H.C. McEntire - Addie Brik - Mia Baron - Quarry

Photo - Heather Evans Smith

H.C. McEntire - Dovetail.

H.C. McEntire announces her new album, Every Acre, will be released on January 27 via Merge Records. Co-produced by McEntire, Missy Thangs and Luke Norton, Every Acre features nine poignant new songs, including two tracks with backing vocals provided by S.G. Goodman and Amy Ray. Along with the announcement, McEntire shares “Dovetail,” the new single that imagistically depicts various women and their various gifts, their various traumas.

“‘Dovetail’ began as a jangly, four-on-the-floor country demo I roughly recorded at home,” McEntire explains of the song’s inception. “In the studio, the band and I leaned into the twang and outlaw attitude, recorded it, and moved on to work on other songs. But something kept calling us back to reimagine this song, to look at it from a different angle. One night after a long day of tracking, Luke started playing the ‘Dovetail’ chord progression on piano, but much more slowly. Daniel jumped behind the drums and played a simple halftime beat while I stood next to the piano and sang out into the room. We quickly recorded about a minute of the experiment onto a cell phone and went to bed. The next morning, we referenced the recording and tracked a full-band version of the song in that style—essentially, it took the form of a ballad.”

“This ‘classic’ arrangement offered space for a more nuanced vocal delivery; the slower pace allowed vocal lines to stretch and stand tall with emotion. The less-is-more approach created a vulnerability that felt right and also applied intention—to clearly speak, suspend, and spill out the narrative. Throughout verses, I posed the personalities of various women in juxtaposition—a way to both celebrate differences and individuation, as well as acknowledge the complexities of being in relation with a range of traumas, including my own. The pre-chorus and chorus lyrics nod to a problematic dynamic that can occur when presumptions are made about an Artist solely based on the social consumption and/or interpretations of their Art—romanticism versus reality.”

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Addie Brik - First Odd Prime.

They say all good things arrive in threes, and the third single to be cut from Addie’s upcoming album ‘That Dog Don’t Hunt’ (out 25 November, via Itza Records) is a prime example.

A song that dwells upon the laws of the ultimate numbers game, “The First Odd Prime” finds Addie reflecting on Fibonacci's revolutionary sequence, and the natural order of things. As Addie explains: “This is about compassion, as seen through the lens of Nature, The Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Numbers, with the fairy dust of the Charles Laughton film, Night of The Hunter, thrown in for colour.”

Chiming with the themes of “odd primes, the Golden Mean, rescue and homecoming” expressed in the song, the new single arrives with a mesmeric official video that finds the numerical and the natural artfully intersecting with one another. Directed by Andy Alston (Del Amitri) and co-edited with Addie Brik, the live footage was captured outside Addie’s home in  Scotland, with additional film clips provided by Glenn Lewis (Mick Harvey, Cambodian Space Project).

Featuring a stellar cast of guest players, “The First Odd Prime”’s thunderous rhythms come courtesy of Simple Minds’ Jim McDermott on Drums, with Glenn Lewis (guitars) and Nick Blythe (bass) adding to its swirling maelstrom of sounds. US star N’dea Davenport (Brand New Heavies, Malcolm McClaren) also contributes her vocals to its hypnotic chorus hooks.

 

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Mia Baron - Rebel Without A Cause.

Toronto-based pop singer-songwriter Mia Baron pens lyrics which touch on how challenging it is to figure out who you are and what you want. Baron's songs show that for her, the sky's the limit. Natural talent, swagger, and drive have played a role in this 14-year-old artist racking up close to 300,000 total Spotify streams.

Her latest release, "Rebel Without a Cause," describes teenage rebellion: an adventurous desire to do forbidden things, test the limits and go against what's expected.

Baron started singing at just nine years old and turned professional at 11. When the pandemic halted her busy schedule as a live performer, she pivoted to releasing songs every few months with the help of her production and co-writing team Matt Kahane and Quin Kiu. With a sound shaped by artists like Madison Beer, Nessa Barrett, and The Weeknd, Baron's pop tracks are frequently filled with stuttering beats and moody vibes.

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Quarry - New City Comes Along.

Milan-based singer-songwriter QUARRY is set to release his new single: “New City Comes Along”, taken from his new album ‘Positioning The Sun’ out now. Paying homage to the victims caught up in the Ukraine war, “New City Comes Along” seeks to shine a light on the stories of those citizens whose lives are completely destroyed by such conflict. As Quarry explains:

“A city devastated by bombing and reduced to rubble is one of the most heartbreaking things to see. How many stories are behind those bodies scattered along the streets, those destroyed buildings that were once warm houses to families. I wrote this song thinking of a beautiful city like Kyiv falling into ruin, but it could be any city destroyed by warfare. New cities will, eventually, come along through the skin of the razed ones.”

Agitated by injustice but laced with an optimism for a better, more peaceful future, “New City Comes Along” is a punk-razored track that finds Quarry taking inspiration from the revolutionary class of The Clash while injecting a chorus of hope into their frenzied formula. Showing a new side to the multi-faceted artist that the softer and more reflective previous singles “This Is The Story” and “Beyond Any Sense” perhaps left camouflaged, it blends clangorous drums with impassioned vocals and driving guitars that rise-up like a rallying cry for peace.

The new track was the finishing touch to Quarry’s new LP ‘Positioning The Sun’ (out now via Lowfieye Records); an album born out of the feeling of living suspended in time during the pandemic. Written and recorded in Milan between 2020 and 2022, the LP has a knack for capturing the overwhelming weight of the world’s complications.

 

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Katherine Fischer - Marlody - Caitlin Rose - Eliza McLamb - Mary Middlefield

Katherine Fischer - To This Day.

Like a re-discovered diary entry on your worst day, Katherine Fischer wants you to feel understood. With over 250 songs in her arsenal and counting, she hopes to be your tour guide through the darkest corners to the brightest balcony of her human experience.

Hailing from London Ontario, Katherine Fischer writes songs for souls with big feelings. In August 2016 Katherine released her debut EP "Here I Am" followed by her sophomore release "Wildflower Heart" in 2019.  Her EP's share folky heart led narratives that rival your favourite coming of age novel. Katherine's song "I Choose You" was included on Amazon's "Best of 2020: Folk" playlist alongside Kathleen Edwards and John Prine. In 2021 her single "Memories" was released and placed on Spotify's "New Music Friday" and most recently her song "The Current" was added to Spotify's "Folk and Friends" playlist.

Funded by the Ontario Arts Council, London Arts Council, SOCAN Foundation and SHINE Foundation, Katherine's debut full length  album "Great Loves" was released November 2022, and has garnered over 60,000 streams and 8,000+ fans worldwide. "Great Loves" blends Americana, indie pop, cinematic strings and harmonies that wrap around you to create a breathtaking folk album. Great Loves is the story of all incapsulating love, of the land, of people, of yourself.

Katherine Fischer · To This Day

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Marlody - Summer.

Marlody’s first album I’m Not Sure At All will be released by Skep Wax in January 2023, and this single is the first taste of what’s to come. The beauty of the music – the rolling waves of keyboard, the apparently simple vocal melody – hit you first.  But Summer is like a trap: it’s drawing you into a darker place.

Sung from the perspective of a young girl whose mother has died, Summer gives a disturbing, eerie picture of an adult world that’s losing its moorings.  The innocence of the child and the sweetness of the music pull us safely through, saving us from the worst of it, but Summer is a perfect example of Marlody’s ability to weave songs so disarming that, for a few minutes, we feel as innocent as the child in the song.  For a while, we don’t notice that summer is over. We don’t notice how dark it’s getting.

There are many echoes here: the infectiousness and daring of some of the vocal melodies might remind you of Kate Bush, the intimacy might remind you of Cate Le Bon, the stabs of anger and pain might remind you of Liz Phair. The harmonies are from another place again – you could imagine hearing them in an Unthanks recording.

 

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Caitlin Rose - Getting It Right (Featuring Courtney Marie Andrews).

Celebrated Nashville singer/songwriter Caitlin Rose released a new single called "Getting It Right" off her forthcoming album CAZIMI (out November 18th via Missing Piece Records). Co-written with Courtney Marie Andrews, who also sings harmonies on the track, "Getting It Right" finds a resolute Rose trying her wearied best at self-improvement.

“Several years ago, I fell in love with Courtney’s first album,” stated Rose. “I had been doing co-writes for a while, but realized I needed to start focusing in on the writers and artists I really wanted to collaborate with. I wasn’t really being set up on things that were fulfilling that desire so I snuck into her DM’s and proposed a write whenever she was in town. Luckily she was already in town and we spent an extremely hot afternoon on the patio talking astrology and music and walking away with what I always thought of as a bit of a banger.”

She continued, “It feels like an obvious anthem for the album with all the time that’s gone by and the hole I was in for a few years. All the disappointment of feeling like I couldn’t do a damn thing right. I’m not even sure how much of that discussion was had, but it was really refreshing to talk and create something with someone on the brink of their own amazing journey. A little of my own cynicism dissolved that day, and even though it would take a few more years before I could actually embark on my own re-entry into the field, it’s definitely a song that helped push me in the right direction

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Eliza McLamb - Pulp.

Singer-songwriter Eliza McLamb is coming of age right in front of us. When the beginning of the pandemic interrupted McLamb’s studies at George Washington University, she eschewed the pre-law path she’d planned for herself and headed west. She started sharing original songs on TikTok while working on farms in North Carolina and Kansas, and was shocked to see her videos find a devoted audience. “I'd been writing songs since I was six years old. It just never really occurred to me that there would be anyone interested,” says McLamb.

Soon, her intimate songs about relationships, body image, and the complexities of life as a young woman started racking up millions of views apiece. Her earliest tracks were deeply personal, made from nothing but her voice and a guitar and recorded in the laundry shed where she lived at the time. Nevertheless, they contained something that resonated — an intimacy borne from her ability to speak to the universal while also speaking only for herself.

Last month McLamb announced her signing to Royal Mountain Records (Wild Pink, Pillow Queens, Girlpuppy), with a track called "Doing Fine", that received a glowing write up from FADER, who said that McLamb "pins down big feelings with sharp observations" adding that her writing is "sharp and heavy at the same time, packing a heftier kick than her singer-songwriter peers." Today, McLamb is back to announce her debut EP Salt Circle, produced by Sarah Tudzin (aka Illuminati Hotties), and sharing a new track entitled “Pulp."

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Mary Middlefield - Band Aid.

Mary Middlefield is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, and classically-trained violinist from Switzerland. Her debut single “Band Aid” features Middlefield’s melody, guitar, and violin writing skills all of which is on full display.

“I really wanted to write a song in which the lyrics could really transmit plenty of different scenes and images,” Explains Mary Middlefield. “I ended up creating a story in which two characters fall out of love before their love story actually begins. I loved the idea of using specific vocabulary that would make the story take place in a theater, where a show should have taken place but never did. I chose to lead with ‘Band Aid’ as a single because I think it’s very relatable. Relationships often break before they even begin and someone always gets hurt, especially if they put themselves out there from the start. The production incorporates everything I love: violins and cellos, folky guitars and smooth drums…”

“The video for ‘Band Aid’ is very similar to the song,” Middlefield continues. “I really wanted it to be set in a theatre where I’m the one putting on a show for a man, desperately trying to give him any character he could potentially want. But it ends up being all in vain as he gets bored and falls asleep during this pathetic show that he doesn’t enjoy. I’m a very openly vulnerable person and give people around me often big pieces of me from the very start. I feel that this video is very true to me and sincere.”

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Moriah Bailey - Paige Bea - SOMOH

Moriah Bailey - The Ocean Life.

Oklahoma songwriter & harpist Moriah Bailey releases “The Ocean Life” from her upcoming album i tried words out December 2nd via Keeled Scales. Inspired by her earliest memories of music, the track is a multifaceted and alludes to notions of freedom, environmental degradation, capitalist consumption, and longing for a different kind of life.

The music video was directed & edited by Lauren Reese, with assistance from Holly Pierce & Elmer Fajardo. “The Ocean Life” music video couples Bailey’s soft but steady harp with snapshots of the natural landscapes in Oklahoma – revealing that change is omni-present.

What Bailey has to say about "The Ocean Life" & music video: "The Ocean Life" is about a lot of things and can be interpreted in different ways. In its broadest sense, for me, the song is longing and hoping for a different kind of life, and its also lamenting losses resulting from the ways that we relate to one another, places, and other beings.

My friend Lauren Reese envisioned and created the video for "the ocean life." When we initially talked about collaborating on this, I let her listen to the whole album and choose a song that she was excited about. The video was filmed at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma. The result is a really compelling illustration of themes in the song that plays with light, reflection, water, and prairie.

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Paige Bea - Autopilot.

London-based singer, songwriter and producer Paige Bea has released her new single "Autopilot" - the latest taste of upcoming EP 'Goodbye, Then!' out 25th November, self-released via The Orchard.

"Autopilot" is the third in a string of recent releases following comeback track "Melt" and most recent single "4x4". Collectively, these releases have firmly re-established Paige Bea within the alternative pop landscape after a 2 year hiatus from releasing music, with wide acclaim and support from notable outlets.

An enthralling, addictive ear-worm that combines R&B hooks and industrial alt-pop production, new single "Autopilot" zeros in on the notion of "no longer being in the drivers’ seat", with the track directly inspired by an argument Paige had with a friend who was trying to pull her out of a bad romantic situation.

“You think that I’m spineless / But my heart’s on autopilot /
I can’t stop / Not possible /
Cruising down love’s slipstream / In the front seat /
At the top speed / I can’t stop / Not possible”

Speaking on the inspiration behind the new single, Paige said: "I was in that all-too familiar phase of a bad relationship when you're losing your own agency and being wilfully ignorant in the face of advice from your oldest and trusted friends but you’re not quite ready to acknowledge the truth. I could see the impact it was having on me - losing sleep, listless and weighed down as I drifted between lover and friend, suspended in the middle of someone else's open relationship - but I still couldn’t untangle myself."

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SOMOH - Anything.

Get acquainted with exciting newcomer SOMOH (Pronounced Soe-Mow”) who today releases the video to your latest new indie-alternative obsession, “Anything.”  Much like her upcoming tracks on her debut EP “A Plan To Get Home” out next year, this track is a profoundly emotional, well-crafted song that explores her relatable feelings of love, friendship, family, and hardship.  “Anything” is available everywhere online via Tiny Library Records.

Speaking about “Anything,” SOMOH whose real name is Sophia Mohan said “This song is about coming to terms with your love for someone & knowing that you’d do just about anything for them. It’s a scary but beautiful feeling to fall that deeply for a person.” The song was produced and mixed by Joel Johnston, who has also produced and mixed SOMOH’s entire debut EP out on his own label, penciled in Spring 2023.

Speaking about her upcoming releases, SOMOH said “I’m really proud of this body of work, it’s been a long time coming. The main focus of this EP is about the transitional stages of life from childhood to your early 20s where part of you doesn’t feel ready to face all the changes. I think these songs convey a lot of those situations you have to deal with as you realise the world isn’t all sunshine and rainbows (e.g falling in love, coming to realisations about the people around you, how you treat yourself). I hope that people listening can find a part of their own story in my songs, it’s always nice to feel like you’re not alone in how you’re feeling.”

SOMOH is Sophia Mohan’s nickname and artist alias. She is 20 years old and hails from Ealing, London, born to a British father and an Italian mother. In her formative years, which she will tell “was a mess” when it came to listening to music, citing anything from Katy Perry to Neck Deep to The 1975 as artists she followed along with pop-punk that still has a special place in her heart. With her music influences more settled now, her music is currently influenced by Indigo De Souza, Alex G, The Japanese House, Adrianne Lenker and Far Caspian.

 

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Sohodolls - The Gilhooly's - The Hengles - Gillie

Photo - Catherine Harder

Sohodolls - Bad.

London's influential electro-rockers Sohodolls are back! After being out of the limelight for more than a decade, a globally enforced lockdown revived one of their classics ‘Bang Bang Bang Bang’ into an unexpected viral TikTok hit among the Gen Z glitterati, which has inspired the band to reform and release some stunning new music.

Following last month’s unveiling of new track ‘Letter To My Ex (Thank You, Goodbye)’, new single ‘Bad’ sees Maya Von Doll giving advice to her younger self on rebelling against gender specific advice:

“I regret not trusting my instinct to stand up for myself. So, this song is about understanding and accepting that fight instinct. About standing up for yourself and rejecting advice that I think is mostly given to young women in my line of work. You shouldn’t always act on it, but you shouldn’t deny its existence. We are all animals - females included!”, she further explains.

‘I can be good and sometimes clever, but when I’m bad I’m so much better’, is the seductive refrain of this stomping rock banger, which embeds catchy hooks under a thick gloss of gothic riffs. Pounding drums, whirring synths and fuzzy guitars melt into an infectious sludge earworm for all of us out there who are inherently bad!

“It took me years to realise I was being walked all over by bigger fish in the music industry. For example, as a burgeoning songwriter writing for other artists, I was given unfair deals that my then management justified as a way of getting on the ladder. Looking back, it was total rubbish and it basically amounted to intellectual property theft! I knew at the time that I could have fought for fairness, but I was told over and over again that to do so would give me a reputation of being difficult and I might not get to work with certain labels again.”, she reveals.

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The Gilhooly's - The Score.

This is one impressive indie rocker where the band are naturally slick and the vocals exude emotion and add an additional layer of power to the track. The bands promo tells us: 

‘The Score’ is a song about appreciating moments in life that didn’t seem a big deal at the time. Now upon reflection they are understood and cherished in a new way. The Gilhooly’s are a cult Glasgow band who came together in the 90’s around the time of Travis, Teenage Fan club and Cosmic Rough Riders. The Ex Cosmic’s Bass Player, James Clifford is now fully entrenched in the Gilhooly’s line up, adding Basslines and Harmonies.

With their old songs gaining attention, praise and Airplay, they have re-emerged from the shadows. Having  signed to Main St Records they released their first Single - STAR  ( No 1 Indy chart) in June 21 and followed up with - WILL GOD FORGIVE - ( No 2 Rock Chart). 

Along with a  new album release in November 21 - G10 - ( No 6 Rock Chart ) and touring Scotland with new songs, It’s been an incredibly busy year for the band. The Fans are back, talking and listening.

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The Hengles - Falling To Pieces.

Ever thought about Falling To Pieces? It’s not that far away as you might think. This new single by The Hengles is playing with all kinds of emotions. It’s deep. Way down. Don’t think it can’t happen to you, because it can! After a long tense, hot summer, this heated world needed a serious cool down. There’s just no alternative. 

And you know it! Falling To Pieces, seemingly starting out of nothing, evolving into an epic fiery Pop song as only The Hengles can do, wandering through nostalgic, eclectic angst, ending with a high note and finally returning to its sweet silent state. It’s a fact of life. So, come on in and join this celebration!

The Hengles have made considerable progress internationally. That resulted in airplay on radio in among others: Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, USA, UK, Denmark, Australia, Canada, Phillipines, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Hungary and Austria. Singles from the band also entered the iTunes / Apple Music charts in: Netherlands, Finland, Belgium and Switzerland.

Influenced by more than 60 years of British and American pop music, The Hengles manage to blend this into their own style and give proof of their skill in writing and recording melodic, catchy pop songs with a twist.

TCBYML · The Hengles - Falling To Pieces

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Photo - Fin O'Hara

Gillie - I ti.

‘i ti’ is a song that announces a new beginning and a new creative chapter for Gillie, an intuitively gifted songwriter, guitarist and producer, Libertino are overjoyed to welcome onto the label. It is the first material the Carmarthenshire born artist has written in the Welsh language and the first song written and recorded after her return to live in Wales after spending her late teens and early twenties in London.

Deeply influenced by place, Gillie blends musically on ‘i ti’  the serenity of the Welsh countryside with the industrial undergrowth of city life, to create something hauntingly serene. Blending gold-flecked guitar loops into a ambient haze, Gillie harnesses the anxieties, stress and struggles that had congregated within her and weaves them into something unapologetic yet inherently intimate.

As Gillie explains: "This song centres around a period in my life where I was looking for a change of direction and hoping to rectify frustrations of feeling overwhelmed and worn out. The rhythm is an attempt to reflect the fast pace of a city life that I was ready to leave, whilst the dreamy vocals reflect escapism, and a yearning for something more. I began writing this track in my last month of living in London, but the song itself came to life and was fully realised once I made the move back to my homeland.

"Some of the lyrics are quite disjointed. It doesn’t so much tell a story as it tries to capture a feeling of making decisions. I (kind of) wrote it as a stream of consciousness and didn’t think too much about the concept. I wanted to capture a feeling without over analysing it. The first verse touches on how I often feel that I am pointlessly shouting into the ether, trying to be heard, whilst I slowly get older, collecting defects along the way. The second verse sees me trying to leave some of these thoughts behind, looking toward a new start as things gently begin to fall into place.

Libertino · Gillie - I ti

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Thallo - Liam Fender - Pitou - Micah P. Hinson

Photo - Abi Sinclair

Thallo - Crescent.

Upcoming Welsh (U.K.) artist Thallo makes a haunting, otherworldly blend of bedroom/dream-pop with contemporary classical touches and subtle jazz textures, laced with her featherlight vocal and accompanied by high-end cinematic visuals.

On her enthralling new Crescent EP, Thallo explores a unique subject matter, and one deeply personal to her – immobility. The three track EP chronicles the artist’s own story about an on-going condition causing chronic pain which began in 2020 and left her temporarily unable to walk or stand, locked-in by her condition after the world had been released from lockdown, forced to cancel her planned appearance at this year’s SXSW (re-schedule for 2023).

The title track ‘Crescent’ was inspired by a breakup and friends moving away, with its warm, uplifting brass section mirroring the song’s bittersweet paradox - the undercurrent of inadequacy a dependence on loved ones during a long-term condition can cause, contradicted by feelings of gratitude for the support received. As Thallo explains “I wasn’t as good a friend or girlfriend as I had wanted to be. I wrote the song upon realising I wouldn’t get the chance to ever make up for that imbalance and was left with the guilt of feeling indebted.”

This feeling of being an inadequate version of oneself is explored literally in the song’s music video, created by Abi Sinclair (Director/Producer) and Cat Jones (Director of Photography). It stars Thallo playing two versions of herself, with the broken Thallo trapped in an unknown surreal location in search for the complete, better version of herself.

The Crescent EP also includes the beautiful ‘Carry Me’, a gloriously, rich rush of multi-instrumentation and Thallo’s sublime vocal whirling in a jazz-infused dream before it’s emotive crescendo. Emotionally it captures the moment in time when Thallo first realised the seriousness of her condition; and the EP’s only Welsh language single, the climatic piano led ‘Pluo’ which explores the peculiar pain of watching the world return to normal following lockdown, whilst Thallo remained in what she describes as “My own personal lockdown.”

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Liam Fender - Love Will Conquer.

Newcastle-based musician Liam Fender releases his debut single: 'Love Will Conquer' alongside a semi-autobiographical music video set in the Fish Quay of his hometown North Shields and featuring actor Jacob Anderton ('Dark Angel', '13 Graves' and Coronation Street).

Love Will Conquer's unconventional structure delivers an almost hymn-like quality. Liam notes "Love Will Conquer's universal message of togetherness, belief in better times, and the importance of connection has only grown more poignant amid the turbulence of recent years."

A lifelong musician finally stepping out with his debut official release, Liam is a musical underdog and living proof that music truly can be a calling; he says "I haven't chosen to do this, it's just in my DNA."

If you've joined the dots between Liam's surname and his place of birth you may think he's onto something with his point about DNA. Either way his earthy, honest and optimistic songs showcase an artist more than capable of standing on his own two feet; extraordinary new single Love Will Conquer is just a small taste of what's to come.

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Pitou - Dancer.

Amsterdam based artist Pitou has shared new single ‘Dancer’ the third song from her upcoming debut album, after previous released songs ‘Big Tear’ and 'Angel'.

“I push myself into light, I need it more than ever” sings Pitou, as interwoven harp and guitar parts swell beneath her, supported by subtle but persistently grooving percussion. The song starts with a feeling of restlessness, towards the second verse Pitou builds in confidence. Just before the outro kicks in, we hear her voice almost disappear into a choir of sirens, only for her to come back in a final crescendo, where the first line of the song is repeated over and over again. It is Pitou’s plea: ‘move towards the light’ - to herself and anyone who needs it.

On her new single, Pitou says: “This movement, from dark to light and back again, sometimes feels very violent. Like a natural phenomenon, waves, that you are forced to give in to. I’ve been thinking about these waves, and how I would like to be more graceful in the surrendering. Make it less of a fight, and more of a dance.

The video of this song was shot with my dear friends Jasmine Karimova and Noa Jansma. The coming together of this song and the flow of us working together gave such beautiful energy. We had a lot of fun with this. The song Dancer had a hard time being written - this video was the opposite. I am very grateful to have these people around me."

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Micah P. Hinson - Carelessly.

Micah P. Hinson releases his newest orchestral-country single - "Carelessly" - the third single from the forthcoming album, I Lie To You, out December 2 (Ponderosa Records). "Hinson channels his inner John Prine as he offers a humble and poignant perspective on an issue that is once again in the spotlight." Read and share the full review via Glide.

Born into a strict fundamentalist Christian household in Memphis and raised in the evangelist Abilene, TX, Hinson sings with a prophet-like voice. His songs feel like a patchwork of life experience, from his unsettled early days through his more recent years as a devoted father navigating divorce. Infusing his raw, poetic folk lyrics with inspiration taken from the industrial and alternative music of his youth, Hinson has established a reputation as one of the more innovative and interesting singer/songwriters in the international alt-folk scene.

His songs feel like a patchwork of life experiences, from his early religious upbringing to fatherhood to difficult re But in early 2020, after releasing ten critically acclaimed albums and building a loyal international fanbase from the ground up, Micah P. Hinson nearly walked away from his music career. He felt trapped, explaining “It hit me that all I was doing was writing about my previous relationships and situations, and that meant I had nowhere to go. How can you progress as a human being into the future if all you're doing is writing about all the sh.t that chains you to the past?”

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Freyja Elsy - Terry Emm - Jake Morley - Awkward Branches

Freyja Elsy - Golden Hour.

Freyja's vocals on her new song ‘Golden Hour’ are breathtaking and oh so versatile, add in a gorgeous musical arrangement and this really is a standout song. The promo is spot on telling us that the song  encapsulates the nervous joy that comes with change and seeking the strength and bravery to take a different path. Experimenting with vocal chopping alongside deep harmonies, Elsy constructs a warm sonic bath of piano, strings and synthesisers around lilting melodies and uplifting crescendos.

Previous singles ‘Lungs’ and ‘Requiem’ drew praise, coverage and radio play internationally - including BBC 6Music. On ‘Lungs’ the BBC’s Adam Walton said: “This gave me goosebumps that haven’t subsided since I first heard it … off-the-scale evocative” and for ‘Requiem’ Circuit Sweet said of Elsy: “A classic composer on all levels with an understanding of connection within their creations.”

Freyja Elsy is an independent songwriter and composer who produces layered, striking music from her home studio in Cardiff. She incorporates both pop technique and classical influence under her own momentum and direction.

Freyja Elsy · Golden Hour

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Terry Emm - November Evenings.

We continue to be impressed by Terry Emm. The new song mixes timeless folk with a twist of Americana and despite the subject matter plenty of warm vibes. OK so here's the background. Hertfordshire singer-songwriter Terry Emm returns with blistering new single ‘November Evenings’, just out on October 27th. The single is his second new track of 2022 following ‘Wish You Were Here’, which came out in April beginning a new era for the artist.

Combining a vintage live band sound with rustic Americana flavours, the track packs a punch with its jangly catchy chorus. Working again with Lukas Drinkwater (Emily Barker, Annie Howie, Jacob & Drinkwater), the track turns the heat up a few notches from ‘Wish You Were Here’, with scorching lead guitar and drums that evolve against the big repeating chorus refrain, “I can’t be this way when I love you”.

Elsewhere, lines like ‘Does it leave you so cold, the feeling of being sold everything you can ever have?’, see Emm moving into a rawer lyrical territory than the nature inspired chamber-folk he’s been mostly known for. An irresistible slice of vintage-pop, ‘November Evenings’ is sure to set the radio airwaves alight this winter.

On the track, Emm says “November Evenings is about that feeling when autumn changes into winter and we’re left reflecting on the year. It’s about jealously and a feeling of wanting more from life, when certain things are always just out of reach. It’s probably the second or third upbeat track I’ve ever released”.

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Jake Morley - Some Things Are Like Other Things (Album).

Hidden in your house is a button
For use in an emergency
You'll find it at the back of a cupboard
Or behind the washing maching
You'll know it when you see it, it's the one that says
'Everything goes back to normal'
....... from 'Everything Goes Back to Normal' written by Jake Morley

To be fair, we could probably all do with one right now.  In Jake Morley's case, couple the world and UK events of the past few years with swapping late night songs with Michael Kiwanuka, breaking Jack Garratt's amp, and having an incident in Ed Sheeran's bathroom, and you'll understand these sentiments:

A recent Covid infection has meant Jake's had to postpone a number of dates on his current UK tour.  Jake says: "Sold out rooms, magic moments, all manner of cooked breakfasts, it was all going so well…. and then I got covid. Now… I’m… feeling… quite…. tired. And postponing shows.  Two weeks on and still every day is a fresh round of covid symptom bingo. A tedious relay race of unwanted characters, from tiredness to achy bones to ooh feeling better to brain fog to Now That’s What I Call Covid 2020 classics like The Cough That Never Ends and Lungs That Are Surely The Size Of A Crisp Packet."

BUT ... his new album 'Some Things Are Like Other Things' came out yesterday Friday, 28th October and it's a thing of aural and visual beauty.

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Awkward Branches - A Frame (Not a Window).

Awkward Branches is the new project of singer, keyboardist and former Fiction frontman Mike Barrett and close collaborator and guitarist Phil Swan. Today they share their debut single ‘A Frame (Not a Window)’ via Tip Top Recordings.

After writing and performing with each-other in numerous other projects - including a 6-piece experimental collective (Holy Island Sketchbook), gothic trio (Sweet Heave) and as part of Mike’s dream-pop project (Brand New Moon) - they felt it was finally time to put a name to their own project, and thus Awkward Branches was born.

Appropriately, the pair first met standing under a much-beloved tree in the gardens of an old wedding chapel where they both worked. While waiting for ceremonies to run their course, talk would often turn to music. United by a shared appreciation for ambient soundscapes and buoyant melodies, they tentatively began recording sketches; ideas which grew over several years, without hurry, into a handful of fully formed songs.

‘A Frame (Not a Window)’ is the first single to be shared from forthcoming debut EP due out next spring. The debut single is a tranquil sun-flecked number, driven by bouncy acoustic guitar and verdant synth, with tender vocals that speak to the nature of trust, faith and dogs. The song is complemented by a charming animated video, created by Mike Barrett, that satisfyingly mirrors the colourful textures and sanguine spirit of the song itself. Barrett on the video: “The video began life as a simple zoom through abstract spaces, inspired by a craft-paper collage Phil had made as a potential EP cover. Using a blend of hand-drawn elements, original footage and AI-assisted animation techniques, it soon evolved into a somewhat labyrinthine journey across a variety of fantasy landscapes, culminating In the slightly tongue-in-cheek / slightly deadly serious ascension to heaven for the final scene. Mostly it was a chance to indulge my affection for kitsch architectural forms, potted plants, and - in a nod to the first line of the song’s lyrics - the illusive joy of dogs”



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Native Harrow - The A.M.s - Brenda Carsey - Land Of Pure - The Darts

Native Harrow - Old Kind Of Magic (New Album).

We are delighted to share the title track 'Old Kind of Magic', leading the way on the fifth long player from Native Harrow (their third for prestigious London based label, Loose). The album is described as "a sojourn on their passage between two lands; a luxuriant and fecund annunciation." Beehive Candy have featured them before and we were really impressed back then. Now we are blown away by the new collection of songs, both beautiful, thoughtful and wonderfully natural.  

In the first days of 2021, the band known as Native Harrow landed seaside in Brighton, England. Its leaders, Stephen Harms and Devin Tuel, arrived with a few trunks worth of books, clothes, guitars, and microphones. Settling in at the very top of a crumbling regency building where the seagulls call to the sun's rise and fall each day, they thought “this is the perfect place to make a record.”

Immersing themselves in a new place filled with unfamiliar faces, sounds, and sights, the band fueled their creative voices on being strangers in a strange land and spent most of the year writing and recording the ten songs that would make up OKOM. From early mornings spent discovering the knurled hills of Albion and late nights dancing in London, to the quiet hum of building a home in the heart of the countryside, rediscovering love, letting go of things lost, taking a spiritual trip, riding the waves, and trudging through the mud to find freedom; this album spans a lifetime of lessons.

Harms and Tuel have self-produced a work that is simultaneously their most sweepingly expansive and delicately intimate album to date. It is at moments revelatory, and at others beautifully heartbreaking; a showcase of Tuel’s finest writing. Recording Old Kind of Magic themselves, they crafted an album that places itself distinctly between the two musicians and the tapestry of sounds they are regarded for.

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The A.M.s - Ignite The Sky.

In 2019 on Piano Day, the 88th day of the year, Adrian happened to tune Mariko’s piano. He asked if she wanted to play together; she said maybe. Realizing she might be able to return to her long-lost passion, music, they connected and started rehearsing with the hopes of playing out. Before they ever got the chance he moved to California, and soon after COVID-19 shut everything down. But they kept playing and sending ideas. Now, with an extensive catalog of 50+ songs, they are releasing their first album, Ignite the Sky, recorded at Earwig Studio in Seattle, WA.

Ignite the Sky chronicles Mariko’s journey of finding her birth parents during COVID, while processing the events and struggles of 2020 in quarantine. The self-produced and mostly self-played collection of songs, save for their drummer, Jason Edwards, lends to the intimate nature of the album along with the acoustic instruments and vintage keys. 

Using inspiration from nature, “Torn Vine” introduces others to the identity struggles of an adoptee, while “Biggest Wave” illustrates the immense weight of connecting to birth parents and discovering a love and loss so deep.  The upbeat latin groove of “15,000 Days” isn’t what it seems at first–rather, it was 15,000 days that had passed until Mariko and her birth parents reunited once again. “Ignite the Sky” the title track, encompasses many themes across the band, adoption, and quarantine: distance, loss, hopelessness, separation, but ultimately faith that stars will align again for reconnection in the future.

The A.M.s · 12 Ignite The Sky

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Brenda Carsey - Man Of Mine.

“Man of Mine” is the fourth and final single off of Brenda Carsey’s upcoming full-length studio album “Cognizance”. The song is a true Neo Soul/Jazz Pop song with delicious instrumentation that embodies the beauty and depth of a growing love. It begins with enticing and provocative notes of fleshy enjoyment and gives way to the kind of growing love that allows you to feel safe enough to be weak, to be seen, to be yourself and grow.

Carsey admits that she doesn’t usually write positive songs nor love songs but this song wrote itself and arose from the genuine gratitude she has for her partner. This song is for anyone and everyone who has ever experienced a deep feeling of love for someone. For your partner, your best friend, for your group, for yourself! All identities, all relationship styles – All love is beautiful! Let your love shine out into the world!

Brenda Carsey is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. Her music has been described as brilliant, timeless, playful, and larger than life R&B/Soul and Progressive Pop. Carsey delivers an engaging, energetic show, with her unmistakably unique sound rooted in the classic pop diaspora. Carsey’s voice is uninhibited with a virtuosic range, mixing a syrupy sweet sound with a beautiful soulful darkness. She will stop you in your tracks with poetic lyrics, fluid melodies, engaging chord progressions, funky rhythms, and a voice filled with passion and soul.  She has recently released three new singles, all from her much anticipated upcoming full-length album "Cognizance" which is set for release at the top of 2023.

Brenda Carsey · Man of Mine

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Land Of Pure - Places Without Colors.

The style of the Zurich newcomer band Land of Pure could be described as alternative rock. And yet, with their instrumental diversity, they clearly go beyond the scope of this genre: in their songs you can hear jazz trumpet solos, Highlander flutes, Japanese kotos and Indian sitars and tablas. Mixed with 80s synth, the result is a very multifaceted and intense listening experience.

The Asian influences in the music are no coincidence - singer Aaron lived in Asia for over 10 years, where he worked in various aid projects and social business start-ups and processed what he experienced there as a songwriter. After a solo album in 2018, «Land of Pure» grew into a six-piece band that now has its first album on the way with «King of Nothing».

The slightly dreamy-melancholic and at the same time expressive single «Places Without Colors» raves about the colorful and chaotic cities of Asia. Anyone who has ever traveled through such big cities or even lived there knows the incredible fascination that such a city exerts. And the desire to return there again and again. 

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The Darts - Love Tsunami.

The Darts formed in 2016 with the goal of making great all-girl garage-rock noise, seeing the world, and having a fab slumber party every night. They threw on some vintage black slips, threw off their shoes, and set out on the adventure.

In the first six months, they put out two self-produced EPs and signed with Dirty Water Records (UK). In the first year, the label put out their first full-length vinyl release, Me.Ow. They headed to Europe a bunch of times and never wanted to go home. But when they did, Dirty Water re-released the first two EPs as a second full-length vinyl, 'The Darts' and they toured all over the U.S. a bunch of times, with great bands like Australia’s The Living End and Billie Joe Armstrong’s The Longshot - and, once again, never wanted to go home. Their idols started noticing, including author Stephen King, actors Drew Carey and Fred Armisen, and punk legends Jello Biafra and Blag Dahlia, sometimes even coming to shows and getting on stage with us. Two years into the project, they were on bigger European stages like Sjockfest, Cosmic Trip, and Roots n Roses, with acts like Turbonegro, The Flaming Lips, and The Dead Kennedys.

In 2018, Jello Biafra signed the band to his label, Alternative Tentacles, and released their third full-length record, I Like You But Not Like That (2018 Alternative Tentacles Records), at a packed Punk Rock Bowling appearance in Las Vegas. They then embarked on an unforgettable coast-to-coast US tour with their heroes The Damned. They found themselves performing with bands like Rancid and L7, had songs placed on top tv shows like Peaky Blinders, got thrilling reviews in Rolling Stone, made a stop at Mexico City’s superb Hipnosis Fest, and then...the pandemic hit.

But even then, things didn’t stop. Vox hosted an Instagram Live show garnering over fifty thousand views, they played Punk Rock Bowling 2022, made their debut at Seattle’s uber-hip Freakout Fest, and recorded a new 7-inch for Adrenalin Fix Music, Dirty Water, Beluga, and Ghost Highway Recordings in Europe. By summer of 2022, we toured all over the US again, performed on the legendary KEXP Sessions, and finished recording a new full-length record (funded entirely by fans) co-produced by Jello Biafra himself. Snake Oil will be released on Alternative Tentacles in early 2023. European tours are lined up well into next year...and work is already beginning on the next record.

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Oneiros Way - Ace Of Wands - Nico Paulo

Oneiros Way - Mourning.

"'Mourning' is the lament of death, a siren that announces its sound, a round murmur, the malevolent reverberation of an end that escapes, that is beyond to come but that does not come: because rather than death what's coming is sleep, apathy, the trap of return, the eternal damnation of the present.

Mourning is inspired by Jean Cocteau's Orphèe 1950, death is a mirror that entraps, eternal return, continuous re-proposition of dream scenarios. A lament, a call and a new lament, as if death were nothing more than a new beginning. "

Hailing from Milan, Italy, electro-dreampop duo Oneiros Way deliver dark-tinted, ethereal songs, rooted in a vintage cinematic imagery. Cocteau Twins echoes on trip-hop rhythms and post-rock subtileties.

Regina (voce, pianoforte, synth e organi) and Claudio (voice, chitarre, Lunabass, drum machine / campionatore, synth) have made wide use of analog instruments like MS 20, Solina, acoustic pianos, banjos, analog drum machines and filtered drums, but also samples, pans, streams, empty bottles of Martini, reflecting on the one hand the aim to get warm, deep sounds, on the other hand their taste for sonic research.

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Ace Of Wands - Desiring You.

Some energy, some emotion and a whole load of hooks both rhythmically and vocally, this is one very impressive song. Lee Rose from Ace of Wands asks us - Have you ever wanted to be with someone you knew was no good for you?

“Desiring You” was written while I was staying alone in a cabin in northern Ontario for 2 weeks. It was my first time taking a completely solo trip. Having no one for company but my dog and my instruments, I recorded the demo, staying up late into the night writing and re-writing the lyrics and harmonies, and playing the bridge riff over and over again until it felt like a second skin. I always know when a song is going to become bigger than me when I feel it in my body.

The song was inspired by a toxic relationship and the addictive and sometimes destructive nature of desiring what is not good for me. I was trying to put music to the feeling of being completely un-seen by the person I most desired being with. The song explores the tension, the anger and my ultimate refusal to be strung along.

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Photo - Sarah Kierstead

Nico Paulo - Now Or Never.

St John's-based Portuguese artist Nico Paulo has shared a video for "Now Or Never" & announces her debut self-titled album is due out in the spring 2023 Via Forward Music Group

In an effort to fully understand how things end and why, Now or Never looks to unpack what happens when you stay empathetic through heartbreak. The lyric “kiss me now or never, hold me close or let me go,” is one of the first lines I wrote and it has stayed relevant to my experiences ever since. This line has haunted me for almost a decade and recent experiences of loss and reconstructing of the self helped me to finally transform it into a song.

Hi friends - pleased to be announcing the debut LP of Portugese songwriter Nico Paulo, who has found a second home in St John's Newfoundland and linked up with CA label Forward Music Group. Highly recommended for fans of Laura Veirs, Tim Bernardes, and any people in for a modern take on Tropicalia songwriting. Will have the full LP to share with you asap.

Nico Paulo was produced and recorded by Josh Van Tassel and Tim Baker at a cabin in Nova Scotia and at Nico's home in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador before being mastered by Heather Kirby at Dreamlands Mastering. Collaborators on the record include Tim Baker (vocals/guitar/keys/pump-organ), Steve Maloney (vocals), Adam Hogan (guitar/lap steel), Josh Van Tassel (percussion),  Clarinets by Mary Beth Waldram (clarinets), Terry Campbell (trumpets) and Kyle Cunjak (bass).

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WILDES - Beck Black

WILDES - (Run to the) Flames.

London singer/songwriter Ella Walker aka WILDES has released her new single "(Run to the) Flames", the latest taste of upcoming debut album 'Other Words Fail Me'. The new album was produced by St Francis Hotel (Michael Kiwanuka, Greentea Peng, Little Simz) and will be released on 13th January 2023 via AWAL.

While Walker’s gaze is set firmly on what is in front of her, there is still room to acknowledge where the she has come from. “(Run to the) Flames” was written in 2019, the only track brought forward to the album from that period of time. “It was a time where I felt really useless, musically,” she explains. “I was really without direction. I had a strong connection with it emotionally: it was all about running into the flames when you’re in a really dark, sad place, and deciding that you’re going to change.”

This elegiac song honours the ‘old’ WILDES sound of grand, sweeping endings, but stays true to the artist she is now with new sonic inflections. She sings: “I’ll only dream of the woman I could’ve been”, as she stands on the edge of a future where that woman is within her reach.

WILDES' music sonically falls somewhere in a Bermuda Triangle of Angel Olsen, St Vincent and Mazzy Star, embedded within an entrancing skeleton of folk songwriting, all the while lifting the listener up on a storm cloud of cinematic electronics and her sharp, honest lyricism.

Citing the influence of PJ Harvey, Patti Smith and SASAMI on her new album, WILDES notes - "They are unapologetically honest women and musicians. They gave me permission to come out of the box I'd been cowering in."

 

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Beck Black - Gotta Get Back To My Baby.

“Beck Black” the brand, is a Hollywood based band formed in 2014. One of her most note worthy releases, is a collaboration with Beatles’ drummer, Ringo Starr, for the song "Who's Gonna Save Rock N Roll" in 2020!

In addition to Rock n Roll, she is releasing a new solo project entitled “Electric Cowgirl” recorded in Nashville, TN and in Queens, New York City. After the release of “Don’t Call Me Darlin”, Beck Black ventured further into her Blues/Country roots as a native of the Cape Fear River region of North Carolina.

Besides making music, she has appeared in numerous independent films and TV shows as a SAG/AFTRA actress. The new single release “Gotta Get Back To My Baby” is accompanied with a video filmed in NYC directed by Ms. Black.

 

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