With the release of the EP fast approaching, Neighbourly have returned with brand new single, ‘Lofi’. One of several songs on the record which utilises Spanish language, the track both introduces another dimension to the project and doubles down on the fun, tongue-in-cheek spirit underpinning it. Oliver Sandberg’s lyrics play as an internal monologue externalised, the artist addressing the audience directly in a kind of meta ‘show your workings’ exercise, though one delivered with effortless swagger and attitude.

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After the success of 2024 full-length Stab!—an album which, as we described, combined “shoegaze textures and post-punk energy into something as immersive as it is momentous”— Gothenburg outfit Agent blå are back with new single ‘Shapes’. Energised by the positive experience of releasing the previous record, the band attacked the new material with fresh vigour, the song coming exactly a decade after their debut release but sounding as committed and impassioned as ever. The result, which offers a picture of a person navigating the choppy waters of trauma with Agent blå’s signature mix of intensity and ethereality, also represents their first step into the future, laying the groundwork for the next stage in their evolution.

Cameron Knowler – La Paz

Writing back in March, we previewed Cameron Knowler new album CRK with single ‘Secret Water’. “Imagine the guitar work of Bert Jansch and John Renbourn combined with the older string band tradition from Appalachia and you’d be getting somewhere close,” as we put it. “But true to the CRK spirit, the result is also specific to Arizona, working to conjure the landscape in both fine detail and broad strokes.” With the album now out via Worried Songs, Knowler has shared another single ‘La Paz’. Set around a ghost town north of Yuma, Arizona, the track is mournful but never hopeless, twin acoustic guitars painting a wistful reflection on the passing of time.

The Convenience – Western Pepsi Cola Town

“The immediate sense of the track is one of bright confidence, though something else moves beneath the surface,” we wrote of ‘Dub Vultures’ from The Convenience‘s upcoming LP Like Cartoon Vampires on Winspear. “A counter force of sharp angles and acerbic attitude which lends an undeniably dark undercurrent […] As though the momentum isn’t some dependable force but rather an unstable chain of motion.” With the release of the album fast approaching, the New Orleans duo has unveiled new single ‘Western Pepsi Cola Town’ to ramp up the excitement. A track no less momentous or changeable in style, typifying The Convenience’s metamorphosis from whimsical indie pop act into something between post-punk and art rock, a transformation which nevertheless retains the sense of playfulness which marked their previous releases.

Like Cartoon Vampires is out on the 18th April via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

Foxtails Brigade – Gimme A Sign

“A poignant ode to those who exist at some kind of angle to the conventional modes of living, too often shunned by the cultural and political gatekeepers of their time.” So we wrote of ‘Forevermore’, the lead single from forthcoming full-length Red Album by Foxtails Brigade last month. Latest track ‘Gimme A Sign’ further introduces the style of a record which sees the San Francisco project push further into pop than ever before. The band say “clockwork nylon guitar riffs and unconventional kitchenware percussion” remains at the core of their sound, but the new single shows how retaining such signature features does not preclude a pivot towards anthemic pop. “Gimme a sign, something I could recognize,” Laura Weinbach demands in the chorus, her words embodying the underlying urgency which propels the track forward.

‘Gimme A Sign’ is out now. You can sign up for early access of Red Album on the Foxtails Brigade website.

Larum – O Choruscans

We covered a couple of singles from Larum‘s The Music of Hildegard von Bingen, Part Two, an album on Puremagnetik which sees Chet Doxas and Micah Frank reimagine the work of abbess, theologian, mystic and composer Hildegard von Bingen to demonstrate, as we put it in a preview “how the techniques and conventions of the twelfth century can used to create novel sounds within the contemporary moment.” Latest single ‘O Choruscans’ furthers this style with a subtle blend of woodwind and electronics, its layered approach drawing the listener into its almost spiritual world. The result is neither medieval nor futuristic but instead collapses the distinction between the two. Not old, not new, but timeless.

Neighbourly – Thread Count

“The concept of this EP was simply to have fun together making it.” So describe Vancouver Island psych rock outfit Neighbourly of their new release Get In, coming this summer on Earth Libraries. A release which promises to champion the possibilities when a group of friends get together and create without pressure or expectation. If lead single ‘Thread Count’ is anything to go by, the enjoyment and spontaneity of the process bled into the music itself. Built around a central bassline and Lauren Giorgio’s sardonic vocal style, the song combines post-punk attitude with an altogether more mischievous air, bending the aloof cool so typical of the genre with a tongue-in-cheek playfulness.

Nymphlord – Call Me Up

Back in 2023 we reviewed Mothers Cry And Then We Die. by Nymphlord on Lauren Records. “If the opening track is a representation of falling into a dream,” we wrote, “then the entire EP is a larger recreation of the feeling. A descent into a memory of a past generation which nevertheless works through the pressing issues of the present.” Now Nymphlord is back with new EP Rough Blue Blanket, and lead single ‘Call Me Up’ introduces the release’s intimate tone. Taking inspiration from sources as diverse as sixties folk and nineties grunge, the song celebrates the small moments within the everyday which together add up to form the fondest of memories.

Rainwater – Shadow

The first single of what promises to be a busy year for Blake Luley’s Rainwater, ‘Shadow’ sees the project lean further towards post-punk than ever before. The song originated as Luley observed his long early morning shadow one day and soon shifted into a wider exploration of associated themes. Namely what Luley labels his ‘shadow self’, which houses the buried parts of his identity. “As I’ve become more and more of a ‘real adult’, I’ve had to strategically bury so many aspects of my identity in the service of productivity and responsibility” he explains. “Having a child and being a teacher both reinforces keeping that shadow hidden, while also allowing little moments of my child-like shadow self to be tall and proud.” With equal parts lightness and weight, the result traces the fluctuations of this shadow as it shifts across days and circumstances—sometimes scary, sometimes shameful, sometimes the small secret that keeps you going through the day.

Tom Lark – Dive On In

With a number of singles in recent months, Tom Lark has gradually introduced the diverse tone of new album Moonlight Hotel. Be it ‘Rock & Roll Baby’ “using a laidback brand of psych folk to take on the rollercoaster ride that is life,” as we put it, or the altgether darker ‘Fuselage’, a song “all shadowy attitude and brooding edge,” as we wrote, “where the [previous] carefree spirit falters, change suddenly something dangerous and daunting.” With the full album now out, Tom Lark has shared final single and focus track ‘Dive On In’. With a languid rhythm that might be read as relaxed or melancholic, the song takes on climate anxiety with Shannon Fowler’s signature sense of juxtaposition. Pay no attention to the lyrics and you might enjoy a calm if slightly wistful sound, but dig any deeper and you’ll discover a dizzying dread beneath the surface. How do we live in a world on fire? How do we live with ourselves when there seems to be nothing we can do?

Triathalon – Down

Funeral Music, the new album from Triathalon upcoming on Lex Records, aims to provide exactly what its title promises. “It is not every day you come across an album built around the maxim ‘play this at my funeral’,” as we wrote back in February. But after single ‘RIP’ heralding what might be the NYC project’s “darkest and most unguarded collection of songs to date,” Triathalon are back with new single ‘Down’. Fans will recognise the spirit of previous releases persisting on the new track, but the extra layers of gloom and grit twist the languid pop into something altogether new. If Triathalon are known for sunny tones then we’ve hit the dusk period, where the light is failing and a long nocturnal dark stretches out ahead.

Funeral Music will be released on the 16th May via Lex Records and you can pre-order it now.

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No less striking in its atmosphere, new single ‘Void’ offers a glimpse of a warmer, more relaxed dimension to Sam Weber’s work. But while the languid tone might suggest a track of romance and intimacy, the lyrics paint a more ambiguous picture, where mortality flashes into view with an unnerving abruptness. “[Void] was written around the time Mal and I went to Bosque Del Apache nature preserve outside of Socorro, NM so they could film and photograph the sandhill crane migration,” Weber explains. “The same Socorro that’s known for the Lonnie Zamora Incident, one of the best documented close encounters of the third kind.” As it turned out, experiences both terrestrial and extraterrestrial came to inform the track’s sound, its sense of mystery colliding with the all-too-real adrenaline rush of a near-death experience. As Weber continues:

Driving north on the 25 highway, we were looking at emergency vehicles headed south in the opposite lane. I turned back to our lane and there was a car inside of 100 feet driving toward us on the wrong side of the road. I grabbed the wheel from Mal who was driving and ripped it into the passing lane, and we teetered on two wheels and almost rolled the car and died. I think some of that near mortal energy combined with all the alien energy made its way out of me in ‘Void’.

Clear + Plain will be released on the 23rd August.

Photo by Jacob Boll

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Over the past thirty years, Cursive have established themselves as one of the most consistent and inventive indie rock/emo bands, providing a series of albums which delve into dark, challenging themes with a searing energy. And they show no signs of letting up, with new album Devourer coming later this year on new label Run For Cover. Every bit as intense as anything in their back catalogue, the record explores ideas of consumption in its various guises and how this inevitably slides towards imperialistic exploitation of power. Lead single ‘Up and Away’ introduces the themes with a surprisingly poppy style, though one which squares melody and dissonance off against one another to better capture the tension at the album’s heart. “‘I had the ‘up, up, up, up, up, up and away’ section of lyrics in my head from its inception but hadn’t planned on using something so bright, cheery and arguably trite,” explains singer/guitarist Tim Kasher, “until it occurred to me that what I was really singing about was something floating away from me, something I was losing, not my personal elevation into some stratosphere.”

Watch the video by Brea Grant below, the first in a series of collaborations between Cursive and genre directors which draws on horror tropes to bring the themes of depression further into relief.

Devourer is out on the 13th September via Run For Cover Records and you can pre-order it now.

Evan Uhlmann – Lake Michigan

After penning his first song at the tender age of five and later studying under Ray Davies of The Kinks, it’s fair to say songwriting is in Evan Uhlmann‘s blood. The Chicago-based musician has now enlisted the help of brother Greg Uhlmann (who you might now from his collaboration with Hand Habits as Duffy x Uhlmann on Orindal Records) to record a new collection of songs to be released via Future Gods. First single ‘Lake Michigan’ is the perfect introduction to the kind of intimate, reflective tone of this phase of Uhlmann’s career, tapping into the quotidian rhythms of life to better explore a deep well of emotions. “I wrote this song while grappling with self-doubt in a new relationship, consumed by the fear of not being worthy and the anxiety of anticipating where things might lead before they even started,” he explains. “Lake Michigan became my reflective space; a place to process this unfolding experience.”

Watch the video below with art direction and animation by Sam Congdon:

‘Lake Michigan’ is out now via Future Gods and available from Bandcamp.

Great Klons – Twilight Gardener

Starting out as the bassist for indie pop outfit Eureka Birds in the 2010s before moving to record solo as Great Klons, Scott Klon has been making music for over a decade now, exploring everything from dub-adjacent noise pop to Spaghetti Western-inspired psych folk. The latest Great Klons EP expands upon this with another inventive collision of genres, as indie rock, psych, folk and Krautrock influences all coalesce into a singular sound able to explore ideas of instability within the contemporary moment. With its dual vocals, woozy organ and underlying Motorik beat, single ‘Twilight Garden’ uses Klon’s current home of Finger Lakes, NY as an example of the friction and unease of our present. A time when wealth and poverty make uneasy bedfellows and once proud places crumble amid a wider gentrification. “Lakeside transitory towns / and in between a hundred more,” as Klon sings in the opening verse, “and in the middle the church is falling down / where there are more graves than people.”

‘Twilight Gardener’ is out now via streaming services and you can follow Great Klons on Instagram.

Herr God – jesus candle in the liquor store

The side project of songwriter Chloe Gallardo, San Francisco-based slowcore outfit Herr God is named for a line in a Sylvia Plath poem, a reference which goes some way to illustrate its bruised, introspective style. Herr God has recently released debut single ‘jesus candle in the liquor store’, a song which introduces this style perfectly with its lethargic, downbeat atmosphere. Distorted guitars grumble and smoulder behind shuffling percussion and Gallardo’s listless, mumbled vocals, all coming together to evoke something dark and gloomy but with a strange fatalistic energy.

Watch the video by Ella May Sahlman (director), Liz Charky (director of photography), Zoé Kraft (editor) and Natalia Minguez (PA/BTS) below:

‘jesus candle in the liquor store’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Holy Matter – Wishing Well

Last October we wrote about Leanna Kaiser’s Holy Matter, describing how single ‘Autumn’s Envy’ “occupies the liminal space between the real, emotional and spiritual, as though through loss and introspection, one can lead themselves towards uncanny places.” Again released via Royal Oakie Records, latest single ‘Wishing Well’ sees the LA-based musician and experimental filmmaker continue to mine the rich strangeness of such spaces, where desires are matched by the understanding of their own impossibility. Amid a dreamy, retro soundscape, Kaiser admires a crush from afar while knowing deep down any potential romance is doomed to fail, a weightless headspace where things are both decided and not. “This was a rare instance of knowing exactly how I wanted a song to sound as I was writing it, and it actually turning out identically to how I heard it in my head,” as she explains. “I kept thinking about this restaurant I went to as a kid called The Wishing Well, which had a faux stone well in the middle of its wood-panelled dining room. I imagined this song playing in that dingy room over some crappy 70s restaurant speakers.”

Watch the video directed by Kaiser herself below:

‘Wishing Well’ is out now via Royal Oakie Records and available from Bandcamp.

Luce Rushton – Slinky

Back in April we introduced Slinky, the debut EP from Luce Rushton. Then writing of single ‘How It Works’, we described how the EP is “follows the travails of a young artist attempting to negotiate their own tricky interior within an already overwhelming world,” delivered with a “seamless blend of wry humour and earnest emotion.” Now the record is out in full, Rushton has released a video for the title track which furthers the exploration of gender presented across the release. “The word originally referred to feeling forced into ‘slinky’ women’s clothing throughout my life,” Rushton explains. “In the song, I look back on those feelings and reflect on how much I’ve changed and learned about myself.’’

look how hard i try to
climb up to the ladies room
and what you made me do
sped all day and it costs a fortune
debtor
corner
but you wouldn’t catch me dead in it anymore though

Slinky is out now via Sad Club Records and available from Bandcamp.

No Beauty – JUNE

Led by Helena Alexandria alongside Jonathan Malstrom and Will Fachin, No Beauty is a Hamilton, Ontario-based project gearing up to release their new EP, No Beauty Will Remain, this summer. Single ‘June’ typifies the blend of lightness and weight which constitutes their brand of indie rock. Weighty guitars are propelled by a driving drum line, positioning No Beauty alongside the likes of Basement Revolver in their cathartic heft. But amid the density lies an altogether brighter dimension, with ‘JUNE’ offering a picture of summertime love radiant enough to transcend any encroaching darkness.

a cashmere glow from a small window
fell on the bed
we talked for all the hours on the bed
we found out we had perfect bodies on the bed

Watch the video by Alice Hirsch (director, DOP, editor) and Helena Zogogiannis (AD, creative director, props) below:

No Beauty Will Remain will be released later this summer. No Beauty can be found at the usual places.

Sam Weber – Oregon

Ahead of hitting the road with Anna Tivel this month, Vancouver Island-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Sam Weber has revealed the latest track from his forthcoming album, Clear + Plain. ‘Oregon’ typifies the fusion of traditional and contemporary sensibilities which marks Weber’s sound, with strong percussion and bass anchoring layered vocals and his signature guitar work to offer an ode to its titular state. “‘Oregon’ was written on a trip to Ashland,” as Weber expands. “We were renting a casita on this big property where all these hippies lived. It’s a bit of a sensory abstract poem that just sort of emerged. I think the imagery is my own from the I-5 corridor, seeing the lush green flora, very pagan-beautiful, natural imagery of the state, contrasted with the scraps of humanity strewn around. And the progressive culture of Portland.”

Clear + Plain will be released on the 23rd August and you can find Sam Weber at the usual places.

Secret Flowers – Malibu Burns

Los Angeles fourpiece Secret Flowers—that’s Michael Hentz (vocals, guitar), Jacquelyn Sky (vocals, drums), David Greening (guitar), and Abraham Rodriguez-Smith (bass)—fall somewhere at the intersection of dream pop, psych and shoegaze, offering a sound as confident with dark romance as with laidback jams. New release Balboa EP shows off the full potential of this blend, as shown by lead single ‘Malibu Burning’. Inspired by the wildfires in California over recent years, the song offers slow, lush duet which envelops the listener, evoking not only the stasis of our alarming moment, but the wish to retreat to the small comforts of our loved ones amid encroaching catastrophe.

Slice – Shopping

Consisting of Megan Magiera (guitar, vocals), Barbara Barrera (bass) and Alex Hattick (keys, vocals), Slice have developed a loyal fanbase in Long Beach with their impassioned indie rock sound. After almost a decade of playing together, new single ‘Shopping’, out via Selenite Records, signals a new era for the outfit. It’s the culmination of what has come before, drawing equal does of angst and catharsis to explore themes both personal and political. “When I was writing the lyrics, I was thinking about the different clear-outs of unhoused communities in Echo Park, in Santa Monica, even in Downtown Long Beach,” Hattick explains. “The irony of unhoused communities being cleared out while unaffordable high-rise loft apartments are being built is impossible to ignore. When you’re removing people from these spaces, where do they go? Where do you expect people to go when there’s nowhere to go?”

Thavoron – My Man

Seattle-based Cambodian-American artist Thavoron has made a name for emotive, searching songwriting through a series of singles with Trailing Twelve Records, exploring themes of grief, desire and cultural identity from within the queer experience. Latest track ‘My Man’ is every bit as evocative as we’ve come to expect. A slow-burn anthem which aches with longing, shot through with striking imagery and unguarded emotion. But the sound escalates as the song progresses, gathering a momentum as though Thavoron finds a newfound conviction within it’s build, coming to reach the conclusion that the other he so desires does not hold the key to his own identity. That feeling at home in one’s body is a process to be face on their own terms. Watch the video directed by Thavoron and Maddie Ludgate below:

‘My Man’ is out now via Trailing Twelve Records.

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The fact latest single ‘The End’ continues this vibe is all the more impressive considering its subject matter. The album’s closer, the track takes its role as a conclusion literally, assessing the view from the precise moment it becomes clear these lives of ours will not last for ever. “We’ve reached the last stop on the station, and it’s time to disembark into the void,” as lead Nick Thorburn explains:

With this song, I wanted to look back on the hinge point in our lives when we begin to realize that our existence will not be forever. And when we reach the end, how will we reflect on the life we led? Are we satisfied with the choices we made? Did we have a positive impact on the world or did we do more harm than good?

But true to form, Islands leaven such contemplations with the wry humour and inventiveness that has marked Thorburn’s output since his days as part of The Unicorns. Heartbreak and whimsy might not be the most obvious of bedfellows, but here they feel like two sides of the same coin, right down to the video directed By Justin Hantz.

What Occurs comes out on 21st June and is available to pre-order from the Islands Bandcamp page.

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The latest Trevor Davies release is The Stream, a three song EP that weaves together many of these influences. Davies plays multiple guitars in layered arrangements (what he lists as “acoustic, delayed electric, distorted, and a solid modern-rock bass and drum sound”), and also calls on a cast of collaborators to further flesh out the sound. Tyler Lieb plays pedal steel, Anatol Mcginnis violin and cello, Phil Albert electric bass and double bass and Lucas McKinnon drums, while there are additional vocals by Zoe Lauckner, Billy Young and Gillian Stone (whose great album Spirit Photographs you can read more about here).

Davies says each song on the EP “touch[es] on the Buddhist concept of water ‘seeking the lowest level,'” and a sense of emotive and philosophical rumination pervades the record. Opener ‘What Else?’ is a folk-inflected pop song that unfurls in easy rhythm as Davies asks plainly, “What’s so bad about dying? / What’s so sad about crying?” The title track too has something gentle and considered amidst its layers of rich instrumentation, carried along in its own currents as it grows toward a soaring finale.

But perhaps the standout is closer ‘Glass Bead Game’, a track inspired by the Hermann Hesse novel of the same name in which intellectuals of the future play the titular game—the mastery of which requires comprehension of the sum of all human knowledge, from science and philosophy to music and art. Beginning as a writing exercise to bring the book’s themes into song, the track is an epic meditation on knowledge and aesthetics and the need for human connection.

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This self-titled release is Island Eyes’ first album, and fans of Janzen’s previous work will be pleased to find that he is still crafting exciting, experimental pop/rock music that incorporates a range of instruments and electronics. An obvious comparison is Spencer Krug’s Moonface output, especially earlier releases like Organ Music and Heartbreaking Bravery, although both acts are distinctive and unusual and probably share less in common than the majority of conventional bands.

The artwork goes some way to describing the themes and atmosphere on offer on Island Eyes, a mystical blend of nature and obscure, mythological imagery packed onto an island surrounded by sea. The narrative across the album has the feel of a classic quest – a pursuit of love, noble or otherwise, which begins on the very opening track:

“There’s a wind in my heart
There’s a sword in the air, on the ocean
I lay down, waiting for someone to love”

The entire album could be interpreted from this perspective, an epic captured in the protagonist’s poetic words or thoughts as he’s propelled across land and life by the voice and hands of his love (“As the morning sun wakes the sleeping wolves / I’ll be in your room; I’ll be in your home” continues ‘Pale Moon’). However, the odyssey is not a Hollywood movie with heroic deeds and happy endings. Instead it’s littered with confusion and menace, ominous imagery invoking random violence of nature and other forces, clear narrative replaced by the intuitive jumble of a dream. ‘Every House Is On Fire’ opens with a drum machine reminiscent of Handsome Furs and dives straight into the aforementioned unsettling imagery:

“I heard your voice inside the room
As all your storming clouds came in for you
I called your name, I called on high
But everybody’s houses are on fire

I won’t run, I won’t hide
In the dark of the night
Now I know, you were right
I’ll remain in the light of the sun”

If the first half of the album channelled a weird fantasy world then the second becomes dreamier still, as titles such as ‘You Had a Dream About Love’ and ‘October Mirage’ suggest. The latter again returns to the imagery of islands and swords, all shrouded in an oneiric fog like some fever dream of a would-be hero:

“To dream of the sea
Where I’m washed to the shore
With the clouds coming in
Like the waters before
I lift up my voice
To the ruinous waves
For the lights that once shone
Are beginning to fade”

The strange thing is that as things get weirder, you get the impression that the album is not really an epic at all. Or rather, it is an epic metaphor, an extended attempt to convey the modern-day feelings of the narrator through grand, legendary means. And the narrator could very well be Janzen himself – maybe the island in question Vancouver Island, the sea the Pacific ocean or the Strait of Georgia? What once seemed an interesting and magical tale becomes something more meaningful and unsettling: ‘Throw My Ashes Off the Pier’ deals with the admittedly morbid yet very real/common musings on how you want your loved ones to continue after your death (“O will you wait for me after I disappear? Or will you throw, will you throw all my ashes off of this pier, O my dear?”), while ‘Over Waves’ ends the release on an uncomfortable but cathartic note. “O I’m afraid of this heart,” Janzen sings, the track relatively bare in comparison to the electronic layers of the others, “I’m afraid of your ghost, I’m afraid of your love”. Here he confronts the uncertainty of every life, admitting his fear about pretty much every possible scenario while finding solace in the fact that this uncertainty binds us all.

Whether you want to listen to a fantasy, or a reality that can only be conveyed through the fantastic, this album will not disappoint. Island Eyes is out now via Legwarmer Records. You can grab a rather fetching cassette (see below) from the Island Eyes Bandcamp page.

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