This week Mechanical Kiss, Puzzle Muteson’s first album in eight years has been released. His unmistakable voice finds a new setting in these ten songs, dense electronics, deep bass and the restless movement of Bangkok. Much of Mechanical Kiss took shape on foot. In Bangkok, Terry Magson walked with an MP3 player loaded with electronic sketches by Manuele Chiaravalloti, writing lyrics as he went.
His fourth album for Bedroom Community sits closer to the nocturnal unease of Tricky’s Maxinquaye than the spare intimacy of Nick Drake’s Pink Moon. The voice remains at the centre, surrounded by deep bass and restless electronics.
Produced by Chiaravalloti and Valgeir Sigurðsson, who mixed and mastered at Greenhouse Studios, the album features contributions from Nico Muhly, Francesco Fabris, Benjamin Meyer and Giovanni Corgiat Mecio. Chantal Acda joins Terry on “Above the Stage”. Begin with “Shiota”, or settle in for all ten songs. Mechanical Kiss is available now on CD and digital.
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Maren Davidsen is a singer-songwriter from Stavanger, Norway, whose music blends Nordic americana with country and folk influences, rooted in honest storytelling and an organic, song-led sound. After spending eight years in London, she moved to Oslo in 2023 in search of the space and clarity to write new music. Having picked up the guitar at six years old and grown up listening to artists such as Mark Knopfler, Bruce Springsteen and Willie Nelson, songwriting has long been part of her life. It was during her early adult years in London, particularly while immersed in Mayfair’s party district, that she began pursuing music more seriously. The highs and upheavals of those years eventually led her back to Norway, where she began writing what would become her debut album, This Is Where I Leave You.
“The music is all based on personal experiences, dreams or interpretations of what I go through in life. Feelings of being lost, misunderstood and of course having your heartbroken,” says Maren.
The album’s title reflects both leaving another person behind and leaving behind the version of herself that accepted less than she deserved. Across This Is Where I Leave You, those experiences form the basis of a record shaped by heartbreak, change and the emotions surrounding the end of a relationship.
At the centre of the record is its focus track, “Dimensions,” a folky exploration of a relationship that became too strong and simply could not survive in the real world. The song imagines an alternate universe where that love can still exist, with the two people forced to meet in their dreams, separated from the circumstances and rules that made their relationship impossible. The dream world becomes both a refuge and a way of surviving the pain.
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Following her acclaimed 2024 album Waiting For Change, Raven Reid is set to return on Oct. 30, 2026 with Stages Of Gold, a new 10-song collection that once again offers unflinching glimpses of her life as an Indigenous woman, as well as the lives of members of her community.
On the upbeat single “Too Late,” Raven tells a more traditional tale of a potential love affair that didn’t get the chance to blossom due to bad timing. “‘Too Late’ is about a missed connection,” she says. “There was a guy I really liked, but I took too long to tell him. We became friends instead because I was too scared to say how I really felt.”
Made at Toronto’s Gold Standard Recorders with engineers Ron Skinner and Paul Phelan, Stages Of Gold also marks a creative milestone for Reid as it was her first experience recording live off the floor with a full band that included top-notch players such as guitarist Kevin Laliberté (Sultans Of String) and drummer Dani Nash (July Talk, Andy Shauf). It all inspired Raven to embrace her inner Lucinda Williams on “Too Late,” owning her heartache while channelling it into a song suitable for blasting on a car radio with the windows down.
Born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, with ancestral connections to the Mikisew Cree First Nation in Alberta, Raven was a victim of the Canadian government’s “Sixties Scoop” policies that took Indigenous children from their birth parents and placed them into the child welfare system and making them eligible to be adopted by white families. In Raven’s case, she was raised in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan where her artistic journey began at age six with short stories and poetry that she eventually turned into songs once teaching herself how to play guitar.
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| Photo - Nathaniel Wood |
This week Award-winning rock band OK Go have announced the release of their songs “Return” and “Shooting the Moon” performed on handbells. The song “Return” was originally released on the band’s self-titled debut record from 2002, OK Go, while “Shooting the Moon” was originally featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack and then released on the record, Of the Blue Colour of the Sky (Extra Nice Edition) from 2010. These arrangements celebrate the band’s unique live show experience: you never know what will happen at an OK Go show, except that it will be extraordinary and there will be lots of confetti.
Damian Kulash says: “Handbells are among the only instruments that can't really be played by a single person. They require an ensemble, and I love that. I love that they're definitionally communal: they're not about personal expression, they're about cooperation and losing yourself in the larger whole, like a singer melting into a choir.
They were one of the first instruments I ever played, thanks to my first grade music teacher, and I've always been enamored of them: their stately, clear beauty, their stark simplicity. To me, their holiness comes not from their religious overtones but from the purity of their sound and the collaboration in making it.”
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Shropshire England based singer-songwriter and performer Macy O brings together soulful pop, R&B and indie influences, drawing on the rich sounds of soul and Motown that shaped her musical upbringing. Her music combines powerful vocals with expressive songwriting and an energetic stage presence. Having explored a variety of genres throughout her career, from pop and R&B to dance music, Macy is now embracing the sounds that first inspired her, marking a new chapter in her musical journey.
Her new single, “Roll With Me Tonight”, offers a taste of her upcoming soul EP, Soul Searching. Exploring the excitement and uncertainty of an unexpected attraction, the song captures the internal struggle between playing it safe and surrendering to the moment. Musically, the track embraces a rich, sultry sound, with prominent bass, strings and piano complementing Macy's powerful yet controlled vocals. Oozing with confidence and sensuality the song emphasises the message of trusting your instincts and allowing yourself to embrace new experiences. With its soulful sound and empowering energy, “Roll With Me Tonight” will appeal to fans of Olivia Dean, Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.
Soul Searching is set for release on November 27th via So, Let’s Talk / Moose Records, with distribution through Stem. The EP sees Macy return to the soul and Motown sounds she grew up listening to. Speaking about the inspiration behind the new music, she explains, “All the new music is all about discovering a part of yourself that was previously buried and finding inner peace through the realisation of your own strength.” Through the EP, Macy hopes to inspire others to be confident and sure in their feelings and subsequent decisions, and to embrace their strength and self-awareness.
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Marking over a decade of their celebrated post-punk sound, Manchester four-piece PINS return today with energetic new single ‘All Over’ and announce the release of their fourth album ‘If I’m Alive Now, Then I Was Dead’ released on 12th February via Haus of PINS.
PINS – friends Faith Vern, Lois MacDonald, Kyoko Swan and Abbi Phillips – released their album ‘Girls Like Us’ in 2013, followed by the acclaimed ‘Wild Nights’ in 2015, which marked its 10-year anniversary last year, their Bad Thing EP (featuring Iggy Pop) in 2017, and ‘Hot Slick’ in 2020. In February, they return with their fourth record ‘If I’m Alive Now, Then I Was Dead’, which marks a profound rebirth for the band, signalling a fresh new chapter in their sound. Created as a cathartic exploration of existentialism, the deeply meaningful collection of songs explores the themes of true love and the complex dualities of life and death, with the album’s rebirth-themed title borrowed from a Sylvia Plath poem ‘Love Letter’. It can be pre-ordered here.
Introducing the album is new single ‘All Over’, which was recorded at Stockport’s Resonance Studios and engineered and mixed by Joel Patchett (King Krule, Let’s Eat Grandma), with the band leaning into a more organic and real approach to the recording process. Opening with poised yet disconcerting guitars, backed by fierce, smoky vocals that build into a chant-like anthemic chorus, the song references PINS early musical influences from the 60s girl-group sound of The Ronettes to the gritty punk of The Stooges. The video inspires a feeling of empowerment and new beginnings as it follows the band on a nocturnal journey through Manchester.
The band says, “’All Over’ started as a demo about desire. It was one of the most fully formed songs that we had when we started working on our new album. The structure and everything was already there, it was just about getting the sounds down. The energy is driving and it feels a little angular.”
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