Ever since Waxahatchee revved up her Ford pickup for 2020’s Saint Cloud, a wave of Americana folk has swept through indie rock. From “Elderberry Wine” to Geese, the current wave of indie stars have all taken their stabs at alt-country, and the genre was brought into the emo world this year on Home Is Where’s third record. The Florida natives were no stranger to the folksy sound—their breakthrough release, 2021’s “I Became Birds“, often leaned acoustic—but on “Hunting Season” they embrace full-band country without losing sight of their emo roots.
What makes it all work is Bea MacDonald’s voice—hear her nearly yodel on “black metal mormon,” only to then channel that raspy howl that originally put Home Is Where on the map on songs like “migration patterns” and “bike week.”
Home Is Whereis a renowned alt-emo band from Palm Coast, Florida. “Hunting Season” is their third full-length album. It is the much-anticipated follow up to 2023’s “The Whaler“, which received praise from Pitchfork, Paste, Stereogum, and more
Paired with the band’s heart-wrenching storytelling, the result is a moving and thoughtful mix of emo and country—and while those two genres are linked more often than you’d think, the blend sounds truly innovative on “Hunting Season”.
Home Is Where’s upcoming album, “Hunting Season“, out May 23rd.
The debut solo album from María Zardoya of the Marías seemingly presented some logistical challenges: Her main band is already basically named after her, and her voice is so unmistakable that it could be tricky to tell where one entity begins and the other ends. But none of the above is an issue for “Melt,” which is very distinctively Zardoya but channels the ‘90s trip-hop era of Portishead and Massive Attack, as well as adjacent groups like the underrated Broadcast.
Written and recorded in a frigid Upstate New York, the album’s sound often conjures visions of the snowscapes and overcast skies of a Northeastern winter. Yet it’s also filled with some of the strongest hooks in her discography: The opening track, “Puddles,” has a simple descending keyboard hook that evokes dripping water and is nearly impossible to get out of your head; the breezy, piano-driven “Moment” and the ballad “Back to You” are the most Marías-like songs here; the album also branches into tropicalia terrain on the Spanish-language track “Vueltas.” While “Melt” seems to be more of a side-journey from the Marías’ course than a new vehicle, it’s a diverse and compelling chapter in Zardoya’s creative work.
It was a simple idea; to create a festival out of all the brilliant music and art made all over the world, stuff made outside of the mainstream – music that wasn’t getting on the radio and was even harder to find in record stores… … the very first WOMAD Festival took place at the 240-acre Bath and West Showground,Somerset over the weekend of 16th–18th July, 1982. With the dream ‘not to sprinkle world music around a rock festival, but to prove that these great artists could be headliners in their own right’, the three days and five stages played host to 60 bands from over 20 countries; a line-up that included The Drummers of Burundi, Pigbag, Salsa de Hoy, Simple Minds, Musicians of the Nile, Echo and the Bunnymen, Prince Nico Mbarga, Rip, Rig and Panic, The Beat and many more…
“I remember this gig well,” says Peter Gabriel. “We played a mix of old and brand-new material. I would normally be very nervous about playing some of this stuff for the first time, however my mind was very preoccupied with the running of our very first WOMAD festival and the potential financial disaster that it was heading towards.
Because WOMAD was unique in its focus on music and art from around the world, and mixing it up with rock and jazz, no-one knew how many people might turn up and we had seriously overestimated our appeal. But those that had decided to check out WOMAD and its weird and wonderful line up were open-minded, bold and curious – a great audience.
It was a landmark and edgy gig for me both personally and musically and brings back lots of memories.”
Across the three days ‘an evening concert series’ took place in the Showering Pavilion on the festival site. On the Friday night that concert featured Tian Jin (a song and dance troupe from China), Simple Minds and, with a ‘special festival set of non-album material’, Peter Gabriel.
“Live at WOMAD 1982” is a recording of that Friday night concert. The non-album material in question are seven of the eight songs that would make up the album “Peter Gabriel 4“. An album that wouldn’t be released for a further two months.
On-stage, Peter is joined by David Rhodes (guitar), John Giblin (bass), Larry Fast (synthesisers). Jerry Marotta (drums), Peter Hammill (guitar, vocals) and “the wonderful Bristol-based drum and dance group,” Ekomé (drums, percussion).
“We wanted to show that wherever you were born, whatever colour or language, whatever religious or sexual persuasion, powerful passionate and joyful work would have a warm welcome in WOMAD.
At the beginning, most music industry professionals told us that we had no chance of making this dream work, we had all the wonderful naïve misguided optimism of the young, and were convinced that we would prove all the cynics wrong. However, at the end of the first festival, it was clear we had an artistic success, but not a financial one… but that’s for another story.”
Peter Gabriel’s “Live a WOMAD 1982” takes us back to not only the birth of a festival – one that has now hosted more than 160 editions in 27 countries – but also to the premiere of an album with songs, like “The Rhythm of the Heat”, “San Jacinto” and “Shock the Monkey“, that have become central to the Gabriel canon. More than just a live album, “Live at WOMAD 1982” is a pivotal moment, available now for the very first time.
David Rhodes (guitar) John Giblin (bass) Larry Fast (synthesisers) Jerry Marotta (drums) Peter Hammill (guitar, vocals) Ekomé (drums, percussion). Peter Gabriel (vocals, keyboards)
Recorded live on 16th July, 1982 in the Showering Pavilion at the Royal Bath and West Showground.
The UK art rock band get just a little more accessible (and embrace harpsichords) on their immersive third album, The world that Squid envision on third album “Cowards” looks a little bit like our own—but it’s just a little off. With songs inspired by books about cannibals and reflective of modern society’s seeming lack of self-awareness, it might just as easily be called Villains. But there’s an absurdity here that tints these vignettes in a strange light, bending reality just enough to put an even more absurd spin on human behaviour as they build some of their most dazzling musical arrangements around them. Ornate art-pop, minimalist-inspired new wave, buzzing post-punk and swirling psychedelia—it’s all part of Squid’s kaleidoscopic and twisted vision, perhaps a no less perilous world than the one we inhabit but frequently more interesting.
Squid hail from a London scene that tends to pride itself on musical complexity, but for their third album “Cowards“, guitarist Louis Borlase says “we were thinking of an album of great songwriting. Simple ideas that resonate in a very different way to “O Monolith”, which was dense and complex.” Right from the kaleidoscopic harpsichords that open the album, you can hear the difference. In trademark Squid fashion, “Cowards” still often sounds like a jam session between the Talking Heads, Slint, and King Crimson, but with a sweeter, lusher baroque pop side that suggests maybe some Zombies records were on their mood board this time too. It’s more accessible but still a twisty-turny journey, and it’s best moment is its eight-minute closing track, which builds and builds to the album’s most towering climax and then fades away.
Like the other key bands coming out of the scene that’s coalesced around the South London pub and music venue The Windmill, Squid’s used modern post-punk as a springboard to more experimental music, and on their third album they continue to delve further into sonically elaborate, textured art rock. That said, this one’s both more kinetic and frenetic than 2023’s “O Monolith“, and to my ears it’s also more consistently engaging. Highlights: “Cro-Magnon Man,” “Blood on the Boulders,” “Well Met (FingersThrough the Fence”
Squid frame “Cowards” as a series of “dark fairy tales” about cruelty and complicity, with songs that zoom in on specific characters and scenarios (including cult dynamics and cannibalism themes). The sound stays restless: knotty post-rock builds, sudden pivots, and vocals that lean into the grotesque to match the writing.
Critics liked how the album widens Squid’s scope while keeping their tension-heavy momentum intact
Written & Performed by Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, Anton Pearson Published by BMG
The debut single by Dove Ellis who is scheduled to open Geese’s North American tour dates sounds like he’s been here forever as “To the Sandals” unravels. The song, which is about “reflections on a failing shotgun marriage in Cancún,” and was mixed by the great Andrew Sarlo (Big Thief, Dijon), summons the ghosts of Radiohead and Black Country, New Road without depending on their styles for relevancy. He gravitates toward tonal contrasts; instruments collide until they coalesce. The guitar reminds me of David Gilmour’s on “Wot’s… Uh the Deal?” and Ellis’ vocal isn’t too far away from Thom Yorke’s, his decaying holler never raising itself above Fred Donlon-Mansbridge’s wilted saxophone.
With 30 seconds left to spare, the song takes a strident plunge, piecing corroded fragments of woodwind, acoustic guitar, rattling percussion, and Ellis’ now-distant vocal together with scotch tape. In his conclusion, Ellis delivers either a list of destinations or a collapsing salutation: “To the back teeth, to the front teeth, to the split tyres, to the penthouse, to the milk deal, to the wax seal, to the cracked heel, to the sandals.” Every song could sound like this and I’d still beg for a thousand more.
Dove Ellis arrives with a debut built around close-mic intimacy and slow-burn melodies that leave room for big emotional climaxes. Early reviews have focused on how fully formed the songwriting feels for a first full-length.
Since 2024, R.E.M. have reunited a couple of times, and Peter Buck has launched supergroups like the Silverlites and Drink The Sea. Now, he’s joining the Icicle Works’ Ian McNabb for a cover of R.E.M.’s Reckoning track “So. Central Rain.” “In the year just passed, I recorded some guitars on a version of ‘So. Central Rain’ by my friend Ian McNabb,” Buck wrote on R.E.M.’s website. “You might remember him from the Icicle Works. It’s a cool version. Hope this helps start the new year off well!”
The track – originally released as a single from R.E.M.’s second album ‘Reckoning’ in 1984 – came together last year and has now been shared by Buck on R.E.M.’s official website.
Superb version of the R.E.M. song from Ian Mcnabb’s forthcoming album ’65’
Peter Gabriel has announced a new album and shared the first taster from the record ‘Been Undone’.
“I’m delighted to say that tonight, at the full moon, we will be beginning another year of full moon releases under the name ‘o\i'” The release, which is the follow up to 2023’s ‘i/o’, will once again see him release a new song every time there is a full moon, with the full LP set to drop by the end of the year.
Each song on ‘o/i’ will come with “differing interpretations in the shape of Dark-Side and Bright-Side mixes”, according to a press release. The first single ‘Been Undone’ is a Dark-Side Mix by Tchad Blake,
Each track on the new album will be accompanied by a piece of art and ‘Been Undone’ is accompanied by Ciclotrama 156 (Palindrome) by São Paulo–based artist Janaina Mello Landini.
“The first artwork is a special piece from Janaina Mello Landini. The way she takes the rope and moves it out, unravelling it, is almost like fractals or tree trunks and looks like the brain in some ways too, so I see a lot of entry points,” said Gabriel.
“I am delighted that Janaina is willing to participate and be part of the process. We are using one of her existing images for this month to open the whole proceedings but I’m excited that she’s now going to create a piece, especially for the song. That always gives it a little more excitement from my end to see what’s going to come up. Please do check out her work.”
The track was written and produced by Gabriel and recorded at Real World Studios, Bath and The Beehive in London.
Of the album, he said: “I’m delighted to say that tonight, at the full moon, we will be beginning another year of full moon releases under the name ‘o\i’. The songs are a mix of thoughts and feelings.
“I have been thinking about the future and how we might respond to it. We are sliding into a period of transition like no other, most likely triggered in three waves; AI, quantum computing and the brain computer interface. Artists have a role to look into the mists and, when they catch sight of something, to hold up a mirror.”
Gabriel went on to say that “these are my lumpy bits – i/o: the inside has a new way out and o\i: the outside has a new way in”.
He added: “We are not, and have never been, the exclusively self-determining, independent beings that have been given the run of the world. We are something else, a part of nature, a part of everything and feeling a connection, shaking our booty and giving and receiving some love can help us find our place – and put a big smile on our faces.
“Some of these songs are going to form part of the brain project that I’ve been exploring for a number of years, and some just make me feel happy. I hope you like them.”
Perhaps the follow-up to Hotline TNT’s 2023 breakout “Cartwheel” wouldn’t sound so bright, anthemic, and grandiose – in other words, uninterested in sticking to stylistic trappings – had the lovely sentiments of its predecessor not been amplified by devotion and confidence, not to mention the dynamism of Will Anderson’s touring band joining him in the studio. After many months of the road, the frontman was eager to return to the familiar, for him, introverted process of making another album, but guitarist Lucky Hunter, bassist Haylen Trammel, drummer Mike Ralston, and producer Amos Pitsch convinced him otherwise. If nothing else, “Raspberry Moon” is evidence that at least sometimes, such a leap of trust – for the people in the songs no less than the ones making them pays off.
After writing and recording his first two Hotline TNT albums almost exclusively on his own, Will Anderson decided it was time to go bigger. “Raspberry Moon” is the first Hotline TNT album made as a full band, and that added personnel is evident in the record’s heavy-hitting blend of power-pop and shoegaze. Amid all the fuzz, however, Anderson’s vocals still come out on top as he recounts the highs and lows of being newly in love. It’s a massive-sounding album for overwhelming emotions, with plenty of catchy melodies to help shake out the nerves.
Will Anderson – Guitar, Vocals Lucky Hunter – Guitar Haylen Trammel – Bass Mike Ralston – Drums
Hotline TNT performing live in the KEXP studio. Recorded May 12th, 2025.
There’s nary a misstep to be heard on Messa’s fourth record and first studio effort in three years, “The Spin”. And, in another step of maturity and confidence, the Italian quartet ditched their Pallbearer-esque slow, heavy, chunk guitar sound from their previous full-lengths. The results are illuminating, in at least a few ways. For one, Messa’s compositions shine more brightly than ever before thanks to Alberto Piccolo’s and Marco Zanin’s shift to a more shoegazey guitar sound. For another, the band flaunting its ability to crafty catchy, metal-pop probably wasn’t too high on anyone’s bingo card.
Eleven years into their career, they achieve exactly that on “At Races” and penultimate track “Reveal,” which is the strongest song “The Spin” has to offer. The record also gives vocalist/percussionist Sara Bianchin more opportunities to showcase her expertise in singing without a lick of irony or pretense. Add in some intriguing passages pockmarked with synthesizers and horns, and what you have here is a great, if not perfect, record.
Armed with chorus pedals, gated drums, and a mood board that simply read “The Eighties,” the Italian band Messa made their masterpiece. “The Spin” isn’t great because it successfully emulates familiar sounds but because it finds Messa making those sounds their own. There’s bouncy post-punk, smoldering power balladry, and noirish dark jazz here to augment the fundamentally doom metal core, but it’s all processed through the singular machine that is Messa — four generationally talented musicians whose symbiotic closeness you can hear in every note.
Behold, the country-fried slow core album of your dreams! On “God’s Gonna Give You A Million Dollars”,Shallowater conjure the tumbleweed-strewn environs of their West Texas homeland in the form of patiently creeping pensive twang, but from time to time the gad-dang thing explodes like an improperly lit propane tank. The vibes are too dour to be described as immaculate, but you can just bask in this thing until it blows you away.
There’s a wonderful synthesis of sounds on this album – it’s solid from the start until the finish, overall an excellent album and I hope this one gives them some more hype!
Shallowater is possibly the best act in slowcore right now. Their debut was a great taste of the eventual magic that would appear here. The cohesion, the consistency, and oh my god that distorted guitar is absolute bliss! A truly marvelous record from one of the most promising talent around right now in the genre.
The Fat Angel Sings 