16.07.2026-HOLLY HUMBERSTONE Paint My Bedroom Black (Polydor,2023)

 

ALTERNATIVE POP

   Alongside her piercing lyrics, Humberstone’s debut LP is all the richer because she steps out of her sonic comfort zone. Surprises arise on the layered, Bon Iver-esque ‘Baby Blues’, and brilliant ‘Flatlining’, which temporarily turns into a shifty electronic banger. Ultimately, ‘Paint My Bedroom Black’ finds the artist trying to do right by her loved ones and make sense of her own turbulent world, but it’s also a cue to listeners that things could go anywhere from here. In pursuit of an authentic sound, Humberstone proves that she’s not only inhabiting her own space – and beckoning listeners in – but also building out the walls.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/57wy245q

13.07.2026-PEAKING LIGHTS Cosmic Logic (Weird World/Domino,2014)

 

SYNTHPOP

   For a band who are so undeniably poppy, Peaking Lights draw influence from an impressively eclectic variety of places. Layered over their swampy, effortless brand of synth-pop are traces of dub, disco, house, psych and indie, and perhaps one of the reasons for their success may be their ability to incorporate these influences into a single cohesive, identifiable sound. On Cosmic Logic, they continue to exercise this ability, but occasionally forget to stretch it quite far enough.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/hgqy4urb

10.07.2026-GARY WAR Gaz Forth (Feeding Tube,2018)

 

HYPNAGOGIC POP

   For the last while, Greg Dalton (aka Gary War) has been back in Massachusetts, after spending years working on his music down in twin Isles of Kiwi. Since returning he has popped up in the amazing psych duo, Dalthom (along with Sunburned’s Ron Thomas), and even played with the legendary Bobb Trimble on a live Burger cassette, but Gaz Forth is the first new Gary War LP in over five years.

   Recorded with long-time collaborator, Daniel Rineer, as well as Robert Cathart III (Pigeons), Jeremy Pisani (Red Favorite), Kris Thompson (Abunai, Trimble), Cynthia Nixon (Purple Pilgrims) and John Moloney (Sunburned), Gaz Forth hearkens back to some of the left-field pop amalgamations Mr. War had a hand in when he worked with Ariel Pink back in the early Oughts.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/r0dr9tvm

08.07.2026-TOMORA Come Closer (Fontana,2026)

 

ELECTRONICA

   Dance don Tom Rowlands and Norwegian phenomenon Aurora take us on an otherworldly rave as an "exceptional" supergroup.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/b427zw99

05.07.2026-YONAKA Don't Wait 'Til Tomorrow (Asyulum,2019)

 

ALTERNATIVE ROCK

   Yonaka really zeroes in on love as an emotion in particular. Throughout the album you are reminded that life isn’t a fairytale but hope is there to get through it and inspire you. It’s the reality check we all need. It’s almost a reminder to stop striving for perfection because it doesn’t exist. However there is something beautiful within the cracks of daily life, and if you spend too much time focussing on the bad you’ll miss them. Similar to the intention of Japanese art, Yonaka is filling the cracks of the mundane with gold, because imperfections are beautiful. You’re not worth any less for your past. It’s given you experience and made you stronger. This album acts as the quintessential open letter to all. Ultimately, this is an album which warps everything which you thought you believed. It forces you to undertake a rollercoaster of emotional turmoil and is full of surprises led through the changing tempo each track has to offer. Desperation leads to hope, as we are reminded that fundamentally, we will survive. 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/5qdoa7

02.07.2026-JESCA HOOP Stonechild (Memphis industries,2019)

 

ALTERNATIVE FOLK

   He does a fine job with ‘Stonechild’, but truthfully, all of the triumphs here are Jesca’s own and a long time in the making. It’s less a case of being in a comfort zone than it is being supremely confident in a musical identity that she’s spent years carving out for herself. It means that there’s room for new, handsome flourishes, like the choir bursting forth on ‘Red White and Black’, or inviting new collaborators like Lucious, Rozi Plain and This Is the Kit to back her on the choruses throughout. The latter two come to the fore on the sumptuous ‘Outside of Eden’, a sharp deconstruction of the burgeoning reliance of children on smartphones. In fact, Jesca tackles politics with quiet incision throughout, particularly when she needles the dying patriarchy on ‘Old Fear of Father’. ‘Stonechild’ is an exercise in top-level songwriting, stately and intelligent.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/qyrj2i

30.06.2026-MAISIE PETERS You Signed Up For This (Gingerbread Man, 2021)

 

INDIE POP

   On 'You Signed Up For This', Peters displays a singular vision: pop. She mostly lets go of the snappy guitar acoustics that shaped her past sound and in doing so drops the first half of her “folk-pop” descriptor. Instead, synth-filled melodies and springy beats demand bedroom dancing and hairbrush singing. There is nothing childish about this album, though; in fact, the singer is assured in her sound, the music grounded in its self-conscious melodrama.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/9p7ws1