08.08.2026-NZCA LINES Pure Luxury (Memphis Industries,2020)

 

INDIE POP / ELECTRONIC

   The album, from the start, boasts a silky funk bravado, with slick weighty synth lines and perfect dancefloor rhythms. Couple that with its nourishing slow sets and the level of quality on the production, ‘Pure Luxury’ aligns itself not out of place up against pop’s finest releases this year.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/k3hqtivw

05.08.2026-ALEXIA AVINA Betting On An Island (Never Content,2018)

 

INDIE FOLK

   "Betting on an Island" is the debut full-length album by Alexia Avina , a Montreal , Canada-based artist . The record is filled to the brim with atmospheric sounds resembling a shifting mirage. Unlike the ghostly visions that emanate from sweltering travelers across the endless sands of the African desert, this music is a cozy oasis where world-weary wanderers can find long-awaited refuge and refuge from the fears of everyday life, inner complexes, and endless loneliness amidst an ocean of indifferent people. However, the more time you spend within this peaceful haven, the less you yearn to return to the evil realm of cynical and materialistic zombies.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/wpr79sfk

02.08.2026-I'M WITH HER Wild And Clear And Blue (Rounder,2025)

 

FOLK

   ‘Wild & Clear & Blue’ is a triumph of beauty, friendship, togetherness, harmony, music: everything that matters in life. Let the ancient light flood in. 

https://www.sendspace.com/file/2sgq386j

31.07.2026-ESTER BROHUS Game For The Gamblers (DME, 2016)

 

COUNTRY ROCK

   The overall impression of the album is that we are dealing with down-to-earth, well-played, well-sung country. Brohus' vocals are consistently strong and carefully dosed in relation to the music. Production and packaging certainly say 2016, but we could also have been 20, 30 and 40 years back in time, if it weren't for the fact that production and packaging also signal more recent times.

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

28.07.2026-LIFE ON VENUS OdesTo The Void (Shelflife,2019)

 

SHOEGAZE

   Loud, gloomy and surreal, this is a story about finding love, overcoming fears and facing the unknown.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/tc44ekhl

25.07.2026-TEEN DAZE Bioluminescence (Flora,2019)

 

CHILLWAVE

   Teen Daze’s sixth ambient, alternative-indie album Bioluminescence stays true to his roots in synthesizing frequencies from both the natural and modern worlds. Ever since Teen Daze, one of Jamison Isaak’s aliases, debuted in 2010, the solo electronic British Columbia musician continues to challenge the antithetical natures of organic and electronic notes in Bioluminescence, released in April 2019.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/scilx3jy

22.07.2027-AIR WAVES Warrior (Western Vinyl,2018)

 

INDIE ROCK

   Spirited yet cautious, Air Waves have produced a stellar and ardent album filled with just the right amount of justice to suit the name Warrior. Each track is as bold as it comes, falling onto the shoulders of a leader with enough strength to combat the unkempt delusions of nostalgia and comfort. Warrior is thoroughly simplistic, the vocal performances coming through as the centerpiece of an 11 track series of diary pages and ruminating self-discovery.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/01xu4e6y

19.07.2026-JESSIE WARE That! Feels Good! (EMI,2023)

 

POP / R&B / FUNK

   The album embraces a present (and future) where we can at least indulge in the fantasy of feeling good.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/dzxi4eta

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

26.06.2026 - FAMILY OF THE YEAR Family Of The Year (Nettwerk,2015)

 

FOLK POP

   Breezy folk-pop that's fun to listen to but could use more emotional depth.

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

22.06.2026-PICTURE PARLOUR The Parlour (EMI,2025)

 

INDIE ROCK

   Moulded around the fluid concept of ‘The Parlour’, the former NME Cover stars present their ambitious debut album on a tightrope between youthful flair and rock’n’roll.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/2ont5p

19.06.2026-DEADLETTER Hysterical Strength (So Recordings,2024)

 

INDIE ROCK

   ‘Hysterical Strength’ is dark and foreboding and it’s irresistible and fun. It confronts the daily struggle of our shared society and forces us to smile about it. Deadletter might only be getting started, but with a record as accomplished as ‘Hysterical Strength’, it already feels like they’ve been here for quite a while.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/tivkl7

17.06.2026-ICEAGE You're Nothing (Matador,2013)

 

PUNK ROCK

   The Danish hardcore kids in Iceage make an emotionally intense racket, with that rare mix of aggression and delicacy. Even on their raw 2011 debut, Iceage knew how to sculpt the noise into songs, but You’re Nothing is a huge jump forward. Although the lyrics are mostly in English, singer-guitarist Elias Rønnenfelt growls them as guttural cries of pain, especially in the high-velocity heartbreak of “Burning Hand” and “Ecstasy.” “Morals” breaks new ground for Iceage, with poignant piano under the guitars. You could even call it a ballad, if that’s a fair way to describe a song that feels like a leather boot leaving bloody footprints all over your skull.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/rxa79z

14.06.2026-DAUGHTER Not To Disappear (4AD,2016)

 

INDIE POP

   On their 2013 debut 'If You Leave', London trio Daughter ushered us into their fragile but beautiful world - one where life's woes were expressed through guitar lines like Arctic blasts and Elena Tonra's despondent poetry. Follow-up 'Not To Disappear' marks some low-key changes to their M.O (a smattering of synths here, a confessional attitude there), but even heading to New York to work with Animal Collective producer Nicolas Vernhes hasn't shaken their sadness.

https://www.sendspace.com/file/igbu3z