Alex Gallacher

Jim James returns with Wowed Out, his first solo album in eight years, due 28th August via ATO Records. Built from a lost archive of film-scoring compositions made in the early 2010s with Brian Reitzell, the album channels soulful psychedelia and folk-leaning warmth. Lead single “Come Again” is out now with an official video — a meditation on finding joy in a world wired for constant noise.

Ed Askew’s posthumous single “Tough Guys” is out today — a slow-burn chamber-pop piece about gay relationships observed and lived, with Fulvio Sigurta’s trumpet and lyrics of crushing intimacy. Also announced: “Boy with a Hat,” an exhibition of Askew’s paintings from 2014–2024, opens at Chicago’s Soccer Club Club on July 31st, the same day The Final Painting arrives on Drag City.

Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children share “My Mother’s Name”, the first single from a new album due in October on Glitterhouse Records — their first in a decade. Born in Nuuk and raised in an Inuit community in Greenland, Nielsen explores the themes of identity, socialisation, and strength of female lineage.

Sourdure has shared “Le Pebre”, the first single from their new album “Outredore”, out September 18th via Pagans and Murailles Music. Ernest Bergez roots these new songs in the traditional music of the Massif Central while reaching toward Eastern vocabularies, his voice more stripped-back than ever. A slow-burning heatwave anthem…

A new playlist to start the week, featuring a few new artists (to KLOF). Plus, a small bundle of new music recommendations for you, including music inspired by Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, and music featuring a honeyed voice and wry, down-to-earth lyricism.

A new KLOF Mixtape featuring a mid-way breakout featuring Martyn Bennett, a live set from Tabla Beat Science, the group founded by Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell in 1999, which fused Hindustani music with Asian underground and drum and bass, and an Asian Dub Foundation remix of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. There’s also new music from Leah Senior, Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders, Styrofoam Winos, Alex Dupree and more.

case/lang/veirs have announced a 10th anniversary deluxe edition of their self-titled 2016 album, due 4 September via Anti- Records. Alongside comes “Accidental Tattoo”, a previously-unreleased track written by all three. The expanded edition adds the new song and 12 live recordings from the original tour to the album’s 14 tracks.

Cinder Well’s “Beyond The Pale” is the second preview of “A Blooming Body”, due July 17th via Hen House Studios. Amelia Baker describes it as “a hangover, a break-up, a migraine, a confessional.” The video, directed by Chelsea “Cheech” Moosekian, came to Baker in a dream. Greg Cohen — bassist for Tom Waits and John Zorn — plays on the track, alongside Phillip Rogers and David Ralicke on clarinet.

Arun Sood and Angeline Morrison announce Donn/Dubh, a debut collaborative album due 7 August on Real World X. Rooted in shared Hebridean heritage spanning Scotland, Jamaica and India, the twelve-track collection pulls folk melodies apart and reassembles them over bass-heavy beats, synths and drones. Lead single ‘A Rìbhinn a Bheil Cuimhn’ Agad’ and its accompanying video are out now.

Sir Richard Bishop shares “Back Forty Lashes”, the ferocious, trance-inducing second single and self-directed video from “Hillbilly Erotica”, out July 31st on Drag City. A sequel of sorts to 2025’s “Hillbilly Ragas”, it carries Bishop’s argument with the “American Primitive” tag deeper into rural Tennessee. He’s on his US tour now through the summer, but stops in the UK for the Green Man Festival in August.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy performs “They Keep Trying to Find You” on Later… with Jools Holland — a powerful airing of the lead single from “We Are Together Again”. The song confronts the temptation to bury your head in the sand as outside pressures mount, Will Oldham pitting the darkness within against the darkness without. Watch his unforgettable performance now.

Styrofoam Winos share “Somebody Wants to Send You a Message,” the final single before their new album “Any River.” Joe Kenkel wrote the upbeat choogle after a bot’s “somebody wants to send you a message” notification herded him into a group chat. It’s capped by a face-melting bass clarinet solo from Jim Marlowe, the only non-Wino to play on the record.