“At once dreamy and punchy, shifting from bendy elastic guitar and peppy percussion to a soaring, shimmering chorus.” That’s how we described ‘Jetsam’, the introductory single to Rosie, the upcoming album from Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kaycie Satterfield, which releases this summer on Earth Libraries. A song Satterfield devoted to the messy girls which, as we continued “shifts from attitude to sweetness and back again, refusing to settle into any tidy box.” The sentiment is a pertinent one on a record which sets out to explore large themes through a personal ..read more

Ben Seretan – New Air When we spoke with Ben Seretan about his album Youth Pastoral back in 2020, he brought up the impact friend and collaborator Devra Freeloader had on the record. “Dev understood how special it was to get together,” Seretan explained. “She was always, always happy to see other people, and really went out of her way to make you feel like you were having the best day of your life.” Made in Italy with Nico Hedley (bass) and Dan Knishkowy (drums) mere weeks after Freeloader untimely death in 2019, Seretan’s latest album Allora in many ways represents an attempt to harness such ..read more

22° Halo‘s Garden Bed made our list of favourite albums in 2021. A record “fond and quietly contemplative, strangely familiar and hopeful in a manner not quite explicable,” as we put it, with “songs easy to be around and easier to return to, comforting in the very fact they exist.” Led by Philadelphia-based Will Kennedy, the project mixes the various sensibilities of lo-fi pop and slowcore to achieve this bright yet ambiguous sound, and thus finds itself capable of exploring complex and often difficult themes from a novel perspective. Following a series of collaborations with Joel Johnsto ..read more

Earlier this year, Portland, Maine‘s Wildflower released a new full-length album, Green World, both an evolution of the place-based sound introduced on previous record The Ocean Rose and the ideal introduction for any newcomers. The project, lead by Adrian O’Barr, specialise in smooth and meditative songs that draw on elements of folk and ambient and soft rock to evoke the Maine coastline and the meditative, sometimes transcendent headspace that can be achieved when exploring it. O’Barr described The Ocean Rose as “essentially a love song to the present moment,” and each song on Green World co ..read more

Her first new music since 2020 record Moonth, ‘Will You Do Me a Kindness’ is the new single from Merce Lemon. It finds the Pittsburgh-based songwriter in sparkling form, capturing both the quiet peace of solitude and the roiling inner turmoil of loneliness in a style that combines earnest indie rock with an Americana twang. Lemon is joined by Reid Magette (guitar), Pat Coyle (drums and harmonies) and Ben Brody (bass), who together create a song that ebbs and flows between quiet introspection and a wild, barely-restrained energy. The song’s crux is its title and and chorus, a phrase inspired by ..read more

Back in 2019, Birmingham, Alabama’s Bitter Calm released their debut album Good Grief via Earth Libraries. It was a record which saw lead Michael Harp—along with Meg Ford (violin), Alex Guin (bass) and Chayse Porter (percussion)—create a dark and often expansive brand of slowcore which lived up to the album’s title. Songs, as the label put it, “deeply, loudly, profoundly sad.” Now Bitter Calm have returned with ‘Salt’, their first single since the release of Good Grief, which ushers in something of a sea change from the outfit. Because though the song is still concerned with the weighty themes ..read more

“Facing the sudden onset of chronic pain, Singapore-born, New York-based singer-songwriter […] turned to music as an outlet,” we wrote of W. H. Huang back in March. “His new EP Knots, coming later this spring, serves as an exploration of pain and healing, as well as the more general transience of things and the ebb and flow of hope.” Lead single ‘Life Just Lately’ saw New York rap artist Granata add vocals to a bright pop sound, typifying the vulnerability and sincerity of the EP as a whole. With the record set for release next month, W. Y. Huang has returned with ‘Give It Time’, a brand new s ..read more

Babe Report – Turtle of Reaper Later this spring Chicago‘s Babe Report will release their debut full-length album Did You Get Better via Exploding In Sound, the long awaited follow up to their rambunctious 2021 EP The Future of Teeth. But if the band took their time between releases, they waste none within the songs themselves. The ten tracks clock in at less than half an hour in total and all are charged with the same frantic momentum which made aforementioned EP such a fun experience. Or perhaps even more momentum, as opener and lead single ‘Turtle of Reaper’ attests. A searing indictment of ..read more

“Restrained in tone but foregrounded by the arrangement’s haunted quiet, murmured as though in distant regret or world weary contemplation.” We might have been writing of the single ‘Passing Through‘ from MVSO‘s debut EP Proprioception with this line, but the sentiment can be applied more generally across the release. The project of Brooklyn-based duo Mat Vairo and Saumon Oboudiyat, MVSO deals with existential themes in a distinctly personal manner, offering a controlled and often grounded sound which simmers with implicit depth. In ‘Passing Through’ “a stark guitar line draws the listener thr ..read more

We introduced the work of Alice Boyd back in December, the South London songwriter and sound artist who goes further than most in her exploration of the disconnect between humanity and the natural world. Be that “through residences and performances in botanical gardens,” as we wrote, “travelling to collect field recordings or even making music with plants themselves.” But latest single ‘The Favourite’ offers collaboration of a more traditional sort, teaming up with songwriter Jacob Norris for a duet that considers themes altogether more human, though one set against a backdrop of nature too ..read more