Bitw - Angela Easterling - Takeda - Winona Oak - Oliver Marson feat. Sharon Van Etten - Libby Ember

Bitw - Hen Dro.

The second single from Bitw's forthcoming album Gaddo Glaw sees Bitw joined by longtime collaborator Chwaer Fawr (Mari Morgan), as she shares the microphone in what can only be described as a duet. Ostensibly a generic pop song about a doomed relationship, the lyrics take on an altogether darker and more pessimistic tone in the album's ominous context.

B-side Cofio Bob Tro is an almost sickeningly cheesy other side of the coin, as Gruff lists a catalogue of bad memories, never quite revealing if they’re stated as grumbles or as regrets. Mari once again provides backing vocals, this time alongside Gwion Llewelyn, with Stephen Black on sax.

Bitw is the solo project of Welsh musician Gruff ab Arwel. A committed DIY artist, he has built a career of sorts on his own terms, creating lo-fi art pop (not his description) that takes itself seriously without taking himself too seriously. Now in his mid-thirties, Gruff has made the seamless transition from failing musician to failed musician, and is finally enjoying the freedom that comes with having nothing left to prove.

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Photo - Sandlin Gaither

Angela Easterling - Songs From The Knoxville Project (Album).

Angela Easterling has spent six albums proving she’s one of South Carolina’s best songwriters. Her most recent album, “Witness” was chosen by American Songwriter Magazine as a Top 24 Album of the Year, she is a four-time Kerrville New Folk Finalist, and has had her work praised in No Depression, Americana UK, Oxford American and more.

But her new album, “Songs From The Knoxville Project,” isn’t just a collection of more well-written, passionately delivered songs. It’s a story straight from her ancestors; a haunting tale buoyed by more than a century of Appalachian folk. It’s a Civil War tale without any literal battles but plenty of fighting. It’s a celebration of hope in times of hopelessness, and it brims with the incisive eye of a songwriter and the passion of someone with this story in their blood.

To tell this story, Easterling dove deep into the folk music of the South, eschewing drums entirely, stripping away most of the electric guitars and telling the tale with richly arranged mandolin, fiddle and acoustic guitars. She reached out to the Southern music community and brought in some of its best singers and instrumentalists, from former Emmylou Harris vocalist Fayssoux McLean and Americana star Will Kimbrough to Carolina greats like Darby Wilcox, Elizabeth McCorvey, Admiral Radio, and Audrey Neel and Molly Johnson of the bluegrass trio, The Wilder Flower. 

And it was SC musicians who created this evocative, rustic backdrop, including Sam Kruer on bass, Matt Purinton on mandolin, Robert Gowan on fiddle, and Angela’s musical/life partner Brandon Turner playing multiple guitars, banjo and dobro. The album was expertly co-produced by Turner and Ian Guthrie and recorded in SC at Studio 101.

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Takeda - Lion's Den.

Norwich (England) Folk-Grunge pioneers Takeda return with ‘Lion’s Den’ out today, September 25th 2026, their most visceral single to date. The track is the first to be taken from the band’s forthcoming second studio album, which arrives in 2027 via Drongo Records.

Since forming in 2022, Takeda have forged a distinctive sound built from unlikely contrasts: intricate folk, Bert Janch-influenced fingerpick guitar set against crushing riffs, fuzz drenched guitars and heavy breakdowns, marrying authentic British and American folk sounds and techniques with heavy rock and grunge. The result is music that is difficult to categorise - and deliberately so, breaking ground in a way that’s not been done before, achieved entirely on an acoustic guitar.

“When we are arranging songs together, the moment we are able to firmly pin something we are doing to somebody else’s music, we tend to suddenly feel disinterested and the song usually gets binned,” says vocalist and songwriter Josh Harrison. “We are pretty thirsty to sound like nothing but Takeda.”

Years spent in a doomsday cult coloured Harrison’s imagery and deeply informed Takeda’s music. Their debut album ‘In Venus’ Train’ chronicled the painful process of breaking away from that past whilst Lion’s Den looks beyond the escape itself, and instead confronts the anger, resentment and sense of manipulation and betrayal left in its wake.

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Winona Oak - Next Mistake (feat. Maye).

Swedish singer-songwriter Winona Oak has shared a further glimpse into her second album with new single ‘Next Mistake’ featuring Maye, taken from her forthcoming album ‘Bloom’ released on 23rd October via Nettwerk. 

On new single ‘Next Mistake’, Winona explores the magnetic tension of wanting someone whilst trying and knowing to stay away. Featuring Latin artist Maye, the two vocals bring the push and pull to life, backed by sweeping synths that build to a euphoric chorus. 
 
Winona says, “The line in ‘Next Mistake’ “I go where you don’t” captures that instinct to run in the opposite direction when a connection feels almost too intense, knowing exactly where it could lead. The track captures the thrill, fear and inevitability of being drawn towards someone you know might be your next mistake.”
 
Maye says, “When I heard the first draft of ‘Next Mistake’ I was immediately captivated by Winona's mesmerizing vocals and I knew I wanted to be a part of it somehow. I love the dichotomy of writing my verse in Spanish, because I feel like it really compliments the song, and was a way for both of us to stay true to our identities." 

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Photo - Alex Amoros

Oliver Marson - Christina (feat. Sharon Van Etten).

London-based art-pop singer-songwriter Oliver Marson shares a new collaborative single with Sharon Van Etten, 'Christina'. The new track arrives with a video directed by Sofía Boriosi, starring Avani Gregg and Abraham Lewis. Written while Marson was touring Europe in the summer of 2021, 'Christina' was inspired by a fleeting encounter following a show in Prague. Having instinctively dodged an unexpected kiss, Marson began the song the following day in Linz.

Its titular character grew to represent the people who briefly pass through our lives. "'Christina' as a character represents that exact feeling," Marson explains. "It is the people who drift in and out of your world, the friends who come and go, and the bittersweet weight of moments that are over before you can fully hold onto them. The track is ultimately about that deep sense of longing and nostalgia for good times that have already slipped away."

Originally conceived as a darker, Depeche Mode-esque composition, the track was subsequently reshaped alongside longtime producer Josh Rumble and Kirin J Callinan, who encouraged Marson to embrace something brighter and more expansive  - with Charles Cave of White Lies contributing fretless bass.

"Because of the emotional nature of the song, I could only think of one person who could sing Christina, and that was Sharon," says Marson. A longtime admirer of Van Etten’s work, he approached her directly via Instagram after being moved to tears by her performance of "Seventeen" at Primavera Sound. "Her voice brought a rawness and emotional weight that I simply couldn’t have reached on my own."

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Libby Ember - Shoes.

Continuing to explore the emotional complexities of relationships with striking honesty, Montreal singer-songwriter Libby Ember shares “Shoes,” a vulnerable and melancholic indie-folk single about realizing you may be the only person still trying to move a relationship forward. Stripped of drums and built around an understated arrangement, the track places Libby’s words firmly at the centre, capturing the exhaustion that comes from being ready to take the next step while someone else remains standing still.

Inspired by a relationship where Libby felt increasingly responsible for creating progress, “Shoes” transforms that imbalance into a simple but resonant metaphor. Throughout the song, putting on her shoes represents more than getting ready to leave the house; it becomes an expression of willingness to show up, put in the work, and actively pursue the life and relationship she wants.

“I decided to name the song ‘Shoes’ despite the fact that I don’t repeat it very often in the song, since the shoes are a metaphor for my efforts,” Libby explains. “If I’ve got my shoes on, it means I’m ready to go out and work for what I want or work towards bettering a relationship.”

Rather than dramatizing that disconnect, “Shoes” sits quietly inside it. The song captures the vulnerable realization that wanting a relationship to move forward is not enough when the effort required to sustain it has become one-sided. In keeping the emotion restrained, Libby allows the frustration, sadness, and honesty of that realization to emerge naturally.

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Lord Sonny the Unifier - FEART - Blank Instrument - Holly Wild - Miko Marks - Shane Pendergast

Lord Sonny the Unifier - The Escape Plan Handbook (Album).

Brooklyn-based purveyor of brazen, psych-tinged rock n' roll and biker punk, Lord Sonny the Unifier, returns with his most brazen and raw offering yet on new album "The Escape Plan Handbook". Staying true to his trademark radical honesty, this release is a literal daredevil that boldly captures collective frustrations and the cultural zeitgeist like lightning in a bottle. Lord Sonny the Unifier is the artistic brainchild of Greg Jiritano, multi-instrumentalist musician, vocalist, lyricist, painter, biker, rebel and a downright nuisance to the uninspired status quo. 

"The Escape Plan Handbook" is an eclectic sonic blast that will appeal to fans of Viagra Boys, The Lennon Claypool Delirium, Ty Segall, Tom Waits, David Bowie, Motorhead, The Beatles and Jack White. In other words, expect dark storytelling and gritty, untethered rock. Greg Jiritano happily revels in pure, uncut menace with diabolical vocals, grunts and screams, expressing his frustrations with aplomb.

"When I was working on this album I kept thinking: Keep it dirty...and real. All analog, tube amps and wild, near incoherent synths from the early 70's, like a very used Motorcycle's vibes. I kept thinking about those times that don't exist anymore, before the internet and social media when people could leave for a while and nobody knew where they were. No way at all to track you down. Even just a walk down the road, or a weekend vanish. The freedom in that, which was subconsciously guiding us. It was in the superconscious, in the Archetype of humanity, that unbridle freedom. In America it was easier to live then, for a lot of people. In the 60's and 70's rent was cheap, food was cheap, even minimum wage covered the basics. There wasn't an undercurrent of fear for basic survival which forces us to do things we don't really want, like spend most of our day at a shi66y job with no reward at the end of the day or week.   

I was thinking of those times, thinking of really cool woman in their cutoff shorts and all of us meeting at hidden spots many days drives from home to a wilder uninhabited America. Some in Vans, some on motorcycles, some in small Campervans. This is The Escape Plan. Iconoclasts who disregard the day to day politics and realities of daily life who say, I see you and don't accept an iota of it. I disregard all of you and I'm gonna go this way with my tribe, and we are the happy ones here, and you aught to be us. You, including the ones in power and the ones trapped in the day to day of your own making. You want to be us. All the songs on this album were dreamt up thinking of that world, of those people, of those times, written from the perspective of being either  IN IT or of looking AT IT from the outside."

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FEART - a ​boy can dream.

We don't know much about FEART (pronounced 'fear-t') beyond the info below and that he is ​an Amsterdam-based ​Scottish indie artist. The featured song however is something quite special, exuding a raw emotional feeling without any self indulgent overtones, allowing the listener to be drawn into a shared experience, something we might simply relate to today or through past memories. 

This ​single ​was ​written, ​recorded, and produced ​by the solo Scottish artist known ​as FEART. It's a ​rich, ​analogue track ​with ​a somber and ​melancholic undertone.

The ​second single ​'a ​boy can dream', was released yesterday 25 September, from ​the ​upcoming full-length LP 'bonnie ​mourn'. Musically it's an intriguing mixture of alternative acoustic, along with some beautifully placed ​orchestral arrangement.

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Blank Instrument - Know Nothing.

Blank Instrument, the musical project of Boorloo/Perth-based singer-songwriter Kim Franklin, whose new single, ‘Know Nothing’, was released yesterday  Friday, September 25. This track marks the third single from her forthcoming debut album, ‘Jumping at Ghosts’, which is out in just a month's time on Friday, October 23.

As the third single from ‘Jumping at Ghosts’, ‘Know Nothing’ continues Blank Instrument’s deeply personal songwriting journey while shifting the focus more directly onto Franklin herself. Warm Hammond organ, acoustic guitar and subtle vocal harmonies create a reflective country-folk atmosphere, while lively drums add a brighter, more buoyant edge.

Where earlier singles ‘Brand New’ and ‘Green and Blue’ were shaped in part by the memory of her late friend Julie, whose generosity continued after her passing and helped fund the project, ‘Know Nothing’ turns inward, exploring Franklin’s relationship with intuition, perfectionism and decision-making.  Inspired by her tendency to search for the “right” choice, the track reflects a shift in mindset as she learns to accept uncertainty and embrace the idea that there can be several workable paths rather than one perfect answer. Franklin states:

"Some decisions aren’t simple or easy. I've struggled with the idea of making the ‘right’ decision. This is, I've realised recently, because I'm a perfectionist. While it's often seen as a positive trait and the perfect job interview answer, living with it can be difficult. There is no amount of information that can make a decision easier, when you’re looking for a level of certainty that’s impossible to find."

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Holly Wild - So Annoying.

Sydney-based artist Holly Wild channels the jealousy of an annoyingly perfect friend into a new sarcastic, punchy indie-pop rock single, ‘So Annoying’, out this weekend alongside an accompanying music video. The single comes ahead of her debut album 'Technicolour', out Friday, October 16. Since releasing her debut single in 2021, Holly Wild has built an array of music, television and international collaborations, working with highly acclaimed industry talents including producer David Arkwright (James Arthur, Teddy Swims, Katelyn Tarver) and Australian ARIA chart-topper Jolyon Petch, demonstrating her growing industry recognition. 

Now turning that growing experience towards a punchier, more playful side of her sound, Holly Wild brings a garage-rock edge to ‘So Annoying’. Distorted electric guitar riffs and powerful drums collide with catchy, lo-fi spoken-word vocals, before gritty vocals push the track into a slightly chaotic explosion of raspy frustration and upbeat energy.  

'So Annoying' uses playfulness and exaggerated sarcasm to capture the envious feeling of having a friend who is effortlessly perfect. It combines internal feelings and critiques to reflect pettiness and jealousy, focusing on the self-awareness and irrationality of knowing how ridiculous and unhinged it may be. Wild takes this jealousy and turns it into a sarcastic and funny commentary on the envy that isn’t always shared. As Holly Wild shares:

"’So Annoying’ is about that one friend who makes everything look way too easy... gorgeous, unbothered, life just falling into place. My co-writer and I got a bit ridiculous imagining every petty thought you could have about her, and somewhere in all that laughing, the song showed up. I like to think of it as the anthem for 'friend-vy'... the jealousy nobody likes admitting to."

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Photo - Karen Santos

Miko Marks - Hell or High Water.

Miko Marks releases “Hell or High Water,” the deeply personal title track from her forthcoming LP Hell Or High Water, due October 30 via Redtone Records. Drawing from the losses and struggles that have shaped her life, Marks looks to the wisdom she has gained, the people she has loved, and the ancestors she carries with her as sources of strength to keep moving forward.

The song reaches back to Marks’ roots in Flint, Michigan, a city she remembers thriving during her youth but has since watched struggle, with much of her family still there. Her own life has brought profound loss as well, including the deaths of her mother and sister and the end of her 29-year marriage. As grief accumulated, Marks found herself struggling with depression and isolation and trying to escape sadness she could not outrun.

“I lost my way and tried to drown my sadness and grief to no avail,” Marks shares. “Depression kicked in and isolation was becoming a friend. Through support and help, I was able to climb out of a self-imposed misery and find my joy again.” That journey takes on powerful symbolism throughout “Hell or High Water.” The “stone in my pocket” Marks sings of represents the wisdom and inner strength she carries with her, while the “spirits all around me” are her ancestors and loved ones whose presence reminds her to keep moving forward.

“Perseverance could be my middle name,” Marks explains. “Despite my willingness to give up, I have not. I have a ‘stone in my pocket’ that I carry for wisdom and inner strength. The ‘spirits all around me’ are my ancestors, loved ones, and they encourage me to keep going even when things are not as I believe they should be. I will continue to make it through, and I’ll press on through whatever comes my way.”

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Photo - Justin Rix

Shane Pendergast - Jack Pine.

Prince Edward Island singer-songwriter Shane Pendergast shares “Jack Pine,” an introspective yet uplifting folk song inspired by the rugged resilience of its namesake tree. Rooted in earthy imagery, live instrumentation, and Pendergast’s deep connection to the landscape and literary traditions of Prince Edward Island, the track finds beauty in adapting to difficult surroundings without losing sight of who you are. It’s the title track from his upcoming fifth album, Jack Pine, set for release on October 23rd, 2026.

The song takes inspiration from Pendergast’s longstanding fascination with jack pines: hardy, unconventional trees capable of growing in barren and unforgiving ground. Their ability to bend, adapt, and assume unexpected forms offered a natural reflection of ideas that have increasingly found their way into his songwriting.

That connection is also rooted in the work of legendary Prince Edward Island poet Milton Acorn, whose writing about the tree particularly resonated with Pendergast. “The Jack pine grows to any shape that suits the light, suits the winds, suits itself,” Acorn wrote, capturing the same rugged individualism that drew Pendergast to the image.

Throughout the song, the Jack pine becomes more than a piece of the Maritime landscape. Its bent branches and ability to withstand difficult conditions offer a metaphor for resilience, adaptability, and the tension between yielding to outside forces and holding onto something essential within yourself.

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Resa Saffa Park - Big Little Lions - Disgusting Sisters - Rosina Cove - Living Hour - Lottie McLeod

Photo - Henriette Sagjord

Resa Saffa Park - Standing Still.

Emerging cinematic indie singer/songwriter Resa Saffa Park releases her new single 'Standing Still', the latest glimpse of her forthcoming album Kendra, out 6 November via Ja. Group. Wrapped in smoky production, softly echoing guitars and an unhurried groove, 'Standing Still' wrestles with inertia, slowly gathering emotional tension. 

Speaking about the song, Resa Saffa Park said: "Standing Still is a song about the fear of stagnation and a fading sense of self-worth. It's about how even simple things can start to feel threatening when you lose movement and direction."

A graduate of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, Resa returned to her home city of Oslo to write her new album Kendra. Written largely in her apartment over the course of a year, the album finds her paying closer attention to the people around her. Across twelve songs, she keeps returning to the same question: "how do we understand ourselves through other people?"

Cinematic indie steeped in jazz, trip-hop, noir-pop and soul, Resa Saffa Park's music sits at a distinctive intersection of influences, in the orbit of Tamino, Michelle Gurevich and Portishead, with inspiration drawn from Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Nirvana, Mitski and Julia Jacklin.

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Big Little Lions - No One Is Mad At You.

Big Little Lions continue to release monthly singles & Beehive Candy are starting to run out of new things to say, except they are on one incredible roll of creativity this year. September's song is for anyone who has the underlying feeling that they are trouble and someone is mad at them. It's nice to be reminded that this is probably not the case and we hope this will give the listeners a break from any critical self talk.

For those new to them... Big Little Lions are an award winning duo who were born out of a collaboration that won them a JUNO Award in 2014. Since then they have been cranking out infectious folk pop songs that are jam-packed with emotion and tight harmonies that sound like the product of two people working side-by-side instead of living in different countries. 

They have released 7 albums to date, which have garnered them awards and nominations including the CFMA Ensemble of the Year, Independent Music Awards Americana Sing of the Year and John Lennon Songwriting Competition Song of the Year. Their critically acclaimed music has appeared on the CBC’s Top 20 and featured on shows like q and Vinyl Cafe. The duo consists of Paul Otten and Helen Austin, both hugely prolific songwriters - their music has been placed in hundreds of movie trailers, ads, network TV shows.

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Photo - Pierpaolo Saccomandi

Disgusting Sisters - Waste Of Space.

Disgusting Sisters have just shared the new single "Waste Of Space" taken from their upcoming debut album Skin & Blisters, which will be released October 30 on Source Records. "Waste Of Space" is another slice of intrigue that explores the world of Disgusting Sisters. As ever with Disgusting Sisters, influences span electro to emo but the horror and the humor are always evident. 

On the new single, Disgusting Sisters say - “'Waste of Space' is about forgetting someone after a breakup, like your brain is a hard drive that’s run out of storage. All the unused data gets wiped and the memories are gone. You were never worth the upgrade - you were just a waste of space"

Skin and Blisters: a record that comes good on all the tongue-in-cheek, slightly gruesome yet perpetually entertaining promise that their name - partly a homage to Succession’s Disgusting Brothers; partly a reference to the “bad sisters from Cinderella because we kind of feel like them on stage” - suggests. Across 10 tracks, the pair aim their lasers at hopeless exes and sugar daddies; productivity punishers and the sad drudge of the 9-5. Their delivery is riddled with deadpan absurdity, but at their core, Disgusting Sisters mean every word. “I hope people can relate to the songs because they really come from inside us,” says Josephine. “All the lyrics are inspired by real moments. We're not trying to pretend and I think that's what makes us kind of fresh - we're just being ourselves.”

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Photo -Travis Nesbitt

Rosina Cove - Kenwood.
 
Rosina Cove is an Edmonton, Alberta-based musical collective led by singer-songwriter Peter Stone and close friends Vicky Berg and Drew Malcolm that offers unpretentious Canadiana with a big heart. Debuting in 2023 with the album Someday We Will Make It There, the group is now poised to release the follow-up, Left Of Me, at the start of 2027.

The first single, “Kenwood,” is a prime example of Rosina Cove’s instantly engaging sound, with its blend of bright jangle-pop and breezy folk-rock, highlighted by expressive harmonies and sparkling production, courtesy of Harry Gregg, also a member of Juno nominees Second Hand Dreamcar. Peter Stone describes it as a song about unexpectedly finding love in the aftermath of an abusive relationship.

“‘Kenwood’ is a reflection on how new love is sometimes built one small moment at a time,” he says. “Learning how someone takes their coffee, sharing stories over cider, listening to records together, and slowly discovering what it feels like to be safe in another person’s presence. What begins as a slow dance of companionship becomes connection, and connection becomes a place to breathe, to soften, and to begin healing from the trauma of what came before.”

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Photo - Lucas Pingitore

Living Hour - Magnet (EP).

Winnipeg's indie rock quintet, Living Hour release their  Magnet EP, this week via Keeled Scales / Paper Bag Records. The four-track release is a collection of b-sides and previously unearthed demos channelled from the work on Someday is Today (2022), and 2025's Internal Drone Infinity, which is one of ten Canadian albums nominated for The Meridian Prize, being awarded next weekend, as part of BreakOut West. The quintet shares a dreamy visualizer for lulling EP track, “Good Afternoon.”

The bundle of phrases that make up the EP are from an incubation period of a lot of TV, projecting movies for work, and general dissociative activities. “I was thinking about how people are magnets if they want to be. Attracting what they think about most, interact with or watch on screens,” says lead singer and lyricist, Sam Sarty. The band previewed with the EP's title-track “Magnet” earlier this month, and Sam expands more on “Half Can,” noting; “At the beginning of the song, I get the image in my mind about a flat, straight ahead, snowy, dark highway going for infinity converging to an ominous black point, high beams flashing sheets of snow blowing across the cement in front of a truck.”

Living Hour transforms the passage of time into something both urgent and sacred. Anchored by Sam Sarty’s vivid lyricism, shaped by years as a projectionist conjuring stories in a dark theater, the band explores the quiet magic hidden in everyday life. The band drifts between dreamy noise rock, folky slowcore, and fuzzy indie-pop, coining a genre all their own: “yearn-core.” With wistful vocals, textural distortion, and poetic detail, Living Hour capture the ache of memory, the mess of feeling, and the beauty in what remains. 


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Photo - Ghina Sari

Lottie McLeod - The Boathouse (EP).

Following an intimate launch party at its namesake venue yesterday, Magan-djin/Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Lottie McLeod now shares her long-awaited The Boathouse EP via ABC Music, a intimate coming-of-age "for people who love to feel deeply" drawing from indie, alt-pop, folk and beyond - signalling a young artist coming out of her shell, stepping into the confidence to follow her own path and express herself openly, making McLeod's much-praised ability to make the personal feel universal stronger than ever. 

It arrives ahead of a newly-announced London headline date in December presented by Joy Promotions expanding her headline EP tour kicking off in October across so-called VIC, NSW & QLD with her hometown date expanding venue due to a rapid sell-out, and off the back of a nomination for the Emerging Artist Award via Australian Women In Music Awards plus mammoth support announcements with The Tullamarines and Peter Garrett & The Alter Egos across November - all live dates below. 

Featuring alt/folk-pop focus track + video 'Thomas' as well as previous singles triple j's #1-most-played track 'Wednesdays at the Waterloo', 'Sunburnt', and 'Important To You', The Boathouse EP is out now via ABC Music.


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The Artist Ren - Lily Konigsberg - Louis York - Allegories - JoJo Worthington

The Artist Ren - Doin' Fine (EP).

The Artist Ren gives us the story so far... I’m Lauren Van Houten, and I make music as The Artist Ren. My songs live somewhere between indie pop, folk, and alt pop. I write my songs through storytelling, with atypical guitar tunings and subtle samples underneath that tie everything I release together. I’m a solo artist, fully independent, with no label or management behind me.

I wrote my first song during the pandemic, in 2020, mostly to get the stress out of my head. A teacher helped me get started, and after that I figured it out on my own. Music was always around me growing up, my dad has an eclectic ear, and I picked up his habit of falling in love with the songs nobody else has found yet. My family never made me choose between music and anything else, so I was able to pursue music with their help.

Almost everything I write starts as a story. My notes app is full of things I’ve overheard, read, watched, or imagined and the melody and lyrics get built around them. People sometimes assume my lyrics are personal stories, but I would say 95% of them are imagined or come from media I consume. I take a lot of inspiration from my favorite singers including Hozier, Phoebe Bridgers, Wave to Earth, and Lizzy McAlpine. I love Hozier and Phoebe Bridgers lyricism and strive to create lyrics as thought provoking as them. As for Wave to Earth and Lizzy McAlpine, I take inspiration from their instrumentals and melodies respectfully. Listening to them makes me try to choose more interesting melodies and harmonies during production. 

Doin’ Fine!” came out September 18, 2026, and it’s my first release in more than a year. Part of that gap was a semester abroad in Seoul, South Korea! I study sports and entertainment management, and I graduate this spring. The song is the lead-in to a full album I’m finishing now, due within the next few months. These songs carry everything that changed between fifteen and nineteen, more confidence, more maturity, and just something that wasn’t written in my room during Covid-19. It isn’t a hard break from what I’ve made before it’s the same chapter, written by someone a bit more experienced. I’m sure though, in the future while I’m writing the next album, I’ll be thinking the same thing. Anyways, in the future all I hope is that people are still enjoying my music and I’m still enjoying making it.

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Lily Konigsberg - Free Byrd.

Lily Konigsberg returns with a new song, “Free Byrd,” her first single in nearly 5 years. The product of time spent working with her longtime friend and collaborator Hugo Stanley (PALM, Frankie Cosmos), whom she enlisted as both a producer and instrumentalist, the song is a fitting introduction to a new creative era for Konigsberg. 

It's an ode to the bittersweet nature of starting again and the sacrifices required, serving as both an empowering breakup anthem and a swan song for a tumultuous past life. 

An infusion of Lily's signature earworm-generating pop sensibility and Hugo's punchy arrangements, "Free Byrd" makes a convincing last-second bid for song of the summer and serves as an immensely promising preview of things to come.

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Photo - Billy Clark

Louis York - The Ballad Of A Broken Man

Nashville-based duo Louis York has shared their new single "The Ballad Of A Broken Man," the latest from their upcoming album The Heart of the Matter that releases November 6 on their label Weirdo Workshop. The heartbeat at the center of their new album, "The Ballad Of A Broken Man" details the pair's journey through grief, faith, resilience, and choosing optimism in the face of life's inevitable challenges.

Following the band's recent single "I Found A Home," which pays homage to their adopted hometown, "The Ballad Of A Broken Man" details Louis York's journey since landing in Nashville. The pair explains, "This is the heartbeat of the whole album. It’s the realization of all the bumps and bruises we’ve had to go through as men, and what it takes to survive. Love, community, sincerity. This song is reason we called the album 'the heart of the matter.'"

Originally from East St. Louis and New York City, Louis York didn't come to Tennessee chasing country music. They came chasing great storytelling and even better songs. What they found was an inspiring community that fueled their creativity. They launched an artistic collective called Weirdo Workshop, started the Tiny Book Club initiative, and interviewed their own musical heroes on the Emmy-nominated podcast We Sound Crazy. They also kept writing songs, and over the last decade The Heart of the Matter slowly took shape.

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Allegories - Pure Comedy.

Experimental duo Allegories share “Pure Comedy,” an ethereal and emotionally volatile new single that moves restlessly between optimism and pessimism, intimacy and aggression, hope and resignation. Shifting through dream pop, indie rock, and electronic textures without settling comfortably into any of them, the track is perhaps the clearest distillation yet of the unpredictable world Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell have built on their upcoming album, By Accident, On Purpose, out October 16th, 2026.

“Pure Comedy” evolved alongside the album itself, with Allegories working on the song throughout the years-long writing and recording process. Rather than discarding each previous incarnation as the track changed shape, fragments survived, leaving different eras of the song embedded within the finished recording.

“This is the song that I think best represents our new album,” Adam explains. “There are elements from many different iterations of the song still in there, and sonically, it feels like it touches on the kaleidoscope of sounds and genres that the record eventually became.”

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JoJo Worthington - Ever Ender Star Infinity.

Montreal-based producer, songwriter and composer JoJo Worthington shares “Ever Ender Star Infinity,” a sweeping alt-folk anthem that turns romance into something celestial. Dark, dreamy and consumed by longing, destiny and connection, the track draws together spirituality, stardust, fantasy and the enormous persistence of desire to capture something relatively unfamiliar within her catalogue: a love song. 

“‘Tu as une bonne étoile.’ You have a good star,” JoJo explains. “Meaning, you’ve been blessed and there is someone watching over you.” It’s the first single to be shared from JoJo’s upcoming EP, BAPTIZED II, set for release on November 6th, 2026.

That idea stretches back to conversations about space and spirituality, and the idea that everything is fundamentally connected. Fascinated by the fact that the atoms within our bodies are assembled from material that predates the Earth itself, JoJo began folding the language of stars, space and elemental matter into the song.

The song’s fantastical language also emerged from another passions – Magic: The Gathering. While opening a package of Dragon Shield card sleeves, JoJo came across the description “Emme: God of Ender & Ever.” The phrase immediately captured her imagination, recalling the duality of “Forever Evermore” from her 2022 BAPTIZED I EP and eventually helping shape “Ever Ender Star Infinity.” Other cards, including “Eirdu, Carrier of Dawn,” provided further fragments for its lyrical universe.

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TONY FOX - Part Time Signals - Aubory Bugg - sundots

Photo - Abbie Lynch

TONY FOX - Fire + New Album.

TONY FOX new single "Fire" is the lead track from the new album released today 22 September 2026 on CD & digitally via prolific indie Cornwall-based indie label "Krautpop!" landing on the Autumn Equinox. It's a powerful statement piece that captures everything people have come to love about TONY FOX, raw energy, punk spirit and emotionally charged songwriting.

"Fire" burns with the wild, untamed heart of Cornwall. Driven by fierce vocals, hypnotic rhythms and the band's distinctive psych-poetry aesthetic, it's a track about resilience, transformation and finding light in difficult times. It feels equally at home on alternative, indie, punk and leftfield playlists.

TONY FOX are a female-fronted three-piece from Cornwall creating a unique blend of pagan-punk rock & roll and psych-poetry. Their music channels the landscape, struggles and spirit of contemporary Cornwall through powerful lyrics, raw performance and an unwavering DIY approach.

Founded by Jessica Cox, the band combines poetry-led songwriting with a visceral live energy that rejects over-polished perfection in favour of heart, soul and genuine connection. Influenced as much by Cornwall's wild coastline as its economic realities, TONY FOX create music rooted in resilience, community and transformation. Having performed at London's Troubadour and developed a close creative relationship with Alternative TV founder Mark Perry, TONY FOX continue to build a reputation as one of the UK's most compelling underground alternative acts.


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Part Time Signals - Waking Hours.

Waking Hours is the second single from Part Time Signals’ upcoming album Duck’s Back, Baby. Following Green Light, this upbeat song encapsulates the feeling of passing through the days, whilst shining a light on embracing life's changes as they unfold. Focused around a familiar 60’s beat, the song bops along with seasick chorused guitars, fuzzy bass lines and relentlessly choppy layered keyboard instruments of all varieties

Waking Hours was self-recorded by the band at Giant Wafer Studios and features instrumentation from Stephen Black aka Sweet Baboo (flute). Duck’s Back, Baby is the follow-up to the debut album Another Day In Paradise and EP The Window. It was self-recorded over an intensive five days at Giant Wafer Studios in Mid Wales, with subsequent additional recordings made at their rehearsal space and homes.

Part Time Signals are a four-piece band from Wales. Gavin Jenkins (KEYS, Rainbow Maniac), Jacob Church (Sock), Michael Blanchfield (ANGHARAD, Cardinal Black) and Sam Barnes (Boy Azooga, Sock). Their full- length debut album ‘Another Day In Paradise’ was released in 2023 with a follow up EP ‘The Window’ in 2025, both released with Cardiff-based independent label Bubblewrap Collective. Nation Cymru reviewed the band's latest EP as ‘blissful music’, Buzz Magazine described their debut album as ‘a wilfully lackadaisical type of psychedelic indie’ and Clash Magazine said ‘languid indie is very much the order of the day’.          
             
After recording their first album, BBC Horizons funding made it possible for the band to spend a whole week self-recording at Giant Wafer Studios in Mid Wales. Recorded in the same session as their EP, the band are currently gearing up to release their second album titled ‘Duck’s Back, Baby’. Making full use of the instruments, recording equipment and time available at the studio, this hefty recording session has seen the band take stock with a plethora of new songs, developing a more refined and mature style.

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Aubory Bugg - i think i had something once (Album).

Following a breakout run of singles including ‘the one you want to lose’ and ‘nosedive’, a sold-out UK debut show, BBC Radio 1 support and viral TikTok moments amassing 3M+ likes, Nashville singer-songwriter Aubory Bugg rounds off her meteoric rise with the release of her highly anticipated debut album i think i had something once, which just arrivied September 18th via Dualtone Records.

For a 21-year-old who wrote her entire debut EP alone in her bedroom, the leap into Nashville — into collaboration, community and creative openness — could have been daunting. Instead, it became the making of her. i think i had something once is the record that captures that transformation: a love letter to the things you didn't think you'd lose, whether that's a romantic relationship, a childhood, or a person you can't get back.

"This album is as direct a representation as I have of how I felt the last couple of years, moving out and being a person on my own," says Bugg. "At its core, the thread that moves through the whole album is a love letter to things you didn't think you'd lose."

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Photo - Eve Alpert

sundots - Someone Else’s Song.

Today, sundots, the Connecticut indie rock band, share the third single and video for “Someone Else’s Song”, off their upcoming album, ‘On The Quay’, due 6 November. Marking the band's first full-length written and recorded as a true five-piece, ‘On The Quay’ is a confident step forward as the first true full-band sundots record, and as a result, it’s a full-bodied and forceful level-up representation of the group’s sound, a record that feels timeless and in-the-moment all at once.

On the track, Drew Collins says, “Someone Else’s Song actually came about after we had thought we had finished the record. It was something I had started jamming on and felt pretty excited about. It definitely had a different energy from the other songs on the record. It was short and had super high energy right off the bat. It’s sort of a relentless song that doesn’t give much time to breathe, but I think that works in its favor.” 

He adds: “Lyrically, I was very inspired by 'The Dead' by James Joyce. I had recently finished Dubliners and had a ton of imagery from that floating around in my head, and naturally, I explored that headspace when approaching the lyrics for this track. It was about this same time that the album artwork idea had fully come to me, and it just made sense for us to go back to Kevin [S. McMahon] to record this last track for the record.”

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