Showing posts with label A Better Place. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A Better Place. Show all posts

Tuesday, 21 October 2025

A Better Place - Talking Violet - The Indie Pea - Nick & June

A Better Place – Light In The Sea (EP).

With Light In The Sea, A Better Place pull all the threads together. Across four tracks, the band proves why they’ve quickly become one of the most exciting new voices in indie rock.

From the drizzly intimacy of debut single It Rains, to the dreamlike haze of Don’t Mind, and the heartfelt punch of Someday—already spinning on Amazing Radio UK—the songs carry the DNA of ’80s/’90s alt-indie greats like Polvo, Dinosaur Jr., Unwound, Sebadoh, Teenage Fanclub, and The Posies, but with a freshness that’s entirely their own.

New track Remember When completes the story: a slow-burner that starts with gentle guitars and relaxed vocals, before erupting into a midtempo surge of energy. It’s nostalgic and forward-looking all at once, a reminder of why this band resonates so deeply.

Radio stations in the UK, the Netherlands, the US, and Belgium are already tuned in, and live, A Better Place is the kind of band that wins you over in one set flat. Light In The Sea isn’t just an EP—it’s a statement. Indie rock, recharged and reimagined.

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Talking Violet - Destroy.

Talking Violet seamlessly melds shoegaze, grunge, and dream-pop into a genre-defiant wave they’ve coined “dreamo”—a sound that’s as lush as it is emotionally piercing. The Windsor, ON four-piece, formed of Jillian Goyeau (vocals, guitar), Jayden Turnbull (guitar, vocals), Jeremie Brousseau (drums), and Dylan Iannicello (bass), craft a powerful sound, touching on themes that wrestle with the grief of personal change, especially in relationships.

Now, the band returns with their latest single “Destroy,” following the release of their recent track “In Your Mind.” Where “In Your Mind” explored the helplessness of loving someone through pain and uncertainty, “Destroy” turns inward, offering a sense of closure and acceptance. “Destroy is about closing a chapter in my life where I experienced a lot of change which I talked a lot about throughout our Everything At Once record,” shares Goyeau. “Before moving on I kinda needed to say goodbye, so that’s what Destroy does. It’s me finally accepting that people can both love you and hurt you at the same time and vice versa. You can love someone even when they aren’t meant to be in your life anymore.”

“Destroy” continues the emotional thread of their recent album Everything At Once, drawing from the grief of interpersonal change. “These tracks draw on a lot of grief of change, most specifically, the grief of relationship changes in our lives,” Goyeau explains. “I was going through changes that I now see as necessary but were incredibly painful at the time. It made me realize how much I had depended on my relationships with others for my identity. I had to slowly relearn who I was—and spent the next few years healing my people-pleasing baseline. It’s still something I work on every day.”


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The Indie Pea – Reflected Hearts (EP).

Some bands take years to find their voice. The Indie Pea needed only one. After their acclaimed debut The Questions in April 2025, the Dayton-based band returns with Reflected Hearts — a five-track EP that feels less like a follow-up and more like a radiant leap forward. Where the album asked, this EP answers.

Across these songs, The Indie Pea refine their signature blend of shimmering indie rock and orchestral pop, carried by Campbell Anderson’s warm, unhurried vocals and the band’s seamless interplay of guitar, strings, and rhythm. It’s a sound that balances clarity and complexity, intimacy and scale.

From the searching pulse of Echoes And Answers to the reflective shimmer of Mirrored Days, the luminous rush of Electric Bloom, and the guiding calm of Heartbeat Guide, each track feels like a facet of the same story. The closing Cross Bridges ties it all together — a finale that looks both back and forward, capturing a year of rapid growth with unshakable confidence.

Reflected Hearts is more than a snapshot; it’s a statement. A band stepping into its own light, finding resonance in reflection, and proving that sometimes one year is all it takes.

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Photo - Luka Popp
Nick & June - Anthem.

Berlin duo Nick & June have recently announced the release of their new album 'New Year's Face' on 5th December. Produced by Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Sharon Van Etten,) and recorded in Bridgeport, Connecticut, 'New Year's Face', which includes collaborations with Owen Pallett, The National’s Kyle Resnick and Ben Lanz, The Antlers and others, will be released on CD, vinyl and digitally. 'New Year's Face' is the duo's first release since 2023's 'Beach Baby, Baby EP', which enjoyed over 30 million streams, widespread critical praise and led to sold-out shows across Europe. 

This week they share new single 'Anthem': indie rock, driving drums, shimmering synths, majestic horns sweeping across the scene like a signal over the city. Everything feels massive and airy, hymn-like yet casual. It’s a song about preserving moments, holding onto fragments that would otherwise slip away. A breath between melancholy and force. A song that, in its ambivalence, captures the fleeting intensity Nick & June are always chasing.

At the end of a long relationship, you don’t usually find yourself sitting at a studio piano with your ex, writing songs. Or do you? In this case, you pack a suitcase, get on a plane, decamp to the small and melancholic harbour town of Bridgeport, Connecticut and begin work on a new record. 'New Year’s Face' is the outcome of this strange experiment: two ex-lovers, one studio, months of work and discovery. Together with Grammy-winning producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Sharon Van Etten, Stars), they settled in and shaped ten songs that feel at once intimate and expansive, fragile and resilient.

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Tuesday, 26 August 2025

False Futures - Risley - A Better Place - Crystal Jacqueline and friends

False Futures - Under The Same Sun.

Just days ahead of their debut UK headline tour, London-based indie quartet False Futures return with their third ever single 'Under The Same Sun' today August 26th. Bathed in sunlight, the track is a reflective meditation on youth, ambition, and the timeless search for belonging—marking the band’s transition from underground darlings to a rising power in the indie scene.

Recorded in a cramped 9ft x 9ft room in North London, 'Under The  Same Sun' belies its humble origins with an expansive sound that recalls the angular precision of Television and the lo-fi authenticity of Pavement. Self-produced with the kind of DIY ingenuity that echoes Mac DeMarco's bedroom recording ethos, the track transforms spatial limitations into sonic intimacy. The track's stripped-back musicianship allows frontman Mathew Conner’s distinct Northern tinged tones to permeate every line, delivering lyrics that speak to anyone who's ever felt the pull between conformity and self-expression.

The song began life eight years ago as an instrumental demo, written during Conner’s first summer in London when he was "obsessed with The Beach Boys" and experiencing the intoxicating freedom of city life. But it wasn't until a moment of inspiration at Peckham Plex cinema that the words finally came together, transforming a long-dormant idea into a fully-fledged anthem.

"This track is a pat on the back to my younger self; a reminder to do as you please with your time on earth," he explains "The good, the bad, the alright, everything that has ever happened has done so, under the same sun, and that's all the guarantee you're getting."


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Risley - Halah.

Portland, Oregon's Risley is a four-piece band that can be described as dreamy and nostalgic indie-rock with a twist of 80s British influence. A web of guitar melodies often sit atop a driving rhythm section to stage the backdrop for soaring vocals and thoughtful lyrics. As such, you can imagine the band is heavily influenced by Mazzy Star, and to pay homage to them they have covered Mazzy Star's "Halah" and will release it nationally on all streaming platforms today August 26th. 

Of the song, frontman Michael Deresh says: “We had learned ‘Halah’ to play at a show, with the intention of it being a one-time thing, like most songs we cover and occasionally throw into a set. What can I say? We grew attached and didn’t want to say goodbye, so quickly. It felt like we had really reminded a lot of people of a song that they loved but had forgotten. So, we decided to record it and share it more widely. We’ve never released a cover song as a single, but it just felt right. Why not? It's such a wonderful song and singing Hope’s parts is like putting on a velvet robe. I just want to stay there and linger.”

Risley released their latest album, Umbra Penumbra, this spring at Mississippi Studios (Portland, Oregon). This June, the band was honored and thrilled to share their live session in the KEXP studios, where they had charted for six weeks. The record also notably features a guest appearance on the song "Walls" by Dave Abbruzzese (Pearl Jam) on drums.


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A Better Place - Don't Mind.

On their third single Don’t Mind, A Better Place drifts into dreamlike territory—led by a hypnotic guitar line and a slow-burning build that erupts into a hazy indie rock climax. Clocking in at just under two minutes, the track captures intimacy, longing, and fleeting connection in one tight, powerful swoop. 

Like a half-remembered dream or a whispered confession, Don’t Mind leaves its mark before slipping away. Catch them live, because once you do, you’ll be hooked. 

Even amidst the success of HALF CAB, Joris Ras, singer and guitarist, felt a burning desire to create something different. Less pop-punk, more indie rock. That’s when A Better Place was born. What started as a side project quickly took center stage after HALF CAB came to a close, and with that shift, the creative energy skyrocketed. New songs are flowing in at a rapid pace, and the band wasted no time hitting the studio.

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Crystal Jacqueline and friends - Elven Boy.

Crystal Jacqueline and The Honey Pot have been Fruits de Mer ‘regulars’ for many years – as close as you can get to being the label’s ‘house band’; their blend of psychedelia, folk, originals and covers has made them firm favourites of followers of the label; ‘Smoke Road’ is Jacqui’s new project – a double LP (on sale September 15th) containing all original songs. Featuring guest appearances from Leo O'Kelly, Icarus Peel and Mark McDowell amongst others, 'Smoke Road' has lyrics by David Greygoose, which have dark, gothic undertones, so expect a mysterious rural psychedelia-meets-acid folk feel to the music
Over to Crystal Jacqueline to explain….

“During the summer of 2023 there was some conversation evolving between myself, Icarus Peel and the author David Greygoose; he had been following our music and supporting us for a while, sending us a few of his books and some poems to read so that we could write some cover notes for his next book ‘Crow Dark Dawn’. It soon became clear that there were similarities in the style and subject matter between his lyrics and Icarus’s, so the idea of a collaboration between us was all but inevitable. Many of David’s poems reminded Icarus of Mervyn Peake’s ‘Gormenghast’ in style and thought; the words would lend themselves to his music very well. We were, in fact, equally impressed with one another’s qualities and that would go on to contribute to this rather special album. We arranged a few songs to start with and all agreed that the sound was good, so we kept the project going and invited some friends along...

The first musician we approached was Leo O’Kelly from Tír na nÓg, with whom we had been planning to work for a while, but hadn’t quite got a suitable set of songs together; his playing brings an exciting, atmospheric dynamic especially to ‘The Tides That Turn’. We had also been looking for an excuse to work with Mark McDowell for some time, and this was the perfect opportunity. He does a fine job singing on ‘Smoke Road’ and ‘The Grey Light’. Icarus was already working with Rob Gould and Jay Tausig on other projects and they were happy to join in with this. Jay plays drums and also sings as well as contributing some wonderful flute. Rob contributes his excellent keyboard playing on ‘The Greygoose Lament’ amongst others. Equally impressive is the Mellotron playing from Mordecai Smyth, which can be heard to best effect on ‘Dreamwalkers’. Dick Terry, drums and vocals, and Django Manglunki, glissando guitar, both members of The Honey Pot Collective, contributed beautifully along with Maria, Irish whistle, and Phil Townsend who played jaw harp. 


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Celestial Bums - The Brook & The Bluff - KiKi Holli & The Remedy - Cut Flowers - The Legal Matters

Celestial Bums - The Letters. Shoegaze warmth and dream pop elegance converge in Celestial Bums’ “The Letters” Barcelona’s Celestial Bums ...