This Is The Deep - A. Lee Edwards - Starpainter - Kate Prendergast - Lottie McLeod - Cassady Southern

Photo - Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

This Is The Deep - I'm Making.

London collective This Is The Deep announce their debut album Everything (Dick Herman, The Whale and The End Of The Beginning) arriving November 11th via 5dB Records (Mould, Martial Arts, anaiis, Ashaine White), and release of the kaleidoscopic and hallucinatory 'I'm Making.' Self-produced with additional production from SHOLTO, David Bardon, and Patrick Fitzroy (Katy J Pearson, Sorry), the upcoming album Everything is a richly detailed body of work that balances instinctive indie immediacy with the band’s broader, cinematic and playful art-rock ambitions. Across the record, a surreal fable emerges, unfolding through themes of perception, desire, consumption and escape.

New single 'I'm Making' brings all the contrasting elements to life. Pivoting between post-punk urgency, chamber-pop elegance and psychedelic abstraction, the track moves through jagged rhythmic shifts and intricate arrangements of strings, harp, bass, synth, guitars and percussion. Restless and unpredictable, it captures This Is The Deep’s ability to balance melodic immediacy with a persistent sense of the uncanny.

The result is a sound that moves fluidly between surreal, The Mighty Boosh-like imagery and a wide musical palette spanning the orchestral expansiveness of Smile-era Beach Boys, the chambered intensity of Black Country, New Road, the decadent theatricality of Roxy Music, and the experimental pop sensibilities of The Beatles.

Playful, curious and gloriously unconcerned with genre boundaries, the track captures a collective equally interested in experimentation and melody. Speaking about the single, band leader Ranald explains: "I'm Making is a song that explores the idea that life is more creative than we think. We make many things we don't even realise: Journeys, conversations, faces, spaces, and ultimately our own realities." 

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Photo - Molly Harris.

A. Lee Edwards - Without You.

A. Lee Edwards' latest single, "Without You," is out now. A quietly powerful song built around Alan's warm vocals and guitar, it carries a sense of reflection and longing, with an emotional weight that sneaks up on you.

"Without You" was inspired by a line from an old newspaper editorial I carried folded up in my wallet for years. The song came from thinking about disappearing mill towns, fading dreams, lost love, and how a lot of the things that once made life feel hopeful and connected seem to be slipping away. It’s about personal loss, but also the feeling that an entire way of life is disappearing.

At the center is Edwards’ self-taught fingerpicking guitar—patient, melodic, and unadorned. His playing forms the backbone for songs that remain sparse, sweet, and disarmingly direct. Like the work of Raymond Carver after Gordon Lish, Edwards’ writing finds its power in understatement, illuminating small moments of everyday life with clarity and emotional weight. The songs continue his ongoing meditation on what it means to be human, shaped by experience, sobriety, and the quiet rewards that come from paying attention.

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Starpainter - Rabbits.

After sharing the stunning single "I Found a River" at the beginning of June, this week Starpainter officially confirm their new album, Cayenne Flowerbed, will be out Sept. 9 on Ram On Records. The pride of Lethbridge, Alberta has also released the single "Rabbits" and announced fall Canadian tour dates in support of the album.

Cayenne Flowerbed is the follow-up to Starpainter's acclaimed 2023 album Rattlesnake Dream, and carries their musical vision into uncharted territory with the help of producer Chris Dadge (Alvvays, Chad VanGaalen). "Rabbits" showcases the band's more meditative side, musically echoing artists like My Morning Jacket and Fleet Foxes.

Singer/songwriter Joel Stretch explains, "'Rabbits' explores the ghost-like space certain people take up in my mind after they're no longer physically present -- friends, family, or artists I admire who have died, or even just people I used to be close to that I've lost touch with. I still live with their guiding presence and perspectives sort of looming over me even though they're not around in my life anymore. I really love the parts everyone in the band laid down on this one. It's one of my all-time favourite arrangements on a Starpainter tune."

Starpainter -- who along with Stretch is comprised of Joel Gray, Mickey Hayward, Dylan Wagner, Bailey Kate, and Tyler Stewart -- intended Cayenne Flowerbed, to be a bold artistic statement, exploring new sides of their signature indie-twang sound. Across the album's eleven tracks, the blend of cinematic folk, fuzzy country rock, and richly textured pop songs reflects how the band has honed its approach over the past few years of performing together.

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Kate Prendergast - Exhale.

“There’s no I left in this team.” Hidden within an ethereal wrapping of melodic guitar and soulful piano, Exhale is a bittersweet reflection of hard truths about the struggle of maintaining one-sided relationships. A mix of emotional turmoil, powerful vocals, and a rich musical tapestry, Exhale takes us on a journey through oscillating cycles of hope and failure. It raises caution about self-criticism and the treacherous comforts of familiarity in relationships where disappointment and disillusionment reign.

Written by Kate Prendergast, Exhale is the first track in her forthcoming EP also called Exhale. It continues the Meath based singer-songwriter's collaboration with veteran producer Declan Legge of Big Space Studios and is released under his Stray Dogs Records Label.

"Something brand new from Kate Prendergast who worships at the altar of Radiohead. But to me her music has been funnelled through the autumnal Irish countryside and it came out even more interesting than Radiohead. It's very Irish, it's very up my street, a song called Exhale on BBC Introducing."     Taylor Arthur Johnson, BBC Introducing.

Kate Prendergast is a young, rising Irish multi-instrumentalist with a gift for crafting deeply evocative songs, blending indie folk, blues, country and alternative rock. Her music is a raw and soulful mix of personal reflection and sharp storytelling, shaped by influences ranging from Bob Dylan to Radiohead and Jeff Buckley.

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Lottie McLeod - Wednesdays at the Waterloo.

Magan-djin/Brisbane-based singer-songwriter Lottie McLeod shows off her wry, lighter and more playful side on new single + video 'Wednesdays at the Waterloo,' a song that sprung up organically about losing at pub trivia due to a wordless crush on your teammate, taking the warm, indie-pop/alt-country sounds of previous single 'Sunburnt' to starry-eyed heights. The new music comes as McLeod is set to embark on tour in October across so-called VIC, NSW and QLD in support of her forthcoming The Boathouse EP; also recently announced as local support for Harlan Goode. The Boathouse EP which will include previous singles 'Important To You' and 'Sunburnt' is out Friday 25 September.

With its light-hearted indie-pop/alt-folk bounce and Lottie McLeod's wry-yet-rose-tinted breathless vocals & lyricism - almost following the circular rhythms of what it's like to have a crush's name going round your head, 'Wednesdays at the Waterloo' and its tongue-in-cheek clip paint the picture of a ultra-specific situation: doggedly losing each week at pub trivia just to spend time with an unknowing crush. 

Thanks to Lottie McLeod's "reputation for turning hyper-personal moments into something painfully recognisable" (Backseat Mafia UK), her sharp-yet-warm pen renders 'Wednesdays at the Waterloo', at its core, into a song about being left wordless by someone, wanting to tell them how you feel but it never seems like the right time, and choosing - with a self-aware smile - to keep quiet about it, knowing that can't last but getting a little lost in it all anyway. 

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Cassady Southern - Wild Horses.

Sometimes a cover of a classic song comes along that simply cannot be ignored. I'm old enough to remember the original first time around, and there is no point repeating exactly the same, so a fresher, less intense yet very personal take, really does work for Beehive Candy. So to the background: This cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”, by singer-songwriter Cassady Southern, is based on an acoustic guitar recording by her late father, John, which she found after his passing. Cassady has built on this recording, adding a compelling and unique vocal take accompanied by stunning electric guitar and drums inspired by the original recording. 

This rendition honours their lifelong love of the band and transforms a timeless classic into a moving tribute to family and enduring influence. It features John Southern on acoustic guitar, Rob Drummond on electric guitar, Glenn Welman on drums, Luke Payne on bass, Cassady Southern on vocals and Luke Payne on backing vocals.

John Southern recorded the acoustic guitar himself and the vocals and electric guitar were recorded at Parliament Studios by Luke Payne (Luke Payne Sound), mixed by Luke Payne, produced by Luke and Cassady and mastered by Darren Ziesing (Millennium Mastering).

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Sheva Elliot - Starpainter - Freyja Elsy - Lentamente - The Spongetones - The October Effect

Sheva Elliot - Birds of a Feather.

Los Angeles-born singer, songwriter, and producer Sheva Elliot makes music that lives where roots rock, soul, Americana, gospel, and classic rock collide. A lifelong vocalist who began singing at age four, Elliot has built a reputation for music that is both emotionally raw and stylistically fearless, songs rooted in lived experience, instinct, and a refusal to flatten the complexity of being human.

Her work often explores what she calls “the truth of the human experience”: freedom, vulnerability, sensuality, playfulness, heartbreak, humor, and the courage to become who you really are. Whether delivering a slow-burning torch song or a swaggering rock anthem, Elliot writes with an autobiographical honesty that feels timeless and lived-in.

Elliot’s recent releases have begun to cut through with both audiences and tastemakers, earning editorial support and growing press attention while helping her carve out a distinct space in the modern roots and Americana landscape. Her previous single, “Ruler of My Heart,” marked a creative breakthrough,  a cinematic, soul-infused release that showcased her vocal power and emotional depth, and further established her as an artist to watch in the next wave of genre-blending singer-songwriters.

Following that momentum, Elliot returns with “Birds of a Feather,” a twangy, upbeat roots-rock single that reveals another side of her artistry, bolder, freer, and more mischievous. Driven by the tension between doing what’s expected and doing what feels right, the song captures the thrill of choosing desire over approval and instinct over image.

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Starpainter - I Found a River.

The pride of Lethbridge, a city in southern Alberta that serves as the hub of the local rural community, Starpainter likes to think of itself in similar geographic terms—a little bit town, and a little bit country. The six-piece unit demonstrated that on 2023’s Rattlesnake Dream, and is set to follow it up this fall with a new album that sees the band pushing its sonic ambitions even further.

Produced in Calgary by Chris Dadge—who also plays drums with Alvvays and Chad VanGaalen—first single “I Found a River,” adds a bit of shoegaze haziness to Starpainter’s alt-country foundation. Stretch says the song came to him quickly as a simple folk-rock tune, but blossomed into something entirely unexpected when they got into the studio, particularly once lead guitarist Joel Grey broke out his fuzz box.

Stretch explains, “‘I Found a River’ explores a déjà vu feeling that hits pretty often for me. Have I been here before? In this room with these exact people having this exact conversation? It can be a nice feeling sometimes—there is comfort and pleasure to be found in life’s repetitions. I used to see life in terms of growth and forward movement; in some ways I still do, but these days I notice cycles and seasons that leave and return. So, I think this song celebrates familiarity and dependability.”

"I Found A River" is further proof that Starpainter is a band determined not to be pigeonholed, but instead evolve with each album. As Stretch says, “I guess the through-line with the artists that inspire me the most is longevity and a willingness to try out bold ideas and create something that reflects wherever they’re at.” 

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Photo - Ed Townend

Freyja Elsy - In My Veins.

‘In My Veins’ is the first single from Freyja Elsy’s upcoming 2026 EP to stop the world turning. The track captures vivid vignettes of childhood, quiet moments of inner turmoil, and a search for hope in the darkness. Anchored by Elsy’s emphatic voice, classically trained composition and innovative, cinematic production, it weaves together dramatic piano and luscious string swells with subtle electronic details to create an immersive, emotionally charged ‘folktronica’ sound while carrying a nostalgic undercurrent reminiscent of mid-2000s indie pop. The track was recently selected as a “Molly’s Must Add” on BBC Radio Wales by presenter Molly Palmer.

“Loud words taste violent, so I whisper.” The song centres on moments of emotional disconnect, tracing the tension between the desire to reach out and the instinct to retreat inward. Its lyrics move between quiet vulnerability and suppressed intensity, capturing the difficulty of expressing what sits just beneath the surface. As Freyja explains: “It’s about reflecting on moments from early life, realising the drastic impact they can have on the rest of your life, for better or worse, and trying to reconnect with emotions after a long period of numbness.”

Built from a rediscovered fragment, the track grew outward into something expansive in scale. As Freyja describes, “The song started with a piano loop I had forgotten that I’d recorded into my electric piano years prior, and used that as the foundational tool to build up the song layers from there. The melody transmuted into what is now the main guitar melody that meanders and flows around the lyrics, expanding into a gentle anti-melody underneath the entire song.” The arrangement unfolds from this core idea, mirroring the song’s emotional push and pull while maintaining a sense of forward momentum around its introspective core.

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Photo - Adriàn Mora

Lentamente - Bienvenida (Album).

Burnt Toast Vinyl releases Lentamente's Bienvenida, an album by San Jose, Costa Rica-based post-punk, dream pop and shoegaze band, today June 5. The Spanish language band is comprozed of members of other popular Costa Rican shoegaze bands Adiós Cometa and Dylan Thomas. Since 2020, Lentamente has released three full-length albums, two EPs, and several singles through independent labels such as Z Tapes, Furia, and Stupid Decisions, among others. Their music has been issued in multiple formats, including cassette, seven-inch vinyl, and CD.

Lentamente is the moniker of musician and producer Arío Rojas. For live performances, the Ario is joined by Pablo Matamoros (Adiós Cometa), Esteban Fuentes, Diego Cubillo (Decora, Nuncamuere), and Sebastián Álvarez (Dylan Thomas., A Su Ladera)

The third full-length album, Bienvenida, was released in October 2023 and represents the most polished work in the band’s history. The record marked a turning point for Lentamente, solidifying the project’s longevity and expanding its recognition within the Latin American indie scene. The album has a shoegaze/dream pop sound with Cocteau Twins/Robin Guthrie guitars and the catchy energy of The Radio Department.

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The Spongetones - (I Really Need) To Kiss You.

Legendary power poppers The Spongetones return to continue their ongoing series of standalone singles with the all-new track “(I Really Need) To Kiss You,” a pitch-perfect swinging chamber pop mini-masterpiece that's sure to follow their recent hit “So Long” onto the indie airwaves and into their longtime fans' hearts. 

“(I Really Need) To Kiss You,” is resplendent with chamber pop arrangement touches evoking the likes of Pet Sounds, Sgt. Peppers and Odessey and Oracle while rocking out like only The Spongetones can. Its natural fit within the band's oeuvre makes it a delightful surprise that, after the recent songs showing off the undimmed songwriting chops of founders Hoover, Stoeckel and Walters, it's the newest member of the band who provided the melodic framework for “To Kiss You.” As drummer-vocalist Eric Willhelm tells it, “I’ve had this melody knocking around in my head for quite some time. Over the years it’s had placeholder lyrics with subjects ranging from a girl dressed as a fish stick to the agony of misinterpreting a person’s body language. I decided to see what The Spongetones' brains trust could do with it, and Jamie came up with some great lyrics that capture the optimistic nature of the melody. 

From there everything else fell into place, with Steve and Pat adding their own delicious talents. So finally, after years of bouncing around my head, the song is ready to leave the nest.” Hoover picks up the tale: “Eric sent me a copy of a demo he had put together of what we now call '(I Really Need) To Kiss You.' Great sounding thing, and I immediately said Hell yeah! Let me at it! All I needed was lyrics, and they streamed to me from 'above.' It was almost like taking dictation. It happens like that every so often, and this was such a time. I really just got the lyrics from how the music made me feel. They fell right into the track very quickly.

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The October Effect - Repeat After Me.

Repeat After Me” is The October Effect at their most playful, a catchy tongue-in-cheek anthem about the people who book the same holiday, in the same place, every single year. Full of warmth, humour, and instantly recognisable scenes, the single captures the charm of all-inclusive tradition with a big chorus and an affectionate wink.

Formed in 2023 in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, UK, The October Effect grew organically with an idea to record songs from songwriter and guitarist Laurence (aka Loz) Collins with the fantastic vocals of Cath Back.  Laurence's songs blend elements of jazz and pop with a reflective, atmospheric edge - a very real 'October effect'. With an award-winning background in musical theatre, vocalist Cath Back adds depth and nuance to the band’s understated, emotionally-driven sound. The band is completed by its latest member, Mike Gutsell (bass and backing vocals), who has been collaborating musically with Laurence since they were teenagers.

The band's debut EP, Paint Yourself a Picture, was recorded at 13 Sound Studios, Weston-super-Mare and released in January 2026. The EP introduces The October Effect’s distinctive approach — thoughtful songwriting, emotionally resonant lyrics and a quietly confident sound.

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