British Birds: "Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas" video

English quartet British Birds have made a video for Lie Down With Dogs, Stand Up With Fleas, a track from their Murmurate, Oscillate album : "A loveable mix of psychedelic garage rock, XTC-flavoured New Wave and the Kinks in their late '60s early '70s vaudeville leanings."

Martyrs: Grey Wolf Grey

Welsh synth duo Martyrs are in full-on retro mode on their new single Grey Wolf Grey, using every '80s production trick they had at their disposal as they look into the mirror to find out that their hair has lost its shine and is turning grey. Lamenting the fact that nobody warned them that this could happen - "They don’t sing about it on the radio".

Jon Howells put his recently acquired Fender Bass VI to good use to supply both rhythm and melody, besides his array of guitars, synths and choice bits of tubular bells. Singer Michael Hall unleashed his inner New Romantics crooner capabilities. It does not sound new, but it does sound that it has been always there waiting to make itself finally heard decades after it was created.

heavyskint: Headstone

Scottish blues-infused rockers heavyskint pinched just a bit from All Along The Watchtower for their Headstone single, probably not enough for having a day in court for copyright infringement, but it will give them a way in into the boomers market.

The song deals with making mistakes and not being to rectify them properly, which pisses them off. Plugging in and churning out a track with plenty of swagger was a good way to blow of some steam. The video was made by Daniel Blake and Jamie Kelly.

HCTF premiere - Temp Wishes: Mist Into the Morning

Chicago-based Josh Chicoine (The M's, Cult Canyon), Edward Anderson (1900s, Mazes), Colby Starck (Mar Caribe, Bobby Conn), and Glenn Rischke (AM Slingers, Bora Bora) are early risers, taking a walk with Mist Into the Morning, the new single by their Temp Wishes. They take it slow in '70s funk kind of way, serving up a leisurely mix of percussion, bells and whistles, and the sounds of the great outdoors. They obviously know where they are going, but there is no need to name a definite destination.

Their self-titled debut album will be released on vinyl on November 6 via Sanzimat and Rattleback Records.

Salomea: "stick around" video

Watch the Salomea video for stick around, the opening track from their axxxis album: "Singer and composer Rebekka Salomea leads her band through emotional minefields, snapshots taken during night life and of course the wicked ways of love. While the subject matter has been covered umpteenth times, she has found new ways to tell the tales that need to be told."

The Gentle Spring: Down with Love

Anglo-French melancholic pop trio The Gentle Spring show off their education by quoting Shakespeare's famous line "If music be the food of love, play on" spoken by Orsino, the Duke of Illyria, in Twelfth Night at the start of the video for their new single Down with Love.

It is a nice contrast make a song sounding a tad optimistic while being seriously disappointed. Lead singer Emilie Guillaumot nailed those mixed emotions rather well. Love is likened to a game of scrabble and sometimes one might stuck with a subpar set of letters.

Steven Wilson: "A Basket of Bees (The Village Hall Sessions)" video

Steven Wilson has shared a video for A Basket of Bees, played live (sort of) in the studio with Randy McStine (guitars, backing vocals) and Russell Holzman (drums, percussion) and Shelby Logan Warn (backing vocals), a pastoral prog rocker veering into metal at some point in order to confuse the punters. It is a track from his new album Requiem for a Village.

Coltin Thorn: It’s Time For Me To Leave

Finding closure about a relationship going on the rocks within two minutes feels a bit like rushing it. However, Coltin Thorn, an outlaw Americana singer from Salt Lake City manages this to do so with It's Time For Me To Leave, when he reaches the conclusion that moving on is the only viable option after having tried all other options.

The song falls apart in the last seconds, which is a blessing in disguise as he is obviously overcome by his emotions. Take note of his guitar playing. Sometimes a few notes can tell a whole story.

Barbican Estate: Atlas

Japanese duo Barbican Estate quickly made a name for themselves in the UK underground scene after their moved to London in 2022. On their new single Atlas they cherrypicked drone elements of synth-driven downtempo and post-rock on top of a motorik back beat.

It is easy to picture them on a small stage bathed in strobe lights as they stretch the song even further than the six minutes of this studio effort. Too much of a good thing? Not for fans of the Durutti Column and Can, who will have no trouble let themselves be transfixed, with a few choice guitar notes to break the spell every now and then.

Jordan Galland: "You Killed My Saturday" video

Jordan Galland created a hand drawn animated video for You Killed My Saturday, a track from his No Rockstars album: "He has taken a scalpel to his current life, cut out all the bullshit, and ended up with a bunch of carefully crafted songs. His sense of humour ensures that he is quite content about where he is right now: trying to be a father of a girl. Raising her means that he had reshuffle his priorities, but once he had the diapers thing under control, music made a comeback with a vengeance."

» jordangalland.com

HCTF review of No Rockstars

Low Horizon: Weak

Houston, TX lo-fi rock trio Low Horizon are back with Weak, their new single as a taster for their forthcoming full-length A Hundred Times The Same Way. The foundation of the track is a growling and unrelenting guitar riff propping up singer John Gottlieb celebrating coming out of his shell now that he has found love, but also slightly worried that it might not last.

Lost Signal & The Happy Somethings: Stairs from the Moon

Some things are not supposed to work, but somehow they do. Stairs from the Moon, a collaborative single made by Matt Couchman electronics project Lost Signal and twee trio The Happy Somethings, is a fine example for getting it right against all odds. Wrapped in Couchman's Ultravox-esque soundscapes, the trio's shared vocals manage lift-off in a dreamy trip to outer space. There, being freed from everyday hassles, they can claim everything as belonging to them, as kids like to do when they are convinced that they are the centre of the universe.

DOSS: Howdypartner

photo: Mark Anthony Gilles

Glaswegian duo DOSS inserted quite a bit of electronics into their swaying post-punk single Howdypartner. With lopsided rhythms having a ball with slacker vocals Dorley Mackay (vocals, guitar) and Chilton Fawcett (drums) created a dance song for people who don't like to dance, because that would not be cool.

Marc Soucy: Rebellion And Seduction

Boston-based composer and producer Marc Soucy kicks off his instrumental Rebellion And Seduction with a big and loud piece of classic rock, albeit without using actual guitars, before bringing in jazz as part of the equation. It gets dark and dystopian in a '70s sci-fi kind of way, with short keyboard jabs acting as shooting stars.

Anton Barbeau: "Come Home To Me" video

Watch the new Anton Barbeau video for Come Home To Me, the title track from his latest album: "He and his musicians leave a trail of musical nuggets, some quite obvious, others hiding in plain sight, and the Easter eggs only showing themselves to those with undivided attention and an above average attention span."

» antonbarbeau.com

HCTF review of Come Home To Me

TK: Light & Dark

South Korean composer and pianist Taehyung Kim, who releases music as TK, offers two sides of the coin on his double A-side single Light & Dark, two subdued neo-classical pieces that use carefully applied samples of strings.

His gentle touch sits well within the Romantic tradition, with more contempary flourishes lift it from the safety (and constraints) of New Age. Recommended if you like Zbigniew Preisner.

Wyatt: Morning

Manchester slacker garage rockers Wyatt wrote their debut single Morning shortly after an amp broke down during a show. It made them realise that such a thing isn't that big of a thing to worry about, because shit happens. If anything, they got a nice melancholic tune with a hint of optimism out of it.

Morning is released via Heist or Hit, available on all the usual digital outlets. The video was directed by Seth Lloyd.

Mouth Ulcers: Lady Rust

London neo-goth quartet Mouth Ulcers took one half of The Cure (going as far as namechecking their Head on the Door album) and one half of the Sisters of Mercy for their new single Lady Rust, about an undead women turned vampire who is adamant to kick out all the folks who dare to venture into her Manor House. Everything around her falls apart, because stuff ages while she doesn't. The band's bass heavy take on late '80s early '90s imagery will strike a chord with disgruntled emo teens of all ages.

J.M. Hart: "Tell Me Your Story" video

Singer-songwriter J.M. Hart has posted a video for Tell Me Your Story, a track from his Headwaters album: "Hart keeps it deceptively straightforward, using the tone of his guitar to capture the various moods and no frills lyrics that cut to the chase."

» rowjimmy.net
» J.M. Hart on Bandcamp

HCTF review of Headwaters

Simon Karolis: Furious Racehorse

Simon Karolis, nom-de-plume of Dutch musician Arend Jan van der Scheer, has come out of hibernation with Furious Racehorse, the lead single for his forthcoming album Where To Find Back The Flow. He was the lead singer of LPG, an indie band who made three well-received albums between 2005 and 2012. He has been flying solo since then.

Currently working as a teacher in The Hague he had to squeeze in the recordings of his new songs between his day job and domestic chores. The soft-spoken folk-tinged single is about dreaming about bigger things, but being held back by reality. Spoiler: he is the horse and he does manage to break free in the end. Ilse Hamelink played a wonderful melancholic yet powerful violin part. He shot the video in the dunes near The Hague, with his son Isaac lending a hand.