Showing posts with label A.S. Fanning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label A.S. Fanning. Show all posts

Saturday, 15 November 2025

Poster Girl - A.S. Fanning - Sia Shells - Michele Ducci - Gabby Rivers - Mosaics

Photo - Joanna L. Uruchima IG
Poster Girl - Figure It Out.

'Figure It Out' softly unfolds into a beautiful song where the vocals draw the listener in, at times embedded within the music and then energizing and taking the lead. The musicianship is really good, and the overall production notable. As a personal introduction to the band Beehive Candy have no hesitation in encouraging checking these folk out further, something we have to do!     

Poster Girl is an Alternative Rock band formed in 2023 in Chicago, IL. The band blends gritty 2000s indie rock with the raw pulse of ’90s alternative — all wrapped in dreamy, emotive vocals and warped nostalgia. Airy melodies float above distorted layers, weaving together something honest, haunting, and a little hopeful. 

It’s music for late-night drives, existential spirals, and chasing something just out of reach. Poster Girl has been compared to artists like: The Cranberries, Beabadoobee, Beach Bunny, Rilo Kiley, Snail Mail, and Mazzy Star. Poster Girl has opened for National and Regional acts including: Macy Gray, The Rubens, Tom Sandoval, Aly & Aj, and others.


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A.S. Fanning - Today is for Forgetting.

Irish songwriter A.S. Fanning released 'Today Is For Forgetting' yesterday November 14th, the second single from his forthcoming fourth studio album Take Me Back To Nowhere (February 6th, K&F Records).

Where the first single 'Romance' explored emotional desolation through stark landscapes, 'Today Is For Forgetting' ventures into stranger territory—a psychedelic meditation on consciousness, time, and the spaces between realities. Propelled by bouncy synths and Fanning's resonant baritone, the track creates a disorienting atmosphere that mirrors its subject matter: the experience of existing outside linear time.

"This song is about the psychedelic experience, and the feeling of entering some kind of no-man's-land between this life and the next—or another dimension of existence, not black or white, but grey," Fanning explains.

Central to the song is what Fanning calls "an explosion of instants"—a vision of time not as a straight line but as fragments swirling simultaneously around a bewildered observer. "There's no consecutive sequence in the way time runs. There's just a central character with various moments and timelines swirling all around him, and it somehow falls upon him to make things make sense."

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Sia Shells - Riding The Wave.

Baja, California-based artist Sia Shells invites listeners to dive deep into their strength and surrender with "Riding The Wave" – an ethereal, ocean-inspired pop anthem that captures the power of resilience, transformation, and trust in the tides of life. Blending her signature mermaid pop aesthetic with dreamlike production and soulful vocals, Sia Shells conjures a sonic spell for anyone struggling to stay afloat.

"'Riding The Wave' is all about keeping your head above water throughout the current of life, especially when it pulls you down and it's hard to see the surface," she explains. "It's about resilience, change, and finding the strength to overcome it all while evoking the mysterious and beautiful imagery of the ocean."

Crafted to mirror the ocean's ebb and flow, the song's composition moves between whispering vocals – representing the wind – and a swelling, powerful crescendo that embodies the sea itself. Produced with a touch of nostalgic warmth, the track feels like a safe, familiar space for reflection and renewal. "I wanted a nostalgic feel to the song, so it feels like a familiar, safe space for people to hold onto when they're feeling like they're drowning or carried away by the tides of their life," Sia Shells shares.

"Riding The Wave" continues Sia Shells' exploration of the mystical and the mindful – a reminder that, like the sea, we are vast, deep, and ever-changing. "Open your arms as wide as the horizon meets the sea," she says. "You are strong enough to ride the wave."


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Michele Ducci - Follow the Sun.

‘Follow the Sun’ is the first instalment from the album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’ by Michele Ducci and Letizia Mandolesi. The album and film tell the story of a planet called Snail, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

‘Follow the Sun’ is a psychedelic-tinged pop song that evokes a ramble in the sunshine. Joining Michele and Letizia in the studio are Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing), who performs and also recorded and produced the song at his 4am Studios, along with Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above), Lou Jenkins and Bill Morris (Yowl, Ysing). GregoryBeBad also contributed to the lyrics.

The accompanying video focusses on the childhood of Diodoros and his band, with whom Diodoros is rehearsing for the festival called Holy Wood, where they will offer their melodies to immense space. Diodorus was born to a goddess who resembles the Greek mythological character Thetis, the mother of Achilles. In the video we see Diodoros trying to go beyond the curve in which experience flexes to become the experience of something and someone, in search of the source of life, the place where the sun has a home.


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Photo - Ellen B
Gabby Rivers - What is the problem?

East Anglian (England) based grunge-pop riser Gabby Rivers shares the title track from her anticipated upcoming EP What is the problem?, due 5th Feb 2026. 

Crunching, distorted bass, fuzzy guitar lines, and gritty production create a driving blend of garage-rock and grunge under Gabby’s catchy melodies and angsty, honest lyricism. Displaying the alt-rock meets indie-pop approach which stylises her upcoming 7-track EP, the new single builds tension through its verses before delivering an anthemic, earworm chorus. At the midpoint, an explosive breakdown gives way to a dense, swelling guitar section, culminating in a triumphant chant that closes the track with full-force energy.

Speaking about the single Gabby explains: “What is the problem?’ is about the emotional weight of being close to someone who always seems to have an issue with everything, and makes those issues everyone else’s responsibility. It’s about the frustration of constantly picking up the pieces they leave behind, feeling like you’re expected to fix things that were never yours to begin with, and realizing how impossible that can be.

We wrote this track in the middle of the recording process for the EP, and it felt like the EP came together as a whole afterwards. It started out as a slow sad song on the acoustic guitar, but I told the band I wanted it to be angsty and angry. My guitarist came up with the lead part you hear in the middle, and we instantly connected with it. From there, the song took on a new life and I felt like our alternative rock sound really developed. We had so much fun in the recording process, lots of experimenting and recording so many group vocals.”

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Photo - Jacques Feeney
Mosaics - Sing Me To Sleep.

Mosaics have just shared their heartfelt new single ‘Sing Me To Sleep’ and announced their debut EP A Guiding Lie, is due in 2026. Having built a reputation for their blend of 90's rock revival with the shimmer of contemporary indie, observational lyricism and biting guitar work, the band continue to showcase anthemic vocal melodies and giant, stadium worthy indie-rock soundscapes. 

Produced by Engineer & Producer - George Lloyd-Owen (asst. Nick Cave, The Last Dinner Party, Yungblud), Mixed by Luie Stylianou (Judas Priest) and mastered by Grammy award winning engineer Matt Colton (The Cure, Arctic Monkeys, Fontaines D.C.), the new single leans into a more emotive side of the band's writing, comparable to The Goo Goo Dolls’ ‘Iris’.

Speaking about the single, Owen Castillo (lead vocalist) explains: “'Sing Me To Sleep" was written earlier this year with an overwhelming feeling of disillusionment with life. The lyrics capture a desperate need for escape in the face of an increasing apathy towards the trappings of modernity. When Stu and I sat down to write after a couple months away, this song pretty much fell out of the sky, almost as if it was everything we'd been holding in during that time but couldn’t express through any other medium. It's about reaching desperately for the comfort from some unarmed third person, whilst processing (or struggling to process) a deeply held sense that something is not right, and probably hasn’t been for a while.” 

Guitarist and fellow songwriter Stu adds: “In late June we piled into my car and set off from the city to record our debut EP with our close friend and talented engineer/producer George Lloyd-Owen. We truly had the best time, opting to turn our phones off and shut the world out for the duration of our time in the countryside (aside from watching Glastonbury coverage after finishing our takes, of course).


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Sunday, 19 October 2025

A.S. Fanning - Living Hour - Mariel Buckley - Malena Smith - Josh Ritchie

Photo - Neil Hoare
A.S. Fanning - Romance.

Irish songwriter A.S. Fanning announces his fourth studio album Take Me Back To Nowhere, arriving February 6th via K&F Records. Now he kicks off the album lead up with ‘Romance’, offering the first glimpse into Fanning's most disorienting and immersive work to date.

Opening with layered synths that build into an anthemic crescendo over a steady drumbeat, ‘Romance’ showcases Fanning's distinctive baritone voice—drawing comparisons to Nick Cave—delivering a stark, disillusioned meditation on love and human connection. The track maps emotional desolation onto stark sonic terrain, stripping love down to its rawest components: fear masquerading as desire, need mistaken for connection.

"This is a disillusioned love song," Fanning explains. "Representing a feeling of hopelessness through imagery of a barren physical landscape. There's also some hint of room for hope or vulnerability in the line 'love lets you in…' but it's generally quite a cynical song suggesting that romantic feelings are just a confused mixture of fear, need, and desire."

The single introduces broader themes that run throughout Take Me Back To Nowhere: inescapable isolation and the idea that our relationships are shaped more by our internal chaos than any genuine connection with others. "In some ways it touches on the wider themes of the album," he continues "That everyone is isolated and that their own issues and interior processes are what's informing their relationships with other people—that who you fall in love with is just based on your own particular cocktail of neuroses, which you somehow find reflected in another person." 

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Photo - Alex Squire
Living Hour - Internal Drone Infinity (Album).

Winnipeg-based Living Hour releases their new album Internal Drone Infinity. With 10 tracks coming in around a 30-minute runtime, the latest record sees the indie rock band move away from dreamy shoegaze sounds in favour of tightly controlled and cathartic sonic release through heavily distorted guitar riffs. 

“Everyone’s kind of angry, we’re getting pissed, the world is fucked, and sometimes it feels like I can’t just be in a nice indie rock band anymore playing twinkly things,” lyricist Sam Sarty says about the change in style. “It’s still nice to do that, but I think there needs to be a release, a scream, or a grunt or something.”

With a lifelong practice of noticing the little, mundane details, and framing them to show potential beauty, Sarty has honed her composing and songwriting skills to the point of finding moments of beauty in places full of literal garbage. 

"Texting is written from this really mundane but intimate point of view of trying to explain Winnipeg to someone over text," she says. "In the winter, everything disappears in the snow, but when the snow melts, we’re left with the mosaic of shit. I keep a list on my phone of things I see on the sidewalk: garbage that breaks my heart or situations that I try to explain, either to myself or over text – that blue bubble carrying my thoughts somewhere else."



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Photo - Emma Palm

Mariel Buckley - Strange Trip Ahead (Album).

Acclaimed Americana singer-songwriter Mariel Buckley returns with her third studio album, Strange Trip Ahead, out now via Birthday Cake Records. Following the success of her 2022 Polaris Prize–longlisted album, Everywhere I Used to Be, Buckley steps boldly into a new sonic chapter — one that blurs the lines between alt-Americana, indie rock, and emotive confessional songwriting.

Serving as the album’s emotional centerpiece, “Anvil” captures the tension of life-altering decisions in a relationship — specifically around the question of whether to have children. Co-written with Nashville songwriter Robby Hecht and featuring Buckley’s brother T. Buckley on mandolin and background vocals, the track is one of the most meticulously constructed on the record.

“Anvil explores the decision around having kids — those ‘will we/won’t we’ conversations,” Buckley explains. “As a woman and as a queer person, the scrutiny around that choice is intense. It forces you to look unromantically at what partnership and permanence really mean.”

Driven by heavy rhythm sections, pedal steel tension, and Buckley’s soaring vocal delivery, the song embodies the weight of love and inevitability — a slow burn that simmers with emotional gravity.

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Malena Smith -Maybe.

St. Louis-based singer-songwriter Malena Smith has shared her latest single, “Maybe,” an emotionally raw preview of her upcoming debut EP, 27 in Maine. Following the transparency of her previous release, “Paralyzed,” this new track, written by Sonca Nguyen, Jack Pordea, and Joshua "Paco" Lee dives even deeper, capturing the tension of love in limbo.
 
Simply put, “Maybe” is a love song, but beneath its gentle melodies lies a layered emotional landscape and an introspective plea, a yearning for the other person to return and affirm your feelings. It's a confession, a question, and a prayer for emotional clarity in a relationship hanging by a thread.
 
With introspective lyrics, delicate harmonies, soulful guitar and skillful mandolin, “Maybe” reflects the intimate emotional spaces we often keep hidden. “I’ll wait for your answer / Just ask me the question / Don’t leave me to figure it out / I promise to show you / Whatever you go through / I’ll be by your side,” she sings, inviting the listener into a quiet but powerful moment of sensitivity. “I’ve been there more times than I’d like to admit in my twenties, maybe that’s why it resonates so deeply,” she shares. 


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Josh Ritchie - So Much More Than A Dream (Album).

By the time an artist makes their third album, it’s a safe bet they’ve learned a few lessons. In the case of Canadian singer/songwriter Josh Ritchie, those lessons led to taking control of all aspects of So Much More Than A Dream, with the result being a dynamically powerful 11-song collection that blurs the lines between modern rock, experimental folk, and contemporary r&b.

In some ways, it’s the sound of our age, where genres are fluid, and an artist has the tools at their fingertips to take any idea and construct a unique sonic landscape out of it. In film parlance, it’s been called “the auteur theory” for decades, and for Josh Ritchie, it guided his vision throughout the making of So Much More Than A Dream.

In short, So Much More Than A Dream can be described as a concept album telling the story of a young adult searching for peace and purpose in our increasingly turbulent world. It’s hardly a stretch to say that theme mirrors much of Ritchie’s life to this point, having grown up BIPOC in Ontario’s Bruce Peninsula. Much of his music to date has been a product of his experiences, but on So Much More Than A Dream he pours his soul into each song, as on the first single, “Numb,” which asks the increasingly common question, “Do you believe in anything at all?”

Josh clearly believes in many things, and wants you to believe in them as well. On the anthemic new single “Celestial,” he firmly pins his heart to his sleeve, running through the list of things that sustain his spirit, with love firmly at the top. Later, on the stunning ballad “Vancouver,” he sounds like a young Leonard Cohen, surveying the wreckage of his life amid the wreckage of the inner city. But it’s “Small Town Boys” that Josh highlights as a personal triumph.



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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 ...