Cross Record Announces New Album, Crush Me, Out March 21st

Cross Record — the project of UK-based artist Emily Cross — announces her new album Crush Me, out March 21st via Ba Da Bing Records, and presents its lead single/video, “Charred Grass.” “Charred Grass ” is a pretty song with a queasy aura. Cross sings in a hushed voice, over hazy guitar in a way that suggests all's not well. The video visualizes this; as she walks delicately through the woods, impediments continually break her stride. The track is about “moments that stick with me, and help me feel real— essentially, times in which time itself ceases to exist.” Cross elaborates: “I drive past a lot of fields, and one morning I saw a big fire. The next day there was a baby calf laying on the bit of charred grass close to its mom, who was making eye contact with me as I drove by. Sometimes the car scares the cows but this one seemed to convey only peace and calm.”

This is her first release since her “intricately detailed” (Paste) 2019 self-titled LP . Crush Me is an album that is steeped in the pressures and wonders of existence—a profound statement, especially coming from artist and death doula Emily Cross. A two-and-a-half-year gestation period offered challenges, disappointments, and joys reflected in the cramped space of the album, which explores how we handle the weights we carry. Cross began writing Crush Me fresh off a tour with Loma, her band with Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski. She was five years into serving clients as a death doula, holding hundreds of Living Funerals, a process during which Cross guides participants through the rituals of their own deaths. After moving from Austin, TX to Dorset, UK, she established the Steady Waves Center for Contemplation, where she hosted Living Funerals, met clients, scheduled mindful tea sessions, and showcased experimental music nights. All the while, she was scribbling down song ideas. After sending her demos to a major indie label and receiving real interest, Cross prepared a two-week recording session in Germany with a group of skilled musicians from around the world, unlike her usual, inexpensive recording processes. Comfort and traditional structure were eschewed - she left plenty of room in her demos for experimentation, collaboration, improvisation, and obliteration, then resurrection when necessary. Upon leaving Germany, the record was unfinished, and without a roadmap. As passages were recorded as isolated parts, Cross and musician Marcin Sulewski collaborated, facing a haphazard brick pile, waiting to be assembled. Work dipped in and out of view over many months. During that time, the aforementioned interested label went radio silent. Collaborators disappeared,continuing the themes of abandonment, surrender, and disarray that followed the project. Cross physically felt her entire body go numb. In a twist of fate, the record was rescued by long-time friend and supporter Ben Goldberg at Ba Da Bing Records who was eager to help realize the project. Cross worked for months on the album, all the while nursing a pregnancy and continuing her full-time funeral work. The last minute participation of Seth Manchester of Machines with Magnets, who mixed and mastered, was an essential liferaft. He gave true final form to the abstracted songs. Vocals, guitars, and keyboards float above, as drums and upright bass (often bowed) lurch beneath. Crush Me has the effect of a spell being cast, with songs balancing heaviness and levity.

Scrounge Almost Like You Could Out April 18th

Almost Like You Could ignites its art punk fire with Lucy Alexander proclaiming, “Everyone wants something to talk about/ But not a minute to spare, so be brief.” Not surprising from a song that’s 1:54 (‘Higher’), but the raw honesty in her lyrics ring far after the music ends. Alexander, along with bandmate Luke Cartledge, place the propulsive power of their beliefs at the core of their debut full-length album, and their guiding motivation towards social justice is as fierce as it is welcoming.

“Living as part of the queer community, and being queer myself, leads me towards supporting every person’s truth,” Alexander says. Scrounge’s songs skip to a fast beat, electrifying the entire album with a sense of empowerment. Their approach is OG punk: they make music for their peers and themselves. Only now, with a world of connections possible, they’re able to open arms wide for a far-reaching embrace. Alexander’s rich vocals give their sound its central force, anchoring the songs with confessional lines (“If this is the pinnacle, then I need a miracle/ Cause everyone’s laughing at me,” “There’s not much left/ this corpse I have to keep/ Above board.”). They sing about economic inequality, political corruption, environmental destruction, and collective change. “We’re inspired by those around us, and we write about what we care about. Art has always existed for us as a means of catharsis, a way of expressing something we might not be able to otherwise, and we hope our music can be that for other people too,” says Alexander.

“I think I’ve actually written a filthy banger,” she states while relistening to “Buzz/Cut”, a grunge-honoring hammer of a song that takes a journey from disappointment, to self-realization, to release. Alexander and Cartledge’s gratification in making an album they’re proud of mirrors the empowerment conveyed in their lyrics. 

A follow-up to debut mini-album Sugar, Daddy (Fierce Panda, 2022), Almost Like You Could came together over 18 months, in between “teaching, touring, graduation, and a wedding”, as Lucy explains, for the band always has a handful of shows coming up. It’s a strange outcome for a duo who first bonded over their mutual love of SOPHIE. “She radicalized the structure of sound, and revealed herself through it,” Cartledge explains.  “That was a massive inspiration when we started playing together, stripping everything away to open up new possibilities as artists and as people."

Having already toured Europe and the States, Scrounge is preparing to be on the road throughout 2025. In a world where the idea of true community is ephemeral, Lucy and Luke seek to foster it everywhere they play. And their belief in change is ultimately buoyed by hope. “I know that it’s never been this good,” they sing.

Lisel Releases Captivating New Music Video for Latest Single “The Past Is A Tiger”

Lisel releases the video for “The Past Is A Tiger” off The Vanishing Point, which comes out October 18, 2024. "The Past is a Tiger" is an emotionally direct and evocative song that blends both macabre and ethereal soundscapes (harsh growls, eerie industrial whistles, bell-like synths) with incisive, probing, and self-critical lyrics. The song reflects on how the past can be both elusive and dangerous—something that lurks and occasionally resurfaces. Lisel’s floating vocals and the intricate, dark, experimental production create a haunting atmosphere, inviting listeners to contemplate how memory and melancholy can often lead to self-obsession and self-absorption.

Director Julia Ponce Díaz says,  “We developed a series of visual ideas that were inspired by representations of the myth of Narcissus in painting and sculpture, reflecting on how we willingly contribute to our own self-destruction through thought patterns and behavior we know aren't worthwhile but can't give up. The element of the pond, and the emphasis on reflections and portraiture all derived from this simple concept.

The song and video balance opulent beauty and tension, offering a mesmerizing exploration of time and self-reflection. BAFTA Newcomer Fellow, Julia Ponce Díaz’s visually striking video pairs its stunning, lush scenery  and baroque, extravagant garments with the song’s eerie, mournful undertone. The video encapsulates the melancholy of the lyricism, juxtaposing dreamlike visuals with the raw emotion of Lisel’s performance. “The Past Is A Tiger” showcases the most evolved project between Díaz and Lisel, with stunning production value that is a continuation of their previous collaboration on Lisel’s “Blades of Grass.” 

CREDITS

Song Written, Produced & Performed by Lisel

Director: Julia Ponce Díaz 

Choreographer: Annalise Gehling

Producer: Gia Rigoli 

Cinematographer: Annalise Gehling

Production Designer: Kailah Armond

Editor: Colton Warren 

Wardrobe: Vera Moles

Gaffer: Micah Goldfarb

1st AC: Bella Parisot

Colorist: Taylor Black

Art Director: Demi Anjorin

Set Dresser: Amy Aivazian

Make-up Artist: Guity Rafik-Surrey

Hair Stylist: Graciella Padilla

Production Company Discordia & Vulnerable Ramble

Big Blood’s Quinn and Aidan’s New Band, The Wickies, Announce Self-Titled Debut Album

Quinnisa Kinsella-Mulkerin recorded her first song at five years old with her parents, who comprise the adventurous Maine band, Big Blood. Ever since the age of five, she was writing songs, banging on chimes, strumming guitars, and clanging together whatever else she could find. Improvisation was natural, and she stuck to the approach. Quinn brings this innate sense of songwriting to The Wickies, a duo she formed with Aiden Arel a year ago at age 16, whose chill approach and fluid delivery belie true inventiveness in the underneath mechanics.

Inspired by seventies folk icons like Stevie Nicks, Krautrock bands like Can, and modern indie-rockers like Alex G, The Wickies feel like an amalgamation of these decade-spanning sounds, but uniquely their own. Quinn’s voice croons like a seventies folk star, but it possesses a great and controlled tone. Her vocals feel like another instrument within the mix, building and growing each song to its fullest sound, leaving no detail within the mix unheard. Their use of echoing guitar lines recalls sixties psych, a springboard for their unique take.

Quinn’s lush, free-flowing lyrics, created on the spot, complement Aiden's fleshed out backing instrumentation and over-dubbing. Quickly, the pair created more material than they ever needed, allowing them to mold their recordings into a self-titled debut album. Like a painter crafting the perfect exhibition of their finest work, Aiden and Quinn condensed their improvisations to all the best parts. Tracks like “Campfire Song” and “Skipping Pond,” exemplify the ethereal and lackadaisical atmosphere of their sound. “I keep finding these weird, obscure bands from the seventies that have one album and nothing else, which is awesome,” Quinn said, “I want my music to sound like somebody found it in a record store that no one has ever heard of and uploaded it to YouTube. I want it to sound a little strange.” 

The single “Baby Maria” is out now. The full album will be released on October 4, 2024, via Ba Da Bing Records.

36 Delivers Mesmerizing Soundscapes with New Album Dreamloops

First appearing in 2019 as a series of cassettes, Dreamloops was revisited by Huddleston in 2023 to bring newfound clarity, focus, and cohesion. The eight pieces, each an 18:00 minute standalone self-contained work, the tracks are unified, joined by a shared approach of hypnotizing loops that artfully shift and mutate. In each song, time slows as an ensemble of sounds builds on themes and develops emotional power. In the lineage ofMuch like epic works such as The Sinking of the Titanic by Gavin Bryars, LaMonte Young’s Well-Tuned Piano, Daughters Of Darkness by Natural Snow Buildings and Morton Feldman’s String Quartet II, each fragment of Dreamloops culls developing melodies towards hauntological steps forward. Sound spectrums don’t spread wide but instead focus on a precise musical statement, exploring its absolute potential.

That said, Dreamloops does not exist in its own idealized sphere. Deep listening reveals tape hiss, oversaturation, wow & flutter, and similar imperfections. The fingerprints deepen part of these tracks’ emotional impact. Henryk Gorecki’s humanity meets Max Richter’s sense of grandeur meets Deathprod’s absolute sound mining, as Huddleston deftly maneuvers his songs toward momentous epic impact. “Emotions get tied in our mind with specific sounds,” Huddleston says. “The whole point of creating music is to explore and discover those frequencies.” A simmering nostalgia is ever present.

"These are slow, hypnotic tracks, that exist in their own time and space. You may be surprised how much changes over the duration of each track. All tape-related artifacts such as hiss, saturation, wow & flutter are both intentional and encouraged. Careful listening will be rewarded. These aren't for everyone, but if you have the patience, they might be exactly what you need."

While the title describes them as loops, this is somewhat misleading, as the tracks are constantly evolving, slowly revealing new melodies, textures and emotions. Each tune was made to be self-contained, yet they work equally well as a long-form listening session. Keen ears will surely be rewarded.

36 (pronounced three-six) is the alias of UK producer Dennis Huddleston, who has been a prolific and leading figure in the modern ambient scene, following his 2009 debut album Hypersona. He currently releases music on A Strangely Isolated Place and Past Inside The Present. He also runs his own label 3six Recordings, which is where he released some of his most celebrated albums, including Lithea and Void Dance. The core of the 36 sound is a combination of warm melodies and widescreen atmospheres that is never shy from the abstract, but one that remains highly accessible. It's dreamlike, introspective midnight music, and the perfect soundtrack for your own Strangely Isolated Place.

Snowgoose Returns with Descendant: A Journey Through Timeless Folk-Rock Sounds

Acclaimed folk rock band Snowgoose are set to release their long-awaited third album, ‘Descendant,’ through Violette Records & Ba Da Bing Records on October 18, 2024.

The follow-up to 2020’s critically acclaimed ‘The Making Of You’ (”...an album that blends Pentangle’s limber folk-funk with the crystalline guitar pop of 10,000 Maniacs.,” Uncut),
‘Descendant’ offers a profound narrative of human emotion, meticulously crafted by the core duo of guitarist Jim McCulloch (The Soup Dragons, BMX Bandits) and vocalist Anna Sheard along with their talented ensemble of Scottish indie royalty.

Snowgoose have been a notable presence in the Glasgow music scene since emerging with their 2012 debut ‘Harmony Springs.’
‘Descendant’ continues their exploration of intricate
musical landscapes, delving into themes of love, loss, and the fleeting moments of life. Anna Sheard describes the album: "Descendant explores the delicate interplay between the joys of love and the inevitability of loss. Each song navigates the complex emotions that connect these experiences, serving as a reflection on the beauty and pain of impermanence."

Recorded live at Chem 19 Studios in Glasgow, ‘Descendant’ captures the raw, unfiltered essence of Snowgoose’s sound. The album features contributions from Raymond McGinley
(Teenage Fanclub) on guitar, Chris Geddes (Belle and Sebastian) on keyboards, Stevie Jones (Arab Strap) on bass guitar, Tim Davidson (Tracyanne & Danny) on pedal steel, Stuart Kidd (BMX Bandits) drums, and Adam Stearns (Trembling Bells) drums and percussion, enhancing the textured, emotive layers that define the band's music.

Snowgoose has consistently garnered praise for their musical depth and emotive songwriting. The Sunday Times have praised their “purity and precision,” while The Scotsman praised Anna's vocals for invoking "the spirit of Sandy Denny, a soothing instrument no matter what sorrow she is imparting."

To celebrate the release of ‘Descendant,’ Snowgoose will embark on a UK tour during October 2024, featuring both full band and intimate acoustic performances alongside Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines). 

Lisel Announces New Album The Vanishing Point, Exploring the Intersection of Pop, Avant-Garde, and Existential Crises

Lisel (Eliza Bagg) returns with her latest release, The Vanishing Point, an expansive exploration of vocal experimentation, pop tropes, and the existential anxieties of living in an era of crisis. Blending mainstream aesthetics with avant-garde sensibilities, Lisel crafts a boundary-pushing electronic landscape that foregrounds melody and operatic drama within the framework of contemporary pop. As a professional opera singer, Bagg brings a unique perspective, using her classical training to create songs with grandiose scope, all while working within the pop medium. The Vanishing Point—the follow-up to her 2023 release Patterns For Auto-Tuned Voices And Delay—seamlessly integrates auto-tuned and manipulated vocals with striking electronics, resulting in a vivid, emotionally charged sonic experience.

The first single, “Time & Money (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying)”, introduces listeners to the album’s conceptual themes. Beginning with harsh metallic percussion and distorted speech samples, the track builds with driving synths and Lisel’s soaring vocals. It quickly transforms into a futuristic soundscape, offering a speculative narrative from the perspective of an engineer resetting the simulation of our existence. With its edgy, yet danceable energy, “Time & Money” sets the tone for The Vanishing Point’s ambitious exploration of the human condition.

Drawing on mythological storytelling, Lisel transforms dystopian tales into allegorical pop songs. The Vanishing Point paints a sonic portrait of a world on the edge, where ancient musical traditions meet hypermodern sounds. The result is a high-concept work that blends operatic scope, experimental pop structures, and hyperpop motifs. The album’s emotional directness and sonic depth reflect the shared experience of confronting an uncertain future, ultimately leading to the vanishing horizon.

Tracks like “Rings” fuse baroque-inspired clavier synths with futuristic themes, while “The Past Is A Tiger” grapples with collective responsibility for past mistakes. Meanwhile, “On The Road To” combines harsh metallic sounds with electronically fabricated harpsichords to depict a futile path forward. Each song functions as a modern-day parable, blending ancient myth with contemporary pop to form a dystopian fable for our times.

Visually, photographer Carla Rossi complements Lisel’s sonic world with a series of hyper-stylized images that draw on Renaissance and Medieval painting. These photographs position Lisel in classical poses, wielding symbolic objects, bridging the gap between storytelling of the past and a digital, imagined future.

With The Vanishing Point, Lisel continues to dismantle genre conventions while forging a path that merges operatic expression with cutting-edge pop, crafting a soundtrack for a world on the brink of transformation.

Asher White releases new single, "Theme From Leaving Philadelphia"

Asher White releases new single, “Theme From Leaving Philadelphia,” off of her upcoming album, Home Constellation Study, out June 28.

“Theme From Leaving Philadelphia,” is the second offering from her upcoming album, Home Constellation Study, out June 28 on Ba Da Bing Records and Feeding Tube. The feverish track picks up right where White left off on her last full-length LP, New Excellent Woman, and expands with an ever-shifting rock and chamber pop sound. White’s high-drama, vaudevillian album opener follows her on a hungover, early-morning train ride up the East Coast, dazzled by the scenes whirring by outside, communing with the fellow passengers. Uncertain as she voyages into new creative terrain, winding orchestral loops swirl around her. White’s singing is, as always, as celebratory as it is self-conscious. The song chronicles the spontaneous feelings of a drunk Amtrak ride, leaving the city with unbridled honesty, “Leaving Philadelphia was not fantastic, it was fine.”

White gave us a proper introduction to her world on last year’s New Excellent Woman. Home Constellation Study lets us see into her ever-expanding and unpredictable vision more closely. Arranged, performed, recorded and mixed by White alone in her basement Providence studio, the album is indicative of her invocation and sole creativity. It’s another distillation of White’s singular voice, at once sardonic, guilty, compulsively accommodating, and profoundly optimistic.

You can stream and purchase White’s latest single here and pre-order Home Constellation Study here.

Asher White's announces new album Home Constellation Study, first single "Downstate Prairie" out today

Home Constellation Study LP Out June 28th On Ba Da Bing & Feeding Tube, First Single “Downstate Prairie” Out Now.

On Asher White’s newest album, she invites you to step into her creation of a volatile, summertime musical odyssey.

Since her first record was made at fourteen years old (now 23), Asher has honed her songwriting, creating seas of melodies from her warehouse studio full of junkyard instruments. Home Constellation Study is a vibrant explosion of creativity, detonating the fussy chamber pop of last year’s predecessor, New Excellent Woman. These new compositions embrace transcendent horn sections, pulsating basslines, and intricate orchestral loops. White sings tales of bad dreams, the excitement of mobility, and the comfort of settling down, all while savoring the sweetness of sour straws and the optimism of newfound love. Her music is simultaneously witty and deeply hopeful, blending wit and honesty with inventive sincerity. 

“Downstate Prairie”, the first single from Asher White's upcoming album, Home Constellation Study, is being co-released in a special collaboration between Ba Da Bing and Feeding Tube. Opening with combustive, Swans-caliber heaviness, the song adds another piece to her elaborate, experimental folk diorama. “Downstate Prairie” questions the social geopolitics of the Midwest, using skittering drums and untamed guitar noise to color Asher’s composition.

Listen to “Downstate Prairie” here

Home Constellation Study is out June 28th.

Or Best Offer announces their debut album releases their single “Jacket”

Or Best Offer announces their debut album, ‘Center’, out January 26th, and releases “Jacket,” the first single.

On ‘Center’, Grace Schmidhauser and Brian Culligan invite us into a world of unstable nostalgia; footsteps, carnival noises, and sludgy guitars coalesce with moments of sublimity.

The experimental rock duo made up of primary songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Schmidhauser, and drummer and synthesist Culligan. They work with a sense of ceaseless wonder and invention, moving between instruments and technique with fluidity and intuition. After years of collaboration in various forms since their initial meeting in 2018, Or Best Offer’s debut album Center arrives as both a document of and extrapolation on their live sound. The album was created and mixed during a period of geographical transition for Schmidhauser, and fittingly, the world of Center has a unique physics and an unstable gravity, as prone to sudden weightlessness as it is brute force. Recorded and produced by the two entirely in Culligan’s Ridgewood bedroom, Center takes a sensitive, loving approach to its materials with both molecular precision and widescreen grandeur. Distorted ribbons of Wurlitzer twirl against clattering cymbals; signals cut in and out like farewell transmissions.

Listen to “Jacket” here

BARBARA MANNING HAS A NEW RECORD & IS PLAYING SHOWS WITH CODEINE

Barbara Manning’s new CD ‘Charm of Yesterday...Convenience of Tomorrow’ is out December 8th. 

In a four minute catchy song, Manning can communicate what others require novels to express. Whether it’s the songs she covers or her original material, Manning’s music is compact and succinct, and is steeped in multitudes of genre periods and styles.

With an upcoming tour joining Codeine, Manning felt the time was right for something new. Thus, ‘Charm of Yesterday...Convenience of Tomorrow’. It compiles a few different periods. ‘Chico Daze’ is a song cycle that absorbed the dark times and experiences she had in Northern California through the 2010s. ‘The Porch Series’ cover songs were Manning’s antidote to pandemic madness, and features the music by Elliott Smith, Edgar Winter, Richard & Linda Thompson, Galaxie 500, Bob Dylan and The Handsome Family.

The first two singles off of her new album are already out and give a taste of her genius; Her rendition of ‘Twilight’ by Elliott Smith, and her original ‘I’m Running’.

Listen to songs from the album and preorder here

Delia Meshlir Releases New Single, Announces Sophomore Album

Delia Meshlir announces sophomore album ‘Bring Back The Light’, out on November 10th.

Grief can open a window to the past. Nostalgia whelms, and childhood memories surface. We come face to face with a longing to feel grounded and alive, and in these moments, we can forget our purpose in the universe. While making ‘Bring Back The Light’, Delia Meshlir struggled with the loss of her grandmother and the severed ties she felt with her family. The phrase “bring back the light” served as a mantra, manifesting with return to authenticity and a celebration of healing.

Her first single off the new album, ‘Love’, is out today. The video for ‘Love’, directed by Stephane Ryter, is a moody backlit affair, where Meshlir slowly emerges from the dark to dance and sing. And that is precisely the feeling this song evokes. The song has a melancholy tone, while also making you want to lace up your dancing shoes to get up and boogie just like Meshlir does in the video. 

Watch the video here.

Big Blood August Show Dates

First Aid Kit. Released June 2023.

The psychedelic-folk-rock family trio band, Big Blood, are hitting the stages in August. Each night has an eclectic roster and eccentric location, bound to stir delight. Check out the dates below and stop by to see some songs from their recent album release, First Aid Kid, in action.

8/5 Dream Away lodge - Becket, MA

Big Blood, Mal Devisa, and Wednesday Knudsen 

Show Starts at 7:30 PM

8/6 LOST BAG - Providence, ri

Black Pus, Big Blood, Baby Baby Explores, Membrana Monstera

Tickets $15-$20, Doors 7:30 pm

8/11 WFMU Monty Hall - Jersey City, NJ

Big Blood, Snake Union, Motte

Doors Open 8 pm

8/12 Farm Music Festival - Spring Hills farm Dalton, PA

Aviva Jaye, Hot Tears, Big Blood, Kimya Dawson

Show at 7 pm 

Big Blood Announce New Record; First Single '1000 Times' Out Today

Big Blood announces the upcoming release of another spellbinding LP, First Aid Kit, to be released collaboratively on Ba Da Bing Records and Feeding Tube Records. Out today, ‘1000 Times’ is a sincere teenage ode to crushing hard; intense and emotive psychedelic rock melodies are interwoven with orchestral harmonies and lulling guitar solos. All the while, the drum is steady and prominent - like a pulse. The record is out June 9th.

“She can be a real pain in the ass,” is how Big Blood’s Caleb Mulkerin and Colleen Kinsella describe having their daughter as a member of the band they formed in the wake of Cerberus Shoal’s dissolution. A band made up of family seems like an ideal situation. You get to play with those you love, and practicing/recording is always just a matter of going into the next room. “If you don’t have kids, I can imagine that is an obvious assumption,” Caleb says. “However, if you do have children, I don’t need to explain how much of an emotional mess this can be.”

While any fan of the band will tell you that no two albums sound very much alike, First Aid Kit displaying for the first time their affinity for the emotional effects of bands like The Cure, Bauhaus and The Clean, there’s a clear thread throughout all their records. Their songs achieve the double satisfaction of being immediate, catchy and memorable, while also revealing inner depths at repeated listens. Some of the best experimental music is cloaked as mundane.

First Aid Kit was recorded entirely at the family’s home onto 1” eight-track tape. It achieves the magic of capturing a moment and making a lasting impression. There aren’t many family bands, and there’s definitely no other band like this.

Listen to “1000 Times”

Pre-order First Aid Kit

Lady Lamb announces 'Ripely Pine [2023 Deluxe Edition]

We are a decade on from the release of Lady Lamb's Ripely Pine, marking a nice round number to create this definitive, luxury edition of the album. With the original songs remastered, as well as reams of additional material produced and arranged by Spaltro and mixed by original co-producer Nadim Issa, Ripely Pine [2023 Deluxe Edition] captures the time, mood, art and ambition of Aly Spaltro in her early twenties, who had already accumulated years of playing and self-recording experience before laying down tracks for this giant of a debut record. She took her poetry, set it to music and fueled it with the energy she experienced sharing the songs with early audiences. The album was cause for immediate celebration in New England, while serving as a new talent clarion call around the world. 

Ripely Pine means so much to its fans that it’s become more than just an album. Many relate it to their own lives and wherever they were ten years ago, a testament to the raw emotion it contains. From her early days writing after-hours in the basement of her day-job video rental store, using her poetry as lyrics, Spaltro fueled the music with the energy and anxieties of the late teen she was. While many awaited the debut in her hometown New England, Ripely’s release brought international recognition of her burgeoning talent. In the ten years since her debut, Aly Spaltro has remained focused on music that connects, empowers and astonishes.

The Ten Years of Ripely Pine [5xLP box set] contains:

• The classic 2xLP Ripely Pine from 2013, newly remastered by original engineer Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound, including the bonus track "Up In The Rafters," long a mainstay of Lady Lamb live shows that in retrospect should have been on the record in the first place. 

• 23 new recordings made in 2023 with original producer Nadim Issa

• 9 songs from the Ripely Pine era, often played live but never put on tape.

• 7 songs from the Ripely years that have never been heard.

• 6 new arrangements by Aly Spaltro of Ripely classics, including acoustic, piano and strings versions.
• Completely new artwork and design by Aly Spaltro with imagery from the Ripely period

The Veils '...And Out of the Void Came Love' Out Now

Breaking a 7-year hiatus, The Veils make a striking return with the release of ‘And Out of the Void Comes Love.’

Recorded in New Zealand, the double album is the result of a tumultuous period of injury, isolation, and new life. Andrews crafted the music slowly and deliberately, playing the left and right hands' piano parts separately to construct the album around his injury and evoke his emotion through every chord. It is an album intended to be listened to in two sittings with a short break in the middle, or as Andrews instructs: “Make a coffee or smoke a cigarette – but don’t mow the lawn or go to the movies or something, that takes too long.”

Composer Victoria Kelly’s soaring string arrangements play an integral role in bringing the songs to life, as do musicians Cass Basil (bass), Dan Raishbrook (lap steel, guitar), Liam Gerrard (piano), Joseph McCallum (drums) the NZTrio and special guests the Smoke Fairies on backing vocals.

 Buy the record and digital album here.

Tiny Ruins Release Single "Dorothy Bay"

New Zealand band Tiny Ruins remain true to their dream pop roots in their latest release, “Dorothy Bay.” The song’s mellow vocals and beautifully simple chord progressions emulate the tide of the bay being described. Hollie Fullbrook, the band’s lead singer, has a voice that dances over the notes and relaxes into the story being told. She describes the ebb and flow of the bay’s tides, which reveal the mud underneath ever so often, just to be drawn back out by it’s “strong pull harbour-way.”

Just as Hollie describes the movement of the water, the harmonious instruments move in and out of focus over the course of the track. The bass, consistently thrumming in the background, suddenly becomes the most essential noise guiding the song, just to disappear undearneath layers of instrumentation again. Similarly, the electric guitar unexpectedly pulls forward to release powerful chords that add grit to the song’s entire sound. The pull of the psychedelia sound move the listener gently from verse to chorus and back again, creating a song that imitates the natural wonders of which Hollie so eloquently paints a picture.

Directed by Alexander Gandar, the accompanying video is an epic, psychedelic survey of the southern headland of the Manukau Harbour. It took the small crew and band two days of filming to capture the landscape in all its glory - the results are a buzzy, colour- shifting, dreamlike visual confection. Watch the video here

Juni Habel Announces New Album 'Carvings'

Norway’s Juni Habel is joining the team at Ba Da Bing with the announcement of Carvings. Habel is bringing in the new year with the album, out on January 6. The first single/video ‘Chicory’ is out today.

It took us precisely one minute of listening to her new album Carvings to know we wanted to work with her. The album carries this history, one of family intimacy and overcoming grief, through minimal string arrangements, close-mic singing and by acknowledging that sadness can lead to the finest artistry.

Crackled radio-like transmissions from Norway’s rural hinterland. Juni Habel’s fragile finger-picked lullabies warm themselves by the open fire with her rich intimate voice atop twinkling arrangements and strange percussive instrumentation. Like glowing embers in the dark, these songs are odes to life and death, the beauty of belonging and human kinship with nature.

Ba Da Bing is releasing Carvings in North America. It will be out on Koke Plate in Scandinavia and Basin Rock everywhere else.

Preorder the LP here

Listen to/Watch the video for ‘Chicory’ here

Fusilier Album 'Treason' Out Now

Fusilier officially joins the team at Ba Da Bing with the announcement of Treason. The first single from the record, ‘No Words’ was released on July 27. In the accompanying video, dancers twirl and swivel around Fusilier, clutching at him desperately as the punchy song turns mesmeric.  It was directed by Nathan Bajar and choreographed by J. Bouey. 

Mixing genres and styles into a pastiche of emotionally gripping songs, Fusilier hypothesizes that the only road to true freedom of the spirit is through radicalization and reimagining. He questions the complexities of the self and the realities of race & sexuality alongside the expectations of the artist, asking: “How can I exist given that the size of my imagination of me doesn’t yet fit into the ways I am seen?” It fits in today somewhere between TV On The Radio, Perfume Genius, and Radiohead with its precise yet opaque lyrics, guitar riffs, classical motifs and sometimes-soaring, sometimes-crooning melodies. 

Prior to working with Ba Da Bing, multi-instrumentalist Blake Fusilier released his first single ‘The Moment’ in 2016, and his notable recent single, ‘Upstream.’ Raised in Atlanta and based in Brooklyn, Fusilier uses the record as a sort of blank slate on which to explore a myriad of concepts varying from race and sexuality to the internalized pressure and expectations of an artist. Inspired by artists that serve as inspiration to Fusilier, the record contains notes of Bill Withers, Nine Inch Nails, and Fela Kuti.

Buy the CD and digital album here

Heather Trost Releases First Single 'Blue Fish' Off of Upcoming Album 'Desert Flowers'

Heather Trost completed a new album, Desert Flowers, and she’s letting us put it out! This is her third stint away from A Hawk and a Hacksaw, her Eastern-Europe-gone-bananas band with husband Jeremy Barnes, and much like AHAAH, the musicality and musicianship on here is extraordinary. Heather writes angular avant pop for her band, the kind that fans of Catherine Ribeiro, The Zombies, or The Ex would like, and on this album, she truly coalesces her sound into something both alien and fun. “Blue Fish” is the first single, a lullaby with a stinging synth that was chosen by director Peter Strickland to be used as a repeating musical theme in his latest movie, Flux Gourmet. The song recounts a dream resembling a cryptic prophecy: “a gray bird appeared to me on a pebble beach. When the bird opened his beak there was a blue fish flopping around and speaking to me.”

As Trost put together her new album Desert Flowers, she imagined herself sitting out on the mesa amidst the arid climate and sand. Even with such little water to survive, wildflowers bloom. This vision is an embellishment of Trost’s Albuquerque surroundings, an intersection of rural splendor and emptiness. She remains focused on those purple, yellow and orange flowers with faces beaming up to the sky, thriving on very little. “How does a flower grow in the desert?” she sings. Desert Flowers postulates the potential for new life.

Written and recorded in her home studio, Trost’s album began with harmonic frameworks, allowing the melodies to naturally take root. Lush strings and bass are complimented by a slow guitar groove, as Trost soulfully fantasizes about Earth’s regeneration. Each song conveys how opening one's eyes, both literally and metaphysically, is the key to finding beauty. Desert Flowers is out November 11th.

Watch a clip of the Flux Gourmet featuring Blue Fish here

Preorder the CD and LP here