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| Photo - Jamie Coltart |
Scottish indie-folk outfit Arbor Green return today with the forthcoming The Timeslip EP, a richly varied four-track collection exploring hope, change, sobriety and the uneasy passage of time, while marking a confident new chapter for the project. Moving between expansive alt-country, restless indie rock and intimate contemporary folk, The Timeslip EP finds songwriter Ali Begg reflecting on personal growth and the difficult process of learning to live more deliberately.
The EP moves through distinctly different musical and emotional territory while retaining the heartfelt songwriting at the centre of Arbor Green’s sound. Where the self-produced 2022 debut album grew gradually from years of home recordings and largely solitary experimentation, Timeslip was approached from the outset as a band record, resulting in a fuller, more collaborative sound. “I feel like it sounds much more like a band,” says Begg. “Everyone had authorship over the arrangements. Each track on the EP pushes a little further at the edges of what Arbor Green can sound like.”
First single and opener, ‘Wanderer’ looks back across a decade of emotional upheaval, finding gratitude and optimism in a love song to Begg’s now-wife, while pushing Arbor Green further into warm, expansive alt-country. Second single, ‘Cue The Timeslip’ takes a more restless approach, pairing driving guitars and warm harmonies with reflections on doom-scrolling, mobile phone addiction and the pressure of comparing your life to everyone else’s.
‘Headed West’ turns that restlessness outwards, capturing Begg’s frustration with life in the UK and the excitement of relocating to Canada. Closing track ‘Passing The Cup’ moves into a quieter, more intimate space, drawing on Begg’s experience of sobriety to explore self-forgiveness, positive change and his evolving relationship with himself. “I wanted each track to push slightly forward at the different edges of our sound,” says Begg, “and explore slightly different versions of what Arbor Green can sound like.”
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Texas, one of the UK’s defining bands of the 21st century, celebrate 3 decades of the record that made them superstars when White On Blonde turns 30 on February 5th, 2027 via Play It Again Sam.
Alongside the anniversary release news comes brand new single “Another Way To Cry,” their fiest new music in three years. Proudly influenced by their love of Northern Soul, and filled with brass and strings, the song finds Texas broaching new territory yet again.
“It's a really good test for a new song if you play it up against the big hits; it’ll either sit up to them, or it f''king dies,” Sharleen Spiteri says. “‘Another Way To Cry’, you could put it in the set list tomorrow with all the hits and it'll stand its ground.”
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| Photo - Travis Shinn |
Martin Gore, songwriter, electronic composer and founding member of Depeche Mode, has collaborated with artist and lyricist Cliff Damavandi on a haunting new track, "Cross Whisper", featuring vocals from Gore’s daughter.
The track has an unusual genesis: while deep in conversation with some friends, the subject came around to unexplainable phenomenon. Explaining that “he wouldn’t be surprised by anything”, Gore went on to say that on several occasions birds had appeared when someone close to him died. In one instance, he was visited by an insistent bird, tapping ferociously at the window of his studio. Two days later he found out a close friend had passed, and he wondered about the symbolism and mythology that has surrounded birds since ancient times, and whether these birds could be a harbinger or messenger.
He goes on, “I was out with some friends and we started talking about death so I shared that whenever someone close to me has died, birds start appearing, sometimes arriving every day for a year outside my window. When my mother died, a bird came, and again when my dog passed. When my cat died, a bird came into the house and flew downstairs into the room where it slept!”
Cliff Damavandi was so moved by the story that he wrote lyrics that Gore then put to music. Damavandi expands, “When Martin was sharing his story, he was so alive, and I could feel the story as well as hear it. There was an otherness that compelled me to write the words.” "Cross Whispers" opens with evocative whispered voices, that gradually give way to Gore’s synths. Undulating between melodic passages, the whisper comes in waves, alongside an insistent hammering, that mirrors the bird that visited Gore’s studio.
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| Photo - Heather Saitz |
Toronto-based duo MOONRIIVR return with “Lady Of The Lake,” a moody, indie single that blends slow-motion surf rock with mournful saxophones and haunting guitar textures. Exploring emotional stagnation and moving forward, the track is the latest offering from their forthcoming sophomore album, expected in early 2027.
The song began with a musical foundation written by Champagne James Robertson, which immediately resonated with bandmate Gavin Gardiner. As Gardiner developed the melodies and lyrics, he drew from a period of feeling emotionally stuck, turning the song into a personal reminder that new experiences and challenges still lie ahead.
“I was feeling very stuck in one place at the time emotionally so this song was a bit of a call to arms for myself,” Gardiner explains. “Realizing there’s still a world out there and that there are new challenges to face and finding beauty in that.”
Originally built around saxophone, floor tom, and voice, “Lady Of The Lake” evolved through live performances before taking shape in the studio. Its defining sound emerged by accident when the duo recorded Robertson’s guitar amplifier through a microphone positioned roughly 15 feet away in another room, still covered by a cloth dust bag. “We were both quite taken by the ‘haunted’ sound of it and that became the north star for the recording,” Gardiner recalls.
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The third single "Kate Welsh" by Charlie Horn name checks the ghost that haunts Horn’s home. Written for (and perhaps with?) the former occupant of Horn’s home that passed away in it, the track possesses a striking metaphor for the legacy we leave behind and the places we already haunt. A slow-tempo track that employs rich, layered percussion and mournful guitar melodies that sound like they are being beamed in from some forlorn country western station that hasn’t been on the air for forty years.
In The Pines is widely known as Cincinnati, OH's next big psych-rock export. Horn's work, however, dials back the bombast of ITP's swelling, spacey songs in favor of stripped-back, emotionally poignant narratives that track some pretty harrowing emotional points in Horn's timeline.
Recorded at the In The Pines nerve-centre, a synthesizer repair shop in the basement of a decommissioned Masonic Temple in Dayton, KY, these songs have a world-weary sound of being fully lived in. Fans of Big Star's 3rd, Conor Oberst's Ruminations or the darkness around Kurt Vile's halo of smoke will find a lot to love here.
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| Photo - Linoa Mizo |
Los Angeles-based artist Raye Zaragoza has debuted a brand new single, “Where I’m Supposed To Be,” produced by Anna Schulze. Co-written with and featuring vocals from Natalie Closner of JOSEPH, it’s a spirited and cinematic anthem of ancestral revelation.
Do I want to be part of something?
Or do I want something to be a part of me?
Directed by the singer’s brother—actor Román Zaragoza and edited by Ade Ogunnaike, the official music video follows Raye across Arizona, Taipei, and Tokyo—three sites essential to her lineage. “Coming from so many different racial and cultural backgrounds, I’ve spent a lot of my life wondering where I belong,” says Raye, who is of Indigenous, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Mexican descent. “This song is about those questions and the joy in finding the answers—we are enough, and we are exactly where we’re supposed to be.”
The folk songwriter has been described by NPR as “one of the most fresh and compelling voices in folk music today” and by Paste as “one of the most politically relevant artists in her genre.” Her catalog, three albums deep with accolades spanning the International Folk Music Awards and Global Music Awards among others, is a vibrant and evocative contribution to the canon of contemporary Americana. Today’s offering previews a fourth full-length, yet to be announced.
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