With their new single “Go Go Go,” Realmonte from the canton of Basel-Landschaft in Switzerland invite you on a musical excursion that stylishly blends past and present. The band has created a captivating earworm that not only gets stuck in your head instantly but also makes your heart beat faster.
Over the past years, Realmonte have built up a solid fanbase through countless live performances. When they’re not writing their own songs like “Go Go Go,” they enjoy taking on current hits and reinterpreting them. They run these songs through a retro filter—refined, soulful, jazzy, with a touch of swing and a bluesy note. The result is a charming mix that revives the spirit of the 1950s and 60s without losing its modern edge.
With their own track “Go Go Go,” the band stays true to this style while delivering an energetic piece that combines vintage aesthetics with a contemporary pop attitude. The musicians certainly have the skill. Among those in Realmonte is Ramaon Vaca, a bassist who has played with countless bands and is still well known from the Basel indie pop heroes of the 1990s, Phébus.
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Helsinki-based Lala Salama released their new single Muistot haalistuu on Friday, March 27, marking the band’s first new song since their acclaimed debut album Miltähän me näytettäis yhdessä. The single also opens a new chapter for the band’s line-up, with Elli Holmström, known from Drug Store Raid, joining as bassist.
Muistot haalistuu brings out a more wistful and atmospheric side of Lala Salama. Moving between dream pop, shoegaze and indie rock, the song centres on the pain of letting go, memories that slowly begin to fade, and the feeling that when something ends, something new may also begin to take shape.
“We’re super excited about this new phase and about Elli being part of it. This song is maybe a kind of in-between point, and it’s really from here that we start properly building the new Lala Salama,” says guitarist and singer Rosa Jules.
“The song was born in a space of transition. It captures the feeling of leaving something meaningful behind: a person, a moment, or an entire phase of life. At the same time, it reminds us that even when something disappears, new possibilities begin to open up.”
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A woman is trapped on a cruise ship. A preacher decides to go down with his town. A man at the florist finds himself lost in the meaning of the arrangement. These and other people at personal and societal extremes are the subjects of ten timely, timeless short stories collected as meticulously crafted pop songs by The New Pornographers on their new album, The Former Site Of, released yesterday March 27 on Merge Records.
The album, like Continue as a Guest, finds The New Pornographers—bandleader A.C. Newman, Neko Case, Kathryn Calder, John Collins, and Todd Fancey expanding their already rich catalog in surprising fashion. Joined for this album by legendary session drummer Charley Drayton (Divinyls, The Cult, The Rolling Stones, Fiona Apple), the space contained in a New Pornographer’s song has never been this clearly articulated or generously textured, giving a distinct pulse to the characters whose lives spill out in Newman’s tender, evocative lyrics.
The Former Site Of adds new depth to the sound Newman shook loose through building and recording in a home studio, fine-tuning the band’s creative process far beyond the lockdown-era necessities of remote collaboration. “Having time in my studio really opened things up,” he explains. “I don’t like wasting my bandmates’ time, and always felt guilty when I’d give them a song, ask them to do something, then completely change the song and ask them to do it again. Now I can get the skeleton of a song together first—just a couple of elements, the key feeling, really as little as possible—before bringing it to the band and running from there.”
Two albums into this shift, The New Pornographers are creating universes of intricately textured sound and narrative detail, every layer keyed to reveal an unexpected new facet. As on Continue as a Guest, one of the more readily apparent layers is the way a song forms itself around a featured instrument. On The Former Site Of, it’s a mandolin which, in Carl Newman’s hands, lends lead single “Votive” its sense of acceleration as it builds from the atmospheric sweep of its synth and keyboard opening to a classic, wide-open jam.
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Ashley Monroe has spent nearly 25 years building a life and career in Nashville, writing songs, making records, and earning the respect of her peers. But even with all she’s accomplished, Monroe has often felt invisible in the very town she’s devoted her life to. On her surprise-released album Dear Nashville, she puts those conflicted feelings front and center.
“I had a writing session on the books with Luke and I’d woken up that morning with a storm in my heart, like, ‘My gosh, have I done this all for nothing?’” she says. “When I got to Luke's house that day, I knew I had to address my hurt feelings and get it out of my system. I told him the idea of ‘I Hate Nashville’ and he loved it. That song put everything into motion. We felt the window of all the muses open, and decided that I’m going to say what I feel and make it a whole project.”
Those emotions come through immediately in “I Hate Nashville,” a title that masks her deep love for the genre. “Country music is the reason I’m alive,” she declares.
“This album started with Ashley bringing the title, "I Hate Nashville," to the room one day,” Luke Laird explains. “The music is what brings most songwriters to this town – but when it comes to the business, that’s when people can get burned out. So Ashley and I talked that day about our love for country music, the songs and the people – we had such a good day talking about all of our favorite Nashville memories and what led us both here. I love how honest Ashley is in her writing and just how pure her singing is. She really is the triple threat: artist, songwriter, and producer. We had so much fun making this record. No rules… just what felt right.”
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Alys North is an emerging artist we think you’ll genuinely enjoy. Alys new single is called Replace You With and was released yesterday. Dynamic, raw, and fiercely authentic, Alys North brings a storyteller’s fire to every stage she steps onto. Raised in a small Northern Territory town, before honing her skills and passion in Brisbane, Australia, Alys can now be found carving out her sound in venues and streets around Cardiff and the UK.
Known for lyrics that land with striking honesty—the kind that stops new listeners in their tracks, Alys’ songwriting is unfiltered and unafraid, offering a powerful mix of vulnerability and grit. For her growing audience, each performance is more than a show—it’s an invitation into the real, unpolished life of an artist who refuses to hold back.
Alys blends heartfelt songwriting with a raw, authentic vocal style, creating music that connects immediately. In the build up to today's release, this track has been played on stations in both the UK and Oceanic scenes, with early charting on Amazing Radio (up to #27 from initial entry at #32!), as well as 'B' Playlisting on Amazing Radio UK, and a fantastic debut and reception through BBC Introducing, which has led to placement on the BBC Radio Wales A List!
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| Photo - Nicholas O’Donnell |
Galway via London fourpiece The Clockworks have this weekend shared their second full-length musical project with brand-new album ‘The Entertainment’ out now via V2 Records. The Clockworks introduced themselves and their cinematic sound with debut album ‘Exit Strategy’ in 2023 and their self-titled EP ‘The Clockworks’ in 2022, gaining acclaim from the likes of BBC 6Music and BBC Radio 1. With a sonic palate that pulls from seemingly disparate regions of the musical landscape, namechecking Daft Punk next to Pixies, next to Ennio Morricone, they are also influenced through their passion for film and literature. Lyrically, singer and lyricist James McGregor writes with purpose, integrity and emotion, balancing light with darkness and finding poetic intrigue in everyday life.
New album ‘The Entertainment’ was largely written and recorded in isolation and is a project that looks to loneliness and connection in its exploration of life in the modern world. The framework for the album came intuitively and fast, carving out a sonic landscape built around tension and release; moments of darkness juxtaposed with glimmers of light. A raft of cinematic inspirations were on the moodboard - Bladerunner, Drive, the works of Fellini – alongside cover art inspired by an old LIFE Magazine cover featuring the first theatre to show 3D films. Their second record is not so much a concept album, but more a ‘work of friction’. The band say;
“The whole album seems to be filled with push and pull, black and white. There is such a conflict and contrast between everything. Even just recording the music, we did it all separately and then put it back together.” “We had the idea to record in a way that was in keeping with what the album is talking about, and to try and do it in isolation completely. We wanted creatively to turn in and see what we could do, so then when we did bring it all together, the parts had all this tension to play with.”
“We had this really strong identity for the album from the start, which meant that we could then spend so much time on the details. It’s like if you have all the beats of the film, then you can tell the actors to go and improv between them.”
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