“Still Coming Down” is Wild Pink’s sixth studio album, and their most refined offering to-date. Continuing along the shredded and steely path forged by 2024’s “Dulling The Horns” — named one of the year’s best albums by Vogue, Consequence, Paste and more — “Still Coming Down” doubles down on Wild Pink’s “proper Rock” (Stereogum, Best Albums of 2024) and sticks every landing. “Dulling The Horns” saw Wild Pink reach new levels of critical acclaim and live success, performing alongside the likes of indie torchbearers Dr. Dog, Crumb, and MJ Lenderman (who lends his guitar skills on Still Coming Down). “Still Coming Down” finishes out the ride of those highs, settling into a life on the road and reflecting these experiences across a warped and encyclopedic vision of America.
Led by JohnRoss, “one of the best lyricists in indie music” (The Guardian), Wild Pink hunkered down in Asheville’s storied Drop of Sun Studios to record “Still Coming Down” with virtuosic producer Alex Farrar (Bnny, Wednesday, Samia). At once strange and familiar, Wild Pink’s “Still Coming Down” is a product of modern times that only John Ross could pen.
Critically acclaimed US musician Greg Freeman returns with his third album, “All Set The Bone”. Freeman was barely done making his breakthrough album, “Burnover“, which was released to wide acclaim and landed in The New York Times Best Albums of 2025 list and received the coveted ‘Best New Album’ distinction from Pitchfork, when he started writing its successor.
On “All Set The Bone”, he embraces friction instead of refusing it, using scant rehearsal times and urgent, self-appointed deadlines to fill his third album with ambitious whims: smile-stretching guitar scorchers, cosmic percussive surges, near-baroque piano riffs, psych-rock noodles, brass cutouts, and enough key changes to build an unsolvable musical maze.
“All Set The Bone” was finished quickly, in a real Hollywood studio with one of rock’s best modern architects, John Congleton, and with minimal separation between idea and outcome.
For Freeman, uncertainty has become his wealthiest currency. “It should never feel comfortable,” he says. “Every album should scare you.”
Very pleased to announce our 6th studio album “Gilding the Lily” will be released on 20th November on Fierce Panda Records.
Lead single “Terrible Years” is out now , Following a career that has quietly established them as one of Britain’s most consistently acclaimed independent guitar bands, London quartet Desperate Journalist return with their highly anticipated new album, “Gilding the Lily”.
Across five critically celebrated studio albums, Desperate Journalist have earned a devoted following through their distinctive blend of shimmering indie rock, post-punk intensity and soaring, emotionally resonant songwriting. Their previous releases have drawn comparisons with artists such as The Cure, The Smiths and The Chameleons while carving out a sound that remains unmistakably their own.
With their sixth studio album “Gilding the Lily“, the band continues the evolution that has made them one of the UK’s most respected alternative acts, far from taking their foot off the presidential gas, it catches Desperate Journalist in caustically creative mode, pushing on with their fizzing formula of powering guitar and glowering words.
Fronted by the unmistakable voice of Jo Bevan, powered by Rob Hardy’s instantly recognisable guitar work and the tightly locked rhythm section made up of Simon Drowner and Caz Helbert the album showcases the confidence and maturity of a band operating at the height of their creative powers.
‘Terrible Years’ is the 1st single taken from the forthcoming LP ‘Gilding The Lily’, out 20th November 2026 on Fierce Panda Records.
Cameron Winter’s Live at Carnegie Hall documents the Geese frontman’s historic December 2025 performance. Alone at the piano, he reshapes songs from his acclaimed debut “Heavy Metal” and debuts three previously unreleased compositions. There is an undeniable sense of occasion running through the performance, capturing the momentous feeling of witnessing an artist stepping into the spotlight in real time. The release preserves one unforgettable night while cementing Winter’s emergence as one of the defining voices of his generation, with the sense that this is only the beginning.
Winter became one of the youngest solo artists to headline in the historic concert hall’s main auditorium. During that performance, Benny Safdie and Paul Thomas Anderson were also spotted filming the musician for an as-of-yet unannounced mystery project.
Nine songs on the album had previously been released on Winter’s EP “Singles” and debut studio album “Heavy Metal“, both released in 2024.
The album is set to be released on October 9th, 2026 by Partisan Records. A concert film of the performance was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Portions of the concert were filmed using a Panavision 35mm camera.
Adrianne Lenker has wasted no time telling 2,400 Big Thief fans that this was not, in fact, the show they expected to see. “We have a special night for you,” she said as Big Thief took seats around a large wooden table onstage, then quipped: “If you had hopes of hearing songs you know, those can be discarded.”
Instead, Lenker matter-of-factly explained that Big Thief had convened in Nashville in May to record a triple album called “Horsepower“. She didn’t divulge any release details, but suddenly the weekend’s shows at Nashville’s hallowed Ryman Auditorium were something else entirely: The band and various guests playing through the whole 29-song album, in a sprawling three-hour show, filmed for future release. it’s a triple album. During the 29-song set, the indie folk trio were joined on certain numbers by renowned Americana artists, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, and Iris DeMent, all of whom joined the trio onstage. Welch joined the band for nine songs and DeMent sat in on 12 tunes. Williams took the stage for one song during the encore.
They were joined by the wider band who they made it with: Russ Pahl and Greg Leisz on pedal steel and guitar, and Hannah Read, Richard Bowden, and Zosha Warpeha on fiddle.
Many of the tracks across the set list have been kicking around the group or Lenker’s live sets for years. Two of the songs—“Carry,” and “Space and Time”—the band debuted back in May during a session in a field for Belgium’s Radio 1.
Big Thief at the Ryman Auditorium Set List 2026:
Horsepower Baby Honey Sweetheart Darlin’ Wait a While Space and Time 21 Casual Touch Muscle Memory Highway Stay Carry Sadness as a Gift True Love Where Will We Go Beautiful World Faker Loneliest Boy Happiness Oldest Bright Future Beautiful Powerful Avalanche, Hurricane Snail Spatchcock Chickenshit Bingo Trade Tomorrow 6-7-8-9 She’s Fine These Are the Days No Matter What Born For Loving You Gift Pleasure Joy
There’s a wonderful lived-in quality to Manchester four-piece Westside Cowboy’s “It Goes On“, a rare feat for a debut. Sure, the alt-rockers are following a well-trod lineage, working with Geese producer Loren Humphrey and proving the influence of Pavement and the Pixies is alive and well. But that natural-fade feel is more indebted to the band’s chemistry and comfortability, which makes their spin on some of the best-loved tricks in the book—deadpan delivery, big drum fills, driving single-chord riffs—sound original nonetheless.
In an age of algorithms, Westside Cowboy are pure-spirited proof of the magic that can only come from human connection. Just three years on from forming in Manchester, starting a band for the fun of it without so much as a plan to even play a gig, the quartet have crafted perhaps the year’s most exciting debut by simply figuring out what feels good, and following it into the horizon. There’s an urgency of feeling to “It Goes On” that could only ever really happen with a young group’s debut record
There’s a major key, triumphant sound to some music – like the first Arcade Fire album, or ‘Someone Great’ by LCD Soundsystem – where there’s a persistence that’s contemporary and energetic, but also a simplicity.
Our debut LP is called “It Goes On” and it will be released on Island Records on 21st August. It is 35 and a half minutes long and has 11 songs.
The prolific Australian band King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have returned with their 28th album in fourteen years, “Alien Metal”, which serves as an amalgamation of their recent live electronic experimentation. Since 2024, the group has been extensive live jams with a massive, Eurorack-incorporated synthesizer setup that they have dubbed “Nathan”.
Their Nathan obsession spawned tons of “Rave Shows” in 2025, and more recently, you could spot bandleader Stu Mackenzie performing free, improvised solo electronic sets in Melbourne. After many scrapped attempts at a new Nathan-centric studio LP, the group found success with a locked-in, hour-long synth session between bandmates Joey Walker and Stu Mackenzie in the key of F# that clocked in at 143 BPM. From there, the group sculpted and fleshed out the material that went on to become “Alien Metal”.
The result is an intense mix of thrilling and occasionally ambient electronic music that showcases the band confidently tearing through numerous, rave-y, electronic subgenres. The group leans heavily into sonic world building– “Alien Metal” is a committed effort that combines cinematic and atmospheric touches with more hard-edged and muscular moments. The group has come a long way with many elements of their electronic music, as much of their new chops feel like a quantum leap from the ambience of “Amanesis” from “Chunky Shrapnel“, their brief electronic excursions of “Made In Timeland”, the synth-pop of 2021’s “Butterfly 3000” and their recent synth-led effort, 2023’s “The Silver Cord”. “Alien Metal” resembles the dark and experimental corner of the band’s discography, while occasionally incorporating moments of euphoric bliss that breaks up the heaviness.
Frequently on “Alien Metal” the band ditches the song structures that define a large chunk of their work. Nathan takes center stage for full focus, while vocals stay more sparse, cryptic and thematic. The band’s voices have morphed unrecognizably into the machine, as the vocoded and pitch-shifted vocals sound robotic and alien. Ultimately, it fits well within the thematic backdrop of their cosmic electronic music. The group opts to ride a wave of abrasive synths, large cinematic rises and satisfying drops that often aim to send your adrenaline from level 5 to 100.
Despite the record often flaunting King Gizzard as you’ve never heard them on a studio album, it’s a psychedelic experience that has tons of Gizzard flair: it yields seamless transitions, exotic scales and robo-sci-fi lore to add to the band’s “Gizzverse”. In a purely King Gizzard fashion, the record is also a Möbius strip of pumping electronic music that transitions seamlessly and loops right back into track 1.
“Sapience” kicks the party off immediately with bouncy electronic drums and a pulsating techno vibe. It slips you into a trance while brash, metallic percussion brings some otherworldly energy. It launches into dazzling minor-key synth leads and E-cymbals that que a hard drop into a 90’s pump-up jam, which ramps up excellently into the title track.
“Alien Metal” is a highlight that opens with vocoded lyrics with a pure KGLW flair: “Fall asleep, under the stars / summer breeze laced with PCP”. The track builds until truly setting sail at 2:40 with a hard segment that could easily soundtrack the blood-rave scene in Wesley Snipes’ Blade. Immediately after, a phrygian-dominant scale jam blasts in with synth leads darting around like mad; it’s moments like this that make “Alien Metal” thrilling, and characteristically Gizzard. The “metal” part of the album title starts to sing when cymbals crash aggressively among ripping synth arpeggios and robotic vocals that declare transformation and rebirth. Cinematic vocals pads expertly build suspense, and aggressive bass-synths charge brutally through the channels to take this abrasive cut through the stratosphere.
“Super Heavy, Super Critical” flaunts a chopped-up vocal sample that feels closer to a euphoric cut by bandmember Joey Walker’s project Bullant, rather than the robotic sci-fi approach found on the rest of “Alien Metal” It takes the dark tone from outer space back down to earth for something more upbeat. The second half cooks hard while touching on some groovy synths that recall 90’s house. You may feel like you’re at some killer party in Miami as opposed to the mothership, but it’s a dance party nonetheless. The uneasy, haunting synth progression that glistens over the top of the outro sets the tone perfectly for the next potent stretch.
“Kill For the Steel” is an eerie highlight that opens ominously with an evil Daft-Punk-esque vocoder that warns: “We don’t wish death, but we will kill for the steel”. A bone-chilling segment drops that sounds like a demonic robot simultaneously sneezing and hiccuping, until it’s followed by a barrage of chaotic, ass-shaking percussion. Is it insanely odd? Yes. Is it insanely awesome? Absolutely. Melancholic icy synths soar over the track, and zany percussion segments raise the hype. It all serves as the perfect launching pad for their ripsnorter of a lead single, “Level 5”.
“Level 5” immediately feels like an explosion and kickass conclusion to the tension built in the opening half of the record. This early Prodigy-style banger details themes of autonomy and machinic revolution. It boasts some quaking, distorted bass-synths and machine gun-fire breakbeats that are absolutely killer. Peep the video below, which covers “Alien Metal” sci-fi-horror themes in a freakish, iconic way.
“Rapid Alpha Decay” leads with airy synths and shimmering string sounds that create a mystical vibe and a breakthrough moment. A warped vocoder vocal declares: “Pump my body full with lead / Feel it run through metallic / Jumpstart my heart – static / Transcend through the rapid”. It’s one of the most out-there cuts; it leans hard into atmosphere, themes and texture, while providing one of the most psychedelic synth blasts on the entire record.
“Uqt” is a highlight which flaunts a catchy, high-pitched falsetto hook that is one of the few moments that even slightly resembles Ambrose Kenny-Smith. A vocoder verse leads with Frankenstein-esque drama : “Electroshock therapy / They wanna cut me open and take a peak / Then out come the clipboards as they study me / Temple to temple, volts 120 /No anaesthesia and no pain relief”.
This track boasts a metal-sounding motif that would have fit nicely as a sludgy riff on something like PetroDragonic Apocalypse’s “Motor Spirit”. The juxtaposition of the sugary vocals and heavy arrangements results in an infectious combo, and the track interestingly unfolds into a space-opera vocoder moment before ravey synths wobble skyward.
“Atomic Collapse” is a 6.5 minute, trippy instrumental freak-out with a build that resembles the cold atmosphere of “Kill For The Steel”. The track weaves through exotic and dark scales while electronic drums skitter furiously. Laser-beam synth blasts pick up the intensity until it all glides into an atmospheric sea of pillowy synths for the last minute. Its final seconds sound like a robot powering down, but if you let it loop seamlessly into track 1, it may as well be the sound of “Alien Metal” rebooting for another ride around the galaxy.
“Alien Metal” is a dark, interstellar rip-ride that yields many strengths of the band’s ambitious electronic experimentation and their penchant for sci-fi. Fans of the band’s “rave shows” should have much to love, as it’s a tightly-wound and carefully crafted take on those recent endeavours. “Alien Metal” totally goes hard in its biggest moments, and in-between, tension is delivered accordingly. It’s very satisfying to hear the band find an interesting arrival point for this experimentation after their extended dedication to the “Nathan” format. The band’s ability to be reductive and strip away sounds to build up to thrilling moments is a consistent strength through this bizarre trip of a record.“Alien Metal” cinematic flair is also quite otherworldly (someone please hire these mad lads for some epic Sci-fi movie soundtrack already…)
Like many Gizzard projects, their new record is best enjoyed front to back as a non-stop experience that plays out like a movie. But if you separate the “Alien Metal” songs out of their album context, it does the tunes even more injustice than much of the band’s older work. Track pairings like “Sapience” into “Alien Metal”, or “Kill For The Steel” into “Level 5” thrive on their shared anticipation, build and payoff in grand ways. Many tracks set the stage for big moments and work in tandem; it feels sacrilege to listen to tracks individually once you have the full picture. The full immersive trip plays out like one massive, morphing song.
As with many ambitious King Gizzard albums, there’s a few divisive elements that may take some warming to: the sparse, campy robotic vocals and heavy instrumental focus could seem slight at first to fans who might be craving something much more hooky and tuneful. 2023’s “The Silver Cord feels like a synth-rock singalong record in comparison to “Alien Metal” more concept-driven vocal moments and it’s instrumentally focused, sci-fi wig-outs. But ultimately, divisiveness and the band’s wide range has never been a means for concern, because one of the most fun parts of being a King Gizzard fan is witnessing how the group can succeed with vastly different approaches and sounds. “Alien Metal” takes a bold leap into the deep end of something freaky, transformative and often impressive . It’s clear that much of this LP is designed as a dark dance party for their fans to vibe out to, rather than to recite. It’s also very clearly penned by its authors, who have consistently utilized similar themes of futuristic doom and delightfully campy sci-fi in their records such as “Murder of the Universe” or “The Silver Cord”.
King Gizzard leans confidently into multiple electronic sub-genres on “Alien Metal” with unique style and notable effort, and they make their own mark with qualities that are undoubtedly their own. The liner notes claim that “Alien Metal” was “recorded in the future by aliens”….perhaps it’s up to the listener to catch up to this beautifully bizarre and bold new universe.
Big indie energy from ‘Range Life’-loving MancuniansWestside Cowboys from:Manchester, UK A band For fans of: Pavement, Happyness, British bands enthralled by American cultural ephemera are nothing new, and Westside Cowboy – signed to Nice Swan Records, the former label of English Teacher and Sprints – are just one of the new acts heralding a gloriously ramshackle new era of ’90s-styled slacker rock.
Cue the impossibly long song titles and whimsical parentheticals – they call it ‘Britainicana’ and really, who are we to argue?
‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’ by Westside Cowboy. Out now on Nice Swan Records.
The genre-blending Californian artist casts off past toxic influences with a powerful set of tender, brooding and emotionally charged songs that wouldn’t feel out of place as festival anthems.
When Chelsea Wolfe was interviewed in 2015 about her fourth album, “Abyss“, she revealed that her music had been informed by the bouts of sleep paralysis she’d suffered from since childhood. The condition – a transitional state between being awake and asleep – affects sufferers in different ways. Some wake up feeling paralysed, others see ghosts or demonic figures. For the California-born singer-songwriter, it meant “waking up, and you can move your body and your eyes are open, but there are figures and people from your dreams still present in your room”.
No surprise, then, that her music – a blend of drone, alt, folk, industrial and doom metal – had ended up so spookily unsettling. She appeared on album covers with pupil-less eyes, spoke in interviews about “following the path of witchcraft” and even covered Norwegian black metal act and convicted arsonist/murderer Burzum. She did have a sense of humour about it all, however, telling one interviewer, with a chuckle: “It’s not party music.” Since then, though, much has changed. Wolfe left Los Angeles for the mountains above the city – where she’s finally been able to enjoy a good night’s sleep. Sobriety since 2021 has also brought what she calls “a new clarity”. Both developments inform “The Dark“.
The sublime opener “Cold” is again driven by lack of sleep, but for entirely different reasons as she taps into the insomnia that can result from a fracturing relationship. “Baby, when I’m next to you / Feels so cold / And it’s hard to sleep / And it’s hard to feel so alone,” she sings, dramatically ending up feeling as if she is “crying underwater / Screaming at the surface”. With its strummed folk beginning, brushed drums and layers of piano and acoustic guitars, the yearning gothic ballad is closer to, say, Annie Lennox than Ethel Cain and sets the scene for this much more accessible ninth album which channels her darker urges into something more universal.
After 2024’s largely electronic, David Sitek-produced “She Reaches Out to She Reaches Out” to “She”,Wolfe felt as if she was continually returning to “a version of my old self”. So The Dark turns to Grammy-winning producer/co-writer Jennifer Decilveo, whose credits include Hozier and Miley Cyrus, and returns to a core of guitar, bass and drums (alongside longtime collaborator Ben Chisholm). Drone and doom metal has almost entirely made way for brooding bass lines, wailing guitars, dramatic dynamic shifts and subtle orchestrations. The dreamier, more gothic tracks recall Evanescence or, on Swallower, the Cure, while Wolfe’s haunting vocals literally span the spectrum from a whisper to a scream – or, on the driving, windswept “Seethe”, a blood-curdling howl.
Her ethereal singing suggests, of all things, Cocteau Twins’ Elizabeth Fraser fronting the Sisters of Mercy.
Now 42, the singer has talked about how “The Dark” has been driven by “letting go … being in my early 40s as a woman, growing older and wanting to be who I am now”. This process has involved letting go of old behaviours and toxic relationships as well as her old music, which has driven some emotionally powerful songs.
In the beautifully sad “I’m Not There“, she tells someone: “It’s too late, we’re already strangers,” a sentiment which recalls Carole King’s It’s Too Late. In the slightly Lana Del Rey-ish Halo, she directly quotes Martha and the Vandellas – “Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide” – another unexpected reference point from an artist with Wolfe’s history.
Wolfe subsequently disowned her more conventionally singer-songwriter self-released 2006 debut “Mistake In Parting” as a “shitty breakup album”, but seems to be reacquainting with classic songcraft as well as allowing herself more warmth and introspection. The folky title track is a beautifully observed “love letter” to the comfort of the black (“Our love glows in darkness / In a world that feels so heartless”) which builds to a finale featuring Warpaint drummer Stella Mozgawa and former Nine Inch Nails bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen.
“Death Is Not The End” not the Bob Dylan song – is a tender largely acoustic folk rumination on the afterlife. Wolfe gently whispers “I’ll see you again” as one might over a dearly departed’s coffin, before Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck lets fly with guttural, chilling noise. “Dancer in the Sky” is the closest Wolfe has come to an epic, anthemic love song, with an exquisite arrangement and a chorus made for people to sing along. In fact, a lot of these songs wouldn’t sound incongruous being performed before huge crowds holding phones or lighters in the air. Wolfe recently became the unlikely face of a perfume range (Ghosts, obviously) and is clearly edging towards to the mainstream, but after two decades at the culty coal face this powerful, mature collection should take her to a wider audience.
There’s no shortage of bands lionizing the past, There’s little softness in the mix, and even fewer psychedelics on Introducing… The Gnomes. The band captures the pre-Summer of Love explosion from suit-matched manners to winking hijinks that slipped fuzztone into the living room and onto the family stereo. The band skews closer to the haggard heat of the garage beat — pre-concept-era Kinks, The Animals at their most un-coiffed, or The Guess Who in their shaggy early years. The Gnomes succeed best when they suture the softness to the scorch, lacing deceptively sweet harmonies over the amp-fried din of “I Like It,” or the power pop of “I’m Not The One.” The band’s debut is a record dipped in a love for classic aesthetics, but infused with the ragged youth, and unapologetic zeal that always made garage pop vital.
Although they emerged from Melbourne bayside outer suburbs onto the local live scene with their fresh and spirited indie-rock update of the garage-beat sounds of The Easybeats, Kinks and early Beatles only a year or so ago, Gnomes actually started out as a bedroom solo project for teenaged singer/songwriter/ guitarist Jay Millar a few years back. Jay, playing everything himself, started recording and releasing a steady succession of material – quite a few albums’ worth – on his own Goblin Records label via Bandcamp.
Realizing he needed a band to start playing out, Jay approached some like minded players from Frankston’s rehearsal hub Singing Bird, and with Jay on lead vocals and lead guitar, Ned Capp on guitar, Olly Katsianis on bass, and Ethan Robins on drums, Gnomes became a band.
Early in 2025, the last solo Jay recordings released under the Gnome name caused something of an international underground sensation when the Bandcamp only I Like It EP – four songs of kranked up Kinks-style mono riffage – was posted by a Spanish garage-punk YouTube page and quickly clocked up over 50,000 views.
At the same time, the band quickly began gaining attention on the thriving Recent single “Magic Man” conjured a thrilling conflation of The Monkees’ Pleasant Valley Sunday.
And now, finally, we have The Gnomes’ debut album. Twelve killer tracks that combine the best of the ’60s with the best of today. Twelve killer tracks that show off assertive and accomplished songwriting, singing and playing and an explosive and authentic swinging group sound. Twelve killers slices of raw rock’n’roll running the gamut from the savage Rhythm and Blues of “Play With You” and “Better With You” to the vibrant beat pop of “I’ll Be There” and “I’m Not The One”, with forays into the heavy reverb psych of “Stung”, the Cavern/Star Club stylings of “Flippin’ Stomp” and the first flyte jangle of “Time Will Tell” along the way. There’s more of course, including a new version of that Kinks-style kranker “I Like It” for good measure.
The Gnomes now have the same US booking agent as prolific psychedelic Aussies King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard.
“We’ve heard how, in their early touring days, Gizzard would happily rough it,” says Robins. “They’d book one hotel room and have six people on the floor in sleeping bags. We’re ready for that. Bring it on!”
The Fat Angel Sings 