British Birds - Sébastien De Francesco - Rachel Cribby - Next Week’s Washing

British Birds - Stuck In A Room.

Just ahead of the forthcoming new album (Murmurate, Oscillate) from British Birds the group share another new single which from Beehive Candy's perspective confirms we are in for a very special collection of new songs. The single is called 'Stuck In A Room'. Of it, singer Bobby Townson says "'There are days where you can't be bothered socialising or achieving anything at all. Put some crap on the TV, open a bottle of wine and write off whatever’s happening, I think it’s healthy to have those days."

As a reminder: ‘Murmuration’ is the low hum made by those vast, beautifully choreographed flocks of starlings as they simultaneously flap their wings and take to the sky.  Some people say that the frequency of this unique, rumbling, oscillating sound can cure diseases...  

One of the most exciting live bands in the UK, British Birds combine the garage-punk energy of Billy Childish, the wry English sophistication of XTC and the witty pop inventiveness of The Lovely Eggs.  Like the murmurating flocks of starlings, they create a unique sound, and might even be able to cure diseases.

Based in Chorley, Lancashire, British Birds are a resolutely DIY band.  Bobby records and mixes all the music; Emma creates all the artwork.  Their first two albums were self-released, selling hundreds of copies at gigs and at a few chosen record stores.   British Birds didn’t wait for permission to take flight.  They just got on with it.  

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Sébastien De Francesco - Leaving Now.

Following “Fleury Street” and “Love on the Way Down,” Québec-based singer-songwriter Sébastien De Francesco shares “Leaving Now,” an intimate and bittersweet folk-rock single that imagines the final moments between two close friends from the perspective of the person preparing to leave. Moving between companionship, reassurance and acceptance, the song finds tenderness within loss while holding onto the belief that love and connection continue after someone is gone.

Inspired by the final afternoon Sébastien spent with a close friend who was dying of cancer, “Leaving Now” gradually became an imagined conversation between the two. Some lines are voiced from his friend’s perspective, asking for companionship as his memory and strength begin to fade, while others capture Sébastien’s instinct to comfort and protect him.

“The shifting point of view makes the song feel like an intimate conversation between two friends rather than simply a song about grief,” Sébastien shares. The song’s title arrives only at its conclusion. Sébastien spent nearly an entire day working on the ending, knowing the conversation needed to reach its final goodbye without becoming overly dramatic. Eventually, the words “But I’m leaving now” emerged, as though his friend were gently acknowledging that it was time to go. “‘Leaving Now’ expresses the immediacy of that goodbye, but the song also suggests that love and connection remain after someone leaves,” Sébastien explains.

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Photo - Kelsey Gale

Rachel Cribby - Rich Boy Luck.

Rachel Cribby has announced her debut album ‘I Can’t Wait To Forget This Later,’ to be released November 20 on First City Artists (Coco, Alexa Rose, Eliza Edens). Produced by Daniel Ledwell (Jenn Grant, Oh Pep, Ken Yates), the album shimmers with early aughts alt pop appeal—brisk melodies laden with sharp, darkly comical lyricism reminiscent of Aimee Mann, Rilo Kiley, or Liz Phair. 

This week, she shares lead single “Rich Boy Luck,” a zipping and incisive assessment of a young love’s implosion. “Have you ever seen that meme that’s like, ‘who is the worst person you’ve ever met and why was it the guy you dated when you were 19?’” shares Cribby. “That’s what this song is about!”  She continues, “The emotion that I cathartically ejected from this song is RAGE, which is a tough emotion for me. Feels good.”

"Rich boys never know what they want - What’s there to get when all the getting’s been got? - Rich boys don’t know anything about luck".

The Canadian-born, Detroit-based songwriter’s sardonic style is for more than listener’s amusement; it’s her healing method of choice. And in recent years, she’s needed one, having lost her father and left her beloved Montreal in quick succession. “It’s not like my twenties weren’t tumultuous,” shares Cribby. “I had plenty to sing about. I was dumped more than I can count and maybe did a bit of dumping myself. But something has happened to me in my thirties, where all of the big life stuff that I thought I could ignore by moving away, by trying to become a completely independent and self-assured person, smacked me in the face. And then it promptly started to eat me alive.”

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Photo - Hayden Armstrong

Next Week’s Washing - Clear Eyes.

Continuing to push beyond the sound established on their breakout debut EP, Toronto indie quintet Next Week’s Washing shares “Clear Eyes,” a massive, dreamy, and cinematic new single that brings alternative rock energy together with densely layered shoegaze. Taken from the band’s forthcoming second EP, the track represents their most expansive recording yet, combining walls of textured instrumentation with upfront vocals and a growing confidence in the sound they can distinctly call their own.

“Clear Eyes” was the first song Next Week’s Washing wrote after completing their debut EP. Rather than starting over, the band approached the track as an opportunity to take the foundations they had already established and push them somewhere bigger.

“We wanted to take the sound we had begun to develop with the first six songs and push it forward,” the band explains. “We took a lot more time building layers into the recording, and the result is our biggest (sonically) sounding song yet.”

That progression can be heard throughout the track. While the instrumentation leans heavily into the band’s shoegaze influences, Next Week’s Washing deliberately pushed the vocals forward in the mix, allowing the songwriting to remain present within the song’s towering layers of guitars. The result lands somewhere between the immersive atmosphere of shoegaze and the immediacy of alternative and indie rock, bringing the different sides of the band’s identity into sharper focus.

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Lily DeTaeye - Lydia Saint George - Moving Into Tucson - Particle Kid - Burr Island

Lily DeTaeye - Ginkgo.

The new album 'Even With My Eyes Closed' from Lily DeTaeye is due for release on October 23, 2026 where we can expect a mixture of Folk Pop, Indie Pop and the all encompassing Alternative description. Indeed comparisons have been made with Waxahatchee, Samia, Ratboys, Soccer Mommy and Margaret Glaspy so that's one whole mixture of acts to wrestle with. Anyhow the latest taster for the album 'Ginkgo' has more than grabbed Beehive Candy's attention so here it is!

Lily DeTaeye is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter originally from Des Moines, IA whose music blends atmospheric folk-pop with an alt-rock edge. Her third full-length album, Even With My Eyes Closed, traces the memories and experiences that shaped her—from first loves and house parties to night drives, heartbreak and the transition into adulthood. 

Recorded at Golden Bear Studio with producer Bryan Vanderpool, the album pairs Lily’s hauntingly soulful voice with ethereal, ’90s-inspired production to create a deeply personal soundtrack for looking back while moving forward.

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Lydia Saint George - I’m a Little Scared.

North Carolina-based singer-songwriter Lydia Saint George has released her new single, “I’m a Little Scared,” out now via Gold Ship Records. Following September’s “Lungs,” the track continues a series of releases introducing her next body of work.

Blending atmospheric indie pop and alternative music with intimate, emotionally candid storytelling, Lydia turns inward on “I’m a Little Scared,” exploring the fear of being left out and the difficulty of escaping a memory that refuses to fade. At its heart is the uneasy tension between wanting the party to continue and struggling with the thoughts that follow you through it.

“‘I’m a Little Scared’ is about being scared of feeling left out, haunted by a memory that follows you no matter how hard you try to ignore it or push it away,” Lydia explains. “The highest highs aren’t enough to cancel out the lows. Struggling to differentiate between what’s real and what you’re imagining. Doing anything to quiet the voices, and anything to keep the party from ending.”

The song also confronts lingering self-doubt, with that uncertainty shaping one of its most personal production choices. “I wrote it when I was struggling with social anxiety and doubting myself as a musician, hence the line about ‘not being good at guitar,’” she continues. “When it was time to produce it, I decided to sing the guitar solo rather than play it in order to fit that theme.”

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Moving Into Tucson - You'd Better Be Good Tonight.

With “You’d Better Be Good Tonight,” Moving Into Tucson deliver what may be their most immediate and radio-ready single to date: a groove-driven indie pop song where soul warmth, disco pulse and sharp melodic songwriting all lock into one bright, confident hook.

Built on electric guitars, bass, electric piano, organ, synths, drums, percussion, claps and layered vocals, the track feels rich without ever becoming crowded. It has that rare kind of instant pull: a rhythm section that gets the body moving, a chorus that locks in fast, and a title line that keeps circling back until it feels less like a warning and more like a spell.

Lyrically, “You’d Better Be Good Tonight” walks a thin line between pressure, temptation and survival. “He knows what it’s like / Always on the run” sets up a character carrying more than he says out loud, while “He bears a heavy weight / It’s so hard not to break” gives the song its darker emotional undertow. Around that weight, the repeated chorus becomes both instruction and release: a phrase you can dance to, sing along with, and still feel somewhere in the back of your mind.

Musically, this is Moving Into Tucson stretching their sound in exactly the right direction. The song blends the band’s indie pop-rock foundation with a looser, more soulful groove: organ warmth, electric piano color, handclaps, tambourine, shaker, cowbell, bongo and conga all adding movement and texture. It tastes of the 70s, nods to 90s dance-pop energy, and still lands firmly in the present.

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Particle Kid - Blue Eye (EP).

Particle Kid's EP, Blue Eye, is out now on Hen House Studios, featuring Daniel Lanois, Buck Meek, and Germaine Dunes and was recorded during a rehearsal session in Los Angeles at Daniel Lanois' studio.

“There’s an accidental magic that can happen when humans are in the room playing,” says Particle Kid (Micah Nelson). His new EP, Blue Eye, out today on Hen House Studios, came about from an especially fruitful pre-gig rehearsal, just a moment where a jam at a recording studio to get ready for the show became something really special. It doesn’t hurt that this jam featured amazing musicians like renowned guitarist and producer Daniel Lanois, Buck Meek of Big Thief, Germaine Dunes of Kisser, and longtime Particle Kid bassist Aroyn Day. “I felt like I had the X-Men as my band,” Nelson laughs, remembering. It also helps that this pre-show rehearsal took place at Daniel Lanois’ home studio and Nelson had the foresight to have his engineer set up the mics beforehand in case some magic happened.

As an artist Nelson revels in the barely controlled chaos of a great jam session, or of a freewheeling collaboration between like minded artists. He’d come to know Lanois before this session while working on a full length LP collaboration between the two that's set for release in early 2027. “Daniel and I are both deep sea explorers when it comes to writing music and exploring and trying new things,” Nelsons says, “just seeing what we catch down there in the depths.” 

Blue Eye features creative reworkings of two classic Particle Kid songs: “Drone Love” from his self-titled 2017 album, and “Ring of Smoke” from his 2018 Particle War album with Sunny War. Both albums came out on Hen House Studios, and came about in the anarchic creative world of Venice Beach in the early 2010s before the tech industry and rising rents drove out the artists. The EP’s title song “Blue Eye” is a new one from Nelson, a song that came to him in a dream and manifested on a magical couch one day. Nelson had the idea to release the three songs from this mini session as a teaser for a full length album with Daniel Lanois coming in 2027.

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Burr Island - Longest Shadows.

London via the West Country alt-folk duo Burr Island have shared new single ‘Longest Shadows’ taken from their forthcoming second album ‘It Was Always’ released on 4th December via AWAL.
 
Over the last couple of years, Burr Island – best friends Tom England and Śubhabhāsa – have built a beloved following for their rich ‘sibling-style’ harmonies, vivid lyrics inspired by friendship, positivity and hope, and cinematic, layered melodies. After releasing their debut album ‘Days Dreamt’ in 2024, the duo gained support from BBC Radio 6Music, BBC Radio 2 and Radio X, going onto support Robert Plant & Saving Grace, Ocean Colour Scene and Amy Macdonald on tour, alongside performing their own headline shows around the UK. 
 
Following recent singles ‘Walk Slow’, ‘Petrichor’, ‘Clarity’ and ‘Dog’, they offer a further taste of their second record ‘It Was Always’ with new single ‘Longest Shadows’. Opening with their signature soaring harmonies alongside paired-back instrumentation, the song builds through poetic lyrics and a harmonious melody into a glorious chorus that balances both the idyllic lightness and the fragile sadness of love.
 
They say, “Like the longest shadows at dusk that lengthen into night, this song is about the realisation of love fading away. The sadness of this long admittance to yourself is met with an opening, a dawning that you did not see before within the shadows of this ending.” Burr Island will release their second album ‘It Was Always’ on 4th December and will announce further live shows soon.

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DegHerl - Mon Rayon - Maddie Lenhart - Niki Kennedy - The Wandering Divide

DegHerl - DegHerl (Album). 

Released this weekend Degherl's first album, follows two previous EPs (one live and the other in the studio), and includes songs recorded between 2022 and 2026, as well as a new version - for the vocal part - of the single Nightmare, already published in 2021 as part of a compilation. The band further deepens its sonic research within the post-punk and new wave universe, building a work that, without losing coherence and identity, also crosses shoegaze, jangle-pop and dark-folk, with a brief excursus between no-wave and psychedelia.

More than a collection of songs, the album appears as a circular path in which each song explores a different declination of the tension between shadow and light, restlessness and desire, memory and vision. To quote some influences, you will recognise the dark romanticism of The Cure, the urban shadows of Tuxedomoon and The Sound, the angularity of Xmal Deutschland, the ethereal atmospheres of Slowdive and Cocteau Twins, up to the art-punk eclecticism of DEVO and B-52's.
 
The presence of different generations in the Degherl lineup testifies their timeless vitality. The group's name is also the album's title. Degherl (whose pronunciation sounds like The Girl) can then become an invitation to read between the lines, make free associations between sound assonances and phonetic decompositions, to reconstruct from scratch the possibility of regenerating meanings.

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Mon Rayon - Image Repertoire (Album).

Self-produced by Josef Ask and Christoffer Zetterlund, the album moves between 1960s French and baroque pop, British indie, soul, psychedelia and spaghetti-western cinema. 

Much of it was recorded live in a converted chapel in the Swedish countryside, with a close group of musicians playing together in the room - keeping the performances warm, organic and alive.

The band once described their musical world as somewhere between “a full English breakfast and the Sanremo Festival in the 1960s,” which probably captures it better than a single genre tag. Mon Rayon will also celebrate the release with a special album launch show at Kollektivet Livet in Stockholm on the 8th October. 

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Maddie Lenhart - Why in the World (EP).

Nashville country artist and singer-songwriter Maddie Lenhart releases her debut EP, Why in the World, this weekend. From track one through track six, Why in the World explores the highs and lows of love and loss — running from heartbreak, living through it, learning to trust yourself enough to fall in love again, and finding light through the difficult corners along the way. At its core, the debut EP is rooted in intentional storytelling, with every lyric carefully considered and no line left without purpose. Sonically, Maddie Lenhart draws from her Appalachian roots, blending organic country and folk-inspired instrumentation with dreamy, ethereal production to create a sound that feels both grounded and distinctly her own.

Why in the World offers a true introduction to Maddie as an artist, showcasing the perspective, songwriting, and musical identity that will continue to shape her career in country music. Virginia-born and raised, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Maddie Lenhart has spent years developing her voice as both an artist and a songwriter. Since moving to Music City, she has written hundreds of songs and earned more than 45 independent cuts, building a reputation for sharp, deeply personal country songwriting rooted in honest storytelling.

2026 marked the beginning of a significant new chapter for Lenhart, with the successful rollout of her the singles from her debut EP, Why in the World, produced by Brad Hill (Maren Morris, Brothers Osborne). The project generated major attention pre-release, with “Empty Room” earning features from both Billboard and American Songwriter and “Newton’s First Law” landing on the cover of Spotify’s Fresh Finds Country. The EP’s title track, “Why in the World,” was co-written with Jay Knowles (Alan Jackson, Lainey Wilson) and Jen Stegall (Carter Faith), further highlighting Lenhart’s ability to pair distinctive songwriting with polished contemporary country production.

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Ezra Tsai Photography

Niki Kennedy - The Space In Between (Album).

Two years ago, Toronto singer-songwriter Niki Kennedy was searching for new inspiration and a new direction. Like many emerging young artists, she realized she had fallen into the trap of chasing expectations set by others rather than following her own instincts. It was an epiphany for Kennedy, who had already earned a Masters degree in music, been accepted into several industry-sponsored creative programs, and released a handful of independent singles.

She decided to try something different—ignore what she “should” be doing, and simply start writing songs that drew from her life experiences, often in a vulnerable manner she had never attempted before that unmasked and confronted her insecurities, frustrations and fears. Kennedy has channelled all of it into her debut album The Space In Between, which showcases her entrancing voice in inventive arrangements rooted in modern adult pop with hints of country, R&B and reggae.

Niki says, “I didn’t go into this process trying to ‘write an album,’ but to capture the messy human journey of figuring it all out. At the end of it, I had a collection of songs that felt true to this chapter of my life and artistry. I chose 12 of them for this album, and it was at that point that I went into the studio with long-time friend and collaborator Shane Stephenson, who mixed the record and helped me bring it to the finish line.”

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The Wandering Divide - Norte Del Sur.
 
We are pleased to feature The Wandering Divide's EP 'Norte Del Sur' which is described as "a sonic journey into our interior and exterior worlds." It's heartfelt, gentle and allows the musical arrangements to take the listener along on the creators personal journey. We will let Brandon give us the background...

Fronted by multi-instrumentalist and producer Brandon Cooke, the cinematic, indie-folk project is a moving exploration of displacement, longing, and what Cooke calls "melancholic joy." For years, Cooke engineered for acts such as Glass Animals, Jelly Roll, Kamasi Washington, Earlimart, and members of The Red Hot Chili Peppers and Nine Inch Nails. As a touring and studio musician, he shared stages with the likes of Weezer, The Black Keys, Phantogram, and TV on the Radio.

In 2022, Cooke grew disillusioned with the hyper-commercialization of art in the modern music industry and walked away. Spending extensive time in Kolkata, Ireland, the American Southwest, and the Appalachian Mountains, Cooke found inspiration in the music of his roots, the scenery of his travels, and the stories of those he met along the way.

Upon returning, Cooke built a studio north of San Francisco and set out to write, engineer, produce, and perform a record that captured this inspiration. The result is the four-song EP, Norte Del Sur. Musically, Norte Del Sur bridges the rugged topography of the American Southwest and the inspiring sereness of the California coasts with the misty landscapes of Ireland. While Norte Del Sur is primarily orchestrated by Cooke, the EP is rounded out by a collective of talent, featuring cellist Peter Jacobsen, upright bassist Paul Livingstone, fiddler McGilvry Allen, and bassist Nate Levin.

It is music born from the physical and emotional impact of travel, a poignant reminder that when the industry strips art of its soul, the only cure is to let the heart be the vessel and hit the open road.

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Heidy H King - The Pinkerton Raid - Oliver Symons - John Doe Band - zeronic - Marie Franc

Heidy H King - Summertime Is Over.

One last burst of summer. A few warm days before summer slowly gives way to autumn. It is precisely this bittersweet feeling that Zurich-based singer-songwriter and vocalist Heidy H King captures in her new song, “Summertime Is Over.” The slightly wistful, Latin-tinged singer-songwriter earworm tells a story of memories, love, and the hope that beautiful feelings can last beyond the summer.

“Summertime Is Over” was written during an inspiring stay in Tuscany. For the musical production, Heidy H King — who, incidentally, speaks English, Dutch, and German fluently — received prominent support. Renowned Swiss guitarist Jean-Pierre von Dach and producer Jeannot Steck (soundcheck.ch) contributed their musical and production expertise, giving the song its final polish. Together, they perform as a trio under the name Sound Affair.

“Summertime Is Over” is the latest in a series of releases through which Heidy H King continues her long-standing musical career. Her previous single, “The Washing Machine,” already attracted attention earlier this year. During the first half of the year, the song received airplay on numerous cultural and independent radio stations in Switzerland as well as on radio stations around the world.

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The Pinkerton Raid - If You Love Somebody, Tell Them (Album).

Songwriter Jesse James DeConto’s seventh full-length album as The Pinkerton Raid begins with the birth of his first child on Earth Day, 2001. Jesse became a father at 24, at the start of two-and-a-half decades of terror, genocide, climate disaster, economic collapse, crumbling democracy and an American culture war on the verge of a civil war, all piped into our fragile human psyches through the worldwide web and these supercomputers in our pockets. What kind of place is this to raise children?

If You Love Somebody, Tell Them is an unlikely title for a protest album. “Protest songs are love songs because the only politics worth a lick are those based in loving our neighbors,” Jesse says. “You tell somebody you love them by listening to them, by acting on what they say if you’re able, and, as fellow citizens, by voting in people and policies that serve them.”   

If You Love Somebody, Tell Them – it’s a recipe for romance, for family, for friendship, for neighborliness, for work and money, for patriotism, for humanity. Jesse’s great friends David Wimbish and James Phillips showed up for these songs with their prodigious skills in production, engineering and musicality. This is a solo album, with Jesse’s pensive voice and melodic guitars as the framework and with flourishes of collaboration all over it.

The opening track “They Were the Children” features David on accordion and James on clarinet. David’s rubber-bridge picking, James’ synthesizer tones and the pair’s lush background vocals help to define the sound of “Plow the Fields / Smell the Roses.” David’s string arrangement or e-bowed guitar and James’ epic drums respectively built the big finales of “All the Protest Songs Are About You” and “How Does the Story End?” The droning E note of a felted piano string tapped directly with a drumstick is the foundation for the big pop sound of “Wishing Wells.” Perhaps ironically, knowing to let Jesse’s voice and guitar carry “We Tremble with the Noise” was one of the gifts that grew from the trust and teamwork.

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Photo - Willem Volker

Oliver Symons - Wake Up.

Belgian artist  Oliver Symons returns with "Wake up" via Los Angeles label Maison Arts. It is his most open-hearted release yet: an anthem about love, youth and freedom, and about the moment you stop waiting for life to begin. Where "What Is Happening?" turned inward, "Wake up" throws the windows open. Symons keeps the melancholy that has become his signature, but lets it rise into something euphoric. His intimate, close-mic'd vocal sits inside layered, cinematic production built for both late-night headphones and festival fields.

The single arrives as a global rollout gets underway, and marks the point where 2026 and going into 2027 become the time Oliver Symons steps fully into the spotlight. Now signed to Maison Arts, Symons is bridging his two homes of Belgium and Los Angeles with a prolific 2026–2027 release schedule.

In his words, “Wake up” is a song about love, youth and freedom. Inspired by films like “The Dreamers” and “One battle after another” the song represents a period of a free-spirited and almost revolutionary way of living while being young adults. Driven by naive but very heartfelt ideals and deep love during a summer that probably will never come back.”

Oliver Symons first made his name as the main producer and a member of Bazart, the Benelux band that commands arenas and major festivals across Belgium and the Netherlands. Alongside the band, he launched a solo project under his own name: more electronic, producer-led, and centred on his songwriting and distinctive vocal delivery.

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John Doe Band - Nevergreens (Album).

“Nevergreens” is the new album by the John Doe Band. It features twelve straight-ahead, catchy rock songs and will be officially launched on Saturday, November 7, 2026, at the event venue of the Schützenhaus Schwyz. After that, the time has come to make a name for themselves beyond their home canton as well.

“Folk’n’Roll with passion and joie de vivre — played with honesty and shared directly with the audience!” This is how the John Doe Band describes its new work and the album launch event that goes with it.

In their home region of Central Switzerland, the John Doe Band has long built up a loyal and genuine fan base. The band had become a veritable “way of life,” Schwyz Kultur wrote as early as 2015: “The band even has its own club. And what does a rock band do once it has built such a loyal community? Play live! Concerts at Gaswerk Seewen and appearances at festivals such as the Irish Openair Toggenburg are among the band’s milestones. Along with this came fans’ desire for new material.

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zeronic - Modernism (Album).

Austrian three-piece zeronic recently returned with their comeback single "The Hope and the Enemy," marking the band's first new material in years. Building on that momentum, this weekend they have released their new album Modernism.

Modernism is a record about life in an age of constant progress: the freedoms it promises, the uncertainties it creates, and the ways people continue searching for connection within it. Across ten songs, the album explores the tensions that define contemporary life — between closeness and distance, belonging and escape, optimism and disillusionment. Rather than rejecting modernity, it reflects on its contradictions, finding both possibility and unease in the world we've built around ourselves.

"Modernism is about trying to remain human in a world that's constantly being optimised” the band add “The songs explore the tensions of modern life—connection and isolation, progress and disillusionment, belonging and escape. But beneath those ideas, it's really a record about people trying to hold on to what matters and find one another."

Written over the course of a year, Modernism consists entirely of new material. Around twenty-five songs and demos emerged during the process, with ten ultimately forming the final record. The songs arrived naturally, and the album's musical identity revealed itself early on. There was a sense of openness and momentum throughout the writing and recording process that felt closer to the spirit of the band's earliest work than it had in a long time.

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Marie Franc - Wildfires.

Manchester alt-pop five-piece Marie Franc have now shared their expansive and darkly euphoric new single ‘Wildfires’. With a cinematic and melancholic sound that straddles both rawness and romanticism, coupled with haunting vocals and visceral lyrics shrouded in an ethereal haze, Marie Franc have been building fans through their recent releases ‘Vauxhall Casanova’, ‘Pendile Hill’ and ‘Fabric’. Fronted by Rachel Maria Francesca, the band have received support so far from Chris Hawkins at BBC 6Music, John Kennedy at Radio X and BBC Introducing Manchester. 
 
New single ‘Wildfires’ is a grand dream-pop track with a warm yet moody melody and tender vocals, which thematically examine the cycle of life and love and how nothing ever lasts forever – “you win some, you lose some and then it’s done.” Rachel says,
 
“’Wildfires’ arrived at a time when the world felt like it was on fire this summer, and that feeling somehow found its way into the song. It is about desire, but also the beauty of impermanence, and the fact that love, like life, is transient. There’s something strangely beautiful about knowing that the people and moments we love won’t last forever. To feel tenderness is to make yourself vulnerable to its loss, but perhaps we’re all lucky to know that pain at all.”

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Earthquake Lights - Carasueño - Aaron MacDonald - Kyla Marlena - Schaefer Llana - Phoebe Green

Earthquake Lights - Mr. Always-What-He-Had-To-Be.

Ahead of their upcoming fourth studio album’s 2027 arrival, New York’s Earthquake Lights share “Mr. Always-What-He-Had-To-Be,” a confident, brooding new single that turns psychedelic alt-rock swagger into a character study of arrogance, narcissism and questionable wisdom. Inspired in part by the unruly spirit of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the track inhabits the mind of a self-described artist whose certainty in his own worldview is as compelling as it is misguided.

The song began with a handful of chords the band initially considered disposable. Once they played them together, however, the feeling proved too good to abandon. The confidence of the emerging arrangement soon suggested a personality of its own, providing the foundation for vocalist/pianist Myles Rodenhouse and collaborator Will Cavanaugh to develop the character at the centre of the song.

The result is a narrator who is arrogant, self-important, and convinced he has life figured out. Yet rather than reducing him to a caricature, “Mr. Always-What-He-Had-To-Be” leaves a small but uncomfortable possibility hanging in the air: somewhere beneath all that narcissistic bluster, he might actually have a point. The question is whether he’s someone whose advice you would ever want to take.

The song’s unusual title emerged from one of its defining lyrics, a line that seemed to capture the character so completely that it ultimately sparked the broader lyrical concept. That sense of self-assurance permeates the arrangement as well, allowing the personality of the narrator and the music surrounding him to become increasingly difficult to separate.

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Photo - Álex Ortega

Carasueño - Microdreams.

Where does the latent content of a dream begin, and where does its manifest content end? Are the adventures we experience in our dreams part of a collective unconscious, or merely electrical impulses giving voice to our individual fears and shortcomings? ‘Microdreams’ raises more questions than it answers. Through its lyrics, Javier Vicente emerges as restless and apprehensive, yet simultaneously enthralled by the yearning images that linger in his memory the morning after.

Javier Vicente is Carasueño, a musician and producer based in Zaragoza, Spain, and the founder of Lar de Maravillas recording studios. Following his debut full-length, I’ll Be Neon Too (2024, Cielos Estrellados) — an inward-looking musical world in which Brian Wilson, Bradford Cox, The Notwist and Brian Eno coexisted in a glorious sonic implosion — Carasueño now joins the Great Canyon Records family.

To mark the occasion, he unveils ‘Microdreams’, the first single from his forthcoming EP, Tiny Islands, due for release on 13 November. Produced, recorded and mixed by Carasueño himself, ‘Microdreams’ bridges unorthodox Americana and bedroom pop, weaving intricate syncopated string arrangements around the warm, unmistakable tones of a Wurlitzer.

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Photo - Meghan Tansey Whitton

Aaron MacDonald - Big Red Sky (EP).

On his new EP Big Red Sky, Aaron MacDonald continues to prove why he’s one of the east coast of Canada’s most popular singer-songwriters. Based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Aaron’s most recent accolades area 2026 ECMA win for Fans’ Choice Video of the Year (“Beaches &Bands”), and multiple Music Nova Scotia Awards nominations, including Country Recording of the Year, for his 2025 EP It’s In My Blood.

Aaron is carrying that momentum forward on Big Red Sky, with its six songs drawn from long drives, hard lessons and the bright chaos of family life. Produced by Jamie Foulds at Sound park Studios in Sydney, Nova Scotia, the EP features Aaron backed bya four-piece band that includes Foulds on keyboards along with guests, creating a sound that is equal parts folk grit and country soul. In total, Big Red Sky reaffirms Aaron’s place among a generation of songwriters from the Maritimes who understand that honest stories still cut the deepest.“

I am on a mission to record and document this life of mine through song,” Aaron says. "A few years ago, as our oldest kids started leaving home, I had a bit of a realization—I’ve written hundreds of songs over the years, but songs don't really exist until they’re recorded. It hit me that life moves fast, and if I wanted these stories to outlive me, I had to start documenting them properly. I want my kids, grandkids, family and friends to always be able to hear the stories that made up my life. That’s really what drives me now.”

Aaron makes that point clear on Big Red Sky’s first single “Makin’ Time,” a classic road song that also serves as a metaphor for getting the most out of what we’ve been given. Other highlights from the EP include “Be,” inspired by Aaron’s return to Cape Breton after living in other parts of Canada, “Kind Phenomenon,” written for his wedding in 2003 but not recorded “properly” until now, and “Horizon Line,” a song that brings the story of he and his wife up to date as they embrace life as empty nesters.

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Photo - Tess Disturnal

Kyla Marlena - Bit the Bullet.

Hold Time, the debut album by Toronto-based cellist and songwriter Kyla Marlena, finds her embracing unpredictability, collaboration and the full weight of the human condition.

The record, out November 6th via Idee Fixe, marks a significant departure for Marlena, who spent her early years writing instrumental compositions before teaching herself guitar and moving into songwriting. The result is a devastating, graceful and remarkably assured collection of songs about love, loss, memory and the relentless passage of time.

New single 'Bit the Bullet' injects an almost euphoric energy into a story of heartbreak. Of the track, she says: "Bit the Bullet felt like infusing some levity into a heartbreak story. I gave myself permission to be less self-analytical and to give voice to more immature notions of love. A lyric like " guess that I'm the winner, I had the final say" is not a real belief I hold. There are no winners and losers. But it felt liberating to express "forbidden" thoughts.

The energy in the studio was especially high for this one and it felt important to keep in idiosyncratic moments captured in the recording. Playful moments caught by room mics, for example, felt integral to the song by the end."

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Photograph - Kaylee Vaughan

Schaefer Llana - Skateland Baby.

Schaefer Llana will release her label debut, Full Circle, on November 13, 2026 via Strolling Bones Records. The 10-song set was produced by Llana and Starlin Browning and recorded at Matt Patton of the Drive-By Truckers’ Dial Back Sound in Water Valley, Mississippi. The captivating debut is lush and literate, meditative and dreamy, and radiates a languorous Southern heat as it drifts between past and present, connection and isolation, love and loss. Llana delivers her songs with a tender, almost casual ease, and the result is a cinematic slice of alt-Americana. 
 
Born in Missouri, Llana moved to Mississippi as a child where she spent her formative years first singing in church. After high school, she headed deeper into the cradle of American music to study at Delta State University. It’s there where she fell in with a likeminded crew of artists and writers and landed a job working at the recording studio Dial Back Sound. She says, “Matt Patton gave me real opportunities early on. I worked at the studio for several years as an engineer and would record background vocals for anyone who came to record there.” 

That’s how she met Jimbo Mathus, best known as a founding member of Squirrel Nut Zippers (and more recently for his work with the Black Keys). Mathus was a fellow Mississippi native who took an immediate shine to her voice, first asking her to sing on records he was producing and then later inviting her to join his band on the road for several years. Full Circle features two songs written by Mathus and he also appears on its lead off track. 
 
One of those songs, is the album highlight “Skateland Baby.” Llana says, "'Skateland Baby' is a song written by Jimbo Mathus about a first love. He says it’s about holding her hand and 'skating around the rink one way…and then the other.' I used to play this song a lot when I was in his band on the road, and I was drawn to it because it felt timeless. Everyone knows the bliss of falling. Skateland tells you where he lands." 

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Photo - Isobel Clark

Phoebe Green - PREMATURE NOSTALGIA (Album).

Manchester's Phoebe Green today releases new album PREMATURE NOSTALGIA, via The Green Dream Machine / Absolute. The album releases follows the previously shared singles 'Clothes Still On', 'There's Always Someone Kicking The Seat' and 'Polluting You With Me'. Phoebe Green plays an album release show at Rough Trade East in London on 6th October.

Previously unheard album focus single 'I Don’t Play It Cool, I Play It Steaming', is a brilliantly over-the-top alt-pop duet with Picture Parlour’s Katherine Parlour, born from a long-running joke between the pair that they should one day write a "big gay" duet together. Trading vocals across the track, Green and Parlour lean fully into its sense of yearning and theatricality.

Written and produced alongside her sister Lucy Green (aka Elucyve) - a producer of contemporary classical and electronic music in her own right - PREMATURE NOSTALGIA was created between the flat the pair share in Manchester and their parents' home in Lytham St Annes. Across the album, Phoebe and Lucy draw inspiration from artists such as Imogen Heap, Oklou, Jockstrap, James Blake, FKA twigs and Sega Bodega - embracing warped electronics, fragmented structures and experimental forms of pop songwriting.

Speaking about the album, Phoebe said: "‘PREMATURE NOSTALGIA’ explores the feeling of missing a moment before it’s over, grieving the present in real time and trying to retain every detail of an encounter so that the memory is always intact and in full colour. My sister Lucy and I composed, produced and recorded this album in our flat in Manchester, it holds such sentimental value and is a real amalgamation of both of our influences, perspectives and individual style; dreamy, heavy, dramatic synths and confessional lyrics that document the beautiful and messy experience of living."

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