Alex Gallacher

Our latest Off the Shelf guest is MorganEve Swain of The Huntress and Holder of Hands. Ahead of “Babylon,” out June 5th, she talks us through ten objects from LadyBird Cottage: a growing collection of hands, a javelina skull, moon phase prints, anvil rings, and a recording box, each carrying a story, and often touching on love and loss.

Memorial, the Brighton duo of Jack Watts and Oliver Spalding, share “Rest (& be thankful)”, their second release for Ólafur Arnalds’ OPIA Community, featuring Irish singer-songwriter Niamh Regan. Named after a Scottish valley and written in half an hour, it holds a steady, driving rhythm while layered harmonies build toward a release carried by Ben Bishop’s guitar and lifted by Regan’s voice.

Darren Hayman reissues “The Violence,” the double album he calls the most ambitious work of his thirty-year career. First released in 2012 and recorded with his sixteen-piece ensemble The Long Parliament, it closes his Essex Trilogy with songs about the 17th-century East Anglian witch trials and the English Civil Wars, now expanded with previously unreleased tracks and demos.

Brighton’s Hollow Hand returns with “Wish Road South,” out September 4th on Loose Music. Lead single “Here Are The Tulips,” a breezy slice of folk-pop built around Max Kinghorn-Mills’ daily bus journey to the studio, arrives with a self-directed video. A UK tour follows this October.

Horse Feathers reissue their long out-of-print debut, “Words Are Dead”, on August 28th via Kill Rock Stars. Recorded in Portland in 2006 by the duo of Justin Ringle and Peter Broderick, the album returns fully remastered, on exclusive vinyl, with a replica of the original six-song demo CD. Hear “Finch on Saturday”, the first thing the band ever committed to tape.

Prison pull up with their third album, “Big Rigs on the BQE”, out July 31st, a long way from last year’s “Downstate”. They’ve shared lead cut “Sunrise Highway” with a scorching single edit video from Johnny Celentano and Cliff Elor — a fast, garage-bred psych charge built live from guitars, bass, drums, fuzz organ and vocals. Two side-long trips, tracked overlooking the highway.

In our latest Substack Newsletter, you can find new music recommendations, an interview by Alex Neilson with Lavinia Blackwall, and the new Monday Morning Brew Playlist. This week’s Brew features tunes from Flaer, Dylan Golden Aycock, The Vernon Spring, Lone Mesa, R Loomes, Wau Wau Collectif, Romain Baudoin, Exploded View, Jake Xerxes Fussell & James Elkington, Prymek & Sage, Rob St. John, Cian Nugent, Henry Parker and more.

Booker Stardrum and Evan Shornstein (Photay) share “HUH,” the latest single from their debut album “OOPS!,” out this Friday via Spencer Zahn’s new label Sudden Quarterly. The closing track came together last, on the final evening of the sessions, carrying a loose, late-night energy.

Taken from her new album ‘Who’s Keeping Time?’, Alela Diane shares ‘Wide Open Spaces’ video, featuring 1986 VHS footage from a family trip on Lake Powell. Her new album is out now on Loose Music (UK/EU) and Fluff & Gravy Records (US).

A new 28-track Mixtape featuring Sluice, Twisted Teens, Magic Tuber Stringband, Dan Haywood & Harvey Lord, Frog, Lady Maisery and Jimmy Aldridge & Sid Goldsmith, REXEN, Wendy Eisenberg, Jeffrey Alexander & The Heavy Lidders, Myer U Clark, Damien Jurado, Mike Gangloff, Marisa Anderson, Steve Gunn & The Black Twig Pickers, Kevin Farge, Family Stereo, La Cozna and Mary Hampton, Rowena Wise, Camille Camille, Dean Johnson, Alex Amen, and lots more.

A major archival release celebrates Martin Carthy MBE. “Along The Road Forever: Live At The BBC (1965-2022)” collects 328 recordings — 22½ hours across 20 CDs, spanning his solo work, his duo with Dave Swarbrick, with his daughter, Eliza Carthy, as well as Steeleye Span, Brass Monkey, The Watersons and Waterson:Carthy. It includes an 80-page book with a new Clinton Heylin essay.

Mama’s Broke announce their new album “Reunion,” out August 28th via Free Dirt Records and Forward Music Group, and share the 16mm video for the single “The Nameless.” Following the JUNO-nominated Narrow Line, the Nova Scotian duo hold a mirror to a fracturing world of broken communities and systems that no longer deliver. We trace the announcement through our archive.