The Predatory Wasp
Berlin-based artist Nalan returns with 2009, her first album since 2022’s I’m Good. Out last month on Mansions and Millions, 2009 was written and recorded between Berlin and Istanbul and leans heavily into the reflective power of nostalgia, reshaping the late-2000s into something both sentimental and slightly distorted though a compelling indie-pop lens.
White Flowers, the long-running collaboration between Joey Cobb and Katie Drew, exists within what they call “the realm”, described as “a shared creative space, wherein time, rather than being a restrictive force, is fluid and boundless, and music exists as an endless conversation with their past and present selves”. Now, that’s all a little too pretentious for me, but: breathy vocals, Cure-esque, shoegazey guitars and gently winding synth lines? Sign me up.
https://whiteflowersssss.bandcamp.com/album/dreams-for-somebody-else
Usually when couples break up, they don’t decide to write an album together. But in this case, I’m very glad JJ Weihl aka Discovery Zone and John Moods did exactly that. Dreaming for Miles is a collection of songs that were written over the past ten years or so and recorded between their basement practice space and at their home in Berlin. After spending over a decade living together and playing music together, their lives pulled them in different directions, but during the process of separation, they decided to make a final record together. The result is reflective, often deeply sad, but also somewhat hopeful; a beautiful, poignant distillation of two singular artists saying goodbye to one another.
https://mansionsandmillions.bandcamp.com/album/dreaming-for-miles
Some slightly uncharacteristic (for this blog) jangly indie for you today courtesy of Snail Mail from her new album Ricochet. Not sure if it’s due to the fact that it’s Friday and the end of a pretty hectic week, but it’s been making me smile all morning. “Misery feels safe to write about because I am good at it,” she says, “but I’m not bathing in my own agony anymore.” Quite. And “agony” especially feels far removed from these effervescent songs, on the surface at least.
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.
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.
It’s taken me three months to listen to POLIÇA’s new album Dreams Go, but I’m glad I eventually got round to it because I completely love this song. Dreamy and somewhat morose with a fair few subtle electronic flourishes, it’s the kind of indie pop I can’t get enough of.
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
Nilüfer Yanya returns with her new EP Dancing Shoes, out now on Ninja Tune. Dancing Shoes was written alongside a collection of tracks that Nilüfer re-approached with her creative partner Wilma Archer when she returned from touring her latest, insanely brilliant LP My Method Actor aka the best album of 2024. The project includes Nilüfer’s latest singles “Where To Look” and “Cold Heart”, as well as this previously unreleased beauty.
Not new, but good. Taken from her 2024 album Someday, Now and on my radar as she’s on the Glastonbury line-up. Strong Fleetwood Mac vibes in the melodies.
The Predatory Wasp 