Next month the Canadian songwriter Cat Clyde will release Blood Bone Bone, a new full-length album on Concord Records. An effort to reposition or reimagine her relationship with love, the record sees Clyde turn her indigenous Métis heritage for inspiration, as well as the wide natural world, and serves as a expression of everything from exasperation and fury to personal growth and joy. New single ‘Man’s World’ falls at the former end of that spectrum, though repurposes its anger into something cathartic. “This is an expression of the frustration I feel existing as a woman in a patriarchal world,” Clyde explains. “It sometimes feels difficult to be on a 24 hour clock rather than a 28 day cycle, and a 12 month year instead of a 13 month year. I love and crave masculine energy when it’s strong, protective, and emotionally aware. It has been difficult and deeply disappointing to have had experiences dealing with masculine energy that is childish, cowardly, and encroaching on the feminine space. ‘Man’s World’ touches on my own ideas of what being a woman means in this society and how dangerous and violent it can be for a woman’s heart.”

Watch the video directed and shot by Lukas Hyrman below:

Mud Blood Bone will be released on the 13th March via Concord Records and you can pre-order it now.

Dayydream – Proximity

Back in 2025 we introduced Dayydream, the Glasgow-based indie rock project led by visual artist and musician Chloe Trappes. “Straddles shoegaze, slowcore and indie rock to create a sound both hazy and deep,” we wrote of single ‘Fucked Up’, “its title perhaps belying the song’s inviting warmth but describing its confessional tone to a tee, the sound suspended with a light mist yet not without its own internal force.” Now Dayydream are about to release Trace, and EP which builds upon these foundations to delve into the strange, melancholic way the past persists into the present. True to this mood, the sound is often restrained and reflective, the tracks playing as though in the aftermath of something, Trappes and co. left alone but for the footprints on the ground, the fading fog of breath on glass. Single ‘Proximity’ is a good place to dive in, the upbeat rhythm of its opening belying the weight at its heart, a burden which slowly twists the sound into something altogether more hefty and dense.

‘Proximity’ is out now and available from Bandcamp. Trace will be released soon.

jack k – Welcome To The New World

A cross-gen collaboration between composer Jack Kilburn and his father, British poet Mark Kilburn, the forthcoming jack k album 8 Tracks sits at the intersection of music, narrative and memory. Using primarily guitar and piano, Jack creates soundscapes which gesture towards ambient and alt-jazz, and coupled with Mark’s distinctively Brummie spoken-word delivery, the songs come to represent not only reflection on personal experience and family history but something stranger and more abstract. A hauntological sense of imagined pasts and aborted futures which works to evoke the off-kilter, often melancholic sensation of the contemporary British moment. True to its title, ‘Welcome To The New World’ is the ideal entry point into this style. A track spacious and stark, as barren as the society evoked by Kilburn’s plainspoken lyricism, where the new world is not much of a world at all, but rather just the fading echoes of what we imagined as it falls away from us.

8 Tracks will be released soon.

Lamplight – Year 2083

“An exploration of how one’s sense of identity shifts and changes according to any number of present conditions, not least the place we call home at any given time.” That’s how we described the self-titled album by Lamplight back in 2024, the Western Vinyl release seeing Virginia songwriter Ian Hatcher-Williams grapple with a life which led out of a cult in his home state to a job in tech in NYC before eventually circling back around to returning to Virginia to marry a childhood friend. Glimpse at the title of the latest Lamplight single ‘Year 2083’ and you might think Hatcher-Williams has switched focus from the past towards the distant future, though in reality the song is very much embedded in the present. With hemlock adding supporting vocals, the track possesses all of the warmth of the previous album, not to mention the same emotional openness. As though written from within the fluidity of the current moment, with Hatcher-Williams working to establish what is important in real time. Grab it from Bandcamp now, with all proceeds going to MPLS mutual aid.

Lemoncello – Meet Me Halfway

There’s a very contemporary tension within Lemoncello‘s latest single ‘Meet Me Halfway’. A complicated relationship between intimacy and distance. A sense of push and pull. Out now via Claddagh Records, the song sees Irish duo Laura Quirke (guitar/vocals) and Claire Kinsella (cello/vocals) create a soundscape that’s spare yet loaded with latent feeling, as though the true weight of the track lies just outside of the frame. An atmosphere fitting for a song which explores how even though we’re now able to communicate more freely than ever before, we’re somehow as far apart as we’ve ever been. “To be so connected / And yet so disconnected,” as a pertinent line states. “What’s the point in speaking / With so much left understood.” But rather than settle for a dismayed commentary on such conditions, ‘Meet Me Halfway’ pushes further, reaching for the kind of concerted effort required on both sides of a relationship in order to sustain connection. Watch the video below, wih creative direction by Sophie O’Donovan, editing by AK Heisterkamp and title design by Stina Sandstrom:

‘Meet Me Halfway’ is out now via Claddagh Records and available from the usual places.

new body electric – every day

“It all started with a trumpet,” explain Portland, Oregon-based band new body electric (Aaron Peterson, Evan Smoker and Leah Vautar), but their music has come a long way since then. Following on from a self-titled album in 2024 which drew on everything from funk, electro and jazz to enliven its indie pop sound, the band have returned with new single ‘every day’ to continue to explore new ground. Full of easygoing groove, the result is assured in style if not in substance, the track’s lyrics delving into various personas we adopt to get through day to day existence. But no matter how blurry a sense of self might be thanks to the demands of living, new body electric are here to show this need not necessarily defeat us. Better to commit to the rhythm and groove your way on through.

‘every day; is out now and available from the usual places.

Paul Bergmann – West Rock

“A pleading dirge; a manic rumination on the human condition at the foot of a geological anomaly in New Haven, CT.” That’s how musician Paul Bergmann described his latest single ‘West Rock’, a song released in anticipation of forthcoming full-length Connecticut Cowboy. Across a total of sixteen releases, Bergmann’s work has shapeshifted from one album to another, moving from scrappy folk punk to sleek piano-led croons, not to mention psychedelic excursions too. But it has always been bound by an overarching thematic concern with existential ideas of life, death and all the dreams therein. As the above description might suggest, ‘West Rock’ sees Bergman return to the most immediate, raw form, pitching the audience into a shadowy world and barking confessions at us through the gloom. Think of the nocturnal volatility of acts like Bambara crossed with the Jason Molina’s bitter poetry and you’re getting close to the result.

Run Remedy – Jessie’s Girl

The alter ego of US-born, UK-based songwriter Robin Koob, Run Remedy embraces both the serious and silly sides of life in its folk rock sound, something embodied by latest single, a reimagining of Rick Springfield’s 1981 hit ‘Jessie’s Girl’. This version not only plays with the sound, swapping out the guitar solo for banjo, but also flips the gender to transform the track into a queer anthem. “I swear if I’m back home driving around South Jersey, ‘Jessie’s Girl’ will come on within the hour (shout out 95.1WAYV),” Koob explains. “It’s been stuck in my head my whole life. That level of cringey yearning is timeless, so obviously I had to make my own sapphic spinoff.” The single comes complete with a video to further cement the changes. “The original video is pure camp, so I basically Weird Al’d it with rainbow kids,” Koob continues. “We recreated almost every shot in one day, gorilla-shooting around Manchester, spared my bathroom mirror, and ended the day passing around the wig. Everyone looked better in it than I did, which feels correct.”

‘Jessie’s Girl’ is out now and available from the usual places.

Spirited Followers – Returning

Back in September we wrote about Cardiff-based experimental folk rock outfit Spirited Followers, describing how the project reaches across a huge range of influences to inform its singular sound. “With members hailing from Cyprus, India and Wales, Ireland, and England, the diversity of inspiration is perhaps unsurprising,” we explained, “though the work of Spirited Followers pushes beyond those backgrounds too. You’ll hear elements of Appalachian mountain music in the stark guitar, as well as a Greek flavour among several others.” Released via Libertino‘s new sister label BWGIBWGAN, latest single ‘Returning’ is no less ambitious, mining ancient songwriting traditons for their devotional power while still positioning their sound on the cutting edge of the contemporary movement too. It a glimpse at the band’s reflective side, “reframing themes of death,” as the label put it, “through warmth, acceptance and spiritual calm.”

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“An album born of travel and distance, pieced together from segments of other places, but ending up very much unique.” That’s how we described Bato Mato by Carmarthen’s Adwaith released by Libertino Records back in 2022. The record was an ambitious one, drawing upon “any number of psych, grunge and dream pop influences to realise its sound,” as we wrote, but follow-up Solas goes even further. A twenty-three track double album which serves as the closing part of a coming-of-age trilogy, tracing the arc of the band’s progression which sees them drawn back to their West Walian roots at the height of their powers. “I feel like we’re confident in ourselves as musicians, and our sound, and the world that we want to create,” as Hollie Singer explains. “We feel fully realised.”

Watch the video shot and edited by Rhys Grail below:

Solas will be released on the 7th February via Libertino Records.

Anna Arboles – By Any Means Necessary

LA-based songwriter Anna Arboles is gearing up to release Pure Fanfiction, a brand new album on Anxiety Blanket Records which fictionalises the personal in order to edge closer to the truth. “These songs are about passing into adulthood and clarifying who I wanted to be,” Arboles explains, “but are not necessarily about my life. I wrote these songs as soundtracks to movies, TV shows, books, or photographs that catalyzed introspection. They’re like fanfiction for my life.” Taking inspiration from seminal queer film By Hook or By Crook by Harry Dodge and Silas Howard, first single ‘By Any Means Necessary’ serves as an ode to friendship and its supportive power. Hence how the doubt of the repeated refrain—”I don’t know if I can do it”—is slowly conquered, the uneasy movement towards self-actualisation made easier by those there along the way.

Pure Fanfiction will be released on the 14th February via Anxiety Blanket Records

Dead Gowns – In the Haze

Early next year, Dead Gowns (that’s the project of Portland, Maine’s Genevieve Beaudoin) will release their debut album, It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow on New York label Mtn Laurel Recording Co. Second single ‘In the Haze’ is a beautiful introduction, a patient and spacious country-tinged indie rock song that put’s Beaudoin’s incredible vocals front and centre, shifting from a quiet hush to a quivering wail as she explores the complex emotions of dealing with a then-undiagnosed illness. It’s indicative of a record that takes real-life experiences and then stretches their edges, probing at possibilities and straying from fact into fiction. “There’s a sense of freedom by starting in an autobiographical place and then expanding into fiction,” Beaudoin describes. “I learn so much about what has happened by exploring what could have been.”

It’s Summer, I Love You, and I’m Surrounded by Snow will be released via Mtn Laurel Recording Co. on 14^th February. Pre-order it now from the Dead Gowns Bandcamp page.

georgie – 2d

Serving as a celebration to a specific corner of the DIY scene in Rochester, New York, spit takes and split tapes is a four-band split release by raincoated records. Featured artists include Bugcatcher (whose album Go! we covered last year), Home Videos and Kitchen (who we first mentioned way back in 2016), as well as georgie, the project led by Claire G. McClusky who “combin[ed] ecological, personal and political sensibilities” for the excellent album Intimacy Hangover in 2023. One of the latter’s contributions to the split release, ‘2d’ sees McClusky and co. push the georgie sound through its usual airy folk style until it disintegrates into a noisy crescendo.

Meagre Martin – Frankie

After a fantastic 12 months which has included appearance at the Reeperbahn Festival, Pop Montreal and Pitchfork London, as well as successful singles ‘Never Thought‘ and ‘Malcolm‘, Berlin-based indie rockers Meagre Martin are closing out the year with one final, celebratory single, ‘Frankie’, which also serves as the first preview of EP Up To Snuff coming next February on Mansions and Millions. Pairing gauzy shoegaze textures with a persistent rhythm, the track embraces a bright spirit of playfulness and curiosity. “I can’t help / But smile / I look at you like a child,” as the opening lines go, submitting to the thrilling sensation of falling for someone and letting the current move in whatever direction it sees fit.

Watch the video directed by Federico Corazzini and Meagre Martin below:

‘Frankie’ is out now via Mansions and Millions and available from Bandcamp.

Nona Invie – Forget My Name

Created as an antidote to ubiquitous feelings of anxiety and fear, Nona Invie‘s appropriately titled new album Self-soothing sees the Minneapolis songwriter aim to provide a safe haven of calm within an often terrible contemporary world. “These songs are a weighted blanket that comforted and supported me in a lonely time,” as Invie explains. “I hope that they can be supportive, comforting to others.” Opener and lead single ‘Forget My Name’ offers a glimpse of the meditative sound which brings this mission to life. A lesson in the necessity of loosening our grip and letting go those things which do us no good in order to more fully inhabit a healthy sense of self.

Watch the video by Ingrid Weise below:

Self-soothing will be released on the 28th February via Boiled Records and you can pre-order it now.

Raybody – Puddle

Then recording under her own name, Katy Rea released full-length The Urge That Saves You back in 2022, an album which, as we put it, “explor[ed] her life not directly but through imagined characters and metaphorical stories that feel something like modern fables.” Now having adopted the moniker Raybody, Rea has returned with ‘Puddle’, the first taste of a new era for an artist currently at work on her second album. “[The new name] allows me to step into a braver and more honest part of myself,” Rea explains. “I’m after a truth that requires me to unattach from my given name—which has always felt sweet, well mannered, and more feminine than I am.” The new single introduces this new spirit, combining classic singer-songwriter sensibilities with something more singular and strange, resulting in a sound able to paint an intimate picture of a blossoming relationship and the self-reflection inherent within the process of learning to love another person.

Watch the video shot by Sawyer Gaunt and directed by Nicole Townsend and Rea herself below:

‘Puddle’ is out now and available from the Raybody Bandcamp page.

Robert Ascroft – Where Did You Go feat. Britta Phillips (Luna, Dean & Britta)

With album Echo Still Remains coming in January via Hand Drawn Dracula, producer and artist Robert Ascroft has been releasing a series of collaborative singles in recent months, including ‘Faded Photographs’ with Ruth Radelet and ‘Empty Pages’ with Zumi Rosow of The Black Lips. The latter offered “a beguilingly ambiguous interplay between rhythm and fuzz” as we put it, complete with a cinematic video, and now Ascroft has enlisted vocalist and actress Britta Phillips (who you might know as part of Luna and Dean & Britta) for another dark and filmic track. With rhythmic percussion, sensual vocals and an enveloping night-time mood, ‘Where Did You Go’ channels a sultry Lynchian aesthetic full of nocturnal weight. The full record promises to feature the likes of Ora Cogan and Christopher Owens too, so is certainly one to watch out for in 2025.

Watch the video starring Phillips and directed by Ascroft himself below:

Echo Still Remains is out January 31st via Hand Drawn Dracula and you can pre-order it now.

Sun June – 41 Dollars

Described as a song about “listening to men talk,” Sun June‘s new single ’41 Dollars’ is the Austin band’s first proper release since last year’s Bad Dream Jaguar—a record we described as “painting impressionistic pictures of love and longing in quiet dusk-hued pastels, as though in effort to preserve that which might otherwise fade out into nothing. The single is every bit as emotive and assured as we’ve come to expect from the outfit, the sound holding reflection and longing within the same moment, and what results is a sound placid on the surface yet roiling with a myriad of unseen currents and pressures below. Released via Run For Cover Records, the single comes complete with a demo version of ’16 Riders’ as well as a remix of ‘Easy Violence’ by Porches.

Wasn’t it all in my head?
Wanted you
Fighting off all that I can
Watching the horizon waul
Trying my best in the cool water
Watching it rise and fall
Listening to you talk

Watch the video below:

’41 Dollars’ is out now via Run For Cover Records and available from Bandcamp.

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Philly songwriter Alex Barkats is releasing new album Here we are in the garden later this summer via Ghost Mountain Records, and lead single and opening track ‘Jewels’ gives a window into what to expect from the release. A song of conflicted feelings, where the bright folk sound is shaded by something more melancholic. As though every good moment will also be shadowed by the understanding such a time can only be temporary. But Barkats works against this mood in an effort to carve out a more fulfilling frame of mind. “It’s about finding comfort in routine,” he explains. “Especially when the world is still crumbling. You have to go through so much trial and error to know how to build joy for yourself.”

Antonia Estelle – Don’t Know Why

Back in 2023 we wrote about the Edmonton-based songwriter Antonia Estelle with the EP Poser, describing how the title track embellished acoustic guitar with “syrup-heavy drums,” “gusts of distorted guitar,” and “vocals swaying with quiet intensity like a flickering flame” to explore “the strange balance of a dysfunctional relationship and the ultimate unknowability of selfhood.” Now based in Berlin to study Audio Production at Funkhaus, Estelle is gearing up to release her debut full length, and latest single ‘Don’t Know Why’ introduces the idiosyncratic yet intuitive nature of her work. A sleek pop song which embraces a sense of movement and flow. “My goal while creating this piece was to lean into freedom and playfulness,” Estelle explains. “In the past, I have relied heavily on words and finding meaning in music, but with this song, I wanted to let go of meaning and rather create something that made me want to move my body.”

Blaine Todd – Everyman

Based on Alameda, a former naval base and island in the San Francisco Bay, Blaine Todd is a folk artist in the wanderer tradition. The songwriter as a kind of outlaw perpetually passing through. New album Goodbye ‘Til I Do Good By You follows Todd on this journey, its authentic country sound having an eye on the stars as well as the road, its subtly cosmic style charged with equal parts melancholy and wry humour. “Well, my days go like smoke,” as he sings at the beginning of opener ‘Everyman’, I want to laugh but I choke / Must I be the punchline in some cosmic joke / While just around the bend / Another fire starts smoldering / It flummoxes my ass to no end.” What results is a jaunt to the heart of the human condition, as well as the picture of the beauty and cruelty of the world we’re made to walk.

I nearly found it just today
Held hysteria at bay
But all I can recall is my mother sayin:
Every man rides the horse that he deserves

Jack Gaby – Young Adult

Naarm / Melbourne-based songwriter Jack Gaby has made a name with a bright and jangly brand of indie pop, but there’s more to his work than sunbleached positivity. New single ‘Young Adult’ shows an altogether more contemplative dimension to Gaby’s sound, drifting with a slack rhythm as he considers the wonders and pitfalls of early adulthood. “I went through a period at this age when I was a mess,” as Gaby puts it. “This track is about the tumultuous emotions I experienced at the time.” But rather than present this headspace as a chaotic sound, the sluggish momentum makes for a different kind of experience. One suggestive of the real kicker of such periods, where it feels like you might never gather enough energy to escape the pull of negative feelings, and instead drift within their circular currents forever.

Las Nubes – Enredados (Misty’s Mix)

“Deals with the ways in which activism can be co-opted and exploited,” we wrote of ‘Pesada‘, the recent single from Las Nubes‘ new album Tormentas Malsanas, “the sound [as] tumultuous and hefty as you might expect for such a subject, taking no prisoners with its crushing weight.” With the album now out, the Miami, Florida duo have released one final single, ‘Enredados (Misty’s Mix)’. Not sacrificing one iota of the raucous spirit which marks the work of Ale Campos and Emile Milgrim, the song ramps up the rhythm underpinning the sound to offer something more energetic, grabbing the listener and pulling them along for the ride with all the uncompromising attitude they’ve made their own.

Mary Ocher – The Rubaiyat Medley

To say Mary Ocher’s latest album Your Guide to Revolution is ambitious in its intentions is to risk understatement. A kaleidoscopic and politically charged collection of songs which draws on Ocher’s childhood (born in Moscow to Jewish-Ukrainian parents before emigrating to Tel Aviv during the Gulf War) as a way into wider themes of resistance and civil disobedience. A huge array of styles and influences are utilised across the record, both to evoke the gamut of emotions triggered within the contemporary struggle and to ground the release within a wider history of such subversive art. A central part of the album is a series of three tracks which rework pieces by harpist Dorothy Ashby based on the Rubaiyat of Omar Khyyam, a triptych of songs which Ocher has collected into a short film which echoes The Color of Pomegranates by Sergei Parajanov. Watch it below:

Your Guide to Revolution is out now via the Underground Institute and available from Bandcamp.

Narwhals – Moor Fires

Based between Manchester and the West Yorkshire borough of Calderdale, Narwhals is an indie rock/shoegaze project led by singer-songwriter Jacob Patrick. Drawing on The North’s rich post-punk history, the Narwhals style combines needling guitar and dynamic percussion with Patrick’s signature deep and morose vocals to craft something that sounds big and rich and poignant. Nowhere is this more apparent than on new single ‘Moor Fires’, what the press release calls “a track about grief and heartbreak […] about rebirth and finding peace.” It displays everything that’s great about the Narwhals sound, somber and sonorous but full of energy. Perhaps most impressive is the composure and poise that sits at its centre like the tranquil eye of of a gigantic storm. Frequent collaborator Thē Jaffa also makes an appearance, their backing vocals bringing a lighter counterpoint to Patrick’s and thereby leavening the song as a whole.

Peiriant – Taflu Dŵr

With an experimental sound that draws on everything from folk and post-rock to classical and sound art, mid Wales duo Peiriant combine traditional and electronic styles with samples and found objects for semi-improvised pieces. What results is an almost sculptural approach to music, with Rose and Dan Linn-Pearl building out from a skeleton of an idea with layers of drone and dissonance. One which relies on the push and pull between the main components of violin and electric guitar. New single ‘Taflu Dŵr’ is the perfect introduction for the uninitiated, encapsulating both the detail of the Peiriant sound and the duo’s expert ability to utilise space.

Where’s Beth – Quiet

Writing of single ‘Wide Eyes’ back in March, we described how New York’s Where’s Beth channelled the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Connie Converse in embracing and “idiosyncratic style with conviction and grace to create a sense of authenticity.” Ahead of the debut Where’s Beth full-length Bone Broth, Sarabeth Weszely is back with new single ‘Quiet’. The song again uses a fond, intimate sound to explore wider themes. Written during a trip to Romania where she was struck by the low cost of living and wide open spaces in comparison to New York, the song charts the difficulties of urban living with a tangible warmth. “I was thinking about my relationship to land in the context of a competitive capitalist market (realizing how wild the cost of “air-space” in my home city was compared to the fertile and beautiful land I was spending a few dollars a day to live on),”  This song gives voice to a tension that is familiar to many people who choose to live in cities, whether for career goals or the intoxicating thrill of a crowd.”

Wishy – Triple Seven

With the release of Wishy‘s Triple Seven looming next month on Winspear, the  Indianapolis band have unveiled the title track to allow audiences to get a little more acquainted with the forthcoming full-length. A slice of lush dream pop which both pays homage to forebears likes The Cranberries and Cocteau Twins while fashioning the nineties-nostalgic sound into something entirely their own. “A little bit uncertain / I wasn’t really sure / I walked out in silence / I shut that door,” Nina Pitchkites sings in the opening, but the bright sound soon smothers any sense of doubt, instead offering an affirming if slightly wistful track to soundtrack your later summer evenings as the sun dips below the horizon.

Watch the video directed, filmed and edited by Haoyan of America below:

Triple Seven is out on the 16th August via Winspear and you can pre-order it now.

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“I strangely saw similarities between there and Carmarthen,” drummer Heledd Owen says of cold deserted streets. “You could kind of sense this loneliness. It felt like this empty city.” Confronting this less hospitable side of life became central to Bato Mato. Where Melyn offered wistful, impatient dreams of growing up, the new record faces adulthood in all its stark reality. A place often mythologised beyond the hard truths of the everyday.

But for all of the visceral, post-punk weight, Bato Mato is also a colourful and inventive record. A melting pot of styles which draws upon any number of psych, grunge and dream pop influences to realise its sound. Thoughts turn once more to Ulan-Ude. A confluence of different cultures, where Russian, Mongolian and Chinese styles converge into a city harsh yet singularly striking. With Bato Mato, Adwaith offer the sonic equivalent. An album born of travel and distance, pieced together from segments of other places, but ending up very much unique.

We took the opportunity to chat with the band to find out a little more about the record, so read on below:

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us and congratulations on the second album! How was the experience compared with that of your debut?

Thank you! I think we are definitely more confident in our sound and songs this time around. I don’t think we’d change anything about the album which is a really good place to be in!

Were there different pressures after winning the Welsh Music Prize in 2019? Or did the recognition help you find your feet as a band?

It definitely gave us the confidence in what we were doing. I think there was definitely a pressure to follow up on Melyn but that feeling went away quickly as soon as we started writing it.

I’ve read Bato Mato is at least partially inspired by a journey through Siberia and Mongolia. Could you talk a little about the story behind the record and how it impacted upon the sound?

It was such a crazy experience start to finish. The landscape was so bare and vast. The city we visited was industrial looking and was kind of forgotten about. The space around us really inspired us to write a big sounding album.

There also a certain anxiety to many of the tracks. An unease which shadows even the more triumphant numbers. I think the video of ‘Wedi Blino’ does a great job capturing this. Could you speak on this dimension of the record?

Melyn was about growing up in your teens and the problems that arise but also about the positivity you have as a young adult. Bato Mato is, in a way, a continuation of that. The realisation that life maybe isn’t that good and the anxieties that come along with that.

I wanted to ask about the responsibility of writing and recording in Welsh. There haven’t been many artists working in the language within the indie scene, especially not women. Do you see yourselves as torch-bearers for the Welsh language? Challengers of English hegemony? Or just artists working with what comes natural?

I think for us, it was definitely a natural thing for us to do. We were inspired by Welsh language music and the scene so it wasn’t something we thought about. Now, I think we really want to bring Welsh music to the world and we feel very honoured to be able to do that.

What’s next for Adwaith? And if you could take a trip to inspire the next record, where would you choose to go?

We do have a few trips abroad coming up that will maybe inspire the next record! We have a tour for the album and some festivals over the summer. We’ve already started working on Album 3 so hopefully that will be out in the near future too!

Bato Mato is out now via Libertino Records you can grab it from the Adwaith Bandcamp page.

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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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Following the release of ‘Edge’ back in June, Ailsa Tully has returned with a brand new single, entitled ‘Drive’. Described by Tully as a song “about searching to free yourself from the mundanity of everyday life,” ‘Drive’ unfurls in its own time, existing in its own liminal space outside of the ordinary, a space in which new realities seem possible. This effect is accentuated by the accompanying video, shot by Tully herself, which tracks a journey from London across the Severn bridge and into the Welsh countryside, where green hills and narrow wooded lanes feel like another world entirely.

‘Drive’ is out now and you can listen on the Ailsa Tully Soundcloud page.

Photo by by Adam Whitmore

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A new volume will be posted every few weeks and will offer a collection of really great songs that we’re determined not to let slip past our radar.

Blushing – Weak 

Working out of Austin, Texas, Blushing is a quartet made up of two husband and wife couples that make a shimmering brand of shoegaze that stokes the flames of nostalgia while pushing ahead into new territory. With the band set to release a new EP, Weak, they’ve unveiled the title track as a single to whet our appetites. The track, which nods at forebears such My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive as well as contemporaries like Pains of Being Pure At Heart, weaves a gauzy atmosphere and feedback and reverb, though the poppy vocals are also allowed to bob to the surface.

Check out the video below, which was directed, filmed and edited by drummer Jake Soto with help from Eddie Chavez.

Weak is to be released via Austin Town Hall Records on the 26th January, 2018, and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

Amparo – Ruby

Amparo is the project of Arizona’s Lela Amparo, who is due to release their debut EP, Rains, later this week, the first ever release on label Taabiir. The first single from the record, ‘Ruby’ combines sombre piano, sparse guitar and minimal spoken samples to form something that sounds moving and elegiac. The track was inspired by the rhythms of the natural world, as Amparo explains. “This past summer I spent time in Gothenburg, Sweden surrounding myself with the nearby woods. The original intention was to continue crafting electronic music, however after a friend loaned me his guitar, the outcome was entirely different. Over the course of two days, I sat down and began to sketch out guitar hooks and loops, which would eventually transpire into this EP.”

Rains is due for release on the 10th of December via Taabiir.

Veronica Bianqui – Victim

Multi-instrumentalist Veronica Bianqui makes music inspired a variety of sources, melding the 60s pop with classic soul and finishing off with the rough edges of garage rock. While her debut album is not scheduled for release until 2018, new single, ‘Victim’, gives a good insight in her sound and aesthetic. Bianqui’s sister died young after struggling with drug use, and the song plays as an attempt to prevent such tragedies, imploring those struggling addiction to find the strength to change and live. As such, ‘Victim’ is about breaking patterns of self-victimization in order to heal and grow, maintaining an upbeat, positive vibe despite the grave matter at hand.

‘Victim’ is available now from Veronica Bianqui’s Bandcamp page.. All of the proceeds are being donated to the Harm Reduction Coalition, who fight to promote the health and dignity of individuals and communities impacted by drug use.

Lavender Child – Happy Illusions

Based in Toronto, Canada, Lavender Child makes what they describe as “ethereal dreamscapes” intended to “inspire listeners to reconnect with nature, community, and themselves.” The result is something pitched halfway between indie pop and ambient, taking equal inspiration from Grouper, Julianna Barwick and Sharon van Etten. The lead single from a new EP, Reflections, ‘Happy Illusions’ demonstrates the vivid, dream-like soundscapes that Lavender Child conjures, evoking not only a sense of wilderness but also a rich inner life too, as though the interior and exterior are merged into one soaring fabric.

Lavender Child‘s EP, Reflections, is out on the 1st December.

1971 – Anxiety (In The Depths Of Northwestern Ontario)

Cameron Glen Cranston, bassist and founding member of 1971, very sadly died earlier this year aged just 25. The band have called it a day in response, but have decided to release their final two recordings as a cassette single, No Matter Where You Go, There You Are.

One of those tracks, ‘Anxiety (in the Depths of Northwestern Ontario)’ was written for Cranston back in 2016, during a very difficult period before his death. We’re glad we have ‘his’ song,” the band told Exclaim! “even though it’s hard to listen to sometimes.”

The song deals in the kind of sparse and expansive Canadian indie rock that will appeal to fans of Wintersleep or Summering, the pain and emotion that inspired it spiking in punky yelps during the chorus, and whipping into a blizzard of squealing guitar and pounded drums for the finale.

No Matter Where You Go, There You Are is out Dec 1st and available via the 1971 Bandcamp page.

Joe Russell-Brown – Post-Youth Depression

Recorded on nothing but a laptop and cheap microphone in his grandmother’s bungalow, Joe Russell-Brown’s debut EP Post-Youth Depression manages a surprising anthemic richness to accompany what is still an undoubtledly lo-fi sound. The title track is the perfect example of this, coming off as a jagged celebration of times gone by, detailing the facets of teenage years in boring towns that become suddenly beautiful in hindsight.

Post-Youth Depression is out now via Warren Records and you can grab it from Bandcamp.

Bryde – Desire

Bryde is the recording project of Pembrokeshire native Sarah Howells, who makes a dark blend of indie rock and pop that probes at the sinister underbelly of love and relationships. Following on from her debut EP, ‘Desire’ is a new single that furthers this style, serving as a critical, semi-disgusted look at a relationship gone wrong. According to Howells, the songs is about “our need for instant gratification, about desire’s addictive qualities and how they can make us behave,” charting the transforming or transmogrifying power of love and lust. Here, passion is not the beguiling force of Hollywood movies, rather an instinctive, near-animalistic force capable of destroying your sense of self and better judgement.

‘Desire’ was released earlier this month via Seahorse Music, and precedes Bryde’s debut album, pencilled in for next Spring.

Little Star – Providence

Starting out as the solo project of Portland, Oregon’s Daniel Byers, Little Star grew to include band members John Value and Julian Morris for 2016’s Being Close this year’s self-titled record. However, returning to his roots, Byers has taken to the studio as a solo act once more to record a new EP, Even in Dreams, that will be released next year on Good Cheer Records. Until then, we have ‘Providence’ as a taster, a track that combines an intimate bedroom pop with 80s college rock, with elements of shoegaze thrown in for good measure—resulting in a song that blends emotion and deadpan observation in a way similar to the excellent Friendship record we reviewed a few weeks ago.

Even in Dreams will be released on Hidden Bay Records and Good Cheer Records on the 12th January and you can pre-order it now. In the meantime, check out the Big Star Bandcamp page for their previous albums.

Allegra Krieger – So Glad You Said Goodbye

Based in New York, Allegra Krieger is a songwriter rooted in the traditions of folk, as much of a storyteller as a musician. Indeed, as with much of the best folk, her debut album Circles deals with themes of moving, coming out of a period spent “living on the road; in tents, caves, strangers couches.” As such, the record feels like a sincere attempt at communicating the experience of life, with situations and relationships always beginning and ending, the narrator left to navigate the constant change and subsequent heartache. ‘So Glad You Said Goodbye’ is a perfect example, pitched on the vague space between heartsick and wistful, finding solace or strength in the act of moving forwards.

Circles is out now and you can get it from the Allegra Kriger Bandcamp page.

Me and The Moon – Standing Still

After much praise for their debut single, ‘Get Away’ , Guildford trio Me and The Moon are back with a second single on My Little Empire Records. ‘Standing Still’ is an indie-pop song with shoegazey elements and near mathy influences, making for a track that’s both upbeat and melancholic in the best way possible.

The single is out via My Little Empire, and available now from Bandcamp.

Be sure to check out our previous Bright Sparks posts via the tag, and keep your eyes peeled in the opening weeks of 2018 for the next edition.

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Youceff Kabal – Strange Tones

Belgium-born Youceff Kabal is a musician working out of Phoenix, Arizona. After releasing two albums under the moniker YUS, he has released his most recent record under his own name. El Yunque is psychedelic dream pop, like a mix between Vampire Weekend and Eric & Magill, and mammoth single ‘Strange Tones’ is the perfect introduction to the lush, vibrant sound. So kick back and float away on the layers, following the words of wisdom in the opening verse: “all i seem to get out of it / is a need to slow down a bit / why can’t i just take it easy? / livin’ hard holds nothin’ for me”. Then get the release via Bandcamp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3TKwblo0C8

Cameron James Henderson – Refugee

Cameron James Henderson is a songwriter from Sydney who this summer released his latest album, Storm Rollin’ In. ‘Refugee’ is the standout track on what is a beautiful album, a gentle and awfully relevant folk song dealing with people forced to leave their homes and place their trust (and lives) in the hands of a strangers, hoping kindness and empathy might win out. Get the album from Bandcamp.

MAH KEE OH – One Footed

MAH KEE OH are a two-piece band out of Denton who released a record last spring. ‘One Footed’ is one of the standout tracks, a song which toes the line between bummed and blissed out, drawing on elements of shoegaze, grunge and indie-rock to create something both disaffected and dreamy. The album, also entitled One Footed, is available now via Olympic Dreams Records.

Sophie Longshaw – Let’s Go To The Beach

Sheffield songwriter Sophie Longshaw offers an optimistic view of the British summer in this lovably laidback take on acoustic pop music, one of two singles on a double A-side with Chris Mann on Twin Records.

The Furious Seasons – Longshot

The latest band headed by veteran songwriter David Steinhardt, LA-based The Furious Seasons release their new album, Look West just a few days ago. Opener ‘Longshot’ serves as a great entrance point to the acoustic album, the instrumentation dripping with nostalgia and Steinhardt’s vocals unfolding with a smooth, timeless cadence. Get Look West from their webstore.

Sløtface – Bright Lights

Sløtface are an indie rock band from Starvanger in Norway. The band have just released a brand new song, ‘Bright Lights’, taken from their forthcoming EP, Empire Records, out in November on Propeller Recordings. A departure from their previous singles, the track finds Sløtface pushing dark 90s rock vibes, Haley Shea’s vocals worming their way through the fog of drums and reverb.

Van-Anh Nguyen – She Floats

Classically trained Australian pianist Van-Anh Nguyen is set to release a neo-classical/ambient EP at the end of the year, and first single ‘She Floats’ offers a good insight into what to expect. Leaving out any fancy flourishes, the track utilises the poignant simplicity of piano with some light ambient atmospherics to create a wonderfully bittersweet feel. Find more info on her website.

Native Other – Palms

Native Other are a band from Toronto who blur the lines between art pop, RnB and emo to sound something like Dirty Projectors and Minus the Bear sharing a vacation to Hawaii. ‘Palms’ is the first single from their new EP, If I Can Keep It Together, which is out now! Listen below, or stream the full EP via Chart Attack and buy via Bandcamp.

Eugenia – vildt+sødt

Eugenia, consisting of writer Camilla Lily Pape and director Johan Ask Pape, are a brand new duo from Denmark. While details are scare, their latest song ‘vildt+sødt’ is an exciting hint at their blackly atmospheric indie pop sound. The video is also worth your time too, with Scandinavian actor Baard Owe (who you might know from Lars von Trier’s Riget) joining the band for a live session, doing little beyond possessing one of the most expressive faces ever committed to film.

Kidsmoke – ‘See the World’

We last featured Kidsmoke when we featured their debut release Higher back in 2013. Since then the Wrexham-based band have released a second EP and two further singles, and have grown in popularity enormously, with attention from BBC Radio and Spotify. Their latest single, ‘See the World’ is a laid-back indie pop anthem that glows with the remnants of summer. Lyrically it’s inspired by the all-encompassing tumult of the UK’s EU referendum earlier this year, and is the closest thing to a political song Kidsmoke are ever likely to write. Check it out on Bandcamp.

Gabriella Cohen – Downtown

You might know Gabriella Cohen as the front of the Australian band The Furrs, though last year saw her self-release a well-received solo full length, Full Closure and No Details. After signing to Dot Dash, the album is set for a re-release in conjunction with Brooklyn based label Captured Tracks, and the laconic lovesick lullaby ‘Downtown’ serves as a great introduction to anyone who missed it first time around. Buy it now via the Dot Dash & Remote Control Records online shop.

You can check out the previous Things We Have Missed here, or click through to our Reviews and Previews to find the things that we didn’t.

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And absurd Bilton’s stories certainly are. Take for example the entirely fictitious trip to Walla Walla by one Professor Milton, a scholar seemingly determined to aggravate his own misery through bumbling perseverance, or ‘Two White, One Blue’, where a man with heart trouble becomes convinced someone has stolen his tablets, displaying all the indignation and paranoid anger of Ignatius J. Reilly. ‘Filing’ joins a dentist who, upon finding the word ‘help’ marked inside a patient’s mouth, begins to look a little closer at the throat before him, the situation growing more and more peculiar with each passing second, and ‘Love in the Time of Austerity’ finds a new couple biting off more than they can chew in an expensive restaurant, knowing they’d never have to pay if only they can keep eating. Though maybe you’d prefer runaway dogs, orchestral massacres and haunted swimming pools? Or frustrated postmen and eternal bridge-building in rural Russia? Think of the oddest thing you can imagine and its likely Bilton has gone odder still.

However, the strangeness does not end there. ‘Flea Theatre’ finds the whole thing closing in on itself, as if a map of Bilton’s marvellous world has been origamied into an inward-facing cube, leaving you trapped to study the walls. There are further examples of interconnectedness through each piece, with a (semi-)recurring time/place and set of characters, though quite how and why they fit together is left up to the interpretation of the reader. The closest thing you’ll get to an answer here is the nagging itch that the next clue might just be around the next corner. Indeed, the book is something akin to a fevered anxiety dream, the true horror not so much the lack of clarity but rather the nagging feeling it might arrive all too suddenly.

It’s not always easy to make musical playlists to accompany books, especially not for short stories collections as varied as this, but we’ve tried to select songs that in one way or another capture the dream-like atmosphere that shrouds Alan Bilton’s work. They’re not 100% appropriate because they miss the comedic edge, so feel free to replace them with a silent film score of your choice.

Tracklisting:

1) Wilds – Blast Furnace
2) Deserter – Siskiyou
3) Rain Days For Bad Songs – Fanpage
4) 3 – Old Earth
5) Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping – Grouper
6) Never a Joke – Krill
7) Full of Minnows – Happyness
8) God Save the Man, Who Isn’t All That Super – BOAT
9) Dog Years – Fog Lake
10) October Mirage – Island Eyes
11) The Place Lives – Mount Eerie
12) Dance of the Dream Man – Xiu Xiu

Anywhere Out Of The World is out now and available from Cillian Press.

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You should probably know from the outset that Yucatan are from Wales, a location which the band rely on for much of their inspiration. Indeed they describe their music as recorded “beneath vaporous skies, at the foot of slate grey peaks…from where song rises from within the soil.” The band come from Snowdonia, an area of incredibly scenic mountainous national park, and capture the natural beauty of their homeland by writing almost exclusively in their native tongue (the title of the album translates as ‘Above the Mountain Summit’), a language of which J.R.R. Tolkien said “For many of us it rings a bell, or rather it stirs deep harp-strings in our linguistic nature”. As someone who is currently attempting to learn the language for more practical reasons, it’s nice to hear it used to construct something so otherworldly, to be reminded its mythical, ancient quality.

The album opens with ‘Ffin’ (which translates roughly as border or frontier), with its thudding drumbeat and quivering violin/cello in background. Things are lushly understated until halfway point, when big guitars enter the fray and things get a little more bombastic. ‘Cwm Llwm’ (‘Bleak Valley’) is a patient build, its soft guitars and vocals undergoing a gradual increase in intensity, eventually joined by an insistent, anticipative drumbeat and mournful strings, the eventual payoff arriving as everything marries together and drums come crashing down. The track also has a piano-led cooling off period, ending in atmospherics that sound like ghosts real or imagined on misty a hillside. This is followed by the only English-language song on the album, ‘Word Song’, which begins with gentle icy tinkles before blossoming with lush arrangements and cooing background vocals. Next up is ‘Halen Daear a Sŵn y Môr’ (‘Ground Salt and the Sound of the Sea’ – I think!), another shimmering slice of panoramic beauty.

‘Ochenaid’ (‘Sigh’) continues in the ethereal majesty with glacial vocals and strings, minimal electric guitar and thumping The National-style drums, while ‘Llyn Tawelwch’ (‘Peace Lake’) opens with sparse instrumentation, the vocals taking centre stage, building and building to a finale which swoops and soars over snowy peaks. Lead single ‘Angharad’ twinkles and floats before a pounding, cymbal-heavy climax. The title track closes up in suitably resplendent fashion, its triumphant horn-led final third finishing things with a celebratory air.

You can buy Uwch Gopa’s Mynydd right now as a download, CD or vinyl (heck the Yucatan website for a list of suppliers). People of Germany, Austria and Switzerland can grab a copy via Stargazer Records.

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