Alex Gallacher

BaBa ZuLa announce new album, out 25 September via Glitterbeat — thirty years on and still untamed. Lead single “Kutsal Zeytin Halayı”, a sunbaked motorik trance arriving with a visualiser that celebrates the olive tree as a sacred symbol — “We see nature under constant pressure. We want to stand on the side of those who defend it.”

Johanna Samuels shares “Blue vs. Pinkerton”, the new single from “Sorry, Kid”. Built around a teenage debate over Weezer’s “Blue Album” and “Pinkerton”, the song grew from a prompt to capture a time and place; Samuels chose her high-school years. Recorded to tape with Jonathan Rado, the album lands August 14th.

@ [AT] have announced “Autosmile”, their second album and first for 4AD, out 16 October. The folk-pop duo of Victoria Rose and Stone Filipczak share the near seven-minute title track today as the lead single, turning a mysterious breakup into questions of demonology as harmonies and acoustic passages build against tambourine, guiro and blistering guitar leads.

Nick Granata, a vocalist and organist with Shovel Dance Collective, announces their debut solo album, “My Heart is Running Backwards! A Martial Artist! With a Closed Fist! Woof!”, out 24th July via Double Dare, and shares double single “Rabbits! / Birdies!”.

Jeffrey Silverstein has announced “Doggone”, his new album out 23rd October via Full Time Hobby, and shared lead single and video “Out of Tune” with guest vocals from Devendra Banhart. Loner-folk meets cosmic country and kraut-laden choogle, it finds the New Jersey native fully rooted in his Portland community — immovable, intentional, and most of all, at peace.

Family Stereo, the alias of singer-songwriter Blake Watt, has shared “DLR,” the propulsive third single from debut album “The Thread,” out 31st July via Bella Union. Led by lush piano, lap steel and xylophone, it wraps an upbeat melody around reflective lyrics about growing up, and arrives with a video in which Watt is kidnapped and taken on a personal odyssey.

Jules Reidy announces “Clerestory,” out September 25 via Thrill Jockey. The follow-up to “Ghost/Spirit” pairs two contrasting sides: “Shadow Symmetric,” a string quartet realised with the celebrated JACK Quartet, and “Clerestory Windows,” which refracts the same material through a solo lens. A harmonic world built from a tone and its shadow.

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.