Monday hits like an ICE SS Stormtrooper rubber bullet to the bum cheek. Like a Trumpism sent straight from the labotomised cerebral cortex of an orangutan. Which is frankly a huge slight on a labotomised orangutan. It’s just another day ending in Y where more big piles of horse shit hits the fan.
Still, there’s always tomorrow. In the meantime, check these bangers out. See if they tickle your fancy. Float your boat. Your cup of tea. Lovely.
Full Flower Moon Band – Scene
Why we love it: Full Flower Moon Band are from Australia their latest single ‘Scene’ which also features NYC punk trio Gustaf is a swaggering exocet of fuzz laden, eye liner smudged art rock that I promise will get your body moving! I hate bloody hate the terms indie sleaze and indie landfill reductive either lazy and or created many decades after the fact but, ‘Scene’ fondly reminds one of the era of The Kills, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Gossip were making a mark. With nagging riffing, and a sleazy, debauched rock and roll sound that reminds one of dark dive bars, and sweaty clubs. Frontwoman called Kate “Babyshakes” Dillon smothers this bluesy shot of punky art rock in attitude and a unmissable rifle through the “scene” she hangs out in. Vivid, insatiable and primal, it’s a highly promising beginning. Maybe 2006 wasn’t all bad? Eh? Now where did I leave my drink? Somewhere in a Barfly in 2007? (Bill Cummings)
David Byrne – Everybody Laughs
Why we love it: because this is David Byrne, folks. Do we really need any other reason? He is always the same; always different. Always brilliant. Now he is back with news of Who Is the Sky? his first new album since 2018’s acclaimed and award-winning American Utopia. The upcoming record will be released on September 5th by Matador Records. And ‘Everybody Laughs’ is the first single from it.
Here David Byrne views the predictability and absurdity of life through his own especial prism. The song’s accompanying video brings these sentiments to even more vivid life. And it is all pretty individually fantastic in that unique sort of David Byrne way.
David Byrne will also return to the road with a brand new live show in support of Who Is the Sky?. The touring band will comprise 13 musicians, singers and dancers, including members of the American Utopia band, all of whom will be mobile throughout the set. The North American tour begins in September, with Australia & New Zealand dates kicking off in January 2026 and European & United Kingdom dates starting the following month. Tickets go on sale Friday, June 13 and can be purchased HERE (Simon Godley)
Scott Lavene – Cars
Why we love it: because this shouldn’t be mistaken for the song of the same name that was released by Gary Numan back in 1979. No siree, even one quick listen will quickly disabuse you of any such notion. This is ‘Cars’ by Scott Lavene, the cracking lead single from his forthcoming album, Cars, Buses, Bedsits & Shops, which will be with us on 22nd August via Nothing Fancy.
As the man himself explains, “I grew up in Essex, where cars were a bit of a status symbol, a sign of wealth or a flash of false pride. To me, it all seemed a bit serious. From a young age I had an eye for an old banger, the anti-status. Crappy cars were more of a laugh and back in the day you could buy an ‘80s French car or a ‘70s ford for a few hundred quid. My cars often blew up or just fell to an unfixable state, but I loved ‘em all, most briefly, and this song, ‘Cars’ is about a few of them.”
Here Scott waxes very lyrical about said automobiles whilst seen in the song’s accompanying video cavorting around an old, red Volvo 240 estate cranking out a relentless riff on his electrical guitar. It has to be seen and heard to be believed. (Simon Godley)
Azekel – Thrillz
Why we love it: Azekel delivers the sensuous aand body popping ‘Thrillz‘ (produced by Grammy-winner Om’Mas Keith who has worked with Frank Ocean, Erykah Badu), magnetic and deft, ear worm melodies that slither through dancying synths and pulsing loops, riven with neo soul and future pop that oscillates somewhere between the Weeknd and Dangelo, its a deft cut that vividly depicts Azekel’s ear for a melody and ability to remould sonics in his image.
Azekal is a Nigerian-born, London-raised artist known for his genre-blurring sound — he just released the deluxe edition of Analyze Love via emPawa Africa. The expanded album dives deeper into love, identity, and self-reflection, blending soul, Afrobeats, R&B, and highlife, the project also features collabs with Nao, Kojey Radical, Kwesi Arthur, Made Kuti, and more. (Bill Cummings)
Monad – UDB
Why we love it: Monad, aka the Tel Aviv-based artist and producer also known as Eshchar Nachmany just released a sublime new single entitled ‘UDB’. A carousel of lolloping beats, colourful synths and psychy guitar textures, with minds bending sonics, is punctuated with bittersweet vocals that question truth and reality itself. Elements of the shimmering pop of Stereolab colliding with harmonious and beguiling melodies that entrance in a way early MGMT did.. Playful and joyously adventurous. It’s taken from his newly announced EP ‘Gift’ ( out 15th August) .The release follows UK showcases at Liverpool Sound City and Dot to Dot Bristol. (Bill Cummings)
ugly ozo – onto a winner
Why we love it: Jessica Baker leads ugly ozo the sonic diary of a chronic oversharer, laying bare the most confronting corners of the female experience.‘onto a winner’ is their first release on the label, riven with scurrying riffing, skittish drums and fuzzy bass lines, it’s a tightly packed shot of surfy, punky confessional splurge, threaded with attitude and knowing. They say it is a “direct laugh in the face of modern society’s obsession with perfection, the track was written in the aftermath of a personal reckoning with self-comparison and competition. ” With sickly sweet vocals that are both addictive and a smartly sarcastic take down of the social-media-fuelled noise surrounding beauty standards and meeting the male gaze.
They have teamed up with REX RECS to release the single, the new indie label founded by producer Macks Faulkron of REX Studio, a well known creative music hub for the underground scene in North London (Caroline Polachek, Confidence Man, Daniel Avery, Picture Parlour),
The band, comprising Jessica Baker (guitar), sister Boo Baker (bass) and Tristan Northard (drums), have only been together a year (Jess was previously Lauran Hibberd’s bassist), but have already made a dent in the UK live scene, making debut festival appearances at the likes of The Great Escape, Isle of Wight, Wanderlust and Outer Town. (Bill Cummings)
Tan Cologne – Cloud of Mirrors
Why we love it: Tan Cologne are the enigmatic New Mexico-based duo of Lauren Green and Marissa Macias, they release their third studio album Unknown Beyond, announced today for release on June 20th via Labrador Records. Unknown Beyond reaches instead for the skies and the intangible – greater existence, the infinite and the unexplainable. It’s an album that “embraces the beauty of timeless uncertainty.”
‘Cloud of Mirrors‘ is underpinned by minimal click of drum machine beats, beneath weightless guitars that sound vast and weightless, each note like vapour on the sky line is coated in verb and echoey with a sensse of spacious depth as vast as the ocean bed. While floating vocals drift through the air wih pregenent emotion, teetering on the precipice between anxiety and awe and the sky’s vista swamps you in its vastness. Enveloping and quietly beguiling there are elements of early shoe gaze wielded exquisitely to ambient sounds and ominious electronic shifts. It’s a deftly contemplative moment.
The band explain the track, saying it’s “about life happening to you and having to deal with whatever is handed to you – a chem trail above, being “over it”, knowing we are all interconnected and a part of the disaster and the beauty. The idea is that we are a mirror image of the sky – manmade or natural, or even simulated. A reflection of everything around you being internally present.” (Bill Cummings)
Emily Breeze – Dating a Model
Why we love it: Emily Breeze is back with her new album RATS IN PARADISE on July 11th. Her lushly drawn new single ‘Dating A Model’ is a delight marries a gauche glamourous waltz smothered in strings and twinkling keys to a devastating satirical portrait of a idealised partner that she unpicks piece by piece, served with a side of unmistakable Breeze sass and a “supporting cast of jealous lovers and cocaine communists.” Imagine if you will Blackbox Recorder at their most commercial sashaying across the dance floor with Father John Misty and Debbie Harry, whilst Emily writes righteously wistful poison pen letters dripping with rapier- like observations, about red flags and failed love affairs in the corner, maybe you can visualise this beauty, falling out of infatuation never sounded so good
The title “RATS IN PARADISE” is from a song by one of my favourite bands, The Birthday Party,” says Bristol based Emily. “I always loved that idea – imagine rats with top hats and canes, dancing in the gutter and having the time of their lives. Very suitable for my songs.
“The record feels camp, frothy and mildly ridiculous to me – sort of like a very English version of a Tex Avery cartoon.” (Bill Cummings)
