Gatlin - Canoe Speed - Avery Friedman - The Vanities ft. Kaysha Louvain - Gary Calamar Chopfchino

Photo - Wrenne Evans

Gatlin - Dead Sea.

When Gatlin signed to Dualtone Records last year, she posted a list of “goals + dreams” she wrote back in 2016 to her Instagram. On the five part list, she included “open for The Lumineers” and “sign record deal w/ Dualtone.” For the upcoming Dualtone 25th Anniversary compilation Keep Pressing On: 25 Years Of Dualtone, out December 4, it’s fitting that Gatlin would cover “Dead Sea” by her longtime favorites The Lumineers. Her take is decidedly different from The Lumineers' more sparse original. Gatlin opts for echoing electric guitar, insistent synths and electronic pulses that give the song a more haunting, spectral feel.

"Dualtone 25!!  What a special label that is made up of some of the best people in the music industry,” says Gatlin. “Dualtone is a home where artists are believed in and fought for and I am incredibly lucky to be here. Since I was in high school, I’ve been a huge Lumineers fan so what a full circle moment to be able to cover “Dead Sea” for this record. I was covering it in coffee shops and open mics at 14 years old and now I got to make a version that is on an album with The Lumineers and so many other incredible artists I admire."

Keep Pressing On: 25 Years Of Dualtone is a 17-song collection of rarities and covers that brings together Dualtone artists past and present. Keep Pressing On includes The Lumineers, flipturn, Mt. Joy, Shakey Graves, Kathleen Edwards, Shovels & Rope and more in celebration of the label’s enduring legacy and the artist-first vision established by Co-founder (ret.) Scott Robinson and the late President and Partner Paul Roper, who passed away in 2024.

The album was announced in September with the release of The Lumineers’ new song “Isabelle Fly,” and Jack Van Cleaf’s cover of Kris Kristofferson’s “Best of All Possible Worlds” which arrived alongside an official video directed by Kenna Salvant. Most recently, a Langhorne Slim released a memorable take on “What A Wonderful World,” the Bob Thiele/George David Weiss composition made ubiquitous by Louis Armstrong.

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Canoe Speed - Ape Vibrations in the Deep Space Station (Album).

This was released a while back, however only came our way this week and in Beehive Candy's opinion is more than worthy of sharing. Canoe Speed makes propulsive indie rock packed with hooks: infectious melodies paired with tight grooves and a touch of punk. Jay Shearer’s distinctive songwriting is lyrically dense, melodically playful, with something to say for this troubled moment. 

Sometimes personal, both poetic and aware, even danceable (at least head-bob-able), these tunes reveal dark wit and an open heart, riding on the premium-grade rhythm section of Tom Herman (bass) and Paul Ovnik (drums).

Three old friends reunite after working together ages ago in the first version of Meet the Head (who eventually produced two albums and an EP on Lost in America Music).

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Photo - Keegan Burckhard

Avery Friedman - You Move.

Brooklyn (via Cleveland, OH) artist Avery Friedman follows last year’s highly acclaimed debut album, ‘New Thing,’ with the “You Move” single and video, which is released ahead of her first European/UK tour (beginning October 31st with London Calling Festival).

With Avery only beginning to write songs in the summer of 2023, April 2025’s ‘New Thing’ surprised journalists with its confidence and completeness, as Avery laid bare feelings of fear, queer joy, loss, and isolation. The album impressed sonically too, with Avery’s pitch-perfect expressions of vulnerability and sexuality supported by collaborators  James Chrisman (H. Pruz / Sister.) and Felix Walworth (Florist / Told Slant).

“You Move is about savoring the unexpected fruits that reveal themselves amid times of uprootedness. It is a song about putting trust in the glimmer of new love, and carefully sowing the seeds for it to sustain. Both thematically and sonically, it’s about searching, surrendering and allowing yourself to relish. My hope is that “You Move” invites people into the world of my soon-to-be-finished sophomore album – a world that encompasses a full-swing of emotionality, and lets loss and pleasure dance together. I’m so excited to share the song and video ahead of my first-ever UK and EU shows.” – Avery Friedman 

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The Vanities ft. Kaysha Louvain - Shona.

Kaysha Louvain joins forces with The Vanities once again! Kaysha Louvain is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Newbridge who also helms the highly respected TIWN and Audio Avenue.

The Vanities are a production duo from Cardiff who pride themselves on their eclectic mix of collaborators, with previous sonic adventures involving the likes of Andy Fairweather Low, Tony Hadley, and Jean Jacques Smoothie. Both acts have regularly featured on the BBC Radio Wales Welsh A-List in recent times.

After the success of their 2025 collaboration, ‘The End of Love’, they again join forces for the hotly anticipated follow-up, ‘Shona’. Produced at Shabbey Road Studios with Al Steele (The Korgis), the new single also features the explosive bass playing of Electric 6’s Ryan Jones, AKA Mr Poison, who brings some fire to the disco!

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Gary Calamar - Who Are We Gonna Be Today?

With his long-anticipated debut album announced and on the way in October, LA singer-songwriter (and all-around music scene mover and shaker) Gary Calamar presents the second preview single, which sees him joining forces and voices with modern psych-rock legend Robyn Hitchcock for “Who Are We Gonna Be Today?” It's a driving rocker that weds razor sharp lyrics to an infectious melody and unites the two singers in harmony to, as the lyrics say, “foat some questions across the universe.” The single hits all digital platforms on October 9, two weeks ahead of the album Odd NUMB3RS AND SLANTED RHYMES, 

“Who Are We Gonna Be Today?” follows last month's indie hit single “I Got An Idea” (featuring Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh) as the second preview single from ODD NUMB3RS AND SLANTED RHYMES, the debut full-length album for Gary Calamar. It's a record that's been twelve years in the making: while Calamar has been a presence on the Los Angeles music scene since the late ‘70s as a Grammy-nominated music supervisor for television, popular radio DJ, band manager, author and record store manager, his recording career kicked of in earnest with the 2014 EP You Are What You Listen To and has continued with a string of acclaimed indie singles ever since. All of the key tracks are collected on the album, where they're joined by three previously unreleased tracks including this new and very of-the-moment single. 

Within the very first verse, Gary gets straight to the point: “Who are we going to be today, where are we going to stand, what will we say?” with references to JFK, The Fab Four, Mohammed Ali, Sam Cooke, DW Grifith, The Kinks, and a despicable leader. Along for this high octane ride is the master of surreal, psychedelic folk-pop, Robyn Hitchcock. His acerbic harmonies shadow Gary, as the lyrics ponder a series of what-if scenarios: “What if the bullets never landed at JFK, and what if Sgt. Pepper never taught the band to play? Is it the top of the morning, or the middle of the night? I’m just trying to sort my left brain from my right... Yes, No, Maybe, Maybe Not.”

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Chopfchino - Träne im Räge.

Chopfchino is an ambitious and large-scale music project with a full orchestra, a pop/rap band, and an ambitious live concept. The debut single 'Träne im Räge' offers a first taste of the album, which will be released in 2027 following the release of further singles. Here, orchestral sounds meet the voices of Lisette Brüschweiler and Saya Dür of the Andreas Trash Band, currently regarded as one of the most exciting new acts in the Bern region.

Big sonic landscapes, powerful voices, and an unusual fusion of different genres: next year, the project is set to take to the big stages. To understand how Chopfchino came about, the best person to ask is Nisu Tanner. The musician and producer, known for his own pop and hip-hop tracks, reveals a previously little-known side of his creative work with Chopfchino: he has written scores for all the songs – with musical notation, as it should be.

The result is a complete album under the name Chopfchino. A good reason to take a closer look at the story behind Chofchino. You can also find the comprehensive and impressive dossier (PDF) here. 'Träne im Räge' is not only Chopfchino’s first single – the song is also the starting point for the entire project. The first sketch was created in 2021 during the coronavirus lockdown, a time of enforced pause, artificial calm, and a society that suddenly came to a standstill while simultaneously beginning to come apart at the seams.

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Swansea Sound - Shiloh Lindsey - Lauren Minear - Other Mother - Anna Rose - So So Modern

Swansea Sound - On Our Own.

'On Our Own' is the emotional story of our journey from collective activity to atomisation. It relates the history of a building that served as a music venue, was knocked down and replaced with an office block - and now stands empty because all the jobs have been automated. (The song is more fun than this implies.)

Taken from the bands next album 'Pre-post-truth' (due 13th November) which has been described as a collection of twelve new punk and power-pop tunes with a lot more lyrical bite than you get from the average indie band.  

Sometimes described as an indie supergroup, Swansea Sound are Hue Williams (ex-The Pooh Sticks), Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey (Heavenly), Bob Collins (The Dentists) and Ian Button (Death In Vegas, Railcard).  ‘Pre-post-truth’ is their third album.  They have recorded sessions for 6Music, Radio X and WFMU (New York) and have just completed a tour of the US.

‘Pre-post-truth’ sees Swansea Sound expand their musical ambition and broaden their lyrical targets.  It used to be YouTube and Spotify that the band railed against, but now everyone’s getting their heads round those issues, so why not attack the whole edifice of tech-bro hegemony?   This album is loud and it’s outspoken, but it’s also energetic and very witty.  There’s an awareness of impotence too: the songs are often self-mocking, asking if it’s even possible to make subversive statements in a world where the communication channels are all owned by the tech-bros themselves.  

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Shiloh Lindsey - Wolves In Your Head.

Canadian singer-songwriter Shiloh Lindsey shares “Wolves In Your Head,” a haunting, restless and ultimately resilient folk-noir track and the second single to be revealed from her forthcoming album, The Western Veil, set for release on November 6th, 2026. Pairing bluesy acoustic guitar with hypnotic rhythms and otherworldly electric textures, the song turns familiar Western imagery inward, transforming a wilderness stalked by wolves into a metaphor for the fears, thoughts, and difficult parts of ourselves that can prove impossible to outrun.

The song grew from Shiloh’s concern for the mental health struggles she witnessed around her, informed by both her own experiences and her work as a mental health worker in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. From there emerged an image: someone alone in the wilderness, huddled around a tiny fire, searching for the language to tell another person how they’re really doing.

“The wolves represent the fears, thoughts and difficult parts of ourselves that can circle in our heads,” Shiloh explains. “The Wild West imagery eventually becomes an internal landscape – the ‘wildest’ territory can sometimes be our own mind.”

As the song unfolds, its relationship with those wolves begins to change. Initially something to fear and fight off, by the end they are invited to sit beside the fire. Drawing on lessons Shiloh encountered through therapy and shadow work, the transformation reflects an understanding that healing does not always mean defeating or eliminating our darker impulses. Sometimes it means learning why they exist and changing the way we meet them.

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Lauren Minear - Autumn Leaves.

New York–based alternative singer-songwriter Lauren Minear shares “Autumn Leaves,” a nostalgic and hopeful new single that wrestles with the choices that shape a life and the paths we leave unexplored. Written from the perspective of a mother wondering whether she sacrificed her chance at a music career to raise a family, the song transforms that uncertainty into something warmer and more accepting, finding meaning not in the life that might have been, but in the one unfolding directly in front of her.

The song was sparked after Lauren heard Kelsea Ballerini’s “I Sit In Parks,” which explores the desire to have children alongside ambivalence about a successful music career. Lauren immediately recognized herself on the opposite side of that equation: someone deeply driven toward music who had sometimes wondered about choosing motherhood over pursuing that ambition more fully.

It was November, and as she watched the leaves falling from the trees, the passing season became inseparable from the feeling that perhaps her opportunity had passed with it. She sat down to write, and “Autumn Leaves” emerged. While Lauren was finishing the song, her son sat down beside her at the piano. In that small moment, the regret and uncertainty she had been writing through suddenly gave way to a different realization: she was exactly where she was meant to be.

That emotional turn makes “Autumn Leaves” less a song about regret than one about holding contradictory truths at once. Ambition does not disappear with motherhood, nor does loving the life you chose mean never wondering about another one. Instead, the song allows longing, gratitude, uncertainty, and contentment to coexist.

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Photo - Aleksandra Savchenko

Other Mother - Can’t Help But Feel Dramatic (EP).

Cork bubblegrunge meets post-punk 5-piece Other Mother release their anticipated debut EP Can’t Help But Feel Dramatic. Built around an evocative blend of grunge, post-punk, electronic textures and what the band call “unapologetic feminine rage”, the five track EP showcases a strikingly complete and well constructed sound despite being the band’s debut.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Wavefield Recordings (Cliffords), the EP brings together biting guitar tones, theatrical intensity and richly layered soundscapes. Moving fluidly between evocative spoken word and soaring melodies, it shifts from gritty urgency to intricate, psychedelic flourishes, balancing raw intensity with moments of ethereal beauty.

From the evocative spoken word and pop-punk undertones of opener ‘not sorry’, through the post-punk grit of ‘anymore’, to the atmospheric alt-rock swell of ‘fish to fry’, and the at first emotional and ethereal, and then intense and driving ‘worm song’, Can’t Help But Feel Dramatic reveals the full breadth of the band’s musical identity. Intricate, yet fuzzy and intense guitar work, textured arrangements and melodic flourishes combine to create a sound that is both visceral and expansive, embracing the tension between beauty and grit, chaos and atmosphere. 

Speaking about the EP lead vocalist Willow explains: “We had an amazing time recording this EP; We went over to the countryside of West Cork and had a sleepover at our favourite place, Wavefield recording studios. Brian, Sarah and their dog Juno create the perfect atmosphere for creating music. It was a dream to be able to wake up, take a walk surrounded by nature and then come back and record our favourite songs of ours.

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Anna Rose - The Landslide.

Acclaimed singer, songwriter and performer Anna Rose returned yesterday October 8 with “The Landslide,” a dark, atmospheric new single about the weight of watching a rapidly changing world and the responsibility of leaving a better one behind for the next generation. Written with songwriter and producer Jess Grommet while Rose was pregnant, “The Landslide” took on new meaning when she recorded it after the birth of her daughter. The song captures the complicated feeling of trying to make sense of the world while carrying an immense new responsibility for the person growing up in it. As Rose describes it, raising awareness about the decisions we make both individually and as a society can sometimes feel like “screaming at the sky.”

But “The Landslide” isn't a quiet meditation. Its lyrics move from helplessness to confrontation, shifting from “I feel like nothing / And the landslide’s coming down” to the declaration, “I’m the landslide now.” Against an ominous, immersive backdrop, Rose turns anxiety into something more powerful: the realization that change can also begin with us.

The production draws from the late-'90s and early-2000s music that soundtracked Rose's formative years, channeling the atmospheric pull of artists including Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky, Sneaker Pimps, Zero 7, Moby, Björk and David Gray, alongside the stark, experimental spirit of David Bowie's final album, Blackstar. The result is a track that feels both deeply rooted in its influences and distinctly of the moment.

Rose has spent years carving out a singular space between alternative, indie, country and singer-songwriter music. Her acclaimed 2023 album Last Girl of the Rodeo, released August 25, was described by Rose as “truth in costume” and earned attention from Rolling Stone, Billboard, People Magazine, Earmilk, American Songwriter, Flaunt, Nylon and more. She followed the album with the 2024 single “Plush” and 2025's “The End.” With “The Landslide,” Rose continues to push her sound forward while staying rooted in the raw, honest songwriting that has defined her career.

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Photo - Si Moore

So So Modern - Light Years (EP).

Pōneke New Zealand post-punks So So Modern have finally shared their latest record, and their first new material in 13 years. Light Years is So So Modern’s latest offering. A collection of songs written in the decade since their last release, the twenty-something-year-old post-punk band have for years defied convention for how a group should operate or sound. Today the band resembles less the four young, unknowing friends who started this journey in the mid-2000s but more an extended family, bound through intersecting lives and close-knit community.

The musical landscape has since overtaken them with speed and saturation, but SSM have stuck to the path of the slow and steady - because time beats everything. Whilst the band’s sound has garnered a reputation for complex, chaotic convergences of guitars, synthesisers and rhythm, the songs in Light Years are about clarity, restraint and simplicity - an acknowledgement and misremembering of the straightforward hardcore punk and pop that inspired them as teenagers.

Light Years represents time, distance and the entanglement of life, although it is unclear if this is in relation to a distant past or the horizon of the future.  The limited 12” vinyl release by Flying Nun Records and Holiday Records is accompanied by the illuminating artwork of Lily Paris West. 

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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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