Last year, East Vancouver post-punks Aversions put out the full-length You Wanted The Bike, an album which “combine[d] heavyweight riffs, pounded percussion and acerbic vocals to comment on our contemporary moment,” as we put it in a preview. Songs like ‘Undecider‘ channelled this raw energy into a sound of “anxiety and latent violence, drawing on a whole host of political and social themes in three and a half minutes of Strummer-esque polit-punk.” Recorded at the same time as that album but not quite sitting right among the rest of the tracks, latest single ‘Wormhole’ sees the three-piece reaching further afield for their stylistic influences, dialling back some of the ferocity to allow in alt-country sensibilities. But the lyrics are as cutting and contemporary as ever, charting the rise and fall of an internet personality who, after selling their soul for recognition, is left lonely on the other side of fame, banging the locked door leading back to normal life.

Blue Canopy x A Beacon School – Bright Spot II

When Blue Canopy‘s Alex Schiff asked Patrick Smith of A Beacon School to remix single ‘Bright Spot’ after its release back in 2022, he probably didn’t quite expect the level of collaboration and vision which followed. Fast-forward eighteen months and the result has now been released as a single via Grind Select. ‘Bright Spot II’ is not so much a remix as a reimagining, a sister track which drags a cover of darkness over the original’s sunny wistfulness, carving out a nocturnal space of electronics which further amplifies the themes of regret and longing in a song about facing difficult periods with a long-term partner. “I just wanted everything to be OK between us,” Schiff explains, “and this song sorts through my feelings throughout that time, hoping for a resolution.”

The song comes complete with a video by Ebony Davies with additional edits from Chase Wagner:

‘Bright Spot II’ is out now via Grind Select and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The Dead Tongues – Body of Light

“Baby there ain’t no rules here / we can just slide / keep bending and drawing new lines / all shapes defined.” So opens ‘Body of Light’, the title track from one half of the upcoming double record from Ryan Gustafson’s The Dead Tongues on Psychic Hotline. Described as a pair of “interweaving and disparate albums,” the release embraces the diaphanous, intangible sentiment offered in those opening words, refusing to calcify into solid form in favour of something ephemeral. As the lead single suggests, the result is something intuitive and ever-shifting, mapped along the unseen currents of both our own interiors and the natural world. “Maybe you don’t know what to call it,” as Gustafson sings, “or it ain’t got a name / i’m here for it all just the same / all colors and shades / i’m just a body of light.” Watch the video by Gustafson and Cat Siravantha below:

Body of Light will be released digitally on the 14th June, and physically as a double album with I Am A Cloud on the 9th August via Psychic Hotline. Pre-order it now.

dog eyes – fair

dog eyes is the recording project of Oakland‘s Davis Leach and Haily Firstman which started when Leach helped produce Firstman’s previous project Mr Marigold. The pair soon realised their collaborative chemistry could stretch much further. Following on from the earnest, delightfully lo-fi debut good, proper sendoff on Grand Jury Music, new single ‘fair’ continues to develop the dog eyes sound. A track about friendship and its strange ebb and flow, the childlike wonder of the vocals is shaded by a lingering wistfulness, as though every perfect moment foreshadows its inevitable end. “When you’re a kid and you make a new friend you think they’ll be your friend forever and often they are not, the band explain. “They were there for a season. A love or crush can be the same.” Watch the video directed by Ev Fitzpatrick below:

‘fair’ is out now and available from the dogs eyes Bandcamp page.

Joy Guidry – I Will Always Miss You

Writing in March, we described how Brooklyn-based bassoonist and composer Joy Guidry was releasing new album AMEN via Whited Sepulchre Records, where Guidry experiments with the multitude of Black American music styles to create something new. Previous single ‘Members Don’t Get Weary’ combined jazz and gospel music into something impassioned and triumphant, whereas new track ‘I Will Always Miss You’ takes an entirely different path. Built upon a foundation of lush ambient synths and boasting some of the most evocative bassoon you are likely to hear, the instrumental piece offers a meditative space that’s rooted within the wider experience of life—where mourning and joy marble into a single whole.

Lake Michigan – Rituals

Described as an album about “love, OCD, class, addiction and probably a couple of other things too,” La Madrugada is the latest full-length release from Mexico City-based Lake Michigan on Start-track. The record continues the project’s gloomy, intimate bedroom pop style, with arrangements stripped back to their sparest elements to sound like raw messages as voiced in the latest hours of the night. Focusing on OCD and the general unease so intrinsic to the condition, single ‘Rituals’ is great entry point, its vocals emerging through the lo-fi sound as barely a murmur, heavy with weariness yet afraid of relaxing, as though compelled by the need to balance the world.

Mr. Sam and the People People – Go People Go (Part One)

This summer sees the release of Again! Again!, the new full-length album from New Orleans-based songwriting project Mr. Sam and the People People on Tape Dad (distributed by Gar Hole Records). Opening single ‘Go Baby Go (Part One)’ introduces the compassionate tone with a mindful reflection on the beauty inherent in simple things. Mr. Sam Gelband’s vocals land somewhere between Dean Johnson and Frederick Squires in their fond baritone. “I wrote ‘Go Baby Go’ to honor […] my closest people, the lake, the porch, the mountain, the shoreline, the neighbourhood, the quiet moments with myself,” Mr. Sam describes. “I know now that these things are the keepers of my truest joy, and I thank them.” Watch the video by Mayme O’Toole and Sam Gelband below:

Again! Again! is out via Tape Dad on the 11th June and available for pre-order now.

shn shn – Glimmer

We’ve covered the work of shn shn several times in recent years, always admiring how Toronto-based producer, singer-songwriter and creator Shanika Lewis-Waddell reimagines what the project might be with each release. “[shn shn] aims to do more than merely convince the listener to examine themselves,” we wrote of Form(s) last year. “Rather, it allows them to drift off to new frontiers. That is, to dream.” With its expansive ambient tones and idiosyncratic details, new single ‘Glimmer’ furthers this aesthetic. A meditation on the power of patience and understatement which coalesces into something quietly triumphant. “Building up gradually,” Lewis-Waddell sings, “unexpectedly found myself /so close yet so far / to a glimmer of hope.”

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Then came EP e.strange.d in 2021, where single ‘maladaptive daydreams’ signified Lewis-Waddell’s constant efforts to adapt and experiment. “A newfound warmth emerges from the dawning ambient tones,” as we put it, “and the pattering background details infuse the song with energy too. The result is an evocative blend of movement and stillness, like contemplating something as it shifts before you, holding tight as it changes in your arms.”

shn shn has now returned with Form(s), a three-song EP which again pushes the boundaries and expectations of what the project might sound like. A reimagining of a piece commissioned for the augmented reality app ‘A More Beautiful Journey’, the EP offers a space for self-awareness and self-fulfillment via lush soundscapes. Though from the early swells of ‘first light’ and the slow build which follows, it becomes clear the project aims to do more than merely convince the listener to examine themselves. Rather, it allows them to drift off to new frontiers. That is, to dream.

‘one after another’ is minimal electronic track which furthers this experience, layering harmonies and synths and ensuring an easy current with restrained beats. The vocals come to represent something of a mantra, pulling the listener in and sinking them into whatever world they might have been taken to. Working in the knowledge that the audience it fully immersed, the hushed tone of ‘IAWIA’ belies the detail at its heart, with what feels like an entire ecosystem of flittering, glimmering elements revealing themselves alongside Lewis-Waddell’s spoken word delivery.

Form(s) is out now and available from the shn shn Bandcamp page.

Album Art by Sentient Design

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With follow up EP e.strange.d on the horizon, shn shn has unveiled a brand new single, ‘maladaptive daydreams’. Though rooted in the styles of structura, the track experiments with new elements to ensure the sound is ever changing. A newfound warmth emerges from the dawning ambient tones, and the pattering background details infuse the song with energy too. The result is an evocative blend of movement and stillness, like contemplating something as it shifts before you, holding tight as it changes in your arms.

Why don’t stay here
why don’t you stay here with me?

Album art by SMMYTRY, photo by Mashal Khan

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Produced, performed, arranged and partially mixed by Maria herself, forthcoming EP structura highlights her versatility as a musician and creator. Turning to ambient pop and beat making, the release is one of cinematic soundscapes and sparse, sleek vocals, the cooly hypnotic rhythm a world away from the organic grit of Subtle Uncertainties.

Two singles serve as the perfect introduction into this new world. With its detailed, shimmering tones, ‘melt’ pulls the listener into a surreal soundscape. Sparkling synths pepper the sound, eventually congregating around the rhythmic pulse at the heart of the track,  coalescing into a palpable flow without sacrificing its incorporeal form.

Offering a more spacious, reflective sound, second single ‘essence’ swaps out some of the bright intricacies in favour of brooding ambient tones. The beat too has an extra weight, lending the track a half-paced motion, a kind of haunted float through which the vocals emerge.  The uncertain and atmospheric sound is the perfect counterpoint to ‘melt’, and shows how even within the shn shn project, Maria is an artist always looking for a new dimension to explore.

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