Asara - With Love.
Following "Cute" and "Thank You, Thank You," Asara unveils a third track from her debut album "028 Crises" today June 11th: the minimalist "With Love." Set against a minimalist drum machine and a clean piano line, Asara's delicate vocals captivate. Asara is the solo project of Paris-based French-Moroccan artist Sarah Pitet, a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer, and video director whose debut album 028 Crises will be released on July 3rd via French label Géographie. After spending four years as a member of Dog Park, moving fluidly between guitar, bass, keyboards, and vocals, she now steps into a more intimate and personal space with her first solo work.
Having played music since childhood, Asara grew up through various band projects before joining Dog Park, alongside Erica Ashleson, Isabella Green Catani, and Jean Duffour. Together, they released the album Festina Lente in 2024 on the same label, Géographie. That collective experience now feeds a more introspective form of songwriting and a deeply personal approach to creation.
Written throughout 2025, 028 Crises unfolds like a near-documentary sonic diary, tracing the emotional landscape of her twenty-eighth year. Voice takes center stage throughout the record, balancing raw vulnerability with sharper rhythmic momentum. Her debut single Cute draws from the textures and pulse of hip-hop drum machines, while Thank You, Thank You stays rooted in a melodic, stripped-back bedroom pop aesthetic. On With Love, Asara blends upright piano with French touch-inspired electronic elements, while the rest of the album leans toward a darker, denser, and more organic form of rock. From her apartment studio in the Paris suburbs, she writes, produces, and shapes the entire visual and sonic identity of the project.
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| Photo - Layde Jane Vickers |
Released today we have "The Deeper I Fall," from Twilark's forthcoming album Never Learned the Tide, arriving September 11. Framed as a love song to the night, "The Deeper I Fall" drifts along like a gentle lullaby waltz for fellow late-night wanderers—those quiet hours when inspiration, reflection, and possibility seem to feel a little closer at hand. For longtime listeners, the track also serves as a beautiful bridge between Twilark's earlier work and the richer Americana textures that define Never Learned the Tide. It feels both familiar and forward-looking, offering a glimpse of where the project is headed while retaining the dreamy intimacy that first drew so many of us in.
Quote from Canon Pence (Twilark): The sentiments of this song should resonate with night owls everywhere. There can be a rich creative beauty in the quiet hours of the night, in spite of - or perhaps because of - the knowledge that you're borrowing happiness from tomorrow.
Graceful, evocative, and approachable, Never Learned The Tide is the second full-length from Raleigh, North Carolina’s Twilark, the fledgling project of songwriter Canon Pence, whose articulate and wry but tender approach to Americana-inflected indie folk places him securely in a long list of similar artists. But this music is too personal, too full of Pence’s personality, to be anything but his own work, totally unique in its vivid character. Past work has been called “enchanting” by The Big Takeover and “an absolute delight” by Tonic Grain. And Never Learned The Tide is another, even more surefooted step forward.
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Thirty years after Roy Davis Jr. and Peven Everett, two titans of Chicago house music, created one of dance music's most beloved and enduring records, Murkage Dave and Yard Act's Ryan Needham have joined forces to reimagine 'Gabriel'.
Born from countless hours spent sharing music on tour buses, in dressing rooms and after-show hangouts while Murkage Dave toured Europe with Yard Act, the new version transforms the original's euphoric house pulse into something more intimate and reflective. Led by Dave's unmistakable vocal and Needham's guitar-driven production, it is less a straightforward cover than a conversation with a song that is woven into the fabric of both artists' lives.
The single arrives following the release of Dave's acclaimed third album Brut Thoughts in March (6Music playlist, Radio X playlist, #11 Independent Album Breakers Chart, #14 Album Downloads Chart, #38 Independent Albums Chart, #2 Apple Music All Genres) and will feature on a deluxe edition of the album set for release on October 30th alongside a brand new original track, '10 Pints For The Culture'.
Originally released on Chicago's Large Records in 1996, 'Gabriel' became a defining record for UK dancefloors after the aptly named ‘Live Garage Mix’ was embraced by the emerging garage scene and later reissued by XL Recordings. Over the past three decades its influence has stretched far beyond any one genre, finding its way into jungle, speed garage, dubstep and grime, while remaining one of the most cherished songs in British sound system culture.
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| Photo - Samantha Wiley |
Kate Waters has announced her sophomore album ‘Some Comfort,’ self-produced and recorded at Red Tree Recording Studio in Magnolia, Texas, is to be released August 21 independently.
Opening of her soulful Americana collection, “Words” examines the complicated dissonance of self-expression—a desperate ache to share one’s self, and the feeling that it’s impossible. Her honeyed vocals spill through wailing guitars, urgency sizzling from a frenetic mandolin. It’s an angsty entrance into the album, tight and gripping like humidity before a storm, tension before release.
Waters wrote her first album ‘Near’ in response to her mother’s death. Released in 2024, it’s as much a loving daughter’s ode as it is a practice in processing grief, a touching display of Waters’ bold willingness to be vulnerable. Whereas ‘Near’ dealt with the agony of endings, Waters’ follow-up and first studio release ‘Some Comfort’ celebrates the inspiration they can provide. “Just before my mother died, she published her very first book of poetry,” Water says. “Seeing it in her hands, the culmination of her life’s dream, propelled me to finally pursue my own.”
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Victoria, BC indie rock outfit The Bankes Brothers share “Aaliyah,” a warm and melodic new single that transforms personal devotion into something universally resonant. Built around fingerpicked acoustic guitars, soaring melodies, and heartfelt lyricism, the track captures the feeling of holding onto hope while navigating distance, uncertainty, and the passage of time. Equal parts intimate and uplifting, “Aaliyah” finds the band leaning into one of their most emotionally sincere recordings to date.
The song began long before its title arrived. Written initially around a series of chords and evolving song sections, “Aaliyah” existed without a clear centrepiece for quite some time. A temporary lyric, “farewell Maria,” occupied the space where the hook would eventually land, but never felt quite right. “It wasn’t until my girlfriend was saying how she wished she had been named Aaliyah because it’s such a beautiful name that it clicked and it all came together,” Nelson Bankes explains. “In the end, the song is dedicated to her.”
At its core, “Aaliyah” reflects the optimism that has long guided The Bankes Brothers’ songwriting. While many of their songs grapple with uncertainty, growth, and change, they often arrive at a place of resilience rather than defeat. “Writing music has always been a very therapeutic thing for me,” Nelson shares. “I hope that people listen to most of the songs and get the sense that they're optimistic. There's enough bad emotions in the world. We try not to put more out there.”
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