Bristolian indie group Adult Leisure have released their second EP Present State of Joy and Grief, produced by Ollie Searle at Humm Studios. The band came together to form Adult Leisure following a “thirst to create” during the pandemic, formed via video calls during the heart of the 2020 lockdown. The four-track EP sees Adult Leisure blend their blend of jangly guitar lines and disco beats to explore “unhealthy relationships, heartbreak, loss, change and self-reflection”. Discussing the EP, the band say: “When we began working on what would become Present State, we set out to create a cohesiv ..read more

Raised on Red Milk is the first full-length contribution to the world of off-beat, country-infused punk ruled by Frank Lloyd Wleft. Having trekked through jangle pop, beat poetry and country, Wleft has gathered all he can and concocted an idiosyncratic and raw sound. The songs can meander and shift, but are rooted by a pop sensibility and twang that lends a familiar edge. Alongside his Orchestra, Wleft has been building a world of personal lore, pitting freewheeling Americana against real-world ruminations. Acting as a vessel through which to distill this myriad of influences, the straightforw ..read more

Theo Bleak is, without a doubt, on a roll. Just a few months after the release of Iliad, her odyssey through the various phases of her life, the artist has released her brand new EP, Pain – and it’s every bit as good, and perhaps even more odyssey-esque. It’s heavier than Iliad, but in all the best ways, and it certainly feels like a logical progression in Theo Bleak’s discography. I spoke to the person behind the moniker – aka Katie Lynch – about Pain following its release – in particular, about the potential overlap between Iliad and Pain, as the two EPs were released within a few months. On ..read more

Manchester producer BUFFEE has released her debut EP Victory Lap via Bristol-based Spinny Nights, continuing the tastemaker label’s strong track record in championing eclectic experimental acts. Mixing industrial ambient soundscapes with hardstyle and ethereal vocals, BUFFEE processes her teenage years through experimenting with the limits of what club music has to offer. BUFFEE said about the record: “I started most of these songs when I was 19, hence the sharp swings between melodrama and hedonism,” and goes on to state that she wished to explore “the desire to fictionalise your experiences ..read more

It’s a rare thing these days for a band who are so ingrained in a DIY ethos to have a sudden and rapid rise in stature to the point where they’re able to pull in such a sizable audience of animated fans on their first overseas tour, but given how good Nashville’s Snooper have already proven themselves to be, it’s hardly surprising they’ve managed to do just that. On the final night of their maiden voyage to the UK, their performance at Bristol’s The Lanes was expected to bring mayhem, and it’s fair to say they quite possibly exceeded those expectations. For a band whose brand of high-energy pu ..read more

Meeting BUKKY was a refreshing reminder of what a purity in an artist sounds like. Their musical anthology is not a reincarnation of something familiar, or a repeated intention to fit a sound into a bracket of a well-known genre. Music in itself swallows the artist and the listener, conjoining two separate worlds, in its boundlessness of experimentation and the vision for something greater.  BUKKY is a young Nigerian/Irish artist living in London. Upon starting the interview, I was met with an instant easygoing nature projecting from the other side of the screen. My nerves from doing some ..read more

The fiercely acclaimed Heartworms has made her anticipated return with new single ‘May I Comply’. Following on from last year’s well-received EP A Comforting Notion, Heartworms creator Jojo Orme has created buzz with her monochrome breed of gothic post-punk. Arriving as the full package, with stark aesthetics to compliment a brooding and anxious sound, the project’s imagery is a deep reflection of the person behind it. Influences range from Orme’s love of military history and the classic poets, to the meticulous fashions of Interpol and Kraftwerk. This manifests itself as powerfully disconcert ..read more

Duvet. Toothbrush. Document. Dry Cleaning. Shame. Duvet. What do these things all have in common? The answer isn’t that “they in sequence reflect an average day in my life; one where I have to collect my dry cleaning and it’s made me feel particularly ashamed”, but IS “further evidence of a grand post-ironic tradition of new and new-ish post-punk bands named after elements of mundane existence”. In that vein, let us introduce unruly post-punk five-piece Duvet, five singles in and fresh off a run of summer dates descending upon this isle from their native Manchester. Latest single ‘Sweaty Dog ..read more

It’s probably an overused cliche in music to call something ‘dream-like’, but so often it feels right to apply the label when something has the capacity to transport the listener to a fantastical realm. On Dublin songwriter Rachael Lavelle’s debut album Big Dreams, the subconscious plays a big role in the listening experience, both in its conjuring of unearthly soundscapes and in the way it encourages the listener to lose themselves in the thoughts they didn’t know they were harbouring deep within. Dream-like, in this instance, couldn’t be more appropriate. While this is the first major body o ..read more

London alt-folk duo nudista have released their new track ‘Different Eyes’ on Sad Club Records. The track sees singer Robbie Carman questioning his beliefs and confronting the changes he has gone through while growing up, making it a coming of age song with influences from Elliott Smith, Wednesday and Aimee Mann.  Pilar Matji Cabello comes in on the second verse, acting as “that little inner voice that tries to convince you that it’s the world that’s wrong rather than yourself”, as the band describe. “The song is describing a distrust of my own narrative. A gradual realisation that I have ..read more