In the lead up to the release of new applied communications album applied communications bites the big one via Rare Noodles and Bar/None Records later this month, Max Wood has been sharing a number of singles, most recently ‘tarot sans tinseltown‘ back in August. A track inspired by a trip to LA which delved into the almost hallucinogenic nature of the city, an encounter with Beck over a free lunch at the Scientology celebrity centre being only the start of it (“however idiosyncratic the track might seem,” we wrote, “it is only bringing to life the bizarre details of the time and place which inspired it”). But if you thought US hyperreal strangeness was specific to California, then think again, because latest single ‘donna deegan’ jumps to the other side of the country yet is every bit as zany. “Donna Deegan is the current mayor of Jacksonville, FL,” Wood explains. “She used to be a news anchor who was married to the sports commentator and there was a wild local scandal in which she was caught having an affair with the weather man, whom she later married. anyway, she’s great and this song is a scatterbrained tribute to growing up in my hometown.”

applied communications bites the big one will be released on the 25th September via Rare Noodles and Bar/None Records and you can pre-order it via the applied communications Bandcamp page.

Asha Wells – Gift Horse

“Highlighting how thinking outside the box can lead to the more intuitive, authentic expressions of emotion, and collaboration need not preclude a singular style.” So we wrote of The Lesson by Asha Wells back in 2025, a three-song collection which used both personal idiosyncrasy and communal cross-polination to build on Wells’s debut full-length Water Words and evoke its own distinct world. Now Wells is preparing to release Sleeping Sand, a brand new album with Anxiety Blanket Records which looks to build upon these foundations and offer a proper follow-up to her debut. As lead single ‘Gift Horse’ shows, the result is equal parts ethereal and tactile, working to dissolve the boundary between dreams and the physical world in order to more fully explore the subconscious. “‘Gift Horse’ is a final fleeting glance at a once love,” as the artist explains. “Lyrically alluding to what goes unquestioned in our lives. A returned glance towards a former love. Dallying in a slice of life romanticism. A picture of unapologetic reflection, and the clarity that hindsight can bring.”

Sleeping Sand will be released via Anxiety Blanket Records on the 13th November.

Essy Sparrow – Naked As We Came (Iron & Wine Cover)

Hot on the heels of of recent single ‘Weak at the Knees’, which we labelled “a bright folk song in which any bittersweet rumination or self-deprecative confession is vastly outweighed by the fondness at its core,” British songwriter and multi-disciplinary artist Essy Sparrow has shared her own version of Iron & Wine’s ‘Naked As We Came’. The cover is part of Best Day of All Time, a new compilation album featuring over thirty covers of iconic tracks from the 2000s. The likes of Jackie Oates, Eliza Carthy, Alice Faye, Beans on Toast and Chisara Agor feature, with takes on songs by Lily Allen, Beyoncé, Outcast, System of a Down and more. Sparrow’s offering is the ideal introduction. A song every bit as earnest and honest as her own work which paints a picture of a living relationship in little over two minutes.

Best Day of All Time is available to pre-save now. Sparrow’s Gossip From a Coastal Town will be released on the 2nd October and you can pre-order it now.

The Human Hearts – Still In Error

After leading SoCal rock band Nothing Painted Blue through the nineties and then recording under his own name, indie songwriting stalwart Franklin Bruno formed The Human Hearts, a new full band featuring Matt Houser (drums), Pete Galub (guitar), Brandon Kalber (bass) and Bob Bannister (bass). At once socially aware and dialled into the joy of good old fashioned rock and roll, the outfit have released a number of albums in recent years, each as urgent in theme as style, though never heavy-handed or ideological. The sound has been perfected on The Human Hearts’ latest full-length, Faith and Credit, an album which draws influence from a wide gamut of rock predecessors to paint a picture of life in the US today. With the release coming this autumn via Dromedary Records, Bruno and co. have shared lead single ‘Still In Error’, complete with a video directed by Scott Jacobson (The Daily Show, Bob’s Burgers) which sees Bruno learn to ride a bike for the first time.

Faith and Credit will be released on the 13th November via Dromedary Records.

Jan St. Werner – Squares Will Fall 7″

After making a name as half of celebrated Düsseldorf electronic duo Mouse on Mars, Jan St. Werner is set to announce himself as a solo artist this November with the release of debut album Squares Will Fall via Thrill Jockey. The record has been in the works for over a decade, originating in a thirty-minute composition made back in 2012 which went on to form the spine of an improvisation by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and St. Werner when Mouse on Mars were in Vernon’s Wisconsin studio to record 2018 album Dimensional People. From here, ‘Squares Will Fall’ became multidirectional loudspeaker choreography for the Ural Industrial Biennial in 2021, before St. Werner headed to the studio with fellow Mouse on Mars member Andi Toma in 2026 to hone the work into an album, which represents both a continuation of this journey and a musical adventure in its own right. Listen to the title track now:

Margo Cilker – Molly and Me

Next month, Margo Cilker will release new album Little White Cross via Fossil Records, the label she set up with fellow alt-country artist ISMAY. “You could definitely call it a concept record,” Cilker describes wryly of the album. “If that concept is that I got really sad and went to Texas.” That’s because she travelled to The Bunker in Lockhart, TX to work with Bruce Robison (who has written and produced for the likes of Charley Crockett, Lee Ann Womack, George Strait, and The Chicks), and together they worked through Cilker’s heaviest and darkest material to date. Latest single ‘Molly and Me’ is a great example, a sober and emotional song about the sister of a suspected spree shooter. It’s told from the perspective of a third character, a woman now in her thirties thinking back to her relationship with Molly when they were teenagers. There’s a Nebraska-era Springsteen feel to the song’s narrative focus, which retains an impressive understated quality even as it reaches its shocking denouement. “I often feel haunted by stories,” Cilker explains of this urge to share stories that move her, “kept up at night by a kind of external pressure to tell them. I’ll write a song just to alleviate the grip it has on me.”

Oldest Sea – Lake Spooky (original recording)

“A vessel built to navigate the heaviest seas of experimental folk, pushing into dark, tempestuous waters in order to most fully explore soundscapes at once elemental and otherworldly.” So we wrote of Sam Marandola’s Oldest Sea back in 2024 upon the release of Judith Slaying Holofernes, a double single featuring Have a Nice Life. A number of releases have since followed, including a live version of Judith Slaying Holofernes, a tribute to Jason Molina and a track featuring Kathryn Mohr, but the latest Oldest Sea song ‘Lake Spooky’ is in fact the very first. Recorded over a decade ago, the track is a fascinating window into the project, lacking the sonic heft and depth that would come to mark Marandola’s work, yet somehow possessing the suggestion of that they were to come. A stark, imperfect germ from which a wider body of work would emerge. “[The song] was never intended to be released—I recorded it simply to document the song, and it sat quietly in the archive for a decade,” Marandola explains. “There’s room noise, imperfection, and no attempt to polish away the moment. Listening back now, I realized that’s exactly why I wanted people to hear it. It feels less like an old demo to me than a small artifact from the beginning of Oldest Sea.”

Slow Rosary – Melanie

Described as “an album of encounters with individual people, known and historical,” ALL TROUT is the third full-length from Rene Duplantier’s Slow Rosary, a release which uses acoustic guitar, a Casio keyboard, a DAW and recordings from friends to portray meetings both real and imagined and thus dig into the complicated layers of human connection. The figures in the songs range from next-door neighbours to John Prine and Jackie O, but lead single ‘Melanie’ keeps things very close to home as Duplantier focuses on his then girlfriend (and now wife) to offer a typically compassionate and humanistic view of a close bond. Despite the relatively humble components, the arrangement is suitably rich in execution, inviting the audience into a warm flow as though to mirror the safe harbour of the relationship depicted. The song “is about domestic bliss and being thankful for what you have, even when you’re depressed or need therapy,” he explains. “In the song and in life, I am astonished by the good times and try not to dwell on the bad. I am looking forward as best as I know how.”

Stella Dunai – Move On

Naarm/Melbourne-based songwriter Stella Dunai has announced herself with a couple of singles in the past year, songs like ‘Can’t Sleep’ and ‘I Love You Too Eagerly’ introducing a decidedly warm and compassionate style, and new track ‘Move On’ continues this thread. With the likes of Adrianne Lenker and Haley Heynderickx as touchstones, the song is an ideal introduction to Dunai’s ability to weave both atmosphere and narrative within her tender folk sound, celebrating the importance of friendship with a refreshingly optimistic air. “People come into our lives for different reasons and lengths of time and those exchanges shape who we are and who we become,” as Dunai says. “I find myself taking pieces and inspiration from the friends in my life and feel so honoured to see how we all shape and support each other every day. This song celebrates that constant evolution, while holding onto the joy, the silliness and innocence of meeting someone new, like making a friend on the playground as a child.”

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Having won acclaim as part of noise pop outfit The Beatings, Cameron Keiber went on to start the project Eldridge Rodriguez, releasing albums like Slightest of Treason and Atrophy which explored a plethora of contemporary issues with equal parts passion and disillusionment. Now recording under his own name, Keiber is returning next spring with new full-length Nurser, a record which continues this examination of the current state of things with a newly immediate, personal edge. The addition of loops and beats offers a new dimension too, though as single and opener ‘Habsburg Jaw’ shows, it is Keiber’s distinctive vocals and lyricism which represents the sound’s core. A track about depression and the insidious impact of those who belittle its dimensions, Keiber’s delivery slightly weary and a little bit wry as it challenges those who believe all it takes is a bit of bootstrap pulling and positive thinking. But above all else it’s empathetic in its picture of someone straining within such a hostile world.

Nurser will be released on the 14th March via Midriff Records.

Camille Schmidt – Stanley

“Each of the six songs on the album deal with the different masks we might hide behind, [but] the very nature of its creation see the true [artist] reaching out from behind the disguise.” That’s how we described Camille Schmidt‘s Good Person back in June, a release which explored ideas of authenticity and the lack thereof with a sense of cathartic release. With the Brooklyn artist’s debut full-length Nude #9 coming early next year, Schmidt has returned with equally affirming new single, ‘Stanley’. A song which displays the richer sound of a growing supporting band without sacrificing any of Good Person‘s raw immediacy, pairing a gathering momentum with a sense of aimlessness to bring to life a playful, idiosyncratic vibe. Watch the video directed by Henry Nelson and produced by Brooke Goldman below:

Nude #9 is out on the 10th January and you can find more on the Camille Schmidt website.

Chris Chism – Drive My Car

“Focusing on the working class experience and following a lineage through Dylan and van Zandt, Richmond, Indiana’s Chris Chism delves into the personal to emerge with a more universal picture of life’s joys and struggles.” So we wrote back in 2023 when covering the North Carolina-based songwriter’s EP Things Has Changed. Now Chism is back with ‘Drive My Car’, a song which taps into melancholic peace of a night alone on the road. “I like to drive my car at night / get lost in the dark / everything gets left behind,” Chism sings in the opening lines, finding some sense of direction within the dark isolation. “The road goes on and on / the headlights show my way.”

‘Drive My Car’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Cici Arthur – All So Incredible

Cici Arthur is a new collaboration between Toronto artists Joseph Shabason, Chris A. Cummings and Thom Gill. Cummings previously recorded under the name Mantler, releasing jazz, lounge and R&B-inflected pop via Tomlab, and Cici Arthur sees Shabason and Gill bend their sound towards such styles to give Cummings’ writing and vocals the grand, vivid backdrop they deserve. A stellar cast of guests like Owen Pallet, Nicholas Krgovich, Phil Melanson and Dorothea Paas lend their talents too, and the result is a lesson in both cinematic scale and artistic control. Lead single ‘All So Incredible’ shows off the aesthetic in all its technicolour glory:

Watch the video edited and directed by Nicholas Krgovich below:

Way Through is out on the 21st February via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

CULTBABY – mr. pouch

Moniker of LA-based multidisciplinary artist Richard Benjamin Greer, CULTBABY is less a name and more the key to the project’s themes and style. Born into a small Christian Metaphysical organization in Berkeley, CA, Greer’s origin story is far from typical, and though he left the group with his mother at a young age, his links to the group—be they literal or psychological—persisted for far longer. Forthcoming via Anxiety Blanket Records, new CULTBABY release cut the arm, preserve the body is a compilation of recordings which explores this experience, pairing a detailed picture of collapsed relationships while preserving fondness for those involved. The album is both stylistically and narratively ambitious, but single ‘mr. pouch’ gives an idea of what to expect. Watch the video directed by The Fanza below:

cut the arm, preserve the body is out on the 21st February via Anxiety Blanket Records.

Goon – Death Spells

Having just signed with Born Losers Records for an upcoming full-length, LA’s Goon have shared standalone new single ‘Death Spells’ as something of a reintroduction. The track emerged from a difficult period in the life of lead Kenny Becker, and its plaintive opening plays as something of a dirge. “Death spells are coming down / don’t go outside,” as the opening lines go. “Helpless for higher ground / helpless to hide.” But slowly it blossoms with the addition of xylophone and vocal harmonies as well as various chirps and chimes, and by the close begins to sound less like some lament as a talisman offered in protection against such loss. The entire Goon band joined for the recording, including founding guitarist Drew Eccleston on backing vocals, and the result takes on a communal power. “I wanted everyone to play on this one,” Becker explains. “It feels really special, and comforting. The way your friends gather around you in tough times, when you’re hurting, to make music together.”

‘Death Spells’ is out now via Born Losers Records and available from Bandcamp.

Luah – Small Time

Writing back in 2023, we wrote about the work of Luah—the Florida-born, Baltimore-raised and Kingston, New York-based songwriter Brendan Paul Sullivan—through single ‘To Relate’. “A slow unfurling of a song,” as we put it, “as though in committing to the flow, Sullivan not only accepts the changeable currents but finds beauty in every small eddy and pull.” Now preparing to release a new album, Luah is back with ‘Small Time’, another downbeat, assured track full of swampy twang and lo-fi textures. With the languid, slightly woozy flow comes a certain sense of reflection, as though the echoed backing vocals chasing Sullivan’s lyrics are emerging from some other time or plane.

‘Small Time’ is out now via streaming services.

Mol Sullivan – On the Balcony

Cincinnati songwriter Mol Sullivan kicked off 2024 with GOOSE, an album “set deep in those early days of a new beginning,” as we put it, “where everything feels possible yet tenuous and a little too vivid to bear,” and has released a series of videos in support of the record through the months (we recommend the title track and ‘Cautiously‘ in particular), though is closing out the year by reaching back into the past to polish an old gem. First recorded in 2013 in her aunt and uncle’s basement, ‘On the Balcony’ offers a glimpse of a more lo-fi version of the Mol Sullivan sound, albeit here remastered for the re-release. But although it might differ stylistically to the polished sound of GOOSE, the track still evidently possesses the same DNA, its hushed intimacy full of the compassion and confessional honesty that has come to mark Sullivan’s work.

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

Oldest Sea – All Shall Love Me And Despair

Originating as the solo project of Sam Marandola but now expanded to become a full band, Oldest Sea is a vessel built to navigate the heaviest seas of experimental folk, pushing into dark, tempestuous waters in order to most fully explore soundscapes at once elemental and otherworldly. Latest release Judith Slaying Holofernes serves as the ideal introduction for the uninitiated, a two-song collaboration with masters of the genre Have a Nice Life. Opening track ‘All Shall Love Me And Despair’ embodies the release’s weight, rising from hushed beginnings with a stark insistence towards its transcendently dark climax, possessing all the Old Testament drama of the double single’s apocryphal title.

othermusic – pretty please

A new project between Portland, OR’s Ezekiel J. Rudick (Young Elk, goodgrief etc.), Kathrin Skiff and Tony Reyes, othermusic combines richly fuzzed synths with dramatic drums and guitars to create a shoegaze sound able to straddle both delicate emotion and crushing heft. Single ‘pretty please’ serves as the perfect introduction, its tender, almost music box opening soon ceding way to a thunderous march, the track thereafter cycling with a quiet-loud dynamic able to evoke both closeness and distance. “Can you / please find / a way / to be kinder / to me / so I / can fall / asleep,” the lyrics ask, situating the audience in the heart of a troubled relationship. “Come on / pretty please?”

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