The music made by The Legendary Pink Dots has incorporated elements of neo-psychedelia, ambient music, electronic music, tape music, psychedelic folk, synthpop, post-punk, progressive jazz, noise music, pop music, goth rock and alternative rock….occasionally all at the same time.
Often likened to an industrial version of Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, it was actually early David Bowie, The Residents, Can, Faust and musique concrete composers such as Pierre Henry who were far bigger influences on the Dots when they started out. Indeed, the lengthy fever dream-like sonic expeditions that litter the band’s catalogue have often received the greatest praise.
The group currently comprises Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards, songwriter), Erik Drost (guitars), Randall Frazier (keyboards, electronics) and Joep Hendrikx (live electronics). Operating outside the mainstream, their discography consists of 40+ studio albums and they have amassed a devoted following worldwide, touring frequently to promote their releases.
Ka-Spel is also a co-founding member of electronic duo The Tear Garden (with cEvin Key of Skinny Puppy) and released an acclaimed collaborative album with Amanda Palmer in 2017. Palmer has often cited The Legendary Pink Dots as being her favorite band.
Moby has released his new mega sized album of remixes titled 'always centered at night - remixes'.
Moby has released his new mega sized album of remixes titled ‘always centered at night – remixes’. ‘always centered at night – remixes’ are all-new remixes with two disc, 58-track album, always centered at night remixes out now via Mute alongside “wild flame (dark1 remix)” featuring Danaé. The whopping LP comes following Quiet Home DJ Mix and a sold out September 2024 EU/UK tour celebrating 25 years of Play.
Moby opens up the sheer scope of the acan album project with a meaty 58-track remix album. The latest single, out today, is the cosmic “dark1” remix of “wild flame” which finds Danaé delightful vocals shimmering over loose congas, spacey synths and intricate rhythms. The new, re-worked tracks see Moby breathe new life into the 2023 original body of work. Thrilled to share the jam-packed project, Moby says, “I felt that the collaborations on ‘always centered at night’ were each so special that I wanted to create remixes to give the vocals as many sonic backgrounds as possible.”
Even by Moby’s standards, always centered at night is a bit special. The album features 13 collaborations in all, from names one might recognize to others listeners undoubtedly will come to recognize. Lead single “dark days” was recorded with acclaimed soul-jazz singer-songwriter Lady Blackbird, a defiant, rhythmic work propelled by her alluring, deep vocals and earnest soul. Other collaborators include serpentwithfeet on the achingly beautiful “on air,” and Benjamin Zephaniah on the propulsive, break- beat driven “where is your pride?,” a spoken word with a powerful message delivered in the late dub poet’s characteristically warm Handsworth burr. “As a vegan activist, and as a wise and compassionate man, Benjamin inspired me for many years,” says Moby. “I hope that ‘where is your pride?’ honors his legacy and also draws people’s attention to his life, work, and principles.”
Other wonderful voices on always centered at night include Sudanese, Netherlands-based chanteuse Gaidaa on “transit,” London based Burundian royal refugee J.P. Bimeni, and Kingston raised, London based Aynzli Jones.
Always centered at night–the album–is the continuation of the project of the same name that Moby announced in 2022. He saw this project as a similar service to the idiosyncratic New York record shops that he frequented in the late 1980s, where he’d hear something recondite and exciting and it would open up whole new worlds. always centered at night was his way of working with special writers and vocalists to make songs inspired by the spirit of musical discovery.
In his pursuit of new sounds, Moby has become something of a collector of voices. He’s a connoisseur of the timbre and texture of human vocal chords, whether sampling artists like Bessie Jones, Vera Hall or Boy Blue on Play, or working with superstars like David Bowie, Ozzy Osborne and Britney Spears; “I’m always looking. Sometimes it’s about going on YouTube. Sometimes it’s Spotify. Other times, it’s just walking around Lower Manhattan going to karaoke places, where I’ve actually found a couple of singers. It’s this constant process of looking for voices, and getting excited and inspired when I find a wonderful voice.”
These are often personal songs, and the personal is the political, as is the border-defying nature of the work. Moreover, they’re crepuscular, conceived at twilight, with many of the styles of the last 30 years in electronic music coming to the fore, such as the trip-hoppy “we’re going wrong” featuring Brie O’Banion, the broken beat, almost drum ‘n’ bass influenced “medusa” (with the aforementioned Aynzli Jones), or the Latin house of “feelings come undone” with Raquel Rodriguez.
Moby is a multi-platinum-selling, multi-award-winning singer, songwriter, producer, author, and animal rights activist. He has been a vegan and vegan activist for 35 years and last year released his directorial debut Punk Rock Vegan Movie via his production company Little Walnut, a passionate and stylistically idiosyncratic look at the ongoing relationship between the worlds of punk rock and animal rights. It includes interviews with some of the biggest names in punk and rock history.
Moby was born Richard Melville Hall, in Harlem, in 1965. His father gave him his nickname, Moby, when he was 10 minutes old, because of his hereditary relationship to Herman Melville. Moby started playing classical music and studying music theory when he was 9 and came of age musically in the punk rock scene in and around New York in the early 80’s. He released his first single, “Go,” in 1991 (listed as one of Rolling Stone magazine’s best records of all time) and has been making albums ever since. He has sold over 20,000,000 albums worldwide.
Fotocrime has released their new single titled 'Cautious'.
Fotocrime has released their new single titled ‘Cautious’. Led by a literally no bullshit style of vocals and a marching bassline that thumps you in the ears as much as it pumps and stomps your feet, ‘Cautious’ is anything but in execution and everything moving forward with the bravado of what music should be and the salute from a hand that has four middle fingers.
Musically enthralling and psychologically damaging, ‘Cautious’ is a ride through those parts of the mind you never minded but now like the feel of that road less traveled.
About ‘Cautious’
Louisville post-punk band Fotocrime are proud to announce the release of its new single “Cautious” b/w a cover of Big Black’s “Crack Up.” A live favorite and possibly Fotocrime’s heaviest song to date, “Cautious” features contributions from members of Modern Life Is War and Shitfire alongside Fotocrime’s pummeling drum machine, two distorted bass guitars, and frontman Ryan Patterson’s churning guitars & synths behind his unmistakable baritone.
“As happened in the ‘80s, the current post-punk and darkwave climate has become infected with watered-down techno and ineffectual imitations that have nothing to do with the spirit of exploration and breaking of boundaries that inspires me,” Patterson says. “While I’ve loved delving into the softer side of my songwriting, and I’m sure I will go down that path from time to time, with ‘Cautious’ I felt a strong pull to swing the hammer a bit harder than on any past Fotocrime song.”
The digital B-side to “Cautious” is a cover of Big Black’s “Crack Up,” which serves as a Louisville tribute to Steve Albini. Featuring Albini friends and frequent collaborators Dahm Majuri Cipolla (Mono, Phantom Family Halo) on drums and Jeff Mueller (Rodan, June of 44, Shipping News) on bass, along with Patterson on vocals/guitar and his brother Evan Patterson (Young Widows, Jaye Jayle) on guitar, all proceeds from the sale of the Big Black cover will be donated to Albini’s Letters To Santa charity.
Additionally, “Cautious” will be given away for free as a 7” flexi record at Fotocrime’s hometown show tonight, Friday, December 6 at Planet of the Tapes in Louisville, KY. Every person who attends the show will be given a free copy of the flexi. A kickoff of a Louisville Flexi Series on Patterson’s label, Auxiliary Records, that serves as a homegrown Peel Sessions-inspired project, Patterson invited his favorite Louisville bands (along with his own bands) to record a song in his House of Foto recording studio, then he is releasing the song as a free flexi.
About Fotocrime
Fotocrime is led by Louisville-based singer/guitarist/producer Ryan Patterson. Patterson is also the singer/guitarist of Coliseum, owns and operates Shirt Killer and Cat Magic Punks, is a sought-after album cover and t-shirt artist, and a producer/recording engineer at his House of Foto studio.
Formed in early 2017, Fotocrime released two EPs that year, Always Hell and Always Night, followed by their first full-length album, Principle Of Pain, on Auxiliary/Golden Antenna in 2018. Their second and third albums, South Of Heaven (2020) and Heart Of Crime (2021), were released by Profound Lore Records, and in 2022, Fotocrime self-released Alcoves, a collection of cover songs from Leonard Cohen, Portishead, Discharge, and others.
In 2023, Fotocrime released Accelerated, their highly-acclaimed fourth album and first for new label home Artoffact Records. Accelerated found the band leaping forward from their signature darkwave-leaning post-punk into new territory. The album includes electronic rock anthems, soulful sophisti-pop, minimal synth punk, hints of Italo Disco, and dreamy art rock. Stay tuned for more music coming from Fotocrime in the new year.
‘Dancing the Same Dance’ is the debut album by Czech-born psych/dream/indie folk-rock singer-songwriter Misha Chylkova, who was musically shaped in London. The album, preceded in the following weeks by the singles Sparrows and The Loop, is being released on vinyl, CD and digital formats by the label Gare Du Nord Records.
Dancing the Same Dance is a collection of deeply personal songs that Misha Chylkova has written over the past few years, revealing her fascination with the concept of repetition. The album was mainly recorded in London with the support of outstanding musicians such as Darren Hayman (Hefner) and Ian Button (Death in Vegas, Thrashing Doves) primarily as the rhythm section, as well as Jonathan Clayton (Hurtling, Jim Bob) who mixed, mastered and co-produced the album. The work is driven by a passion for melody and for pulsating, looping rhythms, with influences ranging from Low, Angel Olsen, Black Heart Procession, to Suicide.
On a lyrical level, the full-length album can be seen as a loop in itself. It’s a journey through the stages of love: from infatuation and heightened senses to the ensuing obsession, creeping doubts, gradual loss of trust, destructive thoughts, betrayal, the end of the relationship, denial, and often, a new beginning. The singer-songwriter’s deep interest in analysing these repeating patterns within the intimate nature of human behaviour has allowed her to weave autobiographical nuances into the lyrics while also exploring conceptual abstraction.
As Misha Chylkova says, “It’s a story that unfolds with a beginning, a middle, and an end. But is the end really the end?”
AMP (A.D.A.M. Music Project) was founded by Adam DeGraide with the idea that collaboration is one of the best ways to make music. Wanting to create a unique and prolific sound utilizing many talented artists with various voices and musical gifts. . . AMP was born.
With their long term friendship and shared love of all things rock Dameon Aranda and Adam DeGraide decided to partner up on the project by co-writing and co-producing AMP. The band is unique because it features many different singers and musicians from all walks of life. Some of the main contributors to the band are Adam DeGraide (Music Director, Guitar, Bass, Keys, Programmer and Arranger and Lead Vocals) Dameon Aranda on lead vocals and guitar solos, Gabe Aranda, Lacy Saunders, Macie Cantrell, Hartleigh Buwick, Myra Beasley, Joel Driskell and Adam Aguilar all on lead vocals, Jay Gleason & Eric Gillette on lead guitar, Neil DeGraide from (Dirt Poor Robins) on lead guitar and Jeff Hall on drums.
Izzy Raye has released her evocative new single, “how do you do it,” a track that dives into attraction, identity, and the nuances of self-discovery. With lush production and a pulsating beat, the song offers listeners an intimate, vulnerable moment in Raye’s life. “how do you do it” is now available to download and stream on platforms worldwide.
Infused with themes of sexuality and yearning, “how do you do it” captures the complexity of examining one’s relationship with heteronormativity. “Am I attracted to this man, or do I just want to be treated the way he’s treated?” says Izzy Raye about the ideology behind the track. She sees the song as a commemoration of a queer rite of passage—a moment of reflection and questioning around identity and societal expectations. Through her candid lyrics and nuanced storytelling, Raye invites listeners into an intimate exploration of compulsory heterosexuality, creating a sense of unity among those who’ve faced similar moments of self-inquiry. The soundscape blends Raye’s angelic vocals with an emotionally charged beat that invites both movement and contemplation. Layered harmonies and pulsating rhythms build a sonic atmosphere as dynamic as the lyrics, carrying the song’s raw emotion to new levels. “how do you do it” was written by Izzy Raye, co-produced and mixed by Chris Botta (Yaeji, Shallowhalo), and mastered by Joe LaPorta.
Hailing from Central New Jersey, Izzy Raye began her artistic journey at the age of ten, acting in local theater and writing songs. Her love for music eventually took her to New York City, where she has headlined iconic venues such as Mercury Lounge and Baby’s All Right. Raye’s work has been praised by outlets like Broadway World, EARMILK, Authority Magazine, and New Scene Magazine. In her previous EP, Favorite Girl, she introduced fans to an alter ego—a manipulative, futuristic, and dark persona willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her dreams. Her latest track “confirm it” gained praise from OutLoud! Culture, Skope Magazine, and New Music Weekly.
About Izzy Raye
Izzy Raye was born and raised in Central New Jersey (yes, it exists), and is a NYC-based musical artist. She recently headlined shows at Baby’s All Right and Mercury Lounge. Izzy started writing songs at age ten and began performing with her local community theater at an early age. She attributes her love of performing to her theatrical background. During college, she honed in her songwriting and released two singles following her graduation. Her latest EP, Favorite Girl, is a conceptual project stemming from her alter ego of the same name, who would do whatever it takes to accomplish her dreams. A remix album with different interpretations of her EP songs is currently in the works.
Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with Ludvig Swärd, a.k.a. Forndom, along with his new album titled ‘Moþir’, releasing today via Nordvis Produktion.
‘Moþir’ is an album that you cannot have any distractions while you listen. And I mean listen, not hear. Listen with your mind and soul. What I am saying is that ‘Moþir’ is an album you can get lost in. And, while the music was written with specific inspirations and each track has a story to tell, you will find your own meaning in each of these songs and an emotion all for yourself.
The orchestration is brilliant. The collective is mesmerizing. Everything feels whole and complete. An all inclusive immersion into the mind and music of a mentor who world-builds with every track and inspires with every note.
Not only is the missing elements of modern instruments and overall sound by design, it’s a focus in some spaces. Age old themes show their current relevancy by highlighting and focusing on the root emotions and guttural feelings combined with a lush and lucid soundscape that one could easily get lost in, and feel a little more complete for it.
In this interview, we talk with Ludvig about ‘Moþir’ and his mind and method behind his music as well as how he started and where he is headed, and much more.
About ‘Moþir’
Forndom proudly unveils his new album, Moþir, an immersive exploration of divine ambiguity. Through Moþir, Ludvig Swärd’s latest creation embraces both nurturing warmth and the cold inevitability of fate, woven through themes of creation, destruction, and renewal, producing a sound as ancient as the Earth itself.
Swärd intentionally sheds modern elements, opting for an acoustic sound. “Like my previous albums, this one follows the cycle of life, beginning in darkness and chaos and ending in a grand crescendo, followed by silence,” he explains. “I hope that listeners will absorb not only the notes but also the silence before, between, and after them. For it is in that silence, after all, where we find the true mother – the unknown that awaits us all.”
The first single, “Tunridor” is accompanied by a spectacular music video, courtesy of Ludvig Swärd. “Moþir” is as intricate as the deities it portrays, interweaving themes of fertility and loyalty, love and betrayal, light and shadow. “Tunridor,” an old word for witches, symbolises feminine darkness. The song draws inspiration from two stanzas of the Hávamál: Stanza 155: The tenth I know: if I see witches play, high in the air I can cause them to go astray, lose their form, and lose their soul. Stanza 118: A man I saw, sorely wounded by words of an evil woman; a lying tongue took his life, though for no just cause.
Commenting on the nature of the first single, Ludwig states: ‘The tenth rune, according to the Uthark system (which I believe is the correct interpretation), is Ís – the rune of death. This rune is chanted by Janne Posti (Häxkapell, Sons of Crom) eight times in the song, representing the eighth rune, Hagall (hail), which is also associated with curses. While the song had an intensely personal and emotional connection during its creation – where I sought to embody the essence of deceitful human behavior – it evolved over time, taking on a more profound magical significance. This led to events beyond my understanding: volcanic eruptions, displacement, and death. A chain of events that felt almost too perfect to be real!’
Recorded and mixed by Swärd himself, Moþir features haunting performances from collaborators Thomas von Wachenfeldt (Bards of Skaði) on violin, Janne Posti (Häxkapell, Sons of Crom) on choral vocals, and Draugurinn, whose presence evokes the spirits of forgotten times. The album’s arrangements feel timeless, evoking reverence for ancient traditions and the cyclical nature of existence.
As the first glimpse into Moþir, the lead single “Tunridor” embodies the album’s themes of divine ambiguity. Inspired by the Norse concept of witches, “Tunridor” explores feminine darkness, invoking ancient curses and mystical forces. Swärd explains: “The tenth rune, according to the Uthark system, is Ís – the rune of death. This rune is chanted eight times by Janne Posti in the song, representing the transformative power of death and rebirth.” ‘Tunridor’ captures the tension between these forces, drawing listeners into the enigmatic feminine divine.” Swärd adds, “While the song had a deeply personal connection during its creation, it evolved over time, taking on a more profound magical significance.”
Album Contributors
Ludvig Swärd – Vocals and additional instruments Uppsala Temple Orchestra – Strings, brass, and woodwinds Janne Posti – Choir Thomas von Wachenfeldt – Violin soloist Egil Swärd – Percussion Gullan Swärd – Alto soloist Disa Åman – Screams on “Tunridor”
Album Credits
Ludvig Swärd – Songwriting, production & photography Sol Rydius – Artwork Thomas Väänänen – Layout Tore Stjerna – Mastering
About Forndom
In the music of Forndom, the past breathes with a vitality that transcends time. “Moþir” is as complex as the deities it portrays, weaving together themes of fertility and loyalty, love and betrayal, light and shadow. It is an exploration of divine ambiguity, where the nurturing embrace of a mother can just as easily turn into the cold hand of inevitability.
Here, Ludvig Swärd strips away the modern trappings of synthesisers, embracing a purely acoustic sound. The music feels as though it has been carved from the very earth, born from instruments fashioned by hand and played with reverence for the ancient.
Recorded and mixed by Swärd himself, “Moþir” features the talents of Thomas von Wachenfeldt (Bards of Skaði), whose violin conjures both light and darkness; Janne Posti (Häxkapell, Sons of Crom), whose choral tones add a numinous depth; and Draugurinn, whose haunting presence lingers like a spirit from a forgotten age.
Forndom’s latest offering is a meditation on the eternal cycle of life, death, and rebirth, seen through the lens of ancient Scandinavian spirituality. Ludvig Swärd continues to stand at the crossroads of the past and present, offering a glimpse into the heart of ancient wisdom through the eyes of a modern seeker.
Hollows are a 3 piece Alternative Rock band based in Manchester. The band met in the city and formed the current line up in mid 2021. Since then, releasing a series of singles which were met with support from BBC Radio 6’s Steve Lamacq, Radio X’s John Kennedy, BBC Introducing, XS Manchester and editorial playlists on Apple Music.
Frontman Sean Davies believes that the current line-up of Dan Dyson on drums and Jack Barnes on bass has finally given the band an identity and a sound they can be proud of. Hollows are looking forward to releasing new music in 2023 after a second sell out show in their home city, support slots for the likes of Space and Peter Hook and The Light and a summer tour under their belts. The band are now signed to Revolver Records.
The new EP ‘Running With Scissors’, marks the start of a new era for Hollows. With the two previous singles ‘History’ and ‘Talons’ accompanied by two brand new tracks, ‘2, 4, Sick’ and ‘Talk’. The two previously released tracks set the tone for the EP with a classic American Indie influence while the new tracks start to introduce elements of dance music with the break beat on 2, 4, Sick accompanying a hypnotic middle eastern riff. The EP closes with Talk which is something of a return to their Roots with the classic Hollows sound, hard hitting and punchy with a strong vocal.
Oh The Humanity! has today released their new video for the track titled ‘Upper Riffspiratory Infection’ from their upcoming album dropping in January, 2025 via Sell the Heart (U.S.), Thousand Islands Records (Canada), and Engineer Records (UK).
While having that ‘shot on a phone for tiktok’ look and feel, you still can’t deny the magnum opus feel and party gras look embedded within a fast paced adrenaline fueled fuck you to the norm and tug on the balls of the past not realizing the d*ck is pointing to the future.
“Upper Riffspiratory Infection is a song about wanting to be present but being stuck in the past. Dwelling on things long since forgotten by most but not you, and those old demons haunting your present. This song is a straight up punk rock ripper. Shreddy guitars, fast driving drums, vocals that pack a punch, and a massive bridge that pays off in spades.” Oh The Humanity!
About Oh The Humanity!
Since 2012, Oh The Humanity! has been combining shreddy metal riffs with singalong punk choruses and the energy of DIY basement hardcore shows. The Massachusetts-based band’s latest record Ground to Dust (out early next year) showcases their diverse influences with 10 tracks of fast technical melodic punk capped off with emotionally resonant lyrics. Recorded by Trevor Reilly (A Wilhem Scream) at Anchor End Studio in New Bedford, MA, Ground to Dust is the band’s third studio album and is slated to release in January 2025 on Sell the Heart (U.S.), Thousand Islands Records (Canada), and Engineer Records (UK).
The OTH! crew is all about the bond formed at live shows and have been honored to perform at venerable punk festivals like The Fest, Camp Punksylvania, and Pouzza Fest. They’ve sweat their brains out on stages, in backyards, and in DIY halls across the US, Canada, and the UK, and will be heading back out on the road in 2025 in support of their new record.
Oh The Humanity! is Kevin Athas, Jimmy Silvio, Kyle Paradis, Chris Dileso, and Chris Santoro. They are pretty cheerful dudes. Some of them like LEGO a lot. Some of them have really, really strong opinions about why “Africa” is only the third best TOTO song. All of them would love nothing more in this life than to come rock and party with you, wherever you may be.
Seirén are a genre bending four piece based in Mexico City and Manchester, UK. Fronted by singer/songwriter Helea Gimeno, their ethereal sound and well-crafted songs defy categorisation. The current lineup was formed in 2023 and they are releasing their first EP ” La vía y la virtud”, towards the end of 2024. Their live shows have received rave reviews in Mexico City, and have been more likened to an ‘experience’ than just another show.
With a tour of Latin America and Europe planned for 2025, they’re ready to take their sound to a wider audience.
Party Nails (Elana Carroll) has today released her new single titled 'Trigger Warning' from the upcoming album 'Pillow Talk', dropping in January, 2025.
Party Nails (Elana Carroll) has today released her new single titled ‘Trigger Warning’ from the upcoming album ‘Pillow Talk’, dropping in January, 2025. Vocally emotional in that there is a way of delivery of the lyrics done subtly, but with a heartfelt persona. There is a quiet urge within the panache of the voice. Almost mesmerizing. Totally original. Immersed in a soundscape that is as wide as it is focused. While the genre is clear, the delivery and presentation of the track is memorable. This is a song by a songwriter that appreciates the music as an artform and expression.
While ‘Trigger Warning’ eases the listener through the song, it also carries them and lends a bit to personal inspiration and reflection. And, while the song never really crescendos, does it really need to? Emotions are constant. So are death and taxes. The enduring beauty of the track is that it never lets up, but lets you in.
About Party Nails
If her last single was Party Nails in all her “collaborative bestie” glory, her latest “Trigger Warning” finds the artist all alone in her room. Written, recorded, produced and mixed by Elana Carroll, the noir-electropop track radiates with synthwave energy, bringing to mind Kavinsky’s hit “Nightcall” as much as Chromatics and The Weeknd. Singing as a survivor processing her abusive relationship, the verses speak on injury and pain, endurance and triumph. When she sings ”you’re gonna keep on rising / with the morning sun.”, Party Nails is once again holding space for opposing emotional forces in an immersive yet accessible piece of music.
Fans can hear “Trigger Warning” and her recent singles “Same Old Song” and “First Responder” on upcoming midwest and western US tour (supporting Bad Bad Hats).
Before she was Party Nails, Elana Carroll was a guitar-toting tween, playing any open mic near her hometown of Chatham, New York. At home she recorded herself with Garageband, instigating a love of music technology which continues to this day. Party Nails debuted in 2015 on Neon Gold’s famed blog with Break. Her first tour in 2017 (with PVRIS and Lights) ushered in a devoted fanbase, and her live performances continue to be a core facet of her artistry, being equal parts Madonna, Hayley Williams, and Sheryl Crow. In 2020 she wrote Rockin’ on the Rag, a song about period pride, for Loren Bouchard’s Apple animated series Central Park, wrote and produced the Le Tigre-infused Supernatural for feminist rock duo Deap Vally, and continued to lend her vocals to other musicians (LŪN, Urban Heat, Battle Tapes, MitiS, Getter, and others have featured her vocals on their releases).
Her music has been in movies and television (Glass, Girls, The L Word: Generation Q, Nancy Drew, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin) featured in various media outlets (Billboard, PAPER, Noisey, Earmilk, Paste and more) and included on Spotify Editorial playlists such as Fresh Finds, Fresh Finds Indie, and Undercurrents. She operates a recording studio, Top Coat, in Los Angeles, where she records, produces and mixes for other artists as well as her own projects.
Pillow Talk, Party Nails long-awaited third album, Carroll has partnered with Eye Knee Records (founded by musicians Holly Miranda & Amb. Parsley, with the sharp mind and steady hand of boss lady, Elissa Young). Pillow Talk is due for release in January 2025.
Battleflagg has released his new single titled 'Ghosts' from his upcoming EP 'Solastalgia' dropping January 7, 2025.
Battleflagg has today released his new single titled ‘Ghosts’ from his upcoming EP ‘Solastalgia’ dropping January 7, 2025. Produced by Daniel Knowles (SVE, Cigarettes After Sex), ‘Ghosts’ is a song that starts with that jaw dropping ‘wow’ factor with a hint of nostalgia and a whole lot of creative freedom and attitude that makes a song what a song is, or should be.
Indie music with that extra heft and daft, ‘Ghost’ just feels right and is really one of those songs you find yourself rewinding and looking for those sweet spots over and over, just to get that goosebump feeling those spots gave you again. Plus, there is something you rarely here nowadays: a melodic guitar solo. The kind you can remember for later. The kind of solo you can hum along to. One that is not trying to impress you in any way other than to compliment the song. This is music from another time. And now it’s on your time.
About Battleflagg
The project of Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter, Jeff Hartwig, Battleflagg was conceived in 2020 after demoing new songs and feeling the need to regain some agency in an age of personal, social and political unrest. Battleflagg is not so much a band but a collective of like-minded musicians and visual artists, formed during the pandemic to combat an age of creeping cynicism. With a sound that blends traditional rock instrumentation with ambient synths, drum loops and samples, Hartwig’s Battleflagg songs seek to straddle the Heartland/Americana/Indie rock divides, leaning into direct, heart-on-sleeve lyrics and arena-size, sing-along choruses.
Hartwig’s musical backstory is prolific. His first pro gig was opening for the Ramones as the lead singer of King Flux, made up of former members of punk rock innovators the Plasmatics, a show for which he was castigated by Johnny Ramone for jumping on Johnny’s stage box during the opening set. After a year of powering through the downtown scene at CBGBs and other Lower East Side clubs, King Flux dissolved, Richie Stotts, the band’s founder, went on to grad school , and Hartwig found himself opening as a solo act for bands on the Blues/Americana circuit, including The Holmes Brothers, Clarence Gatemouth Brown and Commander Cody.
Looking for a change of sound and scenery, the singer-songwriter moved to San Francisco in the late 90s, where he immediately fell into a thriving Indie/Americana/Punk scene. Fronting an Americana(ish) band called the Dangs, he established a strong following playing with then-rising bands Third Eye Blind, Cake and Train, who the Dangs opened for at the Fillmore Auditorium on the release of Train’s debut album. The Dangs also shared stages with many Americana/Indie acts while on tour, including Dave Alvin, The Connells, and Dash Rip Rock.
As the new Millenium approached, Hartwig inked a deal with About Records, a UMG distributed label formed by veteran music executive George Daly and producer/engineer Chuck Plotkin (Bruce Springsteen), as a solo artist, spending a year writing and developing songs for his first release. When About reorganized in the wake of the bursting Dotcom bubble, however, Hartwig lost the momentum and was ready to make a change, this time to law school.
Over the next decade, Hartwig pursued a career in corporate law, all the while continuing to write songs and playing the occasional live show. In 2019, with numerous demos in hand and a desire to be a part of the democratization of music distribution, Hartwig contacted Brit-Award winning producer, Chris Potter (Richard Ashcroft, Rolling Stones), who agreed to produce Battleflagg’s first EP, The Blood Meridians, which was released by Hartwig’s own label, Resolute Juke, in November 2022. The Blood Meridians was recorded in London and the south of England and would feature talent from both the UK and US, including the guitar work of Rob Marshall (Humanist) and Steve Wyremann (Richard Ashcroft), the drumming of Steve Sidelnyk (Seal), and the soul-searing vocals of Miko Marks.
After the release of The Blood Meridians, Hartwig again set the production process in motion. Upon hearing Sharon Van Etten’s hit single, “Mistakes”; and loving the sonic vibe, he reached out to its producer, Daniel Knowles (SVE, Cigarettes After Sex), to see if Mr. Knowles would have interest in producing his upcoming EP. Knowles listened to the demos and readily agreed to be a part of the project. After almost 18 months of recording and mixing, the new EP, Solastalgia, is ready for its release on January 7, 2025 by Knowles and Hartwig, the breadth of musical collaborators on Solastalgia even exceeds that of The Blood Meridians and includes members of The War on Drugs, Ethel Cain, Japanese Breakfast and Elvis Costello.
When asked what he hopes people would take away from listening to his new music, Hartwig says “When listening to these songs unfold, I want the listener to understand, and feel the power of, the simple moments described within, and how such moments can connect to the grand expression that is our individual lived experience. Hopefully, in understanding that the themes and experiences in the songs are common to all of us, particularly in the face of massive change, the listener will find a deeper connection to the people and places around them.”
The Stray Pursuit heralds a new chapter in their career with their awesome and anthemic new single ‘I Don’t Know.’ As the smoke clears, this exciting emerging Swansea four-piece is riding a wave of powerful drums, tenacious riffing with gritty determined vocals. A momentary lull with brooding sonics and melodic references to home: explodes into their most anthemic and hard-hitting chorus yet. It’s a rock anthem brimming with perseverance over tragedy, and succeeding against the odds.
The band recorded the track at Longwave Studios in Cardiff, collaborating with esteemed producer Romesh Dodangoda (Bring Me the Horizon, Holding Absence, Nova Twins) on songs from their debut EP. This EP promises to be a testament to their growth and artistic evolution. Hailing from Swansea, The Stray Pursuit emerges as a dynamic force in the realm of Alternative Rock. Distinctive for their guitar-driven riffs and captivating vocals, each track embodies their eclectic musical tastes. Inspired by bands like Catfish and The Bottlemen and The Hunna, and with echoes of the Welsh rock lineage of The Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, and Funeral for a Friend, in the upcoming months they will release more exciting tracks.
The four-piece consists of lead singer Aaron Morgan, lead guitarist Dylan Evans, bassist Fred Wilkinson, and drummer Ben Lewis. They have supported Andrew Cushin, The K’s, and Vida, and played alongside The Lottery Winners, Pastel, and Trampoline just to name a few. TSP were featured on This Feelings ‘Big in 2020’. In June 2023, they sold out a headline show at The Bunkhouse for their single release ‘Let It Be Known’. They then went on to sell out two out of five dates of their ‘Domino Effect’ debut EP tour in 2024. One in Cwrw, Carmarthen and the other in The Moon, Cardiff.
The band’s origin story traces back to an unexpected bus ride that led Aaron and Fred to forge an unexpected bond. Despite being rivals in separate bands, their chemistry became undeniable during a jam session. The additions of exceptional talents lead guitarist Dylan and drummer Nicky solidified the lineup. Tragedy struck when founding drummer Nicky Bevan passed away in December 2022. They say “The devastating loss catalysed a renewed purpose for the band: to honour Nicky’s legacy and prove our potential for greatness. He is missed dearly, and will be forever cherished by so many people.”
The pandemic-induced hiatus and Fred finishing university provided growth for the band. Emerging from this break in June 2022, and Ben joining the band later in April 2023, The Stray Pursuit reentered the practice room, channelling their energy into crafting new tracks and elevating their stage presence and live performance.
badfocus has released his new EP titled 'realities' via badfocus Music.
badfocus has released his new EP titled ‘realities’ via badfocus Music. An interesting electronic opus filled with musical parts that are hard to guess and even harder to define. Think world music meets global mind. The title is perfect and the lack of capital letters in the title and artist are fitting. Nothing stands out on it’s own because it’s designed to be a total immersion and collective of music that instill the love, likes, lessons, and life and all of the diversity within.
About badfocus
Producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist badfocus released another body of work, an EP titled realities with an accompanying video for its title track. badfocus is the solo project of Prague-based prodigy Prokop Korb. He has opened for electronic heavyweights like UK producer Max Cooper and German stalwarts Pantha du Prince and Grandbrothers and has graced the stages of festivals in Europe and Canada, including Electronica: Vision of Sound III (London), M4 Montreal (Canada), EXIT (Serbia), Sziget (Hungary), and Spectaculare (Prague). He has also performed at showcases such as MUSEXPO (USA), PIN (Macedonia), All About Music (Mumbai), Tallinn Music Week (Estonia), Prague Music Week and BUSH (Hungary).
badfocus has quickly built an impressive body of work since launching his project in 2020 at the age of 18. By emphasizing an intuitive approach in his creative process, he cultivates a safe space for himself and collaborative artists to create in complete freedom, without any conventions. Citing a wide range of influences from Kendrick Lamar to Erykah Badu to Jon Hopkins, he concocts a recipe of alternative Hip-Hop laden with intricate production. His music is sure to ensnare fans of XXXTentacion, Saba and Arca.
The realities EP was produced by badfocus himself, who also contributed to the songwriting alongside the featured artists Klara Wodehn, Twisted DV, Chris Villon, and ATM BENNY. The project was mixed and mastered by Láďa Štěrba. The EP is an intricate six-track odyssey through glitchy scapes of introspection and emotion. The titular opener features shuffling percussion, atmospheric ambience and auto-tuned vocals, setting an immersive and moody tone for the EP. All tracks aside from ‘realities’ feature collaborations, while the latter is accompanied by a hazy, pixellated video teeming with nostalgia. Klara Wodehn offers Hyperpop vocals over hyperactive breakbeats and ricocheting synths in tancovatforhours, while silverado sees Twisted DV rapping over a steadier beat that doesn’t lose the energy of its predecessor. Deep reflection shines in throwaway cup’s moody soundscape (featuring Chris Villon), while the final two tracks feature vocals from ATM BENNY. badfocus closes the EP with feverish Drum ‘N Bass instrumentation, leaving the listener in a fervent daze.
Drop It First has released their new single titled 'Strong From Within' from their upcoming album 'Fundamentals', set to drop on January 17th 2025, via Thousand Islands Records.
Drop It First has released their new single titled ‘Strong From Within’ from their upcoming album ‘Fundamentals’, set to drop on January 17th 2025, via Thousand Islands Records.
Old school vibe with a new rock feel, Drop It First combine the melody with the hook and grind out a guitar hero’s anthem fit for the stadium. Consider it a solid introduction to an upcoming rock solid album. A fundamentality of bringing the music back to it’s roots, and bringing those roots to your ears. A combination of solidarity and singularity bringing the music back to those fundamentals, making this track something to bring in closer. Each member bringing their own style and forming a cooperative. A collective.
About ‘Fundamentals’
Get ready for the explosive debut album “Fundamentals” from the Canadian punk rock band Drop It First, set to release on January 17, 2025. This 12-track collection delivers furious melodic punk rock, tackling themes of death, love, and life’s challenges with rawenergy and emotion. Featuring standout tracks like “Hold On,” “Come Back Home,” “Strong From Within,” and “Where The Wind Blows,” “Fundamentals” is a powerful anthem for anyone navigating the highs and lows of existence. Don’t miss this thrilling musical journey.
Tracklist
‘Fundementals’ cover.
Where The Wind Blows
Demons Inside
Hold On
Strong From Within
March 25th
Every Second Counts
Dead End
Sideways
Come Back Home (ft. David Pouliot)
Never Enough
Drag Me Down
The Deal We Made
About Drop It First
Quebec City, early 2023, Vince Fournier and Jam Gosselin, the powerhouse singer and bassist of Our Darkest Days, crossed paths with Mathieu Hébert of Go Great Guns. Mathieu unveiled a batch of raw, electrifying songs he had just penned. Blown away by Mathieu’s undeniable talent and fueled by an unquenchable fire for melodic punk rock, the trio decided to join forces to craft the ultimate punk rock album. They knew they needed a second guitarist and a drummer to complete their vision, and they wasted no time in the hunt.
By spring 2023, Jo Thivierge, a long-time friend of Vince and Jam and a multi-instrumental dynamo from Persistence and Exhibition, was locked in as their drummer. With the heart of a rookie but the chops of a seasoned pro, Jo plunged headfirst into the project with unwavering enthusiasm.
Just a few weeks later, the final piece fell into place. Maxime Larouche, a young and fiery musician, emerged as the lead guitarist. His raw drive, exceptional skill, and magnetic personality made him the perfect fit.
After months of intense discussions and relentless searching, the band christened themselves “Drop It First.” The name strikes with a fierce, distinctive edge that perfectly captures the quintet’s relentless pursuit of sonic perfection.
Their highly anticipated album ”Fundamentals” is set to drop on January 17th 2025, under the independent label Thousand Islands Records. Collectively, the five members boast an impressive arsenal: 10 EPs, 11 LPs, 10 music videos, and over 1250 live shows.
604 Decades — the newly-launched archival series within the venerated 604 Group — is taking its first official look back at Vancouver’s rich, if unexplored arts history with an overview of cult shoegazers Movieland. While the trio hadn’t reached the top of the marquee when they were active in the early ‘90s, the stunningly psych-spiraled melodicism found on their demos and rarities collection proves that Movieland should have been a blockbuster. The album arrives digitally and on vinyl on
The heart of Movieland is singer-guitarist Alan D. Boyd, an Edmonton-raised musician who briefly flocked to Montreal to play bass in garage rock legends the Gruesomes before working his way out west to Vancouver in 1991. It’s here that he started working at a bagel shop alongside drummer Justin Leigh, and after a few shifts bonding over British bands like The Stone Roses and Slowdive, the pair reached out to bassist John Ounpuu to start quaking out some gain-blasted, heart-swelling hypno-jams of their own.
“We were doing long songs, and they were noisy,” Boyd sums up of the earliest Movieland material. Recorded at long-gone arts hub-cum-recording studio Downtown Sound, a four-song debut cassette — which now kicks off reflected leather jacket rebellion (“Rant”) and the dangerously mesmerizing epics (“Everything”) that the band had been working out onstage at various arts college warehouse parties. Things got loud; bass amps exploded; speakers got kicked in. And while rooted in the 12-string jangle of a Rickenbacker guitar and a nitrous whiff of distortion, the dawn of Vancouver rave culture and seedy-side-of-town hang sessions likewise seeped into the group’s lysergic groove.
“There were a lot of drugs in Vancouver at that time,” Boyd contextualizes. “I never really liked weed, but everybody seemed to smoke it; and there was an interest in psychedelics amongst the people that we were all friends with. It definitely informed what we were doing, that cannot be denied.”
By the time Movieland started writing their second demo, Boyd had moved into The Mansion, a crumbling rental within Vancouver’s upscale Shaughnessy neighborhood that ended up housing a bunch of derelict-looking musicians, filmmakers, and sandwich artists. “The neighbors called the police the day we moved in because they thought we were breaking into the house,” Boyd recalls with a laugh. “We’d rehearse there and make music, but we would also have massive parties with bands and DJ’s. Nobody heard anything outside, because the house was really well soundproofed.”
Deep within the walls of the Mansion, Boyd began tunneling into a series of experimentally layered, melancholy shoegaze songs on a borrowed Tascam 8-track. Among them was the entrancing, love life-mining “I Relate,” a will-they-or-won’t-they number that anchored the band’s second demo cassette.
“‘I Relate’ is another song about a girl, and about being in this flux state after meeting somebody. Like, ‘Is this person the person that I want to be with?’ It’s just all that young man’s self-doubt, you know? Playing that kind of angsty, self-referential music in the 1990s — when next door the grunge scene is happening and it’s all big and loud — felt very different. Very exposed.”
A small but dedicated fanbase bought tapes and showed up to off-the-grid indie venues for live performances, but there wasn’t much exposure beyond that. Movieland never got their breakthrough opening for a big touring band. One time an A&R scout for a major label showed up to a local gig, but they opted to sign the opening act instead. Boyd notes he received a bunch of glowing rejection letters from other labels. Then Ounpuu and Leigh left the lineup to start up the pop-driven alternative quartet Pluto, who did end up singing to a Virgin Records, with the help of their lawyer, future 604 Records co-founder Jonathan Simkin.
Undeterred, Boyd linked up with bassist Cam Cunningham, an old friend from Edmonton, and drummer Clancy Denehy (Perfume Tree) to track the final two, melodically gain-freaked Movieland anthems — “Build Me a Dream” and “She’s a Mountain”. While blistering earworms like these led some in town to give Boyd a snickering nickname — “My Bloody Alantine” — he didn’t seem to mind. “I get that they were making fun of me, but I also thought, ‘If I’m achieving that on an 8-track, then I’m pretty happy.”
The good times, however, eventually ended. By 1994, Movieland still weren’t making any headway around town. Boyd’s biggest brush with fame at that point was making mint tea for Bryan Adams during a shift at a coffee shop. Feeling like the local music scene had become a dead end, Boyd wondered if Movieland had officially hit its final act.
“I stood on the Cambie Bridge one day and gazed at the city, with those mountains behind it, and I said ‘what a lovely place, but it doesn’t feel like I can get anything done here.’ A couple of days later we were drinking Framboise beer at the bar and I said ‘I’m going to London’. I sold all my stuff.”
Boyd left British Columbia to roadie across Europe for SNFU — again, old Edmonton friends — and he opted to stick around the UK, where he’s been living for the past 30 years. He’s been working steady ever since, whether writing music for films and TV, or while performing in Little Sparta with the Mekons’ Susie Honeyman.
But when Simkin — one of Movieland’s biggest boosters at the time — reached out about the old music, Boyd passionately dug up the tapes — as well as early live footage, show posters, and more — to put together. The nostalgic, aggressively amp-dialed project has reawakened Boyd’s shoegazing spirit, with a series of newly-written Movieland tracks set to head our way through 604 Decades at a later date. Turns out Movieland’s early ‘90s curtain call may have been a bit premature
“It’s a good time to do this. People who were part of that scene will get a kick out of listening to this again,” he says of the archival release, adding of bringing Movieland to a younger generation of music fans, “Now I’m talking to my son and people his age about seeing My Bloody Valentine, and they’re in awe. Then they hear our stuff and go ‘that’s really cool!’ You think to yourself, ‘Where were you thirty years ago? Oh right…you weren’t born yet.’”
Vikki Minor has released her new single titled ‘The Labyrinth’. An alternative from when alternative was still the alternative, Vikki takes the guts and guitar and makes a dark rock rage sound from the radio days into the modern era with the bravado and pride of someone who was there and lived every note and lyric.
As retro as this track sounds, their is a modern rawness and new feeling about it that, hopefully, takes into the rest of the decade with a hint and nod as to what good songwriting and execution are meant to be.
And, while her Spotify numbers and online notoriety keep gaining ground, it’s her original style and anarchist flair that will take her the rest of the way.
About Vikki Minor & ‘The Labyrinth’
Vikki Minor is an award-nominated neo-90s alt-rock artist proudly from Saskatoon, SK, and now partially based in Toronto, ON. Her musical influences range from ‘70s anti-establishment punk to ‘80s dance pop to ‘90s alternative and grunge, with a ‘00s attitude stemming from her growing up in the era. This emerging artist has been compared to Alanis Morrissette, Avril Lavigne, and Michelle Branch with her in-depth songwriting and catchy melodies captivating music fans in North America.
Vikki Minor’s stellar releases this past year have shown her growth as an artist and individual, receiving support and admiration on numerous Spotify playlists and both commercial and campus radios all across the continent. She has been able to keep her complex lyricism while bringing her electric live performances’ musical attitude into the intimate studio, has performed at various showcases and festivals across Canada, and earned nominations for awards like Rock/Pop Artist of the Year at the SaskMusic Awards three years in a row and Pop Artist of the Year at the Western Canadian Music Awards.
Starting in 2020, Minor has worked with Juno-award winner Ryan Stewart on singles like “Summer Haze” and “Whatever That Means”, which gained her high praise and immediate attention from the industry. Minor’s recent releases “Miss You the Most” and “Flowers in a Wasteland” in late 2022 have shown off her 90s alternative influence even more. Newest singles “Pieces of You” and “COOL” being released in winter 2023 and early summer 2024, as well as “Sabotage”, “The Labyrinth”, and “Harmless, Happy People” all being produced by up-and-coming producers, continue her neo-90s musical exploration.
Vikki Minor’s live performances this past year have raised her to a new level in her career. Shows at the end of 2022 and throughout 2023 have included opening for Skye Wallace’s Everything is Fine Tour at Capitol Music Club (Saskatoon, SK), headlining Amigos Cantina (Saskatoon, SK) twice, then going on her own Mini-Ontario Tour in summer of 2023. These shows included the Spring Reverb festival (Kingston, ON), Lemmon Stage’s NXNE showcase (Toronto, ON), DoWest Fest (Toronto, ON), performing on the same mainstage as Blue Rodeo and Serena Ryder at Tall Pines Music festival (Muskoka, ON), and performing at Toronto alt. scene’s beloved Sneaky Dee’s in August and September, opening for Canadian icon Fefe Dobson October 21st at Capitol Music Club (Saskatoon, SK), BreakOut West’s 2024 showcase, a fun Halloween show by Beefy Records, Come Together Showcase in Toronto, November 2024, and opening for Autopilot on December 7th 2024.
Vikki Minor’s music is a seamless blend of synth-pop and alternative rock, with powerful vocals and a rock star edge noted by wide-ranging audiences, news outlets, and fellow musicians.
Indie-rock, shoegaze, new wave band with infectious hooks and mad live performances. Latest single Unbreakable, a jangly guitar-pop track with a driving bass-line that explores feelings of being lost but the ultimate triumph in the face of adversity
Their influences include the classic post punk sounds of early U2, Echo and the Bunnymen, and the Cure as well as a love of britpop: Suede, the Verve, and Feeder. They have recently incorporated the dreamy and abrasive sounds of contemporary post punk revival bands including IDLES, Thus Love, High Vis, Murder Capital, and Dry Cleaning.
Following on from their blistering Unbreakable album launch show and previous singles Everything Points To You and Naked Eyes, Explode The TV release the title track of their brand new album Unbreakable on their own label Sugar Bomb Records. Mixing darkwave pop vibes with infectious melodies Unbreakable features ETTV’s trademark anthemica.
Indie Pop band Velvet Moon have unveiled their next single, ‘A Love Song’, on October 11th, 2024 via Argle Bargle Studios.
Dreamy indie band Velvet Moon are set to share their latest single ‘The Hour of King Kong’ and its spellbinding music video on November 29, 2024 via Argle Bargle Studios. This follows the release of ‘A Love Song’, which premiered on Metal Magazine, as well as the release of their captivating singles ‘Hymn’ and ‘Daylight’ off their forthcoming album Endless War In The Summer, slated for release in 2025. Boasting 15 million streams across platforms, the group’s first three albums earned them global recognition, reaching the top of Spotify’s Viral list in Indonesia. Velvet Moon’s music has also become a favourite among vloggers and has been featured in TV commercials for brands like Kappahl and Bollinger in Sweden, as well as gracing stages such as that of The Great Escape festival 2024. Their timeless sound has attracted a fanbase that is both diverse and multi-generational.
The Stockholm trio have built up a catalogue of deeply intimate and evocative songs. Sandra Bjurman, the band’s lyricist and vocalist, draws directly from her everyday experiences while reflecting on broader societal and global issues. The musical landscapes crafted by producers Stefan Örn and Johan Glössner perfectly complement Sandra’s storytelling, allowing listeners to journey through a spectrum of rich colours and powerful feelings. ‘A Love Song’ was written by all three band members and produced by Stefan Örn and Johan Glössner. The mix engineer for the release was Johan Kronlund, known for his work with artists such as Allan Walker, Veronica Maggio and Hovet. The mastering engineer was Björn Engelmann (ABBA, Titiyo, Allan Walker). Influenced by War on Drugs, Joni Mitchell and Rycooder, the band’s current sound is reminiscent of the sultry Synth Pop of Fleetwood Mac (in the 80s), Chappell Roan, The Eurythmics and Cannons.
‘The Hour of King Kong’ is a richly evocative track teeming with tension and mystery. The lush 80s new wave instrumentation sparkles with bewitching urgency, revealing new sonic ear candy with each listen. Sandra’s vocals, fervid yet controlled, charismatically tell the story of a primal experience of synergy from struggle and ecstasy. The accompanying video features the band in the miniscule foreground, with an epic backdrop of videos ranging from 3D projections of apes to nocturnal cityscapes to clocks ticking, and so much more.
Meggo has released her new single titled 'brooklyn pt 1'.
Meggo has released her new single titled ‘brooklyn pt. 1’. Freeform as an attitude and creative grandeur as a fault, Meggo (Megan Ennenberg) lands with an experimental track that explores the possibilities of what music can convey with an original thought combined with a stylistic presence.
with an artistic build to a lavish anticlimactic crescendo, ‘brooklyn pt. 1’ feels like a journey more than a song with an infusion of genres and attitudes that question the norm and embrace the feels.
About Meggo
Meggo, the creative evolution of multidisciplinary musician and producer Megan Ennenberg, crafts music that merges raw acoustic roots with modern technological innovation, resulting in a soundscape that feels both intimate and otherworldly.
Rooted in the bluegrass and folk traditions of the Pacific mountains where she grew up, and steeped in the alternative-indie influence of Montreal, Meggo’s music and production challenge the status quo, weaving together themes of autonomy, power, and female imagination while defying genre norms. Through her work, Meggo has cultivated a distinct voice that offers a fresh perspective on folk music, layering raw acoustic sounds with digital manipulations to create an experimental, genre-bending sonic landscape.
As a core member of Fleece, a beloved indie-rock band known for its queer-positive, community-oriented performances, Megan has spent years refining her voice. After ten years with Fleece, performing alongside popular acts like Sammy Rae & the Friends and Tokyo Police Club, Megan launched Meggo in 2021 to expand her artistic expression in ways that delve more deeply into personal and experimental realms. This evolution has led her to explore new, uncharted territories in her debut EP, eavesdropper; death stories, where she takes listeners on an introspective journey through grief, healing, and profound awareness.
eavesdropper ;; death stories is more than an album—it’s a rare glimpse into Meggo’s creative world, where every song is built around fragments of life, heard and recorded in the raw moments of their inception. As Meggo wrote and recorded these tracks, she was, in a sense, a witness to her own songs; the listener, too, is invited to share in the rare intimacy of hearing a song as it unfolded to the artist in real time, in the exact moment of creation. Inspired by the grief of personal losses—friends, pets, her “old life and ways”—Meggo brings to life these moments of fragile beauty, observed from the edges of experience and processed through what she calls a “grief sieve.” Through this lens, she found healing by allowing truths to surface naturally, learning to simply listen without controlling or possessing the narrative.
Incorporating sounds from the world around her, Meggo uses spontaneous, everyday sounds to blur the line between music and life. Throughout the EP are hidden treasures; a thunderstorm that started while on the phone with a friend who was moving home to be with a sick parent; a squeaky gate closing; a dog running past at a dog park after her dog had passed away; a yawn; footsteps in the forest; her partner’s voice calling out, “Look, Megan, it’s our future home!” These samples from the mundane world become sonic textures woven into the EP, inviting listeners to eavesdrop on moments that feel timeless, almost secretive. eavesdropper ;; death stories invites the audience to share in these found sounds, creating a feeling of eavesdropping on something personal and profound, immersing them in a sensory experience where music and memory entwine.
Through these delicate samples, the listener becomes an eavesdropper in the truest sense. As the album’s tracks blend into one another, they invite us to listen not only to the sounds captured on record but also to the sounds around us, merging our environment with Meggo’s musical world. This effect creates an immersive experience in which the listener might catch themselves hearing a conversation in the background, or the scrape of a chair on the floor, as part of the song itself. It’s as if the boundary between the listener’s world and the album dissolves, leaving them to wonder: what is real, and what is just part of the music?
eavesdropper ;; death stories is an album that honors the fragile, fleeting nature of existence. Meggo has transformed her moments of solitude, grief, and awareness into an offering that goes beyond traditional music. It’s an invitation to observe and be observed, to notice the beauty in moments we might otherwise overlook, and to find meaning not in control, but in surrender. This project is one of vulnerability, introspection, and quiet rebellion against the polished conventions of music. With eavesdropper ;; death stories, Meggo offers a timeless reflection on what it means to listen deeply to both life and loss, challenging us all to hear the music in the world around us.
Hip, hip, hurray, everything is great, everything is wonderful? Eisbrecher, one of the most original, important and successful German rock bands of recent decades is back, as loud, proud and opinionated as ever!
The monumental new single by the band, ‘Everything Is Wunderbar’, is set to sweep through Europe and across the Atlantic at this onset of winter, with frost, ice and snowy conditions surely no match for this uncompromising comeback effort from Eisbrecher frontman Alexander Wesselskly and his crew.
Despite the effects of global warming, it is also getting cold, colder than ever before, both in world affairs and in our hearts. Eisbrecher are aware of this. But, with their trademark cocktail of thunderous hardness, dripping cynicism and a tough as nails approach, they are once again the axe to do battle with the frozen sea in us all.
Perhaps never more important than right now. ‘Everything Is Wunderbar’ stamps our lethargy into the ground, blows the egoism away and takes stock of our satiated ‘fun’ society, which seeks to maintain its hedonistic attitude even in the reflection of the apocalypse. “Après nous, le déluge”, everything is going down the drain anyway. I’ll have some more caviar, thanks….we don’t treat ourselves to anything less.
“Wir liegen uns zu Füßen / Wir denken megagroß / Wir graden unser Leben up / Und jagen alles hoch“ (We lie at each other’s feet / We think mega-big / We upgrade our lives / And drive everything up)
So sings Wesselsky over hard-hitting guitars, feverish synths and towering drums. Maybe this is something that many don’t want to hear, but someone has to say it. Who else, if not Wesselsky?
‘Everything Is Wunderbar’ is a furious first harbinger of the forthcoming new album, by Eisbrecher, entitled ‘Kaltfront’. This thunderous manifesto against indifference, stagnation and obsession with self-optimisation is just the beginning of a new era will put even the band’s own cool-as-hell past in the shade. That is a promise!
Eisbrecher have been going where it hurts with their songs for many years. They point to the burn holes in our society and twist their fingers in wounds we have inflicted on ourselves. Since forming more than two decades ago, it has led to one of the most remarkable success stories in German rock music, with their most recent studio albums ‘Sturmfahrt’ (2017) and ‘Liebe macht Monster’ (2021) both hitting the domestic album chart at no. 1. They have also long since earned their considerable reputation as a titanic live force. Wherever this icebreaker docks, seismic tremors and floods of adrenaline are released.
Austin Coven has today released his new single titled ‘Cherry Bomb Explosives’ from his upcoming album ‘The Hummingbird Cabin’ dropping in February.
Music for the house, as in house music, meant for the mind and the heart filtered through the soul with a repetitive beat only letting up for air in the pre-chorus, there is a solid hook and rhythm felt with the thump and grind when heard through the right speakers. Not meant for earbuds, because it’s an anthem. The type of track you regress to your younger self too. A message for that part of your soul that needs to let go and be set free once in a while.
About Austin Coven
Embedded in the revolutionary spirit of house music birthed by LGBTQ+ DJ’s as a means of demonstrating freedom and equality, Austin Coven aims to channel this same raw energy laid out by his predecessors. An authentic fusion of house, pop, grunge, and indie sleaze, Coven’s music offers an immersive world where poetic lyricism intertwines with relentless innovation.
By embracing the genre’s origins and aiming to shatter their limitations, the Long Island-based musician crafts sonic landscapes that are equal parts unpredictable as they are unforgettable. “Cherry Bomb Explosives” is the second offering from the utopian soundscape The Hummingbird Cabin (coming February 2025).
Sohodolls has today released their new single titled ‘Thread’ from their their long-awaited forthcoming new album dropping soon. Dark pop mixed with that electronic fervor found in noire styled movies and other things that emanate their own style, ‘Thread’ takes a message and makes it a muse for the masses via global musical hints and a memorable hook.
The vivid combination of the unique vocals and original musical blends is the first thing that sticks out, in my opinion. The song is a slow build to perfection, while never reaching it, learning that it is always just out of reach, but trying anyway. Designed for the dancefloor, and letting you know that dancefloor can be anywhere your feet reside.
Crafty and beautiful, ‘Thread’ is that Bond girl you crush over; even after realizing she’s the villain.
Sohodolls are back once again to tease their long-awaited forthcoming new album with another highly intoxicating single. “Thread” is a song about finding your tribe and celebrating your non-blood family. It’s a playful song about those of us who are very passionate, slightly eccentric, maniacally driven and who don’t conform to societal norms. It touches on trauma and how that can influence who we flock to in a positive way – our tribe, that common language that form powerful and stable bonds.
“I wrote this song in Nashville with Tony Esterly”, reveals Maya von Doll. “Musically we hit it off straight away – we both love The Gorrillaz, EDM and rock. And that day, I wanted to bring in some Lebanese or middle-eastern vibes into the music because I love that minor scale and I wanted to be able to belly-dance to it. It was such a lovely writing experience, and the song just poured out of us.”
Sohodolls recently climbed up the viral Billboard charts when Madonna’s daughter kickstarted their career again by dancing to one of their 00’s tracks on TikTok. The band have also recently had single ‘Bad’ featured in Netflix’s top 10 series ‘Geek Girl’, plus a slew of new press and radio attention from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Nels Hylton, Absolute Radio’s Frank Skinner and Atwood Magazine to name a few.
“Thread” continues this exciting new era for Sohodolls and may be their biggest and best new track yet. Tony Esterly, who has worked with the likes of SIA, BTS, Mae Muller, KIRBY, Raekwon, Izzy Bizu and many more brings his own flavors to the song, which is a huge instantly engaging dark-alt-pop banger replete with infectious beats and glossy synths, as Maya von Doll lures the listener in with her perfect vocal and catchy refrain; “Thread it all together”.
From Wellington, New Zealand’s Underwire, ‘Always’ is a heartfelt ska-punk / reggae song of love and loss. With both feet in the two-tone movement of the 1980s, and the ska of such icons as The Clash, The Ruts, and Stiff Little Fingers, ‘Always’ is a breakup song, but one of acceptance rather than melancholy: about picking yourself up and moving on with life. Since the band’s formation, ‘Always’ has been the ray of sun in Underwire’s stormy live sets: a bright counterpoint in their genre-jumping musical range.
Producer Scott Seabright has caught the love of the band for this song, delivering a great little track with light, shade, and panache.
A departure from the more familiar indie / alternative rock of Underwire releases to date, ‘Always’ is sung by the band’s guitarist and the song’s author, Mark ‘Spike’ Roxburgh, who says:
“The lyrics just kind of poured out over the riff when I wrote it: a simple reggae style riff, which had a starkness to it, and seemed to fit the sense of loss at the time. It’s more of a punk riff really, but that’s just how I write.”
Underwire play like they mean it, with a distinctly fun, stormy, alt-rock sound – with hints of surf punk, garage rock, swampy blues, and psychobilly – and in the case of the new single, ‘Always’, two-tone ska and reggae. Formed from the collision of Clash and Pixies covers bands, Underwire quickly became a popular live act on the energetic Wellington indie music scene. Since their debut single ‘Gravity’ in 2023, Underwire have released a string of singles produced by Scott Seabright; clocked up over 27,000 YouTube views of their self-made videos; received airplay on indie radio around New Zealand, Australia, the US, UK, and mainland Europe; and have spent more than six months on Apple’s global New Rock and other playlists.
In their current lineup, Underwire features members of Wazzo Ghoti / Wazzo Clash, Proxies, Shanakie, and Head Like a Hole: with founding members Johnny Mills (guitar, vocals), Jane Brimblecombe (vocals), and Mark ‘Spike’ Roxburgh (guitar, vocals) being joined by Mark Hamill (drums),and Steve Tremewan (bass).
Astral Bazaar are about to drop ‘Hypnosis of the 12th Degree’ on November 29th via Secret Entertainment. On the new album, Astral Bazaar continues to explore their signature psychedelic rock style, blending playful and oriental guitar riffs with rich and layered vocal harmonies. The album also features a couple of ethereal saxophone solos and some lengthy and exciting jam sections. Compared to the band’s previous work, the song structures are more streamlined and the sounds are more organic. The psychedelic feel is rooted less in post-production and more in the band’s natural live sound – a choice partly shaped by how the album was created.
“These songs were largely born and refined through jamming together as a band. The instrument tracks were mostly recorded live in the studio to capture the feel of our live performances. Of all our albums, this one undoubtedly comes the closest to how Astral Bazaar sounds on stage,” the band explains.
Hypnosis of the 12th Degree is not a concept album in the sense that it would follow a single narrative. Instead, the songs take listeners on journeys in outer space, arid deserts, and the narrow alleys of medieval cities. What ties the album together is its exploration of surreal mental landscapes and doubts about one’s own perceptions. Whether dreaming, experiencing mirages, or falling into the depths of hypnosis, the ultimate question remains: Can imagination and reality ever truly be separated?
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