Tag: alternative

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Maria BC – May this rain

Written and recorded throughout the US West Coast, Maria BC’s new album Marathon is both expansive and intimate, ranging from aerial acoustic songs, to glitchy distorted tracks channeling chaos and disillusionment, all while maintaining a strong lyrical through line. “For this record I decided to spend less time on production and recording and more time on songwriting” she says. “The result, I think, is more thematically consistent, lyrically speaking, and more concise”. On first couple of listens, I agree.

https://mariabc.bandcamp.com/album/marathon

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Music

Niko Demus, Merely, MFM – Oscillate

Dreaaaaaaaamyyyy….

https://nikodemus1.bandcamp.com/album/wade-1

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Music

Hannah Cohen – Wasting My Time

This was released seven years ago, but I’ve only just found it and I can’t get over how much I love it. Hannah Cohen put out the brilliant Earthstar Mountain LP last year, but this is taken from 2019’s Welcome Home, which is probably my favourite album of the year so far, if that counts. I just can’t handle the melodies, and yes, of course I’m crying.

https://hannahcohen.bandcamp.com/album/welcome-home

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Music

Imarhan – Tamiditin

Imarhan started out around 2008, a loose collection of friends who began to play together and whose style reflects their cultural and generational background; dry guitar riffs, pop melodies and pan-African rhythms which draw on traditional Tuareg music, African ballads and the modern pop and rock the band heard growing up.This is taken from ESSAM, their fourth album, recorded with the same core lineup, but with a significant shift in their sound and approach, moving toward something more open, modern, and exploratory.

https://imarhan.bandcamp.com/album/essam

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Music

Hannah Cohen – Earthstar

Here’s something else lovely I missed from last year; file this in the Natalie Bergman folder of 2025 albums that belong to an entirely different era. It also strongly reminds me Tim Heidecker and Weyes Blood’s majestic Oh How We Drift Away: arguably the greatest 60s single made this decade.

https://hannahcohen.bandcamp.com/album/earthstar-mountain

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Interviews Music

Cate Le Bon – Jerome

Cate Le Bon’s new album Michelangelo Dying is a reflective, experimental pop record shaped by grief and personal change. Built from warped guitars, processed saxophones, and layered vocals, it moves away from her earlier sharp-edged sound into something softer and more abstract. The lyrics are impressionistic but emotionally direct, touching on memory, identity, and loss. It’s her most introspective album to date, balancing clarity and strangeness in equal measure.

https://catelebon.bandcamp.com/album/michelangelo-dying

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Music

Avi C. Engel – Nyx

Photo credit: Tanja-Tiziana

I’ve written about Avi C. Engel’s music a few times before on TPW and their music always stops me in my tracks. Nyx is the opening track from their latest album, Mote on the UK label Fenny Compton – an 8-track collection based around voice and acoustic guitar – and is as haunting and evocative a slice of alternative folk as you’re likely to hear this year.

https://fennycompton.bandcamp.com/album/fc8-mote

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Hydroplane – Houdini’s Dream

This is the first single from A Place In My Memory Is All I Have To Claim, the new album by Australian atmospheric pop trio Hydroplane. On it, their first music after two decades plus of radio silence, Andrew Withycombe, Kerrie Bolton and Bart Cummings return to the gentle, close-quarters musical world they shared around the turn of the century.

https://hydroplaneband.bandcamp.com/album/a-place-in-my-memory-is-all-i-have-to-claim

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Music

The Orielles – The Improvisation 001

I’m going to Simple Things Festival in a few months, so have been doing the usual things of obsessively listening to every single artist billed. This includes The Orielles; a band whose name I recognise but have never previously listened to. Taken from their 2022 album album Tableau, The Improvision 001 is utterly brilliant, almost unclassifiable and has been on constant repeat for the last few days. And yes, I appreciate this came out several years ago, but also: the past is a largely safe and friendly place that I enjoy exploring.

https://theorielles.bandcamp.com/

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Music

Buscabulla – Divino Tesoro

Se Amaba Así – which loosely translates to “The way love was” – sees Raquel Berrios and Luis Del Valle Buscabull devoting their second album to the examination of modern love and the myriad strains of Latin music to explore their struggles as both artists and a romantic couple. It’s darker in tone that their debut Regresa but no less captivating.

https://buscabulla.bandcamp.com/album/se-amaba-as