Approximately a year ago, Sam Valdez quietly launched her career, introducing herself with two dazzling singles – “Hours” and “Don’t Want To Be Yours Anymore”. Comparisons to Angel Olsen, The War On Drugs, and Hope Sandoval were inevitable and unsurprising since they are three of her influences. She is not, however, an imitator nor a follower, but rather she […]

Describing herself as a Birmingham-native but based out of London, Rookes is the indie-pop project of Jenny Bulcraig. In development since October 2016, the debut EP The Game & The River provides a worthy showcase for her talent. Opening the EP with a folk-pop feel, title track “The Game & The River” gives a sweet, slightly angry exploration of emotion. […]

Distant Star EP by Spielbergs “Have you recently had a close encounter… A close encounter with something very unusual?”, David Laughlin asks Roy Neary in Steven Spielberg’s classic, Close Encounters of a Third Kind. The film questioned whether we were alone in the universe and whether we could believe in “anomalies”. In a similar fashion, Spielbergs are asking us if we still believe in […]

Since the days of Chaucer to contemporary literature, film, and television, a story is often told in three acts. The first is the exposition, which introduces us to the characters and the challenges before them. The second is the “rising action” or for simplicity purposes the main events of the plot. Finally, the resolution – or climax and the denouement […]

There’s a trend for producers to come out from behind the mixing desk and into the spotlight. It’s gathering pace with the emergence of Thirteen Mile, the music brand of Manchester-based producer and songwriter David JL. Thirteen Mile’s debut EP, Don’t Stop Never Stop, is a collaboration with vocalist Tristan Henry, another studio man whose session vocals have appeared in […]

 Some bands make you go “wow” with their music. Then there are those make you exclaim “Hell yeah!” or “F*ck yeah!” with each release. Southampton / Portsmouth outfit Melt Dunes fall under the latter category. However, they do it in a fashion that goes against the norm. Instead of blasting anthemic rockers that get the endorphins bursting, they hammer […]

We’ve had Lorna Dea picked out as one to watch for some time now. Her Motown-influenced, pure-pop style delivered bubbly up-beat girl-power in her 2016 debut EP, Little Spark, and her collaboration with Jack in a Box “Got To Have You” showed an unexpected, quirky side to her work. If we saw the promise of her talent, it’s not surprising […]

With their 18th month birthday approaching this weekend, Me Not You, the project started by Nikki Taylor and Eric Zeiler, have developed into one of the best indie success stories in recent memory. Their debut single, “Bulletproof”, became a viral hit with nearly 5 million streams on YouTube and counting. Since that momentous day, they’ve played to sold-out venues across […]

Achieving chart success with a debut EP is remarkable. Getting there again with a sophomore release can be trickier. Often the best material, honed over years of writing and playing live, gets consumed by the debut. Tazmin Barnes‘ new EP, Powerful, avoids the sophomore trap. Four distinctive yet unapologetically pop tracks display her vocal energy alongside mature songwriting. It’s not […]

Kadija Kamara is an unlikely, fast-rising music star. Having won an MTV Iggy Artist of the Week poll and been featured by fashion house Fendi, the expectation is that she’s just another pop singer, electronic producer, or hip hop artist on the over-saturated top-40 train. She is none of these things. Instead, she’s completely retro, fusing ’60s and ’70s psychedelia […]

 The name Quicksilver Daydream evokes images of horse-drawn caravans crossing the vast deserts of the southwest USA in search for riches and a new life. These are the days when the horizon stretched for miles and uninterrupted by the resident cacti, rattlers, coyotes, and hares. The arid lands, however, have a mystique to them. They are filled with mystery […]

For anyone who has followed the five Brightonions who call themselves White Room for the past two years already know they are one of the most promising and underrated psychedelic bands around. While fellow Brits Temples helped usher in a new wave of neo-psychedelia, Jake Smallwood (vocals/synths), Jacob Newman (guitar), Tristan Sava (guitar/keys), Josie McNamara (bass), and Hen Sava (drums) […]

Fancy a bit of hip-hop influenced electro gorgeousness? Meet Bousada, a producer and singer/songwriter who creates everything himself in a little room in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. He gets out of the little room occasionally too, performing live with a loop machine, blurring the line between DJ and performer by playing, singing, and sequencing on the spot. Shake is Bousada’s […]

Dreams, so we’ve been told, only occur while we sleep in our bedrooms. For No Vacation, the bedroom is where everything started, and now they’re living their dreams. The guitar-pop quintet have in a short period achieved a cult status within the indie community, leading them to move from their hometown of San Francisco to the music mecca of Brooklyn. […]

Courage is often associated with physical strength and daring feats. It can, however, be displayed in many other ways, such as persevering through fear, danger, or difficulty, or revealing your naked self for the world to see, hear, and critique. For Kat Leon – née Katherine Pawlak – her courage is revealed on the debut EP from her new project, Holy […]

Few artists today can consistently and simultaneously devastate and challenge listeners. These artists’ stories elicit such strong emotions that after the songs end you need to collect yourself. PJ Harvey, Angel Olsen, Feist, Sharon Van Etten, TORRES, and Julien Baker are just some of the examples. Miya Folick is another one. While she has yet to achieve the fame of […]

Jazz and blues are the ideal genres to enjoy with a glass of wine or smoky whiskey. They are genres that naturally calm the nerves and ease the soul. Every so often, however, a band within the indie scene arrives and challenges this perception of the perfect pairing. Challenge is probably the incorrect word but rather a band that expands […]

Aural Air, a.k.a. Dublin-based singer-songwriter Laura Rai, is a recent arrival on the indie scene. Although she’s been playing music for several years, Laura has only recently started releasing it to the world and spent the past year playing a number of live shows while releasing a couple of well-received singles. Her debut EP, The Torpor of Minds, drops in […]

The highly anticipated sophomore offering from Helen Connelly arrives next week – 25th October to be exact. Garden of Kisses, the follow-up to her acclaimed debut, Life Love and Lyricality, is a four-track EP heralded by the signature single, “Do You Remember”, that we previewed here back in June. It marks a maturing in Connelly’s style, melding together a selection of collaborations […]

After bursting onto the scene in 2016, YONAKA immediately became one of the UK’s buzziest bands. Comparisons to Wolf Alice were inevitable with their combination of gritty, explosive indie rock and foreboding storytelling. Not surprisingly, Atlantic Records UK quickly signed the Brighton-based quartet, further fueling expectations that a record was on the way. Finally, YONAKA’s first EP arrived on Friday, and […]