Saturday, 8 March 2025

Zion Train - Colin Buchanan - Caroline Strickland - AJ Rosales

Zion Train - Dubs Of Perception (Album).

This is the new studio album from Zion Train which includes their hit single ‘Move To Love’ and is released on vinyl LP and digital formats. This album is produced by Neil Perch in the Alte Ziegelei studio and features the world reknowned Zion Train brass section along with vocals from Zion Train singer ‘Cara’ and the award winning poet Roger Robinson.

Featured on several tracks is Paolo Baldini playing guitars and bass guitar alongside veteran musicians – Trinny Fingers, Blacka Wilson, Dreada One and Professor Skank who hails from Crete.

For this album Zion Train return to their roots with copious amounts of analogue Dub mixing performed by Perch on his TAC Scorpion vintage mixing desk. With mastering at the Pressure Mastering, and artwork by the highly acclaimed anarchist artist Marko Gin from Croatia, this album presents Zion Train at their creative, anarchic best.

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Colin Buchanan - River Song.

Colin Buchanan’s August 2024 Matt Fell-produced album “Memory Town” has achieved and exceeded the acclaimed singer-songwriter’s expectations for what has been his first country album in a decade.

“I’ve never stopped writing songs for my own projects, I just hadn’t got around to recording them. When Memory Town finally happened, I thought of it as a sort of re-introduction of Colin Buchanan the country artist to fans and to the industry”.  The album was number 1 on the Australian Country ARIA album chart. What I Love About Country and The Bush Comes Back were #1 singles. Airplay was widespread, reviews were glowing. News of 5 Golden Guitar nominations capped off a remarkable 2024.

Enter Memory Town - Bonus 2025 Golden Guitar Edition. The digital version of the album receives three additional tracks; River Town, King With Coal Dust On His Hands and In Real Life.

River Song is the only co-write on Memory Town,” explains Colin. “It’s a song about the power of music to set us free - something we all cherished in those years of shutdown. I wrote it with James Gillard, my long-time musical collaborator.  He has a CV as long as your arm - he’s a top producer, bass player, backing vocalist and guitarist.” The song reveals something of how the vivid lyrics of Colin’s songs hold a power to transport even their own writer in times of isolation and confinement.


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Caroline Strickland - Martha’s Calling (EP).

Caroline Strickland is an alternative rock musician out of Brooklyn, New York. She is carrying on the tradition of rock champions PJ Harvey and Liz Phair, compared often to modern indie darlings like Lucy Dacus, Blondshell, Sharon Van Etten, and Devon Ross.

Her first EP “Watch” came out in 2023, released to critical acclaim. She has played live shows up and down the East Coast, with a signature duo set up that enthralls even the most timid live audience. Strickland’s music revolves around themes of self actualization and realization, analyzing the tension between our arrogance and tenderness, how we fall in love and how we let go.

Driving guitar and smoked out vocals are highlighted with the occasional one-string lick or tap on the piano, a sparse style that somehow fills the void. “Loving You Right” dropped August 30th, 2024 and was the lead single off the brand new five track swan song “Martha’s Calling.” This fabulous EP is released on Beacon, New York based independent label Good Eye Records.



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AJ Rosales - Thunderclouds.

AJ is about to release his sixth album entitled Phasedrift. With a slightly more organic approach to production, these songs showcase the diverse palette that he is known for, while venturing into sonic territory that signifies drifting towards a new musical identity. The first single Thunderclouds was released on Feb 14th, 2025 (Engineering and mixing by Doug McBride (Gravity Studios) and Mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone at Sterling Sound). His previous releases are Manifestations, Ultramarine, Resistor, the Earth and Shoal EP, and Daughter Product (Fatigue), which have all garnered critical acclaim.

AJ's style is not easy to classify, but his progressively acoustic tendencies tend to dominate his compositions. His rhythmic, expressive and emotive delivery gets peppered with experimental colors, and an infusion of soulfulness. He draws comparisons to Pete Townshend, Cat Stevens, Nick Drake, and Bob Mould, however he delivers his own unique hybrid sound, blending multiple genres into a cohesive and modern sensibility that sounds like "AJ".

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Friday, 7 March 2025

Dustaphonics - Slow Burn Drifters - Kensie Coppin - Susto Stringband

Dustaphonics - Gasolina (Album).

The Franco-British band, Dustaphonics, proudly announces the release of their fifth album, Gasolina today, through KingAling Production London. With 12 tracks that dance through the realms of Rock , Pop Rock, Surf, and Garage Soul, Gasolina promises to be a captivating addition to the band's eclectic discography.

About the Album: Gasolina is not just an album; it's an experience where the raw energy of rock 'n' roll meets contemporary flair. Led by the charismatic Yvan Serrano, Dustaphonics have crafted a sound that pays homage to the roots of rock while exploring new musical territories. The album features collaborations with renowned artists like Lisa Kekaula and Bob Vennum of The Bellrays, and psychobilly legend Mark Robertson of The Meteors, adding diverse and dynamic layers to the tracks.

The Band: Founded in London in 2008 by guitarist, producer, and composer Yvan Serrano (also known as DJ Healer Selecta), Dustaphonics has always been about the fusion of various musical influences. Their sound, a cocktail of rock 'n' roll, rhythm and blues, surf rock, garage rock, and soul, has captivated audiences worldwide. Noted for their dynamic live performances, the band continues to blend the old with the new, making Gasolina a testament to their evolving musical journey.

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Photo - Darko Todorovic
Slow Burn Drifters - Golden (Album).

Singer-guitarist Ray Vale of Slow Burn Drifters selected their tantalizing band name “for what someone’s about to hear,” exemplifying his dark, dreamy, elegiacally timeless vocals and guitars. He’s joined by the resplendent piano playing of Violet Booth on their album Golden, out today March 7th, 2025. Vale’s dramatic and passionate wide-screen vocals and songs and playing will please devoted fans of artists like Nick Drake and Scott Walker, and of the kind of music that haunts the frames of David Lynch films.

Vale grew up in Northern NJ looking at the Manhattan skyline, and now he’s living in Austria looking at a very different boundary between earth and sky. Vale has written all the songs for Golden, the debut full-length for Slow Burn Drifters, but this is Vale’s 12th album. “In comparison to the other records I’ve put out, this one is more personal; it’s also more melodic,” Vale reveals.  “Additionally, Violet’s piano plays a key role in most songs, whereas it was more textural and decorative in the past.”

The jouissance behind the band name is how it resonates with the beauty and terror of literature, cinema, and other, esoteric forms of expression. “On top of that, when I look around, it seems like the average attention span is shrinking by the hour,” Vale says. “A film, book, or song that's a ‘slow burn’ is on the verge of extinction, but it's exactly what we cherish: things that need to be absorbed and lived in to be understood: Romance, tragedy, and transformation …”

As for what the ten-song cycle Golden is about, Vale explains “I heard an interview once where someone was asked about eternity,” Vale says. “I think it might've been Joseph Campbell, and he said something like, ‘Eternity isn't a long time; it's what stands outside of time.’ That always stuck with me—the album title refers to that state of being, or a part of us that remains unchanged by time and moves past the appearance of separateness, like sunrise and sunset, it's a song about pain and loss, hope, or anything in between, that's the golden prism through which the album's songs are being viewed.”

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Kensie Coppin - Texas in Me.

Kensie Coppin’s new single “Texas in Me” is smokin' hot! Kensie’s talent and love for her native state is deep seated in this song.  She’s  a  CMA of Texas Artist of the Year and she penned Kin Faux’s #1 single “My Kind of Weathered”.  With “Texas in Me” Kensie cuts loose with her own vocal in her own song and reminds us why we love our Texas Country music!

Kensie Coppin is a powerhouse singer and songwriter born and raised in Texas. Her first Grand Ole Opry performances were at ages 11 & 12. While living in Nashville, Kensie spent her time writing with award winning songwriters and building a catalog of songs of her own that are being recorded by other up and coming artists. Now back in Texas, Kensie just received the #1 song in Texas for 3 weeks in a row across 3 different charts performed by Kin Faux.

Kensie also won CMA of Texas Artist Of The Year for 2022. Kensie has her own music out and continues to release new music alongside her career of performing, touring, recording and writing songs for herself and other artists. Kensie has many aspirations, and has accomplished much in her career thus far. She has been her own boss for over a decade, and fights for the independent artist and songwriter. She continues to expand her horizons, including touring internationally. Co-writers include: D. Vincent Williams, James LeBlanc, Phillip White, Curly Putnam, Dale Dodson, Jeff Silvey, Bernie Nelson, Lance Carpenter, Big Vinny, Barrett Baber, Helene Cronin, Scott Sean White, Emma Zinck, Blue Foley, Trick Savage & more.


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Susto Stringband - Never Losing Me.

Susto Stringband will release their debut album, Susto Stringband: Volume 1, on March 28, 2025 via New West Records. The 9-track set was produced by Ryan Stigmon and recorded at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville, NC. The debut album is a collaborative work between Justin Osborne, frontman of the acclaimed rock outfit Susto, and the Asheville-based Americana band Holler Choir. It features nine of Osborne’s ballads, refrains, and heart wrenching confessions, now drenched in the singular Appalachian sound of Holler Choir’s verdant harmonies and stringed arrangements.

Seven Susto staples have been reworked with bluegrass arrangements in Holler Choir’s company alongside 2 new compositions. Osborne’s introspective musings on love, devastating loss, mortality, and transcendence are steeped in the emotive punch of traditional string band sound. Susto Stringband presents an Arcadia like vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature, but with Osborne’s lyrics, there are landmines to dodge and mountains to climb.

Susto’s Justin Osborne says, “This is the first song that I’ve ever written with the specific intent of recording it as a stringband. In the last several years I’ve navigated a lot of major changes in my life, and the most profound of those has been becoming a parent. As a touring musician, I am always coming and going, and it can be tough to balance work and family life. I wrote this song for my daughter (who was 3 at the time) as a message she could reflect on later in life. Now, as a father of 2, I really think of both of my kids when I sing this song, and it serves as a way for me to feel close to them every time I sing it. It’s a promise from me to them, that although I may be gone often, I’m always there for them and they will never lose my deep love for them.”


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Wednesday, 5 March 2025

CocoRosie - The Bones of J.R. Jones - Tha Flicker

Photo - Ginger Dunnill
CocoRosie - Pushing Daisies.

Today CocoRosie, the sister duo of Bianca and Sierra Casady share the fourth track, “Pushing Daisies,” from their upcoming eighth studio album Little Death Wishes (out March 28th on Joyful Noise). A few years ago, the Casady sisters were puzzled and transfixed by a billboard that read: “Women Drive Drunk Too”. Was it some kind of feminist dictum? A proclamation that in order to see a woman’s wholeness one must first acknowledge her brokenness? 

The questions the billboard raised, regardless of its coco r pic intent, helped clarify the sisters' own messaging. Not long after, they wrote “Pushing Daisies”. A bedroom electronica anthem which traces the veins of intergenerational trauma shared between three female family members, the track spiritually transforms clichés of pain into fresh revelations. It shows women in all their dynamism, their fractals and splinters sewn into a whole.

About Little Death Wishes: For just over twenty years, Bianca and Sierra Casady have transmuted the love, hardship, and ecstasy of sisterhood into some of the most daring, dangerous, and wildly original music our increasingly sanitized culture has known. CocoRosie has been a project consistently at the musical vanguard, influencing countless musicians while inspiring and creating refuge for the “criminal queers” of the world. Above all, CocoRosie has been a conduit for irrepressible artistic self-realization.


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Photo - Christian Harder
The Bones of J.R. Jones - Savages.

New York-based artist The Bones of J.R. Jones (aka Jonathon Linaberry) just announced his 6th studio album Radio Waves will be released on June 20 via Tone Tree Music. The 11-song collection was produced by GRAMMY-nominated producer Robbie Lackritz (Feist, Bahamas) and marks Linaberry’s first time working with an outside producer.

Also yesterday, he released the album’s debut single “Savages,” a driving anthem that revels in the reckless abandon of young adulthood. Magnet Magazine called the single “An intoxicating first dip into Radio Waves… a warmly hypnotic, achingly nostalgic reassessment of misspent youth.”

"Savages is finding yourself out all night in the July heat under city street lights, at a house party, getting lost with your friends and being completely enveloped in that moment. It’s surrendering to that feeling. Letting yourself feel wrecked, gut punched, inspired, and bleary eyed. It’s about wanting to disappear right then and there in the hopes that time stops."

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Photo - Nicola De Rosa
Tha Flicker - Laugh.

Rising alternative pop duo Tha Flicker return with Laugh, a chilling yet deeply evocative single that explores the aftermath of domestic abuse. Inspired by a true story, Laugh paints a stark picture of a widow standing at her abusive husband’s funeral. After enduring 30 years of violence, grief never comes—instead, she laughs. Not out of joy, but as an uncontrollable, irrational response to a lifetime of pain.

Musically, Laugh combines eerie, melancholic tones with hypnotic electronic layers, capturing the complexity of trauma and the human psyche. Vocalist Giulia Cappelluti delivers the track with a raw intensity, while Marco Ridolfi’s production builds an unsettling yet cathartic soundscape. The track was produced by Marco Ridolfi, Pietro Foresti, and Luca Urbani, the same team behind their debut single Faded Flowers.

With Laugh, Tha Flicker continue their journey into dark, compelling storytelling, proving that their artistry is as much about raw emotion as it is about sonic innovation.


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Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Wylderness - Death Sells - Run Remedy - I’m With Her

Wylderness - Is It Summer.

Welsh Shoegazers Wylderness are back with a brand new single 'Is It Summer.'

The band said this about 'Is It Summer': "This started out as a riff with loads of delay played on an old Vox amp we found where we were practicing. We then jammed about and it developed into a song in two parts. It has a cinematic quality in the first half with hints of Interpol. It reflects the wild west nature of the 90s tech boom. Then it erupts in the second half and outro (“Stand up count everything / If you want to / If you want to”)."

The Cardiff band’s second album, Big Plans for a Blue World(2022), was recorded with an expanded line up and featured added layers of vintage synths and clarinet. It placed no.28 in Far Out Magazine’s Best Albums of 2022 and charted in the North American College & Community Radio Chart.

2025 will see the release of their much anticipated new Safe Mode EP recorded with producers Andrew Sanders and long time collaborator Rory Attwell.

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Death Sells - Corner.

Much like a rock disrupting calm waters, the emergence of Death Sells this year has caused a significant stir in the music industry. Their work is characterized by an uncompromising, unrestrained, and genuine approach.

Corner is the first single following the band's highly acclaimed debut EP, which dropped in 2024. It captures the raw tension of jealousy and unspoken conflict, where every glance feels like a challenge, and every move is a calculated game. The song dives into the frustration of having your world invaded by someone who’s always watching, always taking, but never satisfied. With its simmering energy and biting lyrics, “Corner” is a quiet act of resistance, turning the tables and serving a dose of poetic justice. It’s a powerful reflection on reclaiming your space and holding your ground, perfect for anyone who’s ready to confront the unspoken and take back their power.

Death Sells bridges the gap between indie, grunge, noise and punk. Quite clever how the band manages to mix the music of Blood Red Shoes, Wet Leg and Amyl And The Sniffers into a new genre.

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Run Remedy - Unwaltz.

Manchester-based American artist Run Remedy (Robin Koob) has announced that her debut album, Xtian Skate Night, is set for release on June 20th. A fearless deep dive into identity, loss, and self-acceptance, the album fuses confessional lyricism with intricate arrangements, blending melancholic folk elements with atmospheric indie rock and experimental textures. Alongside the album announcement, Run Remedy unveils her haunting new single, ‘Unwaltz’ - a lush and layered track that encapsulates the tension of hiding one's truth while yearning for freedom.

The new single, ‘Unwaltz’, stands as one of the album’s most emotionally charged moments - a song of internal conflict and suppressed love, cloaked in hypnotic strings and dreamlike vocals. “In the story of the album, this is my 'trapped' song - the perfect girl, the preacher’s daughter…hiding my internal life,” Koob explains. “The vocals are close and super layered. Lots of whisper tracks as I beg my unnamed love to find the truth by ‘eavesdropping in on my heart.’”

Recorded live with just six channels, ‘Unwaltz’ captures the raw energy of a single moment, with contributions from Rhys Jiang (drums), James Cooke (electric guitar), George Burrage (bass), and Koob herself on nylon guitar, vocals, and strings layered. The song’s eerie production nods to David Lynch, a longtime influence of Koob’s - coincidentally, she filmed the Unwaltz video on the day Lynch passed away.

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I’m With Her - Ancient Light,

Beloved folk trio I’m With Her comprised of multi-GRAMMY winners (7 wins, 31 nominations collectively) Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins — will return this Spring with a stunning new record entitled Wild and Clear and Blue out May 9 via Rounder Records / Concord.

Alongside today’s album announcement is the release of “Ancient Light,” their stunning first single and album opener of Wild and Clear and Blue. “Ancient Light” is a tender meditation on ancestral ties and cycles of life, adorned with a lavish instrumental section featuring Watkins’ artful layering of fiddle and cello. With Jarosz on lead vocals, “Ancient Light” embodies a spirit of subtle resolve as she calmly narrates the havoc around her (“While everything’s unraveling / I’m building a fire / Sparks and smoke rings / Fill up the night / When it catches / I’ll be swimming in the ancient light”).

Of the track, the band says: “We started playing around with this riff in a Silverlake bungalow in October of 2022. We were still at the beginning of writing this album, and as these images of joyful melancholy floated towards us, we found ourselves reaching for them in a free-flowing way that felt wholly new to us, yet completely natural. This song is a journey, and (producer) Josh Kaufman encouraged us to open the song up and let it breathe. ‘Ancient Light’ sets the tone for the entire album, communing with our past and future selves.


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Anna Smyrk - ZOCO - Howling Bells - TCBYML

Photo - Michelle Grace Hunder Anna Smyrk - This is a Drill . Naarm/Melbourne based singer-songwriter Anna Smyrk shares a poignant moment o...