The Surge - Hirta - Inoria - Kira Lise

Photo - Pete Coombs

The Surge - Pretty Smile.

Hampshire/Dorset (England) based alt-rock outfit The Surge are back with their latest single “Pretty Smile”, a defiant, life-affirming track written by the band’s songwriter Pete Coombs. “Pretty Smile” is a song about resilience, choice, and forward motion. It speaks to the reality that life is rarely straightforward — but it’s how you respond to the knocks that truly matters. Rather than dwelling on what might have been, the track urges listeners to take risks, make decisions, and keep moving. Whether it’s stay or go, fight or flight, when all else fails, there’s always your smile.

Musically, “Pretty Smile” captures everything The Surge are becoming known for: sharp, song-driven writing, powerful vocal delivery, and energetic riffs that pull from post-punk, indie, alt-rock and old-school punk. It’s a sound built for the stage — urgent, emotive, and unfiltered.

Hailing from across the Hampshire and Dorset border, The Surge have spent the past year writing and recording, with 2026 set to mark the release of their second album, following on from 2023’s debut Amped. The band were also recognised as a Best Breakthrough Artist nominee at the 2024 Original Music Awards, underlining their growing profile on the UK independent scene.

Live, The Surge have shared stages with new wave legends The Vapors, punk originators The Members, Brazilian punk antagonists Porno Massacre, and Germany’s folk-punk favourites Mr Irish Bastard. Their touring history includes venues across Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Brighton, Swansea and London, alongside festival appearances at Bestival, Music in the City, The Beggars Fair, Fazza Fest, NBQ Fest, and Barnstomper Festival in Dorset.

The Surge · Pretty Smile

============================================================================

Photo - Ash Drummond

Hirta - Soft Peaks (Album).

"Hirta’s ‘Soft Peaks’ finds solace in the natural world and comforts through an intriguing map of familiar trailheads and newly chartered terrain. The debut official release from Scottish - American multi instrumentalist, Alistair Paxton, ‘Soft Peaks’ casts a windswept and lonely spell yet retains an air of optimism across its ten warm and desolate tracks. 

This album was self produced and recorded in 2025 in sessions split between the Hudson Valley town of Nyack, NY and rural Bovina in the Western Catskill mountains culminating in both vinyl and digital releases under Paxton’s own imprint, Half Painted Door.

Soft Peaks reveals layers of intricate acoustic fingerstyle guitar and plaintive drums under sparse and tasteful contemporary textures. A subtle and evocative blend of traditional folk voicings and indie rock charm which conjures fleeting nostalgia and offers some hopeful light in a dark time. Through songwriting that crafts propulsive repetition and embraces the power of restraint and economy, Paxton’s vocal harmonies remain unadorned and carry a poetic honesty while delivering elegiacal verses both timeless and universal."

============================================================================

Inoria – Inside Out.

Copenhagen’s Inoria dive deep into the uncomfortable space between surrender and self-control on their new single “Inside Out.” Blending progressive rock textures with alternative and catchy rock sensibilities, the track unfolds slowly and deliberately, pulling the listener into a spiraling inner dialogue that feels both intimate and unsettling.

Built on brooding rhythms, restrained tension, and emotionally charged vocal lines, “Inside Out” explores the need for guidance, clarity, and release when everything feels misaligned. Repeated phrases like “Show me where I should be” and “Free my mind from me” echo like a mantra, reinforcing the song’s central struggle, the fight to escape your own mental loops while still craving direction from the outside world.

There’s a hypnotic push and pull throughout the track: moments of quiet vulnerability give way to heavier, more immersive sections that feel almost ritualistic. Fans of Tool, Opeth, and Soen will recognize that slow-burn intensity, where atmosphere matters just as much as power, and emotion is carried as much by space as by sound.

“Inside Out” positions Inoria as a band unafraid to sit in discomfort and let tension breathe. It’s introspective, cinematic, and deeply human, a track that doesn’t rush to resolve itself, but instead invites the listener to confront what’s happening beneath the surface.

============================================================================

Kira Lise - Ignorance Is Bliss.

Indie alternative artist Kira Lise releases her first track of 2026, “Ignorance Is Bliss,” out today. Written during a period of intense anxiety, the song emerged as a raw cry for help, evolving into one of Kira's most powerful releases to date. The track recently won a major music competition in partnership with iHeartRadio and TikTok LIVE, highlighting its growing impact. impact. 
 
“Whenever I have a moment to connect with my emotions, great art happens — like this song,” says Kira. “'Ignorance Is Bliss' is full of bold instrumental moments, inspired by artists like Radiohead, Billie Eilish, and other alternative musicians. EMÆL adds his unique touch as a cellist, and Dan Adams' violin elevated the track even further, giving it depth and richness.”
 
The song showcases Kira's striking vocal range and layered production. While not fully mainstream, it perfectly captures the sound and vision she wants to create moving forward.
 
Kira has built a global following through live-streaming originals and covers on TikTok LIVE, becoming one of the platform's top creators. She was recently nominated for Live Creator of the Year at the inaugural TikTok Awards, served as a TikTok LIVE guest speaker at VidCon 2024, and performed at the Reeperbahn Festival in Germany with TikTok LIVE. She is also an endorsed artist for Shure Microphones at NAMM 2026 and has been featured across TikTok LIVE's Instagram and TikTok channels as one of the platform's faces.

============================================================================

Maddy Little - Hirta - KickDr - The Corner Laughers - All For Jolly - Heidy H King

Photo - Carly Boomer

Maddy Little - All My Fault.

Canadian indie alt-pop artist Maddy Little returns with "All My Fault," a raw, bittersweet reflection on self-doubt, emotional manipulation, and the quiet power of finally choosing yourself. Written in the aftermath of a situationship defined by push and pull, the track captures the moment where self-blame gives way to clarity and growth.

Built around a stripped-back, organic production style, "All My Fault" keeps its focus firmly on emotion. Little explores the toll of being caught in a cycle of unmet commitment, questioning her worth while mistaking manipulation for affection. "I was constantly either being blamed, or blaming myself," she explains. "I didn't think I was good enough, or I felt too weak to walk away from a situation where I wasn't valued."

What makes the song especially resonant is its emotional arc. "All My Fault" moves from internalized blame toward self-recognition, marking a turning point where Little finds her voice and reclaims her value. The contrast between vulnerability and resolve sits at the heart of the track, mirroring the process of leaving something painful behind and stepping into something healthier.

"It feels like the end of something painful, but the beginning of something better," says Little. "I'm finally out of that dark part of my life and focused on being happier, and I truly am." 

============================================================================

Hirta - Birds In The Loft.

We have the third and final single from Hirta's upcoming Soft Peaks LP. The track is called "Birds In The Loft" and it perfectly embodies the undercurrent of mourning and optimism that runs throughout this record so gracefully. Hirta is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Alistair Paxton and this record hasn't left my rotation since I first heard it last autumn. 

Hirta’s ‘Soft Peaks’ finds solace in the natural world and comforts through an intriguing map of familiar trailheads and newly chartered terrain. The debut official release from Scottish - American multi instrumentalist, Alistair Paxton, ‘Soft Peaks’ casts a windswept and lonely spell yet retains an air of optimism across its ten warm and desolate tracks. 

This album was self produced and recorded in 2025 in sessions split between the Hudson Valley town of Nyack, NY and rural Bovina in the Western Catskill mountains culminating in both vinyl and digital releases under Paxton’s own imprint, Half Painted Door.

Soft Peaks reveals layers of intricate acoustic fingerstyle guitar and plaintive drums under sparse and tasteful contemporary textures. A subtle and evocative blend of traditional folk voicings and indie rock charm which conjures fleeting nostalgia and offers some hopeful light in a dark time. Through songwriting that crafts propulsive repetition and embraces the power of restraint and economy, Paxton’s vocal harmonies remain unadorned and carry a poetic honesty while delivering elegiacal verses both timeless and universal."

============================================================================

KickDr - Dubtitles (EP).

Dubtitles is the second KickDr EP on Moom, following last year’s Afro-inspired Neema. The EP was shaped by a period of deep listening to dub music across genres — from the classic sounds of King Tubby and Lee “Scratch” Perry to electronic landmarks like Leftfield and Basic Channel.

Dubtitles brings the light touch of dub into a house EP, creating something that balances movement and energy with space, warmth and atmosphere.

Dubtitles is built to travel. Equally at home on the dancefloor, the beach, in the car or drifting through your living room, it’s designed for effortless, repeat listening — music that soundtracks moments rather than being locked into a single setting.

Moom Sound · KickDr - Dubtitles EP

============================================================================

The Corner Laughers - Rainbow Cardigan.

The Corner Laughers return to make good on the promise of a long-awaited new album –their first since 2020 –with the new single “Rainbow Cardigan.” The new track is a blend of melancholy and exuberance that's a thrilling sign of things to come. “Rainbow Cardigan” is out today January 16.

“Rainbow Cardigan,” like the album it heralds and the band that created it, is an exhilarating study in remarkably consonant contrasts. For longtime fans of The Corner Laughers, the sound will be instantly recognizable, kicking off in a minor key with the solo vocals and jangly ukulele of Karla Kane (both distinctive calling cards of the band), spinning a tale where the title garment is the only splash of color in a graveyard on a grey British morning. 

When the chorus hits, though, it's positively jubilant, all major chords, driving rhythms and interlocking harmonies. Still, there' a dichotomy at the core: “We were old, yes we were ancient; we were young, yes, we were barely conceived.” For all that depth and intrigue, it's also flat-out catchy, with intricate acoustic guitar by Khoi Huynh, spaghetti western bass and electric guitar by KC Bowman (both also suppling those harmonies), and propelled over the edge by a folk-punk explosion of drums by Charlie Crabtree and, coming in with a burst of electric guitar distortion for the grand finale, an exciting cameo by original band co-founder Angela Rhoades (nee Silletto), her first reunion on record since leaving the band more than a decade ago. 

============================================================================

All For Jolly - Lifeblood.

Penzance (Cornwall England) based folk-punk band All For Jolly have announced their upcoming single “Lifeblood” a release that sits at the heart of a wider campaign highlighting the ongoing closure of grassroots music venues across the UK. The track is both a tribute to independent venues and a frank reflection on the growing pressures facing the grassroots music scene, from rising operating costs and redevelopment to the increasing financial strain placed on DIY artists.

For All For Jolly, the issue is deeply personal. The band built their career touring the UK’s grassroots circuit and credit small, independent venues as the foundation of their journey — and as vital spaces where new artists can survive, develop, and connect with audiences. “Grassroots venues are the lifeblood of bands like ours,” the band say. “They’re where scenes exist at all. Without them — and without proper support — making music becomes impossible for so many people.”

Following the release of “Lifeblood”, All For Jolly will embark on a UK tour throughout February 2026. The run will also mark the band’s final tour as a full band for the foreseeable future, with rising costs and the realities of remaining fully independent making extended touring increasingly unsustainable. Together, the single and tour underline the campaign’s central message: the fight to keep grassroots venues alive is inseparable from the fight faced by the artists who rely on them. Fans will be encouraged to support local venues, attend shows, and buy tickets in advance wherever possible.

============================================================================

Heidy H King - The Washing Machine.

Inspired by the likes of Carole King & Kate Bush singer-songwriter Heidy H King, has many inspirations. It's obvious, after just a few bars of the newly released folk-pop number “The Washing Machine.” With this catchy and sophisticated track, Heidy H King presents herself to a wider public for the first time.

The song is carried by Thomas Güttinger’s acoustic guitar playing—and, of course, by Heidy H King’s voice. The musician was born in Schaffhausen and has been living in the canton of Zurich for 38 years. Even if her name may at first glance appear new on the music scene, she is in fact an experienced artist with extensive live experience. She began writing her own songs at the age of 17 and later deepened her musical craft at the Lucerne School of Jazz as well as through various training and continuing education programs in Switzerland and abroad.

Heidy H King in her own words about 'The Washing Machine' The song is a homage to the washing machine and tells how I make myself comfortable during the washing cycle. With this song, I wanted to prove that instead of a love song or a protest song, you can also write a ballad about a washing machine. I googled to see whether there was already a real washing-machine song—and ended up finding over 100 videos of spinning washing machines (for meditative purposes).

============================================================================

Cheyenne - The Jack Rubies - Mesh - Alice Costelloe - Hirta - The Orielles

Cheyenne - Anticipating You.

The indie artist's latest drop bridges the intimate polish of Harry's House with the confident pop sheen of Sabrina Carpenter and Dua Lipa.
 
Cheyenne has made it clear that in 2026, she's here to smolder and wow audiences, and she is not holding back. With her latest single “Anticipating You”, the rising singer-songwriter blends the sensual pulse of retro inspired synth-pop with fun, modern textures. Built around shimmering synths, sun drenched guitar strums, and a radiant vocal, “Anticipating You” sounds like radio ready, chartworthy pop. Think Steve Lacy by candlelight or Harry Styles in his late-night, off-the-record era. “Itʼs craving this personʼs touch, intimacy, closeness, personality. Itʼs being so in love you canʼt get enough. You crave their touch and everything about them. Itʼs also craving the emotional intimacy that comes with sex and being intimate" Cheyenne says.
 
The track traces that longing with the perfect lyrics: “Lying wide awake, while you saturate every part of my brain…” she croons. There's a commanding, confident ownership in the way Cheyenne delivers on “Anticipating You.” She's unapologetically open to pleasure and that magnetic pull that changes your chemistry. As she readies a new body of work for 2026, her sound is expanding, her vision is sharpening, and her message is clear: vulnerability is power, and self-expression is sacred.
 
Coming off a standout Pirate Studios showcase and four previous singles that mapped her evolution, Anticipating You marks Cheyenne's fifth and final release before a new musical era begins in 2026. With upcoming shows slated across the East Coast, she's inviting fans into the next chapter of her story.

============================================================================

The Jack Rubies - Be Good Or Be Gone.

With their new album Visions In The Bowling Alley announced at the end of last year and set for release on Vinyl, CD and Streaming in late January (23rd), UK postpunk veterans The Jack Rubies ofer up one more single to preview the record. “Be Good Or Be Gone,” a slice of groovy guitar pop as danceable and hook-heavy as anything from the band's four-decade history, is out today January 9, 2026.

may have emerged from the British C86 scene and be more often thought amongst the likes of Shriekback or Nick Cave, but there's something about the groove and hooks of “Be Good Or Be Gone” that whispers “Madchester” – think “Fool's Gold,” “Step On” or “Groovy Train”. You can most certainly dance to it, and the vocal interplay between Rubies frontman Wright and guest Cat Henry(returning after the last album's hit single “I'll Give You More”) is thrilling. It sounds like a party, and while the words betray an underlying darkness, it's of an almost pop-classicist bent, as direct as a set of Johnny Cash lyrics: “You crucify me then you dance up and down on my grave/That’s what I say even though it isn’t true.” Taken together, it's the stuf of which enduring hit singles are made.

“It's based on an almost forgotten sketch from yesteryear and with a nod to our past,” the band ofers, “a dance-favored and nostalgic meditation on the closing of a chapter.” The Rubies' SD Ineson features on harmonica, adding to the rootsy favor, and delivers signature guitar lines that complement Wright’s slide guitar and and tight postpunk funk rhythms. Drummer/producer Peter Maxted’s keyboard textures foat, then punctuate, while bass and percussion hold the beat close until gradually letting go as the track wistfully concludes. “It’s time to move on. Two empty deck chairs are all that’s left on a deserted beach,” the band says in summary. 

============================================================================

Mesh - Exile.

Mesh unveil the stylish music video 'Exile' as the first new song from the UK alternative electronic duo since nine years! This single is an edit of the opening track of the English band's forthcoming new album "The Truth Doesn't Matter", which has been scheduled for release on March 27, 2026. 

Mesh comment on 'Exile': "I was trying to write some music that was uplifting but had a dark and moody undertone", Richard explains. "I had the chord structure and the chorus, but felt something was missing. That's when I added the arpeggio type line at the start. This changed the character of the song and gave it that hypnotic, driving feel. It is the glue that holds it all together. After we had finished mixing the album and almost a year after the music was written, Mark sent me the track with the vocals added. It was one of those moments when I knew immediately that this track had to be the single. It was as quick as that."
 
"We were about to go to Germany to mix the album with Olaf", Mark adds. "I still had a couple of instrumentals from Rich which had no lyrics or vocals. I loaded one into Cubasis on my phone and started working on it in dead time during the mixing. I needed inspiration, and Judit, the wife of our producer Olaf, gave me the only English books that she had: 'Chicken Soup for the Soul – Stories for a Better World' by various authors, and 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', which is a Bowie biography. I was also reading Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land' on my pad. The lyrics kind of just fell out of those influences. I recorded the vocals on the phone outside on Olaf's balcony and recorded them properly when I got home. It was all very last minute, but worth that last push."

============================================================================

Alice Costelloe - How Can I.

London singer-songwriter Alice Costelloe shares new track 'How Can I' this week, the final preview of debut album 'Move On With The Year' out 6th February via Moshi Moshi Records. One of the album's most revealing moments, new track 'How Can I' skips blithely, all honeyed harmonies and tambourine shakes, while Costelloe wrestles with a dichotomous truth, both a question and a statement: “How can I / Still adore / You know I still adore you”.  

“So much of my childhood I had this feeling that something wasn’t right, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it,” Costelloe admits. “My dad was so different: he’d fall asleep mid-sentence with a lit cigarette in his mouth, he couldn’t be woken up no matter how much you tried, and when he wasn’t sleeping he’d take us on strange, and in retrospect, insanely dangerous adventures.” It wasn’t until her early teens, when her older sister confirmed his substance abuse, that those memories came into focus - an awakening that threads through the album’s writing.

Speaking more on the song release, Alice said: "When I was finishing the song, I read a quote from Feist where she said, ‘When you say something or sing something enough times, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – it’s almost like casting spells.’ It made me think about what it would feel like playing songs full of sadness, night after night, and whether those were the spells I wanted to be casting,” Costelloe explains. “So I added the line ‘I am good, I’m enough, I’m surrounded by love’. I know it’s unbearably cheesy, but I wanted a moment in the set that could counteract some of the darker parts of the record and manifest something more positive."

============================================================================

Photo - Ash Drummond.

Hirta - Black Chimneys.

"Black Chimneys", is the second single from Hirta's new LP 'Soft Peaks' to be released in February 2026. The song is the perfect anthem for blessing your new year. In Alistair's own words, "...it feels appropriate to share the song 'Black Chimneys’ as a simple New Year greeting, as we all do the thing we do every year where we take stock of where we are in our lives and reset to begin another year. 

The song itself is a reminder to myself of what’s important and, while not necessarily written as a new year song, has the recurring line, ‘Lang may yer lum reek’ - this is a traditional Scottish phrase that people use to toast or say farewell to friends and family around New Year. It translates as ‘long may your chimney smoke’ and symbolizes warmth, and having enough of what you need to be warm, safe and prosper, so it’s extra nice to be able to share it with you at this time."

Hirta is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Alistair Paxton and this record hasn't left my rotation since I first heard it last autumn. Hirta’s ‘Soft Peaks’ finds solace in the natural world and comforts through an intriguing map of familiar trailheads and newly chartered terrain. The debut official release from Scottish - American multi instrumentalist, Alistair Paxton, ‘Soft Peaks’ casts a windswept and lonely spell yet retains an air of optimism across its ten warm and desolate tracks. 

This album was self produced and recorded in 2025 in sessions split between the Hudson Valley town of Nyack, NY and rural Bovina in the Western Catskill mountains culminating in both vinyl and digital releases under Paxton’s own imprint, Half Painted Door.

============================================================================

Photo - Neelam Khan Vela.

The Orielles - You are Eating a Part of Yourself / To Undo the World Itself.

The Orielles have today shared double-single "You are Eating a Part of Yourself" and "To Undo the World Itself", two new tracks taken from their fourth studio album, Only You Left – out March 13 via Heavenly – a meticulous yet exploratory record which sees them emerge anew from their seven-year cycle where they began with Silver Dollar Moment (2018).

"To Undo the World Itself", has hints of Tara Clerkin Trio in the repeated, reverb-drenched vocal melodies, but also leans towards the expansive post-rock of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky in its cathartic forward-motion and "You are Eating a Part of Yourself" shares a similar dark euphoria as both gradually submerge the listener in a glitch-laden tide of feedback and noise. Coupled with the rising harmonic progressions there’s a pervasive sense of bittersweetness, of time irrevocably passing by.

Accompanied by a video directed by Neelam Khan Vela which spans both tracks, the band said: "'You are Eating a Part of Yourself’ began when a durational guitar loop was released from the archive of improv’s recorded in Henry’s bedroom. The title, which comes from a video artwork dating 1996, captures the darkness emanating from the original recording, and reflects the clarity to be able to define that feeling some years later. Through music (and some words) we unfurled the emotion captured back then, as we put our ears up to the organs of the body orchestrating their own symphony and dissonance.

Closing track of the album ‘To Undo the World Itself’ sings of rebirth and reversal, or outstanding finality, depending on the impression that ‘Only You Left’ leaves you with. The cathartic crescendo meant that this was a favourite to play in the various live rooms that we wrote / recorded in, where it was trialled against the backdrops of thunderstorms and peaceful sunsets alike."

Neelam added about the video: "After almost a decade of collaborating with The Orielles, we share a connection that makes our creative process completely intuitive, like a long rally where ideas are passed back and forth without needing to be spoken. The band filmed with Lewis and Giulia in Manchester, and from that starting point I let the emotional pull of the tracks guide the edit, completing the video through what the music evoked and what the evolving images seemed to ask for."


============================================================================