London collective This Is The Deep share the gliding new single ‘Never Easy’, taken from the anticipated upcoming debut album Everything (Dick Herman, The Whale, and The End of the Beginning) via 5dB Records.
Recalling the emotional turmoil and pop classicism of Carole King’s Tapestry era, alongside the melancholic string arrangements of Elbow, ‘Never Easy’ is a whimsical yet emotionally sincere offering that hints at the breadth of This Is The Deep’s sonic palette. Bubbling fuzz gives and swelling wah-wah guitar tones conjuring the spirit of a Hot Chocolate deep cut, while the band’s signature quirks bring their experimental instincts and indie sensibilities together in a song that feels playful and inviting, yet deceptively bittersweet.
The song features dual vocals from Hannah Tilson (vocalist and trombonist) and Ranny Macdonald, with the pair bringing an intimate, conversational quality to the track. The band explain: “Never Easy is a song about a relationship between two people that isn’t working. It’s a story where both sides feel like they’re going round in circles and are so exhausted they’re losing the thread of what exactly they even mean. In the context of our concept album this is a dream vienette, a flashback to our protagonist’s past”
‘Never Easy’ arrives as This Is The Deep prepare to release their debut album Everything (Dick Herman, The Whale, and The End of the Beginning) via 5dB Records (Mould, Martial Arts, anaiis and Ashaine White).
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Victoria, BC outfit The Bankes Brothers share “Georgia Peaches,” a catchy, easygoing indie rock track that finds the band discovering confidence in simplicity. Arriving alongside the announcement of their debut full-length album, For the sake of my love I hope I make it, out February 10, 2027 via Blue Heron Music, the single captures the spirit of the forthcoming record through its balance of intimacy, experimentation, and instinctive songwriting.
One of the earliest songs recorded with acclaimed producer Gus van Go (The Beaches, Metric, Arkells) at Toronto’s Boiler Room, “Georgia Peaches” became an early benchmark for how the band would approach the rest of the album. Instead of adding layers simply because they could, The Bankes Brothers adopted a guiding philosophy of “less is more” and, more importantly, “serve the song.”
“This one was one of the earlier recordings we did with Gus and it kind of set the tone for how we were approaching all the songs going forward,” explains Nelson Bankes. “I can’t recall one particular moment when it felt like it all came together, I just remember all of us being so happy with it when we left the studio.”
That understated approach extends to the song’s meaning. Nelson describes “Georgia Peaches” as something of an ode to the “Walter Mitty’s of the world,” but deliberately leaves the rest open to interpretation. Rather than prescribing a particular emotion or message, The Bankes Brothers see the song as something that stops belonging exclusively to them once it reaches listeners.
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| Photo - Rhiannon Inman-Simpson |
Yesterday Alt-rock newcomer Cordelia Gartside announced her debut EP pattern repeating, out 13th November via state51 Distribution and shared new single 'laura palmer'. Following last month’s invigorating EP teaser, 'good', Gartside has also announced an EP launch show at The Shacklewell Arms in London on 25th November.
Taking its title from the high-school student at the centre of Twin Peaks, 'laura palmer' is about being wanted but not understood. Gartside moves between Laura and the first person, exploring what is hidden beneath the image others create of her.
The song turns on a pivotal lyrical transformation: "annihilate her" becomes "illuminate her". That movement from destruction towards recognition is mirrored in an arrangement that patiently builds through an atmosphere of unease, accumulating pressure until Gartside drives the final phrase to the top of her range and the song finally lets go. At is peak, "illuminate her" becomes less an observation than a call to action - a demand that she be seen.
Gartside explains: "two years ago, i started watching twin peaks with a friend. the week before Lynch died we saw 'fire walk with me' at an old cinema. in a peeling room with red velvet curtains i felt it change my life in real time. i had to be very still and quiet for a few days, i felt a lot and wrote a lot, then i wrote this song. i'd never written about a fictional character before, but i'm not sure laura palmer is a fictional character. she's very real to me."
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| Photo - Derek Bremner |
Emerging alt collective silt. have released their new track 'frozen over fountain', the spectral closing song from their upcoming debut EP 'brain like a silent hill', out 13th November. The new single release follows previous EP tasters - 'shadowhands' and debut track 'trauma porn' - which drew praise from Stereogum ("eerie and gripping and intriguing"), The Line of Best Fit ("gorgeous intricate soundscapes") alongside further support from Rolling Stone UK, NME, So Young, BrooklynVegan, BBC 6 Music and more.
Produced alongside Matt Glasbey (Sorry, Bloc Party), 'frozen over fountain' reveals silt. at their most skeletal and exposed. Having introduced the EP through denser, more abrasive material, silt. reduces the palette to acoustic guitar, strings and atmosphere - retaining the project's widescreen scale while placing the songwriting firmly in the foreground.
'frozen over fountain' began as a voice memo vocalist Oliver Beardmore rediscovered on the way to the studio. Recorded immediately to tape without a click, that first acoustic performance became the foundation for an arrangement that seemed to grow around it: counter-melodies emerged almost instinctively before strings, drums and atmosphere gradually widened the song without losing the intimacy of the original take. Lyrically, the song turns emotional stasis into its physical landscape, bargaining with the things that offer temporary comfort even as they deepen the distance between yourself and the life around you.
On 'frozen over fountain', silt. vocalist Oliver Beardmore said: "Life has stopped. There's this sense of looking around at a greyscale city in deep winter and desperately clinging to anything that might shift what you're feeling. Sometimes those things make the immediate passing of time easier, but ultimately drag you further from yourself. The song has evolved for me a few times already, which is something I always hope to achieve - it feels like it can exist across different times and different versions of your life."
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| Photo - Kate Kantur |
Singer/songwriter and producer Johanna Warren has announced her new album Frog in the Belly of a Snake will release on January 29th through Soul Selects. Her first new album in nearly five years, Frog in the Belly of a Snake is deliberate and meditative, rooted firmly in the healing power of the natural world, with performances that tap into a profound sense of liberation while finding comfort and release in the embrace of our transience.
Warren unveiled the first look at the album with the lead single “Automatic,” a driving, angsty tune that finds the narrator exhausted by the endless cycle of striving, falling, trying again, and discovering that the only home she can ultimately count on is the one inside herself. The accompanying video features found footage filmed by a teenage Warren with a digital camcorder visualizing excerpts from her dream journal.
“I’ve been on a bit of a mission these last few years to resuscitate within myself a spontaneous, uncomplicated way of making art for pleasure, like children do,” stated Warren, harkening back to her experimental EP The Night of the Wind based on a book she wrote when she was 3 years old. “My high school friend Leora and I recently reconnected out of the blue, and we got to reminiscing about all the weird art we used to make for fun/to stave off the doldrums of suburban adolescence. I remembered this one film in particular and just had an inkling it could make a good music video for ‘Automatic.’ When I put the song over the footage, the way the two things lined up was spooky.”
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| Photo - Shelly Mosman |
Acclaimed singer, songwriter, and guitarist Charlie Parr today releases Rooming House (Smithsonian Folkways) (October 16), the compelling folk opera that marks his 20th album and arguably the most ambitious work of his celebrated career.
Comprised of seven songs and featuring the title track as the first single, the conceptual narrative draws listeners into the lives of ordinary people navigating hardship and finding strength within a fragile yet vital sense of community.
Set in the USA's Upper Midwest and brought to life through Parr's virtuosic, acoustic, blues-rooted guitar style alongside drummer Dave King (The Bad Plus), Rooming House cements Parr as one of the great troubadours of our time with an intimate audio portrait that becomes its own small yet profound offering of care.
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