Bea Elmy Martin is carving out a vital space within the UK alternative landscape. London born and bred, her music is defined by emotional precision, blending ethereal vocals, orchestral intimacy and brooding electronics. Raised on the sounds of classic soul artists like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin and Donny Hathaway, Bea developed an early understanding of melody and feeling, using songwriting as a way to process life, love and loss from a young age. She describes songwriting as her journal, a way of breaking overwhelming emotions into something tangible and manageable, allowing moments of beauty, pain and connection to surface naturally.
After the release of her 2021 debut single “Blue Escape”, which earned early BBC tastemaker support from Jack Saunders and Lauren Laverne, Bea began a slow, intentional creative journey alongside her producer Dominick J Goldsmith (HÆLOS). That collaboration led to Under The Yew (Vol. 1), released in May 2025, a luminous meditation on loss, healing and renewal. She has continued that emotional thread through subsequent releases from Under The Yew (Vol. 2), including “Lost”, “Born To Fly”, “Unscarred” and more recently “Anouk”, each one deepening the world of the project ahead of the arrival of her upcoming album Under The Yew (Vol. 2).
“This project has been a personal excavation,” says Martin. “Under The Yew transforms loss into light, each track a step toward resilience.” The record draws comparisons from Air and Portishead to Billie Marten and Adrianne Lenker, all anchored by Bea’s raw emotional clarity. Her new single “Written On Me” offers another intimate chapter in that journey, this time turning toward love, closeness and the ways another person can become part of you. The track captures the feeling of falling in love and becoming deeply intertwined with someone over time. “I wrote ‘Written On Me’ at home one night,” Bea says. “I remember going in without too much of a plan, just a feeling I couldn’t shake. I started playing around with a few ideas and this one just sort of fell out naturally. It didn’t feel forced at all, which I think is why it ended up being such an honest song.”
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| Photo - Rich Ferri |
On 5th June, Providence’s Deer Tick will release their ninth studio album, 'Coin-O-Matic', via ATO. This week, they tease the album with a new single, the intimate 'Everything Born', which touches on the LP’s underlying theme of impermanence. The band’s guitarist/singer Ian O’Neil shares: “‘Everything Born’ was written quickly about the tenuousness of life and the precious time we have to spend with the people that come into our lives. It’s about family, friends, neighbors, strangers and how these thoughts burrow a little deeper the older we get. I was thinking about my son and the people of Providence, RI while writing it.”
Deer Tick recently went into Rhode Island’s Big Nice Studio and filmed the song live. 'Coin-O-Matic' casts a bright light on a little-known facet of the American mythos: the hidden histories of the band’s home state of Rhode Island, where the everyday dramas of working-class families long collided with the menace of the mafia underworld. As they tapped into their infinite fascination with that strange duality, singer/guitarist John McCauley, guitarist/singer Ian O’Neil, drummer/singer Dennis Ryan, and bassist Christopher Ryan assembled a batch of songs exploring desperation, grief, redemption, and resilience with both cinematic detail and lived-in emotionality. A sharp new turn from one of indie-rock’s most enduringly vital forces, Coin-O-Matic arrives as a complicated love letter to a way of life slowly slipping from the collective memory.
The follow-up to Emotional Contracts (hailed by Uncut as one of 2023’s best albums), Coin-O-Matic takes its title from a cigarette-vending-machine company that served as the headquarters of Raymond Patriarca—a legendary mobster who ran one of the most ruthless crime families in U.S. history. “If you grew up in Rhode Island years ago, you’d see all these mobsters on the news and then run into them at a restaurant on Federal Hill,” says McCauley, referring to Providence’s version of Little Italy. “They were criminals but also very colorful characters, and I wanted the album to partly reflect a certain nostalgia for that kind of seediness.”
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Eauclaire - Heaven On Earth.
“Heaven On Earth” is Eauclaire’s (pronounced “ō-claire”) latest indie-rock anthem, born not in a studio, but in the open desert. Written at the Heaven on Earth Music Festival in Moab, Utah, right beneath the Looking Glass Arch, the song captures a moment where awe meets the ordinary. With driving guitars, heartfelt vocals, and a chorus that feels both intimate and expansive, “Heaven On Earth” wrestles with getting out of your head and back into the present—back into the beauty that’s been there all along.
The bridge takes that idea literally: the gang vocals were recorded live on top of the Looking Glass Arch, with voices echoing across the canyon as the sun dipped low. It’s a song about noticing—wildflowers, starlight, golden hour, morning light—and realizing that heaven isn’t somewhere distant or abstract. It’s here. It’s now. And it’s found in the everyday moments we’re so tempted to rush past.
Formed by college friends Bryant Urich, Kyle Kicker and Justin Barnett in 2010, Eauclaire (pronounced “ō-claire”) released their acclaimed debut, Océan Bleu, in 2019, followed by 2022’s Timber, the latter of which chronicles a deeply personal season of loss and rediscovery for the band. Eauclaire’s single “Depths” was showcased in the CW and Netflix series All American, and their music has also been featured on MTV, MTV2, and in various international advertising campaigns.
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| Photo - Chris Brennan |
Susto Stringband, led by frontman Justin Osborne of the highly lauded alt-country band Susto, just released their new single “Hands In The Dirt.” The track comes from their upcoming Susto Stringband (Volume 2) LP, which is out on May 29 via Missing Piece Records. The album features bluegrass and old-time reworkings of Susto favorites alongside a couple tracks that have never been released including today’s new single, which Osborne wrote before Susto began to take shape. Built around a mournful fiddle, the song reminds the listener to literally touch grass in times of turmoil and despair.
“‘Hands In The Dirt’ is an older tune of mine that actually predates Susto,” says Osborne. “I wrote it based on some advice my dad gave me in my 20s, when I was feeling burned out from DIY touring, and ready to give up on the dreams of writing and performing that I’d been pursuing. His advice was basically to work harder (lol) which over time has proven to be sound advice.
My dad passed away back in 2020, and since then I’ve enjoyed bringing this one back into the sets from time to time, because it really reminds me of my dad and makes him feel closer. It was a blast to work up this Susto Stringband version of the song for Volume 2, and I’m really proud to finally be re-sharing a song that I’ve had such a personal connection to for many years.”
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| Photo - Aaron Farrimond |
Manchester-based Georgian begin a fresh chapter today with the release of their new single ‘Crackled Grounds’ and the announcement of their first full body of work with the ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ out on 12th June via Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s).
Formed in 2024 and with three previous singles in their musical catalogue, Georgian are a five-piece outfit comprising Georgia McKiernan (vocals, acoustic guitar), James Poole, James Polglase (both lead and rhythm guitar, BVs), Connor Alder (drums) and Harry George (bass). Together Georgian have an expansive sound that reflects each of the band’s tastes, retaining a modern approach, but keeping the sound of their influences alive. Wrangling ‘60s pop, country, folk, shoegaze, psychedelia and further-flung traditional styles, their songs tell tales of navigating harsh emotional environments and lived experiences.
The debut ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ was laid down with producer Arno Stols at Magenta Studio in the peaceful Amsterdam countryside. Taking a leaf from Brian Jonestown Massacre’s melodic revivalism, Georgian began emulating the warm, unsettling, mysterious 60s-70s production of artists to which they had mutually become accustomed. Lyrically taking the listener to a place of escapism, the songs tell of battling the elements, female empowerment, and deep-rooted nostalgia.
The first introduction to their forthcoming EP is the alternative Western-inspired title track and new single ‘Crackled Grounds’, which atmospherically recalls a barren apocalyptic landscape where the sun is blazing and rain feels like a distant past. Blending haunting imagery with beautiful instrumentation and poignant vocals, it is a mournful song that also inspires reflection and hope. The band says; “This song was probably a result of watching Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and listening to Nancy & Lee within the same week. We got the opening riff and then it blossomed very quickly from there. It feels like the ultimate culmination of our journey so far.”
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