Back in June we introduced Recurring Common Dream, the forthcoming EP from Great Klons, describing how the release ups the ante on its rather chaotic predecessor. Written and recorded amid a time of turmoil both personal and political, the EP sees Scott Klon and co. expand their already inventive, genre-bending sound to match the uncertainty of the moment. After lead single ‘More Beauty in the Rain‘, Great Klons are now back with follow-up ‘Hidden Signage’. A vivid slice of indie pop rooted in both driving percussion and fresh guitar which uses vocal harmonies and electric violin to further amp up the emotional resonance. And emotional the track is, proceeding with a decidedly wistful air, reflecting on imperfect times with the inevitable fondness we hold for the past.

‘Hidden Signage’ is out now on streaming services.

henry o henry – The Fool

Born in Dublin but now “thirty years a US immigrant,” henry o henry makes music that observes the US from the perspective of an adopted son. He has spent years “absorbing the country’s mythologies” while working various trades across the country (an image that evokes Whitman’s I Hear America Singing), but he has retained ties with his roots too. “Ireland is the DNA of the thing,” as he puts it, “the thing before every other thing.” In September, he will release an album Apocrypha on Western Vinyl. It brings together a collection songs in the lineage of Cale and Drake and Cohen, which function as dispatches from his personal vantage point, or as the press release puts it “the specific weight of being somewhere for a long time without quite being from there.” Lead single ‘The Fool’ is the ideal entry point, a song worn and wistful and weathered but with a glint in its eye, moving with a sincerity and easy grace that comes with experience.

Josaleigh Pollett – Cherry

We’ve written about Josaleigh Pollett‘s new full-length If I Let It Quiet plenty in recent months, with singles like ‘Radio Player‘, ‘The Witness‘, ‘Like a River‘ and ‘Bed of Quiet‘ all suggesting the album will be a fitting follow-up to its predecessor In the Garden, By The Weeds. With the record out now via Audio Antihero and Lavender Vinyl, the Salt Lake City-based artist has shared final single ‘Cherry’ in celebration, and the track is every bit as evocative as we’ve come to expect. Displaying Pollett’s uncanny ability to combine the resonant emotion of memory with the tactility of the present moment, the song emerges through dappled electronics and announces itself with forthright clarity.

We break like belonging,
We’re broken like bread,
When you look you don’t see it,
Don’t know where we’ve been,
From two of us brothers
To both of us dead,
Laid to rest in the 90’s
in the back seat of a van

Jude Brothers – Desire & Devotion

Jude Brothers describes herself as an “Arkansas-forged and New Mexico-moulded folksy leaning singer songwriter with a penchant for whimsy and tender heartedness,” which is just about the perfect introduction. Later this year, she will release Dogwood Maiden Voyage, a collection of timeless folk songs built on the foundations of harp and voice, which she says “reckons with the costs of surrendering wholly to love.” Latest single ‘Desire & Devotion’ does just that, a hymn-like timeless folk song that is suffused with all the doomed romance of a Brontë novel. “How can you doubt me now?” Brothers asks in the line that gives the track its title, “My love ain’t no solemn vow! It is a churning sea.”

King’s Evil – S/T

Stemming from a discussion at a tiki bar back in early 2020, King’s Evil is a new project between Sami Martasian of Puppy Problems and JM Dussault of (T-T)b. The pair, already established as some of Boston‘s most interesting songwriters, imagined a new vehicle for songwriting where the stakes were slightly lower and the scope for invention expanded. A place where they might take risks otherwise avoided in their usual work. The eventual result, a self-titled EP coming via Worry Bead Records, is a testament to the power of such a spirit of working, one which eschews the usual desire to plan and demo songs in order to fully lean into the moment, not to mention that of collaboration. “To hear them say it,” as the label states, “King’s Evil is a project explicitly about the community and solidarity you build in proximity to other artists you admire. Finding energy and freedom in allowing someone else you admire to figuratively root around in your brain.” Listen to the title track now:

Legit Smitty – Picture In My Wallet

Jake Smith, aka Legit Smitty, wrote his forthcoming new record This Living Ain’t That Hard following a serious car accident while on family vacation in Hawaii. Such a near-death event understandably brought a newfound perspective, and the album is an expression of that. As Smith puts it, he is more determined than ever to “continue to share his heart in order that others might feel more at home in their own skin.” Latest single ‘Picture In My Wallet’ is a good introduction, a downbeat but still hopeful song which Smith says “details how his love will remain unchanging, as will his faults.”

‘Picture In My Wallet’ is available now on streaming services. Stay tuned for news on This Living Ain’t That Hard.

oh, hooray – MY BROTHER’S NEW BLACK EYE

A few weeks ago we featured a couple of tracks from the city has teeth i think i saw them once, the new record from Houston‘s oh, hooray. We described those songs as “fatalistic, furious and at least halfway triumphant,” calling them “dispatches from the American present, a time we might label ‘late capitalism’ if only the late didn’t seem such an overly optimistic diagnosis.” That description holds up across the record, but some songs are more personal in scope than others. A good example is ‘MY BROTHER’S NEW BLACK EYE’, which details an exasperating relationship with the title’s mercurial sibling. “‘MY BROTHER’S NEW BLACK EYE’ is about my brother,” describes lead Jamie McDonald. “I love him, I hate him, I am confused by him, I support him, I resent him. No matter how much he has alienated myself or my family, he will always be just that. My Brother.”

the city has teeth i think i saw them once is out now and available from the usual places.

Promiseland BBQ x Tory Silver – Where’d All the Firemen Go?

Promiseland BBQ is the recording project of Ross Weidman, originally from West Virginia and now based in Pasadena. We last featured his music back in 2023, writing about the album Murder In The Friendly City, which explored his parents hometown in blue collar Appalachia following the death of his mother. He released another EP, Promiseland BBQ Airways, last year, and is now back with a new standalone single, ‘Where Did All the Firemen Go?’ Altogether more lighthearted than the last album, Wediman says the song, a full band arrangement including Tory Silver on vocals, “imagine[s] a world where everyone got the job they wanted,” a laidback and swaying country rock jam that sees a cast of characters swap professions and bemoans the loss of a certain brand of smalltown hero.

You can download ‘Where Did All the Firemen Go?’ now from the Promiseland BBQ Bandcamp page.

Sand Duney – Saw You In the Roses

September will see the release of Plant Material, the debut full-length from Sand Duney (Portland, Oregon songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jess Jones), via the triple threat of Orindal Records, Anything Bagel and Bud Tapes. As per the press release, the record “explores a deepening of selfhood, love, and understanding the natural world,” while searching for “hope and a daily rhythm in a world that’s changing in massive and indecipherable ways.” Our first glimpse is ‘Saw You In the Roses’ a giddy, ambling psych pop song that continues the signature Sand Duney style, what we have described in the past as “equal parts meditative and energetic.” Jones plays every instrument, from guitar and bass to pedal steel, organ and drums, layers which reel and swim around her relaxed and composed vocals. Check out the video, directed and edited by Dawn Riddle, below:

Plant Material will be released on 4^th September and is available to pre-order from the Sand Duney Bandcamp page.

Sera Cahoone – Not How I Hoped

Alongside drumming for acts such Carissa’s Wierd and Band of Horses, Seattle’s Sera Cahoone has developed rich oeuvre of solo work, starting with the dusky, melancholic self-titled album back in 2006. Twenty Years on, Cahoone is preparing to release her fifth full-length I’ve Missed You All These Years via Sub Pop, and it seems time has only deepened her warm and aching sound. As its title suggests, latest single ‘Not How I Hoped’ confronts disappointment and regret with unerring candour, the clarity of Cahoone’s voice supported by a vivid arrangement featuring violin, pedal steel, piano and Hammond organ. “This song flew out of my broken heart many moons ago,” Cahoone explains. “It was the first song I wrote for this record. It’s quite sad, but writing it really helped me work through those hard feelings.”

Watch the video below, made by Cahoone herself along with Adam Evarts and Arriba Media LLC:

I’ve Missed You All These Years will be released on the 28th August via Sub Pop and you can pre-order it now.

W. Y. Huang – Running Into Walls

Last month, we introduced On Stranger Hills, the forthcoming new record from Singapore-born, New York-based singer-songwriter W. Y. Huang. Lead single ‘Born to Lose’ “owe[d] a debut to both Daniel Johnston and Adrienne Lenker and drawing on [Huang’s] own immigrant experience,” and now W.Y. Huang has unveiled a second track to further generate anticipation. Titled ‘Running Into Walls’, it’s an introspective indie folk song that the press release says “stages a tender reckoning with inherited trauma and the unbearable weight of survival.” It’s set during a late-night train ride, and captures perfectly the sense of solitude and emotional clarity that such journeys often evoke, mimicking the brain’s tendency to ruminate as the carriage falls silent and dark landscapes fly past the window.

‘Running Into Walls’ is out now and available from the usual places.

The post Weekly Listening: July 2026 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The first single was ‘Microwave‘, a song which finds a narrator preparing themselves in the early morning ahead of a soul crushing day working in a grocery store under whatever stage of capitalism we’re calling the present. “There’s a healthy dose of existential dread sure,” we wrote, “but there’s also enough garage rock crunch for it to feel rousing too. An anthem for the masses forced to drag themselves out of bed every morning to keep on keeping on.” Then came ‘Your God‘ which set “an exploration of friendship (or rather, the lack thereof) and religious bigotry to an upbeat, almost carefree sound,” as we put it, highlighting the interplay of lightness and weight across the album. “How you interpret this style is up to you, and both have thematic resonance: A Trojan horse where difficult subjects are broached under the guise of having fun? Or an attempt to sand some of the sharp edges from these difficult subjects so it is possible to talk about them at all?”

Now Tory Silver has now returned with brand new single ‘Boy Disco’ to pave the way for the album’s release later this week. “I’ve been thinking about death / It’s complicated and unfair,” go the opening lines. “But it’s natural / and we have to learn to live with it.” The sound is marked by a simmering energy and palpable weight, the creeping momentum like a building force that eventually has to vent. And vent the track does, intermittently breaking into squally crescendos which carry their own cathartic power, and ultimately embody the spirit of an album which faces up to the most dispiriting of life’s features and refuses to be cowed.

“This song is a stream of consciousness at heart,” they explain. “The album is about moving forward in life despite the obstacles thrown our way, and this song is where I just wrote down what I was feeling. By the end, it shifts into something more tender – a reminder of how important it is to have the right people in your life, and a hope that everyone has that. That, and it’s a freaking rock song.” Watch the video directed by Sandy Loaf below:

In Through the Front with Lasers will be released on the 29th May via Michi Tapes and you can pre-order it now.

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Over the last decade, Portland-based songwriter Alela Diane has established herself as one of the most interesting and consistent songwriters in contemporary folk music, putting out sixth full-length albums since 2003 debut Forest Parade. Next month will see the release of the seventh, Who’s Keeping Time?, with Fluff & Gravy Records and Loose Music. The album sees a return to a more collaborative style, and latest single ‘Dusty Roses’ highlights the compassionate sound which results. “I wrote this song about a dear friend of mine whose path took a wrong turn a number of years ago,” Diane explains. “I think she’s still alive, but no one knows where she ended up. I believe that we all have the capacity to lose ourselves along the way. I’ve seen it happen again and again, whether through mental health struggles, drug use, addiction, trauma, depression, or grief. So many of us have seen someone we love lose the light in their eyes, and become a stranger to themselves. It feels like we’re all just teetering on the edge, and some just don’t have a sturdy enough footing to get back on track. This one is for all the lost girls.”

Watch the video Diane herself below, with direction and camera assistance by Soraya Kim (aged twelve):

Who’s Keeping Time? 22nd May via Fluff & Gravy Records and Loose Music and you can pre-order it now.

Alex Zhang Hungtai – Mother / Sidewinder

You might recognise Taiwan-born, Canada-based artist, musician and actor Alex Zhang Hungtai from a number of different things, be it acts like Dirty Beaches, Last Lizard and Love Theme, the composer behind themes for films like Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland, or as part of one-night-only-at-the-Roadhouse band Trouble in Twin Peaks. But now he is now pursuing a more improvised style of music under his own name. This June sees the release of double album Orion/Mother via American Dreams, and Hungtai has shared a single from each of the records to give an indication of the singular, visionary sound which awaits. “Both tracks share a common theme,” as he expands. “An exploration of the primordial state within the unconscious that leads to a confrontation with what is unspoken and hidden. The symbolism is neither negative nor positive, but a guide that snakes its way across the psychogeographic terrain of the mind.” An ideal entry point to a double album which layers a variety of instruments, an ensemble of collaborators and indeed an array of time periods over one another, recombining a patchwork of past and present to conjure something entirely new.

Orion/Mother will be released on the 19th June via American Dreams and you can pre-order it now.

Brittany Ann Tranbaugh – Wissahickon

We last wrote about Brittany Ann Tranbaugh back in 2023 with the release of single ‘We Could Be Comets‘, a track which saw the Philadelphia-based songwriter portray love from different angles. Embracing both the intense yearning of the early days and the slow burn yearning upon reflection, the result painted something rooted in the real world, too complicated for romantic epiphany yet no less magic for it. “In her compassionate and always controlled tone, [Tranbaugh accepts] that a happy ever after might not be possible,” we wrote, “instead parcelling the feelings into brief moments which burn bright if only for a moment.” Now Tranbaugh is back with ‘Wissahickon’, a track no less authentic in tone, though one unafraid to embrace romance unapologetically. One in which playfulness and humour do not preclude sincerity, lending the whole thing a distinctively Prine-ian vibe.

My girl’s a redneck with a PhD
She don’t condescend to me
She took a lot of hits and a lot of heat
She came out tough and she came out sweet

Now we’re waist-deep in the Wissahickon
Like her so much let her take me fishin’
Didn’t know what I’d been missin’
Sunlight making the river shine

FAITH PLATES – Fever

Born in Germany to Romanian-Hungarian immigrant parents, FAITH PLATES might have grown up in various places around the world, spending time in South Carolina, China, Germany and the UK, but her music is marked by a clear fondness for the US of the early 2000s. Take latest single ‘Fever’, a decidedly nostalgic track built from the simplicity of vocals and guitar which pines for a time and place now left behind. Or perhaps one which never quite existed, the song evoking an idealised version as remembered from afar, packed full of striking details amid an otherwise hazy warmth (“Spanish moss and / magnolias in / the summer breeze / remember me”). However, there’s also a melancholy built into such a style, the implicit knowledge of having lost the thing so dear, and worse, knowing it can never return.

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

Henry Nielsen – Beginning Of The End

Part of the current folk rock revival, North London songwriter Henry Nielsen follows in the footsteps of contemporaries like Brown Horse, taking the rustic charm of classic country tunes and adds a decidedly seventies-style polish and warmth. Ahead of debut full-length Hollyhocks next month, Nielsen has shared latest single ‘Beginning Of The End’. Described as “the story of someone who can’t meet the people in their life halfway,” the song follows a narrator towards the impending realisation of the title, its easygoing rhythm tracing an accumulation of regrets in real time. So though the sound is assured and romantic, the situation it brings to life is anything but. A snapshot from a relationship that’s ultimately doomed, the protagonist gradually opening their eyes to the consequences of actions.

Watch the video directed by Lawrence Dodgson and Will Thomson below:

Hollyhocks will be released on the 29th May. ‘Beginning of the End’ is out now.

MEGGO – Jaws of Life

We last wrote about MEGGO back in 2024 with the release of EP eavesdropper ;; death stories. “‘brooklyn, pt. 1’ has a lot more going on beneath the surface than you might glean on first listen,” we wrote of the lead single. “Each layer carries its own shade and meaning, accentuated by [Megan] Ennenberg’s warm and soulful delivery, [and] there are other dimensions to the track too. Stylistic choices which go beyond tone and structure and into its execution, as though MEGGO is inviting us not only into Brooklyn but also the song itself.” Now MEGGO is back with a new single ‘Jaws of Life’ and the result is similarly nuanced, Ennenberg using the duality of the titular equipment (where hydraulic force, almost violence, is used to rescue and comfort a victim, and ultimately return them home). “This song means a ton to me. Writing it helped me imagine my future and appreciate my past,” she explains:

There are a bunch of little secret sonic nuggets throughout the song that infuse it with good vibes, like the sound of my love coming in and out of the room while I was recording vocals, my dear big brother slaying the harmonica, and a roommates choir made up of a bunch of the friends I’ve built homes with throughout my 20s. Their voices singing together sound like a hug. So much is uncertain and spooky these days but this message feels simple and clear and unwaveringly true, a reminder of what’s good and important, that love is the strongest stuff.

Swapmeet – Sand

“Pairing jangle and fuzz with a buoyant energy, the track represents the very best of the project,” we wrote of Swapmeet‘s ‘I Know’, the Aussie four-piece’s first single having signed with Winspear. “A sound able to encompass both sardonic slacker bite and cathartic alt rock release, rising from sly, taut beginnings into something with serious size and heft.” Now Swapmeet have announced their new album Mount Zero, and new track ‘Sand’ shows off a different dimension to the band. A more reflective and earnest track which mourns that which is lost within contemporary youth, where a thousand distractions rob some of the magic away from the experience. The dual vocals only ramp up the emotional resonance of the sound, though while the style might seem more restrained than its predecessor, the conclusion still whips itself up into something of a cathartic release.

Watch the video directed by David Milan Kelly below:

Mount Zero will be released on the 17th July via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

Thin Lear – Healing Alone

We’ve featured a number of singles from Thin Lear‘s new album Many Disappeared in recent months, from the Mothman-inspired ‘Silver Bridge‘ (“the song uses the myth as a way to investigate grief and its accompanied challenges, pushing deeper than the usual cheap thrills of the story to probe at the weightiest of issues”) and personal trauma-tale of ‘Witness‘ to the supremely ambitious and evocative ‘A Cherished Man‘, which followed a trio of dysfunctional characters as they searched for human connection in a world which seemed set against it. With the record now out via First City Artists, Thin Lear has shared the closing track as a final single. A suitably haunting number which again teases a narrative to life with careful details and an enveloping mood, while Matt Longo’s vocals add a very human compassion too.

Friend, can you hear the call?
From deep in a tomb
Oh, I see ‘em now, the sad eyes
Fixed to the stone
Oh, I can see ‘em now, the sad eyes
Fixed to the stone

Many Disappeared is out now via First City Artists and you can get it from the Thin Lear Bandcamp page.

Tory Silver – Your God

“There’s a healthy dose of existential dread sure, but there’s also enough garage rock crunch for it to feel rousing too. An anthem for the masses forced to drag themselves out of bed every morning to keep on keeping on.” So we wrote of Tory Silver‘s ‘Microwave’ back in March, a single from their new album In Through the Front with Lasers forthcoming via Michi Tapes. A fitting introduction to an album which deals with, as per the artist, “chronic pain, losing a friend to a cult (at least I think?), jealousy, overthinking death and the jobs that make everything worse. The stress that compounds daily. The realization that the world doesn’t stop being painful just because you need it to.” Digging further into this headspace, Tory Silver’s latest single ‘Your God’ sets an exploration of friendship (or rather, the lack thereof) and religious bigotry to an upbeat, almost carefree sound. How you interpret this style is up to you, and both have thematic resonance: A Trojan horse where difficult subjects are broached under the guise of having fun? Or an attempt to sand some of the sharp edges from these difficult subjects so it is possible to talk about them at all?

I thought we’d always be friends
And where’s the compassion
From a God who is love
I don’t need to compare your God to mine, but mine never judged me at all

Watch the video below, edited ‪quiet sports‬:

In Through the Front with Lasers will be released on the 29th May via Michi Tapes and you can pre-order it now.

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In February we previewed Shadow Child, the latest album from Abigail Lapell which was recorded while the Canadian songwriter was pregnant and unsurprisingly explores motherhood. “The tracks emerged stripped back and stark,” we wrote, “a stylistic move at least in part dictated by Lapell’s difficult experiences with IVF and miscarriage that comes to paint the journey to parenthood in all of its too-often unspoken truth.” With the release fast approaching, Lapell has shared the title track along with a video to further introduce this style. “I recently found all my old super 8 films, and I thought this odd little black and white claymation might fit well with ‘Shadow Child’, a song about pregnancy and childbirth – creation and transformation,” she explains. “But when I actually tried pairing the two, it was crazy. The unedited ‘backwards’ visuals fit the song exactly perfectly – like down to the second. Complete with the final reveal of the figure’s shadow, and then my own hands in silhouette, returning it to a formless blob. I couldn’t believe it.”

Shadow Child will be released on the 8th May via Outside Music and you can pre-order it now from the Abigail Lapell Bandcamp page.

Air Mail – Won’t You

Following on from singles ‘Wide Awake (a.m.)’ (“uses a melodic and melancholic style to explore the strange sensation of being faced with disaster at a distance”) and ‘Moss Song’ (“its warm tones and languid rhythms allowing in the outside environment, playing like spring blooming in real time”), Niko Francis’s Air Mail has unveiled debut LP a.m. Continental with latest track ‘Won’t You’. Again falling somewhere between Lenderman-esque alt country and the sun-drenched pop of acts likes Cut Worms, the track explores the sensation of a relationship being slowly dismantled by forces beyond anyone’s control. It meditates not only on the pain of a separation but the enduring fondness that survives beyond physical remove. “As long as words are sincere / and what you want is clear,”  Francis sings in the first verse, “as long as you still feel near, even when you’re far from here / won’t you stay and love me?”

Ben Auld – Red Bandana

This May, Norwich-based artist Ben Auld will release Loserdom, a brand new album via Safe Suburban Home and Repeating Cloud which signals something of a sea change. Whereas Auld’s previous work tended towards the twee end of indie folk, the new record draws on influences like Tony Molina and Teenage Fanclub to offer loud, scrappy and spirited style of power pop. Lead single ‘Red Bandana’ heralds this new sound, as well as the mix of unabashed sincerity and tongue-in-cheek charm which marks his writing. “I was trying to write something that captured the explosive pang that can happen when you reflect on places you’ve lived and people you’ve known,” Auld explains of the single. “That sudden reminder of a life you used to have, the impossibility of returning to it, and the pain of living in the past.”

Frog – Je Nes Sais Pas

When cult favourites Frog put out their 1000 Variations of the Same Song album last year, we didn’t think they were actually aiming for the big four figures. But follow-up The Count arrived hot on the heels of its predecessor and now the New York outfit are already gearing up to release the third full-length in the cycle, Frog for Sale. Described as an album “about how money sometimes gets in the way of love,” the record sees the Bateman brothers take inspiration from the likes of Buddy Holly and Paul McCartney, again switching up the Frog sound while maintaining that idiosyncratic charm that’s made them so beloved. Lead single ‘Je Nes Sais Pas’ is available now, a track of bright energy and fading dreams, not to mention a trademark wit and humour. “You’re just no good anymore since you went away and didn’t darken any door,” as Bateman sings in one typical verse. “Now you got your hair like Anna Wintour except poor.”

Jillian Lake – Human

“Attuned to emotional forces and their significant gravitational pull, namely the strange tension of watching a loved one attempt to navigate a difficult period, willing more than anything to save them from the turmoil but conscious of being dragged into the mire yourself.” So we wrote of ‘Cold Where You Are’ by Jillian Lake last month, a single which embodies the balance between compassion and suffering which marks the Vancouver-based songwriter’s work. Now Lake has shared brand new single ‘Human’ and this balance has never been more evident. It’s an intensely personal song which reckons with the self in the most intimate way possible, displaying Lake’s turn towards richer arrangements while still evoking the austere stillness of an empty room. A place where there is nowhere to look but inwards, no matter how uncomfortable. “’Human’ is a song I wrote about the fear that you’re losing pieces of yourself, and starting to not recognize yourself,” Lake explains. “I remember the first time I saw the Eiffel tower I was so amazed and astonished. When I went back to Paris years later I just stared at it and didn’t really feel anything. It scared me that I lost that sense of wonder. I missed the old version of myself.”

‘Human’ is out now via streaming services.

Matthew Squires & Sunk Coast – Wing Song

We’ve followed the idiosyncratic, ever-inventive songwriting of Matthew Squires for a number of years now, from his ‘Ballad of Norm MacDonald‘ and quasi-cover ‘Poor Men Southeast of Portland‘ to ‘Song of a Cactus‘ in 2024. Now, having moved to Ithaca, New York, Squires has teamed up with Zach Totta of Sunk Coast for a new track, and the result is no less distinctive. With vocals that rival Daniel Johnston in their ability to echo Kermit the Frog, the song is classic Matthew Squires, proving that genuinely compassionate music need not leave playfulness or strangeness at the door. “In the face of the absurd, it’s there I’ll find my answer,” he sings in one fitting verse, “I’ll decode the hidden words inside the movements of a dancer: / It’s the story of a king who forgot if he has merit / He sprouts himself some wings and then he sings ‘til all can hear it.”

Old Amica – Bländverk

“A record which explores time with Old Amica’s signature care and patience […] suspended in a negative space seemingly disconnected from anything tangible, memories floating by in abstract grace.” That’s how we described the Swedish duo’s album För alltid back in 2024, again noting how their blend of organic and digital sensibilities manages to evoke memory in all of its emotional depth. With a new full-length set for release next month via Whitelabrecs, Old Amica are now back with ‘Bländverk’, a spare piano-based track that again explores the poignant, often ethereal world of recollection. Stretched across ten minutes, the song mimics the gauzy filter memory can bring, where the reality of a moment is softened, a monument worn smooth by the passing of time.

Sulka – All Bets Off

This summer Glasgow-based songwriter Lukas Clasen, AKA Sulka, will release new full-length Bute on Lost Map and No Soap Records. Following last year’s single ‘Halloween’, that as we said previously combined “subdued vocals with an eerie backdrop of distorted guitars and synths,” he has now released a second track from the album to further whet appetites. Titled ‘All Bets Off’, it’s an ostensibly charming indie pop song that nevertheless delves into a toxic relationship. And not your average one either. Written from an equine perspective, it explores the exploitation at the heart of horse racing. “The song was partly inspired by a storyline in the TV show The Sopranos, where Tony buys a race horse and develops a genuine love for it,” Clasen explains. “I thought writing a song from the horse’s perspective would make an interesting device for exploring the ups and downs of a volatile relationship”

Tory Silver – Microwave

Pittsburgh-based Tory Silver makes a brand of indie rock that she says “[channels] the small joys and inevitable uncertainties of residing in a body.” She has a new record, In Through the Front with Lasers, coming at the end of May via Michi Tapes and has unveiled new single ‘Microwave’ in anticipation. The song is set in the cold chill of dawn, our narrator sat bleary-eyed in their kitchen, enjoying the quiet ahead of a day of selling their body for what Silver describes in an Instagram post as a “silly grocery job under crapitalism.” There’s a healthy dose of existential dread sure, but there’s also enough garage rock crunch for it to feel rousing too. An anthem for the masses forced to drag themselves out of bed every morning to keep on keeping on.

Scrambled eggs
On my plate
Getting cold
Microwave

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