“Employ[s] the apocalyptic tones of Waits and Cohen at their darkest to explore the dangerous present. A world that feels unwell, with climate collapse, rising fascism, televised genocide and a whole manner of other symptoms racking a planet in the vice grip of whatever stage of capitalism we’ve passed into now.” So we wrote last month of All That’s Solid Melts Into Air, the forthcoming album from Winnipeg-born, New York-based songwriter Devon Church. The title track paired stark Biblical imagery with earnest emotion, and latest single ‘Fall Like Lightning’ continues the style. One which sees pessimism and hope exist simultaneously, a spirit tied to the overtly leftist position of the record as whole. The album notes aptly describe the song as “a kind of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ for dejected denizens of the internet,” railing against the myriad of contemporary curses brought forth by capitalism’s iron grip, as well as the false prophets who have risen within this milieu, promising the world while grinding us under their boots.

The track also comes with a video, filmed by Ada Roth, edited by Danny Scales and directed by Church himself. Watch it below:

All That’s Solid Melts Into Air will be released on the 7th November and you can pre-order it from the Devon Church Bandcamp page.

Dwi Riana – Dysphoria

Next year Dwi Riana will release her debut full-length Songs from the Yellow Couch, and the Toronto-based songwriter has been releasing singles in recent weeks to offer a preview. Most recently ‘Springtime‘, a song which evoked, as we put it, “the thaw after a long winter where the possibility of growth and love becomes real again.” Now Riana has returned with ‘Dysphoria’, a track which explores the ongoing experience of gender dysphoria via a mix of bossa-nova, indie jazz and folk influences. “I initially wrote this song as a very short interlude for my album, with no hook, just the bossa guitar and one verse. After playing it more, I developed it into a full song and it turned into this indie-jazz version,” Riana explains. “We wanted to create a feeling of controlled chaos, using dissonance and blending differing sounds together to add to the theme of dysphoria.”

Fealty – Walking on Hands

Thad Kopec has been putting out music for years under his own name, the Nashville artist flitting between styles and genres with each passing release and slowly building up a significant back catalogue that covers everything from ornate indie rock to hushed folk and digital pop. However, such a history gets heavy after a while, and Kopec found himself itching for the freedom of a fresh start. Hence Fealty, a brand new project which sees him turn over production duties for the first time as Bennett Littlejohn takes the reins, allowing for a newfound focus solely on performance. After a self-titled EP earlier in the year, Fealty is now back with new single ‘Walking on Hands’. A song of equal parts intimacy and invention, where Kopec’s renewed drive and curiosity are on full show for all to see.

‘Walking on Hands’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Howling Bells – Heavy Lifting

Hailing from Sydney and now based in London, Howling Bells made a name for themselves in the mid-aughties with a dark, brooding and often cinematic style of indie rock, releasing a string of albums which reached out towards folk, krautrock and various other influences too. After the release of Heartstrings back in 2014, the band went quiet for over a decade, but have now announced their return in 2026 with new full-length, Strange Life. The album not only breaks the hiatus but reflects on it, as shown by latest single ‘Heavy Lifting’. “A hazy and grunge-fuelled declaration,” as lead Juanita Stein puts it. “Like anyone who’s worked at the thing they love tirelessly, you build up great resilience. The callouses on your hands, the muscles you’ve strengthened, the swagger in your stride. ‘Heavy Lifting’ is a song about the thousands of miles you walk to acquire this kind of confidence; this is not anything that can be stripped away from you.” Watch the video directed by Orlando Cubitt below:

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

Living Hour – Texting

“A song, like The Weakerthans’ ‘One Great City!’ before it, which uses the dismal skies and cityscape of Winnipeg as a kind of mirror, evoking a personal lethargy and lack of colour […] But for all of its sombre gloom, the track refuses to settle within the leaden environment, each chorus like an upward grasp towards something brighter in the hope of piercing the clouds.” So we wrote of ‘Best I Did It’ from Living Hour‘s new album Internal Drone Infinity a few weeks ago, a song indicative of the band’s ability to excavate the magical from the mundane. With the album out now via Keeled Scales (US), Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia), the outfit have unveiled a video for the track ‘Texting’, a track which continues the mood. “‘Texting’ is written from this really mundane but intimate point of view of trying to explain Winnipeg to someone over text,” explains lyricist Sam Sarty. “In the winter, everything disappears in the snow, but when the snow melts, we’re left with the mosaic of shit. I keep a list on my phone of things I see on the sidewalk: garbage that breaks my heart or situations that I try to explain, either to myself or over text—that blue bubble carrying my thoughts somewhere else.”

Watch the video filmed by Eden Carter below:

Internal Drone Infinity is out now via Keeled Scales, Paper Bag Records (Canada) and Beloved Records (Australia). Order a copy now from the Living Hour Bandcamp page.

The Michigans – Spring Ahead (Fall In Line)

Consisting of Jeff Mensch (guitar, vocals), Jessica Keuskamp (drums, vocals) and Patrick Greer (bass), The Michigans are a brand new indie rock outfit out of New Jersey channelling the spirit of their Northeastern forebears. As debut single ‘Spring Ahead (Fall In Line)’ attests, fans of the like of Yo La Tengo, Dinosaur Jr. and our old favourites Oxford Collapse would be advised to take notice. The track is executed with the kind of confidence most new projects could only dream of, slowly shapeshifting from the jangling brightness of the front half into something heavier and hazier as psych influences descend like a fog. But regardless of where you find yourself in the song, you can bet on the thrilling sense of forward motion to be barrelling onwards, giving everything an infectious, affirming tone that’s only elevated by the singalong vocals.

More Like Shadows – Hive Mind

Recording under the moniker More Like Shadows, Toronto‘s Jordan Allen combines music and visual art to form his own unique aesthetic. Raw, lo-fi indie rock and collage-based visuals meet and intertwine, each element as playful and inventive as the other. New album Vacation Mode was released earlier this month, and single ‘Hive Mind’ serves as the perfect intro to the project for anyone unfamiliar. What Allen describes as “a song about the mindsets and 10-step programs of media addiction, the collective yearning for uprising, and the job market economy comment section wishlists of now,” it manages to capture the wiry spirit of classic post-punk while offering a more muscular dimension too, all tied together by vocals which phase between sardonic and sincere. “Can we eat the rich? / I just think we’ve had enough of their bullshit,” as Allen asks in one verse, a line wryly humorous for sure, but not without its hopeful sentiment.

Pearla – To Love Something

We last featured Pearla back in 2023, including the album Oh Glistening Onion, The Nighttime Is Coming among our favourite releases of the year. A record where “playful whimsy and unfiltered introspection are kept in check by a certain self-awareness,” as we wrote, “though cannot help but tend towards the potential of some higher mystery,” and thus marking the project as one which “works in awe of life’s mysteries, determined to see the beautiful and the surreal rise above the grind of the everyday.” The first new release since Oh Glistening Onion, new single ‘To Love Something’ builds upon this style with care and grace, again searching for those small details which lift an otherwise mundane existence into something significant. The track is the first taste of a promised full-length set for release sometime next year, and everything points to the record being one to watch out for over the coming months.

‘To Love Something’ is out now and available from Bandcamp.

since torino – reunion dinner

Earlier in the year we let you know Sheffield‘s since torino were preparing to release their debut EP, describing ‘transatlantic flight song’ as the perfect entry point to the project. “Opening with a restrained hush, the song sets out a quiet, reflective mood, combining organ and murmured vocals to create an easy meandering fondness, and gradually develops to push the mood further,” we wrote. “First with glitched guitars and eventually sweeps of violin, all working together to create a song which aches with the fondness of nostalgic contemplation.” The EP, which it turns out is titled reunion dinner, is now available, and the title track embodies its ornate literary folk rock style. Another slow burner, the song draws the audience in with the muted quiet of the opening before blooming with the introduction of horns and strings. But it resists the temptation to puncture the overriding restraint to create a wistful, decidedly autumnal air.

Sweet Nobody – Forget Me

“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.” So we wrote back in September of the Long Beach, California-based band Sweet Nobody, single ‘Revenge‘ giving a glimpse at new full-length Driving Off to Nowhere. With the album’s release only weeks away via Repeating Cloud, Sweet Nobody are back with new track ‘Forget Me’. The song is heavier and darker than its predecessor, switching out the sunny indie pop energy for something more clouded and stormy. But for all of its shadowy tones and brooding weight, the prevailing mood is one of catharsis. As though across the track a sense of conviction develops, a decision to voice those things unsaid and let go of the past.

Tara Kannangara – Here We Are Again (From Alice Is Fine)

Back in 2024, we wrote about Extraordinary People, the EP by Sri Lankan–Canadian songwriter and musician Tara Kannangara, describing how the JUNO-nominated artist draws on classical training and jazz sensibilities to push synth pop in new directions. Written for the short film Alice Is Fine, new single ‘Here We Are Again’ is no less evocative or inventive. A track Kannangara describes as “an indie pop song about the repressed rage of not being believed,” able to offer both intimate hush and big, bold defiance. The film follows a female protagonist who decides to stand up for herself against a doctor who dismisses her pain, and ‘Here We Are Again’ gives the scenario all the fury and catharsis it warrants.

‘Here We Are Again’ is out now and available from the usual places.

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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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We’ve covered  Bergen-based songwriter Bo Milli several times in recent months. Most recently with ‘Making Friends’, which we described as “a track which charts the rollercoaster ride of young life through the prism of a hectic night out, capturing a sense of both the carefree abandon and creeping loneliness of late nights, new faces and a sense of endless possibility.” Latest track ‘I’m In’ is equally varied in its peaks and troughs, starting out as a wistful pop number but soon morphing into something bigger, charging things with an indie rock momentum reminiscent of The Beths.

C.O.F.F.I.N – Factory Man

When the drummer is the lead vocalist you know things are going to get hectic. Enter Sydney’s C.O.F.F.I.N, a four-piece rock band who’re here to burn through their frustrations with new full-length Australia Stops. A joint release between Damaged Record Co (Australia), Bad Vibrations (Europe) and Goner Records (North America), the album positions C.O.F.F.I.N as another key member of the furious, glorious generation of rockers emerging from Down Under, joining country mates Last Quokka in their twin motivations of castigating the political landscape and driving social change through sheer momentum. Take single ‘Factory Man’, a rock song in the classic sense, looking shake off the shackles and smash some skulls with its heft and energy.

But when the lights went out
With no rest to give us warning
Machinery ran red
I ain’t living
I ain’t loving
Or hearing your humming song oh no
It’s the stabbed silent of the wish you pled

Watch the video edited by Ben Portnoy below, with Gasometer footage filmed by Zoe Mulcahy, Lansdowne footage by Schooner:

Australia Stops is out now and available from the C.O.F.F.I.N Bandcamp page.

Duffy x Uhlmann – Etch

Duffy x Ulhmann, the new project of Meg Duffy (Hand Habits) and Gregory Uhlmann, have recently released their debut album Doubles on Orindal Records. An exercise in improvisation built entirely on trust, the record sees the duo lay down patient yet detailed guitar-based duets, and the result is something organic in the way only true intimacy could manage. Single ‘Etch’ is the perfect example, a track shorn of any ostentation to sound entirely natural, as though its gentle rhythms existed long before Duffy x Uhlmann set them down with their guitars. The result invites the audience not so much into the same room as the musicians as the very relationship between them, offering small glimpses of a mutual exchange perpetually ongoing.

Doubles is out now via Orindal Records and available from Bandcamp.

Gabriel Birnbaum – Above A Forest With A House That’s On Fire

Songwriter, producer and composer Gabriel Birnbaum (of Wilder Maker) is preparing to unveil the latest installation of his solo Nightwater project, All the Dead Do is Dream, on Western Vinyl. Nightwater started as a self-applied antidote to election anxiety, with Birnbaum using a Tascam 4-track as a vehicle of escape from the growing dread of the twenty-four hour news cycle. And just as these long nocturnal hours offered relief from terror to the artist, the resulting art came to take on a similar form too. Ambient soundscapes intended to serve a functional purpose, a space into which the listener can submerge themselves away from the surrounding world. All the Dead Do is Dream continues this practice, a sleep aid which looks to tap into pacifying patterns of breathing, and single ‘Above A Forest With A House That’s On Fire’ typifies the mindful, hypnagogic mood.

Watch the visualiser by Jules Evens below which furthers the therapeutic value of the track by reinforcing the breathing rhythms:

Nightwater | All the Dead Do is Dream is out via Western Vinyl on the 3rd November and you pre-order it now.

Montañera – Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista

Earlier this month we featured ‘Un Día Voy a Ser Mariposa‘, the first single from Montañera‘s new album, A Flor De Piel, coming this November (alaso on Western Vinyl). “A track of layered details and searching emotion which seems to be always reaching for some higher plane,” as we put it, taken from a record “of quasi-dreamscapes which push at the borders of reality, drawing the listener into surreal new worlds.” The London-based Colombian artist has now shared second single ‘Tú – El Borde de Mi Arista’, a song which again pushes into ethereal tones while always remaining anchored in the intimacy of María Mónica Gutiérrez’s vocals.

A Flor De Piel is out on the 17th November and you can pre-order it now from the Montañera Bandcamp page.

Otracami – Fold

The first glimpse her debut full-length touching the stove coil, Otracami‘s new single ‘Fold’ is an examination of the contortions people sometimes put themselves through to try to fit into a relationship. The project of New York-based Camila Ortiz, Otracami is an outlet for personal exploration, its songs delving back into the past and untying its knots, attempting to make peace with the present. ‘Fold’ is the perfect example, an almost time-travel style journey back to a very specific moment (Ortiz leaves a party, rides the bus, climbs the stairs to her partner’s apartment) and the swirling thoughts and anxieties that it held.

Watch the video by Sai Tripathi below:

‘Fold’ is out now and available via the Otracami Bandcamp page.

Pony Girl – Highways

Just over a month out from the release of their new record, Laff It Off, Canadian art pop duo Pony Girl have unveiled new single ‘Highways’. The song uses roads as a metaphor for the sense of endless possibility and interconnection experienced when you fall for someone new, what the band describe as “expanding roads of connection that stretch out through time.” Musically it’s lush and dreamy like a night-time drive at the heart of summer, the smooth and sparkly chorus emphasising the themes of heartsick romanticism.

Check out Stephanie Kuse‘s animated video below:

Laff It Off comes out via Paper Bag Records on 27th October. Pre-order it now from the Pony Girl Bandcamp page.

vireo – Big Elsewhere

How many great works of art have been created in the impatient lull of waiting for a pizza? That’s the origin story of ‘Big Elsewhere’, the latest single from Vireo, which was written as a game during a delayed delivery while lead Chris Beaulieu and Suzanne Gomes were cooped up in quarantine. “We each chose a single note or a small melodic phrase to layer on top of each other,” Beaulieu describes. “Then we added a chord progression on top and took turns writing vocal melodies.” Homemade percussion came next (think wooden spoons and mason jars), followed by lyrics, and finally the whole thing was run through a salvaged reel-to-reel tape recorder for just that little extra DIY character. The result is beautiful, despite (or perhaps because of) its humble beginnings.

‘Big Elsewhere’ is out now via streaming services.

Wurld Series – Lord of Shelves

Later this autumn, Aotearoa/New Zealand indie rockers Wurld Series will release The Giant’s Lawn, a brand new record on Meritorio Records and Melted Ice Cream. The record promises to see the band explore new avenues, adding mystical nods to oddball psych and left-field folk, what the press release calls “earthen psychedelia, off-grid community folk, and highly bookish, antipodean snock.” Opening track ‘The Giant’s Lawn Part I’ embraces this weirdness from the off, a rambling, jazzy folk song that feels like meeting a mysterious stranger on a woodland path. But lead single ‘Lord of the Shelves’ is very much the Wurld Series we’ve come to expect, a Flying Nun-style indie rock song that shows the band haven’t abandoned their core foundations.

The post Weekly Listening: September 2023 #4 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The concept is fitting for a project which so overtly straddles the old and new. Hot Apple Band draw from right across modern music history in weaving their sound, from the sixties pop of The Beatles through classic seventies country right up to contemporary acts like Drugdealer and Weyes Blood, knitting these threads into something distinctively new. Take latest single ‘So Long’, where duelling electric guitars and honky tonk piano exude a languid confidence and the retro golden polish is matched only by the intuitive fun of the sound.

The easygoing vibe might be explained by the song’s origin tale. “Lou and I recorded this at my place when I was living in Strathfield. It’s actually the last track we recorded for the album because it wasn’t meant to be on there,” Kinder told Pilerats. “We have another acoustic version of the song that was meant to be the only version and this is what we played live.” But true to the spirit of Hot Apple Band, the live version won out, and now serves as the ideal introduction to what makes the outfit so special. Watch the video shot on camcorder by Fabian Svejkar and edited by Sarah Pilbeam:

So Long, Noodle House is out via Third Eye Stimuli Records and Earth Libraries on the 24th November and you can pre-order it now.

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With album Catastrophe Darling out now, California trio Artemisia have unveiled new single ‘Spider’ as a window into their sound. Finding inspiration in everything from Appalachian mountain music to the vivid synths of eighties movie soundtracks, the band conjure songs somehow both organic and ethereal, and ‘Spider’ serves as the perfect example. Born upon seeing the titular creature weave a web over their harp, the track hones in on the intricate splendour of nature, emerging as something as delicate and dreamlike, transporting the listener into a space between the real and the spiritual, where nature takes on an exalted status and beauty and sorrow are one and the same.

Catastrophe Darling is out now and available from the Artemisia Bandcamp page.

Beryl – All Things

Consisting of Gabriela King and Alex Jasprizza, Sydney-based art folk duo Beryl are preparing to release album Dry Peel Crack in the coming months, and latest single ‘All Things’ introduces the central themes. It’s a picture of a relationship crumbling and a lesson in learning to accept the fact, something captured in everything from King’s compassionate croon to the album artwork itself. Blain Cunneen (Julia Jacklin) joins the pair on guitar, bass and drums, helping to bring to life a sound at once melancholic and fond.

Carlos Truly – Much 2 Much

Aside from being a founding member of Ava Luna and a collaborator with the likes of Frankie Cosmos and Princess Nokia, Brooklyn‘s Carlos Hernandez also records solo under the moniker Carlos Truly. Released via Bayonet Records, 2022’s Not Mine highlighted his sleek, ever-inventive brand of pop, and new single ‘Much 2 Much’ continues the play with new directions. Again on Bayonet, the track is the funkiest ode to life’s habit of overwhelming us you’re ever likely to hear. “Not to be too much of a bellyacher,” as Hernandez says, “but sometimes you just want to yell about it.” But loose-limbed and full of swagger, the song is anything but angry, playing like the soundtrack to a late 80s/early 90s city caper where a luckless protagonist can’t help but be the coolest guy around. Watch the video with cinematography by Stefanie Santana below:

‘Much 2 Much’ us out now via Bayonet Records.

Diners – Someday I’ll Go Surfing

Diners, the recording project of Blue Broderick, might have made a name with a dreamy sound straight out of the halcyon sixties, but new record DOMINO looks to skip ahead a decade and lean into unapologetic rock. The album is out via Bar/None Records later this month, and new single ‘Someday I’ll Go Surfing’ sees the shift towards newfound energy occurring in real time. A surf pop jam whipped up beyond the languid nostalgia of the genre, choosing instead to set its eyes on the horizon. “‘Someday I’ll Go Surfing’ isn’t exclusively about surfing,” as Broderick confirms, “but rather confronting the unknown and moving on to the next big thing.”

Eldridge Rodriguez – The Strange Things That Happen to People

We’ve followed the work of Eldridge Rodriguez for the past few years, describing recent work as “capturing the strange blend of panic, depression and monotony” with “a tone somewhere between fondness and weariness which builds its own urgent compassion.” With new album Atrophy coming next month, the band have shared single ‘The Strange Things That Happen to People’, continuing the evocative mood of the previous releases by facing up to the accumulated regrets of life. “You burn a lot of bridges when you’re young because you think you’re king shit,” explains lead Cameron Keiber. “You get older and self reflective and you want to repair a lot of the damage you’ve done. I suppose it’s a call to be aware of your surroundings throughout life, really. It’s hard but then you wouldn’t have to make amends later.”

Intac – Strange Soles

“Strange souls / Comin’ out the woodwork / Lookin’ for some good work / Before we go to town.” So goes ‘Strange Soles’, the latest single from Somerville, MA artist Intac. The self-described “Digital Americana / Cyber Folk” artist descends from the likes of kissed her little sister, laying a bed of easy-going pop beats upon which to build a world both slightly surreal and tangibly emotive. For within the languid summer swagger rises a mist of nostalgic longing, a sensation which hangs over things long after the track has faded off over the horizon.

jer – portland, ca

Having featured in a variety of bands across his home of Portland, Jeremy Murphy has become a familiar face in the local scene, though it is only now he’s stepping out into the limelight alone for a solo release under the moniker jer. Out via Bud Tapes, the self-titled album took shape over a number of years before Murphy travelled to Philadelphia to mix the accumulated songs with Nathan Tucker (Strange Ranger, Cool Original). The result, as shown by single ‘portland, ca’, offers a distinctively personal statement from an artist finally in total creative control. Where authentic sincerity is achieved by mixing lo-fi bedroom sensibilities with the polish of indie pop.

Large Brush Collection – Tell Me Again

With debut album Off Center scheduled for release in January 2024, Austin-based folk rock outfit Large Brush Collection have shared their first single, ‘Tell Me Again’. A picture of a child-parent relationship painted in all of its conflicted complexity, where failed expectations and the baggage of the past is counterbalanced by a persistent love, leading a cycle of friction exhausting for all involved. Lead Nora Predey approaches the subject with tender care, pulling no punches in their assessment of the situation while acknowledging the bonds that still remain. “[My mom has] been trapped in a cycle of conflict with me and with herself,” as Predey explains. “I feel a lot of frustration and pain from our relationship, but a lot of love towards her too.”

Ribs – Claws

Originating as a solo piano-led project of Boorloo/Perth-based musician Georgina Cramond, Ribs has now morphed into a full-fledged indie pop band ideally suited to Cramond’s searching, affirming style. With a focus on both dealing with and recovering from trauma, new track ‘Claws’ is an encapsulation of the Ribs aesthetic, its weighty sound offering a marbled image of vulnerability and strength to explore themes of intimate partner violence. “Growing claws is about learning what you will no longer accept,” Cramond explains of the song’s repeated refrain, “how anger can be a protective and productive force, and regaining control over the jagged parts of your history.”

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

The Sizzos – No Big Sky

Led by singer-songwriter George Zaninovich, Eugene-based outfit The Sizzos have just released their latest record Glitter in Gravel, and single ‘No Big Sky’ is the ideal point to jump in. An ethereal combination of indie folk, classic rock and new wave as wide as the desert heavens, though its themes are altogether more grounded. An attempt to find meaning and solace amid personal loss which evokes the album’s title in its search for brightness within an otherwise bleak milieu. “Like winter clouds under cement and steel / Today I’m grey but I keep moving,” as Zaninovich sings, casting the listener alongside the song’s burdened narrator. “And like a sinner vows to love and to heal / Today I pray but you do the choosing.”

yfjesse x Old Man of the Woods – Wednesdays

We’ve long celebrated the work of Seattle-based artist Old Man of the Woods, most recently with album Votives on Totally Real Records. A dream pop album which offered “a collision of reality and unreality, or rather a disintegration of the boundary between the two.” Miranda Elliott has now teamed up with Portland producer yfjesse for new track ‘Wednesdays’, a song which takes the Old Man of the Woods sound and blows it up into lush widescreen, the sound seductive in its languorous rhythms but full of elaborate detail too. A style fitting for a track which takes on the pleasures and pitfalls of a fickle summertime tryst.

‘Wednesdays’ is out now via Totally Real Records and available from the usual places.

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Not every song on the record moves in such a clearly affirming direction, but each holds the idea as a possibility even when agency is stripped away. Written while a close friend was dealing with a difficult situation, ‘The Way Back‘ “faces up to suffering with a steely determination,” we we put it previously, “urging anyone struggling to hold on a little longer until the clouds begin to break.” The vulnerability and directionlessness of unguarded opener ‘So Small’ seeks answers to correct the situation, and ‘Dark Spell’ goes as far as to invite pain so as to speed up the process of working through the end of a relationship.

I never took it all too well
You watched me wither
Under your dark, dark spell

So break me and tell me what hurts

Stemming from an all-too common brush with a disrespectful man, ‘Buffet‘ also deals with a sense of powerlessness, though refuses to settle for the usual consequences of such imbalances. “The resulting track simmers with competing energies,” we we wrote in a preview. “The writhing discomfort of the experience matched only by an ever-present anger now brought to the boil.” It’s perhaps the most explicit example of the indignant bite which runs through Ainsley Farrell’s work. Fury as “an attempt to reverse the situation,” as we concluded, “[to] draw power from the music and regain the agency which is chipped away day by day.”

‘Motel 6’ exists within a more nuanced yet no less sticky situation with a man. One where the narrator is unsure whether they want the attention or not. “I saw the smoke from your breath turn to poetry / The light you blew burned through a silence in me,” Farrell sings in her deftly precise manner. “You gave me my first kiss in a Motel 6 / So young just dying to be part of it.” The wistful yet bright closer ‘Oblivion’ rises from amid all of these tales of doubt and darkness, perhaps possessing little by way of answers, but leavened enough by the experiences to float above the tumult and find something like reflection.

If I vaporize before your eyes
Would you cool my molecules as they start to rise?
Watch me shake this cloud is gonna break
See me swirl and let down all my weight

Don’t cry I’m moving on
Don’t cry when I’m gone

Dirt is out now and available from the Ainsley Farrell Bandcamp page.

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The US-born, Sydney-based songwriter is gearing up to release a full-length album later this year, and has released another single, ‘Fireworks’, to offer a glimpse at yet another dimension of her work. It’s a track which fits into the indie rock lineage of Dacus and Bridgers, confessional in its tone and cathartic in practice, holding up vulnerabilities as a way in which to conquer them.

This time Ainsley Farrell takes a disorientating experience on the fourth of July in Rhode Island and reworks the scene to speak to such ideas. “I was working through some sadness and anxiety but forced myself to go out to see the fireworks with friends,” she explains. “We were biking down the river path thick with smoke when I lost them. I paused in the thick smoke and couldn’t see anything else around me. I could only hear the sound of the fireworks going off in the night sky and imagined what it would feel like to burn that bright.”

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Arlo Sun is the moniker of Canadian Erin Bolton, whose music draws on powers both astral and spiritual, as well as the deep ancient energy of the natural world. The Arlo part of the project’s name is a Gaelic word meaning “between two hills,” a reference to the valley of peace and perspective that Bolton creates with her music. Latest single ‘Forwards Motion’ is no different. An emotive song that feels at once weightless and quietly substantial, offering no empty platitudes but instead preaching a steadfast belief in the importance of hanging on through difficult times and putting one foot in front of the other no matter what. “Written while floating just above the relentless undercurrent of hope, this song is more applicable to me now than it was when I wrote it,” Bolton describes. “‘Forwards Motion’ begs you to look at yourself and the path you’ve taken, forks and all.”

‘Forwards Motion’ is out now and available from the Arlo Sun Bandcamp page.

Ellen Soffe x Aodhan – Tomb of the Prince

Ellen Soffe is a songwriter from Sydney whose work feels like the next step in the rich lineage of fellow Antipodean artists (i.e. Julia Jacklin, Aldous Harding, Tiny Ruins). A skilled guitarist, she played her first gig while still at school, and since then developed a distinctive vocal style and the knack for capturing raw emotion. Described as “a dreamy, meditative journey through lost love and the mythology of a fallen prince,” her debut single ‘Tomb of the Prince’ sees Soffe joined by young Dhawaral artist Aodhan. It’s a languid and tender folk-tinged pop song which captures the warm golden hour glow of a summer evening perfectly. Watch the video below:

‘Tomb of the Prince’ is out now and available via streaming services.

Fairy Tales In Yoghourt – Mania

Fairy Tales in Yoghourt is the solo recording project of Nantes-based Benoît Guchet. A self-confessed control freak, Guchet took his time to create Shape Mistakes, the project’s debut album which came out earlier this month. He has spent the last twelve years playing in other bands (such as Bantam Lyons, Yes Basketball, Classe Mannequin), and struggled to find the time to make his own release as perfect as he wanted. But he eventually managed it, and it’s fair to say it was worth the wait. A distinctive blend of psych folk and chilled-out indie rock, the record feels very much the product of one creative mind, unshackled by limitations or the expectations of others. Lead single ‘Mania’ kicks things off, an off-kilter folk pop song that features layers of guitars, beguiling melodies and a sense of brave forward motion.

Hannah Frances – Honey, Hear Me

Back in 2021, Chicago-based songwriter Hannah Frances released her fifth record Bedrock, an album of raw emotion and considerable storytelling. Next month, Ghost Mountain Records are re-releasing the album on cassette, giving anyone who missed it first time around another chance to put that right. Single ‘Honey, Hear Me’ is as good an introduction as any, showing off Frances’ signature guitar work and vehement songwriting. As the opening track of a record Frances describes as “a fountain of intentionality,” which “offer[s] rawness with reverence,” ‘Honey, Hear Me’ feels like something of a mission statement, a bold pledge towards directness and honesty.

learning to not be alone
to be known and sewn with a thread
other than my own
singing with the birds who know
of bravery

Madi Diaz, S.G. Goodman & Joy Oladokun – Be Careful

When Roe Vs Wade was overturned earlier this year, LA songwriter Madi Diaz found herself thinking of Patty Griffin’s song ‘Be Careful’. “It became a mantra of strength that was playing consistently in the back of my heart and mind day in and day out, gently encouraging me to keep putting one foot in front of the other,” she describes. “It became a sort of battle cry directed toward anyone that wants to take away my rights to my own body and my reproductive freedom.” Diaz got together with her friend Morgan Elizabeth Peirce and the pair wrote a new final verse, bringing the song right into the present.

For all the reasons that are ours to know
It’s my choice and I’m not alone

For every man who’s standing next to me
For queer and trans and non-binary
For everybody with their own body
I will meet you all out in the street

Diaz is joined on the track by S.G. Goodman and Joy Oladokun, who each sing a verse, and Courtney Marie Andrews and Savana Santos also provide backing vocals. You can listen to the cover below:

‘Be Careful’ is out now and available from the Madi Diaz Bandcamp page.

Molly Murphy – Salt for Witches

Now based in New York, songwriter Molly Murphy evokes the Blue Ridge Mountains with her homespun folk music. Her latest single ‘Salt For Witches’ is equal parts catchy and emotive, adding lush pop details to a timeless folk skeleton. Drawing on imagery of folklore and superstition, it’s a song about coping with difficult circumstances and wishing simple actions like knocking on wood or a circle of salt could solve them. “They say a circle of salt can keep evil forces at bay,” Molly Murphy describes. “‘Salt for Witches’ is about wishing you could do just that for bad vibes and people.”

Like salt for witches
Salt for witches
It is simple and strong
Find it in the cabinet
and keep the demons gone

Morena Leraba – Morea-rea

Morena Leraba is a musician/band from Lesotho, who for the last few years has steadily become of the figureheads of a reinvention of the country’s musical heritage. The music draws heavily on Sesotho culture and aims to preserve the language which is declining due to the spread of colonial languages such as English. Morena Leraba achieves this by taking Famo, a sub-genre of traditional Sesotho music, and updating it with contemporary flourishes inspired by hip hop and electronic music. “Because we also have influences from elsewhere musically,” he describes, “I’ve always re-imagined Famo. I’ve always re-imagined Sesotho traditional music.” Latest single ‘Morea-rea’ is a great example, emphasising Sesotho phrases and idioms in a style that feels both modern and timeless.

‘Morea-rea’ is taken from a forthcoming EP called Fela sa Ha Mojela. Until then, listen to the single via streaming services.

The Veils – Undertow

It’s been six years since the release of Total Depravity, the last album from London/Auckland-based outfit The Veils, a gap largely explained by an injury suffered by lead Finn Andrews. A freak accident on stage left him with a fractured wrist, and the decision to continue the tour further aggravated the situation. “The scaphoid bone in my wrist had died,” Andrews explains, “which I didn’t know was possible. My sister said that at least it was a really ‘on brand’ injury for me.” With the process of making music now “profoundly annoying,” it seemed to be the end of his days writing albums, but as is the way of such things new songs started to bubble up regardless. What eventually emerged was …And Out Of The Void Came Love, a new double album coming via Ba Da Bing Records. A release intended to experienced in one sitting, albeit with an intermission in the middle, which throws itself headlong into themes of isolation, healing and creation itself. The latter is brought into relief by single ‘Undertow’, tracing the compulsion to write through genetics, like some cursed blessing that holds tight in spite of intention or circumstance.

Wesley – Sugar Free

This month saw Wesley, AKA Louisville, Kentucky‘s Jacob Weaver, release Glows in the Dark on Earth Libraries. An album we described in an earlier preview as “a hazy dreamworld… all pleasantly surreal imagery and twinkling atmospherics,” with the title track “folding the syrupy dream-like quality of meeting your true love into the almost paradoxical emotion of awakening.” Latest single ‘Sugar Free’ might open with a more mournful, reflective tone, but as soon as Weaver’s vocals kick in the uber smooth style returns. A mood perhaps a tad starker than the previous track but no less ethereal. Some nocturnal vision caught between reality and dreams.

Glows in the Dark is out now and available via the Earth Libraries Bandcamp page.

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Feelings of powerlessness again feature on latest single ‘Buffet’, albeit within an entirely different context. “This song came from a place of feeling angry, powerless and minimized after a few different experiences where men thought they could violate my space and then just go about their day,” Farrell explains. With the central image that of a older man who decided it appropriate to come onto her at a buffet by comparing her to the food. That strange and deflating mismatch of power, where something so throwaway to one person can leave such a bruise.

The resulting track simmers with competing energies. The writhing discomfort of the experience matched only by an ever-present anger now brought to the boil. “Told you that I’m not part of the buffet,” Farrell sings, “push me round your plate / Go about your day.” It’s delivered with latent strength, taut guitar and pounding percussion eventually breaking into a squally release. An attempt to reverse the situation, draw power from the music and regain the agency which is chipped away day by day.

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“I tend to get lost in nostalgia—fixated on the past, out-of-touch with the present, uninterested in the future,” explains Balto lead Daniel Sheron. The Californian outfit’s latest single ‘Spanish Wine’ confronts this habit head on, albeit with digressions toward trysts in laundromats, conga lines in Cuba and the ghost of an imagined future with no distinction between state and civil society. “I wrote this song in the height of the pandemic as a rejection of that concept,” Sheron continues. “I needed a reminder that the past is an illusion—it doesn’t exist anymore!”

Big Joanie – In My Arms

London punk trio Big Joanie return later this year with new album Gone Home on Kill Rock Stars and the Daydream Library Series from Ecstatic Peace Library. A record which promises to examine the concept of home in all of its variety, be it where we’ve come from, where we’re going, or some imagined place we work towards and dream about. Single ‘In My Arms’ combines these elements of past and future, reflecting on fond memories as a way to instigate a desired future. Check out the video directed by Lydia Garnett below:

Back Home is out via Kill Rock Stars and Ecstatic Peace Library on the 4th November and you can pre-order it now.

Butch Wifey – Eighteen

Based in Boise, Idaho, Butch Wifey is the recording project of Chloe Ponder, who makes indie pop songs she says “aim to dredge up the uncomfortable feelings associated with queer relationships.” Her latest single ‘Eighteen’ draws upon two periods of anxiety faced several years apart. The first was leaving home for the first time at eighteen, and the second was early-twenties romantic troubles, both of which elicited a similar sense of unease and confusion. But for all the discomfort of the subject matter, the single is ostensibly a slick and summery pop song, Ponder’s vocals providing a nostalgic and wistful edge.

Canary – i used to write you love songs

If there seems to be something of a paradox at work on ‘i used to write you love songs’, the latest single from Pennsylvania‘s Canary, then it’s one which depends on the definition of a love song. Because though the track has all of the tenderness and contemplation of a classic love song, it doesn’t take long for the track to reveal its fangs. By the time Zach Dennis’s guitar goes spiralling and Kat Leverenz sings the titular refrain, it becomes clear this isn’t a love song at all, at least not in the usual sense. What begins soft and sedate blooms into a heavy and dynamic exploration of heartbreak and betrayal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1MYacMeP9s&ab_channel=Canary

‘i used to write you love songs’ is out now and available on streaming services.

Couch Prints – All I Know

Described as “centred around the American car crash,” New York-based Couch Prints’ forthcoming mixtape Waterfall looks to capture the contemporary moment. The project of Jayanna Roberts, Brandon Tong, and Jacob Truax, Couch Prints make synth pop that’s equal parts danceable and introspective, and latest single ‘All I Know’ represents perhaps their furthest foray into the latter aspect of their sound. The song is “a simple expression of the unease caused by the boundless media and content of the modern world,” say the band, “an ode to ignorance is bliss”. Sonically it feels like a balm for this sensory overload, stripping back the dance elements to leave a gently spacious song built on gentle guitar and Roberts’ soft vocals.

dani mack – fleabag

We first featured dani mack, the project of Baylee Barrett, back in April when we covered her single ‘Someday’, released via LA label Future Gods. We called it “bright and disarmingly straightforward…weav[ing] a careful balance between strength and vulnerability.” Now Barrett returns with a new single, ‘fleabag’, a taut and irreverent pop song about trying to let go of residual shame. “In simplest terms, which most can relate to, it’s a nod to dating and how terrible it is,” Barrett explains. “[But] on a deeper level, it’s a song about my own sexual repression and my difficulties with casual relationships. I grew up a devout Christian and letting go of the guilt that was instilled in me from such a young age is still something I still struggle with. There’s still a little part of me that’s afraid that come judgment day.”

‘fleabag’ is available now via streaming services.

Fusilier – No Words

Fusilier is the project of Atlanta-born, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Blake Fusilier. Later this month he will release a new EP, Treason, which promises to explore themes of selfhood, alienation and belonging in a style that draws on a diversity of influences, from Bill Withers and Fela Kuti to TV on the Radio and Nine Inch Nails. But as lead single ‘No Words’ shows, the result is something wholly his own, sleek and sinuous yet charged with a desire to make meaningful change. Namely through a reframing of the self within a wider picture, reaffirming one’s own ability to define themselves beyond whatever outside forces might think or want them to be. As Fusilier puts it, the song is about “letting go of the thought that I’m not the main character in my own story.”

Maya Lucia – numb or something

‘numb or something’ is the latest single by indie rock artist Maya Lucia, who makes angsty and exuberant songs that allow her to vent her emotions in the healthiest way possible. Taken from a forthcoming album, miss girl world, the song is a great introduction for newcomers, a stormy and infectious pop song that’s noisy enough to purge any lingering frustrations. “This is the song you scream in your room after a long day,” Lucia describes. “It’s melodrama at its core — the feeling of the world ending only to realize you’re crying over nothing.”

You wouldn’t care if I went and disappeared
You wouldn’t care if I drowned myself in tears

miss girl world comes out on August 19th and you can preorder it from the Maya Lucia Bandcamp page.

 Mol Sullivan – Deep End Dive

Cincinnati‘s Mol Sullivan has made a name over the last decade making earnest and unflinchingly intimate songs leavened with pop melodies and confident vocals. Latest single ‘Deep End Dive’ is described as “a reflection of a regretful approach to a loved one,” and combines difficult soul searching with feelings of growth and hope. Born of Sullivan’s recent sobriety, the track displays a genuine sense of self-reflection and reconciliation, a clear mind piercing the storm clouds of the past and allowing more positive progress into the future.

‘Deep End Dive’ is out now and available from the Mol Sullivan Bandcamp page.

Prudence – Waste Some Time

The recording project of Sydney‘s Tom Crandles, Prudence makes what we’ve described previously as “human traits wrapped up in a gloominess as grey and chilly as the Cold War-era of the post-punk and new wave it references, revealed only in the intermittent illuminations made so prominent by the twilit tones.” New album Negatives looks to continue the aesthetic, a fitting soundtrack for the troubled world in which it was created. Lead single ‘Waste Some Time’ introduces the shadowy and conflicted atmosphere, a lean and linear pop song that’s all sinew and forward motion, forgoing the repetition of the conventional verse-chorus structure.

Negatives is out on 26th August and you can pre-order it now from the Prudence Bandcamp page.

Snake Lips – Braindead II

After a series of releases on Repeating Cloud and Totally Real Records, Portland, Maine’s Snake Lips have unveiled brand new record Happy Anxious. The title feels like the perfect fit for their hectic sound, lead Cody Mitchell’s vocals delivered with both volatility and wry humour, as though strung out between hope and despair and choosing to ride the instability. Single ‘Braindead II’ sets the mood, its lo-fi punk style barrelling along with real pace as Mitchell shouts, shrieks and smirks about the hand life has dealt him.

Zack Keim – Canyon

Pittsburgh singer-songwriter Zack Keim cut his teeth in music from an early age, forming bands from his early teens and touring as the frontperson of punk outfit Nox Boys when only sixteen. But, despite the band’s success, his creativity wasn’t satisfied, turning to solo work as a new outlet with the 2017 album First Step. New single ‘Canyon’ represents Keim’s first solo work since, emerging from some major life changes as well as the usual global turmoil with a newfound freshness and confidence. A bright-eyed refusal to back down from his passions and will to create, and perhaps the first time he has really started to develop his artistic voice.

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