featuring @libbyembermusic @liamhorne @henryjamesofficial @mcgrathmcgrathmcgrath @bajunetobeta @tapebbeats @maliobomsawin
Building on a breakout year that saw her earn Spotify Editorial support and recognition as a rising voice in indie pop, Montreal singer-songwriter Libby Ember shares “Pool Life,” a wistful and quietly reflective single that captures the feeling of watching life unfold from the outside and wondering what it would be like to step fully into it. Blending intimate lyricism with airy, understated production, the track explores social longing, identity, and the subtle ache of feeling just outside the frame of “cool” or effortless belonging.
At its core, “Pool Life” is about perception: the way certain people seem to move through life with spontaneity and ease, as if constantly living inside a moment you were never quite invited into. For Libby, the image of “Pool Life” became a metaphor for that distance.
“It’s about watching people’s lives from the outside, seeing the way that the ‘cool’ people choose to live, and feeling like I’m missing out on that,” Libby explains. “The title just encapsulated that feeling for me since when I think about these people I just imagine hanging out by the pool and spontaneously jumping in as a metaphor for the way they live their lives ‘on the spot’.”
Irish artist and songwriter McGrath (Mick Russell) returns with his deeply personal new single Home, released August 13th via Some Action Records. Written as a heartfelt tribute to his hometown of Rathmullan, Co. Donegal, the song reflects on the people and place that shaped him, offering comfort to anyone who has ever found themselves longing for home.
Originally from Donegal and now based in Belfast, McGrath has steadily become one of Ireland’s most compelling emerging songwriters. Discovered while performing in a local Donegal pub, he has built a reputation for pairing rich storytelling with sharp wit and an unmistakable vocal delivery. His songs explore everything from drinking stout with his father to the arrival of the horsemen of the apocalypse and the ever-turning Rotha Mór an tSaoil (‘The Great Wheel of Life’), always balancing humour with emotional honesty.
On Home, however, McGrath turns his focus towards the place that started it all.
Speaking about the song, he says:
“They say it takes a village to raise a child. That sentiment is certainly applicable to my upbringing. I hope that this song comforts those who miss home. I also hope it manages to deliver as much gratitude as possible to my beautiful hometown and its people. My Rathmullan.”
One of bass music’s most in demand producers Tape B continues the biggest creative chapter of his career with the release of “Signature Sound,” an original collaboration with legendary Atlanta producer Zaytoven, arriving across DSPs on August 12th.
Equally inspired by the cinematic sound design of early 2000’s era dubstep and the storytelling of hip-hop, Tape B has spent years blending those influences into a sound uniquely his own. “Signature Sound” becomes the clearest expression of that vision to date, bringing together two worlds that have shaped his artistry since he first began producing.
Joining forces with Zaytoven – whose unmistakable production helped define the sound of artists including Gucci Mane, Future, Migos, Young Thug, Lil Uzi Vert, and 21 Savage – feels less like a crossover and more like the natural next chapter in a creative journey that has always existed at the intersection of bass music and hip-hop.
For Tape B, the collaboration represents a defining moment in his career. Across the past several years, he’s consistently paid homage to hip-hop through widely celebrated reworks of artists who helped shape his musical identity.
His catalog includes fan-favorite unofficial remixes of Mac Miller‘s “Loud“ (2.1M streams), Flatbush Zombies’ “222” (1.2M), and A$AP Rocky’s “Goldie” (1.2M), alongside a growing collection of hip-hop-inspired edits that have become staples of his consistently sold-out live sets. The longstanding appreciation for the genre culminated in his first official hip-hop collaboration, “Trippy Land” with Juicy J in 2024, which has since surpassed 4 million streams across platforms.
Anechoic is the upcoming release from Tokyo-based composer, producer, and acoustic researcher Bajune Tobeta. It will be released this Friday, August 14th, 2026 via CROIX Co., Ltd. / electric sheep.
The record explores the space between sound and silence, drawing from contemporary classical composition, lo-fi electronics, and piano to create a work that feels both intimate and vast.
Anechoic takes its title and opening track from the concept of the anechoic chamber, a room engineered to absorb all reflections of sound. Tobeta, who studied under Ryuichi Sakamoto and has built a decades-long acoustic research practice exploring the relationship between sound and human consciousness, translated this concept into music: a fusion of orchestral instrumentation and electronics that renders silence itself as a compositional element.
Today, Tobeta shares the final single “Satie’s Dream.” Indebted to the philosophy of Erik Satie, floaty, yet complex piano chords offer a nuanced interpretation of avant-garde classical.
Tobeta shares some insight into “Satie’s Dream”: “Erik Satie proposed ‘furniture music’ in the 1920s, sound designed to exist in the background of daily life without demanding attention. I asked myself: if Satie were alive today, what would he hear? What would he compose? This is my answer to that question.”
Analyzing the insecurities associated with being in love while depressed, “Smothering” is a deeply personal track filled with melancholy and self-awareness. The new track was mastered by Joe Lambert (The National, Deerhunter, Sharon van Etten and produced at Miner Street Recordings with the main hand in production being executed by Brian McTear and Amy Morrissey (Kurt Vile, The War On Drugs, Espers).
East London music icon Jah Wobble and Liverpool duo Tian Qiyi are ready to introduce ‘Mystic Liverpool: The Beatles’ Psychedelic Psongbook’ to the world on August 14th via Cherry Red Records and Wobble’s label 30 Hertz. Previewed by ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, these reimaginings treat the material as the genuinely mystical music it always was, with ‘Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ as particular touchstones.
These ten tracks travel through the most exploratory corners of The Beatles’ catalogue. Not simply nostalgic covers, ‘Mystic Liverpool’ treats these songs as a starting point for something more personal: a meeting point between Liverpool, China and Mongolia, between family tradition and contemporary dub, and between the music Wobble grew up with and the musical world his sons have inherited.
Jointly produced by Jah Wobble (aka John Wardle) and his sons John T Wardle and Charlie Wardle (a.k.a. Tian Qiyi), this album was recorded and mixed by John T at Pagoda Studios in Liverpool. Together, they have made these songs uniquely their own, drawing on Wobble’s signature dub bass, John T’s drums, Chinese percussion and yangqin, and Charlie’s vocals, erhu and morin khuur. The boys’ mother Zi Lan Liao — a Royal Academy of Music–trained harpist and the most recognized gu-zheng performer worldwide — also contributes gu-zheng on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’.
The east coast rap scene has been heating up with rapper Surf7 making huge waves over the last few weeks. Soon after the release of “GOOSE COAT,” which has amazed over 5 million US streams to date, the Philly native popped out at Loe Shimmy’s tour stop this past weekend – where he got to hear local fans singing the standout track back to him.
First gaining traction through teasing his music on TikTok, Surf7 quickly built a devoted following drawn to his gritty authenticity and relentless work ethic. Built around his rapid-fire lyricism and vivid street storytelling, “GOOSE COAT” is a triumphant account of survival, ambition, and the realities of his come-up. He caught the attention of Philly legend Meek Mill. So much so that the two came together for the “GOOSE COAT (Remix),” which was deemed “a track that demands your attention,” by HotNewHipHop. Surf7 is quickly transforming from a rising local artist into one of the most talked-about new voices in Philly rap with additional media support from Audiomack, iHeart, XXL, and VIBE among others and over 1 million TikTok creates.
Toronto-based indie-folk troubadour John Muirhead unveils The Nomad & The Never Ending Road, a heartfelt collection of songs that explores what it means to spend years searching for home, purpose, belonging, and yourself. Written between highways, airports, hotel rooms, hometowns, and countless miles on the road, the album captures the uncertainty, beauty, heartbreak, and hope that emerge when life refuses to follow a straight line. Leading the record is “Made It Out,” a warm and reflective meditation on returning home only to discover that both the place and the person returning have quietly changed.
Inspired by a year spent back in his hometown of Georgetown, Ontario, between tours, “Made It Out” captures the strange feeling of revisiting a place that once defined you. Familiar streets remain yet storefronts change, fields become parking lots, and lifelong friends build lives elsewhere.
“Being back in town felt strangely unfamiliar,” John explains. “Everything had changed, yet nothing had changed at all. I thought about all the friends who left, and how happy I was for them, even though I wished that they were there with me during that chapter of my life.”
| Cincinnati based artist Henry James House. After recording and touring in various incarnations under the name Pop Empire, House steps to the forefront of these recordings recording under his own name. Last Lights Off The Black West is a fascinating exploration of a distinctly American mode of soul-searching. A kind of Darkness at the Edge of Town / Last Picture Show glimpse of the vanishing natural world and fading American dream that seems to be the domain of Midwestern artist. |
| While possessing a distinctive Marc Bolan swagger and stomp, these tracks feel and sound haunted by a deep sense of ennui and spiritual hunger that undergird the Blues that House covers on Last Lights…Blues is a broad tent here that extends to the 19th Century Jesuit priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (God’s Grandeur), Memphis Slim (Mother Earth), Rev. Thomas Dorsey (Rock Me) to The Jesus and Mary Chain (Living End) alongside seven of House’s original compositions. “Mother Earth” is an infectious guitar boogie, anchored by bouncing synth bass and propulsive drums, showcasing a unique vocal style and interpretation of Memphis Slim’s 1951 classic. Blazing Hammond organ and tastefully irreverent Jazzmaster licks provide counterpoint. The message of memento mori is so simple but so powerful, so artistically inspiring. I think that if you really love beauty, thoughts of death are never too far from your mind. |
Mali Obomsawin, Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist, singer, composer, and citizen of Abenaki First Nation’s Odanak community in Quebec, Canada, today announces her second solo album, Automatic, out October 16 via Out Of Your Head Records, alongside sharing its frenetic title track. The eight-track album grew gradually but intentionally out of what Obomsawin describes as a “disorienting and emotional journey” following the critical acclaim of her 2022 breakout solo debut, Sweet Tooth. The strenuous touring and newfound attention that followed left her reckoning with her place in the music industry as a genre-defying musician navigating an institutional world.
During the rollout of her first album, Odanak received hundreds of hours of mid-1900s ethnological recordings of the Abenaki language previously held exclusively at Dartmouth College, Obomsawin’s alma mater. Though she’d referenced some of these recordings on her debut, this unprecedented access to her ancestors’ words transformed her process. “Behind Automatic is a deep awareness about institutions’ predatory relationship with Native material,” Obomsawin says. “I wanted to make a record that institutions couldn’t own.”
Lead single “Automatic” encapsulates this creative revolution, which pairs Obomsawin’s voice with the archival recordings of her great-grand relative named Malian. On the track, and across the album, Obomsawin worked closely with turntablist Andrew Broder to process and preserve the untidy reality of her source materials: the decades-old, crackling reel-to-reel recordings of her ancestors’ voices. “The turntable is an instrument that explores time and temporality and is able to give a form of agency to the ancestors in the recordings,” Obomsawin explains.
Neon pop punk artist lolitslea is taking aim at today’s dating culture in her new single “Tragedy”. An upbeat track featuring Jack The Underdog, “Tragedy” laments: “I’m so tired of the standard / always being hook ups / I’m just looking for love”. Watch the new music video now here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
“In a world where hookup culture is highlighted, this is my anti-that song,” Lea shares.
“Tragedy” is the latest single from lolitslea’s forthcoming album RollerCoaster Tycoon, which will be out on September 15 features previous release “Summer 09” and “BURNOUT!! BURNOUT!!”. Pre-order lolitslea’s new album RollerCoaster Tycoon now at: https://ffm.to/lolitslea_
Experimental folk band Foot Ox today announces Topanga Canyon, a new album out October 23 via Lauren Records. The band also shares lead single, “Prairie Song,” a song reflecting on grief, memory, and the ways people remain with us after they are gone.
LISTEN: https://lr-d.ffm.to/prairie-
“Prairie Song” somehow feels like the ocean. There’s country music in it – pedal steel, fiddle, big open sky – but it never quite belongs to any tradition. Teague Cullen and Germaine Dunes, both with unmistakable voices, somehow fit together perfectly.
Victoria, BC rock outfit The Bankes Brothers share “Risk It All,” a high-energy, angsty, and jubilant new single that captures the tension between burnout and bold decision-making. Driven by punchy guitars, an old-school rock edge, and a sense of restless momentum, the track channels the frustration of chasing stability while trying to hold onto a creative dream.
At its core, “Risk It All” reflects the reality of building a life in music while navigating the uncertainty that comes with it. “Being in the music industry is everything we wanted starting out,” Nelson Bankes shares. “As we’ve gotten more into it, there’s often a lot more ‘hurry up and wait.’ We’ve all had to work jobs to support ourselves while we chase this thing which can burn you out pretty quick. This song is about that shared frustration, and the reminder that life is what you make of it.”
Toronto-based Peruvian-Vietnamese alternative indie artist and multidisciplinary creative Jenny Palacios is ready to make a mess of things with her newest single, “Ruin Your Life.” Fusing the lustrous edge of modern pop with the punch of alternative rock’s gritty energy, the track finds Palacios at an intersection of an unhinged night out and the very real feeling of having cognitive fatigue.
Originally created as a track about intentionally disrupting a flawless façade and dismantling it simply because misery loves company, “Ruin Your Life” eventually became something much more personal for Palacios. As she continued writing, the anger at someone else yielded to the realization that she wasn’t angry at all; she was emotionally bankrupt.
“I realized I wasn’t really angry at anyone, I think I was just really overwhelmed,” Palacios explains. “The song became less about ruining someone else’s life and more about trying to escape your own head… we kept the title because it’s fun.”
Northern California indie rock outfit Rainbow City Park has returned with renewed clarity on their new single “What’s The Use.” Releasing on August 14th, the emotionally charged track that captures grieving a relationship before its begun marks the band’s first release since their critically acclaimed 2025 studio EP Fruitless. Navigating the lingering pull of an unfinished story, the single introduces the next step in Rainbow City Park’s evolving sound, while keeping their footing in introspective storytelling that has become their signature.
“What’s The Use” began as a stripped-down singer-songwriter composition by frontwoman Danielle Judith and rose in a new form as the band reworked it into a bright alternative pop-rock anthem without losing the vulnerability at its core.
Lyrically, “What’s The Use” takes a journey through challenging emotions that revolve around a relationship that felt possible but never materialized. Rather than enduring the grief of losing a connection, the track invites listeners into a reflection on the loss of something that never had the chance to exist and offering an airy encapsulation of lingering uncertainty that accompanies missed opportunities. With the tracks perspective aiming towards possibility, it results in a balance of shimmering guitar work and emotionally raw lyricism, inviting listeners into an emotional experience where every musical choice reinforces the story being told.
“The goal of the project is to make music that we deeply care about that feels real to us,” the band shares. “We hope the music resonates with our audience and makes them feel something. Production and storytelling are important to us—we want listeners to go on a sonic journey where the music and lyrics feel connected.“
electronicsinger-songwriter duo, Eli & Fur (Eliza Noble and Jennifer Skillman), have joined forces with vocalist, Tailor, for their latest single, “Ceremony.” Out on Boom Records, the deep and bellowing house track expresses deep devotion and intense infatuation.
R&B/Soul multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Henry James returns to the
sound sphere with his highly-anticipated debut album, Love Should Be So Easy, a
deeply personal body of work. Entirely self-produced, the nine-track project presents a rich blend of soul, jazz and R&B textures, steeped in themes of romance and emotional excavation, showcasing an emotional and artistic maturity that cements the Phoenix-based artist’s position as one of the most exciting homegrown talents emerging within today’s R&B and soul landscape.
Pop-R&B singer-songwriter Liam Horne shares the official music video for his latest single, “Again.”
Following recent releases “Paradise” and “Everywhere,” “Again” marks another bold step forward in Horne’s evolution, showcasing his ability to blend emotionally driven storytelling with the irresistible energy of pop-infused R&B. Written alongside four-time Grammy Award-winning songwriter James Fauntleroy and Grammy Award-winning producer Brian Kennedy, the track captures the exhilarating moment when a close friendship unexpectedly blossoms into something more.
Directed by Pat Clark, the music video brings that emotional turning point to life through striking visuals that mirror the tension and excitement of crossing an invisible line.
“With the ‘Again’ video, we really wanted to capture that crazy, split-second shift when you look at a close friend and suddenly think, ‘Oh, it’s you. It’s always been you,'” says Horne. “It’s visual tension, a bit of dynamic chaos, and that super relatable rush of crossing a line you can’t uncross.”
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