Planet Rami releases his latest single ‘Mother Eye’. The captivating alt-pop track is about those moments when you’re being thrown around by the universe – whether that be through failed loves, friendships, or jobs – and the only balm can be comfort from your mother. Written with ARIA nominated record producer, composer, mixer and songwriter Tony Buchen. “When I wrote this track, I was going through some major changes in...
“‘Love’ is a word I was unable to say until I was approaching 40,” explains Jarvis Cocker. “I listened to love songs all the time but couldn’t use the word in real life. The words to this song are me having a word with myself about this state of affairs. I gave myself a real talking-to. I have now learnt how to say it whilst keeping a straight face. ‘You’ve...
“The Sophs arrived out of the great blue yonder,” says Rough Trade co-founders Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee of the label’s newest signing, LA six-piece The Sophs. The band’s brutal honesty, flamingly intrusive thoughts, and broad genre-spreading caught their attention immediately. Rough Trade heard the sort of creativity and variety — and “don’t expect me to act pretty” sentiment — that could get The Sophs — including frontman Ethan Ramon, Sam Yuh (keyboards), Austin Parker Jones (electric guitar), Seth Smades (acoustic guitar), Devin Russ (drums), and Cole Bobbitt (bass) — a slot...
Toronto-based producer, film composer, and author Meg Remy anticipates her intuitive and adventurous U.S. Girls album, Scratch It (out 20 June) with a new single ‘Like James Said’, an ELO-styled nugget of AM gold and nod to James Brown about the healing power of dancing alone. Remy’s own lyrical response to Brown’s ‘Get Up Offa That Thing’, the track showcases her great — and characteristically tragicomic — phrasing, notably on...
Tune-Yards, the dynamic duo of Merrill Garbus and Nate Brenner, have released their new album Better Dreaming. The final single ‘How Big Is The Rainbow’ is accompanied by a music video featuring comedian and actress, Star Amerasu, and directed by Dominic Mercurio. Merrill shares “The title lyric came out in a flash, and felt more sincere than I’ve ever been lyrically, maybe. But in this day and age, there is no...
Arca returns with a new double-sided single, ‘Puta / Sola’. While each track exists in its own distinct sonic world, they are released together to symbolise the complementary force of the liminal, the beauty in androgyny, and integration of both masculine and feminine energies that can harmonise in each person. It is a gesture in response to dualistic thinking – spanning the spectrum between binaries – a quantum entanglement between...
Standing On The Corner returns to give birth to a new single ‘Baby’, along with accompanying B-Side ‘Friends 2day Enemies 2morrow’ and one piece of poetry entitled ‘R U Scared?’. A limited edition 7” vinyl is available via standingonthecorner.com and the XL Recordings webstore. Hand-drawn white label 7” with risograph artwork print in clear plastic sleeve. Standing On The Corner is an Earth-based Art Ensemble founded in 2016 by Shamel Cee Mystery,...
On August 22nd 2025, Baltimore singer-songwriter and producer Nourished By Time will release his highly anticipated new album The Passionate Ones. Crafted between Baltimore, London, and NYC, The Passionate Ones is a sermon, a twelve-track catharsis, howled from the underbelly of late-stage capitalism, a blueprint for building your own altar in the ruins of the American Dream. The project launches today with ‘Max Potential,’ a track revealing a soul unready...
One year on from the release of his breakthrough EP Breathe…Godspeed, Verraco – aka JP López – returns to announce Basic Maneuvers, his debut for XL Recordings that is set to be released on Thursday, 29 May 2025 via the label’s iconic house bag series. Basic Maneuvers began in his birthplace of Medellín with the project’s title track and evolved over several months as the TraTraTrax label-head relocated to Bogotá, where...
Rough Trade Records is thrilled to announce their newest signing, LA via Rhode Island crooner Tyler Ballgame. Renowned for his live shows, Tyler’s music is built on strong melodic hooks and draws subtle inspiration from the 60s and 70s, blending nostalgia and undeniable songcraft. His voice truly sets him apart – Rough Trade Records’ co-managing directors Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee say “Hearing Tyler Ballgame sing just reminds us of...
Lifeguard release a new single ‘Under Your Reach.’ It’s among the band’s hardest-hitting tracks to date, expertly blending their experimental and pop-leaning impulses. Gritty drones and dub-inflected bass give way to a laser beam riff, with guitarists Kai Slater and Asher Case delivering the vocal in loose harmony. The song is drawn from the Chicago-based trio’s forthcoming debut album, Ripped and Torn, out June 6th. Watch the video below! Recorded...
Toronto-based producer, film composer, and author Meg Remy announces her intuitive and adventurous U.S. Girls album Scratch It (out June 20) with the release of an epic and sprawling 12-minute lead single, ‘Bookends’. Co-written with Edwin de Goeji, ‘Bookends’ is the heart of Scratch It. The sprawling ballad pays tribute to Remy’s late friend and former Power Trip frontman Riley Gale, through the lens of Remy’s reading of John Carey’s Eyewitness To History, a historical collection of 300+ eyewitness accounts of great world events spanning twenty-four...
Jamaica Moana releases ‘KEEP IT REAL’ ft. Prinnie Stevens, a vulnerable R&B track about the loss of her father, out now. The Sydney-based queer rap artist is once again proving she can’t be pigeonholed. ‘KEEP IT REAL’ is a reflective slow jam about losing her father at the tender age of 20. Produced by alt-rnb artist and producer Milan Ring, the song takes flight with the crystalline vocals of soul...
Norwegian musician, artist and novelist Jenny Hval releases her new album, Iris Silver Mist. Earlier in the week, Jenny Hval unveiled the final preview, album opener ‘Lay down’, which followed ‘To be a rose’ and ‘The artist is absent’. Just as the scent of iris comes from the roots and not the flower, the album, too, begins underground with ‘Lay down’. “Lay down, down in the deep where your love...
The Scholars is the first new Car Seat Headrest album in five years – an expansive suite of songs that sweeps seamlessly from majestic glam to The Who-worthy bombast. Earlier this month, Will Toledo appeared on the podcast How Long Gone and Paste published a cover story featuring the full group. Writing in Mojo, critic David Fricke blessed The Scholars with a four star review, praising the record as an...
Swedish experimental pop musician and producer Thea Gustafsson (aka Becky and the Birds) shared her self-produced debut album, Only music makes me cry now, in November 2024. After recently being named Producer of the Year at the 2025 Swedish Grammis, she now returns a new track entitled ‘Should’ve known better (choices)’ — a thematic companion to the Only music makes me cry now track ‘I look at the choices i made’, the new single highlights Gustafsson’s unique, current, and...
