cost the less the coincidence

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Fallout, the new full-length from Major Murphy, emerges from where Access left off. As though having realised such a singular sound, the Grand Rapids outfit came to feel a newfound freedom in their work. The follow-up not a daunting prospect, but one of significant possibility. The combination of retro and contemporary sensibilities is again a notable feature, as highlighted by single ‘Time Out’. A track which encapsulates the themes of ruin and renewal across the record, as well as its confident sound. “The result is something not so much overcome by the turbulence of our times but able to surf atop of it,” as we wrote in a preview, “where the pressing momentum of the drums is matched by an easy-going spirit, highlighting the band’s ability to be at once punchy and languid.”

But to choose one track to describe Fallout is to isolate a single tile of a mosaic, with Major Murphy again stitching together a patchwork of styles into a cohesive album. There’s the brooding alt rock chug of ‘Daylight’, the dawning warmth of the predominantly acoustic ‘Puzzle’, a mammoth rock number in ‘Raincloud (Under My Skin)’ with its patient escalation and ‘Water’ with its vivid orchestral arrangement and spoken word delivery. Opener ‘First Thought (Best Thought)’ could be described as a combination in itself, where the record’s intimate warmth is elevated by its indie energy in a direct invocation of the creative immediacy it celebrates.

First thought, best thought
Baby I thought we were good
Turns out the fallout follows you more than you thought it would

In the pale morning
When the water comes and takes you home

“Breakdown / Your whole life then start a new / That’s what all things do,” opens penultimate track, Breakdown’. The most direct voicing of the questions underpinning the record, where the ever pressing demand for life and motion collides with the apocalyptic mindset of our times. “The one thing we could live without / The trials and the doubt,” as the song continues, “We’re under the microscope / Tell me, where’s your hope come from?” If the final verse suggests an answer—”Watch the world turn for a while / Hold your head up and crack a smile / There’s something to the faith of a child / Think it over”—then closer and title track ‘Fallout’ puts the sentiment into practice. A psychedelic collage pushing well over six minutes which typifies Major Murphy’s signature blend of craft and intuition. Moody, playful, charged with the sense of both beginnings and ends. Breakdown your whole life then start a new. That’s just what all things do.

Fallout is out now via Winspear and available from the Major Murphy Bandcamp page.

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Fallout, the forthcoming album from Grand Rapids trio Major Murphy on Winspear, is an album concerned with cycles of ruin and renewal. Drawing equally from the wells of nineties indie and seventies soft rock swagger, the sound lives up to these themes with a careful balance of lightness and weight. The result is something not so much overcome by the turbulence of our times but able to surf atop of it. Lead single ‘Time Out’ typifies the style, where the pressing momentum of the drums is matched by an easy-going spirit, highlighting the band’s ability to be at once punchy and languid.

Even water falling don’t run to an end
Somehow, somewhere it will collect
and life begins again

Marem Ladson – A Song to the Siren

Hailing from the northern Spanish region of Galicia and now based in Brooklyn, Marem Ladson makes introspective music that draws on folk and pop and her home country’s rich tradition. Following 2023 EP Baby Light, Ladson has released a standalone single, a gently haunting take on ‘Song to the Siren’, Tim Buckley’s much-covered doom-laden classic. Ladson’s version is soft and intimate but loses none of the original’s power, loneliness and longing washing together as the narrator find themselves shipwrecked in search of love. The cover originally appeared on the Musicians For a Free Palestine benefit album, a compilation organized by Babehoven’s Maya Bon, Andy Molholt and Raquel Denis, which is still available and very much worth your time.

make yourself at home – High

Hailing from Nashville, Tennessee, make yourself at home—that’s Billy Campbell (lyrics/rhythm guitar), Zach Tittel (lead guitar), Thomas Luminoso (bass) and Husam Suboh (drums)—is a band working at the intersection of shoegaze, noise rock and indie. ‘High’, their latest single via Second Floor Recording Co., serves an the ideal introduction for those unfamiliar with their sound, where angsty desperation meets carefree defiance. “Fucking up, falling down / Another year of trying not to drown,” as Campbell sings in the opening lines. “How can I say what’s on my mind / When all I wanna do is go get / high?” Hopelessness has never sounded so cool.

Nate Terepka – The Woods

“A few years back I did an exercise where I took a several-hours-long night walk in the woods of Maine and thought through every year of my life from birth to present in chronological order, remembering as much as I could,” explains Nate Terepka. “I was surprised by how many forgotten memories were stirred up and came out of it with a feeling of empathy for my younger self, as well as a strong desire to not repeat past mistakes.” He wrote new single ‘The Woods’ the next morning, the latest taste of his upcoming album Not Yet which encapsulates an EP willing to grope into the messy heart of life in order to hold aloft its love and truths. Intuitive in its rhythms yet finely crafted in style, ‘The Woods’ represents the work of an accomplished artist driven by emotional necessity. Watch the video with animation by James Thatcher below:

Not Yet is out on the 19th July and available to pre-order now via Bandcamp.

Noa Jamir – Indebted

“This is a song written for Little Noa, who often struggled with standing up for herself,” explains New Orleans-based songwriter Noa Jamir of new single ‘Indebted’. “While writing it, I channelled all of the things I wish I’d said in moments when I needed to defend myself, but felt too powerless to do so.” The resulting track presents an assured brand of folk rock which pairs an understated sound with almost conversational vocals. The track builds subtly across its runtime but never quite breaks its controlled burn, though the result is all the more powerful for it. There is no need for yelling or bombast here. The message is simple and full of conviction. Able to operate on its own terms.

I’m tougher than I look
My thoughts would scare you off
if I told you everything
And you’re not quite as tall as I recalled you to be
I used to let you look down on me
Now, we’re standing eye to eye
Eye to eye

Saffron – Star Child

Late last month, San Diego psych pop outfit Saffron released a four track cassette by way of farewell. The band, comprising mainly of Ali Mehraban Ramirez (Guitar, Vocals, & Songwriting), Galia Shakked (Guitar and Vocals), Audrey (Drums), Ryan Ebaugh (Guitar and Saxophone) and Cameron Rogers (Bass), made a name for themselves with their experimental live shows, which saw songs morph form set to set in an exercise in freedom and improvisation. The tape is a little different, presenting Saffron at their most “pop,” four songs crystallized into a final, perhaps more easily digestible form. Nowhere is this better illustrated than on final track ‘Star Child’, a sunny and easy-going, Yo La Tengo-style indie pop song that’s all shambling percussion and hooky guitar.

Solid Blood – All I Need

Penned over a span of several years between Brooklyn and Houston, Solid Blood’s new EP Western Sun feels very much a product of the various environments in which it was created. Graham W. Bell looks to preserve the small details of life amid a wider unease, carving out an introspective, inquisitive space in which we might shelter from the dire state of the world. With the EP coming soon via Rue Defense, lead single ‘All I Need’ introduces the style. Where warmth and intimacy are shadowed by an awareness of the wolves at the door.

Wanda What – Big Tree

Building on the nostalgic brand of bedroom pop that made previous LP Startin’ Drama a success, new full-length Dyke TV sees Wanda What (AKA LA’s Harmony Reynolds) push their self-described ‘dyke rock’ sound to new heights. There’s a central tension to the Wanda What project, one which might be crudely described as the friction between dreams and reality. There’s a tangible desire for the glamour and celebrity of stardom, something Reynolds owns wholeheartedly within the Wanda What persona, though this is balanced by a more earnest, down-to-earth side too. It’s no surprise then that Dyke TV vacillates between moods—playful and serious, ironic and sincere—but what makes the project so exciting is its willingness to embrace this duality. With a newfound country twang, latest single ‘Big Tree’ offers a glimpse of the human behind the personality, landing somewhere between sincere bedroom pop honesty and lonesome cowboy croon.

‘Big Tree’ is out now via Youth Riot Records and available from the usual places. Dyke TV is coming soon.

Yon Loader – Another Year

After sketching out a series of demos which would come to form his self-titled debut album, James Stuteley of Aotearoa project Yon Loader took the songs to an array of friends and collaborators who helped realise their full potential. Those involved is something of a who’s who of the New Zealand indie scene with members of acts like members of Recitals, Welcomer, For Everest, Model Home, Fouler, First Move and Bad Friend all contributing, as well as engineer and producer Harry Lilley. With the album’s release pencilled for later this year on Tiny Engines, Lead single ‘Another Year’ shows how this team elevate the Yon Loader sound into something as hefty as it is detailed, Stuteley’s intimate emo-adjacent lyricism given all the supporting momentum it deserves without being overwhelmed.

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The change is not only in terms of sound. Conor Lynch has until now worked almost entirely solo, playing a variety of instruments, recording and producing himself. But Slow Country sees a turn away from this practice in favour of a newfound spirit of collaboration. Hence a line-up of guest musicians which features Ryan McDonald (pedal steel, saxophone, aux perc, accordion, mandolin, backing vocals, drums), Kaysen Chown (fiddle/violin), Joey Fortino (drums), Edie McKenna (backing vocals), Reuben Stump (upright bass), Danny Keyes (trombone), Jacob Ward (clarinet), Byran Valentijn Hall (flute) and Sam Smith (trumpet). Couple in the fact recording sessions were spaced months apart and a new dimension of Lynch’s work makes itself apparent. A newly attentive style which forgoes the creative rush in order for something unhurried and considered.

Though it is the album’s closer and the title track which encapsulates the spirit of Slow Country. “Ain’t it funny, ain’t it strange / I’ve been waiting my whole life to feel this way,” Lynch sings over the leisurely arrangement. “Now I can rest my head for days / and the willow trees keep me cool in the shade.” The prominence of pedal steel shows itself, a signature of the album, winding out towards the listener as though to welcome them into the landscape it evokes

don’t know how long i can stay
‘least a minute lasts an hour in this place

something cold touches my face
in the slow country i’ll die and feel no pain

The song comes complete with a video, filmed and colored by Will Spurrier, featuring the abandoned Fisher Body Plant in Detroit. Watch below:

Slow Country is out on the 29th March via Devil Town Tapes and you can pre-order it from the Conor Lynch Bandcamp page.

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With new EP Learning To Love Again on the horizon via Nettwerk, Aisha Badru has unveiled new track ‘Lazy River’. A meditation on the process of healing and the various twists and bends which accompany it, and moreover learning to be kind to oneself while adrift on slack currents. The track’s essence is brought to life by hushed, almost whispered vocals, moving away from the style in which Badru has made her name to explore new sounds and moods. “It’s this freeing of myself and allowing myself to try things that people would not expect of me,” as Badru reveals. “I feel more comfortable not meeting those expectations.”

Time moves like a river, winding and slow
Holding on to you is helping me float
I drift in the breeze as your memory washes over me
I will let you go, eventually

Getting over you is like a lazy river ride
I’ve been taking my time

Watch the video directed by Laura-Lynn Petrick below:

Learning To Love Again is out on the 2nd June via Nettwerk.

Color TV – Planchette

Based in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Color TV is a project led Mark Teachout. Having been self-releasing music since 1993, Teachout teamed up with Animal Tapes for Witching a Well, a full-length released late last year. Opener and single ‘Planchette’ serves as the perfect introduction to the experimental, lo-fi sound. It slowly coalesces into life with a palpable assurance, channelling the likes of Guided By Voices, Sebadoh and Califone in its reflective and enveloping textures.

His His – People, Places, Changes

“A small daydream where one’s wishes are allowed to drift to the surface, and longing is permitted to express its true form.” That’s how we described ‘West Coast‘, the previous track from Toronto’s His His. New single ‘People, Places, Changes’ is an altogether more morose affair, confronting grief in all of its lingering influence. Written after the loss of a loved one, the song plays with a bittersweet warmth, both pining for what has now gone and determined to capture the fondness which persists all the same.

‘People, Places, Changes’ is out now.

Kalila Badali – Panacea

Based in Toronto, Kalila Badali is a singer-songwriter whose musical style combines witchy folk and moody art pop and helps her make sense of the world and its mysteries as a neurodivergent person. She is also a psychotherapist, running a private practice that works with neurodivergent people, LGBTQ2SIA+ people, and arts workers. This other avenue of her life informs her music, something that is sure to be apparent on her forthcoming EP, Panacea. The latest single and title track is a wonderful introduction to the record, an ethereal and melodic folk song that Badali wrote when helping a friend through mental illness. It’s a rare example of a song that explores such struggles from the perspective of a therapist, expressing a deep desire to help a loved one whilst trying (seemingly in vain) the dangers of growing too close in the process.

Unconsciously, I’ve attached myself to you.
Rhizomal, with roots instead of a body.

Noele Flowers – Wait for Me

Describing herself as “a relentlessly optimistic, anxiety-ridden, and friendship-obsessed songwriter,” Massachusetts-raised, Brooklyn-based Noele Flowers is preparing to release a new EP titled Wait For Me. Perhaps the most folk-adjacent song on the record, the latest single and title track is a ballad that pairs acoustic guitar with three-part vocal harmonies and includes piano from Aviv Gilad and strong quartet arrangement played by Tiger Darrow and Chase Potter. It’s a song about falling in love while still recovering from the end of a previous relationship. As Flowers explains: “This song is about the anxiety that comes with feeling like your healing process is going to get in the way of something good—asking someone to wait for you.” But it’s deeper than that too, its message of patience applicable to pretty much all aspects of life.

Pacing – Aliens

“Things are getting kinda weird over here.” So sings Katie McTigue on the new Pacing single, ‘Aliens’. Part of WAVE, a forthcoming compilation by Very Jazzed, the song sees McTigue push further than the playful self-deprecation of recent album hatemail into an altogether darker space. A slow burning folk number which starts out placid but gradually escalates into something disorderly, a lonely nighttime drive suddenly interrupted by something bright and loud. Whether this sudden company is extraterrestrial or something more metaphorical is up to you, but either way, the force imposes itself on the sound and abducts McTigue, forcing her to view the world from above regardless of her opinions of such a vantage.

‘Aliens’ is out now and available on streaming services.

Tinge – Armed to the Teeth

Led by Veronica Blackhawk, an Anishinaabe multi-hyphenate from Lake of the Woods, Ontario and now based in Winnipeg, Tinge follows the likes of Camp Cope in heartfelt yet fierce music unafraid to dig through the most personal depths. Having recently signed with House of Wonders Records, the outfit are preparing the release their debut EP Big Deep Sigh next month and have unveiled single ‘Armed to the Teeth’ by way of introduction. A slow burning confessional which finds cathartic release in its forthright style. “This EP means I am finally ready to take up space and open it up for others going through similar phases in their growth,” Blackhawk explains of the release. “To finally exhale those deep breaths I’ve been drawing in over the past few years.”

TV Room – Stacey

Following on from previous single pretend, which we described as “A song about being close to someone, almost too close to say what needs to be said,” TV Room has returned with Sad Club Records with new track, ‘Stacey’. Another example of Lucy Rushton’s ability to write songs at once understated and charged with feeling, the song confronts the decidedly disheartening prospect of negotiating a friend who might not be that much of a friend after all. “It’s about being around people who have main character syndrome and romanticise all the damage they are causing around them instead of taking responsibility for it,” as Rushton explains. “About giving up hope on trying to understand someone and keep up a connection with a person who is trying to hurt and compete with you instead of appreciating the relationship you have and in turn destroying it.” TV Club might describe bad experiences in relationships, but they find room to say what needs to be said.

‘Stacey’ is out now and available from Sad Club Records.

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A seven-song album, Psalms to Strip to, inspired by the fiction, poetry and art consumed while locked away against such harsh conditions. The work of Jim Harrison, Gabriel García Márquez, William Blake, Jeff Vandermeer, Herman Hesse and the letters of Vincent Van Gogh all shaped the record in one form or another, though lead single ‘Death In Spring’ takes its inspiration from Rodoreda. A song from an ugly world, a fallen world subject to the violence of the wild as though undergoing some form of punishment or test. Erickson’s drums compel the track forward as though toward some great reckoning, Sustarich locked into the momentum and committed to its frenzy.

In the Spring
When the world is ill
Fury and blind will
Consumes everything

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Based in Nashville, Anne Malin is a poet and songwriter whose work exists at the intersection of country, freak folk and indie rock. New album Summer Angel, coming this June on Dear Life Records, works this space to explore the conflicted themes of love and violence, Malin at its centre both curious about the possibilities of the world and painfully aware of its cruel extremes. Serving as the perfect introduction to the release, lead singles ‘Destroyer’ and ‘Redeemer’ are harrowing in both senses of the word. Vulnerable songs which descend into distress and pain, but also songs sharp and toothed, capable of breaking new ground and imagining the field anew.

Summer Angel releases on 17th June via Dear Life Records. You can pre-order it now from the Anne Malin Bandcamp page.

Chris Bathgate – Don’t Look Back

Next month sees the release of The Significance of Peaches, the latest album from Michigan songwriter Chris Bathgate on Quite Scientific Records. Continuing Bathgate’s distinctively evocative style, new single ‘Don’t Look Back’ evokes the mythic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice to explore a more personal mythology. A love story coloured by both tragedy and defiance, finding compassion in its hard won wisdom. “Ain’t it strange how the things we’ve done,” he sings, “often are the cause of us undone– / that’s love, or something.” Check out the video by Kevin Romeo and Bathgate himself below:

The Significance of Peaches is out on the 13th May via Quite Scientific and you can pre-order it now.

HUSHPUPPY – Nervous

The project of New York‘s Zoë Brecher, HUSHPUPPY makes a cathartic brand of indie rock, as highlighted by latest track, ‘Nervous’. The latest in Hardly Art‘s Singles Series, the track confronts difficulty with defiance, finding empowerment in the knowledge that others suffer too. “As someone who suffers from anxiety and depression, I often struggle to leave the house,” Brecher describes. “This song is about acknowledging I’m not the only one who feels that way.”

Keeps – Over Again

Keeps are an indie rock four-piece from Nashville, Tennessee. Following on from their second album Affectianado released in 2020, they have returned with a brand new single, ‘Over Again’. Written by singer Agustin Escalante and guitar player Robbie Jackson through the lens of pandemic-induced isolation, the song charts the pressures time and distance can put on a relationship, the warm jangle and melancholic vocals combining into a decidedly wistful air.

Kisskadee – Black Hole Era

Next month sees the release of Black Hole Era, the new album by Kisskadee on Anxiety Blanket. The project of LA multi-instrumentalist Kasie Shahbaz, the record combines folk, pop, psych and ambient styles to realise its distinctive sound. Its title track displays just how evocative this blend can be. The various styles knit together into a near cosmic bed of sound which holds Shahbaz’s vocals, the lyrics probing into universal mysteries and possibilities beyond what we understand as reality, a very human line of questioning amid the spacey sound.

Black Hole Era releases on 3rd June via Anxiety Blanket. Pre-order it now from the Kisskadee Bandcamp page.

Metavari – Kings Die Like Other Men (Rediscovery)

Described as “in communion with the decade past,” Soft Continuum sees Nathaniel David Utesch’s Metavari reimagining their 2009 debut full-length, Be One of Us and Hear No Noise. Out this June on Joyful Noise Recordings, the new record functions as both a work by and tribute to founding member Ty Brinneman who passed away in 2020, his recordings expanded into what eventually became the album. With stellar contemporary electronics elevated by a range of styles, from Italian horror movie dramatics to the cosmic experimentation of kosmische and new age music. Lead single ‘Kings Die Like Other Men (Rediscovery)’ drops the listener straight into this style, especially when paired with the video directed by Alex Osmolovsky along with director of photography Vlad Voronin.

Soft Continuum (Studies Vol.2) is out via Joyful Noise Recordings on the 10th June and you can pre-order it now from the Metavari Bandcamp page.

Riches – The Frequency

Riches is described as the “manifestation of an ongoing dialogue” between Catherine McCandless (of Young Galaxy) and the choreographer Wynn Holmes. “A glowing and airy slice of pastoral folk,” was how we described previous track ‘Light of Dawn‘, and though new single ‘The Frequency’ retains some of the lightness, it heads into altogether deeper territory with a full band arrangement that introduces an almost gothic dream pop sound. “The frequency is: being swept up, being in love, longing and belonging, soothing and alive,” the band explain. “It is a calling on the ethereal to take on form, on music to bring touch and connection over the frontiers of physical walls and distances.”

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The latest greyhound release, Wilted Pansies In A Broken Vase, was released back in February on Detroit-based label All Gone. From the slow warped beats of opener ‘eternity’ to the piano ballad ‘look up’, each track is anchored by spoken word delivery and a viscous, narcoticized ambience. “Sounds like you found it at the bottom of a melted down mountain dew Slurpee in a Pontiac 7-Eleven parking lot,” the label puts it, “[which]  someone left after buying a bag of Xanax off a dude in a busted Yukon.”

‘AROUND’ brings to mind Mazzy Star song, though one stripped back to its bare bones and slowed to a sluggish sway, while the devotional quality of the sample at the heart of ‘afruitingbody’ juxtaposes against the sedate vocals to create something strange and beguiling. It’s the perfect distillation of some inexpressible feeling at the heart of Wilted Pansies In A Broken Vase and marks greyhound as a unique voice to keep an eye on.

Wilted Pansies In A Broken Vase is out now and available from the greyhound Bandcamp page or via All Gone.

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The record is a companion piece to The Fairies Sing Each to Each, a libretto Nguyen is publishing with Flower Press. Described as “an ambitious hybrid of opera, poetry, and prose,” the story follows a character named Amadeus Vu, a traumatized individual, as they construct their own myth via a tangled narrative of gender, monstrosity and the divine. Expect an examination of neurodivergence, chronic illness, queerness and life as an Asian American through a wildly speculative lens.

Weak & Divine explores trauma in all of its complexity, looking to madness and mythology to fill gaps in the story left by the simplified conventional view of the world. “Traumatized people are either seen as helpless innocents or conniving villains,” FEYXUAN describes:

Either you have no agency, or you do the wrong things with your agency. Either way, the narrative is taken from you. Amadeus Vu is a traumatized individual who is the creator of her own myth, seizing her origin story from her abuser, and also seizing it from all that would seek to view her through a reductive lens of absolute, binary morality.

In anticipation of the record, FEYXUAN is today releasing the lead single, ‘Lord of the Butterflies,’ a strange and surreal three minutes that could form the soundtrack to a long-lost darkly psychological and philosophical JRPG. In keeping with the ambitious storytelling of the libretto, the track is challenging and ambiguous, the dream-like repetition and droning keys lending a skewed sense of the sublime. It is a song of juxtapositions, religious imagery sitting next to the profane, the cold inhumanity of the digital next to the powerful superhumanity of the divine.

who are you? who are you?
“I am a man who will become God”

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