Victor V. Gurbo’s ‘The Ballad of Renée Nicole Good’ deliberately reaches back to the older American songwriting tradition of the topical folk song, written quickly, plainly and with little attempt to separate music from the events surrounding it. The song responds to the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renée Nicole GoodContinue Reading
The House Flies return with a heavier sense of purpose on ‘Derelict Crawl’, the first glimpse of their forthcoming second album Lions and Ore. Built on a relentless post-punk rhythm and thick, churning guitars, the single feels immediate without sacrificing the bleak atmosphere that has become central to the band’s sound.Continue Reading
‘Summer In Galt’ opens with the feeling of something already slipping away. Throughout their latest offering, Sky Is Alright capture the slower process of memory changing shape, where a place or season becomes permanently tied to the person who is no longer there. It’s a sense of absence that’s builtContinue Reading
Coconut Shy have spent much of their early catalogue exploring the heavier corners of reflection, but ‘Small Steps (Paces)’ finds the Melbourne four-piece opening the windows and letting some light in. Built around warm indie textures and an easy sense of forward motion, the track trades melancholy for something moreContinue Reading
Oskar Brandt’s debut single ‘Now or Never’ offers a clear introduction to the Berlin-based singer-songwriter’s approach: consisting of personal writing framed by piano, strings and a polished orchestral-pop arrangement. The song centres on a relationship under strain, with uncertainty and internal conflict shaping its emotional direction. But instead of pushingContinue Reading
Chapalu’s ‘I Will Find You’ is built around a simple promise, but the song gives that promise enough scale to feel almost mythic. Written by Drogheda songwriter Catherine Thomas and voiced by Virginia Richardson, the track places love against a backdrop of instability, using increasingly dramatic imagery to test howContinue Reading
There’s a gentle sense of resolution at the heart of Son of Jacob’s latest single ‘Livin’’. Written, performed and largely shaped by Montclair-based artist Will Jacobson, the track looks at love, uncertainty and the temptation to live too far ahead of yourself, then quietly chooses the present instead. ‘Livin’’ isContinue Reading
There’s a certain appeal in hearing an artist arrive without pretending to have everything figured out. And ‘My Life Is You’, the first professionally produced single from Swiss singer-songwriter Novo Grey, feels shaped by exactly that openness. Written from memories of a defining relationship, the song looks back on theContinue Reading
Oaken Wires’ ‘Parakeets’ takes a small piece of everyday London life and turns it into something far more reflective. Named after the birds that have made themselves at home in Tottenham’s parks, the single uses adaptation as a wider metaphor for relationships, memory and the uneasy feeling of learning howContinue Reading
‘Boundary Light’ sits in the kind of space where genre becomes secondary to atmosphere. Throughout this new release, SATOSHI brings together trip-hop, abstract hip-hop, dark ambient, post-rock and experimental electronics, but the track still works because those elements feel integrated rather than stacked on top of one another. Restrained beatsContinue Reading