The single was a fitting introduction to a decidedly existential record. Rudick uses the songs to dig into every facet of his identity in search of answers to life’s needling questions. Everything from the relationship between children and parents to the complications of maintaining a marriage, not to mention the spectres of violence and substance abuse (‘Fist Fight’), and the not insignificant effort of persisting in a band at a time when creativity is so often disregarded or disabused (‘Buyer’s Market’).

Those familiar with Young Elk’s previous work will recognise the atmosphere which emerges from such themes. Calm Down exists beneath the shadow of some great weight, representing the accumulated baggage of life that haunts every minute of our days whether we are aware of it or not. “I was also figuring out how to process the toxicity of my family after realizing their implications in childhood trauma and abuse,” as Rudick explains. The album does not offer an escape from this history, it doesn’t even try. Instead it acknowledges exactly what it is which sits above our heads in the hope that honesty and openness might go some way to lightening the load.

Living up to its title, ‘Little String’ explores these ideas further by positioning the American ideal of the family as a kind of tenuous binding, something which is supposed to hold a life (and society) together yet too often sees individuals lashed to people and places which drag them into darkness. “Give your fingertips some time / to unwind that tiny little string / that you used to bind your inner life / to someone’s complicated feelings,” Rudick sings in the opening verse, his voice as ever charged with equal parts compassion and fury, fighting to hold onto restraint amid the gravity of the realisations bestowed upon him. But, of course, it is not as simple as untying a knot. The past returns no matter what we do to release ourselves from its bindings. As demonstrated in the closer ‘Palmer ’68’, a song every bit as stark and tragic as anything else on the record, yet lit from within by something like love in spite of everything, even if it feels pitiful to admit.

palmer, alaska ’68
you were missing mother in a terrible way
you wrote her the same letter everyday
saying ‘baby, i still love you. are you ok?”

are you ok?

Calm Down is out now via Rue Defense and available from Bandcamp.

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The rest of the EP is no less striking. Take the aphorism-filled ‘Old Rope’, a track which juxtaposes bullish energy with chronic doubt and lands on something like defiance, the sound loaded with the kind of bitter confidence of those who have longed accepted this world of ours to be rigged against the little man. ‘Chew’ takes things even further, a song of two halves which barrels forward at a hundred miles an hour before stretching out into a weighty instrumental. Again, the presiding emotion is that of exasperation, Gilmore-Innis a man at the end of his rope, pushed too far once too often, and now letting every ounce of gathered frustration pour out in one cathartic breath.

But more than an exercise in self-examination or personal release, Committeemen also use (S)HITS to excoriate the forces responsible for much of our contemporary pain. Taking aim at those who use religious ideology as an excuse for cruelty, final single ‘Control’ is the perfect example. A no holds barred assault on a government who would not only deny healthcare to those most in need, but have the audacity to claim such actions are somehow Christian. “Anything it takes for control,” as the chorus puts it, though you feel such people might not have accounted for the rage they have brought upon their heads.

(S)HITS EP is out now via Rue Defense and available from Bandcamp.

Photo by Clare Kemp

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With the record out now via Rue Defense, Simple Shapes have shared new single ‘I’ve Never Learned a Lesson’. The song encapsulates the themes of the album as a whole, exploring nostalgia in all of its contradictions, the past a place full of allure yet not exactly one you’d want to experience again. The project has always aimed to combine late nineties/early noughties indie rock sensibilities with contemporary production and here Pete Bensen (guitar/vocals), Quin Saunders (bass), Justine Yee (guitar), Jeremiah Larsen (drums) and JJ Shafe (synth/vocals) are firing on all cylinders. A band that should appeal as much to fans of Archers of Loaf as those of of MJ Lenderman, and which appears to have fully found their groove.

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“Existing in the strange space between loss and whatever comes next, searching for clues as to exactly what happened, not to mention where the future might lead.” So we wrote of Adeline Hotel‘s 2024 album Whodunnit, a raw picture of codependency and its slow disintegration which offered some of Dan Knishowy’s starkest writing to date. Now Adeline Hotel is preparing to release new full-length Watch the Sunflowers via Ruination Record Co., and it seems the future led to something altogether richer. Because, as new single ‘Dreaming’ suggests, the album is a reaction to the threadbare arrangements of its predecessor, as though, having endured the aftermath of loss, the colour has come back into Knishkowy’s world.

Alexei Shishkin – Magpie

Every single Alexei Shishkin has revealed from new album Good Times has stretched its subject matter in new, apparently unrelated directions, be that computer games (‘Disco Elysium‘), football tactics (‘Tiki Taka 2006‘) or poetry (‘Ode to Carl Dennis’). With the record out now via Rue Defense, Shishkin has returned with final single ‘Magpie’, a track which not only widens the topics covered during the full-length but could be read as a kind of metacommentary on this pick and mix style. Because, like the titular corvid, Good Times sees Shishkin collect all manner of shiny objects as and when they take his fancy. So what better a spirit animal for the album than a magpie? “I was actually going to name the album Magpie, but by the time we got around the finalizing it, Peach Pit had *just* released an album called Magpie, so I obviously couldn’t bite that.”

Altai – Brawl

Back in May we introduced New South Wales duo Altai, that’s multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Tessa Collins and drummer Andrew Wilkinson, with single ‘Like You Need It’. “Released just as the southern hemisphere moves into autumn,” we wrote, “the song is suffused with a romantic nostalgia and the gnawing melancholy of the changing seasons.” With an EP set for release in October via Broken Palace, Altai have new returned with new track ‘Brawl’. It’s a song which explores masculinity and its associated pressures, charged with a sense of urgency as though in attempt to will someone away from the ruinous expectations loaded onto men within the patriarchal system. Collins’s vocals harness this energy, sounding at once stark and compassionate in their willingness to name those destructive forces so directly. Fans of acts like The Weather Station will find much to admire.

Cormorant Tree Oh – The Wrong Kind

Recording under the moniker Cormorant Tree Oh, Dublin-based multi-disciplinary artist and songwriter Mary Keane has established herself as one of Ireland‘s premier practioners of experimental folk, winning much praise for 2024 record Moonish (out via Trapped Animal Records) and sharing the stage with the likes of Lankum. Taken from that album, latest single ‘The Wrong Kind’ is another addition to her catalogue, a song presenting isolation in all of its eeriness and beauty, blurring the line between loneliness and romance with an atmosphere as beguilling as it is austere. The song comes complete with a video made in collaboration with artist Zoe Greenway (formerly of M(h)aol), taking cues from 1948 classic Portrait Of Jennie in its visual style. The video marks a conscious embrace of centring the artistic vision above all else, timed just as Keane has decided, in a move we ourselves also made several years ago, to leave Spotify. “I decided to leave Spotify because Spotify’s CEO David Ek is investing in AI war drones, they pay artists feck all and they are now pushing creepy AI music,” as she succinctly describes. Amen.

Moonish is out now via Trapped Animal Records and available from Bandcamp.

Frog – SPANISH ARMADA VAR. XV

“Even for a band who have made a name for their idiosyncratic style, this might just be their most singular release yet.” So we wrote of THE COUNT, Frog‘s brand new full-length coming later this month via Audio Antihero, when introducing the record a couple of weeks ago. “A concept album which sees lead Daniel Bateman assume the persona of the titular count,” we continued, “a figure straight out of some Warren Zevon song, full of shady history, personal mythology and perhaps even a supernatural edge.” After single ‘BITTEN BY MY LOVE VAR. XI’ (a song “strange, unpredictable and oddly heartbreaking), Frog have now returned with ‘SPANISH ARMADA VAR. XV’. Moving from hushed to hysterical and back again, the track showcases the full plasticity of Bateman’s voice within less than 150 seconds, as well as his ability to present desire and yearning in such a singular manner.

Me and the guys walked over with buckets of fries
Boarding the Spanish armada, that’s what I thought when I saw ya

Lawn – Pressure

Built around co-lead singers/songwriters Mac Folger and Rui De Magalhaes, New Orleans band Lawn have excelled with an idiosyncratic combination of jangly pop and taut post-punk across three full-length albums, defying genre conventions to show that fun and edge need not be mutually exclusive. Coming later this month via Exploding in Sound, new full-length God Made The Highway finds Lawn perfect this style. While previous single ‘Davie’ showed off the bright side of the release, latest single ‘Pressure’ falls on the wiry end of the spectrum. A track which coils like a tightening spring as De Magalhaes mulls over perceived judgement on his life choices from elsewhere, building and building in seething tension as things threaten to spill over into chaos. Whether the feelings are justified or just the product of personal insecurities is left up in the air, but it doesn’t really matter, there’s catharsis in the chorus all the same.

Watch the video directed by Daniel Lynch / Company Businesses Inc below:

God Made The Highway will be released on the 19th September via Exploding in Sound Records and you can pre-order it now.

múm – Kill the Light

We’ve covered a couple of tracks from Icelandic mainstays múm in recent months, previewing their forthcoming new album History of Silence. First ‘Mild at Heart’, what we called “a controlled, ever-curious track that shows the power of understatement while also reaching towards new ground,” then ‘Only Songbirds Have a Sweet Tooth’ which “embod[ies the colour and playfulness of the record as a whole,” as we described, “all manner of glitches and pops play[ing] across the background melody, offering a bittersweet tone which the dual vocals only further in their searching, reflecting style.” With release imminent via Morr Music, múm have shared new single, ‘Kill the Light’, and the song is no less striking. One lighthearted and playful yet evocative too, typical of the sense of nature running through the record. As ever, múm craft with a gentle hand yet evoke things far larger and grander than everyday existence.

History of Silence will be released via Morr Music on 15th September. Pre-order it now from the múm Bandcamp page.

New Balance – Lemon Slice

Originating back in 2017, New Balance was conceived as the solo project of Jeremy Leasure, a space in which to experiment and improvise with help from a rotating band of collaborators. One which appeared to offer a swan song back in 2022 with second album More Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid, as Leasure came to feel the style had reached its apex and thus run its course. However, rather than putting New Balance to rest, Leasure instead evolved the project into something different, the line-up now solidified as a full band with the permanent addition of Jacob Maag, Emily Monnig, Dawson Timpany and Andy Campbell. A full-length is planned for 2026 with Anxiety Blanket Records to fully establish this new era, but for now double single Lemon Slice / Pocket Change gives an indication of what to expect. ‘Lemon Slice’ is perhaps the best introduction, its easygoing sound masking lyrics that focus on everyday disasters, what Leasure refers to in the chorus as “these little devastations.”

Lemon Slice / Pocket Change is out now via Anxiety Blanket Records.

Sweet Nobody – Revenge

Hailing from Long Beach, California, Sweet Revenge are an indie pop quartet whose work embraces the twin joys of melody and noise, utilising both pop and garage rock aesthetics to write songs for the meek and modest among us. Out via Repeating Cloud, latest single ‘Revenge’ shows both the fun and bite of this style, using sunny momentum as a source of energy to confront the phonies and their convoluted ways of living. “It’s hard to feel like you’re the only one searching for the genuine among the accusing masses,” as the band explain. “The hardest thing to face in conflict is knowing that someone is lying and not knowing who it is. This song is for those without an angle. It’s for those who love the straightforward.”

Pick up your pen
Accusations fly again
It’s all pretend
Even your friends
You ride the high
Kill anyone who asks you why
You try to cry
But you’re dead inside

Spirited Followers – Awakened

Cardiff‘s Spirited Followers have steadily built an audience in recent times, practising a singular blend of experimental folk and post-rock which reaches around the globe for influence. The resulting sound invokes the act’s title in its impassioned, enveloping style. With members hailing from Cyprus, India and Wales, Ireland, and England, the diversity of inspiration is perhaps unsurprising, though the work of Spirited Followers pushes beyond those backgrounds too. You’ll hear elements of Appalachian mountain music in the stark guitar, as well as a Greek flavour among several others. Now the band have released their debut single ‘Awakened’ via Roccoco Sŵn, and the track is the ideal calling card. One typical of the project’s sense of detail and scale, ebbing and flowing across its length yet, led by Avaneesh Bavadekar’s striking vocals, always building towards something higher, drawing the audience into its evocative, mesmerised state.

Wide Orbit – He’s A Wizard

Described by label 22Twenty as “a Midwest cough drop for the sore soul,” Chicago’s Wide Orbit are a DIY band in the best sense. A group of college-town buds recording in their cramped room with equal parts heart and playfulness. Suitably titled debut album Introducing… Wide Orbit has just been released, a calling card for the project and its emotive, mischievous spirit, as highlighted by single ‘He’s a Wizard’. The country-inflected indie rock number pairs irreverent energy with almost deadpan vocals, telling the tale of a teenage rogue and their attempts to get the better of their parents (“In May or April of 2006 / my mom bought me a brand new pair of kicks,” as one verse goes. “And I ran every which way even far away from them / And they’d come get me in the Honda Odyssey”). But by the back half of the track, the droll humour ramps up into something different, embracing the sing-a-long energy of a barroom jam.

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Not many albums can claim to draw on inspiration as widely as Good Times, the new full-length from Alexei Shishkin on Rue Defense. Recorded with a spur-of-the-moment immediacy, the record sees Shiskin reaching for whatever happened to be around during the recording process, often writing the music first then adding lyrics about whatever topic might be in mind. Hence recent singles about video games (‘Disco Elysium‘) and football (‘Tiki Taka 2006‘), and new single ‘Ode to Carl Dennis’ switches things up again. As the title suggests, the track turns to literature for its inspiration, Shishkin drawing on one of his favourite poets. “[Dennis] has a poem called “At Home With Cézanne” that I had read the night before and really enjoyed,” he explains. “Again, Brad and I wrote the bulk of the music first, and then I fit lyrics to the music. I couldn’t find the text of the poem anywhere online, so here’s a picture of it. I took his characters, but tried to re-imagine them in a slightly different, parallel universe.”

David James Allen – Platform No. 12 (Old Friends)

Based in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canadian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist David James Allen writes classic country songs, full of aching longing, wistful reflection and undying hope, as well as a small cosmic twist. With new full-length Jubilation Potpourri set for release on 2026, Allen has shared brand new single ‘Platform No. 12 (Old Friends)’ to set the tone. A song which shows how the age-old themes of work, loss and responsibility are as much a facet of contemporary folk as any other era. “I wrote ‘Platform No. 12 (Old Friends)’ just after I got laid off,” Allen explains. “At the time, I was the sole provider for my family, and the weight of that reality hit pretty hard. The song came out of reflecting on that pressure—not just mine, but the collective squeeze so many people feel when work dries up, when bills pile up, and when life becomes a grind.” But rather than dwell on the darkness, Allen instead offers a remedy, reminding us how healing (re)connection can be in a challenging, often lonely life.

Dylan Henner – We Walked all the Way to the Lake and The Water Was So Still We Jumped in Naked

“Late one evening, I was listening to the radio alone at home. I couldn’t find the station I wanted, so I shifted the dial around for a while. Between frequencies, fading in and out of fidelity, I found a station I’d never heard before. To my amazement, the station was broadcasting my own memories. Memories from when I was seventeen.” So explains Dylan Henner of his new album Star Dream FM (forthcoming this autmn via Phantom Limb), the mysterious producer taking this fantastical concept as the basis for a collection which explores both the tactile experience of adolescence and the nostalgia of times now past. Single ‘We Walked all the Way to the Lake and The Water Was So Still We Jumped in Naked’ shows just how rich an experience this proves to be, Henner elaborating an ambient style with piano, marimba, digital choir and synths to prove how human a digital soundscape can be. Personal details might be scant for this secretive artist, yet, perhaps counterintuitively, few acts welcome listeners so close within their work.

Hannah Frances – Surviving You

“Both continues the mission of its predecessor and begins to move beyond it.” So we wrote of ‘Falling From and Further’, the lead single from Hannah Frances‘s new album Nested in Tangles, coming this autumn via Fire Talk Records. The song took “the folk song as a backbone only,” we continued, “elaborating the sound with layers of prog and jazz sensibilities so that the track becomes a world of its own without ever losing the core thread of personal vulnerability which has long run through Frances’s work.” Exploring ideas of generational trauma and the coping mechanisms we develop in response, second single ‘Surviving You’ further builds on this style. Frances utilises the full depth of her jazz-inflected folk rock sound to chart a path towards health and self-acceptance. “It’s a personal account of receiving harm from people who have projected their own pain onto me, who refuse to see themselves or take accountability for the impact of their actions,” she explains. “I was reckoning with my rage, and recognizing how much I’ve lived in survival mode for the majority of my life. This is for anyone who grew up in a turbulent and harmful home and is learning to affirm their lived experience.”

Watch the video filmed by Derrick Alexander, edited and colored by Vanessa Castro, and directed by Frances herself below:

Nested in Tangles will be released on the 10th October via Fire Talk Records and you can pre-order it from the Hannah Frances Bandcamp page.

Kitba – Wolf’s Mouth

“Proof that art can offer a picture of identity more nuanced than simple labels,” we wrote of Kitba‘s self-titled album back in 2023. “A deeper understanding reached via an embrace of confusion. Identity as an ongoing thing.” Fresh from I’ll Send You A Sign, a collaborative release with Dan Knishkowy under the name R&D, Kitba (AKA Brooklyn-based harpist and songwriter Rebecca El-Saleh) is preparing to return with a brand new full-length, Hold the Edges. The record continues and deepens this exploration of identity with a typically lush, detailed and intuitive sound. With the album set for release next month via Ruination Record Co., single ‘Wolf’s Mouth’ serves to introduce the record’s searching tone and its embrace of ambiguity. As though realising the path to self-discovery is not a finite number of epiphanic steps but rather something convoluted and unending, full knowledge always just out of reach. “The song is based on a recurring childhood nightmare where I was in a room with a filing cabinet in the corner and a large wolf that would open its mouth,” El-Saleh describes. “I would place my head inside its mouth and then wake up. I never got to see beyond the bite and I often wonder what was in the cabinet and why.”

Watch the video by Dani Shapiro below:

Hold the Edges will be released via Ruination Record Co. on 19th September and is available to pre-order now.

Piggietails – Cycling Song

Piggietails are a four-piece from Naarm/Melbourne, comprising of Cal Blackburn, Jet Noonan, Izzy Hardisty and Tino D’Onghia. In September, Spoilsport Records will release their self-titled record, a collection of ten songs which introduce the band’s signature easygoing charm and a low-key style they refer to as “everyday music.” The label describe how Piggietails draw inspiration from “eighties Australiana guitar pop, the indie rock stylings of Yo La Tengo and a splash of the revivalist jangle of the noughties.” So, as you might expect, their songs are a little bit jangly but not too twee, favouring gentleness over detailed maximalism. Lead single ‘Cycling Song’ is our first taste, a soft indie pop song that nevertheless has some of the freewheeling energy its title suggests.

SIKADE – body of water

The recording project of Oslo-based singer-songwriter, harpist and producer Linnea Vestre, SIKADE makes an ethereal brand of music, combining alt, indie, dream pop and folk influences into something at once delicate and enveloping. With a debut SIKADE album on the horizon, Vestre has released new single ‘body of water’ via label re:memory. Adding a shoegazey sheen to the sound, the track 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. “A body of water / that’s how she sees you,” the track opens, “a silvery surface / the face of a mirror.” Imagery characteristically striking and ambiguous which gives the sense of having been pulled into a portentous dream.

Soup Dreams – Wonderdog

Next month, Philadelphia’s Soup Dreams will release their debut LP, Hellbender, via Candlepin Records and Pleasure Tapes. The band combine the slight twang and songwriting chops of country rock with some lo-fi fuzz and raw indie rock energy, meaning fans of Merce Lemon, Sadurn, Tuxis Giant and the burgeoning countrygaze scene will finds lots to like. Following the runaway lead single ‘Radiator Baby’ and the heartfelt follow-up ‘Red Bird’, the band have unveiled one final single to herald the record. Titled ‘Wonderdog’, the song is an aching lament but not as you know it, the hazy textures and melancholic reflection countered with equal forces of energy and weight, all driving towards a conclusion that’s as energetic and is it cathartic.

Tiberius – Felt

Introducing Troubadour, the new album from Boston farm emo outfit Tiberius, last month, we described how lead Brendan Wright and co. use the album to reckon with fundamental questions both artistic and personal. Who do you want to be? What role should music play in the decision? Lead single ‘Sag’ was thus understandably conflicted, “pulled in all directions by competing emotions,” as we put it. “Uncertainty, doubt, desperation, a recurrent yet skittish determination to embrace some inner truth. With the album’s release via Audio Antihero edging nearer, Tiberius have shared another single, ‘Felt’. A track which essentially serves as the inflection point which birthed the record, where Wright was forced to confront their identity without the crutch of other people. “When I wrote ‘Felt’, I was fairly fresh out of a breakup and was spending a lot of time looking for distractions,” they explain. “Instead of tackling some bigger questions, and engaging in a healthy recovery, I was tucking away my feelings into compartments and distracting myself with casual dating. I was spending some late nights slipping into the backstories of strangers’ lives—exhilarating, but merely theatrical. It never eased the issue at hand. I was alone, and I was terrified to sit with that.”

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And it’s not just the sound that is eclectic. After the video game-inspired lead single ‘Disco Elysium’, a track which incorporated sounds from the game itself, the second pivots into another area entirely. Sport-literate listeners will understand the inspiration behind ‘Tiki Taka (2006)’, though whether they could preconceive just what a song based around Barca’s golden age might sound like is another thing altogether. Not that it should be surprising, considering Shishkin himself didn’t initially know the track would be exploring the tactical innovation of Frank Rijkaard and Pep Guardiola. “For this one (and most of the tunes on this album, to be honest), Brad and I wrote all the music first and then filled in the gaps with mostly improvised lyrics,” he explains:

I went into the vocal booth, and Brad put on some random soccer highlights for me to watch while singing. It just so happened that he pulled up some supercut of Barca moments, so I just started making up soccer things: the “landslide in Sevilla” was about some match where Barca were beating Sevilla team by a lot of goals; getting “broken down” is about Barca passing the ball around until they find a gap in the defense that they can exploit; and the “move it around” refrain is also about the act of passing the ball around the field and maintaining possession. Ironically, it pains me because I normally cheer against Barcelona, but I would be a fool to deny their greatness.

Photo by Kevin Doran

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Described as “an interdisciplinary artist and practitioner of earth-reverent skills and philosophies,” Fletcher Tucker is an artist looking to further his connection to the natural world, and new album Kin takes this as far as ever. Tucker’s distinctive animistic verse is supported by an array of breathing instruments (Swedish bagpipes, pump organ, elder and bamboo flutes, Mellotron saxophone and flute tapes), as well as guests including Chuck Johnson (Western Vinyl), Mariam Wallentin (Fire! Orchestra), Spencer Owen and Sean Smith (LFZ). Together they conjure soundscapes able to summon the spirit of the natural world and rekindle its latent magic. Following the lineage of Hildegard von Bingen and inspired by the experience of a white-out blizzard in the Northern Sierra mountains, latest single ‘To Light a Fire’ is the perfect example. The one and only Phil Elverum adds percussion to a song which embodies the stratified layers of time and place which constitute the record.

Watch the video shot by Fletcher Tucker on Esselen land in Big Sur, California below:

Kin will be released on the 15th August via Gnome Life Records and you can pre-order it now.

Fortitude Valley – Oceans Apart

“A track which finds [Laura] Kovac addressing her younger self, delving into the person she was before and during her move from Brisbane to the UK, and how the competing desires for home and escape never really go away.” So we wrote of ‘Sunshine State‘, the lead single from Fortitude Valley‘s forthcoming album Part Of The Problem, Baby later this summer on Specialist Subject Records. Following subsequent single ‘Video (Right There With You)‘, Fortitude Valley are back with ‘Oceans Apart’. Taking its title from Brisbane rock royalty The Go-Betweens, the song again confronts the move from Australia and the conflicted emotions which accompanied it. “Crossing my heart / Oceans apart,” as Kovac sings in the refrain. “Trying to make it on my own,”

Laughter Lines – The Right Way To Pray

Laughter Lines, the recording moniker of South California musician David Giali, has just released a new split with neighbour and collaborator Jimmy Brown, AKA JIMMERS. Appropriately titled Shared Spaces, the EP not only introduces the two projects but the underlying friendship which bolsters their sounds, and single ‘The Right Way To Pray’ shows the kind of earnest, impassioned music which results. A song which confronts the interplay between doubt and conviction which surrounds a person’s faith, and how this is liable to create unbridgeable gaps between people. “I worked for a church for about decade and now I don’t,” Giali explains. “This song is about a handful of conversations I had with the many church goers who had never questioned their faith and their reactions to my questioning of theology and faith-based logic.”

Mappe Of – A Scourge Laid Upon The Earth

The recording project of singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Tom Meikle, Mappe Of first appeared back in 2017 with debut album A Northern Star, A Perfect Stone on Paper Bag Records. The record introduced a decidedly ethereal sound which pushed folk with the spirit of the avant garde. Concept album The Isle of Ailynn followed in 2019, further cementing Meikle’s ability to break boundaries, and while a pandemic-enforced hiatus delayed the continuation of the project, forthcoming album Afterglades shows the break has had no detrimental effect on the ambition or execution of the Mappe Of style. With the album again set for release via Paper Bag in September, Meikle has unveiled new single ‘A Scourge Laid Upon The Earth’. “It felt like there needed to be a sense of weight to this chapter of the story, there needed to be some chaos as a payoff for all of this reflection,” he explains. “This is in many ways the extinction level event. It needed to be heavy and raucous, retribution for all of our mistakes. It’s a bit of my dormant heavy metal energy emerging from me.”

Minus The Bear – The Pig War (Demo)

Twenty years ago Seattle math rock royalty Minus The Bear released seminal album Menos el Oso, a record which not only saw them fully inhabit the spirit of the project for perhaps the first time but also claim a place among the notable acts of the late 90s/early 00s scene. Aside from a big US tour to celebrate the anniversary, Suicide Squeeze Records are releasing a special deluxe edition this August, featuring not only the original album but also five previously unreleased demo versions to give fans an indication of where their favourite tracks started out. “We came into our sound on this record, the band explain. “Excited people get to hear these demos for the first time! Revisiting demos and hearing the evolution of some of these tracks puts me right back in our early 2000s practice space. And now we’re literally back in that same practice space for rehearsals. It’s wild!” Listen to the demo for ‘The Pig War’ now:

Perish – Cool Guys

Originating as the solo project Florida-born songwriter Katie Callihan, Perish blossomed into a full band in Brooklyn when Callihan met Sam Lopane, Austin (Chappie) Chappell and John Dockery and welcomed them into the fold. The chemistry was apparent from the off, and the quartet headed up to Lincoln, Rhode Island, to record with Bradford Krieger at Big Nice Studio after only two practice sessions. The result, a self-titled debut EP, will be released this autumn on Rue Defense, and lead single ‘Cool Guys’ gives an initial taste. A vivid slice of folk-inflected rock which sounds at once wistful and affirming, a combination which looks to be a signature of the Perish sound. Because while Callihan’s delivery is thoughtful, her lyrics probing beneath the surface of things, the sound retains an upbeat, exultant air. As though there’s some energy to be found in the act of being open and honest to the point of vulnerability.

Tan Cologne – In Resin (Trentemøller Rework)

We’ve featured a number of singles from Tan Cologne‘s new LP Unknown Beyond in recent weeks, with songs like ‘Cool Star‘ and ‘In Resin‘ embodying the atmosphere of the record. The former possessed “a vibe again ambivalent in its meaning,” as we wrote, “sounding at once like an otherworldly escape from our terrestrial suffering and some mournful elegy delivered in its aftermath,” while the latter used “gauzy layers to present the various lives we live simultaneously, a series of selves superimposed.” To further the dreamy depths of this sound, Danish producer and multi-instrumentalist Trentemøller has reworked the track, taking the vocals further out into mysterious ethereality. “When I heard [Tan Cologne] had a new album coming, I immediately asked if I could work with one of their beautiful songs,” Trentemøller explains. “I chose the magical “In Resin”. For my rework, I only used their vocals, which I also had a lot of fun experimenting with.”

Unknown Beyond is out now via Labrador Records and you can get it now from the Tan Cologne Bandcamp page.

The Tines – Ozone

We first wrote about New Haven, Connecticut project The Tines a few years ago upon the release of their self-titled debut, describing single ‘Collarbone‘ as “a track which combines shimmering dream pop with a more pressing indie rock rhythm, the reverbed vocals drifting above it all to give the whole thing a sunny if enigmatic vibe, drawing the listener into its psych-inflected world.” Now the outfit are preparing to release a brand new album Barrows via Funnybone Records, and have unveiled single ‘Ozone’ as a preview. A rich slice of indie rock which combines heartfelt emotion with a certain understatement, building upon the previous record with a more assured, controlled sensibility, and sounding all the more evocative as a result.

‘Ozone’ is out now via Funnybone Records.

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Brooklyn’s Alexei Shishkin might describe himself as a “DIY nobody of the internet void,” but that hasn’t stopped his prolific run of releases, with three in 2024 alone. That trio, dagger, Open Door Policy and Greenwich Mean EP showed the wildly varied style of Shiskin’s work, veering from rock to bedroom pop to jazz and back. Fast forward almost a year, a relative age in Shishkin-time, and he’s back with a brand new full-length, Good Times. To be released this September on Rue Defense, the album takes the level of invention to a new level, as demonstrated by lead single ‘Disco Elysium’. It’s inspired by the eponymous video game, Shishkin even incorporating sounds from the game into the track itself. “You’re a degenerate, amnesiac detective coming off a crazy bender, and you’re trying to solve a murder that happened in a small post-revolution town,” Shiskin explains of his inspiration. “The game covers everything from psychology to politics to lost love to life, death, and introspection. It’s honestly one of the most well-written, exciting things I’ve ever experienced.”

Josie – My Boy and I

Josie are a group from Copenhagen who make scrappy, jangly and impossibly catchy indie pop songs. Their debut album, A Life On Sweets Alone, comes out in September via perennialdeath and K Records, and the latter in particular should give you an idea of what to expect. Think sugary hooks, raw punky energy and lyrics and vocals that continue the long lineage of K Records-associated twee pop. Lead single ‘My Boy and I’ is our first taste of what to expect, barrelling headlong into two and a half minutes of indie pop as endearing as it is infectious.

Watch the video, directed and shot by Little Richard Perusi, below:

A Life On Sweets Alone will be released on 26^th September and is available to pre-order from the Josie Bandcamp page.

Lathe of Heaven – Aurora

Aurora, the second album from Brooklyn’s Lathe of Heaven coming later this summer on Sacred Bones, promises to function like a collection of sci-fi short stories. It takes inspiration from the work of authors like Ursula K. le Guin, Octavia Butler, Greg Egan, and Peter Watts to explore worldly themes in bold, imaginative ways. Loosely inspired by Arthur C. Clarke’s short story ‘If I Forget Thee, O Earth…’, the title track introduces one such tale, combining New Wave colour and post-punk cool into something not only transportive but almost devotional. “In the story a man and his son take a trip from their colony on the moon to a lookout point where Earth (long abandoned due to nuclear war) can be seen rising across the vast gulf of space,” the band explain. “Playing with this concept, I took a more personal and romantic approach, exploring similar themes of loss, love, and devotion at the end of the world.”

Watch the video directed by Devan Davies below:

Aurora will be released on the 29th August via Sacred Bones Records and you can pre-order it now.

Michael Nau – Smokeflowers

His first new music since 2023 album Accompany, Michael Nau has returned with a double single, Smokeflowers / Sing To via Karma Chief Records. Something of a departure from the previous record’s full-band arrangements, both songs were recorded at home alone, written and recorded without a new record in mind. “I was testing out a new tape machine that I had, and then I sold it,” Nau explains. “They’re single songs that just kind of happened without other songs around.” The result is something unhurried and almost devotional and its soft and shimmering atmosphere. ‘Smokeflowers’ in particular is oddly powerful in it’s understated majesty, Nau’s opaquely poetic lyrics unfurling in a syrupy, waltzy melody.

pôt-pot – WRSW

In September, Irish/Portuguese quintet pôt-pot will release a new record, Warsaw 480km, on Felte Records. The band, led by vocalist/guitarist Mark Waldron-Hyden, deal in a raw and hypnotic blend of psych, krautrock and post punk, a sound rich and multi-layered, but somehow delivered with taut economy. Many of the songs were penned during a period of grief and personal upheaval, and lead single ‘WRSW’ is the prime example. Waldron-Hyden explains the song is based on his experience of “being driven in a very nice car to collect and deliver my father’s ashes,” and captures feelings both of grim forward motion and numb unreality perfectly. This journey is also where the record gets its title. “At one point the driver told me about a journey he’d taken from Ireland to Poland,” Waldron-Hyden continues, “where after days of driving, in the dead of night, a single road sign appeared, reading WARSAW 480 KM. I identified with that image of blackness punctuated suddenly by some faraway but tangible relief.”

Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats – Our Detour

When touring Japan together in 2024, Joseph Shabason and Nicholas Krgovich met Saya and Takashi Ueno of Tenniscoats, who played as a backing band. The four had little time to rehearse but quickly discovered they did not need it, the subsequent shows fluid, unpredictable and spontaneous, successful in the way only genuine artistic connection could allow. So successful, in fact, the quartet took the opportunity to further the collaboration, spending two days at the Guggenheim House in Kobe with nothing prepared and only their mutual curiosity for direction. The result, released as Shabason, Krgovich, Tenniscoats with Western Vinyl, is full-length album Wao, and first single ‘Our Detour’ is the first glimpse at this lightning-in-a-bottle creative process. A lesson in instinct and invention which reaches for inspiration from the everyday and returns it back to us as something bright and magic.

Wao will be released on the 29th August via Western Vinyl and you can pre-order it now.

Simple Shapes – Mallard

Portland indie rockers Simple Shapes have just announced their debut LP Sundial, which is slated for release later this summer. Their first new music since 2022’s Soundtrack EP, the record promises to build on the foundations of previous releases (think late 90s alt rock meets contemporary indie pop) and expand the Simple Shapes sound in new directions. Lead single ‘Mallard’ is a great start, introducing the band’s sonic range and loud-quiet dynamics. It opens with a spry and sunny energy before erupting into yelled vocals and blasts of noisy emotion, effortlessly moving between the two until a final cathartic denouement.

Studio Electrophonique – David and Jayne

The solo project of singer-songwriter James Leesley, Studio Electrophonique has made a splash in its local Sheffield and beyond, releasing two EPs which use a warm, nostalgic brand of indie pop to mine the mundane everyday of its inherent emotional resonance. With his self-titled debut full-length coming this September via Paris-based label Valley of Eyes Records, Leesley has unveiled bittersweet new single ‘David and Jayne’. The first song he wrote for the album and the one which paved the way for the rest. “It felt like the opening scene to a film; the words came to me more as dialogue, or script, than lyrics,” Leesley explains, “and that opened up a new and very appealing writing perspective—I was almost tempted to pretend to be Alain Resnais directing an imaginary film at the British seaside.” Watch the video directed by Leesley himself below:

Studio Electrophonique will be released on the 26th September via Valley of Eyes Records.

Tan Cologne – In Resin

“Represents both a continuation of [their previous] style and a broadening of its horizons,” was how we described Tan Cologne‘s new album Unknown Beyond with back in June. “Almost literally, in fact, with [Lauren] Green and [Marissa] Macias turning their attention skyward with the same curiosity, openness and longing which has always underpinned their work.” Lead single ‘Cool Star’ showed how central grief is to the record, possessing what we called “a vibe again ambivalent in its meaning, sounding at once like an otherworldly escape from our terrestrial suffering and some mournful elegy delivered in its aftermath,” and new single ‘In Resin’ is no less nuanced and dramatic. What the band describe as an encapsulation of the past few years, which uses its gauzy layers to present the various lives we live simultaneously, a series of selves superimposed.

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With 2023 album Cleaning Up With Big Mess, Copenhagen‘s Big Mess introduced a genre-spanning style which tapped into the unbridled joy of good old-fashioned punk rock, and new release Terry EP indicates they have no intention of slowing down. The record is out now via Specialist Subject Records, and opener and title track shows off the vibe of the collection. Repurposing Kirsty MacColl’s hit into a power pop gem, ‘Terry’ distils the wry humour and bite of the original into their purest states. The result races into life from the off and never lets up, harnessing MacColl’s cheeky defiance as its own form of momentum, and proving as cathartic as it is fun.

Ciao Malz – Clementine (Elliott Smith cover)

Back in December, Ciao Malz released their debut EP Safe Then Sorry, a four-song grab bag that veered between alt-country twang and woozy pop confidence. Now Malia DelaCruz is showing another dimension to the project with a cover of Elliott Smith’s ‘Clementine’, recapturing the hushed intimacy of the original in all of its sincerity and narrative depth. “‘Clementine’ is probably my favorite Elliott Smith song,” as DelaCruz explains. “The way he picks up on a bartender singing and turns it into something so eerie and beautiful is wild. The harmonies are something I’ve always wanted to nail, and I love experimenting with them when I’m recording. And yeah, sometimes it’s just fun to channel Elliott Smith for a while.”

You can find Ciao Malz on Bandcamp.

Committeemen – Therapy

Consisting of DJ Gilmore-Innis (vocals/guitar), Ken Dannelley (drums), Matt Kast (bass), and Graham Bell (guitar), Houston punk rockers Committeemen owe as much to post punk royalty like Gang of Four as they do contemporaries Osees and Parquet Courts. But, they’re no cheap copy, managing to recombine this range of influences into something wholly their own. With a new EP on the way via Rue Defense, single ‘Therapy’ highlights the searing intensity of their sound. Taking aim at the burgeoning ecosystem of quacks and narcissists which seems determined to tell us how to live, this is blistering punk complete with yell-along chorus, treating this vapid, insidious cohort of podcasters, Youtubers and televangelists with the contempt they deserve.

Daily Toll – Killincs

Described as “eleven songs traversing three years of forged friendships, collaborative experimentation and a shared love of growing through words and song,” new album A Profound Non-Event sees Sydney post-punks Daily Toll take the next step in their evolution, building upon what came before with a growing sense of confidence and conviction. With the release coming this June on Tough Love, the trio have shared lead single ‘Killincs’, and the track embodies the sound of a band striving towards their most truthful form while appreciating such a quest might prove unending. “The light reflects an upside-down image of a life I might never visit,” as lead Kata Szász-Komlós sings. “Too far to touch, not far enough to forget.” And as the song progresses, its verbosity belying the relatively understated, assured tone, it becomes clear the unresolved is something to be accepted, even embraced. As a later line states: “I have the key still, but I’ve buried the path.”

Watch the video directed and edited by Szász-Komlós below:

A Profound Non-Event is out on the 20th June via Tough Love and you can pre-order it now.

eggcorn – Observer Effect

Taking its name from the phenomenon where an observed system is disturbed by the very act of being observed, eggcorn‘s new album Observer Effect sees songwriter Lara Hoffman explore the ways in which reflecting on one’s life and surroundings can shape our experiences. Moving away from the synth pop sensibilities of debut Your Own True Love, the album adopts a pop-inflected brand of chamber folk which combines sincere compassion with unerring honesty, a sound able to probe deep into the heart of the matter and unafraid of getting dirty in the process. The lead single and title track is the ideal entry point, Hoffman using the impatient frustration of a slow-healing injury to delve into unpalatable truths about herself and the desires therein, baring vulnerabilities and reckoning with their implications without sacrificing a certain playfulness.

MF Tomlinson – Die To Wake Up From A Dream

Over a series of releases in recent times, Brisbane/Meanjin born, London based artist MF Tomlinson has challenged genre conventions, progressing beyond classic folk styles with the addition of psych, rock and other sensibilities. This summer will see him return with Die To Wake Up From A Dream, a brand new album via PRAH Recordings which continues this exploration of the possibilities of folk. Described by Tomlinson himself as a treatise on “resilience, hope and the frankly wildly psychedelic experience of being alive,” the lead single and title track shows one such possibility, drawing on everything from John Martyn to Talk Talk and My Bloody Valentine to create a sound which might originate in folk but ends up beyond any easy genre categorisation.

Watch the accompanying video—described as a “visual essay”—by Andrea Zvadova below:

Die To Wake Up From A Dream is out on the 11th July via PRAH Recordings.

sachi’s mirror – a new shape

The recording project of Oakland-based experimental violinist and composer Shaina Pan, sachi’s mirror offers rich, genre-bending soundscapes which use pedal effects to push the violin to new ground. Classically trained, Pan dipped a toe in experimental music as a vocalist and bassist for Bay Area art-punks Juicebumps during the pandemic, and is now reaching further across ambient, avant-garde and art pop sensibilities to weave her own compositions. Taken from debut release coral miracle church, single ‘a new shape’ embodies the style, a song full of space and intricate detail which grows with subtle grace. Spoken word samples further the mood, and the result feels like a doorway into some adjacent, ethereal world.

Serfing – no new friends

Consisting of Austin Weber and David Caploe (Singer of Hate Drugs, BEST DAD), LA‘s Serfing are preparing to release their debut EP to properly introduce themselves to the world. Lead single ‘no new friends’ is the first taste of what to expect. Painted in long, relaxed strokes, the track offers a dreamy meditation on making connections with other people, its languorous tempo able to draw out both the warmth and anguish inherent within such a process. “It’s hard to keep yourself from falling / falling in love,” as the opening lines go. “Spend enough time with somebody / falling in love.” But true to the ambiguous mood of a sound that could be taken as dawning fondness or anxious hesitancy, the lyrics soon offer conflicting thoughts.

Why even plant a tree to cut it down?
you know those roots are staying in the ground
better off just being no-one
than falling in love

The Taxpayers – Outline of Your Blood

We’ve covered a number of singles from Circle Breaker, the new full-length from  Portland, Oregon emo outfit The Taxpayers, in recent weeks, be it ‘At War With The Dogcatchers‘ with its search for love amid tragedy and cruelty or ‘I Am One Thousand‘, an ode to those afflicted by war and its adjacent sufferings. With the album now out via Ernest Jenning Record Co., The Taxpayers are releasing a new single, ‘Outline of Your Blood’, as a celebration. The closing track to the album which encapsulates everything which came before, stricken by discouragement and burgeoning doom yet unable to shake a sense of hope despite it all. As the title suggests, this is an album of cycles, the grandest of which being the circle of life itself, and no matter how dark the present, The Taxpayers want to remind you that new life is always being born too.

Circle Breaker is out now via Ernest Jenning Record Co. and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Wishy – Over and Over

“Everything fans of the band have come to love.” That’s how we described ‘Fly’ back in February, the lead single from Wishy‘s forthcoming EP Planet Popstar. “A song,” as we put it, “that looks to move beyond heartbreak with a mix of affirming energy and wistful longing.” With the EP coming next month on Winspear, the Indianapolis outfit are back with fresh track ‘Over and Over’. With vocal duties shifting back to Kevin Krauter, and Nina Pitchkites offering backing harmonies, the song sees fingerpicked guitar melded with breakbeat rhythms, offering a sound packed full of detail while maintaining a languid calm, and further marking Wishy as one of the most inventive acts working today.

The song comes complete with a video directed by Demi Fenicle, edited by Aaron Agler and with visual Effects by Stephen Orban, which you can watch below:

Planet Popstar is out on the 25th April via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

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Solid Blood is the solo project of Graham W. Bell, who has also played in the likes of Committeemen, Alexei Shishkin, Kinships and Hart & Hare, serving as a vehicle for him to share personal accounts of life between Houston and Brooklyn, as well as his time on the road. The result is an “amalgam of lived moments, both quiet and intense, that seek to make sense of the ordinary,” as the label put it, “and the state of the world on a more intimate scale.”

Opener ‘All I Need’ is the gateway into this style, unfolding with a sense of measured contemplation that is shot through with something darker, fear and disquiet clawing at the window, asking to be let in. “Bell looks to preserve the small details of life amid a wider unease,” we wrote in our preview, “carving out an introspective, inquisitive space in which we might shelter from the dire state of the world.” Following track ‘Beyond Belief’ moves from easygoing lulls to spikes of agitation, built on Bradford Krieger’s percussion and electric guitar which whips up into squally noise in the chorus. Fitting perhaps for a song that’s part paean to the thrills of New York City and part warning to the way they can wear you down to nothing.

‘Old Days’ is a shadowy post punk song, all wiry guitar and swaggering vocals, while ‘Right’ is perhaps the EP’s heaviest track, a bona fide rock song complete with crushing guitars and pummeled percussion. Closer and title track ‘Western Sun’ still has a healthy dose of crunch, but is altogether lighter on its feet, Bell’s vocals riding  on the instrumentation’s propulsive current rather than enveloped by it. Say it quietly, but the release might just end on a hopeful note. Past mistakes and bad choices feel like chances to learn rather than sentences to future doom, and may perhaps work out for the best after all. “All hail the Western sun,” Bell sings, “I left you for someone / Didn’t know it at the time, didn’t wanna make you mine.”

Western Sun is out now via Rue Defense and available from the Solid Blood Bandcamp page.

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