Resa Saffa Park - Ulver - silt. - Babe Rainbow - Strange Plants - Cinder Well - The Spongetones

Photo - Henriette Sagjord

Resa Saffa Park - Forever as Her Friend.

Oslo-based singer/songwriter and composer Resa Saffa Park has announced her new album 'Kendra' will be released 6th November, and shares latest single 'Forever as Her Friend'. Cinematic indie steeped in jazz and soul, Resa Saffa Park's music occupies a world of its own, sitting in the orbit of Tamino, Michelle Gurevich and Portishead - while drawing from the work of Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Nirvana, Mitski and Julia Jacklin.

A graduate of Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), Resa returned to her home city of Oslo to write new album Kendra. Written largely in her Oslo apartment over the course of a year, the album finds Resa Saffa Park 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?

Produced by Daragh Patrick Wearen and Bård Berg, new single 'Forever as Her Friend' pairs smoky piano and slow-burning guitars, specifically examining the unravelling of a friendship.

Speaking on the song's release, Resa Saffa Park said: "Forever as Her Friend is a song I wrote about a friendship that meant a lot to me, one that changed in a way I still don’t fully understand. It's a story of holding on to something that once felt permanent, and feeling it slowly come to an end without knowing how to accept it. It’s about the longing to be loved, chosen, and kept, and how losing a friend can sometimes hurt more than losing a lover.

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Ulver - Hollywood Babylon.

Norwegian cult act Ulver return again to the track 'Hollywood Babylon' from their previous album "Liminal Animals" (2024) for the best of all reasons: a stunning music video that has been long in the making. Following a fascinating remix by Gazelle Twin aka Elizabeth Bernholz that offered a brooding reinterpretation, the Norwegians now add this beautiful clip to the growing corpus around the original track.

Ulver comment: "Working with our wonderfully mad old friend Christian Mona from the Bogus Blimp days never disappoints", mastermind Kristoffer Rygg writes on behalf of Ulver. "He started to create this video before we released our last album (sorry about that) and he has finally delivered a splendidly grotesque little gem from within his Automated Bathroom. 'Hollywood Babylon' has never looked better! It is a distorted mirror of our times. Please feel free to stare into it a little too long."

The Norwegian visual artist collective AKFF! adds: "2025 marked 20 years since Ulver made the animated music video 'It Is Not Sound' in cooperation with us", Christian Mona states. "It has been a hypnotic journey through the Sea of Sorrows all the way to the Pinnacle of Truth. Thinking back on what a great experience it was to visualise and expand on Ulver's universe, we started wondering why AKFF! hadn't made more videos with Ulver. As it turns out, Ulver had been thinking along the same lines! And so the making of 'Hollywood Babylon' began.”


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Photo - Nicole Osrin

silt. - trauma porn.

Existing between London and the inherited landscapes of the Lake District and Norfolk, silt. emerged yesterday with new track 'trauma porn' the first glimpse of a forthcoming body of work due for release later this year. Neither a traditional band nor solo alias, silt. is an evolving musical project that places the focus firmly on the songs themselves. Its songs explore the realities people build to escape themselves, the traces they leave behind, and the collision between natural imagery and synthetic modern life.

Blending dreamlike ambience, towering guitars and electronic abstraction, 'trauma porn' unfolds through recurring images of flies, bones and artificial flowers. Rather than offering fixed narratives, silt. treats songs as "open systems": works that continue revealing new meanings with every return.

On 'trauma porn', silt. explains: "'trauma porn' is about how hard it is to be alone - and the lengths people will go to to avoid sitting with themselves. It's interested in the realities we build, the emotional loops we trap ourselves inside. It embodies the volatility that comes from flicking through your own emotions and realities as if they’re pieces of content."

Conceived as an evolving musical project rather than a conventional artist identity, silt.'s ambition extends beyond, with songs as living, endlessly interpretable spaces. Named after the sediment from which landscapes are formed, it reflects what silt. describes as "what everything is built on" and "what remains after everything is gone."

Silt · trauma porn

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Photo - Jordan Malane

Babe Rainbow - Acid and Honey (Album).

Recording for the latest Babe Rainbow record existed on a Marey Louise houseboat in Amsterdam, which feels fitting to the overall bright and summery aesthetic the album possesses. Finishing touches including mastering and production were completed by Kyle Mullarky at his Malibu ranch, who the band also use as their sound engineer for touring. Out now, the album contains groovy, dance-heavy production backed perfectly with wailing vocals and hard rocking finger funky sounds.

An eclectic, hazy offering featuring eleven country-pop tracks, the release marks a sonic shift for the Australian lads. While they still maintain their beachy stoner aesthetics, the duo become more bold and brazen on the new album, reaching territory they’ve previously never explored. Known for their boogie psychedelia and throwback surf cult imagery, Babe Rainbow are an Australian stoner pop band. 

The group was formed in 2015 by Jack Crowther (aka Cool Breez), Angus Dowling, and Elliot O'Reilly, who lurked at the kiosks around Rainbow Bay. The three of them worked for John Cutts, a local grower near Tropical Fruit World in Duranbah, NSW. The guys at John's farm were churning out kale long before it became trendy.  

While Babe Rainbow's musical style was originally rooted in 60's psych and 70's French surf-pop, it has evolved throughout its career to incorporate woodland bop and folk disco, dub, dance, and international grooves while maintaining an Aquarian quality through Dowling's musical spacemen singing style and Cool Breez's chiming guitar sounds. 

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Strange Plants - What A Time.

Building upon this year’s previous releases, “Lay Your Mind,” “Ground Falls Away,” and “Time Killing,” Strange Plants share “What A Time,” an upbeat and driving alternative rock single that disguises sharp social commentary beneath an infectious, pop-leaning exterior. Balancing propulsive grooves with tongue-in-cheek lyricism, the track examines the accelerating pace of modern life and the growing sense that many people are being left behind economically, culturally, and technologically.

At its core, “What A Time” reflects the strange contradictions of contemporary living. While the music surges forward with energy and momentum, the lyrics paint a more complicated picture: one where endless scrolling, rapid change, and increasing disconnection have become defining features of everyday life. The title itself serves as the song’s central punchline. “It’s slightly sarcastic,” explains songwriter Matt Brannon. “The verses aren’t describing a world that’s super great right now, so the chorus becomes this tongue-in-cheek ‘what a time to be alive.’”

That contrast between optimism and unease became one of the song’s defining characteristics. Strange Plants intentionally leaned into the tension between the verses and chorus, creating a dynamic push-and-pull that mirrors the subject matter itself. The verses ride atop a driving groove inspired by artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Future Islands, while the chorus shifts into a brighter, synth-forward landscape without abandoning the song’s underlying momentum.

The recording process also brought together an impressive group of collaborators. The band connected with producer John Mullane after sharing a bill with a project he was producing, immediately recognizing a creative chemistry that felt right for the song. Drums were performed by Loel Campbell (Wintersleep, Billy Talent), while Robbie Crowell (Sturgill Simpson, Deer Tick) contributed keys and synthesizers that shape the track’s expansive sound.

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Cinder Well - A Blooming Body (Album).

Cinder Well the hauntingly stark musical project of multi-instrumentalist Amelia Baker  new album A Blooming Body arrives today July 17th via Hen House Studios (where the album was recorded with Harlan Steinberger). The album is preceded by the lead single and video ‘While the Womb Screams Silently.’

Since 2015, Cinder Well has extracted dark, rich and tender compositions which nod to, but also stray from traditional musical languages. By comparison to the more diaristic tones of previous releases (2015’s self-titled EP, 2018’s The Unconscious Echo, 2020’s No Summer, 2023’s Cadence), A Blooming Body feels like glimpsing scattered vignettes of a whole world rather than a sequential narrative from beginning to end.

Through richly textured arrangements, A Blooming Body expands the sonic world of Cinder Well, resulting in a more immersive, visceral and unconventional collection of songs than we’ve heard before. The music on A Blooming Body shimmers with clarity, Cinder Well’s annunciation crystal clear, and yet there are heady depths to the stories told here that plunge fathoms beneath the ethereal, acoustic surface. “I find that sonically, pulling back into moments of silence and restraint can be eerie in a way that sometimes we think only loudness can achieve.” says Amelia.

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The Spongetones - Liftetimeline.

The Spongetones continue their series of fresh standalone singles on the way to their first album for their fifth decade as a band with the new track “Liftetimeline” out today July 17 on all digital platforms worldwide. The third new single from the Power Pop Hall Of Famers in 2026 following the indie hits “So Long” and “(I Really Need) To Kiss You,” it joins their three singles from last year as part of a true renaissance for one the genre's leading lights over the past five decades.

 One of the thrills of any new Spongetones tune is discovering which of the band's superb singer-songwriters is stepping to the fore, and on “Lifetimeline” it's bassist Steve Stoeckel, continuing not just his decades of contributing to the band's esteemed canon but also momentum of his 2024 solo debut The Power Of And. It's a personal journey this time out, as Stoeckel explains: “I wrote this song five months after having had a heart attack in April 2025. It was one of those mortality checks (a large one: it could have been fatal) that changed me. 

Each year my wife and I vacation at the Outer Banks in NC in October, and I took a beach chair, my phone recorder, and a uke out to the beach, which was deserted at that time of year. I sang the whole thing into my phone, and when I got home, I made a demo in my studio. The band liked it and as usual elevated the idea with their wonderful playing.”

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Nora Stanley - Josaleigh Pollett - RADEMAN - MF Tomlinson - Lauren Minear

Photo - Rachel Andes

Nora Stanley - Red.

Taken from her solo debut album due out on July 31, we have a quote from Nora regarding the latest single. “Red” is the psychic centerpiece of the album, a circular and hypnotic track that begins with the immediate intimacy of voice and guitar alone, patiently adding layers of synths, electric guitars, and flutes as it builds. “Red” is about the comfort Nora finds in the generous nonlinearity of Anne Carson’s work as we hear exactly the ways Nora sees love as an echo of literature’s curious detachment from/demarcation of time, seeking refuge and comfort in Carson’s poetry in the face of romantic loss and healing.

From her work with indie songwriters like Cassandra Jenkins to avant-garde icons such as Fred Frith, Stanley has built a reputation as a versatile and expressive multi-instrumentalist—moving fluidly between woodwinds, synthesizer, voice, and guitar. Drawing inspiration from Anne Carson's writing, the songs on the new album 'Glass' explore reflection and separation—how we see ourselves refracted, held at a distance from the outside world.

Glass is one of those small big words poets most prize. Reflective and transparent, hard and fragile, natural and supernatural, Glass is polymorphic. As a saxophonist, flute player, clarinetist, and synth player, Nora Stanley has accompanied many of our most cherished living songwriters, including Cassandra Jenkins, Beth Orton, and The New Pornographers. She has performed improvised creative music with Benny Bock, Fred Frith, Kenny Wollesen, and Peter Apfelbaum, too. Luckily for us, Glass is not a simple summation of these not-so-disparate paths. The complexity of that giant noun characterizes Nora’s approach to this record’s production as much as it does the variegated career that led to its existence. Glass is a record of subtly devastating songs by a cool headed observer; a mirror and a window.

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Josaleigh Pollett - Bed of Quiet.

"Bed of Quiet is an over-thinker's anthem. A song for the sleepless, and the hours spent playing and replaying scenarios on a loop in your brain where there is no right decision, digging for a yes or a no in a mountain of perhaps. We wanted the production to feel like it belonged in the middle of the night, when you're not quite yet dreaming, but suspended above your body like a projected film of the last few week's events you can't stop watching, playing too loud for sleeping." 

"When Chris Walla sent us some instrumental recordings from the early 2010's he'd yet to use, they fit perfectly into the fitful, crumpled sheets of the bed we were making. The post-chorus vocal "a little doubt-" is also the only time Jordan sings on the record, pitch-shifted all to heaven, of course." – Josaleigh Pollett.

Salt Lake City-based singer-songwriter Josaleigh Pollett issues "Bed of Quiet," which features a guest contribution from Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), and is the final single from their fourth full-length album, ‘If I Let It Quiet. The new record will be released July 24th via Audio Antihero (Frog / Tiberius / Avery Friedman / CIAO MALZ) and Lavender Vinyl on digital and vinyl.

Although the continuation of Pollett and Watko's collaboration was never in question, the new album's creation faced new challenges due to Watko's relocation to Japan. Despite this separation, the pair opted to make their first cross-continent collaboration more ambitious and exploratory than what had come before.

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RADEMAN - Get Back Up.

All we are going to say on Beehive Candy is this.. "This is one unique and incredible baritone voice, with a song that let's it shine above so many others - fabulous." RADEMAN is a South African-born, Sydney-based country-rock artist. His music combines direct storytelling, a mature dark baritone and guitar-driven production built around resilience, consequence and the battles people carry privately.

RADEMAN creates country-rock, outlaw country and southern rock shaped by direct storytelling and emotional weight. Born in South Africa and based in Sydney, RADEMAN writes about resilience, internal conflict, accountability and the decision to stand up again when life has taken something from you.

The music moves between restrained, vulnerable verses and full-band choruses. Guitars, low-end weight and a mature dark baritone carry the songs without losing the human detail inside them. Get Back Up is RADEMAN’s debut single and the opening chapter of The War Inside, a wider body of work about the battles people rarely speak about.

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Photo - Andrea Zvadova

MF Tomlinson - Heaven Is Other People.

Australian, London-based MF Tomlinson today announces new EP 'Heaven Is Other People' and shares its life-affirming, piano-led title track, marking his first new music since the release of his critically acclaimed third album Die To Wake Up From A Dream (2025). Entering a new creative chapter, Tomlinson describes Heaven Is Other People as "a collection of lo-fi gestural pieces on human connection", written following the birth of his first child and recorded during impromptu sessions at his studio in Poplar, London.

Across its five tracks, Tomlinson embraces a looser, more instinctive approach, balancing patient, spacious songwriting with richly layered instrumentation alongside his regular collaborators (the "MFs"): Ed Grimshaw (drums), Ben Manning (bass), Gail Tasker (flute) and Kayvon Nabijou (keys and saxophone).

Carried by buoyant piano, circling woodwinds and radiant orchestral swells, lead single and title track 'Heaven Is Other People' moves Tomlinson's singular songwriting into unexpectedly joyful territory. Growing from intimate reflection into an expansive hymn to human connection, 'Heaven Is Other People' finds transcendence in the ordinary, celebrating the people who shape our lives.

On the new song, Tomlinson said: "Ten months ago I became a father - not long after, fragments of lyrics and chords assembled themselves into this song. This song is a crystallisation of the sun in the morning, three in the bed, three hours sleep-happiness that’s here now. It’s the sound of a little smile, a release after a long time of quietly hoping, a trajectory that brought on a whole new body of work. We recorded this in our studio, inspired by artists like Tom Waits, Mitski & Ron Sexsmith. Hope you dig!"

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Lauren Minear - Ellie.

New York–based alternative singer-songwriter Lauren Minear returns with “Ellie,” a warm, uplifting, and emotionally resonant new single that explores the complexities of neurodivergence, identity, and self-understanding. Balancing deeply personal subject matter with buoyant, liberating production, the track transforms a moment of recognition into an anthem of compassion for both ourselves and the parts of us we may have spent years trying to understand.

The song was sparked by an unexpected emotional reaction. After listening to a podcast exploring eight different presentations of ADHD in girls, Lauren found herself profoundly affected by one particular profile. Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, she immediately recognized something familiar in the story.

“I had a very strong emotional reaction to one of the profiles,” she explains. “So I wrote her a song.” Though rooted in a specific experience, “Ellie” ultimately speaks to something much broader: the feeling of growing up without the language to explain who you are. 

Rather than leaning into melancholy, Lauren intentionally chose a more uplifting sonic direction. “For some reason, I always heard ‘Ellie’ as a dance track,” she shares. “The first time I listened to it, I was literally dancing in my closet.” Inspired in part by watching artist sombr build his breakout track “back to friends,” Lauren wanted the production to counterbalance the darkness of the song’s themes with a sense of movement and release.

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Heather Anne Lomax - Houndmouth - Rogan Mei - Doghouse Rose - sundayclub - Stephen Kohler

Photo - Jeff Sebens

Heather Anne Lomax - Step Aside.

Heather Anne Lomax kicks off a bold new chapter with the release of “Step Aside,” the new single from her forthcoming album Who Do You Think You Are, due August 28th via The Blackbird Record Label. Driven by big guitars, powerful vocals, and the raw energy of classic Rock & Roll, the track sets the tone for an album built on instinct, reinvention, and following your own path.

“I wanted to write a bombastic barn burner,” says Lomax. “It’s actually based on my move from Los Angeles to Las Vegas — ‘I’m jumpin’ off a cliff now…won’t someone catch me, I’m taking a dive, can’t keep on living like I’m half alive.’”

Driven by big guitars, powerful vocals, and the energy of classic 1970s Rock & Roll records, “Step Aside” introduces an album that blends Blues, Rock, and Soul with the honest storytelling that has always been at the heart of Lomax’s music.

The inspiration for the new album started during a special night onstage at The Troubadour in Los Angeles. After releasing her previous record, Lomax added a couple of songs by the L.A. rock band Broken Homes into her live set, and something clicked. It felt like everything lined up at exactly the right moment. That spark became the beginning of a deeply collaborative album built around instinct, friendship, and musicians creating together.

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Houndmouth - Lordy (Album).

Houndmouth releases their first album in five years, the Brad Cook-produced Lordy, via Dualtone Records. With its naked honesty, Lordy takes a stripped-back approach to Houndmouth's ever-evolving sound. It's an album about surviving, rebuilding, accepting, and thriving once more. Myers wrote most of the record's songs at home, strumming his Martin guitar while sunshine streamed through the kitchen windows. Years ago, he might've composed the record at night, tossing back a few drinks for encouragement. This was different. Clear-headed and wide awake, Myers reclaimed his muse during the daytime hours, starting with songs like "Tiger Blood" — a ragged folk-rocker that builds its way toward a screaming finish — and the album's gorgeously intimate title track. 

For two years, Myers struggled to finish new songs. The end of one relationship. The beginning of another. The all-consuming feeling of new love. Myers' life had been eventful, both onstage and off, and all that living didn't leave him much time to create. Things changed when he paid a visit to Cook, the Grammy-winning producer who'd overseen Houndmouth's fourth record, Good For You. What began as a reunion of two friends soon gave way to something bigger: the restart of Myers' songwriting engines and, in its wake, the creation of Lordy. 

Cook played an integral role in Lordy's creation — not just as a producer, but as a close friend and confidante, too. "When I visited him in North Carolina for the first time, he walked out of his garage and gave me a big bear hug," Myers says. "He told me he was happy for me, and he gave me a lot of confidence with my new songs." 

Cook also reached out to others, surrounding Myers with a small circle of musicians who, like him, blurred the lines between modern-day indie music and the old-school roots of Americana. Iron & Wine's Sam Beam stopped by the studio during the creation of the album's final track, "Holy Moses," to offer advice and encouragement. Lenderman paid a visit, too, adding his trademark guitar licks — loose, lo-fi, and full of life — to multiple tracks. Phil Cook (Megafaun, Hiss Golden Messenger) played on several songs, as did Houndmouth's keyboardist, Caleb Hickman. For Myers, the musical input was uplifting. "I've spent years working with peers and contemporaries," he says, "but this felt different. I was surrounded by people who were literally trying to pick me up and help me out. They pushed me to do the work."

Houndmouth · Lordy

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Rogan Mei - Dickies Green Plaid Jacket (EP).

Barrie, ON-based indie folk artist Rogan Mei shares Dickies Green Plaid Jacket, a nostalgic collection of songs that wrestles with the people, places, memories, and former versions of ourselves we struggle to leave behind. Blending indie folk, Americana, rock, and alternative influences, the EP captures a period of searching for meaning, identity, connection, and a sense of home while embracing the uncertainty that comes with growth.

The project takes its name from a real jacket Rogan discovered after moving back home following a difficult forest firefighting season out west. Worn, ill-fitting, and long past its prime, the jacket gradually became a symbol for something much larger.

“It doesn’t fit me. It doesn’t suit me. It doesn’t even do its job particularly well,” Rogan explains. “I realized the jacket had become a symbol for a lot of things in my life. People, memories, dreams, and versions of myself that no longer fit, but that I couldn’t seem to part with.”

Dickies Green Plaid Jacket explores heartbreak, friendship, nostalgia, identity, and the tension between holding on and moving forward. Though each song approaches those themes from a different angle, a common thread runs throughout the project. “I think the main theme is searching,” Rogan says. “The characters in these songs are searching for meaning, searching for love, searching for home, or searching for who they’re supposed to be.”

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Doghouse Rose - It Gets Worse.

Toronto's Doghouse Rose just returned with "It Gets Worse," the second advance single from their upcoming album Born To Break Even, due July 31 on Stomp Records. Where the album's title track leaned into the band's skate-punk roots, "It Gets Worse" turns the spotlight toward one of Doghouse Rose's greatest strengths: songwriting. Packed with towering harmonies, razor-sharp hooks, and enough power-pop charm to make Tsar, The Muffs, and No Doubt proud, the track proves that the band's biggest asset has never been speed. It's their ability to write choruses that stick around long after the last guitar chord fades.

Founded by best friends Sarah Beth and Jefferson Sheppard and rounded out by Gregory Laraigne and cousins Jordan and Garrick Zagerman, Doghouse Rose have spent more than a decade building their reputation one show at a time. From festival stages and packed clubs to community halls, dive bars, and even prisons, the Toronto five-piece has toured relentlessly across North America and Europe while sharing stages with Lagwagon, Teenage Bottlerocket, Strung Out, Belvedere, The Planet Smashers, The Creepshow, and countless others. Through it all, they've remained fiercely committed to the DIY ethos, chosen-family spirit, and sense of community that have defined the band from day one.

"It Gets Worse" arrives as the latest glimpse into Born To Break Even, Doghouse Rose's third full-length album for Stomp Records and their most vulnerable release to date. Produced, mixed, and mastered by Scott Komer (Boys Night Out, Silverstein), who also helmed the band's previous album Unlearn, the record finds Doghouse Rose pushing beyond the boundaries of their signature sound while holding tight to everything that made fans fall in love with them in the first place. Touching on themes of grief, frustration, depression, resilience, and personal growth, Born To Break Even explores heavier emotional territory without sacrificing the joy, humour, and positivity that have always been at the band's core. It's a record that acknowledges life's hard truths while refusing to let them have the final word. Older, wiser, and more self-aware than ever, Doghouse Rose continue to find ways to turn uncertainty into connection and hardship into celebration.

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sundayclub - SUNDAYCLUB Album).

sundayclub released their self titled debut album via Paper Bag Records a couple of days ago, alongside  focus track 'Corydon Ave (To Meet You)'. The album captures the first chapter of their life as a band — formed in the stillness of rural Manitoba and rooted in Winnipeg, romanticised and re-examined, its hard edges softened the way memory softens things, the way analogue photography blurs what digital sharpens. Across nine tracks, Courtney Carmichael and Nikki St. Pierre move through themes of identity, desire, self-image and belonging, all threaded together by the particular disorientation of early adulthood — the feeling of being caught between who you were and who you're becoming. Growing up, growing apart, growing into your skin.

That world has already been introduced through a run of early singles. 'Camera Shy', the band's own "quintessential sundayclub song", is feel-good and dreamy, a mission statement. 'Blue Wave' leans into "pre-nostalgia": the strange ache of missing a moment before it's even passed. 'Sad Summer' finds them at their most direct and emotionally exposed, capturing the paralysis of wanting to retreat from the world while feeling increasingly pressured to keep pace with it.

Yet it's 'Corydon Ave (To Meet You)' that emerges as the album's defining moment. The song began in the neighbourhood where Nikki grew up — Winnipeg's Corydon, a culturally rich pocket of the city that Courtney came to know through him. Spending time there, she found herself unexpectedly and intensely struck by a new acquaintance who happened to be from the same streets.

"Along with being struck with the beauty of it, I became impossibly and unexpectedly struck by a new acquaintance who also happened to be from the area. Realizing the intense feelings and infatuation that quickly developed, the song took a deeply personal turn. It became an opportunity to create this world in which the two of us could be together, despite it being so fragile in reality."


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Stephen Kohler - Paintbrush.

For Chicago-based singer-songwriter Stephen Kohler, music represents a universal language that allows all of us to connect and express. Raised in a musical family, Kohler started on the trumpet at the age of 12 and later discovered his love for the guitar, piano, and singing which he incorporated into a lifelong passion for composing, performing and producing. 

Inspired by everything from the Beatles to Black Sabbath, Stephen loves to incorporate hook-laden melodies along with rhythmic punch. Having performed throughout Chicago for over 30 years in numerous original pop, rock and alternative bands, including Delusions of Grandeur, Braintree and Bed, he has played venues ranging from Metro, Double Door, and Lounge Ax to Evanston Space, Uncommon Ground, and Beat Kitchen. 
 
In June of 2022, Kohler released the solo album Daydream, produced by Grammy-nominated musician Liam Davis (of the Power Pop band Frisbie), and followed up with the 2025 album Anthem, which was also produced by Davis and features his Frisbie band mate Gerald Dowd on drums and percussion. Fast forward to July 2026 and Kohler has re-teamed with Davis and Dowd for a brand new single "Paintbrush." The song was inspired by Kohler's late brother (who provided the original artwork for the single) and is a reminder to listeners that we all have an inner creator and can paint the universe with our own paintbrush.

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Pam Ross - Brigadoon - Railcard - Maddie Lenhart - Mr. Novembre - Pain Gain

Pam Ross - Who’s Gonna Save You?

Pam Ross just released her brand-new single, “Who’s Gonna Save You?” delivering one of her most powerful and thought-provoking songs to date. Built around a driving roots-rock foundation and an unforgettable chorus, “Who’s Gonna Save You?” explores the difficult reality of self-destruction, personal accountability, and the moments when we are forced to confront our own choices. The song’s striking refrain asks a question many people spend a lifetime avoiding: “God might save you from someone else, but who’s gonna save you from yourself?”

The recording features, Pam Ross – Acoustic rhythm guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals, keyboards, and organ - Yvan Petit – Lead guitar and electric rhythm guitar - FJ Ventre – Bass - George Hindenach – Drums and percussion. The track was produced by Pam Ross and FJ Ventre, with mixing and mastering by Marc Frigo in Nashville, Tennessee.

Over the past several years, Pam has built a reputation as one of independent music’s most consistent and authentic voices, earning recognition for her heartfelt songwriting, compelling performances, and growing success on radio and streaming platforms. “Who’s Gonna Save You?” continues that tradition while showcasing a more introspective and emotionally charged side of her artistry.

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Brigadoon - Everyone & No One.

The new album Everyone & No One released this weekend, comes six years on from Brigadoon’s widely acclaimed debut LP, Itch Factor. The new album is more of the same, but different. Itch Factor’s intimate, late-night, melancholy feel is retained, as is the love of melody, harmony and layered vocals and guitar to create a spectral sonic mood.

But Everyone & No One is a decisive evolution: accents from keyboards and electric guitar play a greater role, for example. This is also an exercise in precision and brevity compared to the 15-track Itch Factor. For Everyone & No One, Smith gave himself a rule: if a song goes longer than three minutes it’s outstayed its welcome. That was hard to stick to, and several tracks go beyond that (particularly the experimental drone-opus, “Under the Clock Dirge”), but these songs strive for economy and elegance, as seen in leading tracks “Maya Sleeps & Dreams”, “Extra Moons” and “Master of Cobwebs”.

As with Itch Factor, the album embraces the DIY folk spirit, retaining a slightly scruffy aesthetic in keeping with its recording environment. Replacing a shack in the hills behind Byron Bay, where Itch Factor was recorded, is a freezing garage in the Blue Mountains (the scurryings of the resident possum being audible on some songs).

With Everyone & No One, Smith sticks close to his key influences – 1960s and ’70s psych-folk ranging from the Incredible String Band to David Crosby to Gary Higgins to Tim Buckley to Mark Fry. Additional inspiration for the album came from the likes of Robyn Hitchcock, Bobb Trimble, Beck, The Chills, John Grant and Richard Dawson.

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Railcard - Two Steps At A Time.

Skep Wax (who have introduced us to some fabulous artists) have just released the first single "Two Steps At A Time" by indie pop supergroup Railcard, from their debut album of the same name, featuring ex-members of Dolly Mixture and Death In Vegas and current members of Heavenly. As a taster for the album the single is gorgeous, quirky and oh so catchy, seriously this is a massive tease for the album, about which we have the following thoughts from Skep Wax.

"You have to wonder why Railcard took so long to be born: their debut album feels like it should have been in your collection for years. But it wasn’t until 2025 that Rachel Love (Dolly Mixture), Ian Button and Peter Momtchiloff (Heavenly) met at a gig, realised that they were exactly the same age, and decided that this was an excellent reason to form a new band."  

"The shared history, the same pop references, the parallel lives… Railcard had to happen, and there was no time to lose. Two Steps At A Time - the album title and theme song - express exactly how quickly Railcard have worked since then - jumping over pavement cracks and whistling past graveyards to get these songs written, recorded and released while they are still sweet and fresh."

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Maddie Lenhart - Empty Room.
 
Nashville country artist Maddie Lenhart has released her second single "Empty Room" from her upcoming EP releasing October 2, 2026. As the second release from her upcoming debut EP, “Empty Room” finds Maddie Lenhart leaning further into the classic country influences that have long shaped her artistry. Produced by Brad Hill (Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne) and written by Lenhart and Justin Cross, the song pairs warm dobro, fiddle, organ, and layered harmonies with a heartbreaking story of loving someone whose absence is felt even when they’re standing right in front of you.

Lenhart immediately transports listeners into the song’s world, opening with, “Lights come up glittering red and gold / I feel the kick of the drum echo off the back wall / Through the flickering and the smoke / I can make out just enough / To know that I’m alone.” The scene is vivid and cinematic, but it’s the following realization that gives it its emotional weight: “It’s something that I should be used to now / But hell, it still keeps burning me out.” In just a few lines, Lenhart reveals this isn’t a fleeting moment of loneliness – it’s the familiar ache of continually showing up for someone who no longer meets her halfway.

That emotional foundation makes the chorus all the more powerful: “Loving you’s like playing to an empty room / I keep pourin’ out my heart, but what good does it do? / I could walk off this stage, nobody’s listening / I could leave you, you wouldn’t ask me to stay / You don’t give a damn, and I shouldn’t like I do / ’Cause loving you, loving you, loving you / Is like playing to an empty room.”

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Mr. Novembre - Mountains, Hope.

Mr. Novembre new single “Mountains, Hope.”, is an expansive alt-folk meditation on grief, surrender, and finding peace on the other side of emotional exhaustion. Built around delicate fingerpicked guitar, sweeping strings, and a slow-burning sense of release, the song invites you to sit with life's heaviest moments rather than rush past them. It feels like the quiet after the storm. Like setting down a burden you've carried for too long. Like discovering that hope doesn't always arrive through holding on, it can begin by letting go.

At its heart, “Mountains, Hope.” offers a reminder many of us need to hear: “Love was all I had to give - But my tank is empty - There's nothing left in me”

With each verse, the song moves gently from depletion toward acceptance. What begins as a confession slowly transforms into an embrace of stillness, where healing comes not from reaching the summit, but from finding peace with where you stand. This isn't a song about giving up. It's about recognising that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is stop fighting what cannot be changed.  This is a taste of the album 'Petrichor'  due August 14 2026.

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Photo - James J. Robinson

Pain Gain - Pain Gain (Album).

Pain Gain, the collaborative project of Chloe Kaul (Kllo), Hamish Lefevre (SWIM), and Samuel Cooke (CRUSH3d), have released their self-titled debut album Pain Gain (via Play It Again Sam/PIAS). Formed in 2023, Pain Gain began as a deliberate left turn. Shedding their established electronic identities, Kaul, Lefevre and Cooke retreated to the beachside forests of southern Australia, armed with guitars, modular synths and a tape recorder. What began as a temporary escape soon evolved into something far more profound: a complete recalibration of sound, process and purpose. The result is Pain Gain, a debut album that trades velocity for gravity, moving fluidly between indie rock melodrama and expansive pop balladry while rejecting genre as a fixed idea.

That philosophy, that pain can be instructive and even transformative, runs throughout Pain Gain’s work. Embracing a tactile, imperfect process, the band favored single takes, analogue experimentation, and the accidental beauty of mistakes. Songs emerged organically: melodies drifting through kitchen conversations, lyrics shaped by late-night reflections, and ideas bleeding across rooms in a house that became a living, breathing studio.

Across the project, vocalist Chloe Kaul delivers lyrics that cut deep, exploring personal upheaval with unflinching honesty, while the band’s collaborative dynamic ensures no single voice dominates and each member shapes the music with equal weight and intent. It’s three distinct voices finding unity in vulnerability and shared experience as they explain: "We went away together with only the intention of starting something new, we never expected that we would end up not only with an album, but one that feels as cohesive and collectively personal as this. It's a record that looks for beauty in friction, and finding a new start in the wreckage of something past"

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Plum - Hector Gannet - Montello - A Place To Bury Strangers - KiKi Holli + The Remedy - Huw Cadwaladr

Photo - Shannon Marks

Plum - Asymmetric.

Bodies in Motion (due August 21) is the second full-length album from Chicago post-punk trio Plum. To make it, the band set out to unlearn themselves, dismantling the usual writing process instead of returning to the methods that shaped their 2024 debut Can't Hold On To It (praised by Audio Fuzz as "a vibrant mix of sounds, blending New Wave, No Wave, Krautrock, and Indie Sleaze”).

Writing began with a retreat to a cabin in Wisconsin, where they spent days on intuitive and constraint-based approaches: songs emerged from Tarot card pulls, graphic scores, free vocal improvisations in the woods, and challenges thrown at one another, like writing a section with asymmetric phrasing or moving toward the ideas they'd normally avoid.

Where Can't Hold On To It centered on groove and propulsion, Bodies in Motion expands the band's vocabulary through layered counterpoint, interlocking rhythms, and parts that answer and circle one another. New drummer Eric Ridder (Em Spel, Vaya) is central to that shift, reinforcing the band's motorik pulse while opening space for more intricate interactions between vocals, guitar, bass, and drums. Primary songwriters Jeff Kelley (guitar, lead vocals) and Heather Perry (bass, vocals) write into that space, keeping every part in conversation and always moving.

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Hector Gannet - The Mother Tongue.

Hector Gannet have shared a new single “The Mother Tongue” via Guga Records, ahead of their third album ‘The Great Shakedown’ arriving this October. Hector Gannet’s powerful North Eastern folk-rock-soul sound returns with new single “The Mother Tongue”. The music is driven on by surging brass parts, while the words look at mortality and the idea that whereof we cannot speak we must sing. The single reprises the unabashed emotive potency that has seen this North Shields group praised by people as diverse as Chris Packham and Sam Fender and acclaimed as “North Shields’ answer to Crazy Horse” by Uncut magazine. The new single is taken from what will be the band’s third album (‘The Great Shakedown’) to be released in October.

“This song was written when dealing with loss and grief,” says Hector Gannet singer/guitarist Aaron Duff, referring to the passing of a family member. “I just felt completely unequipped to deal with the abrupt finality of it all. If that person was stood in front of me now and I tried to express those emotions, I’m sure we’d both laugh and joke about it just to get through things. It’s hard to say goodbye in a situation like that and I had to put it into a song to be able to do it."

Centred on uplifting brass parts and a momentum that borders on the euphoric, “The Mother Tongue” connects with the band’s Tyneside origins in typical style. Hector Gannet are named after a fishing vessel of the same name, a boat which Aaron’s late paternal grandfather served on and which suffered fatal misadventure in 1968. The riverside, streets and team colours are there in the new single’s lyrics, while the track carries its emotional weight in the way communities often do – not through confession, but through action; by showing rather than saying. Beneath the propulsive brass lies something more subtle – an examination of stoicism as both armour and wound. The words muse on the peculiarities of a shared language, one that can be used to avoid saying the very things that needs to be said.

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Photo - Oliver Roberts

Montello - The Universe Replied…

Wigan/Manchester indie quartet Montello return with the infectious new single, 'The Universe Replied…' a track that captures the band's knack for melancholy that dances rather than mopes. Drawing inspiration from the timeless songwriting of The Smiths and the atmospheric depth of The Cure, while channeling the infectious energy of early-2000s indie, 'The Universe Replied…' strikes a balance between nostalgia and modern indie ambition. It's a song that finds beauty in reflection without ever standing still, inviting listeners to move as much as they feel.

Working with producer Luke Owens (of fast-rising Manchester band Bank Holiday), the single pairs jangling guitar lines, driving rhythms and atmospheric synth textures with heartfelt vocals that give the song genuine emotional weight. Bittersweet lyricism and irresistible momentum come together to create a track that delivers indie immediacy, while retaining the swagger of The Stone Roses, a quality that has become synonymous with the band's captivating live performances.

'The Universe Replied…' marks another confident step forward for the band, showcasing a sound that feels both familiar and refreshingly forward-looking. With hooky melodies, emotional sincerity and a cinematic quality, the single reinforces their reputation as one of Manchester’s most exciting new indie acts, proving they can honour their influences while carving out a distinct identity of their own.

Speaking about the track, the band explain: "The Universe Replied… is a song that asks more questions than it gives answers - it's very difficult as a young adult to feel like you have a clear cut career and a laid out life ahead of you, so it's talking about my way of throwing caution to the wind and not knowing what the universe has planned for you, me or anyone."

Montello · The Universe Replied...

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A Place To Bury Strangers - Losing Time.

A Place To Bury Strangers release new single and video "Losing Time" off of their new rarities album "Rare and Deadly" "Losing Time" tackles the uneasy truth that life keeps moving whether we're ready for it or not. Set against our signature storm of noise and tension, it's a song about change, mortality, and surrendering to the inevitable.⁠

Rare and Deadly cracks open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos from A Place To Bury Strangers. Spanning 2015–2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments, and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered—caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. Pulled from Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes, and half-finished sessions, here the interference is closer, the electricity more dangerous, the edges left jagged on purpose.
 
What makes Rare and Deadly truly unprecedented is that every format tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl, and digital editions each feature their own unique tracklisting, a fractured release strategy that is almost unheard of. No single version contains the “complete” album. Instead, each format becomes its own window into the archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links, and parallel versions of the band’s inner life. It’s a deliberately unstable document: the album shifts depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation.
 
Across these recordings, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restless mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends—ideas too volatile, too strange, or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. But together they form a secret history of the band, a parallel world of possibilities that existed just outside the spotlight. The tracks contain riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by walls of feedback until only their ghosts remain.

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Photo - Daniel Reichert

KiKi Holli + The Remedy - Something About You (EP).

Something About You is five tracks of with atmospheric production, sweeping melodies, and performances that are as fearless as they are nuanced. At the heart of the project is Holli's creative partnership with two-time Grammy-nominated producer Ethan Allen (Ben Harper, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Tricky), who produced, mixed, and co-wrote the EP. Their collaboration shapes the intimacy, expansiveness, and cinematic atmosphere that define KiKi Holli + The Remedy. The EP was mastered by Grammy-winning engineer Dave Collins (Madonna, Alice Cooper, Soundgarden).

Rooted in the cinematic tradition of Stevie Nicks, Bowie, Prince, and The Cure, KiKi Holli + The Remedy has built a sound that lives at the intersection of dream pop atmosphere and dark wave intensity. 

The five tracks unfold as follows: Something About You: The title track opens the EP with a meditation on connection and desire, drawing listeners into a world of recognition and longing. - The Garden: A lush summer escape filled with warmth, beauty, and possibility. - Don't Change: KiKi Holli + The Remedy's interpretation of the INXS classic transforms the anthem into something more intimate, uncovering new shades of tenderness and longing. - So Far Away: Sits in the ache of distance, the kind that lives in the body long after someone is gone. - Brand New Day: Closes the EP with hopeful optimism, the first real breath of something new.

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Huw Cadwaladr - I Believe.

I Believe', never originally intended for public release, offers the first glimpse into the world of Cambria Nocturna. The track marks a departure from the electronic work Gruff and I previously created as Carcharorion, moving toward a more songwriting-driven and lyrically expressive approach. While evolving creatively, the project continues to explore our shared love of cinematic electronic sound through experimental tape loops, field recordings, analogue instrumentation, and richly textured production. 

Originally conceived as a post-punk composition before transforming into a driving techno piece, 'I Believe' evolved over many months into its final form — a confessional and emotionally charged work. Recorded by Gruff and myself, and mixed by Alexander Green at The Zoo, the track became the first true catalyst and creative foundation for what would eventually become Cambria Nocturna.

Cambria Nocturna itself emerged from a period of profound personal trauma. During this time, I reconnected with Gruff after more than a decade apart, and together we began experimenting once again. What started as artistic collaboration quickly became something deeper: a source of healing, catharsis, and genuine therapy.

Through channeling these emotions creatively, Cambria Nocturna was born — a sonic tapestry of deeply atmospheric electronic music shaped by raw emotion, human connection, and resilience. By merging analogue electronics with acoustic instrumentation, we drew from a broad spectrum of influences, spanning 90s trip-hop, techno, electro, 80s Italo, and alternative electronica, alongside the work of artists such as John Cale and Nick Cave. 'I Believe' marks the beginning of a new chapter: emotionally resonant electronic music rooted in vulnerability, transformation and defiant survival— with further releases set to follow.

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