The Latest
Hen Ogledd (ft. Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington) have shared the video for “Scales will fall,” their urgent and striking first single from their forthcoming new album DISCOMBOBULATED. Vocalist Dawn Bothwell delivers her “Bard rap,” alluding to protest history—from the women at Greenham Common to the Durham Miners’ Gala—and contemporary organising against corporate greed.
Lisa O’Neill releases her new 6-track EP today, The Wind Doesn’t Blow This Far Right. The collection features her cover of Bob Dylan’s ‘All the Tired Horses’ as well as a “stunning version” of ‘The Bleak Midwinter’, which is accompanied by a video directed by Ellius Grace. O’Neill shares that the seasonal classic reminds her: “In the bleakest of circumstances, love is a beacon.”
Brighton trio Plantoid shares “Good For You,” the second single from their eagerly awaited album, FLARE, out January 30th via Bella Union. The emotive track evolves over six serpentine minutes, reflecting the band’s progressive roots while pushing their signature sound towards new horizons like shoegaze. The song is a journey of rebirth, learning to create space for your feelings, and trying to feel good about it.
On her sixth solo album, Unfolding, Jessica Moss dives deep into drone and longform ambient soundscapes. The album is a journey through intense emotional abstraction—from the serendipitous “Washing Machine” to the beautiful, nightmarish “One, Now.” Moss then uses clashing textures to craft an explicitly political work inspired by Palestine before concluding with a stunning, multitracked hymn to hope, a quite stunning way to end an accomplished and highly relevant album.
Damien Jurado’s Private Hospital arrives as a unique book and download package, concluding his “Reggae Film Star” pentalogy. The combination of song lyrics and photo essay (Jurado is an avid collector of ‘found photos’) is abstract but powerful, creating a sense of wistfulness, melancholy or the uncanny. It is a cinematic, poetic collection that starts like a dream but reveals deep emotional resonance upon repeated listens.
Following the Broadside Hacks tour, London-via-Michigan songwriter Spitzer Space Telescope unveils the video for ‘Veritas’. A direct, banjo-picked folk ballad, the track uses the story of Galileo as an allegory for pandemic-era anti-science rhetoric. The single precedes this Friday’s release of Spitzer Space Telescope III.
Leicester-based artist Adam Weikert unveils ‘Ah Cud Hew’, an electrifying and darkly gothic re-imagining of Ed Pickford’s mining tragedy anthem that is both urgent and mournful. The accompanying video sees a ritualistic discovery in the woods, exploring Britain’s past and present. From the forthcoming album To Who Ourselves We Owe.
To warm the oncoming winter chill, Bristol’s Me and My Friends return with “Bring Summer,” an explosion of joyful, sun-drenched grooves. Following their meditative 2023 release, this album is “peppered with ingredients from disco, rock, samba, gnawa and cumbia,” described as “a celebration of authenticity, the inner child and the freedom to be yourself, an invitation to dance as a raw, unfiltered expression of life.”
A New Monday Morning Brew Playlist featuring Kíla & OKI, Damien Jurado, Adrianne Lenker, Joshua Burnside, Ye Vagabonds, Brigid Mae Power, Circuit des Yeux, Jana Horn, Theo Angell, David Greenberger, L’Oumigmag, Valerie June, Tōth, Bill Callahan, Jake Xerxes Fussell & James Elkington, Alasdair Roberts, Don DiLego, David Dondero and Emma Kupa.
Steve Gunn’s “Daylight Daylight” creates songs that are light as air but carry with them the weight of imagination. The music skirts genre, moving from chamber-folk to art-rock and jazz, evoking Nick Drake and John Martyn. Gunn builds compelling atmospheres through layered instrumentation, enveloping strings, and quiet, soulful singing. These songs stretch out, replacing gimmicks with sustained intensity. An engrossing album of dignified beauty.