Premiere: Eilis Frawley – Leave The House

I first heard Eilis Frawley on Get In Her Ears’ reliably brilliant Hoxton FM show. Though the heart-rate monitor resembling synths and experimental percussion of her debut single ‘Illusions’ caught my attention, it was Frawley’s on-the-nose lyrics that really stopped me in my tracks, ‘business will kill us / when do you have fun?’ she […]

New song: Half Waif – Ordinary Talk

If you asked who we hoped for an album from most in 2020, Half Waif (Nandi Rose) would’ve been pretty high up the list. Today, Half Waif has shared details of her new album ‘The Caretaker’, the follow-up to the sublime ‘Lavender’. On lead single ‘Ordinary Talk’, Rose cages you within a claustrophobic atmosphere of […]

New song: Dana Gavanski – Good Instead of Bad

Dana Gavanski has marked the announcement of her debut album, ‘Yesterday Is Gone’, by releasing the subtly engrossing ‘Good Instead of Bad’. Her third single in under a year, ‘Good Instead of Bad’ imparts a sophisticated grandeur, you can imagine Dana and band playing it in the corner of a room as party guests waltz […]

New song: Bedroom – Gulf

Hypnagogia is the mental phenomena that occurs in the transition from sleep to wakefulness. When dreams and real-life intersect transporting you to a semi-conscious blur. Bedroom’s (Noah Kittinger) latest single ‘Gulf’ captures that liminality perfectly, its triangulating guitar and Kittinger’s soothing, lethargic vocal lulling the listener into a meditative state. A lightly threading bass and […]

Album review: Angel Olsen – All Mirrors

By Sage Shemroske Angel Olsen has had a very particular experience with how the press responds to her music. Years ago a Chicago radio host described Olsen as “kind of like a girl at the bottom of a dark well”, and that helped paint the picture of Olsen as some sort of lonesome storyteller. The […]

Album review: Chastity Belt – Chastity Belt

By Anjali DasSarma Chastity Belt’s music has grown and matured with each new album, and their self-titled album from earlier this year is no exception. The rolling hooky guitar sounds that they have been known for over the past six years tumble through the melancholy. The production, partially done by Melina Mae Duterte (Jay Som) provides a […]

New song: Camille Christel – Goldsmith Street

It’s pitch black, needles of rain fall in the glow of street lamps, whilst underfoot cars race by in both directions and pedestrians search for a place to shelter. That’s the scene I visualise when listening to Camille Christel’s ‘Goldsmith Street’ – the 19-year-old’s field recordings of pissing rain, bird calling plus her stark instrumentation […]

New song: Twain – Royal Road

It was in a tense atmosphere where I first heard the name, Twain. It was at a Big Thief gig in Manchester’s Deaf Institute back in November 2017. After finishing a song, I didn’t recognise, Adrianne Lenker announced that ‘was a cover of one of our favourite bands Twain’. To everyone’s surprise, one audience member […]

EP review: ARXX – Wrong Girl, Honey

Descriptions of Brighton duo ARXX’s sound are understandably likely to focus on their angular riffs, robust drums and the obvious juxtaposition Hannah Pidduck and Clara Townsend pose to the roles women are expected to play in music. Their second EP ‘Wrong Girl, Honey’, however, proves that the duo are many-sided, rendering any such pigeonholing reductive. […]

New song: Hannah Ashcroft – Landfire

The debut single from Manchester’s very own, Hannah Ashcroft is a tale of two halves. The first half of ‘Landfire’ possesses a country-western like cool to it. The slinky bassline plus Ashcroft’s aloof vocal give off a Texan desert vibe as if a cowboy has just cantered past, leaving a sky filled with circling dust […]

New song: Eve Owen – She Says

At 14 I certainly did not have the presence of mind to realise how much I’d lucked out with my parents. Rather, I was beset by a sense of rebellion, convinced that every telling off was an outrageous injustice rather than a simple attempt to put me on the right path. Eve Owen, however, was […]

Album of the week: ings – Lullaby Rock

“What if I have got more love than I know what to do with?” Inge Chiles aka ings asks on ‘Kiss Your Heroes’. And the Seattle-based artist does appear to possess a deeper reservoir of love than most; for herself, for her friends, for her community, for humans at large. Indeed, ings even taps this […]

New song: Pet Crow – What We Doin’?

‘I feel seen’ would be an adequate, Twitter-friendly response to Pet Crow’s new single ‘What We Doin’?’ The Derby punks ask, ‘What are we doing?’  – a question that the band and listener alike can’t possibly respond to with a logical answer. Like, seriously what are we doing? Why are we on this planet? Why have […]

New song: Aoife Nessa Frances – Here in the Dark

‘Here In The Dark’, the second single from Aoife Nessa Frances’ forthcoming debut album ‘Land of No Junction’, is as catchy as it is ambitious. Stretching across five-and-a-half minutes, ‘Here In The Dark’ is centred around an infectious, forthright chorus. The instrumentation that surrounds the chorus, however, reveal Frances’ experimental leanings; psychedelic flourishes are at […]