Ruth Lyon - Caswell - Looms - Chwaer Fawr

Photo - Valentyna Vasylevska (c) 

Ruth Lyon - Poems & Non-Fiction (Album). 

Ruth Lyon has just released her remarkable debut album 'Poems & Non-Fiction' it's now available to stream and purchase on 12" vinyl via Pink Lane Records. 

Poems & Non-Fictionis the debut album by Newcastle’s Ruth Lyon—a major waymark for a powerful songwriter who weaves deeply evocative narratives and potent meditations, with an artistry that balances delicacy and strength. Forged by her experiences as a disabled woman and a life-long sense of otherness, she explores the beautiful mess of existence, challenges social norms and ignites a journey towards self-acceptance, empowerment and perhaps most importantly, hope. “ I have surprised myself with the raw honesty in these songsand I hope these stories inspire healing and growth”. 

Working with acclaimed producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding) and influenced by artists like Adrienne Lenker, FionaApple and Moondog, the songs are rich with poetic nuance and the unconventional insight of a young life lived to capacity—a mesmerizing blend of analogue and angular indie-folk that gives as much attention to silence as sound, with understated yet muscular grooves. Shimmering between the abstract, the archetypal and the naked truth, meaning lingers just beneath the surface, daring listeners to both reach out and dig deep; to give emotion a solid, tangible shape. 

Coming off the back of concerts from across the world—most notably performing at New York City Hall where she received the prestigious Danny Award, Brighton’s Great Escape international showcase and Glastonbury Festival—as well as receiving the flagship PPL Momentum Grant and being included on the Power 100, that named her among the most influential disabled people in the UK, Poems & Non-Fiction, set for release this year, promises to further cement Lyon’s reputation as a singular voice in the contemporary music landscape; one that dares to challenge, comfort, and captivate in equal measure. 

Ruth Lyon · Poems & Non Fiction

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Photo - Lydia Cooper

Caswell - Final Call.

Suffolk (England) Alternative-Pop riser Caswell returns with the radiant new single ‘Final Call’ (13th June), taken from the anticipated upcoming debut album Break/Bleed/Bloom (1st Oct). 

Blending elements of downtempo electronica, ethereal deampop and indie musicality with pop sensibilities, Caswell brings a sonic intelligence and melodic clarity which sets her music apart. Lush, immersive and emotive, the new single ‘Final Call’ continues this trend, with a tight lo-fi beat and fuzzy modulated bass with splashes of sparkling synth creating a transportive and rich soundscape. Caswell’s tender and commanding lead vocal pulls the track forward through its instantly repeatable melody, creating a feel which is at once cinematic and intimate, marked by a delicate interplay of vulnerability and strength to reflect playful, yet heartfelt lyricism. 

Speaking about the single Caswell explains: "Final Call explores the concept of reincarnation and feeling a playful curiosity about death, which is something so often seen as negative and taboo in our culture. Nature has always been an incredible way of helping me to feel present and there is beauty in knowing that we are connected to this ancient and cyclical network of life, and that one day when we will inevitably return to the earth that we are made from. Maybe death is simply a fallow period of rest, after which our energy lives on in the natural world in some new way."

Known for her magnetic stage presence, Caswell first grabbed attention by winning a nationwide competition to support Ed Sheeran, performing for 40,000 fans on his Divide tour. She’s since lit up stages at major festivals including the likes of Reading & Leeds, Latitude, and Bearded Theory, each performance showcasing her ability to balance the softness of her sound with undeniable stage energy. 

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Looms - The Iron and the Rust.

We’re thrilled to introduce Looms — the newest addition to the Paper Garden family. Their music blends dreamy guitar tones, layered harmonies, and emotionally rich storytelling, grounded in a decade of Brooklyn indie roots.

Just released: “The Iron and the Rust” is a shimmering, late-summer track that captures both intimacy and expanse and the first single from their upcoming Big Dream EP, arriving Sept 19.

Music isn’t just something we hear — it’s something we feel. Whether you’re listening for inspiration, connection, or discovery, this track invites you to take a moment, lean in, and see what emotions rise.

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Chwaer Fawr – Byw yn ôl y Sôn.

Chwaer Fawr new single 'Byw yn ôl y Sôn' is out now via Klep Dim Trep. Chwaer Fawr is the solo project of 'Mari Morgan', known for her time with Rogue Jones, Bitw and Saron. Her debut album (due June 27), oxymoronically titled Diwedd ('end'), is a quiet turning point marking both a conclusion and a beginning. Written and recorded slowly, at home and with friends, Diwedd grew organically and patiently. After years of playing in other people’s bands, this time it's her own quietly defiant voice that's front and centre.

Sung entirely in Welsh, Diwedd explores the tension between innocence and responsibility, between personal vulnerability and quiet resistance. It hints at the duality between the wonder of new motherhood and the anxiety of the modern world, threading in themes of peace, hope, and the urge to rise above it all. Birds and flight are recurring images throughout as symbols of freedom, fragility, and defiance. The album doesn’t seek resolution, but offers space to sit with discomfort, wonder and change.

Musically, Diwedd lives in a wonky, artful corner of alt-pop. It balances off-kilter textures with melodic clarity, gentle warmth and sharp detail. The record features contributions from a reliable circle of collaborators, including Llŷr Pari (Gwenno, Omaloma), Alex Morrison (Cate Le Bon, H. Hawkline), and Gwion Llewelyn (Aldous Harding, Villagers), with production from Gruff ab Arwel (Bitw, Y Niwl), who helps shape its tender strangeness.

Despite it's title, 'Diwedd' isn’t a full stop; rather, it’s the exhale after a long breath in. It marks the end of the slow, steady making of a debut, and the start of a more personal musical chapter. The album is both a personal journal and a quiet protest, not against one thing, but against forgetting what matters. It might not shout, but it stays with you. Sometimes, an ending is the most powerful way to begin.

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Royal Castles - KEG - Looms - Ziemba - Ashley Shadow (feat. Bonnie Prince Billy)

Royal Castles - Schönsee.

Produced by Zane Whitfield (The Glorious Sons, Sarah Harmer), this triumphant 90s rock anthem sparkles and uplifts, as it reminds us of our resilience as humans, and that sunnier days are always around the corner. We dedicate it to all of our grandparents, who worked so hard to give us a better life.

"Schönsee" means beautiful lake, named after the Russian-Mennonite colony in ode to drummer Katrin Sawatzky's ancestors, who made the Great Trek across Europe by caravan to escape religious persecution in WWII.

Prominently featuring the voice and songwriting of Katrin, who sings in both German and English, this song builds upon the German lullaby often sung to Katrin as a child, telling the story of curiosity, resilience, fear and hope for a better life.

"Schönsee" summons an inner feeling of safety and peace when the world around you feels chaotic. The feeling of triumph after tribulation. The elation of making it out alive.

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KEG - Farmhands.

Brighton based 7-piece Keg today announce their new single "Farmhands" alongside an otherworldly animated video directed by Andrew Howarth - which drops the septet into the "Smelve Village" - eventually succumbing to a sea-beast-version of the band's guitarist Frank Lindsay.

Keg have quickly seen their profile rise over the past 6 months, with widespread acclaim from BBC 6Music (Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens), NME, So Young Magazine, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, The Line Of Best Fit and more, coinciding with a relentless touring schedule with acts including Squid, Talk Show, The Lounge Society, Opus Kink, Bull, Blue Bendy and LICE.

New single "Farmhands" was produced by the band and mixed by Sean Oakley (Show Me The Body, Sorry, Scalping, Kae Tempest) and is the latest single to be lifted from Keg's debut EP 'Assembly'.

Described by the band as: "a lovestory to St James Street [in Brighton] and its many erratic personalities and the eternal clash of oat flat whites and heroin poos" - "Farmhands" carefully builds from its driving, post-rock opening, singer Albert Haddenham riling against the gentrification of Brighton's city centre: ["My bamboo products quake in their cupboards / My macchiato spills over the plant ladder / All the greasy spoons hemmed in by bike shops / Their dishwashers shrink and fall down the drain"] - interspersed with trombone-laden breaks and moving towards an erratic brass-fuelled crescendo.

Speaking on the track's accompanying video, the band said: "In the summer in Brighton, the city council were giving homeless people train fare money to leave the city. I remember thinking this is an obscene solution to a really serious undeniable housing issue. The stark contrast of real poverty and gentrified coffee/juiceries is quite startling along most of the south coast, I’m sure everyone has an equivalent. The video came from us imagining the lyrics taking place in a small magical toadstool town of ‘smelves’ and seeing their reaction. If I could summon a sea beast I would."

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Looms - A Different Variety of Same (E.P).

What was originally written at the beginning of a supposed to be busy 2020 for Looms turned into a larger recording project as they navigated the pandemic. The themes of love, loss and isolation were in place pre-shutdown but turned out to be all too timely as they were eventually completed remotely.

The EP release includes two brand new tracks, "A Different Kind of Light" and "Nothin' Didn't Change," closing and coalescing with a sound that FLOOD Magazine noted it lands, "somewhere between the alt-country flavors of Wilco and the heartland rock inclinations of The War on Drugs."

The band shares:

Speaking a prayer of longing and uncertainty
Delicate ground crumbles at only the thought of steps
But the drum shows there is a path
As guitars churn and chug and swirl
Weaving the singular now…

Here is a bouquet of the gathered years
The countless unfolding of momentary togetherness
Standing in circles has been so important
To ring the bounds of the ancient well
And glimpse the divine as it slips
From the flat, black waters of the underneath
This is the sunken source of many tongues
Where our sciences and our spells are but a different variety of same.

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Photo - Ian Torres

Ziemba - Fear.

El Paso-based artist, Ziemba – a moniker for songwriter, producer, vocalist and pianist, René Kladzyk – is sharing her new single, "Fear" alongside details of a new album titled Unsubtle Magic which is set for release on December 10, 2021, via Sister Polygon Records. The new record arrives as the latest installment of Kladzyk's Ziemba project following previous releases that found support at Pitchfork, i-D, FADER, Stereogum, Vogue, Bandcamp Daily and more.

This first single acts as a fitting introduction to the musically eclectic album which touches on zany New Wave, baroque-pop and 1970s art-rock. Kladzyk's upright Steinway piano sits at the beating center of "Fear," flanked by fuzzy guitars and emphatic percussion.

Speaking about the single, Kladzyk explains: "One time a psychic told me that a curse was placed on me in the womb, and of course that was bullshit, she tried to sell me $800 in crystal therapy to lift the curse. But at the same time, intergenerational legacies of addiction, abuse, trauma and mental illness seep out at very inconvenient moments and for me often take the form of wondering if I’m cursed to destroy myself or the ones I love, just like some of my ancestors. This song is a journal entry from a day I felt very weighed down by that baggage.

"Musically, "Fear" is indebted to The Roches, the Plastic Ono Band, Richard and Linda Thompson, and John Cale. Arranging it was a fun and intuitive process in collaboration with Don Godwin, and it arrived pretty naturally at its final state."

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Ashley Shadow (feat. Bonnie Prince Billy) - Don't Slow Me Down.

The Vancouver, B.C.-based songwriter, Ashley Shadowhas just shared the video for her recent Pitchfork, Stereogum and Brooklyn Vegan-tipped single, "Don't Slow Me Down" (feat Bonnie "Prince" Billy). The visual piece, directed by Tyler McLeod, comes off the back of critical acclaim for the recent album, Only the End – out now via Felte – which found positive support from Pitchfork, MOJO, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, All Music, Secret Meeting and more upon release.

The video is a moving addition to the music. Filmed separately it finds Ashley and Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham) connecting in isolation to produce something that touches on nostalgic references, presented with stuttering tape reels and analog effects.

Speaking about the making of the video, Ashley says: "Since we had trouble connecting in the flesh with Will Oldham we decided to get creative with our approach to this video. I asked Will to send some footage to the song with little direction and said to get as weird as he wanted with it, he’s a professional.

When Will’s footage arrived Tyler McLeod and I were pumped up and the gears started turning. The creative juices were flowing and it all unfolded a wave of cosmic vibrations. Through analog effects and nostalgic references the video took on its own life and we succumbed to the creative forces of multi-dimensional techniques. Thus a video was born."

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Flor and The Sea - Sketch Club - Rampton Prom - Looms

Flor and The Sea have just released their new E.P 'Kings & Queens'. Last month we shared 'A Candid Lie' from the collection and we now have the full set streaming below, this really is a sumptuous collection of indie electro music. ===== Yesterday Sketch Club released 'Futile Pursuits' which is a rhythmic and sweeping alt rocker with some fabulous melodic hooks. ===== Rampton Prom debut single 'Too Baby' is a stunning and dreamy song that flows along and demands an immediate replay. ===== Brooklyn rockers Looms have shared 'Obvious' a song that packs plenty of power, emotion and some very catchy vibes.

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Flor and The Sea - Kings & Queens (E.P).

The songs of Flor and the Sea’s debut EP Kings & Queens invite listeners to surrender themselves to the stream of music: to dream, to dance and to defy the world’s tumult for a moment and abandon themselves to the group’s heady stylistic fusion. Pop elements meld with electronica throughout their songwriting, inviting a host of esoteric influences from dubstep, synth pop and trap to join them. 

It’s a melting pot of style that recalls the work of Flume, Miike Snow or Alt-J. Co-produced by composer Dieter Dolezel and mixed by Moritz Enders (Casper, Kraftclub), the songs are a multifaceted exploration of sound and songwriting. From the lilting mythology-evoking arpeggios of ‘Arcadia’ to the electro propulsive ambience of ‘Dark Minds’ and the bleak dystopian piano keys chiming through ‘Reconnect’, Kings & Queens reveals a restless group with a unique and voracious musical chemistry.

Munich-based indie/electropop duo Flor and the Sea was founded in 2015 as a five-piece project. With the release of debut singles ‘Hold Your Breath’ and ‘Shed No Tear’, as well as live gigs at Digital/Analog Festival and the Muffat Winterfest among others, the band generated a lot of buzz in short time and were featured as ‘Band of the Week’ by the Suddeutsche Zeitung/SZ Junge Leute in early 2017. After the group split up later that year, Marc Aretz (guitar/synth) and Chaem (vox) decided to keep Flor and the Sea alive as a duo. 

Redesigning their sound from scratch, they incorporated influences from bands like Alt J, Radiohead and Portishead. Singles ‘Dark Minds’ and ‘Reconnect’ were birthed from the rubble and led to widespread acclaim, receiving regular airplay on radio stations like Ego-FM, Bayern 3, M94.5 and BR Puls, and landing glowing reviews on international blogs like Composer's Toolbox and York Calling. Capping it all, the duo performed live on Radio Fritz ‘Live on Air’ for the first time. Flor and The Sea resumed live performances in 2019, while simultaneously producing their debut EP Kings & Queens, and put together an elaborate new program with their own light show, visuals, masks, and the support of additional live musicians. A first taste of this show was presented at renowned festivals Theatron Musiksommer and Sound of Munich Now in 2019. 

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Sketch Club - Futile Pursuits.

“Futile Pursuits” is a reflection on the things we pursue in life that don't end up being good for us. Be it a relationship, a career or a dream, sometimes the things we chase the hardest end up being entirely unhealthy occupations. And sometimes as we stand in the bright lights of hindsight, we can see we were set to fail from the start.

Recorded in March at Phaedra Studios, Melbourne with producer John Lee (Augie March, Bananagun, Laura Jean), with mixing & mastering taking place remotely via several hundred discerning phone calls over the following months during lock-down. Originally hailing from Dublin, Phillip Island and Brisbane, Sketch Club formed in Melbourne in 2009 via a classified ad left on an online forum for music nerds.

The band quickly settled on a song writing method that works best for the indie-rock outfit - 3 gentlemen making noise in a red velvet room until something good happens. And good would be some cinematic pop with a dark edge & a little swagger.

With songs from their 2017 EP “Primal Calls & Graceless Falls” finding their way on to radio rotation and Spotify’s New Music Friday (NL) playlist, the 3-piece continued to write, play and chin rub their way towards a new body of work. This inspired time has resulted in the band’s debut LP “Departure Lounge Transmissions, out 4th December 2020!

Sketch Club · Futile Pursuits

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Rampton Prom - Too Baby.

Self-professed, ageing, wannabe pop stars, Jonny (Bubs), Ryan (Breeze) and Gina (Queen G) reveal new project Rampton Prom.

Out of a dead-end band that fell apart after years of utter disappointment, three members regrouped to form the new alt-pop project. 

Debut single 'Too Baby' takes cues from their influences of contemporary pop and US hip hop, with their unique mix of choppy beats, poetic lyricism and quirky analogue arrangements (plus a sprinkle of vibraphone).

'Too Baby' is the first track we made together as ‘Prom. We wanted to make a low-key pop groove with a lyrical sense of unease. "I guess I feel like a bit of a wimp sometimes, like I need to toughen up". - Gina 'Queen G' Leonard.

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Looms - Obvious.

"Obvious", is the new standalone single from Brooklyn rockers Looms, their second of 2020 following “My Stupid Life”.

On the track, the band's Sharif Mekawy (lead vox, guitar, keys) shares, "this is a song about realizing how obvious your feelings are for someone after being so uncertain."

Looms entered the studio in January 2020 with the goal of recording five new songs and releasing them throughout the year as singles. The first song was to have an accompanying music video and be released coinciding a trip to SXSW. Unfortunately, everything derailed once March came, and we took a few months apart to deal with the world.

'My Stupid Life' (which has new meaning in these times) was finally released in June, and we've been rehearsing, livestreaming, writing, and trying to continue on as a band as best we can in the moment. It's a weird year for everyone, but we're moving forward.

Good Eye Records · Looms - "Obvious"

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