The latest single from Yoshika Colwell's forthcoming debut album On The Wing (out July 25 via Blue Flowers), "In Bloom" is a textured and gently radiant indie-folk track that explores the concept of “sunny nihilism”—the idea of embracing life’s impermanence with warmth, clarity, and joy.
Hailing from the South East of England, Yoshika has been writing and gigging solo since 2017. In early 2022, whilst living in a caravan in the Kent countryside, her home-made demos found their way to the Blue Flowers record label who began working with her. 2024’s debut E.P. ‘There’s A Time’ heralded the arrival of a captivating talent and vital new voice in the great canon of English singer-songwriters. The E.P. garnered support from BBC 6Music, BBC Introducing , CLASH, The Line Of Best Fit and The New Cue.
In late ’24 a collaborative E.P. with The Vernon Spring followed, an avant garde and deeply intuitive collection which challenged any initial perceptions of Yoshika as a traditional folk artist. Yoshika’s songs are often deeply personal and concerned with attempting to understand the self & others, time, nature and mortality. A life-long Joni Mitchell fan she also takes inspiration from a wide mix of artists inc. Gillian Welch to Linda Perhacs, John Prine to Talk Talk.
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Ahead of their UK tour dates next week, today, Exeter alt-trio Soot Sprite have shared their new music video for 'Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon'. The track is the title-track from their debut album, which came out last month via Specialist Subject (FRESH, Jeff Rosenstock, Doe, Muncie Girls).
Of their new video, lead vocalist and guitarist Elise Cook says: "Our friend Corey Eyres reached out to us wanting to do a video for the record, when we had a phone call about it it’s like our brains all went to the same place. We wanted it to be a silly video for a pretty serious track, and spent a day prancing about the Bath Spa uni grounds making this video, our friends pitched in all the props and our friends Joe Kime and Glenn Saitch kindly offered their days to do incredible extra work, everyone fully sent it and our faces collectively hurt from laughing the whole day away."
Since the release of their debut single in 2018, Soot Sprite has grown from a one-woman lo-fi bedroom pop project to a fully-fledged touring alt-indie shoegaze outfit. Their debut album sees Cook, Sean Mariner (bass/backing vocals), and Sam Cother (drums/backing vocals) fully embrace the dynamic highs and intimate lows that define their sound.
Sonically, Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon takes influence from many alt-indie greats, creating a sound that blends shimmering melodies with raw, visceral energy. “When I started Soot Sprite I was hooked on Clean by Soccer Mommy and Hovvdy’s Cranberry but with this record I was listening to a lot of Sweet Pill’s catalogue, Ovlov & Wednesday,” explains Cook. Written over a span of four years - some tracks taking shape just weeks before recording - the album was captured in September 2024 at The Bookhouse in London, with the help of former lead guitarist Abi Crisp and production by Tom Hill.
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Amsterdam-based artist Ezra Veda refuses to follow the rules of the music industry, and that’s exactly what makes her shine. Starting as a vocalist, she soon took full control of her creative process, producing her own music and defining her own narrative. Ezra is not one for the spotlight, but her talent is impossible to ignore. Her sound moves effortlessly between electro-pop, trip-hop, drum & bass; sometimes dark, sometimes light, always authentic. One moment you’re floating, the next you’re singing along.
Ezra doesn’t play the game, she questions it. At one point, she even stepped away from music altogether. Thankfully, she was convinced to return, leading to her stunning debut album Shadows Of Trust. The title says it all. Ezra’s world is one of cautious observation, dark wit, and quiet rebellion, the perfect breeding ground for bold creativity.
The album collects ten previously released singles alongside two brand-new tracks, all written and produced within a single year. It opens with “Fading Embers,” a song that mirrors her careful, introspective approach before bursting wide open. On “Old Umbrella,” she launches into drum & bass with ease, while “Insta-worthy Dreams,” a collaboration with fellow Amsterdam producer Pillek, showcases her flair for smooth, downtempo electro-pop.
Lyrically, Ezra doesn’t hold back. Whether writing about family, friends, lovers, habits, or the struggle to belong in a chaotic world, she tells her truth with fearless honesty. Shadows Of Trust is dark, beautiful, captivating, and unapologetically Ezra. Press play and let yourself be pulled into her world.
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| Cover by Hailey Krakana |
With a voice like worn denim and a songwriter’s compass pointed squarely at the truth, Emmett Jerome returns with "It Ain't Me," a dark, tape-warmed Americana track that exorcises heartbreak and hard truths in one raw, live-off-the-floor performance. It's the sound of dust on boots, a heart in hand, and a young artist wise beyond his years.
Written in a quick flash on acoustic guitar, "It Ain't Me" captures the emotional aftermath of love gone cold delivered from the voice of a character haunted by what once was. "I related the idea of an emotionally unavailable or heartbroken individual to that of a spooked horse," says Jerome. "That tension, that jumpiness, is something I've known."
From Springsteen-tinged lyrics to the swirling blend of vintage amps, banjo grit, and studio tape hiss, "It Ain't Me" straddles the line between classic and contemporary. "It sounds to me like it could be some obscure 70s banjo-rock B-side or a Neil Young/Crazy Horse jam," Jerome says. "We brought in great players rooted in blues, country, and rock. You can hear it."
Tracked live off the floor at Vancouver's Afterlife Studios – a storied space packed with analog gear and old ghosts – the song barely touches a computer. "Aside from a few vocal overdubs and extra banjo, what you're hearing is a band playing together in a room. That energy is everything."
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San Francisco-based Galore releases their second full length album, Dirt, on July 25, 2025, on Speakeasy Studios SF. With multiple songwriters, sinuous harmonies, and rock riffs born out of an intensely communal creative process, Galore — bassist Ava Rosen, guitarist Griffin Jones, guitarist Ainsley Wagoner, and drummer Hannah Smith — embodies the spirit of a true musical collective.
The album’s theme is in its name: Dirt. In ten songs, Galore takes us back to the sandbox of creativity on an exploration of what makes us human through layers of jangly, off-kilter guitars, interwoven harmonies, and incredible pop sensibilities.
Three out of four members of Galore were born and raised in San Francisco and Oakland, and all of them cite the Bay’s storied music scene as inspiration. Local favorite Grass Widow’s influence looms large in lead-style bass lines and frequent harmonies on tracks like “Solastalgia” and “Dream Palace”, while tracks like “Bastard” and “Zinger” lean on the rowdy experimentation of early aughts femme punk band Hey Girl.
The first single and first song, “Field Trip,” points the way, embodying the collaborative songwriting and playfulness of Galore. Jones opens with stripped down vocals that invite the listener to “take a seat in the meantime,” sung over the light strums of a harpsichord. A driving beat cuts in, Rosen’s vocal takes over, and the track hightails it into a pop anthem for Bay Area summer. “Take me to the land / Take me to the dirt / Where the grass is long and weedy / Where it grows freely,” sings Rosen, opening the album with an exploration of the volatile connection our lives have with earth, creativity, and each other.
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After a long silence since the release of 2018’s ‘Cyanide Thornton’ album, Narrm-based songwriter Sienna Thornton returns with a new full-length album, ‘Birding Out’. This week we see the release of ‘After Harvest’, the first single from the forthcoming album. Says songwriter Sienna about the track “As with a lot of this album I let this song come intuitively, starting with the chord structure which reminded me of patterns in a maze.
Within this I remembered the story of the minotaur from Greek mythology - greed, suffering, nature and nurture, intergenerational threads and the line of twine. This led to linear and non-linear time perception, life-line, body and mind, cycles and spirals, ecosystems and resources - what happens when the extraction of the final harvest has fed our unending hunger.
I found myself trying to find a balance between a desire for certainty, concreteness, and what it feels like to embrace a less tangible, intuitive experience. I tried to imagine where each source of knowing comes from.” The song features Sienna on most instruments, with a range of guest performers including Shaun Fogarty (tenor sax), Emma Stuart (voice), Georgia Knight (voice), Mei Craken (voice) and Luke Brennan (acoustic guitar). It is accompanied by a music video filmed by Sienna and Jasper Lopez on Yuin Country.
“We filmed the video at Hyman’s Beach just above Booderee National Park on Yuin Country. We were told by a friend to go and see the sand there as we were on a drive down from up north. Finding so much beautiful red seaweed in the water was inspiring visually and texturally, it felt like the interior of a body. We acknowledge and pay deep respect to the custodians of this land who have been caring for Country for so many thousands of years.”
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