A second chunk of curator/producer Zev Feldman’s Record Store Day releases constitute a trio of veterans at the top of their game.

Lady Nade – one of the UK’s most loved and distinctive voices – returns with ‘Bloom’, the final single before her eagerly anticipated album ‘Identity’, set for release this summer.

On Friday 13 March, the Belgian band ru·is released their debut single adreamwithinadream. The song is a composition built around the eponymous poem by Edgar Allan Poe. What begins as a grounded singer-songwriter piece slowly unfolds into a cosmic death waltz – somewhere between folk noir and a hazy fever dream.

Gerald Casale delivered a sobering postscript that pierced through the lingering adrenaline. His directive to the audience was to use their freedom of choice before it vanishes entirely, serving as the perfect capstone to a set defined by intellectual defiance in challenging times.

In an era dominated by singles and soundbites, the record encourages listeners to slow down and engage with its full emotional and tonal range, moving fluidly between reflection, humor, and seriousness. Although not originally conceived as a concept album, the songs reveal a strong sense of unity when heard in sequence. That cohesion led Roensch to imagine the album being played in a favorite dive bar, one that values interesting music and attentive listening, which ultimately inspired the album’s title.

Merwulf is a Portland-based art punk trio balancing tension and humor, built around distorted bass, driving drums, and unusual keyboard textures. “The Mountain Lion” is one of the band’s most emotionally direct songs to date. Written about the death of a parent, it starts sparse and assertive before building into a full-band crescendo that hits like a wave, then recedes into quiet.

Sha-La Music announces the release of the On E Street Remix EP by US Roots Rocker DownTown Mystic on April 3. The EP features the Rock’n‘Roll Hall of Fame rhythm section from Bruce Springsteen’s legendary E Street Band: drummer “Mighty” Max Weinberg & bassist Garry Tallent.

Lamentations features six tracks, including the singles “Milogather Parts 1 & 2” and “Sin Again”. Elsewhere the EP moves from the acoustic folk ramble of “Water Buffalo” to the off-beat groove of “Green Veil” before closing with “Bells Palsy,” a stomping track inspired by frontman Caleb’s brief experience with the facial paralysis syndrome.

For Record Store Day (and a week later on CD), a veritable tidal wave of releases have washed over us, including this fine quartet by jazz pianists of different visions.

Danny Django, hailing from Colorado Springs, is an indie alternative rock artist who is making waves with his sixth studio album, The Peach Orchard Field. With a passion for storytelling through music, Danny has captivated audiences across the United States with his unique sound. Having written and recorded all the songs in his basement studio, Danny brings a raw and authentic energy to his music that resonates with listeners.

Mixed and produced by Darryll McFadyen (Belle & Sebastian, Simple Minds) with Montreal-based studio musician Marcelo Effori stepping in for the drumming. Kevin Franco penned the lyrics and made all of the other sounds you hear on this track

Sungaze is examining nostalgia without rose-colored glasses. “I’m No Longer Afraid of Heights”, the alternative band’s fullest exploration of Midwest emo to date, is a poetic track that juxtaposes the warmth of childhood memory with the stagnation of adulthood left unlived. The single and climactic music video arrive on April 10, with the album to follow on May 22.

Eddie Cohn, a talented artist hailing from Los Angeles, has brought together a powerhouse of musicians for his latest release. Collaborating with LA-based musicians Jake Reed and Sean Hurley, as well as Brett Farkas, Phil Peterson, and Kevin Penner, Cohn has crafted a unique sound that blends acoustic and electric elements seamlessly. With a nod to influences such as Soundgarden, Nirvana, Tom Petty, and Beck, Cohn’s music delivers a punchy yet emotionally resonant listening experience.

‘Fragment Of Tomorrow (2025 New Mix)’ does not seek to reinterpret these songs through radical transformation; instead, it reveals how they can be reshaped through attention, restraint, and a deep respect for their underlying structure.

What distinguishes ‘San Francisco to Tokyo Tour 2025’ is its sense of community without uniformity. Each artist brings a distinct perspective, yet the compilation never feels fragmented. Instead, it presents a continuum of approaches to songwriting and performance, linked by a shared commitment to nuance and authenticity.

At its core, ‘Everything All The Time (20th Anniversary Edition)’ is a study in balance; between intimacy and expansiveness, between structure and spontaneity, between past and present. Bridwell and Brooke, alongside their collaborators, crafted a record that continues to resonate not because it seeks permanence, but because it captures a moment of becoming.

What distinguishes ‘Subtle Song’ is its commitment to proportion. Every element feels measured, every decision guided by an understanding of how much is enough. The analog remastering does not attempt to modernize the album so much as clarify its original intent, allowing its textures to resonate with renewed depth.

‘Instrumental Music & Piano Pieces’ is a work of contrasts and convergence, a collection in which Maroon’s skills as instrumentalist, composer, and curator intersect. It affirms his capacity to move seamlessly between textures, spaces, and traditions, presenting an album that rewards attentive listening while charting a distinctive artistic trajectory beyond his rock roots.

‘Live At Space Mountain’ does not present a fixed narrative or a predetermined structure; it offers instead a space in which sound becomes a means of exploration, a way of engaging with the unknown through attentive, shared creation.

By situating his multiphonic guitar work within this collaborative context, Benjamin Miller achieves a balance between individuality and shared expression that feels both deeply considered and entirely alive.

Witty Tarbox is an indie band proudly from Buffalo, NY. Made up of Cody Tarbox, Alex Khoury, Colin Gray, and Seth Bykowski, the band crafts a rhythm-driven blend of surf rock and guitar-forward indie, punctuated by soulful saxophone and anchored by clever wordplay and heartfelt storytelling.

Following the success of their critically-acclaimed power track, “PreFab”, Zegovia returns on March 25 with the haunting new single “Above the Roof & in the Tree,” a post-grunge meditation on the fragile line between youthful innocence and the harsh realities of adulthood.

NHS doctor and multi-instrumental songwriter Euplasia adds perhaps his most evocative celebration yet to an already thriving repertoire. The renowned musician and family man has gained significant traction this year, with singles from his upcoming debut album You Wonder drawing focus to organic live-music, and songwriting using real-life reflections and scenarios to be all at once vulnerable, inspiring, and fun.

Downton, UK’s pop confectioners, Shapes Like People, are back with ”Under the Rainbow”. The 12-song record again deftly mines jangle- and dream-pop with joyous hooks and harmonies galore. The husband-and-wife duo of Carl and Kat Mann are following their hearts and producing some of the finest melodic music you’ll hear, rich with addictive riffs and sing-a-long arrangements.

THE CASBAHS are a five-piece guitar-driven indie rock band from *County Durham”, carrying the spirit of Britain’s great guitar bands from the 80s, 90s and 00s into the present day. With jangly riffs, soaring choruses, walls of noise and unapologetically big solos, their sound is both nostalgic and fresh — unmistakably British, with a classic edge.

Hailed by Rolling Stone, Championed by Apple Music, and Ahead of his National U.S. Tour, Block Releases Final Stand-Alone Single from Forthcoming New Album

Elephant Moon, the solo project of *Anders Dal8, unveils his fourth single, “149 Northbound”, a 3:46 track built around a first-take acoustic performance that refused to be replaced. The song opens with fingerpicked guitar and slide, carried by a steady hi-hat pulse. Dal’s vocal and acoustic guitar were recorded live in a single take on an old 8-track recorder in a London flat using just two microphones. Attempts to re-record the track only diluted its raw emotion — this original version, hiss and all, carried the weight the song demanded.

Favourite Girl is the new project led by British songwriter Katy Vernon. Katy has been performing original melodic folk pop for over 25 years in the Twin Cities and in the UK. This new project builds upon her catchy songwriting and turns everything up to 11! Best described as Feminist Resistance Rock. This almost exclusively female-powered rock band performs bold and exciting songs with a feminist and timeless approach. Taking on the old boys’ music club and having fun with it. Favourite Girl will have you dancing, singing, and leaving audiences feeling empowered to be their truest selves.

‘Softest Attack’ is a bold reclamation of the power-pop canon. It is an intelligent, meticulously layered work that proves Prism Shores are no longer just scholars of their influences, but essential contributors to the modern indie landscape.

Returning to ECM after a sixteen year absence, the L.A. singer/composer/cantor – alongside drummer Gerald Cleaver and bassist Trevor Dunn – proffers an all-original program that straddles many lines.

Berlin-based alternative artist Lawrence Timoni returns with “In Every Quiet Moment”, a groove-driven release built around electric bass, restrained drums, and spacious atmospheric textures. Rather than relying on a dramatic chorus lift, the track unfolds gradually, balancing harmonic
subtlety with controlled forward momentum.

El Ten Eleven’s eleventh(!) LP contains more of the groovy chaos engineering you’ve come to expect from Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty, all the more elevated by its exquisite occupation of stereo.

Chaz Prymek and Matthew Sage have crafted an album that honors their past while firmly planting itself in their present reality. ‘Shelter’ is a rare document of artistic maturity, a humble yet majestic celebration of friendship and the enduring pull of the high plains.

‘Box Elder’ is more than just a collection of songs; it is a document of transformation. By inviting others into his private world of bedroom compositions, Archuleta has created his most complete artistic statement, turning the shadows of isolation into a bright, resonant chorus of shared experience.

Ultimately, this release is both archival and revelatory. It restores Richard, Cam & Bert to their rightful place in the pantheon of Greenwich Village folk innovators, revealing a trio that could balance authenticity, experimentation, and melodic grace with effortless poise.

By the time the final vibrations fade, ‘The Ear Behind The Airport’ reveals itself as an album of remarkable intellectual depth. It captures a specific chemistry that can only be forged through years of shared performance in various configurations.

‘(Church Of)’ ultimately succeeds because it cultivates a sense of conversation, movement, and narrative without relying on conventional structures. It is music that cajoles, puzzles, and delights, offering a unique listening experience where humor, melody, and conceptual depth coexist seamlessly.

This record confirms Eichner’s evolution from masterful fingerstyle guitarist into a composer of subtle, spatially aware sonic architectures, blending acoustic and electronic worlds into a uniquely cohesive statement.

Throughout ‘Hyloxolos,’ each musician’s distinct voice is evident, yet the record thrives on the collision and coalescence of those voices. It is a record of a group of strangers forging an immediate, resonant universe of sound, a debut that feels like both the inception of something and a fully formed statement in itself.

‘Drueling’ ultimately functions as an exploration of duality without opposition. Rather than framing the two players as adversaries or counterparts, it presents them as co-inhabitants of a shared sonic environment, one in which boundaries are continually negotiated and redefined.

Ruehlen’s work suggests that sound is not merely a medium for expression but a site of continuous negotiation between body, environment, and perception.

‘TAQATO3’ stands as a compelling document of what can emerge when musicians meet with a shared openness and a willingness to relinquish control. It does not seek to impress through virtuosity alone, nor does it rely on conceptual framing to justify its existence.

‘I Am Obsessed’ extends PUNCHBAG’s sonic universe beyond the immediate bite of their first EP, presenting a five-track statement that balances intimacy, chaos, and sharp observation. The EP’s strength lies in its ability to dramatize the everyday, turning minutiae into moments of emotional and musical intensity.

Kye Alfred Hillig initially retired from music, but fans should be glad he found the inspiration to return because this record features hallmarks of poignancy and humanity within every song, delivering cohesive yet somber themes.

The band’s first release since Paint By Numbers, hailed by critics as “one of the best Atlanta albums of 2007” (EvilSponge), the new 10-song collection explores a spectrum of relationships, from family and friends who “call late at night [and] ask for my advice,” to “complicated boys,” to those ill-fated romances that you wish to remember just so you “won’t ever want it back.”

Chicago-based indie rocker Frank Gappa is stepping into a new era with Slow Dancers, a four-song EP arriving June 12. The project rolls out with lead single “Move the Needle” on April 8, followed by “Cliff Hanger” on May 6.

Indie artist CS Hellmann announces the release of his new single, “Don’t Let The Songbirds Cry,” a genre-blurring track that fuses folk intimacy with expansive psychedelic textures. Drawing inspiration from artists like Kurt Vile and Fruit Bats, the song leans into a laid-back, shuffle-driven rhythm anchored by fingerpicked acoustic guitars.

Christine Plays Viola is a darkwave / gothic rock band formed in 2008 in Abruzzo, Italy: transforming post-punk into something deeply personal and visceral, for fans of Joy Division, She Wants Revenge, Lebanon Hanover, and Boy Harsher. The current lineup features Fabrizio Giampietro (guitars, synth, programming), Massimo Ciampani (vocals), Gianluca Orsini (drums), and Marco Di Ianni (bass).

His main axe isn’t the saxophone, but the stritch – the long, straight alto sax made famous (?) by reed maniac Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

An independent artist, WØLFFE has also been producing and performing music for film and television and to her credit are the movie theme tracks for neo noir film Terminal (Margot Robbie, Simon Pegg) and thriller film Escape Plan 3 (Sylvester Stallone), as well as Sky TV’s series Riviera and Netflix’s House of Guinness. Advert vocal credits include: Johnnie Walker Black Label, Johnnie Walker India, d Program and HLN: Frozen Moments. She is also scoring her first short film.

Rising indie pop and pop-rock artist Ava Valianti continues her bold second EP rollout with the release of her newest single, “Birthday Cake,” available everywhere Friday, March 27th. The track marks the third single from her forthcoming EP due out in May 2026. At just 16, Ava is steadily carving out a distinct space in indie pop and pop-rock with fearless honesty and emotionally charged songwriting. Following the electric intensity of “Deep Fuchsia” and the self-aware vulnerability of “Sophomore Slump,” “Birthday Cake” expands the lens even further, turning inward to examine time, expectation, and the quiet pressure of growing up in real time.

The ephemeral nature of life is brought into sharp focus by London’s Anglo-Brazilian outfit Near Death Experience (NDX for short) in their stunning new anthemic single “FLIGHT”, brimming with soul, funk and a hint of psychedelia.

The Ingrid’s story began in a Chichester rehearsal room, with three musicians chasing something that felt real. Fast forward to today, their debut single “Limerence” sparkles and glistens like a quiet reckoning. Built on layers of hazy guitars and introspective lyrics, the song journeys through self-sabotage, obsession, and acceptance. Lead singer Jess Charleslyn’s vocals cut through the dreamlike textures, grounding the song in the messy, human spaces between control and surrender.

Rebecca Aadland is a Minneapolis singer-songwriter, bridging styles of folk, rock and blues. Themes of getting unstuck, finding love and wrestling with loss resonate in her songs. Rebecca is also known for her storytelling, humor and inspiration. She was a featured speaker in the world of mental health, holding sold-out seminars for years throughout the Midwest.

Poison Oak is an Indie/Punk Rock band hailing from the heated swelter of Townsville. Armed with blistering riffs, infectious melodies and soaring choruses, Poison Oak create a truly anthemic brand of music. Since their inception in 2019, the band has released three EPs and a debut album called ‘These Suburban Dreams’. They have landed themselves in well-known music publications across the globe, including Vents, Happy Mag, Scenestr, Hysteria Mag, and AMNplify. Their music has garnered positive reviews from Triple J and has been aired on radio stations from every corner of the globe.

Aarktica is the sonic identity of John DeRosa, who, along with a multitude of collaborators, has released a diverse catalog of music under this name since 1998. While Aarktica began as a solo ambient guitar project, its sound evolved over the years, often incorporating a larger orchestral or brass ensemble, and integrating elements of post-rock, shoegaze, darkwave, and electronic into a distinct and atmospheric sonic identity.

The Melody Chamber crafts an album that is simultaneously immediate and expansive, intimate and cinematic, a record that invites the listener to explore its resonant, shimmering soundscapes.

The record captures the playful elegance of 1960s chamber-pop while maintaining a contemporary vitality, demonstrating the band’s ability to honor tradition while expanding its scope. Each song is meticulously crafted, yet the album breathes as a cohesive whole, offering listeners a richly rewarding experience of melody, harmony, and subtle experimentation.

‘Electric Scribbles On The Grid’ ultimately rewards undivided engagement. It asks the listener to reconsider the guitar’s role as a vehicle for both melody and pure sonic architecture, merging past inspirations from Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Manuel Göttsching with a rigorously contemporary sensibility.

It is a record of note not for its technical flourishes alone, but for its ability to speak clearly through a complex, multi-voiced language.

Não confundir com has constructed more than a collection of improvised pieces; they have forged a sonic manifesto that embraces uncertainty while remaining deeply communicative, a testament to the power of listening as creative practice.

‘Softjaw’ stands as a definitive statement of intent. It is a record that champions the enduring power of the three-minute pop song, proving that when the foundations are this strong, the results are nothing short of electric.

FEVERLOCK is the follow-up to FURTIVA, the moment after the job is done, when the adrenaline is still buzzing and all that’s left is closeness. It’s a radio-ready Dance/Afro House single built on an amapiano-inspired log-drum bounce at ~112 BPM, with tight sub-bass, crisp shakers, and gritty cowbell accents driving a hypnotic, modern groove

When Jessye DeSilva first started writing songs for her third album, she could already sense all the changes. It was the summer of 2023, and DeSilva had just released her second album, the roots-Americana statement Renovations, which earned rave mentions in No Depression, Rolling Stone, and The Boot. After identifying for years as non-binary, she was beginning to think of herself as a trans woman. Meanwhile, Tennessee, where DeSilva had decamped to write her next record, had become the latest state to enact a drag ban

Eilertsen has successfully translated her historical instrument into a future-facing language, delivering a debut for the trio that is as intellectually stimulating as it is emotionally generous.

‘Calendar Year’ achieves a rare equilibrium: it is meticulously arranged without ever feeling contrived, emotionally resonant without resorting to sentimentality. Jessica Risker crafts a record that encourages careful listening, rewarding attention with layers of subtlety and musical intelligence.

‘Rudolf Steiner House’ affirms Kisu Min’s standing as a group capable of blending narrative, melody, and texture with rigor and sensitivity, producing an album that rewards repeated engagement, revealing new intricacies with each listening.

What ultimately distinguishes the album is its sense of vision. Rather than merely drawing from established traditions, Descending Pharaohs reimagine them as tools for constructing new sonic environments, spaces where history and speculation coexist.

‘Abacomancy’ resists easy categorization, not through obscurity but through its refusal to prioritize any single mode of listening. It can be approached as an exercise in texture, as a dialogue between two deeply attuned musicians, or as an abstract reflection on environment and perception.

It seems inevitable that these artists would come together on a project.

Northern Irish singer-songwriter Paul Archer unveils the official music video for “No Fear,” an uplifting and life-affirming track taken from his acclaimed debut solo album Art. The video marks another milestone in the veteran musician’s remarkable creative rebirth, whose 30-year career has spanned multiple bands, genres, and artistic reinventions.

German hard rock powerhouse Brunhilde returns with their thunderous new single ‘Rising From The Ashes’, released 26 March 2026—a fierce modern rock statement built for festival stages, radio airwaves, and the next wave of high-impact rock playlists. Driven by razor-edged electric guitar riffs, thunderous drums, and commanding bass lines, the track centers around an electrifying vocal performance from frontwoman Caro Loy. ‘Rising From The Ashes’ captures the band at their most immediate and anthemic—transforming themes of betrayal and adversity into a defiant call for resilience and self-liberation.

Written during the recording of their highly anticipated debut album, ‘Broken Vein’ captures a pivotal chapter for Mary Bragg Robinson (Alabama, USA) and Willow Robinson (England). Following their wedding, the couple found themselves trading the traditional honeymoon for the stark, frozen beauty of the English countryside. Stranded in Willow’s rural home studio during a harsh British winter, Mary Bragg, accustomed to the humid warmth of Mobile, Alabama, was thrust into a world of long nights and existential reflection.

Emerging four-piece, ALLEY the band, announce the release of their debut EP, _Telling Stories-, a collection that captures the emotional range and storytelling that define the group’s sound. The EP brings together their first two singles, The Release (Now It’s Over) and Song For A Diva, alongside three brand new tracks, creating a compelling five-track project that listeners will find hard to put down.

Holly Woodlove, the solo project of San Diego-based multi-instrumentalist Alexander Dausch, releases his debut album The Most Beautiful Lie, the culmination of roughly five years of songwriting and recording, spanning two cities — Minneapolis and San Diego — and a significant period of personal transition. The album functions as a kind of musical diary, with Dausch channeling that change into songs that range from bursting, ardent rockers to more introspective, groove-laced drifters.

What ultimately distinguishes ‘Birding’ is its refusal to treat atmosphere as an endpoint. While deary’s sound naturally invites comparisons to dream-pop and shoegaze predecessors, the album never feels derivative. Instead, it uses familiar sonic tools to ask contemporary questions about isolation, tenderness, and responsibility both to ourselves and to the world we inhabit.

‘Glass and Bones’ stands as a significant achievement for Makthaverskan. It is an articulate statement of intent from a band that continues to find new ways to articulate the complexities of the modern psyche without ever losing their inherent, fiery spark.

By refining influences into their own idiosyncratic language, The Kitchenettes have crafted a release that feels essential. It is a work of quiet confidence, proving that the most profound musical statements often come from the most unassuming origins.

Through subtlety, restraint, and careful melodic invention, the EP demonstrates how quiet voices can leave the deepest echoes, establishing Rowland as a singular figure in contemporary indie pop.

This record, a testament to the beauty of music made on its own terms, serves as a reminder that the most profound art is born from deep attentiveness, seasoned experience, and a trust in the creative process.

What makes ‘Wendy Eisenberg’ so compelling is not merely its stylistic synthesis, though that is handled with remarkable fluency. It is the sense that these songs have been allowed to arrive on their own terms, shaped by a period of introspection that has clarified rather than simplified Eisenberg’s artistic voice.

Hamaysan paints a widescreen soundscape that’s equal parts head and heart.

Scott Mickelson is an artist/producer from San Francisco. His debut release FLICKERING was on the Grammy ballot for Best Folk Album and Best Roots Music Performance. His follow up A WONDROUS LIFE received great reviews and led to his first European tour in 2019

Black Cat Habitat is a shamelessly melodic original groove-infused indie rock band. Singing about love, overcoming and finding your own habitat, are singer-songwriter Rachel McCullough, lead guitarist Neal Blumberg, bassist Danny Walker, and drummer Jay B. Wade with their unique sound reflecting their wide-ranging influences.

Lurcher returns with “Punchline Blues”, the first single from their forthcoming EP Bad Gag. A sharper, more assured step forward from a band already building serious momentum. Recorded at Blank Studios, Newcastle, with Chris McManus at the controls, the new material retains the wiry abrasion and punchy rhythm section that defined debut EP ‘With Love’, but pushes into more abstract and layered territory. The edges are still there, angular guitars, restless energy, deadpan bite… but the delivery is tighter, more deliberate.

The Danphes, hailing from Norwich, England, is making waves in the indie music scene with their original single, “Heartbreak High.” Written by Robin Folliard and Dan Ottolangui, the track was completed with the contributions of Bassist Stephen Frost & Drummer Alfie Adams. Recorded at Sick Room Studios by Owen Turner, this release showcases the band’s talent and passion for creating captivating indie music.

Every sound feels considered, every choice part of a larger, evolving design. Yet for all its intricacy, the album never loses sight of the listener. Its melodies linger, its structures invite exploration, and its overall effect is one of sustained engagement rather than immediate resolution.

Appelman has created a debut that honors the lineage of bluegrass and new acoustic music while asserting a voice entirely its own. Each track offers room for reflection, exploration, and connection, a balance of polished musicianship and human imperfection that gives the album both heart and longevity.

It is an album that affirms Buddhadatta’s unique space in contemporary psych and experimental music, a collection that rewards repeated listening by revealing ever-deeper layers of craft, devotion, and exuberance.

What makes this collection compelling is not simply its historical value, but its ability to communicate something essential about the act of beginning. These songs exist at a point where intention and discovery are inseparable, where the boundaries of form are still being negotiated.

‘COMFORT’ does not retreat from complexity; it reframes it, presenting layered emotions and intricate arrangements in forms that feel accessible without being simplistic. The album invites sustained listening, revealing its depth gradually, and in doing so, affirms Dayflower’s capacity to create music that is both immersive and quietly exacting.

‘Miss America’ stands as a striking statement. It challenges the listener not through opacity, but through the demand for a different kind of attention, one attuned to nuance, to transformation, to the unstable beauty of sound in motion.

In its scale, ambition, and execution, ‘Strata, Act (Joy Contemporary)’ stands as a significant statement within contemporary improvised music. It does not seek to resolve the questions it raises, nor to offer a definitive account of its influences.

‘Rex’ is a record that rewards patient listening with a depth that reveals itself gradually, like a landscape studied over time or a series of paintings viewed in changing light.

Webber and Morris have not simply recorded an album of jazz; they have constructed a new language that values the resonant truth of the interval above all else, leaving a lasting impression of intellectual rigor and sonic beauty.

The Sway, original indie rockers born out of North London, UK, in 1989, are David (Vocals, Guitar), Paul (Bass), Jim (Guitars) & Sean (Drums). Initially splitting in 1995, they returned briefly in 2011. A 13-year hiatus followed before the 2024 comeback with brand new music and a digital release of the back catalogue.

Heddy Edwards is a singer-songwriter, producer, and poet hailing from the south suburbs of Chicago, now residing in the DC area. Her music is defined by her abstract and poetic lyricism, captivating melodies, and unique vocal tone and style.

Noise Factory United’s debut EP Visions from the frontier  (out now) is a trip through post-punk psych urgency and dystopian sonic realism. From the spaghetti western swagger of The Quickest Blade in the West to the multi-layered storytelling of Fractures, the six tracks navigate the possibilities and constraints of liminal space and time.

The person behind Aptøsrs, Paul Terry, is a composer, songwriter, producer, and bestselling author. He releases music via his label SkyBabyRecords. The 25-track compilation SkyBabyRecords Est. 1999 – A 25th Anniversary Celebration is out now. And in 2025, his discography (from 1999 to present day—more than 600 tracks across 60+ releases) was made a permanent part of the British Library’s prestigious Sound & Moving Image collection.

“The Laws Of Life” is the fourth collaboration from Lois Powell and Night Wolf. It moves as a dreamy soundscape with delicate vocals and a subtle psychedelic undertone. Angelic colour comes through Lois’s layered harmonies in the backing track, while the lead carries driving, reflective and reassuring lyrics, like going back in time to give yourself advice.

Orbiting Jersey City, New Jersey, Royal Blush is a blend of nostalgic alt-rock roots and modern grunge punch. Formed in 2021 by guitarist Andrew Merclean, this collective features midwest-born vocalist Allison Heckart, Polish-American producer/guitarist Patryk Sikorski, and Long Islander John Carbone on drums.

Voxtrot is on the road in the US right now, supporting their superb ”Dreamers in Exile”. While we’ve waited 19 years for the new album that followed their self-titled debut, fans have fortunately been sated with a reunion tour a few years back, and this new tour is a must-see.

In its brevity, ‘Reclining Psych-Out’ offers no grand statement, yet its implications are expansive. It suggests a mode of making music that is less concerned with resolution than with continuous reconfiguration, where ideas are allowed to overlap, contradict, and evolve.

‘Traces’ is at once a scholarly engagement with jazz history and an exuberant exercise in collective intuition.

‘Blackbirding’ is more than a record; it is an excavation and a reclamation, an album that dares to translate the complex, often unspoken experiences of the past into a contemporary musical form that feels both intimate and monumental.

‘Change’ affirms Meraung’s capacity to translate complex, unspoken emotions into sound. The EP does not demand full understanding; instead, it offers space for reflection, allowing subtleties in texture, silence, and vocal timbre to shape a deeply personal experience.

Across its five tracks, the EP operates as a brief but potent exploration of fear, wonder, and reflection, revealing a band increasingly comfortable in translating inner turmoil into expansive, cinematic soundscapes.

The album stands as a chaotic archive of a specific time and place, curated by Westphal and Young to preserve the erratic, beautiful pulse of a truly independent spirit

‘The Resurrection Game’ confirms Emma Swift as a songwriter unafraid to dwell in emotional complexity, drawing the listener into intimate spaces while crafting arrangements that elevate without overwhelming.

What distinguishes this edition is its ability to make the familiar feel newly enigmatic. By refining the album’s sonic contours, it invites a deeper engagement with its peculiar logic, encouraging listeners to inhabit its world rather than merely observe it.

‘Prairie Whistle Call’ thrives in its restraint, presenting Sean Pratt as a songwriter deeply attuned to the rhythms of Midwestern life and the nuanced textures of human connection.

What distinguishes this record is not simply its intensity but its sense of purpose. The anger that permeates these songs is neither diffuse nor performative; it is directed, considered, and ultimately transformative.

Throughout ‘Against the Dying of the Light’, González demonstrates a remarkable ability to balance intimacy with intellectual rigor. What lingers most is the album’s insistence on attention as an ethical act. In González’s hands, music becomes a form of resistance, not through volume or spectacle, but through clarity, patience, and care.

Rowhome blends indie rock with synth-forward baroque pop. Todd previously served as the lead singer of the Philadelphia-based rock band Pilkington before launching Rowhome in early 2026. The project signals a new creative chapter rooted in honesty and thoughtful songwriting. A debut full-length LP is scheduled for release in late 2026.

Raised in the foothills of Appalachia on Old Time and traditional Folk in a family band, Daphne followed her dreams to the Brooklyn of the 90s, sailed around the world, and landed on the East Coast to start a brick-and-mortar record shop, label, and host years of festivals and concerts, surviving cancer several times over as she created 7 albums of heartbreakingly beautiful, danceable, powerful original songs.

While there’s certainly some anger here, the band’s main aim is to uplift, rather than depress.

Carl Thien, host of Gulls Window Circus on Boston College’s WZBC-FM, releases a new album with Gull Boy full of fuzzed out post-punk rock that kicks hard with balancing lyrical sensitivity.

Not your average S&M-charged goth club banger. On the surface, Holy Death Temple’s new single is exactly that — a breathy female voice in the intro giving way to a dominant force cataloguing exactly what it wants to do to you. Sonically, it’s slow, grinding, and sexually charged. Many listeners will never look deeper. That’s fine.

Jana Pochop is a singer-songwriter and producer with a poet’s heart and a penchant for the American West. Based in Albuquerque, NM, her work is deeply influenced by vast landscapes and dark desert skies…elements that take center stage in her upcoming self-produced album, Powerlines (March 2026).

Vitous’s been a leader on his own albums for ECM since the late seventies, and he’s never rested on any laurels in doing it.

Athens-based dark electronic duo Hollow Shift return today with a new double single, “ Gloom / Fire and Smoke”, a two-track release that explores nocturnal tension, emotional isolation, and the restless pulse of modern life. Built on deep synth bass, steady drums, and stark, atmospheric production, the release continues the project’s exploration of dark electropop shaped by post-punk sensibilities. Each track approaches the same emotional landscape from a different angle: movement without release, reflection without resolution.

Built on jazzy, cyclical chords that feel designed to stretch indefinitely, “Call Me Crazy” leans into looseness. The trio intentionally let the track breathe and wander, extending its runtime and resisting polish in favor of atmosphere. The performance feels lived-in — erratic in places, simmering in others — echoing the song’s emotional terrain.

“SNAPSHOTS”, a deeply introspective track written during a period of personal upheaval. The song reflects on memory, loss and the moment when clarity begins to emerge from chaos. Lyrically, it captures the feeling of being surrounded by fragments of the past and trying to connect the dots (“Red string forms a timeline/tangled all over my room”) before making the conscious decision to break free and step toward healing (“You won’t take me back there!”).

Built on decades-long friendships and a shared musical language, Yard Sale’s music is a dynamic fusion of alt-rock, indie-pop, and psychedelia, drawing influence from artists like Middle Kids, Slow Pulp, The Beths, Alvvays, and Crumb. The six-piece has continued to refine a singular sound, that – true to their name – embraces eclecticism and experimentation, while leaning into the uncertainty that accompanies navigating young adulthood.

Contrasting eerie, tension-building dissonance with moments of cascading, iridescent bliss, ‘Elements of Air’ is the stunning new single from San Francisco’s Octavian Winters: one of the most exciting new bands on the North American dark post-punk scene. Produced by William Faith, and releasing just ahead of Western US tour dates with Germany’s Pink Turns Blue, ‘Elements of Air’ showcases the band’s trademark blend of propulsive Californian deathrock, gritty post-punk, and serpentine goth rock, alongside the more haunting, expansive textures of ethereal darkwave.

Jaime French, a true original, has forged her own road. For the past decade, the dynamic comedian/YouTuber has left an indelible mark on the digital landscape with her unique blend of humor, wit, intellect and creativity and now she’s set to conquer another horizon with the release of her debut EP, The Ripple Effect (March 24) with its palpitating lead single, “The Hunter” entering the digital world, February 24.

French/American trio Reverso has a special purpose in life: to pay tribute to the great French composers using only their sparse instrumentation.

‘The Last of Men’ is the incendiary new single and video from The SPKtR: the next evolution of legendary industrial music pioneers SPK, whose legacy dates from 1978. A fierce new collaboration between Graeme Revell and Robert J. Revell, The SPKtR forges a modern incarnation of the original project’s radical spirit, sonic extremity, and cultural provocation: repositioned within the present context of humanity’s complex relationship with AI technologies.

LANDROID is the High Desert–based project of Cooper Gillespie (vocals, bass, keys) and Greg Gordon (drums, sequences), veteran musicians who spent decades touring internationally before putting down roots in Landers, California — population 2,632. After years immersed in the Los Angeles punk and rock scene, the duo relocated to the Mojave and became, unmistakably, a desert band. Named for their adopted hometown, LANDROID creates music that mirrors the landscape around them: vast, cinematic, and ethereal.

Myles Cochran is an American composer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Born and raised in Kentucky, Myles was later based in New York City and now makes his home in east London following years in rural Devon. Myles released his new album, What You Said, on the 6th March, 2026. What You Said follows his acclaimed 2024 album, You Are Here, and his 2021 UK debut collection, Unsung.

Joseph Turner & The Dudes of Hazard is an indie/alternative project built on songwriting first. Writing from the Dutch delta, Turner’s songs are sometimes soft, sometimes loud, but always direct. He records the core of the music himself, drawing on a background in rock bands while leaving room for pop hooks, country-leaning storytelling, and the occasional touch of noise when it feels right.

‘IT’S THE LONG GOODBYE’ is an articulate, devastating achievement. It is the sound of a band that has stopped looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and has instead learned to map the darkness with terrifying precision.

Named after a visual artist and former neighbor, the album treats its thirteen tracks not merely as songs, but as still-life portraits frozen in time. Darby uses her lyrics as brushes and her vulnerabilities as a vivid palette, creating a record that feels less like a private gallery of the human spirit.

Walker meticulously built a sonic landscape that reflects the stark, sun-bleached geometry of the Sonoran Desert. The resulting music occupies a strange space between the American Primitive tradition and a futuristic, dust-caked ambient surrealism.

‘Sundae’ is a brave rejection of the over-edited and the hyper-processed. By documenting these sessions with such transparency, Berar and Pillai have captured the electricity of mutual discovery.

MahaShakti has succeeded in creating a document that is not merely heard, but felt as a physical presence in the room. A reminder of the enduring capacity for sound to heal and align the spirit.

By focusing on the sensation of telling a story rather than the plot itself, ‘A Few We Remember’ succeeds in making the ephemeral feel permanent.

By the time the final vibration dissipates, Adele Dazeem has left a permanent mark on the listener, proving that ‘Metanoia’ is a work of significant intellectual and emotional depth.

‘Half of What You See’ is a work that refuses to hide from the ugliness of the present, finding instead a strange, cherished beauty within its own discordant tunnels.

Through ‘Jorden vi ärvde’, Vilhelm Bromander has created a work of significant moral and intellectual weight. It is an album that refuses the easy path of despair, opting instead to build a resonant, through-composed vision of hope and responsibility.

Washington D.C.’s Zero Swann returns with The Ones Who Love-, a suffocating descent that sharpens and corrodes the vision introduced on 2025’s psychedelic no-wave monolith, _Benefactor. Where its predecessor struck with blunt-force sensory violence, this new album operates differently—slower, closer, and far more invasive. It doesn’t attack. It presses. It stays.

The third album-length release in less than twelve months from Washington D.C.’s Bell Barrow, True Human Trough is not an album so much as a hostile transmission. Bell Barrow weaponizes sound into a brutal dialect—one that doesn’t belong to us—broadcast from extra-dimensional strata where insects, carrion feeders, and feral ecologies sit unchallenged at the top of the food chain. The record channels trans-dimensional echoes of animal eco-anarchism, translating non-human intelligence through abrasion, discord, and ritualized instrumental violence.

Austin-based multi-instrumentalist *Sssstephen!8 returns March 20 with “Day Trip,” a bracing new single that captures the ragged heart of ‘90s alt-rock through a modern, bedroom-forged lens. The track arrives alongside Triptychs, a three-song EP that distills his latest sonic obsessions into a tightly wound, emotionally volatile statement.

Collective music project Every Us8 has released their debut EP Some Kind of We. The *Brooklyn collective, led by singer-songwriter Ryan Jones, thrives on a unique kinship born from creating art together. Every song emanates this unity, allowing the listener to become a part of the community that created it. Some Kind of We is out now on all digital platforms worldwide.

The Buddy System Forever, hailing from Queens, New York, is a musical force to be reckoned with. Comprised of Guitar Player and Singer Joe Turchi, Bass Player and Singer Nicole Erbio, Drummer and Singer Justin Licameli, and new member Morgan Daniels on Keys, this quartet has been pushing boundaries in the music scene for the past 4 years. Their evolution from early punk influences to a more intricate sound featuring chorus-soaked guitar tones and eerie synth lines showcases their commitment to sonic exploration.

The Hives bring their explosive brand of rock and roll to Boston in support of last year’s The Hives Forever Forever The Hives record, bringing along Australia’s The Chats for good measure.

Acclaimed Los Angeles artist, songwriter, and producer Betty Moon is stepping back into the spotlight and she’s doing it in style. Betty Moon returns with Strangely Beautiful, a bold new 5 track EP arriving April 17, marking her first original release since 2021’s Cosmicoma.

Independent Brighton duo FATECRIMES have just released their newest single from their upcoming full-length album AS ABOVE / SO BELOW. Written when FATECRIMES’ vocalist Anna was 17, ‘wanderlust’ is a self-explanatory song, spurred by the burning desire to escape to the farthest corner of the world on a quest for inner purpose and to meet a version of yourself that doesn’t yet exist.