In this special feature, Georgia Shackleton tells the story behind “From the Floorboards” — an album marking 125 years since the launch of the Discovery, when her distant cousin, Sir Ernest Shackleton, set sail aboard her with Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Shaped by a violin crafted from the floorboards of Shackleton’s Edinburgh home, she traces the threads between Antarctic exploration, environmental reflection, and more.

Trippers & Askers new album, Tried to Do’s, is out May 8th via Sleepy Cat Records. Lead track Kin traces tangled threads of family and cultural inheritance in Jackson, Tennessee, setting the tone for Jay Hammond’s most personal album — an intimate song cycle exploring Buddhist and Christian ways of mourning, featuring Andy Stack (Wye Oak), Joe Westerlund, Stephanie Coleman, Joseph Decosimo and more.

Gregory Uhlmann’s ‘Extra Stars’ is a fluent and fluid album of thirteen brief, breezy, deceptively light tracks that flow over diverse territories while retaining their identity. An album obsessed with natural processes — some organic and cellular, others more cosmic — it showcases Uhlmann as guitarist, arranger, composer and improviser, his musical curiosity working in tandem with his expansive imagination.

I AM PROUD Collective — Angeline Morrison, Leonie Evans, Lizi Morse, Priscilla Andersohn and Rhiannon Takel — release their debut single I AM PROUD – in tribute to Sojourner Truth on 6th March, ahead of International Women’s Day. Drawing on Truth’s famous provocation “Ain’t I a Woman,” the Bristol-rooted supergroup has crafted a trans-inclusive folk anthem of solidarity and joy.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy’s “We Are Together Again” sees Will Oldham slip into folky singer-songwriter mode — sometimes confessional, sometimes gnomic, always intriguing. A conservative estimate suggests this is his thirty-first studio album, and while he still circles themes that have preoccupied him since his Palace Brothers days, he has become wider reaching and more approachable. This is some of his best work.

SUSS share Sunset II, the first single from their forthcoming album Counting Sunsets, due May 15th via Northern Spy. The track rides a more pronounced rhythmic pulse than much of their earlier work, stretching ambient Americana into subtly motorik terrain. Recorded in a condensed window and shaped by a year touring together, the album captures the trio at their most intuitive.

Zürich art-rock four-piece District Five have announced GLUT, due May 29 via Stone Pixel Records, and have shared the new single “Push” featuring Saul Williams. A politically unambiguous track, it arrives with an animated video by j4y depicting the fractured rhythms of a day in New York City. The album promises the band’s characteristically expansive, genre-resistant sound, captured live and raw.

Shakey Graves has announced new album Fondness, Etc., due May 15th via Secret Identity / Dualtone Records, alongside new single Time Flies — a lush cover of Frankie Sunswept’s wistful love song, adorned with strings arranged by David J. Pierce and a guitar solo from Zeke Jarmon. Captured on tape machines at home, the album is Graves’ most intimate work yet.

Jesca Hoop has shared Caravan, the latest single from her forthcoming album Long Wave Home, due 1st May via Last Laugh / Republic Of Music. Following the politically charged Designer Citizen, Caravan turns inward — a song of misplaced faith and vanishing promises, tracing the distance between romantic surrender and quiet devastation. An accompanying video was shot in and around Manchester.

Chris Brain has shared Big Hill, the second single from his forthcoming album Red Sun Rising, out May 1st via Big Sun Records. Inspired by a long-promised walk in the Yorkshire Dales and featuring guest vocals from Natalie Wildgoose, the track embodies Brain’s gift for finding quiet revelation in the unhurried and the ordinary — accompanied by a live performance video.

Katherine Priddy’s third album, These Frightening Machines, marks a bold shift in energy and intent. No longer anchored by the standard tools of her genre, Priddy moves between folk tenderness and fierce, pop-inflected urgency with rare confidence. From the powerful opener Matches to the devastating closer Could This Be Enough?, this is her most fully realised work to date.

Gum Bump’s syncopated grooves dance across the stereo spectrum in oozing fits before synthesizers erupt into heaps of magma — Setting crafting their own singular dynamic funk. Built on long exploratory sessions, Fennelly, Bowles and Westerlund have developed a shared syntax that transforms electric spontaneity into something more elaborate and impactful. Urgent and smouldering, patient and emotive: a thrilling statement.