Showing posts with label Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth. Show all posts

Wednesday, 29 April 2026

The Bernedette Maries - Ellie Heath - Levi Taschuk - The Veils - JunkHeap - Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth

The Bernedette Maries - ESO.

The Bernadette Maries, poised on the edge between dream and reality, drift into disembodied spaces to capture fleeting images. Released today “ESO,” a nested track, unfolds in several sequences, like successive snapshots of a dream. From a nugaze texture, it lifts off into an intoxicating liquid drum’n’bass. Like Julie or TAGABOW, the band is part of a generation of musicians creating a post-digital rock, digesting their idols to better uncover the present.

The Bernadette Maries are constantly on the edge between dream and reality, escaping into disembodied spaces to capture distorted images and give them meaning. The music video for “ESO,” the second single from their debut album Soft, is proof of this, multiplying scenes drenched in artificial light, from the neon glow of a warehouse to flashlights aimed into the night. Following the duality of the track, which takes off from a nugaze texture filled with heavy guitars into a liquid drum’n’bass, the visuals move from a direct, front-facing view of the band and gradually dissolve into a more abstract, vaporous substance, attempting to convey its nocturnal poetry.

The Bernadette Maries is a band from Brussels, established in 2024, with members Daria, Guy & Romain. Their sound merges post-punk energy, shoegaze’s dreamy textures, and indie rock hooks. TBM’s music is about love and existentialism, melancholy & meaning of our lives in a world that is slowly falling apart. It is inspired not only by music, but society, books, and movies as well. 


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Ellie Heath - Sick of Myself.

Building on the momentum of recent releases Canadian singer-songwriter Ellie Heath shares “Sick of Myself,” a bold and emotionally charged new single from her upcoming album Pushing Forty, set for release on May 29th, 2026. Blending introspective songwriting with an explosive, danceable chorus, “Sick of Myself” captures a deeply personal turning point. The track explores the shift from independence toward partnership, reflecting on the moment when life stops being solely self-focused and begins to open outward toward connection, care and shared purpose.

“This song was inspired by a moment of transition in my life. After many years of being single and living alone, I found myself moving into a stable relationship and building a shared life with my partner,” Ellie explains. “It made me reflect on how much of my early adulthood was centered on independence and self-reliance. As I get older, I’m feeling a strong pull toward community, partnership, and caring for others. ‘Sick of Myself’ captures that shift; from being the main character in my own story to wanting to invest my energy in love, connection, and building something meaningful with someone else.”

What begins as a self-reflective realization unfolds into something more expansive. A desire to move beyond isolation and into something meaningful with another person, it’s a sentiment that feels both deeply personal and widely relatable.


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Levi Taschuk - Benefit of the Doubt.

Levi Taschuk is a 28 year old singer-songwriter currently based in the small town of Salmon Arm in Canada. His songwriting practice developed a little later in life, beginning in his early twenties, but he’s been a life-long and obsessive listener which has helped him make up for the lost time . 

His influences range from Bach to Brahms; Chet Baker to Stevie Wonder; Nick Drake to Sibylle Baier; Coldplay to Radiohead and too many others to name. In 2024 he had the opportunity to spend a week in New York, recording a three-track EP with producers Miles Hewitt and Karl Helander, a project for which he managed to recruit violinist Jake Falby (Julie Byrne, Mutual Benefit). 

Taschuk then began work on his forthcoming, debut LP, Dyna Dyvest, in May 2024 with co-producer/performer Connor Mead, finishing the recording process about a year-and-a-half later. He also recorded two songs on the upcoming album with co-producer/performer Evan Cheadle.


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The Veils - Aurora.

The Veils have shared a music video for their newest single “Aurora”. “Aurora” is an introspective, deceivingly stripped-back track with stunning depth. Driven by an unwavering piano and haunting layered vocals from Finn Andrews, who explains “This song was written as it was being recorded, which is a very rare thing for me. The day we made it, there was a huge geomagnetic storm over parts of New Zealand, and the pictures of the aurora that followed were in all the papers. Sometimes things are so beautifully simple.”

Arriving just over a year after their critically acclaimed ‘Asphodels’, ‘Fragile World’ marks a striking shift in tone and energy for the band. Recorded live to tape in New Zealand by Paddy Hill, with production by Tom Healy (Folk Bitch Trio, Tiny Ruins, The Chills), ‘Fragile World’ captures The Veils in an urgent and instinctive mode.

The Veils' Finn Andrews shared on the album: “I make each album, generally, as a kind of atonement for the last. Asphodels was so quiet and introspective, I think I just wanted to make something strident and full of life for a goddamn change.” The album’s title is both a reflection of the present moment - a time in which many institutions appear to be crumbling before our eyes - and a metaphor for the act of creation itself. The process of making music, Andrews notes, is a delicate and fragile undertaking where thousands of small decisions gradually coalesce into a finished whole. 

“We went into the studio with a lot of songs, but very little idea of the arrangements or instrumentation. It was truly exciting having no idea what this record would sound like and only a few weeks to figure it out. It’s mostly Tom and I playing everything, with Joseph McCallum coming in at times. It was all very instinctual, quite full-on, and scary at times - but a good kind of scary, not scary like the real world out there.”


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JunkHeap - We All Have To Grow.

We need to grow mentally as we age; no excuses. Learn more about ourselves, our world – micro to macro - and our universe. Without enough knowledge and understanding we can be easily manipulated or deceived, and it's easy to blame others and live within misdirected anger. It’s best to find a way forward together as well-informed and intelligent individuals. Whether we do or not only time will tell.

Located in Ottawa, Canada, JunkHeap’s Dave Turnbull is a solo singer/songwriter/producer, who has been writing music since his teens. Feels like eons ago to him. First on guitar and then he started to learn drums. He played in bands as a drummer but kept writing with the guitar.

His dad played jazz piano, which no doubt built his ear for melodies in the early years. As he grew into his teens musical tastes broadened into the rock sounds over the decades, New wave synth 80s music, and a bit of punk. JunkHeap aligns more with the sounds of Stone Temple Pilots, XTC, Talking Heads, Bush, Blue Oyster Cult, David Bowie, Robbie Robertson among others. Influences include Genesis, The Beatles, Harlequin, Styx, The Jam, The Police, Led Zep, Supertramp, April Wine, Pearl Jam, among others, and also various jazz and classical sounds. The JunkHeap sound falls within the pop-alternative rock genre.

Back to the story! As the decades went by and technology improved JunkHeap was formed. It happened because after having played in several bands the next logical step was to play solo, but JunkHeap became more than a guy with a guitar. Technology allowed for Dave to build entire songs and be the entire band. “It was a good feeling, finally being in full control of the music creation process” he said one time. With each successive album his sound develops and matures, including the production quality. Dave is working with a band to play some of the JunkHeap tunes live in the near future, though no dates have been set yet.

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Photo - Sam Johnson
Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth - Everything Falls Apart.

Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth will release the debut album, Nowhere, NW, on May 15, 2026 via Strolling Bones Records. The 10-track set was produced by the multi-instrumentalist Ben Hackett (Patterson Hood, Craig Finn) and recorded at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA. The remarkable debut emerges as a sort of equilibrium state, balancing Morris’s breezy heartland and lo-fi garage influences with his ‘70s singer/songwriter and ‘90s grunge sensibilities. 

The songs are mature and reflective, reckoning with loneliness, regret, and mortality, and the performances are raw and vulnerable to match, with lean, muscular arrangements. It’s an honest, empathetic meditation on purpose and impermanence delivered by a keen observer of the human condition, one who’s only just begun to truly understand himself. “When I started writing these songs as Mountain of Youth, it felt like I’d finally found my voice,” Morris reflects. “For the first time, I felt comfortable saying what I needed to say.” 

Today the album standout song “Everything Falls Apart” has been shared. Morris says, "Quite often, the people who have constructed a picture book life are actually living a lie and are very unhappy in that life. I just liked using the imagery of a house that someone has constructed to show how perfect their life is and then the house eventually comes crashing down." 


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Wednesday, 11 March 2026

The Orielles - Emily Nenni - Birds Flying Backwards - Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth

The Orielles - Only You Left (Album).

The Orielles new album Only You Left is officially released today March 11 via Heavenly Recordings. “You’ve got to die and be reborn between albums,” begins Henry Wade, guitarist for The Orielles, describing the foundations of the band’s fourth studio album, Only You Left. “It comes naturally,” adds singer and bassist Esmé Hand-Halford, “it’s not something we consciously do.” Through this process of creative renewal, the Manchester-based trio – completed by drummer Sidonie Hand-Halford – have managed to weather a pandemic, defy the fickleness of a trend-led music industry, and emerge, phoenix-like, with something familiarly Orielles, yet altogether different.

Recorded in two locations – Hydra and Hamburg – over the summer of 2024, the 11 tracks of Only You Left sees the band consolidate the bold experimentation of their previous LP, Tableau (2022), with a return to the more stripped-back, song-led approach of their early origins. “There’s nothing more trad than a three-piece,” quips Henry, in reference to the band’s decision to return to their roots as a trio. Originally from Halifax, the Orielles first came to recognition in 2018 with their debut album, the indie-rock Silver Dollar Moment, which is approaching its eighth birthday in February 2026. “These things come in like seven year cycles. So we've come in like a full circle back to a familiar place, just as different people.”

According to Henry, the first ideas for Only You Left came in May 2023. Esmé had bought a freeze pedal, which allowed her to play around with sustained notes on her guitar – these heavy drones would later form the basis for the tracks ‘Wasp’ and ‘Three Halves’. In the lulls between touring, the band began to meet up and record their practice room sessions, later analysing the voice notes to the finest detail. “We recorded everything on our phones, every snippet,” explains Henry. What each song needed or what we wanted to hear from it.”


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Photograph by Emilia Paré
Emily Nenni - Not a Winner.

Emily Nenni will release Movin’ Shoes on May 1, 2025, via New West Records. The 13-song set was produced by John James Tourville (of the Deslondes) and recorded and mixed by Matt Ross-Spang (Margo Price, Jason Isbell) at Southern Grooves in Memphis. Movin’ Shoes is Nenni’s follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2024 album Drive & Cry. Rolling Stone named it one of “The Best Country Albums of 2024” and called it "the most exciting hard-nosed honky-tonk record of the year,” while Bandcamp said, “In a genre overstuffed with craggy male singing voices, Emily Nenni is a breath of fresh air.” Saving Country Music said, “Emily Nenni has released a fun, infectious, twangy, diverse, and career-defining album that will renew your spirits in the state of country music.”  
 
Movin’ Shoes eloquently and wryly blends southern soul from Memphis and Muscle Shoals with southern rock from Macon and outlaw country from Austin. In addition to some of her most incisive lyrics, the album features some of her most powerful vocal performances. These songs percolate with new sounds, like the Rhodes organ that kicks off the supremely funky title track and the Lone Star harmonica that weaves throughout her bluesy cover of Paul Simon’s “Tenderness.” Nenni cites Sly Stone and Linda Ronstadt’s Motown covers as specific influences, but the old styles sound fresh and current because her personality and charisma come through in every note. “This isn’t strictly honkytonk like my former records, even though it’s still all the same influences,” Nenni explains. “I’m just drawing from more artists and genres than I have in the past.” 
 
Yesterday, the album standout “Not a Winner” was shared with Nenni saying, “There’s a song on an early Diana Ross solo record, Surrender, called ‘I’m a Winner.’ It got me thinking how I’d technically never ‘won’ anything in my life, except a dragon-shaped bong in a raffle at a show about ten years ago. Winning looks different to everyone. For some, it’s the accolades. For others, it’s getting to do what you love. It can also just be making it through another day. I’m genuinely grateful for this life, it isn’t easy, and we all work so hard to stay afloat it seems. I just want the chance to try, that’s all I ever wanted. It’s even better when you’re alongside your friends, watching them get after it, too. That’s a win.” 

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Photo - Dessy Baeva

Birds Flying Backwards - Lovebirds (Album).

London-based six-piece Birds Flying Backwards today release their anticipated debut album Lovebirds (March 11th via Real Love Recording Co.). Building a reputation for their blend of alt-country, indie-folk, psychedelic rock and timeless 70s aesthetic, Birds Flying Backwards have quickly established themselves as one to watch. Lovebirds captures the band’s warm, organic sound through rich acoustic instrumentation, worn-in textures. Moving fluidly between folk, Americana and psychedelia while maintaining their stylistic, tightly locked dual vocal harmonies, and reflective yet uplifting tone throughout.

Mixed by Joe Wyatt at Abbey Road Studios (The Smile, The Beatles Anthologies) and mastered by Timothy Stollenwork (Kevin Morby, Drugdealer, Arthur Russell), further enhancing its earthy, timeless feel, the album was recorded entirely live over four days in early 2025. The 10-track album foregrounds intimacy and immediacy, allowing the band’s chemistry and emotional clarity to shine. From the melancholic whimsy of ‘One Heartbreak To Another’ and ‘All I Need’, to the emotive sweller, ‘Moving On’, to the driving Fleetwood Mac-esque approach of ‘If There’s Any Justice’ the album showcases the band’s Diversity and feel for beautifully arranged, melodic songcraft. 

Speaking about the album, “Lovebirds is an ode to love in all its forms — romantic love, love for friends, familial love, heartbreak, and the process of learning to love yourself. Love feels more important than ever to us. Love, compassion and solidarity are powerful tools with which to oppose oppression, dehumanisation and a political elite intent on dividing us. Recorded entirely live over four days in early 2025, Lovebirds stands as a testament to the unifying power, enduring beauty and the profound but life-affirming sadness that love, in all its forms, inevitably brings.”


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Photo - Sam Johnson
Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth - Automatic Days.

Hunter Morris / Mountain of Youth will release the debut album, Nowhere, NW, on May 15, 2026 via Strolling Bones Records. The 10-track set was produced by the multi-instrumentalist Ben Hackett (Patterson Hood, Craig Finn) and recorded at Chase Park Transduction in Athens, GA. The remarkable debut emerges as a sort of equilibrium state, balancing Morris’s breezy heartland and lo-fi garage influences with his ‘70s singer/songwriter and ‘90s grunge sensibilities. 

The songs are mature and reflective, reckoning with loneliness, regret, and mortality, and the performances are raw and vulnerable to match, with lean, muscular arrangements. It’s an honest, empathetic meditation on purpose and impermanence delivered by a keen observer of the human condition, one who’s only just begun to truly understand himself. “When I started writing these songs as Mountain of Youth, it felt like I’d finally found my voice,” Morris reflects. “For the first time, I felt comfortable saying what I needed to say.” 
 
Born and raised in Georgia, Morris didn’t begin taking music seriously until college. After a brief stint in Wyoming, he returned east to settle down in Athens, where he found work as a fly-fishing guide and launched various rock bands. After a few years, he was then ready to strip things back to their barest, most essential elements. The material he began penning was deeply autobiographical, but often filtered through the perspectives of characters at various crossroads in their lives. “All the characters on this record are choosing their path up the slope or looking back on the route they took and wondering what life would be like if they’d done things differently.” 

The characters are also contemplating the passage of time and the loss of innocence, which he suspects is deeply intertwined with his work as a fly-fishing guide and conservationist helping protect and restore the streams and forests of North Georgia. “There’s a youthfulness and a joy and a curiosity that comes with being out in nature,” he explains, “and I always find myself trying to go places that have been left undisturbed by man. There’s a purity and a beauty in those ecosystems that I think we’re all searching for in ourselves.”

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Izzy Oram Brown - Chris Pellnat - Alex Amor - The Gods They Made - Burning Bouquet - Pomelo

Photo - Nico Hedley Izzy Oram Brown - I Believe. Released today, we have the third single "I Believe" from the forthcoming debut ...