Further Listening:

5. Quivers Are In The Gutter Looking Like Stars

Hailing from the thriving Melbourne-scene, Quivers have been releasing music for half-a-decade, since their initially self-released debut, We’ll Go Riding On The Hearses. After last year’s Out Of Time, the band are wasting no time getting back to the grind, with their third record, Golden Doubt, due out in June as a co-release between an impressive collaboration between a trio of wonderful labels. Ahead of that release, this week the band have shared a brand-new track, Gutters Of Love.

Described by the band as, “a song about serotonin levels but mostly about love”, Gutters Of Love muses on the amount of time we all spend talking and thinking about love, whether we’re shouting across dance-floors or sitting on bedroom floors trying to make sense of it all. The track comes in on a muted chord-sequence, which has a touch of Bruce Springsteen to it, before slowly morphing into something altogether more melodic, as an abundance of vocals and a wavering Farfisa organ lift it to a scream-along crescendo as a make-shift choir ask as one, “after the serotonin’s gone, could you ever fall in love?” Quivers have described Golden Doubt as a record about grief and what puts us back together; how with friends, music and a sense of humour, we somehow manage to find a way to keep-on-keeping-on.

Golden Doubt is out June 11th via Ba Da Bing (UK/North America), Bobo Integral (Europe) & Spunk (Oz/NZ). Click HERE for more information on Quivers.

4. Holiday Ghosts Are Going Off Grid

Holiday Ghosts recently shared Mr. Herandi, an exploration of the flaws of capitalism and uninterested landlords, that served as an introduction to the South Coast retro-rockers new album, North Street Air. Named after a street in their new home city of Brighton, the album is their first for new-label FatCat Records and will see the light of day in May. This week the duo have shared the latest offering from the album, Off Grid.

Off Grid is a track about feeling outside of the day-to-day workings of the world, as Sam from the band explains, “the song is made up of snap shots of city life, and of being alone with summer moods and feelings that makes it hard to go back to regular life”. The track seems to channel influences from The Modern Lovers to The Wave Pictures, finding Holiday Ghosts at their most playful and lo-fi, as loose guitars, rolling bass and pounding percussion create something propulsive and just the right amount of wild. Despite its musical nods to the past, North Street Air already feels like an album for our modern times, a reflection on a world that seems to sometimes move too fast, and how sometimes we have to decide that isn’t the best place for us to exist; after all if it’s spinning too fast maybe it’s time to jump off.

North Street Air is out May 21st via FatCat Records. Click HERE for more information on Holiday Ghosts.

3. Kraków Still Loves Adana

Hamburg-duo Kraków Loves Adana have been a fairly regular feature in these pages pretty much as long as the site has been running. Last year saw the band release their fifth-studio album, Darkest Dream, a collection of melancholic dream-pop produced in their home studio over a two-year period, and explored vocalist Deniz Çiçek’s own vivid-dreams and nightmares. This week the band have shared the video to the record’s stand-out moment, Love Isn’t Dead.

Deniz has described Love Isn’t Dead as, “full of nostalgia, melancholy and heartbreak”, a track set at the end of a relationship when, “people may tend to be torn between burning bridges and dwelling on past affections“. Musically, the track finds Kraków Loves Adana channelling the worlds of icy 1980’s electronica and driving post-rock, like the middle ground of The Human League and The Twilight Sad. A reminder of just how special Darkest Dreams is, a record that took the band’s sound and pushed it out into every direction, they might be exploring the darkness, yet Kraków Loves Adana have never sounded better.

Darkest Dreams is out now. Click HERE for more information on Kraków Loves Adana.

2. Maja Lena’s Practice Makes Perfect

Based out of Stroud in Gloucestershire, Maja Lena is the solo project of Marianne Parrish, who is probably best known until now as a member of alt-folk band Low Chimes. Taking her musical moniker from an affectionate nickname given to her by the Swedish half of her family, the debut Maja Lena album, The Keeper, was recorded with former bandmate Rob Pemberton, and will see the light of day in July via Chiverin Records. Ahead of that release, this week Marianne has shared the latest offering from the album, Sacred Practice.

Discussing Sacred Practice, Marianne has suggested it is, “a song dedicated to some of the smaller things in life”, looking into ideas of how our repeated daily tasks and habits can become part of making, “your mind a more peaceful place to be”. Musically, the track melds the vocal playfulness of Tune-Yards or Cross Record with a more tradition-led folk sound, as acoustic guitars and electronic pulses share the musical foreground. While Marianne is an experienced musician, her solo debut still feels like a big step forward, showcasing an open mindedness and a curiosity as to what music can be and what her voice can be used to communicate, when The Keeper Arrives later in the year, it could be very special indeed.

The Keeper is out July 23rd via Chiverin Records. Click HERE for more information on Maja Lena.

1. Tōth Might Be Your Everything

Based out of Brooklyn, Tōth, the project of Rubblebucket-member Alex Toth, last featured on this site back at the start of 2019, that was around the release of his debut solo album, Practice Magic And Seek Professional Help When Necessary. That album came at a period when he was recovering from, “a broken foot and a broken heart”, at the end of a twelve-year romantic relationship with Rubblebucket bandmate Kalmia Traver. After making that record, Alex began to think about the idea of, “the open-endedness of love”, and finding acceptance in what you cannot control, the result is his second album, You And Me And Everything, out next month on Northern Sky. Ahead of that release, this week Tōth has shared the latest offering from the record, I Might Be.

Described as, “a cathartic anthem for the confusion of love”, I Might Be was designed to provide the opportunity for dancing, as Alex explains, “dancing is one of my favorite ways to get in touch with myself and purge confusion and sorrow”. Sounding like the meeting place of Grizzly Bear and an 1980’s pop-banger, the track morphs into an anthem of self-acceptance, learning to love yourself to be better placed to interact with others. As he sings at the song’s gorgeous vocal break-down, “you say you don’t like these questions I ask, so let’s just dance, until there’s no music anymore”. So here’s to dancing and growing and making sense of the world, Tōth’s music feels like an invite to shimmy into a brighter tomorrow, and looking at the world right now, who wouldn’t want to join him? I’ll meet you there.

You And Me And Everything is out April 30th via Northern Sky. Click HERE for more information on Tōth.

Header photo is Tōth by Amanda Picotte.