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| Photo - Hamish Morgan |
Office Dog and Flying Nun Records are pleased to share the indie rock band’s brand new single ‘Front Row Seat’. ‘Front Row Seat’ finds Office Dog confronting the numbing weight of the 24-hour news cycle, a state of quiet paralysis where the sheer volume of bad news makes even the smallest decisions feel impossible.
The song explores the feeling of being stuck “in the front row” as the world unravels — absorbing everything while feeling increasingly powerless to act. ‘Front Row Seat’ finds the band leaning into that uneasy tension, turning overwhelm and uncertainty into something quietly cathartic.
The music video, directed by Sophie Black and made with the support of NZ on Air Music, applies these feelings of someone's world boiling over to corporate team bonding activities. About the video concept, Office Dog’s front-person Kane Strang says “I could instantly picture it in my head, which is always a good sign.”
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| Photo - Holger Nitschke |
New-York based band A Place To Bury Strangers release “Where Are We Now,” the third single/video from their new rarities album, Rare And Deadly, out April 3rd via Dedstrange. Following the “full-on sonic attack” (Consequence) of “Acid Rain,” on which “frontman Oliver Ackermann delivers deadpan, near-chanted lyrics about systemic cruelty,” (Consequence) “Where Are We Now” finds A Place To Bury Strangers reflecting on the past: “Where are we now // Is it too late // Should I reach out // Where we are now // caught in our lives //did our dreams fade.” Ackermann says the song is about “looking back at friends you lost touch with. Wondering where they ended up. Remembering when everything felt possible.” The accompanying video was put together by Ackermann with footage from the Library of Congress National Archives. Ackermann says he made the video because “I think we need to look at people more and see the value and wonder of life so we can be compassionate towards others."
Rare and Deadly cracks open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos from A Place To Bury Strangers. Spanning 2015–2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments, and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered—caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. Pulled from Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes, and half-finished sessions, here the interference is closer, the electricity more dangerous, the edges left jagged on purpose.
What makes Rare and Deadly truly unprecedented is that every format tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl, and digital editions each feature their own unique tracklisting, a fractured release strategy that is almost unheard of. No single version contains the “complete” album. Instead, each format becomes its own window into the archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links, and parallel versions of the band’s inner life. It’s a deliberately unstable document: the album shifts depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation.
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| Photo - Hannah Murrell |
South London duo Sandhouse just shared the new single 'Snapdragon' and become the first UK act to sign to US label Broke Records. 'Snapdragon' follows the release of their debut EP 'Circus' last year. Consisting of Anna Sutherland and Caspar Holloway, Sandhouse have spent the past year refining a sound that threads together alt-rock bite, 60s psychedelia, trip-hop atmosphere and electronic textures.
Working with renowned producer Ben Hillier (Blur, Depeche Mode), Sandhouse lean into a more direct, guitar-driven sound on new single 'Snapdragon', its lyrics exploring the idea of wilful self-deception: "shark eyes glistened in our bed / licked your lips and kissed me good / you smelt blood and I wanted you." Built around gently chugging guitars and a steady rhythmic drive, the track is anchored by Anna’s distinctive vocal delivery and cool-headed melodic hooks, balancing sweetness with a subtle sense of unease.
Speaking about the track, the band say: "'Snapdragon' flowers symbolise deception, due to the skull-like shape that appears when their petals fall away. This is a song about the excitement of recognising a lie and choosing to believe it, rather than turn away."
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Danny George Wilson has just released his new album 'Arcade' via Loose Music. Wilson, who has been confirmed as special guest on The Handsome Family's forthcoming UK tour, has unveiled his latest single 'Before September'.
"‘Before September’ is a song about some of the fleeting random moments of pure joy that have stayed with me my whole life," explains Wilson. "Smoking a fag out of my teenage bedroom window at my mum and dad’s house in the summer holidays whilst listening to ‘Astral Weeks’ and watching the sun catch the smoke hanging in the air, free wheeling down a hill on a beautiful spring morning on my red Royal Mail bike when I was a Postman whilst Nick Drake played on the headphones, finally catching a wave body surfing with my dad and brothers, a first feeling of real love on the long walk home from a teenage party. Musically it’s inspired by the wonderful Tony Bennett & Bill Evans album and Sinatra’s genius ‘Watertown’. The stunning string arrangement by Hamish Benjamin and incredible piano by Henry Garratt perfectly capture these feelings. One of the songs and recordings I’m most proud of in all my years of making music."
'Arcade' finds Danny George Wilson returning to Hamish Benjamin’s studio in East Sussex - five years on from his startling, post-lockdown solo album Another Place – to construct its sequel. With Lewes-based Benjamin and right-hand man Henry Garratt, again given free rein, 'Arcade' presents a fresh collection of sonically inventive, deeply romantic songs, with atmosphere taking primacy over meaning, and narrative dissolving. As Wilson tells it:
“The songs are about the ways we deal with losing people, time, place, or don’t deal with it… Looking back, we discover what was always there, or things that are just easier to ignore - different and contradictory perspectives. And I wanted a chance to work with Hamish and Henry again, and this seemed like their thing, and it was”.
Traditional instrumentation meets technology; the majority of tracks feature a string quartet, while Benjamin and Garratt employ synthesiser and mellotron along with a plethora of guitars. Gerry Love again provides backing vocals with cameos from Emma Tricca and Annie Dressner. Fragile, tender, full of uncertainty, ultimately 'Arcade' is a song-cycle in which the premise of each track subverts the previous, and demonstrates most assuredly, we still move in doubt.
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| Photo - Karen Cox |
Internationally acclaimed fiddler, banjoist, and singer Dirk Powell will release Wake, his first solo album since 2020, on April 17, 2026 via The Last Music Company. A singular presence in American roots music, Powell is widely regarded as a “musician’s musician.” His artistry is grounded in the hills of Appalachia and the bayous of Louisiana, where he learned banjo, fiddle, and accordion from his grandfather and community elders. Guest appearances include Amelia Powell, Sophie Powell, Rhiannon Giddens, Darrell Scott, Kai Welch, and others.
The first single, "Down the Line" was shared this weekend. Powell says, “…Softly rolling banjos, stark guitars, and distant fiddles paint pictures of journeys from my home in Louisiana through places that have inspired me to lay everything on the line — and given me settings in which to do so. West. South. I’ll take either one, but both at once makes the blood rise in my chest. To feel the moisture of the Gulf give way to chaparral, then to scrubby plains, and finally to the bright desert. Danger and its opposite.”
Over the course of his career, Powell has toured extensively with artists such as Joan Baez, Eric Clapton, Rhiannon Giddens, Loretta Lynn, Irma Thomas, Jack White, Buddy Miller, and Steve Earle. In film, he has collaborated with directors Anthony Minghella, Ang Lee, and Spike Lee. He has contributed to many Grammy-winning projects across Folk, Country, Blues, and Rock. Since the 1990s, his own recordings have continued to shape a new generation of traditional musicians and songwriters. He remains a sought-after producer and composer. His best-known composition, “Waterbound,” has been recorded over 100 times.
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