Alex Dupree - Yea-Ming and The Rumours - Forget Them Wendy - Maddie Zahm - CattSue - Jenny Gillespie Mason

Photo - Bill McCullough

Alex Dupree - New Meaning.

Alex Dupree has announced his new album 'Talking to the Dog which is due for release on August 14, and this week shares "New Meaning" from the album. Quote from Alex: "Songs don’t often reach me fully formed, but this one did. I sensed the whole shape of it right away: bright and brassy and Big Star-ish. It had the tumbling feeling of coins spilling out of a slot machine. Then I just needed language with the energy to match. The song is essentially working its way up to a “come all ye” type folk lyric: “people gather round, I got new meaning…”

Hank Williams once said that writing a song is just talking to the dog. That little piece of absurdist wisdom has become a title and guiding principle for Alex Dupree’s latest LP. What does it mean? Hank was likely just promoting his then-hit single “Move It On Over” to a radio interviewer. But Alex’s answers veer quickly into the mystical and visionary. He is a poet of rare composure and grace, and maybe for the first time in his 20+ year career, he’s found the band, the chords, and the arrangements to inject an almost inconceivable richness of color into his musical ideas. 

The result is a legitimate mid-career masterpiece that announces Alex as a talent capable of equaling the brilliance of Cass McCombs, Bill Callahan, Neko Case, Ryan Davis, Joanna Newsom, Will Oldham, and other leaders of modern song.

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Photo - Corey Poluk

Yea-Ming and The Rumours - Residue (Album).

Bay Area indie pop band Yea-Ming and The Rumours return with their fourth studio album, Residue. With Yea-Ming’s signature heart-tugging lyrics and Nico-esq voice, she continues to explore the rawness of human experience and emotions. While 2024’s I Can’t Have It All signified a time of change and transition for Yea-Ming, Residue embraces the reset and the examination of reality after a storm, grappling with the overbearing nature of memory (remembering and forgetting) while submitting to the coarseness of love, intimacy and regret.

With the help of long-time collaborator Eóin Galvin (Hoxton Mob, Readyville) on lead guitar and lap steel, Ryli colleagues Rob Good (The Goods, Ryli) on bass and Luke Robbins (Ryli, R.E. Seraphin) on drums, Yea-Ming takes us on a journey of regrowth, with songs like Paper Doll where she admits inauthenticity in a world where one has been taught to please everyone around them to survive. In Treasury of Loved Ones, Yea-Ming explores the permanence of memory, or what appears to be permanent even as time moves on and erases moments out of our lives. 

It’s a sweet and sad ode to remembering our loved ones, especially those we have lost to in time and in death. In Fine Afternoon, we are confronted with the reality of a tainted rebirth as Yea-Ming sings “in this life renewed, you’re my residue” (here we find our album title) and we remember that resets are never clean. The Rumours explore a little bit musically this time as well, which you hear in uncharacteristic danceable numbers like in the catchy but vulnerable and sensuous St. Etienne-like single Sweet Opiate. 

While Good served as the band’s skilled recording engineer, Yea-Ming mixed the album at home; her vision realized through exploring texture, rhythm and sound, making Residue a Yea-Ming production through and through. 

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Forget Them Wendy - Wise Guy.

Forget Them Wendy are an indie pop/grunge duo made up of Newcastle-based songwriter Laura James, and Edinburgh-born producer and guitarist Oliver Price, now living in London. The band take their name from a line in J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan: “Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.” Shaped by their shared love of 90s records from bands including The Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins and The Breeders, the pair combine indie pop melodies with grunge influences and playful, self-aware songwriting.

Their latest single, “Wise Guy”, captures the duo’s humour, honesty and reflective songwriting style. Written on Olly’s birthday last year and released on it this year, the track playfully explores the idea of growing older without necessarily becoming wiser. “‘It’s your birthday, look at you, so grown up it isn’t true…’” Laura sings, before the chorus turns more introspective: “‘Then you act like a wise guy, cos you don’t feel smart, why do you act like a wise guy?’” The song acts as a self-deprecating tease while touching on insecurity, identity and the pressure to appear more certain of yourself than you really feel.

Sonically, “Wise Guy” starts subtle, understated and intimate before changing gear unexpectedly into a soaring finale. Laura’s delicate, soft vocals sit alongside melodic guitars and a slow-paced beat, giving the track a calm, relaxed atmosphere. Its muted instrumentation and playful lyrics keep things feeling warm and low-key, while still carrying the reflective themes running through the song, before erupting into a powerful crescendo that brings the track to an uplifting close.

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Maddie Zahm - Everything All The Time.

Alt-pop singer/songwriter Maddie Zahm announces her stunning sophomore studio album, Everything All The Time, arriving September 25, 2026, via MNRK Nashville. Rather than treating growth as a final destination, Everything All The Time embraces it as an ongoing process, one rooted in curiosity, compassion, and the continual journey of coming home to yourself. 

Across the album’s 12 tracks, Zahm channels a warm, kaleidoscopic sense of wonder, crafting a record that is candid, funny, heartbreaking, and deeply human. She recalls growing up watching Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood – the show became a north star for Zahm, opening her mind and allowing her to simply be without self-judgment. She looks back on the freedom of this childhood awe, reminding herself to embrace the strange, beautiful flood of becoming yourself on your own terms.

Now, Maddie shares the title track and lead single, “Everything All The Time.” Through her transcendent vocals, she reminds us that tapping into the full breadth of the universe isn’t always easy. The track opens with delicate piano keys before cracking wide open to make room for sweeping acoustic guitar and thunderous toms, her voice rising to the moment, a totemic beam lighting through the clouds. 

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CattSue - A Whisper on the Wind.

We have the deeply moving new release from country singer-songwriter CattSue. Her new single, “A Whisper on the Wind,” arrives today June 12th and it’s already connecting strongly with radio listeners through its honest storytelling and emotional sincerity.

Inspired by the loss of her mother at just four-and-a-half years old, the song reflects on grief, memory, healing, and the quiet ways love continues long after someone is gone. Blending country, pop, and contemporary singer-songwriter influences, CattSue delivers an intimate performance that feels both personal and universally relatable.

Following the success of her debut single “Come Home to Me,” which earned UK iTunes chart recognition and Independent Music Network charting, CattSue continues to establish herself as an artist whose music resonates through authenticity rather than spectacle. “A Whisper on the Wind” is more than a song—it’s a tribute to family, resilience, and the invisible threads that keep us connected to the people we love most.

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Jenny Gillespie Mason - Rungs of Love.

“Rungs of Love” is an intimate folk song from my upcoming album In the Safety of the Light, produced by Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart). I wrote the song on a 1976 Martin guitar after a period away from songwriting, inspired by the spiritual folk lineage of Bert Jansch and Vashti Bunyan. The song explores the idea that ordinary human love can be a ladder toward higher consciousness. Sonically it’s warm, spacious acoustic folk with subtle psychedelic textures and a devotional tone.

After more than a decade exploring psychedelic pop, jazz, and electronic textures through her project Sis—most recently as Sis and the Lower Wisdom—Jenny Gillespie Mason returns to the folk music she first began writing and recording as a teenager. Her new album, In the Safety of the Light (out 6/12/26 on Native Cat Recordings), was produced by Noah Georgeson (Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart) and recorded in spring and fall 2026 at a private studio in Los Angeles.

Sonically, In the Safety of the Light draws on the pastoral glow of 1970s British folk, with echoes of Catherine Howe and Fairport Convention, while sailing at times into  atmospheric sounds inspired by the ambient music of Hiroshi Yoshimura and the more cosmic folk ballads of Beck. Most of the songs were recorded live as an ensemble, allowing the arrangements to breathe and shimmer around performances by Mason on acoustic guitar, Wurlitzer, and vocals, with Josh Miner Adams on percussion, Todd Dahlhoff on bass, Benny Bock on synthesizers, Gabe Noel on cello, and Alex Budman on woodwinds.

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Asara - Twilark - Murkage Dave & Ryan Yard Act - Kate Waters - The Bankes Brothers

Asara - With Love.

Following "Cute" and "Thank You, Thank You," Asara unveils a third track from her debut album "028 Crises" today June 11th: the minimalist "With Love." Set against a minimalist drum machine and a clean piano line, Asara's delicate vocals captivate. Asara is the solo project of Paris-based French-Moroccan artist Sarah Pitet, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, and video director whose debut album 028 Crises will be released on July 3rd via French label Géographie. After spending four years as a member of Dog Park, moving fluidly between guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals, she now steps into a more intimate and personal space with her first solo work.

Having played music since childhood, Asara grew up through various band projects before joining Dog Park, alongside Erica Ashleson, Isabella Green Catani, and Jean Duffour. Together, they released the album Festina Lente in 2024 on the same label, Géographie. That collective experience now feeds a more introspective form of songwriting and a deeply personal approach to creation.

Written throughout 2025, 028 Crises unfolds like a near-documentary sonic diary, tracing the emotional landscape of her twenty-eighth year. Voice takes center stage throughout the record, balancing raw vulnerability with sharper rhythmic momentum. Her debut single Cute draws from the textures and pulse of hip-hop drum machines, while Thank You, Thank You stays rooted in a melodic, stripped-back bedroom pop aesthetic. On With Love, Asara blends upright piano with French touch-inspired electronic elements, while the rest of the album leans toward a darker, denser, and more organic form of rock. From her apartment studio in the Paris suburbs, she writes, produces, and shapes the entire visual and sonic identity of the project. 

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Photo - Layde Jane Vickers

Twilark - The Deeper I Fall.

Released today we have "The Deeper I Fall," from Twilark's forthcoming album Never Learned the Tide, arriving September 11. Framed as a love song to the night, "The Deeper I Fall" drifts along like a gentle lullaby waltz for fellow late-night wanderers—those quiet hours when inspiration, reflection, and possibility seem to feel a little closer at hand. For longtime listeners, the track also serves as a beautiful bridge between Twilark's earlier work and the richer Americana textures that define Never Learned the Tide. It feels both familiar and forward-looking, offering a glimpse of where the project is headed while retaining the dreamy intimacy that first drew so many of us in.

Quote from Canon Pence (Twilark): The sentiments of this song should resonate with night owls everywhere. There can be a rich creative beauty in the quiet hours of the night, in spite of - or perhaps because of - the knowledge that you're borrowing happiness from tomorrow.

Graceful, evocative, and approachable, Never Learned The Tide is the second full-length from Raleigh, North Carolina’s Twilark, the fledgling project of songwriter Canon Pence, whose articulate and wry but tender approach to Americana-inflected indie folk places him securely in a long list of similar artists. But this music is too personal, too full of Pence’s personality, to be anything but his own work, totally unique in its vivid character. Past work has been called “enchanting” by The Big Takeover and “an absolute delight” by Tonic Grain. And Never Learned The Tide is another, even more surefooted step forward.

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Murkage Dave & Ryan Yard Act - Gabriel.

Thirty years after Roy Davis Jr. and Peven Everett, two titans of Chicago house music, created one of dance music's most beloved and enduring records, Murkage Dave and Yard Act's Ryan Needham have joined forces to reimagine 'Gabriel'.

Born from countless hours spent sharing music on tour buses, in dressing rooms and after-show hangouts while Murkage Dave toured Europe with Yard Act, the new version transforms the original's euphoric house pulse into something more intimate and reflective. Led by Dave's unmistakable vocal and Needham's guitar-driven production, it is less a straightforward cover than a conversation with a song that is woven into the fabric of both artists' lives.

The single arrives following the release of Dave's acclaimed third album Brut Thoughts in March (6Music playlist, Radio X playlist, #11 Independent Album Breakers Chart, #14 Album Downloads Chart, #38 Independent Albums Chart, #2 Apple Music All Genres) and will feature on a deluxe edition of the album set for release on October 30th alongside a brand new original track, '10 Pints For The Culture'.

Originally released on Chicago's Large Records in 1996, 'Gabriel' became a defining record for UK dancefloors after the aptly named ‘Live Garage Mix’ was embraced by the emerging garage scene and later reissued by XL Recordings. Over the past three decades its influence has stretched far beyond any one genre, finding its way into jungle, speed garage, dubstep and grime, while remaining one of the most cherished songs in British sound system culture.

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Photo - Samantha Wiley

Kate Waters - Words.

Kate Waters has announced her sophomore album ‘Some Comfort,’ self-produced and recorded at Red Tree Recording Studio in Magnolia, Texas, is to be released August 21 independently. 
 
Opening of her soulful Americana collection, “Words” examines the complicated dissonance of self-expression—a desperate ache to share one’s self, and the feeling that it’s impossible. Her honeyed vocals spill through wailing guitars, urgency sizzling from a  frenetic mandolin. It’s an angsty entrance into the album, tight and gripping like humidity before a storm, tension before release. 
 
Waters wrote her first album ‘Near’ in response to her mother’s death. Released in 2024, it’s as much a loving daughter’s ode as it is a practice in processing grief, a touching display of Waters’ bold willingness to be vulnerable. Whereas ‘Near’ dealt with the agony of endings, Waters’ follow-up and first studio release ‘Some Comfort’ celebrates the inspiration they can provide. “Just before my mother died, she published her very first book of poetry,” Water says. “Seeing it in her hands, the culmination of her life’s dream, propelled me to finally pursue my own.”

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The Bankes Brothers - Aaliyah.

Victoria, BC indie rock outfit The Bankes Brothers share “Aaliyah,” a warm and melodic new single that transforms personal devotion into something universally resonant. Built around fingerpicked acoustic guitars, soaring melodies, and heartfelt lyricism, the track captures the feeling of holding onto hope while navigating distance, uncertainty, and the passage of time. Equal parts intimate and uplifting, “Aaliyah” finds the band leaning into one of their most emotionally sincere recordings to date.

The song began long before its title arrived. Written initially around a series of chords and evolving song sections, “Aaliyah” existed without a clear centrepiece for quite some time. A temporary lyric, “farewell Maria,” occupied the space where the hook would eventually land, but never felt quite right. “It wasn’t until my girlfriend was saying how she wished she had been named Aaliyah because it’s such a beautiful name that it clicked and it all came together,” Nelson Bankes explains. “In the end, the song is dedicated to her.”

At its core, “Aaliyah” reflects the optimism that has long guided The Bankes Brothers’ songwriting. While many of their songs grapple with uncertainty, growth, and change, they often arrive at a place of resilience rather than defeat. “Writing music has always been a very therapeutic thing for me,” Nelson shares. “I hope that people listen to most of the songs and get the sense that they're optimistic. There's enough bad emotions in the world. We try not to put more out there.”

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Schizo Fun Addict - French Films - Simone White - Georgian - Silke Bischoff

Schizo Fun Addict - Desolate Ecstasy (Album).

Schizo Fun Addict New Jersey’s finest and the first band ever to grace to grooves of Fruits de Mer Records bring you their new album, ‘Desolate Ecstasy’. Is it dreampop? shoegaze? drone? maybe a bit of all three - you'll have to have a listen a judge for yourself. (A limited edition vinyl release happened today 10 June, however it was sold out on pre order a while back).

Over to Jet Wintzer from the band to explain the background to the band/album “Desolate Ecstasy a concept album about the 27 year career of Schizo Fun Addict. We were the first band on Fruits de Mer Records prophesied to be "a label of love" by Ian McCan reviewing us in Record Collector. 

We were Mark Barton's favorite band (see his liner notes to our lp "The Last Wave"). Greg Healey gave us 5 stars twice in Shindig! Brian Bordello is our biggest fan. Everett True said we were as good as The Stone Roses in Mojo. Prog compared our "El Shoegaze Bossa Nova" lp to Jobim and Brasil 66; Dave Thompson in Goldmine told everyone we were "the greatest musical secret of the 21st century." Another prophecy which remains true..." It’s true, the band stepped in to record covers of George Martin’s ‘Theme One’ and the intro theme to ‘Ogdens Nut Gone Flake’ back in 2008 when the label was all but dead in the water before we’d even learned how to doggy-paddle.

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French Films - Dearly

The return of French Films continues with Dearly, the band’s second comeback single. After almost ten years away, the new material has brought French Films back into the conversation around Finnish indie music. Helsingin Sanomat recently published a major interview on the band’s return, and this weekend French Films will play their first live show in years at Kesärauha Festival in Turku.

In the 2010s, French Films toured across Europe and Asia, played Roskilde, and became one of the most notable Finnish indie rock exports of their generation. Their biggest song has passed one million Spotify streams, despite being released in an era when CD was still a central music format.

Dearly is not nostalgia cosplay. It sounds like a band reconnecting with the thing that made them matter in the first place: bright guitars, romantic urgency and a little bit of northern restlessness.

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Simone White - Fortunately Gone.

Simone White has teamed up neo-classical composer, cellist, and producer Brent Arnold, and the pair have conjured-up a delightful take on The Breeders’ “Fortunately Gone”. Stripping away the grunge-infused stylistics of the original and replenishing them with bright string sections and crisp vocal duets; the result is a refreshing revision of the 1990 ‘Pod’ album classic.

As Simone White says of the track: “With pulsing plucked strings launching into a playful and soaring arrangement, this delicate short duet is sweet and like two swallows flying on a spring day, suddenly gone.” Tying-in neatly with her new album release ‘Letter To The Last Generation’, the producer of "Fortunately Gone”, Brent Arnold worked with Simone on the stunning recent single “Blueprint”, which preceded the record. "Fortunately Gone” is streaming on all services now.

Hawaii born singer-songwriter Simone White has released eight albums spanning simple acoustic folk, Americana and electronic indie. You may remember her from her records on the UK’s Honest Jon's label: I am the Man (2007) , Yakiimo (2009) and Silver Silver (2012) all critically acclaimed by Der Spiegel among others (MOJO, Uncut). German Rolling Stone made a five page focus piece on her in 2009 calling her "one of the really great American songwriters".

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Photo - Robyn Smalley

Georgian - Medusa.

Manchester-based Georgian have shared the final introduction to their forthcoming EP ‘Crackled Grounds’ with focus track ‘Medusa’ ahead of their debut full-length release on Friday. via Heist or Hit (Westside Cowboy, Her’s).
 
Formed in 2024 and with three previous singles in their musical catalogue, Georgian are a five-piece outfit comprising Georgia McKiernan (vocals, acoustic guitar), James Poole, James Polglase (both lead and rhythm guitar, BVs), Connor Alder (drums) and (bass). Together Georgian have an expansive sound that reflects each of the band’s tastes, retaining a modern approach, but keeping the sound of their influences alive. Wrangling ‘60s pop, country, folk, shoegaze, psychedelia and further-flung traditional styles, their songs tell tales of navigating harsh emotional environments and lived experiences.
 
The debut ‘Crackled Grounds EP’ was laid down with producer Arno Stols at Magenta Studio in the peaceful Amsterdam countryside. Taking a leaf from Brian Jonestown Massacre’s melodic revivalism, Georgian began emulating the warm, unsettling, mysterious 60s-70s production of artists to which they had mutually become accustomed. Lyrically taking the listener to a place of escapism, the songs tell of battling the elements, female empowerment, and deep-rooted nostalgia.

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Silke Bischoff - Northern Lights.

For far too long, the artistic legacy of iconic German dark wave and synthpop act Silke Bischoff has been withheld from the world. This will change soon with "Tears - A Collection of Silke Bischoff Songs", which is the first step in making these important milestones of the goth scene officially available to the public again. The compilation album with carefully remastered tracks and even a new song will be released on September 4, 2026.

Silke Bischoff comments: "The track 'Northern Lights' was conceived during one of our creative forays into the Netherlands", Axel Kretschmann recalls. "We had rented a beach bungalow in Zandvoort to dive completely into our music for a while. Even all our studio gear and the instruments got carted there by our label, which meant that we were working under near perfect conditions. By the way, the song title, 'Northern Lights', had quite a profane origin. It was the name of our favourite brand of 'funny cigarettes' at the time. And yes, they were quite helpful and inspiring our creativity back in the days."

Silke Bischoff were an iconic band that left a massive legacy and were mournfully remembered far beyond the electronic and goth scenes that they championed particularly in Germany during the 90s. Their albums are regarded milestones until today, but internal friction, legal issues, and most of all the tragic passing of one of its founding members, Felix Flaucher, has left their works in a limbo for many years. The compilation "Tears - A Collection of Silke Bischoff Songs" is the first step in making their oeuvre available to the public again.

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Izzy Oram Brown - Chris Pellnat - Alex Amor - The Gods They Made - Burning Bouquet - Pomelo

Photo - Nico Hedley

Izzy Oram Brown - I Believe.

Released today, we have the third single "I Believe" from the forthcoming debut full-length by Brooklyn singer-songwriter Izzy Oram Brown. The latest single follows on from her excellently reviewed EP Mess and a split EP with The Bird Calls and a run opening for the acclaimed guitarist Julian Lage. As a fixture in the Brooklyn indie scene, Izzy Oram Brown has been featured as a collaborator in rising bands such as Why Bonnie and Youbet. 

Stepping into her own with her full-length, What I Want is full of unexpected surprises and moments of instrumentation and sound design that go way beyond a singer-songwriter affair. There is a sense that even as the songs on What I Want always foreground an “I,” they are not primarily written for Brown herself. She has the rare ability to crystallize emotional states and broadcast them on the most universal possible scale, both in word and musical DNA, with the invitingness, familiarity, and discipline of radio rock heroes like Tom Petty and the pop acumen and emotional intelligence that galvanizes fans of Phoebe Bridgers and Sabrina Carpenter alike. 

It might have already become clear from the description, but these songs are staggeringly beautiful—the kind that quickly silence a small rock club, that nearly any listener who has lived even a small slice of adult life can find an input for. Brown’s cocktail of timeless songwriting influences, lovingly rendered guitar moves, sensitive arrangements, and unabashedly vulnerable writing give What I Want a singular charge. It’s bound to stick long after the personal experiences onto which we may map these songs fade into history.

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Chris Pellnat - Reign Down (EP).

It's an ongoing pleasure to feature new music from Chris Pellnat, whether it's a solo release or with The Warp/The Weft where he is a guitarist and to quote him "half of the duo, Teeniest." His new EP 'Reign Down is well worth a listen, there is an overall feel to the collection of songs and yet each track stands on it's own merit with variations in style and instrumentation adding to the depth of this release, we have included both the video releases and the Bandcamp EP, Chris tells us some more below.   
  
"Reign Down" is a six-song EP of folk(ish) rock music with an infusion of vibraphone, clarinet, accordion, etc. "Reign Down" is the title track of the EP - it's a play on words since it's about wanting to be being showered with the "rain" of love. But people also yearn for the "reign" of love, so it works both ways. The varied feelings I was having over the past two years are apparent in this EP: from despair, anger and even fear as evil shows its face in the world, to determination, hope and faith that it will be overcome.

Accessible sound; weirdness intact: I worked on the "Reign Down" EP for the past two years while releasing one-off singles with Arabic and Japanese lyrics /flavor in collaboration with other singers. While I've returned to English lyrics and Western sound, you can be assured my weirdness remains intact. For each of the songs on the EP I created a music video in VR (no AI was used).


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Photo - Lewis Vorn

Alex Amor - Avalanche.

Scottish singer-songwriter Alex Amor today releases her latest single 'Avalanche' a new glimpse of her forthcoming debut album 'Heavenly Bodies' which is  out 21st August via New York independent label VERO Music.

The original demo of 'Avalanche' was written and produced by Alex in her childhood bedroom in Glasgow, before bringing it to her "holy trinity" of collaborators in London - Peter Brien (Kojaque, Kean Kavanagh), Baz Kaye (The Blessed Madonna, Obongjayar) and Karma Kid (Jessie Ware, Jalen Ngonda) - to complete the song. Led by layered guitars, gauzy harmonies and sweeping soft-rock arrangements, 'Avalanche' unfolds with a slow-building sense of release. Pairing melodic warmth and muted dream-pop textures with intimate songwriting, Amor documents the clarity that arrives just before a relationship falls apart.

The new single arrives off the back of appearances last month at Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape Festival in Brighton and Footsteps Festival in London.

Speaking on the release of 'Avalanche', Alex Amor said: "Avalanche is about the unsettling moment in a relationship where something has shifted, but only one of you is willing to see it. While you’re starting to recognise it for what it is, the other person is still holding on, almost wilfully ignoring the cracks. The idea of an avalanche felt like the perfect metaphor. It’s not necessarily about destruction, it’s about release. It’s what happens when pressure has been building for too long and can’t be contained anymore. It’s sudden, overwhelming, and sometimes painful, but it clears everything out. And in that aftermath, there’s a kind of clarity - you can finally see things as they really are.”

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The Gods They Made - Hypnotic.

Hypnotic is the first in a series of new singles for The Gods They Made, marking a step forward sonically. The track was produced, mixed and mastered by Laurent Lozano at Moon Studios in Vevey. His involvement shaped the sound significantly: tighter, more direct, at the intersection of indie rock and post-punk — the song structures and melodic sensibility of the former, the directness and refusal to soften the edges of the latter.

With Hypnotic, TGTM introduced electronic pads alongside the traditional drum kit, which gives the rhythm section a wider sonic range than on their debut album. Hypnotic opens with a vocal and synth hook, before a word has been sung. No introduction, no build, no context. You're inside the song before even realising it.

The verse arrives next, pulling back from the hook's momentum into something more stripped. The lyrics operate through images and statements rather than narrative – "you know what I know", "fight the real enemy", "what goes around keeps turning". When the full chorus finally comes – "who wants it, who wants it" – it feels both inevitable and earned.

The song earns every section. Nothing overstays, nothing is wasted. The middle eight shifts the track's center of gravity before the final chorus brings everything back, fuller. That's where the title sits: hypnotic as the state you're already in, the cycles that keep turning, the thing you recognize but can't quite shake.

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Burning Bouquet - The Cycle.

Sheffield-based Burning Bouquet are an alternative rock band with a sound that blends emo, pop-punk, grunge and indie rock.Taking influence from bands such as Paramore, Holding Absence, Deftones and Don Bronco, the band formed in September 2023 and have been releasing their own material since September 2024, with plans to record an EP in August 2025.

Their line-up consists of vocalist Rachael, bassist Jamie, drummer Archie and exciting new addition Bhavik on guitar, and the past year has seen them deliver several energetic performances on the Sheffield live music scene.

This song is about committing to ending "The Cycle" of generational trauma. Most of the lyrics feature Rachael talking to her younger self, telling her that things will get better and there is light on the other side of her pain. 

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Photo - Dan Hennessy and Stevie O'Neill

Pomelo - Work Phone.

As Pomelo, Luke Elliott and Wynnm Murphy make seductive and engaging art-pop that displays evident awareness of its antecedents but feels very much like forward-facing music for today and tomorrow. Loreless is their debut, which was announced in April and which is out in a couple weeks. Today, we're sharing the third single, "Work Phone."

Vulnerable and personal and baked with humanness, Loreless is an album about being. A genuine trip, and if we are living on a shopping strip mall mode towards oblivion, Loreless accesses the tangible magic of the mundane. Paying attention to where you are and not where you will be. The album is raw and careful - the kind that pulls a curtain, applies arnica oil, and tenderises a muscle with a kitchen timer on 60 minutes. It’s listening to an open wound, from this life or the last. Loreless is an honest reckoning with purpose, histories, influences and sad magic that’s cathartic, acknowledged, satisfying.

Pomelo is the Amsterdam-based art pop duo of Wynnm Murphy and Luke Elliott. Together they craft a sonic world of sonar on solid ground, where avant-garde electronic techniques meet watery, resonant textures and sexy storytelling. The duo's debut, Loreless is a hypnotic, kinetic blend of pop, ambient, and electronic music; distinct, otherworldly, and oddly familiar, like an uncanny encounter.

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Austel - Rachel Bochner - Taxi Girls - A100s

Photo - Artemis Szekir-Rigas

Austel - Mirror To Mine (Album).

Devon-born artist and producer Austel (Annie Rew Shaw) has shared her exquisite second record ‘Mirror To Mine’. The ten track body of work sees Austel dig deep, seeking answers and courageously excavating long-lost memories. The album is a self-produced accomplishment, released independently and mixed by the brilliant Grace Banks (English Teacher, Squid, Haim). 

The album's focus single and closer ‘Coast To Coast’ is a rich offering that ruminates on a decade-long journey, which began when Austel left home. From taking bold, brave strides into music to finding a more established sense of belonging, it was written just a few months after meeting her long-term partner, as things started to fall into place. The track touches on shifting priorities and moving into a different stage of life. ‘I think I always know which songs will open and close an album, and this song, with all its themes of homecoming and both departure/arrival, felt so right to end the record - wrapping up this chapter.’ Austel shared. 

The arrival of Mirror To Mine signals progression both personally and professionally for Austel. The beautifully expansive project is an acoustic-led endeavour, anchored in nylon string guitar, subtle ensemble arrangements and evocative, delicately placed field recordings. Austel’s efforts in the run up to the album haven't gone unnoticed. With support from the likes of Metal Magazine, Under The Radar, Ones To Watch, The Line of Best Fit and Clash Magazine, who flagged Austel's music as ‘charming’ and ​​’a space for reflection’. Single 30th Day was featured on alexrainbirdMusic’s May 2026 compilation. 

Originally from Devon but now based in London, Austel brings a detail-oriented, emotionally intuitive approach to each project, with a growing portfolio spanning genres and formats. She has a first-class honours MA in Creative Music Production and was long-listed for Breakthrough Producer and Self-Producing Artist of the Year for the 2024 & 2025 MPG Awards. Austel is a member of 2% Rising (a community for female and gender-expansive producers) and an advocate for safer, more inclusive practices within the music industry.

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Rachel Bochner - Happier You’re Gone (SASE).

Brooklyn-based artist Rachel Bochner has built a reputation for sharp, emotionally charged indie-pop that cuts straight to the core. Since her debut, she’s carved out a space defined by candid lyricism and an unflinching willingness to explore the messier edges of love, identity, and self-discovery. Now, with her latest single “Happier You’re Gone (SASE)”, she enters a new chapter, one that feels both deeply personal and transformative.

At its heart, “Happier You’re Gone (SASE)” is a reckoning. Written from a place of distance and hard-won clarity, the track reframes the aftermath of heartbreak into something more introspective, and ultimately liberating. What initially reads like a breakup song reveals itself to be something more nuanced: a confrontation with the past self who stayed too long, ignored too much, or simply didn’t yet know better. For Bochner, the meaning stretches across multiple interpretations, whether that’s a past lover or a more complicated, internal goodbye, but ultimately lands as a letter of good riddance. “A post-breakup note, or a ‘see-you-never!’ to a formerly destructive self,” she explains. After finishing the song, she added “SASE” (self addressed stamped envelope) to the title as a final, knowing detail, a small piece of context for those paying closer attention.

Inspired by a vivid dream in which she encountered a previous version of herself, the song captures a striking realization: I’m happy she happened, but I’m much happier that she’s gone. It’s this duality that gives the track its resonance, balancing vulnerability with a sense of resolve. Sonically, “Happier You’re Gone (SASE)” leans into an indie-pop landscape with alternative edges, reflecting Bochner’s evolving sound. Produced by Jackson Hoffman, the track pairs its emotional weight with a textured, expansive backdrop that allows her voice, and her story, to sit front and center.

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Taxi Girls - Secret Handshake.

Montreal’s Taxi Girls just returned with “Secret Handshake,” the new single and video and on Stomp Records. Following the punch of their debut “Say It,” the track offers a second look at the band’s upcoming LP Static, out June 26. If the first single kicked the door open, this one tears the walls down.

Formed in 2022, the all-female garage punk outfit has quickly carved out their place in Montreal’s underground, the kind built on packed basements, blown speakers, and nights that don’t really end so much as fade out. You can hear the city all over it, somewhere between a late-night dépanneur run, a half-crushed pack of DuMauriers, and the spill of bodies onto Saint-Laurent after last call. There’s a sense the band picked up half their moves from late-night VHS hangs, rewinding Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, digging into The Runaways, Girlschool, and Nena’s The Stripes, then running it all back louder and faster.

“Secret Handshake” reveals a softer side of Taxi Girls, showcasing the band’s sweeter and more vulnerable side. Written from a place of love and longing, the song captures the feeling of wanting a summer fling to last a bit longer than the fading season. Even when summer is over, you’ll always have your secret handshake.

The lyrics paint a picture as old as time: sharing something special with someone and wishing it could last beyond the summer. Even when time and distance make things complicated, friendship never fades, and you know you’ll always have your secret handshake. As Static takes shape, it's clear this record is not just a collection of punk songs. There is something for everyone. Loud, raw, soft, sweet, gritty - enough to make you want to pick up the phone and call an old pal or have a solo kitchen dance party on a Tuesday afternoon.

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A100s - Rude and Lovely / Too Rad To Be Sad.

Southern California’s A100s are a brand new band nearly a decade in the making from the core songwriting duo of Matt Hensley (accordionist of Flogging Molly) and Sean Wheeler (vocalist of Throw Rag), playing music inspired by vintage ska & reggae with a touch of Conjunto accordion.

The band has released a new music video for their second single, the title track from their debut LP Rude and Lovely, currently available for pre-order via Pirates Press Records. The LP is scheduled for release on July 10, 2026.

“Rolling through Mexico City looking out the backseat window like one hundred times before...taking in the rhythm of the city, I see a rotulo on a beauty salon’s storefront: ‘Rude and Lovely,’ hand painted to perfection,” explains Wheeler. Unable to get the phrase out of his head, he excitedly called Hensley immediately. “That's it! The perfect statement for what we had been doing musically!”

“Rude and Lovely” follows their debut single & video, for “Too Rad To Be Sad.” Regarding “Too Rad To Be Sad,” Wheeler points to it as a message of hope & resilience. He says it is about “reminding those around us to keep their heads up. Stay in the light and remind them that they are loved, appreciated, and necessary for the bright future ahead.”


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