Further Listening: NRVS LVRS, Fazerdaze, The Hayman Kupa Band, the Skating Party, The Winter Gypsy, Nebulamigo, Dom Robinson, Wesley Gonzalez, Hammydown, Turkey Mountain Sunset Band, Outside The Academy, Winter Aid, See Through Dresses, Babe Punch, Delafaye, Crepes, Wesley Fuller, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Fake Laugh, BIRDS, Amy O, SOAR, Iron & Wine, Rathbone, Charly Bliss, Francisco The Man, L.A. Witch, Amber Arcades ft. Bill Ryder Jones, Frightened Rabbit, Brandon Luedtke, Grace Lightman and another stunning track from Elle Mary & The Badmen.

5. Jon and Roy Set A New Personal Best

What can one expect from a band’s seventh album? Based on British Colombia’s minimalist folk duo Jon and Roy: the best album of their career. The pair recently released new album, The Road Ahead Is Golden, and this week shared the Wes Anderson inspired video to single, Runner.

In their own words, “Runner is a song about running away from things you shouldn’t be running from, and in doing so, not being honest with yourself and those around you. More specifically, it is about deadbeat dads”. Musically Runner is a gorgeous shuffling piece; the easy laid back guitars and prominent drums walking the middle ground of Sodastream and Ultimate Painting, as the pair share some harmonies that are at once effortless and utterly gorgeous. The may have been around a long time, but there’s life in this old dog yet.

The Road Ahead Is Golden is out now. Click HERE for more information on Jon and Roy.

4. Julia Jacklin Heads East

“I’m quite proud of myself,” so says Australian musician Julia Jacklin, and well she might be. Following the massed critical acclaim surrounding her debut album, Don’t Let The Kids Win, the now Barcelona based songwriter has gone from the unknown to a regular on 6Music with a summer schedule that seems to involve almost every festival we can think of. This week Julia has shared the first material since that record, a new track entitled Eastwick.

Coming out as a 7″ in September, Eastwick, is accompanied by a video resplendent in stunning shades of blue, from crystal clear swimming pools to a rather dangerous looking cocktail. Musically, Eastwick is Julia at her most paired back, that country-licked vocal initially accompanied by the gentlest of guitars and a barely their drum beat, before the whole thing builds to a crescendo of wailing guitar thrashing. There’s more than a touch of My Woman-era Angel Olsen here, as Julia ends with a wordless howl, seeming to capture the spirit of a waltzing prom-queen, left dateless on a dancefloor. Loving life, releasing great music and being rewarded with the success she deserves, it’s a good time to be Julia Jacklin, and as she puts it, “I’m going to enjoy this right now”, and in her shoes who wouldn’t.

Eastwick/Cold Caller 7″ is out September 15th via Transgressive Records. Click HERE for more information and tour dates from Julia Jacklin.

3. Surfing The Slow Waves

They’re a brand spanking new four-piece garage band, who claim to be ‘at war’ with today’s “pretentious prog-indie-rock millionaires and bongo pop demigods”. They intend to ‘rock out and blow your mind, and then mellow out and soothe your mind, then rock out again’. But who are these strutting young musicians they call The Surfing Magazines? Well it’s David and Franick from The Wave Pictures, Charles from Slow Club and drummer Dominic Brider, and they’ve already released twenty plus albums between them. Perhaps then they are the very status quo that they’re thrashing against? Double agents looking to destroy the music industry from within?

Signed to Moshi Moshi, The Surfing Magazine are set to release their debut album in the Autumn, and have this week shared the first taste of it, Lines & Shadow. Discussing the track, the band go to a quote from Dashiel Hammet, “the problem with putting two and two together is that sometimes you get four, and sometimes you get twenty-two”. As they put it, “this is definitely the type of song that puts two and two together and gets twenty-two”. With a video featuring far too many pairs of sunglasses for a dark room, Lines & Shadow finds Charles taking lead vocals as David picks out muted guitar chords, before the rhythm section slip into an effortless groove. It’s like Matthew E. White jamming with The Band or Lou Reed fronting up Cream, this has the feeling of an instant classic. Frankly, were you expecting anything else?

The Surfing Magazines self-titled album is out September 1st via Moshi Moshi. Click HERE for more information.

2. Honestly We Really Like This Rose Hotel Track

For those of you who like us have ever lived in Dalston, The Rose Hotel will always be the slightly grimy looking hotel with a certain Brothel-chic located opposite Beyond Retro. As that’s not a band though, the Rose Hotel we’re talking about today is actually 23-year old songwriter Jordan Reynolds, from Bowling Green, Kentucky.

2016 was something of a transformative year for Jordan. The end of her first long-term relationship and the dissolution of the band she’d put five years of her life into, left her with no ties and a sense of real freedom. Now re-located to Atlanta, the result of the upheaval is her upcoming EP, Always A Good Reason.  This week Jordan has shared new single, Honestly. The track has a touch of Julia Holter or Marissa Nadler as Jordan’s effortless, timeless vocal soars out atop the gentle tick of acoustic guitars and warm slide-guitar detailing. Latterly a perfectly judged horn section enters, bringing a warm, wistful glow to proceedings. Deliciously retro it undeniably is, but Rose Hotel’s take on the heartbroken ballad is every bit as perfect as Edith Piaf or Patsy Cline managed, and we can think of no higher compliment than that.

Always A Good Reason is out later this year via The Fir Trade. Click HERE for more information on Rose Hotel.

1. The World Needs More People Like You

Probably more than any band we’ve heard this year, Boston quintet, People Like You, are the sound of seemingly disparate genres fusing into one. They emerged from the ashes of emo/math-punk band I Kill Giants, and incorporate elements of improvised jazz, breakbeats and classical guitar: and yet somehow, at least on recent single Variations On An Aria, it actually works!

Variations On An Aria is lifted from their upcoming album Verse, the follow-up to 2014’s This Is What You Learned. The track juxtaposes the jerky maths-rock of the guitar and drums with the simple, bedroom-pop style vocal, before sweet, lightly jazzy brass swells in the background. The whole thing lasts only two and a half minutes but is packed with complex musical ideas, that somehow work brilliantly together. A fascinating, unique and accomplished introduction, this track marks Verse out as one of 2017’s most intriguing records.

Verse is out July 28th via Topshelf Records. Click HERE for more information on People Like You.

Header photo courtesy of Elle DioGuardi – http://elledioguardi.com