Follow-up Earth Visions of Water Spaces continued the exploration, detailing the landscape from the high skies to its subterranean depth in an effort to reconnect to the fundamental energies and rhythms of the landscape. Songs which reached for “innate patterns and cadences just outside of our understanding,” as we wrote, to become “incantations capable of profound transformation. As though the key to reversing our distorted relationship with our home lies right there before us, hidden but all around.”

Even when more recent single ‘Baja’ moved away from New Mexico, the focus of Tan Cologne remained. “Another elliptical exploration of two landscapes,” as we wrote, “focussing not just on the present but also the subliminal remnants of the past and the mysterious forces that bind it all together.” And whether the cryptic imagery of lights beneath the earth and the ground dissolving into dust was apocalyptic or affirming was left open to interpretation. But either way, it tapped into the sublime, transcendent potential etched into the land itself.

Again released via Labrador Records, Tan Cologne’s latest full-length Unknown Beyond represents both a continuation of this style and a broadening of its horizons. Almost literally, in fact, with Green and Macias turning their attention skyward with the same curiosity, openness and longing which has always underpinned their work. Their search is driven by griefs personal, communal and global, the songs written in the wake of bereavement amid a country, indeed a world, on fire in more ways than one. New single and album opener ‘Cool Star’ offers a glimpse at the record’s lush, slow-moving tone. 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.

Watch the video by Carly Short below:

Unknown Beyond is out soon via Labrador Records and you can pre-order it now from the Tan Cologne Bandcamp page.

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Tan Cologne’s subsequent output has worked to further this mission. 2022 saw the release of the sophomore Tan Cologne record, Earth Visions Of Water Spaces, another record preoccupied with the New Mexico desert and how it has changed over geological time. It was typically hypnotic, as encapsulated by lead single ‘Heretic Porcelain’, which turned its attention to the subterranean aspect of the landscape. It did so by “transcending the bodily mundane,” as we put it, “not through some alien rite or extraterrestrial technology but a reconnection to the ancient rhythms in the land and in ourselves.” While more recently, ‘Visitations’ switched its focus skyward, looking to communicate with some extraterrestrial or extradimensional forces in search of ancient truths.

Which is all to say that we’re pretty excited that Tan Cologne are back with another dispatch from the mystical margins of the American southwest. Again released via Labrador, latest single ‘Baja’ continues Tan Cologne’s fascination with the desert landscape, and widens the scope to new climes. Namely those of the title, seeing as the song was recorded in part during a music residency in Baja, Mexico at El Ganzo Records. Rodrigo Montes (bass) and Dylan Hughes (drums, percussion) join to flesh out the sound, with the languid rhythms retaining Tan Cologne’s signature blend of ethereal and tactile textures. It’s another elliptical exploration of two landscapes, focussing not just on the present but also the subliminal remnants of the past and the mysterious forces that bind it all together. With images of lights beneath the earth and the ground itself dissolving into dust, the lyrics could be read as apocalyptic or transcendent, though delivered amid the tranquil sound come to represent something different altogether. A slow sublime etched into the very land for anyone with the time or inclination to look.

Hillside, inside out
Landforms melt around
Sun bath in sun rays
Taken down to the waterway
Walk into the ground
Golden dome of light
In dust, dust

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After the release of single ‘Had To’ last year, Richmond‘s Blush Face have returned with a new EP, Mirage Island. ‘Had To’ offered a maximalist sound to “confront the gap between expectation and reality, [looking] to find solace in the action,” and the new EP’s first single ‘Libby’ suggests the rich style continues into the new release. With the guitar, bass and percussion of four core members accentuated by violin, cello, trumpet and saxophone from a variety of guests, the song presents a lush and layered sound. One rooted in dream pop but grounded by a tangible physicality, blurring the line between reality and dreams. Fitting for a track about trying to manifest something dearly desired but never experienced through nothing but the imagination.

Bo Milli – FOMO

“Think Soccer Mommy meets The Beths, telling tales of hungover bus rides, dancing to The Strokes and a lingering unease that persists despite.” That’s how we previously described the work of Bergen‘s Bo Mili. Latest track ‘FOMO’ again taps into the zeitgeist to explore the pitfalls of love in the digital age, where everything is recorded and curated for your viewing no matter how uncomfortable it might be. “You make me feel dumb / sitting at home,” Bo Milli sings, “wondering if you’re out with someone / staring at my phone.” There’s genuine feeling to the song as it gathers momentum, but no small amount of wry humour too. This is the strange world we inhabit now, and blissful ignorance is a thing of the past.

Bobbie Lovesong – Inner Sea

Bobbie Lovesong is the recording project of Madelyn Strutz, whose debut album On the Wind is set to be released early next year via Woodsist. Written and recorded in an unfinished Earthship in Taos, New Mexico where a small group of musician rode out the lockdown, the album promises to be a surreal kaleidoscopic ode to the region, bringing together sixties pop, oddball psych and LSD-warped Americana. Lead single ‘Inner Sea’ is a great introduction, a strange warbling pop song that feels conjured from Taos’ desert landscape, the melody and ethereal vocals refracted into dreamlike unreality. Check out the video by Michael Stasiak below:

On the Wind will be released on 20^th January via Woodsist. Preorder it now from the Bobbie Lovesong Bandcamp page.

Greyon Greene – Sunken Meadow Causeway

After the release of the crepuscular creeper Belong To It on Lily Tapes & Discs in 2019, Grayon Greene turned to their Low Pressure System catalogue with the release of LPS001. A series of compositions described as “Weather Channel music” which combines ambient textures and beats to conjure something at once nostalgic and unreal. The third in the catalogue, Transactional Memories furthers this style, slowly weaving a world based on our own but somehow separate too. Soundscapes drawn from charts and maps but made dreamlike with computerised graphics, digital textures and neon overlay.

Hack-Poets Guild – Daring Highwayman

A collaboration between Marry Waterson, Lisa Knapp and Nathaniel Mann, Hack-Poets Guild is a project with a forward-looking attitude to traditional folk styles. Their debut Blackletter Garland will be released next year via One Little Independent Records, a high-concept album which draws on history and folklore to dig into meaty themes of life and death with a decidedly idiosyncratic style. Lead single ‘Daring Highway’ is the introduction to this world, a breathless tale of the titular rover which crackles with danger and volatility, the rhythm conjuring a sense of lawless freedom sliding toward some climax, be it glorious or calamitous or some fickle combination of the two.

Jessica Breanne – Bad Shape

Released earlier this month via Perpetual Doom, Jessica Breanne’s Rosebud Queen is album concerning resilience in the face of difficult conditions, and how the spirit finds ways in which to survive. An attempt to find joy and beauty in the darkest situations, be it through hard perseverance or openness to change. Single ‘Bad Shape’ feels like an encapsulation of the album, a piece which began as a short story and gradually evolved into a song, morphing into what it needed to become to communicate its message most fully. Then director Kevin Doyle came along and took the concept further, adding his own ideas to create a new narrative for the video, and serving to highlight the way in which connection can create new things in unexpected ways.

Rosebud Queen is out now via Perpetual Doom and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The Bird Calls – Auditioning For The Part

The recording project of the prolific New York songwriter Sam Sodomsky, The Bird Calls has released over thirty records across the last decade or so, with the most recent Tarot on Ruination Record Co. his first with a label. Later this week Sodomsky returns to Ruination with My Life in Hollywood, a brand new record which continues the style established on Tarot—an idiosyncratic take on on classic country and folk which utilises and often subverts genre tropes to create something decidedly new. Take latest single ‘Auditioning For The Part’, a song fully aware of its place in a lineage of songwriters, or rather at the convergence of several lineages, be it George Jones and Johnny Paycheck or something more like The Mountain Goats, and thus able to play with the listener’s expectations in a way only the more learned songwriters can.

TV Room – Pretend

Back in December last year, we wrote about ‘Balcony‘, the debut single of Lucy Rushton’s TV Room released via Sad Club Records. Described as a subliminal message to someone they were unable to speak to, the song represented “an earnest if indirect attempt to communicate the nuances of emotion,” as we put it. “A human song in which no feeling is held back.” Rushton has now returned with a brand new single, ‘Pretend’, a track no less emotionally charged but something of an inversion of its predecessor. A song about being close to someone, almost too close to say what needs to be said. A love unrequited, even as the significant other goes through the motions and says all the right things.

‘Pretend’ is out now via Sad Club Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

Will the Whale – Next to Me

The new solo project of Will Boesl, Will the Whale is gearing up to release debut album Only Things of the Heart Remain early next year, and single ‘Next to Me’ gives an indication as to what to expect. With Bennett Littlejohn (Hovvdy, Katy Kirby) joining on bass, the track is described as a “celebration of commitment and deep love.” A love letter to Boesl’s wife penned amid a myriad of personal and collective challenges, aiming to reassert what is the most important facet of any life. And furthering this compassionate style, all proceeds from the album are going to the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS), with Boesl hoping to encourage further links between art and social action, using creative means as a positive force. You can find the video for ‘Next to Me’ below:

Only Things of the Heart Remain is out on the 24th February.

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Adwaith are a Welsh-language trio from Carmarthen working at the intersection of post-punk and dream pop in a manner reminiscent of acts like Belly and Basement Revolver. This summer sees the release of their second album Bato Mato on Libertino Records and latest single ‘Wedi Blino’ (“tired”) gives a taste of their bittersweet style. “We wanted to create a big indie pop song that has a melancholy feel to it” as the band put it. “It’s about being worried that life is going too fast or the worries of a relationship, the overwhelming feeling that you’re not good enough and that you are the reason things aren’t working out.” Check out the video directed by Eilir Pierce below:

Bato Mato is out on the 1st July via Libertino Records.

Colyn Cameron – Stream

After making his name with JUNO-nominated indie folk outfit Wake Owl, Vancouver‘s Colyn Cameron is now recording under his own name. His upcoming album, Freehand, promises to explore personal themes of relationships and self-worth within the wider moment of existential anxiety and technological intrusions. Lead single ‘Stream’ is the perfect introduction, a track which confronts the lingering dissatisfaction which haunts a society built around yearly upgrades and gamified time. “Well I’ve tried prototypes, but the fruit wasn’t ripe,” Cameron sings, “I’ll pretend differently it’s a bad appetite.”

You can get ‘Stream’ now from the Colyn Cameron Bandcamp page. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for further news on Freehand too.

D.C.R. Pollock x Derek Ted – Rat’s Nest

Having signed up with Other People Records, California-based artist D.C.R. Pollock is sharing some of his previous work in anticipation of new releases. ‘Rat’s Nest’ was recorded with Derek Ted as part of a spilt release in 2020 and captures the heartfelt vulnerability of Pollock’s work. A smoked-out melancholy which nevertheless catches fire again, Pollock’s impassioned delivery salvaging heat from a charred husk. Check out the lyric video by Ted below:

‘Rat’s Nest’ is out now and available via Bandcamp.

Diatom Deli – Time​~​Lapse Nature

The project of Taos, New Mexico resident Deli Paloma~Sisk, Diatom Deli is a self-described “channel between cerebral ascension and somatic memory.” Paloma~Sisk weaves lush, cinematic soundscapes from classical guitar, layered vocals, synths and samples, textured sonic worlds that feel both organic and mystical. With its backbone of acoustic guitar, stand-out ‘Disarray’ feels like a folk song exploded into colour and pattern by a perfect water droplet in some desert oasis. Check it out below:

Time​~​Lapse Nature is out now via RVNG Intl. and you can get it now from the Diatom Deli Bandcamp page.

El Rocko – Sun Farm

The recording project of Chattanooga-based songwriter Chase Waller, El Rocko makes a down-to-earth style of music which combines the warmth of indie folk with some 90s/00s indie rock sensibilities. Ahead of new EP Daydreaming on Yellow Racket Records, single ‘Sun Farm’ offers a scene of quiet domesticity amid the burgeoning catastrophe of the wider world. A lesson in the modest work of living, maintaining a small patch of order within an otherwise chaotic space.

Young woman hovers out above her garden
Holding seeds in the palm of her hand
Feels the soil like the touch of a lover
Drops the seeds in the hole just as slow as she can

Daydreaming is out on the 27th May via Yellow Racket Records and you can find El Rocko on Bandcamp.

Fresh Pepper – Congee Around Me

Fresh Pepper is a collaborative project based in Toronto led by Andre Ethier and Joseph Shabason, who together enlist the talents of some of Toronto’s best musicians to create a truly unique style which sits somewhere at the intersection of heartfelt singer-songwriter, playful jazz and experimental indie rock. The band are preparing to release their self-titled debut on Telephone Explosion Records, and have unveiled lead single ‘Congee Around Me’ in preparation. As both album and single titles suggest, Fresh Pepper write songs about the soul-deadening experiences of working in restaurants, but there is no anxious frazzle on display. Instead, the band approach things with a disarming sense of grace that is genuinely affecting, with which they intend to “exorciz[e] past workplace woes through skillful musicianship and an earnest, slightly bizarre sense of humor.”

mushrooms in the frying pan
throw another onion in
and i’ll see when i see you
oh i know

Lost Cat – Bitch Fight

Based in LA, trio Lost Cat trio channel classic riot grrrl sensibilities to live up to their name—conjuring a sound both alluring and dangerous and beholden to no one. Ahead of their self-titled debut on Lolipop Records later this month, the band have unveiled latest single ‘Bitch Fight’ by way of introduction. A track of snarling and bared teeth, daring anyone to cross its path. Check out the video directed by Fred Joseph:

‘Bitch Fight’ is out on the 27th May via Lolipop Records.

Lou Hazel – Claude the Armadillo

After releasing the EP Carolina (Out of My Mind) under his own name, Chris Frisina adopted the moniker Lou Hazel for a brand new release on Sleepy Cat Records. First single ‘Claude the Armadillo’ follows the new-but-not-so-new vibe, as the song was first written by Chris’s uncle Ralph Frisina forty years ago in response to the looming dread of the Cold War. As history’s wheel spins and the old tensions return, Lou Hazel returns to Claude and his peace-loving attitude, all delivered with a John Prine-style blend of compassion and wry humour. Check out the cartoon video by Alex Derwick below:

‘Claude the Armadillo’ is out now via Sleepy Cat Records.

Sister Swire – I Shot The President

The recording project of Toronto’s Sarah Swire, Sister Swire is set to release a new album produced by Joel Plaskett later in 2022. In anticipation of the release, Swire has unveiled new single ‘I Shot the President’. A dark lullaby written in response to The Devil and Daniel Johnston documentary, exploring the experience of bipolar and psychosis in all of its ominous and multifaceted scope. Johnston’s presence lingers over the track, lending the vocals a conflicted tone somewhere between gentle and troubled, and the idiosyncratic lyrics are something to behold.

‘I Shot the President’ is out now and available via streaming services.

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Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico is something of a gateway to a multidimensional version of the state—one where the organic and incorporeal exist side by side, and time is accordioned into a single present, eradicating the lines between past and future, earthly and extraterrestrial, science and divination.

Tan Cologne are back with a brand new single, ‘Heretic Porcelain’. Again released via Labrador, the song follows in the same vein as Cave Vaults, that paradoxical sense of being tied so closely to the land that it takes on an ethereal air. Made hazy by shifting dust and the horizon’s shimmer, the surrounding sense of space and weight of time.

But where the record often turned its attention skyward, the new single is very much rooted in the ground beneath our feet. “Circling through hypnotic reversals, ‘Heretic Porcelain’ sonically explores terrestrial responses to a tilted, worn, and skewed Earth,” the band explain. “Lyrically, the song centres on inevitable transformations, reactions, and animalistic behaviours.” Transcending the bodily mundane not through some alien rite or extraterrestrial technology but a reconnection to the ancient rhythms in the land and in ourselves.

These are the hypnotic reversals Tan Cologne reference. Innate patterns and cadences just outside of our understanding. Incantations capable of profound transformation. As though the key to reversing our distorted relationship with our home lies right there before us, hidden but all around. The words ‘heretic’ and ‘porcelain’ are paired, almost merged, and the refrain comes to represent the dualism at the heart of the track. Where the physical and spiritual blurs, the delicate and insolent too, the malleable and unyielding marbling into one.

The song comes complete with a video that further develops these themes. Described as “a set of rotating glimpses embodying momentum,” the video taps into the song’s dream-logic and helps precipitate its wisdom. Assembling “visions of desert high-winds, wild horses, a mother and daughter metal detecting, hot stones vaporizing water, and common depictions of elemental presence,” the band describe how the video works to “relay transformation in the directness that the action is the action itself.”

‘Heretic Porcelain’ is out now via Labrador Records and you can get it from the Tan Cologne Bandcamp page.

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Orbiting around the the titular state, the record excavates the physical and metaphysical layers of the specific location, digging through strata both natural and supernatural in attempt to represent New Mexico in all its strange, stark beauty. In this way, Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico is something of a gateway to a multidimensional version of the state—one where the organic and incorporeal exist side by side, and time is accordioned into a single present, eradicating the lines between past and future, earthly and extraterrestrial, science and divination.

Ahead of the record’s release via Labrador Records, we’re honoured to share ‘Alien’, the second single. “Alien tells of a visitation,” the band explain. “It is a prediction of what may and can occur when contact from outer space is made and time is revealed.” The band also directed a video to accompany the song, inspired by potentially extraterrestrial events that took place in Taos back in the summer, as they go on to describe:

Two hunters were out searching for elk in daylight on a volcanic landscape and came across two figures, who then quickly vanished. They then saw a large structure, which also quickly vanished. Their story has since been deemed credible by the Director of the National UFO Reporting Center. It is easy to dig into all the best conspiracies while residing in New Mexico, and this is our sun-drenched interpretation of those experiences. Throughout the video, we also point out to the mysteries that are created by our own kind – What are in our skies?

Ebbing and flowing but never quite breaking its own restraint, the song exudes a sense of the withheld, always threatening to unleash epiphany or violence from within its folds. Instead, like much of the ufological phenomena, the truth is suspended by waiting and undermined by its own plurality. Disclosure is imminent but never present. The story is never exactly straight. They’ll soon arrive from the skies, they’ve been here all along. There’s conflicting evidence, there’s mind control. There’s a cultist insistence on the spiritual and the sublime.

Tan Cologne are here not to reconcile the conflicting strands, nor point us toward the singular truth, but rather remind us that both the Old World and the New Age had very different ideas to our own. What if to look for some single objective reality is to miss the point? To close one’s eyes to the full dimensions of any given place?

Tan Cologne are also playing a series of shows in California in February. Find the dates below.

2/14 Non Plus Ultra (LA, CA)
2/17 Moroccan Lounge (LA, CA)
2/21 Greater Goods (Ojai, CA)
2/22 Lander’s Brewing (Joshua Tree, CA)

Photos by Marissa Macias

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