Back in 2022 we featured ‘Metamorphosis’, a single from Chicago-based outfit Daarling which we described as “a simmering, brooding number which dwells on the inevitability of change and the friction which results.” This month saw the release of Daarling’s debut album The Deep Within, which develops the style seen on ‘Metamorphosis’ further to occupy a space between dream pop and post-punk. Take the way recent single ‘Cherish//Flourish’, which again builds from modest beginnings into something both spacious, detailed and prone to sharp rises in intensity, Erin Lyle’s vocals more than a match for the dramatic soundscape which results.

The Duke of Norfolk & This Is A Kit – The Yeast in the Sugar

“An ode to an uncertain relationship, finding beauty and joy in the present despite the lurking doubt, attempting to be grateful no matter how fragile or transient the tie.” That’s how we described The Duke of Norfolk‘s ‘As The Heralds Revere You‘ back in 2019. The track was typical of peripatetic folk musician and multi-instrumentalist Adam Howard’s project, exploring the porous border between reality and myth with a careful, compassionate tone. New song ‘The Yeast in the Sugar’ is a collaboration with This Is the Kit, and continues this style with a decidedly patient quality. A meditation on what it means to wait, to develop slowly in a world which demands immediate gratification.

James Jonathan Clancy – Had It All

Perhaps best known as lead of art punk ensemble His Clancyness (plus noise group Brutal Birthday), it has been seven years since James Jonathan Clancy released a record. In the interim he founded the record label Maple Death Records, and slowly but surely worked to refine his own creative work. The result of that period of focus and innovation is Sprecato, a record Clancy will release on his label early next year, the first under his birth name. Written and recorded between London and Bologna and featuring a transnational ensemble of collaborators, the album takes inspiration from the ‘apocalyptic pastoralism’ of Michelangelo Setola’s Gli Sprecati, though ends up pushing into a territory all of its own. Single ‘Had It All’ is a good place to jump in, taking equal parts cosmic folk and spacious ambient styles and applying them to a more traditional singer-songwriter sound.

Joseph Shabason – Welcome To Hell

“Soundscapes full of detail, movement and laidback swagger, which get at something almost intangible, the spirit of the era.” So we described Joseph Shabason’s Welcome to Hell, an album on Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records which uses the eponymous Toy Machine video as a jumping off point to paint a sonic picture of the nineties skate scene. With the record now available, the final single and title track is a fitting point of entry, taking the most rewound part of the tape—the bail segment—and reimagining the soundtrack as an out-of-body ambient chill. The resulting video presents a strange mix of ballet and body horror which Shabason’s soft vocals instil with all the longing and glory of the best memorial.

Welcome To Hell is out now via Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records.

The Juniper Berries – Role Model

Fronted by Josh Stirm, The Juniper Berries are an Austin-based outfit preparing to release their album Death and Taxes next spring on Earth Libraries. Lead single ‘Role Model’ introduces what to expect from the album, with the upbeat country rock style mapping the complicated edges of grief and attempting to use loss as an impetus to keep on living. Storytelling is a big part of the record, with fictional narratives employed as a kind of distancing force, but the single holds up intensely personal circumstances to ground the themes of the record. The experience of going through the process of mourning as it is made all the more difficult by the knotty relationship shared in life.

I got a little bit closer to the edge last night than I had planned
you were running through my mind,
you’re up there all the time
but now I’ll never, ever, see you again

Looms – Hologram

The Dogs of Doubt, the latest EP from Brooklyn‘s Looms, is the kind of release which most fully rewards the patient and curious. For while the tracks are immediately impressive in their careful craft and emotional resonance, those willing to return to them will witness Sharif Mekawy’s songs unfurl with graceful depth. Take the understated build of single ‘Hologram’, which presents itself as a tender folk song, though is complicated by its subtle layers. The track’s true nature seems to be revealed by its outro, like a book which only makes perfect sense on reading the final chapters. The wise listener will return to the beginning to repeat the process, thereby lowering themselves more fully into the beguiling world of Looms.

Malachi Graham – Together for the Kids

What she calls “a hymn for the exhausted,” Caretaker is the forthcoming new album from Portland singer-songwriter Malachi Graham. The record was inspired by a bad breakup and its aftermath, in which the scales fell from Graham’s eyes and she began to see pathological behaviour everywhere—be that in others and herself. Single ‘Together For the Kids’ introduces the record’s uncompromising exploration of these behaviours and heralds the more rock-oriented style Graham has embraced to capture the experience in all of its chaos, starting tense and bitterly wistful before blooming into a gloriously noisy catharsis.

Caretaker is out on the 15th January and you can pre-order it now.

nudista – Different Eyes

We last wrote about London band nudista early last year, calling single ‘inasmuch’ (from debut EP Halfway Here) “a clarified dream pop which seeks to communicate directly and honestly.” Now the duo, Pilar Matji Cabello and Robbie Carman, are back with a new single ‘Different Eyes’, released by the ever-reliable Sad Club Records. The song explores what Carman calls “a distrust of my own narrative […] a gradual realisation that I have outgrown some previously held opinions,” and again focuses on communicating as directly and plainly as possible. This is delivered with a little more verve and rough edges, adding a country-gaze rock swagger to their careful emotion. Oh, and the chorus is a killer.

You never want to be here
You’re always somewhere else
You’re always chasing something
Trying to be someone else

‘Different Eyes’ is out now via Sad Club Records and available from the nudista Bandcamp page.

Sierra Ferrell – Fox Hunt

“Well, take the path down to the river, it is hunting time / Clothe the kids and feed the children, oh, the meat is fine.” So opens ‘Fox Hunt’, the new single from country artist Sierra Ferrell, a track which harks back to bygone days to capture the thrill of the hunt. But this is no sleepy, sepia-toned pastoral scene, its racing strings and stomping percussion capturing the breathless rush through a forest in all of its boisterous, full-blooded glory. “The lyrics may be straight old time,” Ferrell says of the track in a piece for Rolling Stone, “but the music is pure adrenaline… and maybe that’s what I’m here for.”

Watch the animated video (hand drawn by Rob Fidel) below:

‘Fox Hunt’ is out now and available via streaming services.

Teenage Halloween – Melodrama

“Burning through the bullshit to occupy your space in the world.” That’s how we described Teenage Halloween’s new LP, Till You Return, in a preview of single ‘Armageddon Now‘. With the album now out via Don Giovanni, the New Jersey outfit have unveiled latest single, ‘Melodrama’. A sub-two-minute ripper which lives up the same spirit, refusing the slide towards pessimism and nihilistic tendencies with a bracing sense of momentum. Life is hard and things are often beyond our control, but with enough propulsive force we might fight to keep our heads above water yet.

Watch the video by Alex Cihanowic below:

Till You Return is out on the 20th October via Don Giovanni Records and you can pre-order it now.

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Joseph Shabason’s work has always mined the personal, from 2018’s Anne and its exploration of his mother experience of degenerative illness, to the interrogation of an upbringing in an Islamic/Jewish dual-faith household which constituted most recent album The Fellowship. In each case, the Toronto-based composer and multi-instrumentalist renders otherwise unbroachable subjects into music so as to better articulate their contours, not only for his own benefit but that of the listener too. A language beyond language, able to communicate through invention and style.

A method, in its own curious manner, not all that different from skateboarding. Which makes Joseph Shabason’s latest full-length Welcome to Hell all the more fitting. A joint release by Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records, the album takes the seminal Toy Machine VHS and transmutes it into his jazz-adjacent ambient music. Shrinking the distance between the creative energies of skating and musical composition, the result is a concept album which channels the movement and style of figures like Mike Maldonado and Elissa Steamer, not to mention the Toy Machine aesthetic.

A huge list of collaborators were involved too, with Kieran Adams (sound design, percussion), Michael Davidson (vibraphone), Bram Gielen (upright bass, bass guitars), Thom Gill (guitar, keys, piano, electric guitar, vocals), Hugh Marsh (violin), Phil Melanson (drums, percussion, electric drums), Vincent Spilchuk (trumpet) and Felicity Williams (vocals) all lending their talents. As lead single ‘Jamie Thomas’ shows, the result is striking. Soundscapes full of detail, movement and laidback swagger, which get at something almost intangible, the spirit of the era.

Welcome To Hell is out on the 20th October via Western Vinyl and Telephone Explosion Records and you can pre-order it now from Bandcamp.

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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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