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A new album by Medway's premier alt-folk outfit The Singing Loins! Yes indeed. We caught up with Rob Shepherd to find out more about their brilliant new LP Twelve_ Q: "The new album is called Twelve. Could you settle an office debate - is it your 12th album or have you called it that because it has twelve songs on it? (We thought Here On Earth was your 12th but not according to Discogs. Also, our ability to count accurately has diminished over the years!)"A: "A bit of both. Course, there's the 12 songs, but then, depending on how you count, it's also our 12th album (from 91-98, there's the 1st 4 LPs that Damaged Goods collected together on The Complete & Utter - that's a comp though, so we can't count that eh - then there's At The Bridge with Billy, so that's 5_..we can skip Alive In Dunkerque as well cos it's a live album....then there was 2004-13 where we made four more with you, then in 2019 we got back together and made 13 Moon Songs From Merry Hell, released on the Vacilando 68 label...so that's 10_and then we did another record with Billy, The Fighting Temeraire_ so yeah, that makes this one number 12)." Q: "The album has features newly recorded versions of several Loins classics. Was it a difficult decision deciding which back catalogue songs to record?"A: "No, pretty easy - it's basically the 12 songs we enjoy playing the most with the current lineup. Saying that, it's been a bit of a meandering road getting to this point. Since Brod passed away, Arf & me have done few nights of Loins songs - and it's felt good - celebrating the songs we all wrote together - so that started the selection process. Oli, Arf's lad, joined us on percussion and then Rich, who Billy had introduced to us, joined on violin - then Chris came along to play the drums, so Oli switched to guitar - and through all that we were refining the set of songs, and we got a point where we felt that, yeah, we've sort of worked out how to do this (you know, respecting and celebrating our past, without coming on like a tribut...

Hole Erth, Chaz Bear's eighth full-length studio record as Toro y Moi, is the genre shapeshifter's most unexpected and bold move to date, with Bear diving headlong into rap-rock, Soundcloud rap and Y2K emo. The album blitzes anthemic pop-punk next to autotuned, melancholic rap - two genres that inform one another now more than ever before _ and packs in the most features ever on a Toro y Moi album. A sense of nostalgia sneaks its way into almost every Toro y Moi release, but angst is an emotion that Bear has never intentionally explored the way he does here. Tracks like "Tuesday'' channel a specific, yet forever-relatable sense of adolescent unease. A distorted guitar riff leads into a repeating chorus that conjures misunderstood teenagers singing aloud, maybe too loud, while riding bikes through American suburbs. This foreboding can also be heard on "HOV," though not without poking some fun with lines like "Romance is so cold / My advice? To bring a coat." Bear has the energy, but is acutely aware that his energy isn't forever. At a time when the internet is blending multiple genres into one at an increasingly rapid pace, Bear accomplishes the rare feat of keeping up with the contemporary alternative listener. Constantly changing, evolving and experimenting is the heart of Toro y Moi, and on Hole Erth Bear challenges but also reclaims himself, embracing the myriad sounds and eras that formed him, while crashing new worlds together.

Hole Erth, Chaz Bear's eighth full-length studio record as Toro y Moi, is the genre shapeshifter's most unexpected and bold move to date, with Bear diving headlong into rap-rock, Soundcloud rap and Y2K emo. The album blitzes anthemic pop-punk next to autotuned, melancholic rap - two genres that inform one another now more than ever before _ and packs in the most features ever on a Toro y Moi album. A sense of nostalgia sneaks its way into almost every Toro y Moi release, but angst is an emotion that Bear has never intentionally explored the way he does here. Tracks like "Tuesday'' channel a specific, yet forever-relatable sense of adolescent unease. A distorted guitar riff leads into a repeating chorus that conjures misunderstood teenagers singing aloud, maybe too loud, while riding bikes through American suburbs. This foreboding can also be heard on "HOV," though not without poking some fun with lines like "Romance is so cold / My advice? To bring a coat." Bear has the energy, but is acutely aware that his energy isn't forever. At a time when the internet is blending multiple genres into one at an increasingly rapid pace, Bear accomplishes the rare feat of keeping up with the contemporary alternative listener. Constantly changing, evolving and experimenting is the heart of Toro y Moi, and on Hole Erth Bear challenges but also reclaims himself, embracing the myriad sounds and eras that formed him, while crashing new worlds together.

Hole Erth, Chaz Bear's eighth full-length studio record as Toro y Moi, is the genre shapeshifter's most unexpected and bold move to date, with Bear diving headlong into rap-rock, Soundcloud rap and Y2K emo. The album blitzes anthemic pop-punk next to autotuned, melancholic rap - two genres that inform one another now more than ever before _ and packs in the most features ever on a Toro y Moi album. A sense of nostalgia sneaks its way into almost every Toro y Moi release, but angst is an emotion that Bear has never intentionally explored the way he does here. Tracks like "Tuesday'' channel a specific, yet forever-relatable sense of adolescent unease. A distorted guitar riff leads into a repeating chorus that conjures misunderstood teenagers singing aloud, maybe too loud, while riding bikes through American suburbs. This foreboding can also be heard on "HOV," though not without poking some fun with lines like "Romance is so cold / My advice? To bring a coat." Bear has the energy, but is acutely aware that his energy isn't forever. At a time when the internet is blending multiple genres into one at an increasingly rapid pace, Bear accomplishes the rare feat of keeping up with the contemporary alternative listener. Constantly changing, evolving and experimenting is the heart of Toro y Moi, and on Hole Erth Bear challenges but also reclaims himself, embracing the myriad sounds and eras that formed him, while crashing new worlds together.

Hole Erth, Chaz Bear's eighth full-length studio record as Toro y Moi, is the genre shapeshifter's most unexpected and bold move to date, with Bear diving headlong into rap-rock, Soundcloud rap and Y2K emo. The album blitzes anthemic pop-punk next to autotuned, melancholic rap - two genres that inform one another now more than ever before _ and packs in the most features ever on a Toro y Moi album. A sense of nostalgia sneaks its way into almost every Toro y Moi release, but angst is an emotion that Bear has never intentionally explored the way he does here. Tracks like "Tuesday'' channel a specific, yet forever-relatable sense of adolescent unease. A distorted guitar riff leads into a repeating chorus that conjures misunderstood teenagers singing aloud, maybe too loud, while riding bikes through American suburbs. This foreboding can also be heard on "HOV," though not without poking some fun with lines like "Romance is so cold / My advice? To bring a coat." Bear has the energy, but is acutely aware that his energy isn't forever. At a time when the internet is blending multiple genres into one at an increasingly rapid pace, Bear accomplishes the rare feat of keeping up with the contemporary alternative listener. Constantly changing, evolving and experimenting is the heart of Toro y Moi, and on Hole Erth Bear challenges but also reclaims himself, embracing the myriad sounds and eras that formed him, while crashing new worlds together.

"Sometimes you have to take sides"! That's what you call a statement. It doesn't hurt that `Sides' bursts in with a hypnotic, swirling guitar riff that could have come from Kevin Shields (Ischia is clearly a My Bloody Valentine fan, which is not the easiest thing for a guitarist to do). The krautroc...

"Sometimes you have to take sides"! That's what you call a statement. It doesn't hurt that `Sides' bursts in with a hypnotic, swirling guitar riff that could have come from Kevin Shields (Ischia is clearly a My Bloody Valentine fan, which is not the easiest thing for a guitarist to do). The krautroc...

On their seventh long player The Breaks - their second for Joyful Noise Recordings - Suuns are lost in limbo. For some artists, being caught in flux may result in songs that are either naive, out of touch or both, simply as a consequence of being cut off from human civilization. But for Suuns, a band who have grown more than comfortable in the oblique and the intermediate, it actually had the opposite effect. The Breaks marks the Montreal experimental rock outfit's most emotionally resonant and tonally rich collection of music to date. The trio of Ben Shemie, Joseph Yarmush and Liam O' Neill leans more zealously than ever into their pop instincts. Yet remarkably enough, with that same dauntless abandon, Suuns have mined a more extreme sonic palette this time around, one that stretches far beyond their core fundamentals as a band. The Breaks finds Shemie, O'Neill and Yarmush gleefully experimenting with loops, synths, samples and MIDI-instruments like a post-millennial Tangerine Dream messing with downtempo triphop beats. O' Neill took point in the producer's chair for The Breaks, arranging, structuring and editing many of Shemie and Yarmush's ideas from sporadic rehearsal sessions into Pro Tools, reimagining the songs over and over during a two-year time frame. Forged between countless plane rides, road trips, van tours and text threads, The Breaks became a product of endurance and a lot of trial-and-error. It's a record forged in tight fissions of freedom, where spells of whispered intimacy - like on the stunning ballad "Doreen" - are allowed to branch out into the vast glacial dreamscapes of the album's majestic title track. It captures Suuns at their most panoramic, curious and exuberant: a constant relay of being adrift and enlightened anew, geared up to eleven. And guess what: the wheels keep on spinning.

Colored vinyl with etched d-side.

Step inside the world of Ginger Root. Cameron Lew makes it easy to do so; every considered detail is his own manifestation, written, designed, and executed as an all-encompassing diorama of sound and sight. A multi-instrumentalist, producer, songwriter, and visual artist from Southern California, Lew has crafted his project steadily since 2017, inviting a fervent and growing legion of fans into storylines drawn across mediums: captivating albums with accompanying films and globe-spanning tours. The Ginger Root sound _ handmade yet immaculately polished synth-pop, alt-disco, boogie, and soul _ takes shape through Lew's lens as an Asian-American growing up enamored by 1970s and '80s music, specifically the creative and cultural dialogue between Japanese City Pop and its Western counterparts from French Pop to Philly Soul to Ram-era McCartney. He spins his retro-minded influences and proliferates savvily in the present, synthesizing a songwriter's wit, an editor's eye, and a producer's resource into something singular and modern. SHINBANGUMI, his long-awaited third LP, and Ghostly International debut set for physical release in 2024 with a visual album component, translates roughly to a new season of a show. It finds Lew more poised, idiosyncratic, and intentional than ever in a new chapter of life, unlocking "exactly what Ginger Root should sound and feel like," he says. "In terms of instrumentation and musicality, it's the first time that I felt very confident and comfortable with what everything should be comprised of. On the more personal side, I'm coming out of the last four years of writing, touring, and living as a different person; SHINBANGUMI is a platform to showcase my new self."

With her proper full-length debut, Songs FromA Thousand Frames Of Mind, Virginia-born,LA-based songwriter Kate Bollinger redefinesand refines her craft with intention. Inspired bypop, rock, and folk songs of the 1960s,Bollinger and her band _ includingcollaborators Jacob Grissom, Adam Brisbin,Matthew E. White, and Sam Evian _ favor theeclectic, melodic, and majestic, supportingintimate, stream-of-consciousness lyricismwith classic instrumentation. It's a collection ofpop songs, polished yet scrappy with anunderlying punk spirit, navigating life,relationships, and growing up. The releasefollows a run of singles since her 2022 recordon Ghostly International, lauded by the likes ofNPR and The Fader, contributions to friend'sprojects (Drugdealer, Paul Cherry), and tourswith Faye Webster, Liz Phair, DevendraBanhart, and others.

With her proper full-length debut, Songs FromA Thousand Frames Of Mind, Virginia-born,LA-based songwriter Kate Bollinger redefinesand refines her craft with intention. Inspired bypop, rock, and folk songs of the 1960s,Bollinger and her band _ includingcollaborators Jacob Grissom, Adam Brisbin,Matthew E. White, and Sam Evian _ favor theeclectic, melodic, and majestic, supportingintimate, stream-of-consciousness lyricismwith classic instrumentation. It's a collection ofpop songs, polished yet scrappy with anunderlying punk spirit, navigating life,relationships, and growing up. The releasefollows a run of singles since her 2022 recordon Ghostly International, lauded by the likes ofNPR and The Fader, contributions to friend'sprojects (Drugdealer, Paul Cherry), and tourswith Faye Webster, Liz Phair, DevendraBanhart, and others.

Formed in Bristol, 4-piece LICE have become one of UK experimental rock"s most inventive and ambitious outliers. Their second album Third Time At The Beach - a three-part epic exploring our struggle to better understand the world around us - arrives via AD 93. Darting between minimalism, rock, techno and more, it sends us hurtling us through time and space: featuring a cast of astronauts, cavemen and dinosaurs.