Further Listening: Sløtface, Lauren Ruth Ward, The Van T’s, Juanita Stein, Dromstad, Katie Von Schleicher, Anna Tosh, Belle Game, Small Reactions, Monk Parker, Petrol Girls, Sephine Llo, Patience, The Weather Station, Tunnel Traffic, Fresh, Amy O, Beaches, Someone, Matthew Fountain and the Whereabouts, Breakfast Muff, Broken Social Scene, The Cornshed Sisters, Finn Anderson, Alice Jemima, Fake Laugh, Rainbrother, Siv Jakobsen, Whispertown, Mermaidens, The Duke Spirit, Frankie Rose, Walter TV, Holysun, Jared Dymbort, Brother Cephus, Phoebe Bridgers, Ayo River, Chad VanGaalen, The War On Drugs, Mini Dresses, Kate Grom, Baby In Vain, Wilt, Milk Teddy, Gallery 47 and another intriguing track from Tugboat Captain.

5. The Rise And The Fall Of Loyal Lobos

Like many musical journeys, the story of Loyal Lobos’ upcoming EP, The Fall, starts with a heartbreak. Andrea Silva, a songwriter hailing from Bogota in Colombia, became entangled with a Nashville man, their relationship frayed and eventually snapped. Heartbroken, Andrea dived head first into her music, and the folk-driven sound of Loyal Lobos was born.

This week Andrea has shared the title track to her upcoming EP, a track she describes as “my February mark on my 2016 calendar. It’s the love story of an ending. The static moment of realisation before everything hurts and falls apart”. This downbeat sounding beginning actually results in a song with far more energy than you might imagine. Channelling the spirit of Jenny Lewis or First Aid Kit, The Fall is a collection of ringing guitar chords, driving drum beats and sweet country-licked vocals. At one point Andrea sings, “I don’t know how put it all back together again”, The Fall might not have saved her relationship, but it might be the beginning of something even more significant.

The Fall is out later this year. Click HERE for more information on Loyal Lobos.

4. Ask BATTS No Question And She’ll Tell You No Lies

There’s just something about those Antipodean singer songwriters! Following hot on the heels of Aldous Harding, Julia Jacklin and Nadia Reid, Melbourne’s own BATTS might just end up proving herself the best of the lot. This week BATTS, Tanya Batt to her friends, has shared her brilliant new single, Little White Lies.

Discussing the inspiration behind the track Tanya notes, “Little White Lies just came out all at once, it’s about how pretty much every interaction with anyone seems to be filled with these little white lies, whether it’s just easier to reply ‘Good’ when someone asks you how you are, or being late and making up a little white lie to cover your back”. Musically, Little White Lies is a slice of slow-burning beauty, the steady prominent guitar, cut through by bubbling synths and steady drum beats. Tanya’s gently melancholic vocal comes to the fore, there’s a touch of Nadine Shah in the way she soars effortless to the higher notes, as she sings of various minor falsifications, from lying to your doctor about your smoking habits to through to keeping secrets from the ones you love. While the world might be full of tiny lies and untrustworthy liars, trust us when we say, BATTS is an artist more than worthy of your time.

Little White Lies is out now. Click HERE for more information on BATTS.

3. Hinson We Have A Problem

Micah P. Hinson has always been a musician of great ambition. Thirteen years on from his debut album, and three since his last offering, 2014’s Micah P. Hinson and the Nothing, Micah is set to return later this year with Micah P. Hinson Presents The Holy Strangers. Ahead of that release, this week he has shared the latest single from it, Oh Spaceman.

About Oh Spaceman, Micah says “it was the first song I wrote for my boy, Wiley Tex, after he was born, and the only song I played for about half a year after his birth. It is the only song where the melody and words came before sitting behind a guitar. Which is not a way I’ve ever written.” Musically, it’s a classically American folk song, all buzzing frets and steady almost absent-minded guitar plucking, latterly it’s joined by rich, almost wheezy strings. There’s an intimacy to the piece, as if you’re interrupting Micah singing his son off to the sleep. The atmosphere is complimented by the crackly old production courtesy of the ancient reel to reel recorders on which the record was laid down. It’s a welcome return for one of modern music’s most important voices, and thankfully he sounds as wonderful as ever.

Micah P. Hinson Presents The Holy Strangers is out September 8th via Full Time Hobby. Click HERE for more information on Micah P. Hinson

2. Bunny Get Even

Chicago newcomers, Bunny only formed back in the winter of 2016, but they’re wasting no time in making an impact. Ostensibly the solo project of Jessica Viscius, Bunny are set to release their debut EP, Sucker in the none too distant future, and have this week shared a new single, Not Even You.

Jessica has suggested that Bunny are something of a testament to the tried and untrue stereotypes surrounding women in music, she pokes fun at the ideas of frailty, dependency, and hopeless romanticism. Bunny’s music has been described as, “soft-grunge” and certainly there’s a certain amount of grit to proceedings despite it’s fairly minimal, downbeat instrumentation. A steely determination runs through the vocal, despite Jessica never having to raise her voice, above the sleepy, meandering backing. Early but exciting days, Bunny could just be your new favourite band.

Sucker will be out later this year. Click HERE for more information on Bunny.

1. Florist Take Hold

Florist are a self-styled, “soft-synthesizer-folk band”, hailing from Upstate New York. This week they’ve shared their new single, What I Wanted To Hold, as well as detailing the release of their new record. If Blue Could Be Happiness, the band’s second full length album, is due out later this year via Double Double Whammy.

If Blue Could Be Happiness is a fine introduction to Florist, atop a lithely strummed acoustic guitar, songwriter Emily Sprague’s quiet vocal draws the listener in, demanding you listen to her every creak and crackle. There’s a touch of Mothers’ Kristine Leschper to the vocal, but with a more upbeat outlook on life, as Emily sings, “I’m alive and I’m okay, the air is light blue today”. It’s not that you believe her when she say’s everything is okay, you just feel that one way or another, it will be okay eventually. It’s a song that deals with impermanence, the way our lives constantly shift and how that inevitably shapes the narrative of our lives. Florist have described their upcoming album as, “a quiet celebration of the endless struggle that is being alive”, and sometimes in this turbulent tumble we call life, that’s more than enough reason to celebrate.

If Blue Could Be Happiness is out September 29th via Double Double Whammy. Click HERE for more information on Florist.

Header photo courtesy of Florist.