UK-based soulful indie pop duo Karamelien present their debut single “Ascension Heights”, a laid-back and groovy summer tune inspired by and featuring Top Topham’s track of the same name. While technically a new project, this soaring perfect pop offering actually has a rich and touching backstory.
Glasgow*-based *Starry Skies are set to release their fourth studio album Small Wonders via Fox Star Records, following up 2020’s long player Do It With Love. With a brilliant mix of classic rock, power pop and folk-pop, the band is back with a crowdfunded album of shimmering delights
Drummer Billy Drummond has long been a rhythm keeper’s rhythm keeper, the demand for which might explain why he hasn’t headlined a recording since 1996.
With a new single “Ghosts” out, an album of covers behind them, and new material coming along thick and fast, it was the perfect time to sit down with Dan Kubrinski of Deadfinger and find out what was happening in their world.
The solo guitar extravaganza Electric Git Box draws on songs from throughout his career, from his 1976 debut Clarity, Circle, Triangle, Square to 2019’s WHENUFINDITUWILLKNOW.
Led since their 2014 inception by guitarist/vocalist Matt Dudzik, these guys probably can’t cross the street without sneering at oncoming traffic, but they know from hooks.
While this follow-up resembles its predecessor Dark Americana: Stories and Songs in mood and style, it feels more ambitious and expansive, with intricate arrangements that conjure Ennio Morricone’s spacious, evocative spaghetti western soundtracks.
Dublin future-retro electronic artist Circuit3 (the electronic pop alias of Peter Fitzpatrick) presents his third album ‘Technology For The Youth’ LP. Released via Manchester’s AnalogueTrash label, this album was mastered by Richard Dowling, known for his work with Paul McCartney, Kylie Minogue, Motorhead, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, New Order and Sparks.
London*-based alt-rock / metal artist *Grace Solero their new Metamorphosis,a power-packed labour of love that is raw, grungy, dreamy and atmospheric all at the same time
Boston singer/songwriter Abbie Barrett likes good, catchy songs and guitars. In what style those things come together depends entirely on what the tune demands – even if that’s several things at once.
Austin*-based rock duo *The Caughtery presents their debut Self-Titled EP, released on July 15. Mixed by the legendary Tim Palmer (Robert Plant, Ozzy Osbourne, Tin Machine, The Mission, HIM, U2, Pearl Jam), who jointly produced it together with David Gayler, this EP was recorded by Lee Jackson at Studio71West near Austin. Tim Palmer also contributes guitar on this glorious debut.
Clay Joule is a singer, drummer and multi-instrumentalist, songwriter. After the success of the previous single “Funky Sphere,” it was only natural that we hunted down the latest release, the aptly titled “Summer Breeze” and found out what this next single was all about.
Scruffy synths and existential despair add up to a mesmerizing debut.
With In Tense, his second album as a leader, Raghavan has staked a claim as one of modern jazz’s most interesting composers and bandleaders.
With Chicago dropping their 38th album of their career, one of the tracks in particular, “The Mermaid” featuring Joanna Pearl, sums up their collaborative prowess and eclectic musical approach perfectly.
Manchester art-rock quartet Weimar has released its debut album Dancing On a Volcano digitally via German Shepherd Records and on CD via Marlene’s Hat Records; 12 tracks take the listener on an unpredictable excursion through the socio-political and personal challenges of our modern age.
How many times have we seen a person in their twilight years, still doing it, whatever it is, and making us think, “Man, I hope I still have that much fire at their age.” Well, folks, please welcome Sheila Jordan to the stage.
Ernest Moon are Steven Doran and Brian Murphy, two highly creative songsters with a gift for wise cracks and impactful one-liners, brought together by a liking for eggs on toast. They offer lush lyrics, heavy hands and a rat-arsed sincerity. Their sound has been described as pushy pop, “filling the gap between pretentious lyrical art and bog standard pop music”.
San Antonio’s long-running Krayolas didn’t attract the power pop tastemakers back when the genre flourished in the eighties, never seeming to break out of their region until thirty-odd years later.
The next generation of Orange Country rock.
Sons Of features four lengthy modular synthesizer compositions from Sam Prekop and John McEntire, first forged across the duo’s improvised 2019 European tour.
Soulful art-rock outfit Seal Party presents their new single ‘Kaleka’, a stunning Bowie-esque piano-based composition that complements the band’s most recent single ‘Maison’ featuring R&B organ wizard Chris Rob (Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Anita Baker, Talib Kweli). Both songs are rich and captivating tasters of their forthcoming debut album ‘MMXXII’, bringing the listener to a meaninful and timeless place.
Thirty-six years on from his last LP, Foster, re-signed to Blue Note, issues his (very) long awaited ninth album Reboot.
NYC*-based cinematic folk-rock artist *Jessie Kilguss is back to offer a pure dose of her trademark magical realism with the single “Great White Shark”. The first taste of her new album What Do Whales Dream About at Night?’
Ree-Vo is Bristol’s Andy Spaceland (AKA Andy Jenks) and T. Relly. Recorded, produced and mixed by Andy at Bristol’s Christchurch Studios, known as the home of _Mezzanine_-era Massive Attack, this album was tweaked and fine-tuned during the summer of 2020.
Montreal*-based indie rock / post-punk quartet *The Ember Glows present their new single “Silent Love”, a sonic exploration of steadfast love, the fragility of life and the power of silence.
Despite first impressions from the band’s name, Philadelphia duo Grassy Sound does not play bluegrass.
The band’s second album since returning from the dead in 2017, Transmissions From Mothership Earth doesn’t rework the formula as much as reiterate that it still functions properly.
Enlisting master guitarist Ben Monder and ex-Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip as co-producer, the New Orleans-born/New York-based Despommier takes a trip through the catalog of Swedish composer Lars Gullin, whose work he encountered in Italy in 2005.
For her first solo album, AACM member Armstrong presents The Antidote Suite, a soundtrack to the Black Index art exhibit at the University of California Irvine (where Armstrong also happens to be a PhD candidate).
Paying tribute to the airline workers, pilots and employees of the sky, this new single host’s heartfelt lyrics, ballad-style instrumentals in an ode to flight attendants, and airline resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Known as well for their incendiary live shows that featured banging steel percussion on oil cans, metal pipes, and other unusual items that earned them a cult following amongst fans of industrial music back in the ‘80s, this 2 CD/2 LP edition features the original album on the first disc with pre-Tragic Figures recordings when they were known as Africa Corps featured on disc 2.
Norwegian drummer Gard Nilssen, sideperson to Macej Obara and Mathias Eick and leader of Acoustic Unity and the Supersonic Orchestra, follows in the footsteps of a legacy – specifically that of late Norse drum legend Jon Christensen.
A mainstay of the Canadian rock scene, singer/songwriter/guitarist Ian Blurton led Tornonto’s beloved and influential postpunk/alt.rock act Change of Heart, before shifting to more straightforward hard rock with C’Mon.
Rising from the ashes of the much-missed Astra, who released a pair of psychedelic proto-prog albums in the early 2010s, Birth, well, pretty much picks up where Astra left off on its first full-length album Born.
Galvanized by his return to San Francisco after a decade in NYC and named after the word for the smell of earth after rain, Petrichor blends Redier’s influences – jazz, classical, stride – into a seamless whole.
With the gorgeous and gentle tracks “Montecito,” “Can You See it,” and “New Design” already out in the world as a taste of what’s to come, singer songwriter and Grammy winning producer Rich Jacques returns with a new collection of music in the form of a six-track EP called Everything Must Change.”
British power trio Josiah was a reliable stoner/hard rock force in the early 2000s without ever really hitting stardom, even in that world.
This New York City-raised singer/songwriter’s new single is more in the vein of the hushed, Nick Drake-like folk displayed on her 2021 Not Yet EP, but with a rustic, down home alt-country/Americana feel.
Dublin synthpop artist Circuit3 (AKA Peter Fitzpatrick) presents the ‘Overview Effect’, a five-track EP offering a scintillating taster ahead of the artist’s third album Technology For The Youth LP, slated for release on July 15 via Manchester’*s *AnalogueTrash label and mastered by Richard Dowling, known for his work with Paul McCartney, Kylie Minogue, Motorhead, David Bowie, Foo Fighters, New Order and Sparks.
Bassist Brian Bromberg boasts a career going back over four decades, starting as low-ender for saxophonist Stan Getz and going on to a long career in smooth jazz, fusion and straightahead jazz.
Putting aside his own work, Mesmerism finds Sorey alongside his friends Aaron Diehl on piano and Matt Brewer on bass for an engaging spelunk in the Great American Songbook.
Like his first three “Black Cat Trilogy” LPs, Missoula, MT-based Henderson K. Shatner’s fourth album as Catnyp is wildly unpredictable and varied, so much so that no two songs sound alike.
Legendary Dead Can Dance vocalist and highly acclaimed film composer Lisa Gerrard has joined forces with Los Angeles*-based composer/ record producer *Marcello De Francisci for the stunning new album Exaudia, presenting a vivid collection of epic and empowering compositions. The first single “Until We Meet Again”, now out and the album is available to order.
NYC*-based post-punk/alternative rock collective *London Plane’s sophomore album Bright Black is now out via Declared Goods.
Soulful art-rock outfit Seal Party has released their new single “Maison”, a rich and captivating taster of their forthcoming debut album MMXXII, which will be released this summer. An appearance by R&B organ wizard Chris Rob (Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, John Legend, Anita Baker, Talib Kweli) brings “Maison” to a soulful, timeless place.
On its third LP Turf Ascension, Bubblemath makes no bones about its preferred musical methods, opening with “Surface Tension,” a seventeen-minute epic of shifting time signatures, speculative fictive lyrics and, most importantly, ear-catching melodies.
For its second LP Brown Leather, New York City’s rollicking Sweet Things have undergone some alterations.
