Showing posts with label The Jack Rubies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Jack Rubies. Show all posts

Friday, 9 January 2026

Cheyenne - The Jack Rubies - Mesh - Alice Costelloe - Hirta - The Orielles

Cheyenne - Anticipating You.

The indie artist's latest drop bridges the intimate polish of Harry's House with the confident pop sheen of Sabrina Carpenter and Dua Lipa.
 
Cheyenne has made it clear that in 2026, she's here to smolder and wow audiences, and she is not holding back. With her latest single “Anticipating You”, the rising singer-songwriter blends the sensual pulse of retro inspired synth-pop with fun, modern textures. Built around shimmering synths, sun drenched guitar strums, and a radiant vocal, “Anticipating You” sounds like radio ready, chartworthy pop. Think Steve Lacy by candlelight or Harry Styles in his late-night, off-the-record era. “Itʼs craving this personʼs touch, intimacy, closeness, personality. Itʼs being so in love you canʼt get enough. You crave their touch and everything about them. Itʼs also craving the emotional intimacy that comes with sex and being intimate" Cheyenne says.
 
The track traces that longing with the perfect lyrics: “Lying wide awake, while you saturate every part of my brain…” she croons. There's a commanding, confident ownership in the way Cheyenne delivers on “Anticipating You.” She's unapologetically open to pleasure and that magnetic pull that changes your chemistry. As she readies a new body of work for 2026, her sound is expanding, her vision is sharpening, and her message is clear: vulnerability is power, and self-expression is sacred.
 
Coming off a standout Pirate Studios showcase and four previous singles that mapped her evolution, Anticipating You marks Cheyenne's fifth and final release before a new musical era begins in 2026. With upcoming shows slated across the East Coast, she's inviting fans into the next chapter of her story.


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The Jack Rubies - Be Good Or Be Gone.

With their new album Visions In The Bowling Alley announced at the end of last year and set for release on Vinyl, CD and Streaming in late January (23rd), UK postpunk veterans The Jack Rubies ofer up one more single to preview the record. “Be Good Or Be Gone,” a slice of groovy guitar pop as danceable and hook-heavy as anything from the band's four-decade history, is out today January 9, 2026.

may have emerged from the British C86 scene and be more often thought amongst the likes of Shriekback or Nick Cave, but there's something about the groove and hooks of “Be Good Or Be Gone” that whispers “Madchester” – think “Fool's Gold,” “Step On” or “Groovy Train”. You can most certainly dance to it, and the vocal interplay between Rubies frontman Wright and guest Cat Henry(returning after the last album's hit single “I'll Give You More”) is thrilling. It sounds like a party, and while the words betray an underlying darkness, it's of an almost pop-classicist bent, as direct as a set of Johnny Cash lyrics: “You crucify me then you dance up and down on my grave/That’s what I say even though it isn’t true.” Taken together, it's the stuf of which enduring hit singles are made.

“It's based on an almost forgotten sketch from yesteryear and with a nod to our past,” the band ofers, “a dance-favored and nostalgic meditation on the closing of a chapter.” The Rubies' SD Ineson features on harmonica, adding to the rootsy favor, and delivers signature guitar lines that complement Wright’s slide guitar and and tight postpunk funk rhythms. Drummer/producer Peter Maxted’s keyboard textures foat, then punctuate, while bass and percussion hold the beat close until gradually letting go as the track wistfully concludes. “It’s time to move on. Two empty deck chairs are all that’s left on a deserted beach,” the band says in summary. 


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Mesh - Exile.

Mesh unveil the stylish music video 'Exile' as the first new song from the UK alternative electronic duo since nine years! This single is an edit of the opening track of the English band's forthcoming new album "The Truth Doesn't Matter", which has been scheduled for release on March 27, 2026. 

Mesh comment on 'Exile': "I was trying to write some music that was uplifting but had a dark and moody undertone", Richard explains. "I had the chord structure and the chorus, but felt something was missing. That's when I added the arpeggio type line at the start. This changed the character of the song and gave it that hypnotic, driving feel. It is the glue that holds it all together. After we had finished mixing the album and almost a year after the music was written, Mark sent me the track with the vocals added. It was one of those moments when I knew immediately that this track had to be the single. It was as quick as that."
 
"We were about to go to Germany to mix the album with Olaf", Mark adds. "I still had a couple of instrumentals from Rich which had no lyrics or vocals. I loaded one into Cubasis on my phone and started working on it in dead time during the mixing. I needed inspiration, and Judit, the wife of our producer Olaf, gave me the only English books that she had: 'Chicken Soup for the Soul – Stories for a Better World' by various authors, and 'The Man Who Fell to Earth', which is a Bowie biography. I was also reading Heinlein's 'Stranger in a Strange Land' on my pad. The lyrics kind of just fell out of those influences. I recorded the vocals on the phone outside on Olaf's balcony and recorded them properly when I got home. It was all very last minute, but worth that last push."


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Alice Costelloe - How Can I.

London singer-songwriter Alice Costelloe shares new track 'How Can I' this week, the final preview of debut album 'Move On With The Year' out 6th February via Moshi Moshi Records. One of the album's most revealing moments, new track 'How Can I' skips blithely, all honeyed harmonies and tambourine shakes, while Costelloe wrestles with a dichotomous truth, both a question and a statement: “How can I / Still adore / You know I still adore you”.  

“So much of my childhood I had this feeling that something wasn’t right, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it,” Costelloe admits. “My dad was so different: he’d fall asleep mid-sentence with a lit cigarette in his mouth, he couldn’t be woken up no matter how much you tried, and when he wasn’t sleeping he’d take us on strange, and in retrospect, insanely dangerous adventures.” It wasn’t until her early teens, when her older sister confirmed his substance abuse, that those memories came into focus - an awakening that threads through the album’s writing.

Speaking more on the song release, Alice said: "When I was finishing the song, I read a quote from Feist where she said, ‘When you say something or sing something enough times, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy – it’s almost like casting spells.’ It made me think about what it would feel like playing songs full of sadness, night after night, and whether those were the spells I wanted to be casting,” Costelloe explains. “So I added the line ‘I am good, I’m enough, I’m surrounded by love’. I know it’s unbearably cheesy, but I wanted a moment in the set that could counteract some of the darker parts of the record and manifest something more positive."

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Photo - Ash Drummond.
Hirta - Black Chimneys.

"Black Chimneys", is the second single from Hirta's new LP 'Soft Peaks' to be released in February 2026. The song is the perfect anthem for blessing your new year. In Alistair's own words, "...it feels appropriate to share the song 'Black Chimneys’ as a simple New Year greeting, as we all do the thing we do every year where we take stock of where we are in our lives and reset to begin another year. 

The song itself is a reminder to myself of what’s important and, while not necessarily written as a new year song, has the recurring line, ‘Lang may yer lum reek’ - this is a traditional Scottish phrase that people use to toast or say farewell to friends and family around New Year. It translates as ‘long may your chimney smoke’ and symbolizes warmth, and having enough of what you need to be warm, safe and prosper, so it’s extra nice to be able to share it with you at this time."

Hirta is the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Alistair Paxton and this record hasn't left my rotation since I first heard it last autumn. Hirta’s ‘Soft Peaks’ finds solace in the natural world and comforts through an intriguing map of familiar trailheads and newly chartered terrain. The debut official release from Scottish - American multi instrumentalist, Alistair Paxton, ‘Soft Peaks’ casts a windswept and lonely spell yet retains an air of optimism across its ten warm and desolate tracks. 

This album was self produced and recorded in 2025 in sessions split between the Hudson Valley town of Nyack, NY and rural Bovina in the Western Catskill mountains culminating in both vinyl and digital releases under Paxton’s own imprint, Half Painted Door.

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Photo - Neelam Khan Vela.
The Orielles - You are Eating a Part of Yourself / To Undo the World Itself.

The Orielles have today shared double-single "You are Eating a Part of Yourself" and "To Undo the World Itself", two new tracks taken from their fourth studio album, Only You Left – out March 13 via Heavenly – a meticulous yet exploratory record which sees them emerge anew from their seven-year cycle where they began with Silver Dollar Moment (2018).

"To Undo the World Itself", has hints of Tara Clerkin Trio in the repeated, reverb-drenched vocal melodies, but also leans towards the expansive post-rock of Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky in its cathartic forward-motion and "You are Eating a Part of Yourself" shares a similar dark euphoria as both gradually submerge the listener in a glitch-laden tide of feedback and noise. Coupled with the rising harmonic progressions there’s a pervasive sense of bittersweetness, of time irrevocably passing by.

Accompanied by a video directed by Neelam Khan Vela which spans both tracks, the band said: "'You are Eating a Part of Yourself’ began when a durational guitar loop was released from the archive of improv’s recorded in Henry’s bedroom. The title, which comes from a video artwork dating 1996, captures the darkness emanating from the original recording, and reflects the clarity to be able to define that feeling some years later. Through music (and some words) we unfurled the emotion captured back then, as we put our ears up to the organs of the body orchestrating their own symphony and dissonance.

Closing track of the album ‘To Undo the World Itself’ sings of rebirth and reversal, or outstanding finality, depending on the impression that ‘Only You Left’ leaves you with. The cathartic crescendo meant that this was a favourite to play in the various live rooms that we wrote / recorded in, where it was trialled against the backdrops of thunderstorms and peaceful sunsets alike."

Neelam added about the video: "After almost a decade of collaborating with The Orielles, we share a connection that makes our creative process completely intuitive, like a long rally where ideas are passed back and forth without needing to be spoken. The band filmed with Lewis and Giulia in Manchester, and from that starting point I let the emotional pull of the tracks guide the edit, completing the video through what the music evoked and what the evolving images seemed to ask for."


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Saturday, 22 November 2025

The Burning North - Kugger - The Jack Rubies - Anja Churchill - Frank Popp Ensemble feat. Paul Weller

The Burning North - The Burning North (Album).

The Burning North is a collaboration between songwriter Thomas Siering and drummer prodcuer, Marco Giovino. The two have worked together on multiple projects in the past, but The Burning North, both the band and the album could very well be their finest. An album anchored by the impeccable vocals of Wendy Drown, Marco’s production and Thomas‘s heartfelt lyrics. The record explores a wide swath of styles and subject matter.

Siering says of the band and the album: I met Marco (Giovino) a dozen years ago through the great Nashville singer Elizabeth Cook. Marco was playing the drums for her, but then again, Marco has played the drums for just about everyone; Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Kris Kristofferson, and Sir Tom Jones to name a few. We worked together on four records with Rebecca De La Torre, a couple for The 81s with Tim Carroll and the After the News album with my friend Addi McDaniel.

In 2018, we also released an Elmore James tribute collection, Strange Angels ~ In Flight with Elmore James, with tracks by Jamey Johnson, Sir Tom, Warren Haynes, Billy Gibbons, Bettye LaVette, Rodney Crowell, Keb’ Mo’ and others. It garnered significant praise for its artistry, authenticity and assemble of players. Also, Marco’s mono production received particularly glowing notice.

The material for The Burning North was originally conceived as a bit of a concept album. When we brought Wendy (Drown) on board, you could hear her instant emotional attachment to the material. She really owned it. You felt like she had lived it. The record shines because of that. This album has diverse musical styles and it explores the expanse of human emotion but hopefully it ultimately feels like a coherent story, held together with gripping urgency and Marco’s impeccable production. 


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Photo - Guðmundur Óli Pálmason
Kugger - Interglacial (Album).

Kugger's third album with Bark At Your Owner, is a Interglacial theme album, that runs through the singles and stand alone ep. Featured artist are Svart Tulpan and Red Cell from Stockholm, Sweden. Bark At Your Owner Manifest - We want to bite the hand that feeds us, albeit gently. We bark and laugh in the face of conservatism! Bark At Your Owner (BAYO) advocates an inclusive and equal music industry where zero tolerance towards harassment and discrimination is the basis. We live in interglacial times. Interglacial times are unstable times of great change.

Change is the only constant in nature, without it, things stagnate and freeze. After a great freeze comes a thaw, but when things heat up too much, we seek colder climates. The great change is upon us, like a glacier it has been advancing slowly towards us, but now it's calving in front of us, it comes crashing down upon us, sending shockwaves not just through the muddy glacial waters of the music industry, but through every corner of human intuition and artistic creation. We're heading to an AI glacier maximum, where the machine will replace the human mind. But the machine is dead, the machine is cold, the machine is frozen. If we are to survive as artists and as humans, we'll need to learn to live side by side with the machine, carving out warm, creative valleys between the machine's frozen outlet glaciers.

This is the first time I've had to state this, but it won't be the last; no AI was used in the creation of this album. Every note was placed where it is by the human hand, guided by the human ear, dictated by the human mind. Enhancing the humanness of the album is a Swedish legend, Anders Ericsson, known from Lustans Lakejer and a former member of Ubangi. Anders now operates under the moniker Svart Tulpan, and as far as I know, he's not AI, but I've never met him, so I can't say for sure.

Anders did an amazing job, bringing warmth and emotional depth to three of the songs; There's no reason to be afraid, Doesn't mean you can't dance, and the title track. As usual, my human friend and longtime collaborator, Henry Barboza from Henryaudiouk.com mixed and mastered the album, and as per usual, he did an outstanding job.

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The Jack Rubies - Greedy.

The latest single from UK post punk heroes The Jack Rubies is “Greedy” and is on all digital platforms worldwide. It's an energized and timely slice of  noir-tinged rock that show the band continuing its 21st Century resurgence after the acclaimed 2023 comeback album Clocks Are Out Of Time… and sets the stage for their fourth full-length LP, due on Vinyl and CD from BSR in January. 

Stand by for more news on the forthcoming album Visions In The Bowling Alley. From a declamatory intro quote that tags the mysterious power of Parmesan cheese, the band launches in with up tempo glee, peppering the riff with globs of call and response vocals before hitting the sing-along chorus, where a melodious kalimba and the guest vocal harmonies of Annabel Wright join the mix. A somewhat feral synth solo grabs the tune by the scruff of the neck before the group barrels on to the finishing line with hand claps and monkish “aah”s to the fore.


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Anja Churchill  - La Boheme.

Anja Churchill invokes the laid back elegance of Gabi Hartmann, and soft strength of Arooj Aftab, while reshaping a classic song of the French cannon into a nostalgic requiem for the past. Sung in hushed French, this version of a classic French chanson walks the line between folk intimacy and jazz minimalism, quiet, cinematic and disarming. Anja's vocals are delicate and unwavering, floating over sparse jazz-inflected piano chords, and an anchoring bass line. 
 
Inspired by alt pop French artists of the moment, Zaho de Zagasan and November Ultra, with Swedish co producers Micke Lyander (Cardigans, The Ark) and Erik Ronström (Lena Jonson Trio), helping to bring her vision to life, Anja bends genres and creates  an emotive dreamscape which transcends language.
 
Anja Churchill is an American-Swedish singer-songwriter who weaves raw storytelling with an ethereal, transportive voice. Shaped by a lifetime of chronic illness and multiple near-death experiences, her music carries a rare depth that's attuned to introspection and the unspoken. With a background in world music and sound healing, Churchill has spent over a decade crafting sonic landscapes that draw listeners into dreamlike spaces. 

In 2022, she relocated with her family from Los Angeles to Gotland, a remote island in the Baltic Sea, where she wrote her debut EP, Children of the North. Her sound is intimate and expansive, drawing inspiration from 1960's folk, jazz, and world music. Anja splits her time between the island of Gotland and the south of France.

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Frank Popp Ensemble feat. Paul Weller  - Right Before My Eyes.

In a groundbreaking musical partnership that has been decades in the making, Frank Popp Ensemble announces the release of "Right Before My Eyes," featuring the Modfather himself, Paul Weller. This historic collaboration marks Frank Popp as the first German artist to work with the legendary British musician on an original track, uniting two distinctive voices across generations and musical traditions.

The track is nothing short of sensational. Weller's unmistakable voice cuts through with raw emotion, delivering lyrics that confront the uncomfortable truths of our time, while his signature guitar work weaves through Frank Popp's lush, sophisticated production. Popp's approach here showcases his evolution as a producer – layers of vintage soul instrumentation, carefully crafted arrangements that recall the golden era of Northern Soul and Funk, yet polished with a contemporary sheen that makes every element shine. It’s an electric meeting of minds, uniting Weller’s socially charged, genre-defining artistry with Popp’s cinematic production, timeless grooves, and uncanny ear for the perfect hook that has established him as a fixture of Berlin’s music scene.

Lyrically, Weller tackles the escalating injustices unfolding across the world – people forced to flee their homes, systematic exploitation, endless wars waged in the names of governments and religious leaders who have lost all touch with reality. The song's title captures the unbearable irony: all of this horror is happening right before the eyes of the world, in plain sight, yet continues unabated. It's the kind of unflinching commentary that has defined his entire career, from The Jam's working-class anthems to his ongoing commitment to speaking truth through music, bringing the weight of fifty years of experience and conviction to every line.

For Frank Popp, this collaboration represents the fulfillment of a lifelong musical obsession. As a teenager in 1980s Germany, he discovered The Jam's explosive energy through tracks like "That's Entertainment" and "Town Called Malice." Soon after, he was dancing wildly to The Style Council's "Shout To The Top" in Hilden's small-town disco JWD, attempting to impress girls with the smooth sophistication of "My Ever Changing Moods." Weller's solo work continued to haunt his imagination, with "You Do Something To Me" serving as a direct inspiration for this collaborative masterpiece. "It is an incredible honor for me to be able to work with this icon of music history, the 'Modfather'," Popp explain
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Samuel Taylor - Fast Money Music - Annika Zee

Samuel Taylor - Lost & Overgrown (EP). Suffolk (England) indie-folk newcomer Samuel Taylor has released his debut EP Lost & Overgro...