
Caroline Polacheck’s is an adventurous pop star, and that’s always a good thing. She’s recently hit out at lazy comparisons to Bjork and Kate Bush, preferring to make music under her own steam, which is fair enough. She’s got a big voice and likes to be mildly awkward, which we say as a compliment of…

Hey! Do you like new music and, not just new music, but slightly difficult music that’s fun? Well, you should check outy Rob Mazurek’s Exploding Star Orchestra newbie, ‘Future Shaman’. Apply here if you like wonky jazz and post-rock. It’s discordant, good stuff. Mazurek is a composer/trumpeter and the Exploding Star Orchestra features Damon Locks…

We like a popstar making bold choices, and Sam Smith has been doing exactly that lately. It doesn’t matter whether you like the tunes or not, we should absolutely support a commercial artist when they lean into the experimental and off-kilter. Did you see them on SNL, with Sharon Stone draping themselves all over the…

It feels kinda shitty referring to a new artist as ‘Bjork’s daughter’, but needs must. Isadora Bjarkardottir Barney is her name, and she’s released her debut solo work as part of a comp showcasing Icelandic music. The comp is called ‘DRULLUMALL 4’ and Isadora’s track – ‘bergmál’ – is really good, you’ll be glad to…

The mighty Pet Shop Boys are all set to share some previously unreleased songs in April. It’s all part of a new thing they’re doing and that new thing is a book called ‘Annually’. The 2023 edition of the yearly release (hence the name) will be a 64-page hardback affair, containing journals, photos from their…

You can try and be as clever as you want, deep diving on this, that, and the other… but sometimes it’s just worth reminding yourself how great a band were. From Detroit, America’s greatest music city, Inner City was the brainchild of the great Kevin Saunderson and Paris Grey. Saunderson of course, was one of…

Light In The Attic have been doing a wonderful job giving Lee Hazelwood’s back catalogue a spring clean, and they’re at it again, this time with ‘Nancy & Lee Again’, now available to pre-order on vinyl and, even better, 8-track! It’ll be streaming too, if you’re not in the habit of buying stuff. It’ll be…

Some people are already all over this, some are not – but Eddie Chacon was in Charles & Eddie (‘Would I Lie To You?’ ohyeah!) and he’s been releasing really, really brilliant music lately. Like, utterly fantastic AOR/Future Soul/NuYacht brilliance on Stones Throw Records. No lie. With the 2020 album ‘Pleasure, Joy And Happiness’, he…

Chet Baker’s gentle jazz has endured all these years because it still sounds so cool, so smart, and a melancholy salve in chaotic times. With that, we’d like to share this clip from 1964, where Baker and his band offer a superb reading of ‘Time After Time’. You’ll notice Chet has a prominent tooth missing.…

Magdalena Bay’s ‘Imaginal Disk’ taught po-faced indie kids that pop music was cool again, and mercifully, the album was an absolute treat for anyone who listened to it, existing pop fan or otherwise. Great news then, that the duo are back with a brace of new songs. The first is called ‘Second Sleep’, the second…

Forget the comebacks of Blur, Suede, Oasis et al – the greatest rock group of the ’90s (and beyond) are coming back – it’s SUPER FURRY ANIMAL TIME! There’s going to be gigs and fizzy solos, head-melting synths and everything you love about SFA! There’ll also be a reissue of Love Kraft too, which is…

Hannah Jadagu’s a new name to us, but is signed to Sub Pop, which is usually a sign of quality enough to be checking out. Hannah has a new LP coming out soon called ‘Describe’, and you can hear a great new song from it called ‘Gimme Time’, which is an ear-wormy, synthy, soulful thing…
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