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| Photo - Noémi Ottilia Szabo |
Zurich-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mel D brings together folk and soul, subtle indie pop inflections and the freedom of electronic music on her new single ‘Orange’, which is set to drop on 9th October via Two Gentlemen.
Mel D has a crystal-clear voice, big melodies and the kind of warm melancholy you want to linger in just a little too long. Following her EP ‘Not Crazy’ and her widely acclaimed debut ‘Young Bones’, her new single ‘Orange’ turns her gaze outwards: towards other people, intimacy and desire and the strange forces at work between all of us. At its heart is the image of a meticulously peeled orange. We take the sweetness and strip away what is bitter – sometimes removing the very parts that hold life itself.
‘Orange’ makes that bittersweetness glow. A shimmering melody, buoyant rhythms, warm bass, electronic textures and voices layered upon voices keep opening the song up. Magnetic, playful, resonant. The song is available on all DSPs and on a limited 300 copies 7” vinyl.
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Montreal ska-punk lifers K-Man & The 45s bring it all home with Heed The Call, their most complete and hard-hitting album to date, out now via Stomp Records. Built on years of relentless touring across Canada, the US, and Europe, the record locks together two-tone ska, punk grit, and rock and roll swagger in the spirit of The Clash, The Specials, and Mad Caddies. It’s a loud, unfiltered, road-built record, the kind that feels less like a studio project and more like a night already in motion, horns up, bodies packed in, and just one chorus away from blowing wide open.
That feeling starts in Montreal. Not the postcard version, the real one. Nights that drift from bar to dep without much thought, DuMauriers burned down to the filter, Labatt 50s sweating through your hand, French and English colliding over the noise. Old punks leaning at the back, kids pressed up front, horns cutting through it all while the floor starts to give. It’s a city that doesn’t try to sell you anything, it just lets you find your way into it, and Heed The Call moves with that same kind of confidence, loose, lived, and completely in its element. “This record feels like the closest we’ve ever come to putting our live show on a disc,” says frontman Frankie. “We’ve always played our songs fast, loud and aggressively on stage, but on previous records we polished that energy and it didn’t always translate. This time, we wanted the dirt, the grit and the attitude to come through—and I think we finally captured what K-Man & the 45s really sound like.”
Across the record, that approach shows up in every direction. Tracks like “We Won’t Stop” and the title cut “Heed The Call” hit with direct, no-frills urgency, calling for unity and change with lines like “We need something to agree on just before we fall.” Elsewhere, the band lets things loosen up and spill over. “Demon Days” dives headfirst into myth-soaked chaos, while “Bankrupt in Berlin” captures the kind of road story that only makes sense at 3am, “drunk and lost… standing hopeless on the corner bankrupt in Berlin,” turning a birthday night gone sideways into a full-blown anthem.
Closer to home, songs like “Clark St.” and “Oh Yeah Attitude” root themselves firmly in Montreal’s streets, equal parts celebration and side-eye, calling out ego, hype, and the everyday nonsense of city life with a grin and a jab. Meanwhile, “Buzz Off” strips things down to a blunt, personal level, pushing back against noise, opinions, and the constant pressure to play the game on someone else’s terms. It’s the same ethos that’s guided the band from the start, do it your way, do it loud, and don’t wait for permission.
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| Photo - Philippe Cornet |
Aksak Maboul, is the project that Marc Hollander founded in 1977 and which soon involved Henry Cow's Fred Frith and Chris Cutler (with links to the Canterbury scene as was known back in the early 1970's. Sometime in the 1980s, Aksak Maboul went on a hiatus which lasted 30 years. Marc Hollander eventually became label head of Crammed Discs.
Upon reemerging, the group, revolving around Hollander and vocalist Véronique Vincent, entered into their most productive phase to date, and Fifteen Ways of Looking at It is a continuation of that productivity, but also a sad end to a certain phase. Véronique Vincent managed to complete the writing and recording of her parts during the summer of 2025, towards the end of the illness which led to her death in October 2025.
This is the first taste of a forthcoming album due out February 5 2027. All the music was written & arranged by Marc Hollander and features his characteristic genre-hopping tendencies: strands of electronica, pop melodies, jazz, found objects & sound collage sometime conjuring quasi filmic atmospheres, whiffs of improv, krautrock, ambient, contemporary classical & systems music, all merrily woven together, in the hard-to-pin-down yet inimitable Aksak Maboul style.
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Sam Burchfield has shared a new single from his recently announced album ‘Every Season’ to be released October 23 on Cloverdale Records. "Every season comes to teach us," says the indie folk songwriter. "And when we find ourselves in valleys of suffering and pain, it’s just part of the growth." Written mostly about love—for his wife, his kids, and his own spiritual evolution—Burchfield's eighth full-length 'Every Season' shimmers with Burchfield’s sandy and psychedelic signature sound, ignited with orchestral flair, wonderfully cinematic in moments. "Love is beautiful and wonderful, but part of that is because it’s fleeting," he shares.
Burchfield wrote “Judah Blue” the day before his second child was born. “Such a beautiful memory walking through the park with my wife, getting the home ready,” he shares. Tender and adoring as a lullaby, it’s a testament to the songwriter’s ability to bottle a delicate moment, and to the radiant commitment to family that glows throughout the album. Burchfield’s wife Erin Burchfield also contributed vocals to the track. Burchfield will join Evan Honer on US tour dates later this year.
‘Every Season’ was produced by Ryan Plumley and Jason Kingsland (Delta Spirit, Deerhunter) at Studio 1093 in Athens, Georgia, and recorded with a full band including players Ben Hackett (Drive-By Truckers), Robby Handley (Larkin Poe), and Marlon Patton (Mitski) among others.
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| Photo - Ian Maley |
Song People was formed in December of 2022 by core members Shaina Kapeluck, Darian Scatton, and Benjamin Schurr. Having played in each other's bands for over twelve years, they’ve settled into a comfortable songwriting cabal made fruitful by over a decade of collaboration. Shaina began her music life as a ballad singer, drawing from traditions of the British Isles, the US and Maritime Canada. Darian's rhythmic, arpeggiated guitar melodies are informed by his background as a pedal harpist, and Ben has one foot in industrial post punk and the other in Motown.
Tho I See Tamesees the band diving deeper into more 80's jangle and dream pop elements that were hinted at on their first record "Like Somebody Calling Your Name" and utilizing richer, more nuanced production techniques.
Song People recorded the album's initial tracks with Dan Angel (They Are Gutting a Body Of Water, Pile, My Wife's an Angel) above a fabric workshop in Germantown before completing the album with Josh Meakim (A Sunny Day in Glasgow). The crisp production allows guitarist Darian Scatton's arpeggiated guitar playing to become a hypnotic symphonic atmosphere for bass player Benjamin Schurr's muscular melodic bass lines to growl and groove under and for singer Shaina Kapeluck's singular vocal and lyrical style to float upon.
The album takes its title from the closing line in Sir Thomas Wyatt’s Petrarchan sonnet “Whoso List to Hunt,” paraphrased in Middle English about his childhood friend Anne Boleyn. The opening track of side B, “Touch Me Not,” is Shaina’s modern English translation, a meditation on containment, emotional security, the risks and rewards of intimacy.
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International rock band the Falling Doves are set to return to the United Kingdom and Europe in 2026 for an extensive international tour, bringing their distinctive blend of British rock, Hollywood glamour, dark glam, indie and pop to audiences across the UK, Ireland and Spain.
The tour will be raising funds for the Kibou Foundation, founded by entrepreneur Raechel Kadoya. The foundation is dedicated to empowering women through inclusive events that foster unity, growth, and resilience. Inspired by the remarkable recovery of Rikuzentakata following the devastation of natural disaster, Kibou supports women-led businesses and organisations by providing the resources and opportunities they need to thrive.
The foundation has also supported musicians facing mental health challenges- a cause that is particularly close to The Falling Doves’ hearts. Through this partnership, the tour hopes to help raise awareness and support for these important issues while contributing to Kibou’s wider mission of creating positive change.
Coinciding with the tour, the Falling Doves have released their new single, ‘Blinded By Your Love’ — an infectious track that fuses the spirit of classic British rock with the cinematic energy of Los Angeles. With its anthemic sound and memorable hooks, the track is made for the stage and the open road, offering a glimpse of what’s to come as the band enters an exciting new chapter. “I think after a decade of touring, releases, and singles, I have always wanted to have a constant co-writer and collaborator”, says frontman Christopher Leyva. “I think musicians were always afraid of anything that could sound remotely commercial. It has been a fun experience making records with Katie, as there hasn’t been one lyric on this new record that has gone untouched or unreviewed by her, and the passion in her vocal delivery shows”, he further adds.
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