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R&B BOP OF THE WEEK

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R&b bops of the week, with a late-night soul record about the kind of pull between two people that nobody has a clean word for.

R. Nelson – Gravity

R. Nelson serves up a gorgeous piece of contemporary soul: atmospheric, emotionally precise, and the kind of track that sounds better the third time than the first.

“Gravity” takes the idea of invisible pull between people and turns it into a production choice: the track breathes and kind of evolves slowly. R. Nelson builds his sound around the emotional registers that sit between confidence and self-doubt, between closeness and distance, and “Gravity” is the clearest expression of that instinct yet. This one’s as smooth as butter and has an incredible groove; but best of all the song on top of the groove is fantastic. Excitingly, it’s already picked up international playlist support and media coverage. We’re not really surprised, cos it’s a vibe.

R. Nelson operates out of Washington, DC under his own Ashy Knuckle Productions imprint, and has been steadily building a catalogue that includes “Why Are You So Beautiful” and “Do I Deserve Love” alongside this latest single. His reference points are classic soul traditions filtered through contemporary production sensibility, and we just love where it ends up. A great single, can’t wait for the next one.

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Montana Joanna – Same Stars

Montana Joanna’s “Same Stars” is a gorgeous modern retro soul debut: horns, funky rhythm, a self-taught bassist who went looking for songs and found some brilliant ones quickly

“Same Stars” is built on live instrumentation and a playful, jazzy vocal that sits squarely in the classic soul tradition without ever feeling backwards looking. This has a serious groove, with the horns and funky rhythm section giving it the ‘band in a room ‘ warmth. And not just that, the craft in this song, and melodic confidence, suggests an artist who has been listening closely to this music for a long time before deciding to make her own version of it. It is a strong, fully formed debut single that establishes a clear direction from the first bar.

Montana Joanna is a Santa Fe-based singer, songwriter and bassist who taught herself bass guitar in 2020 and began writing original songs on the instrument almost immediately. She performs across multiple bands and genres, including indie rock band Luminatrix, whose album Hide and Seek charted on college radio in 2024. Her solo work as a modern retro soul artist centres on live instruments and a wonderfully clean, natural vocal tone that owes as much to her jazz background as to the soul records she draws from. It’s incredibly exciting debut and we’re eager to see where Montana goes next.

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Deja Renee – Falling (Lose My Mind)

Deja Renee’s “Falling (Lose My Mind)” is an excellent contemporary R&B single: precise, emotionally raw, and with stunning melodic lines

“Falling (Lose My Mind)” is the new single from Deja Renee, and it’s a special one. Co-written with Sade Frame and A1 Krashn on topline and Destiny Petrel on lyrics, it’s all put together in a pretty exciting package. The vocal is brilliant; an intimate verse before grooving into a stunner of a chorus. The production is exceptional, and I love it’s wavy vibes. But it’s the ending is the track’s best moment: no production to hide behind, just the voice and the subject. Stunning stuff.

Deja Renee is from San Diego and holds an Associate of Arts in Music Performance from MiraCosta College, with a background in classical voice and jazz that gives her technical range unusual for the commercial R&B space. She began releasing original music in 2021, and her 2023 single “Jealous” reached number 36 on the UK iTunes Charts. Her 2025 single “Take Me Home Tonight” was her most well-received release before this one. But we’re falling in love with this one, and it’s definitely one of our favourite singles this month.

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Nia Marie – Selfish

Nia Marie’s “Selfish” is a stunning R&B debut single: written in a few hours from the raw end of a breakup, produced with style and it hits right in the heart

“Selfish” is a the debut single from Nia Marie. It’s got an interesting story, written in a concentrated burst after Nia Marie went to her producer Juan Arango and his wife for support following a breakup. You can hear the rawness of the emotions here, and the production includes a whiskey glass used as a percussion texture, a small detail that sits in the mix as a reminder of how close the song’s origins are to its surface. The vocal is so, so beautiful and it’s only matches by the quality of the song, which stays lodged in your brain for hours.

Nia Marie is originally from Philadelphia and began writing songs at 13, having trained on classical violin from the age of six before moving to piano. She graduated from Berklee College of Music and is now based in Queens, where her collaboration with Arango has been the engine of her recorded output. Her debut EP Because You Said I Love You established her R&B and soul direction, drawing from Jill Scott, Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder. But Nia Marie is firmly in her own lane, and our lives are all the better for it. More of this please, Nia ❤️‍🔥

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Michael Harris – Get U Back

Michael Harris’s “Get U Back” is a stunning piece of contemporary Detroit soul: deeply personal and proof that the Motor City still produces the real thing.

“Get U Back” is Harris’s fourth single, co-created with producer Ryan Freitas at his Detroit studio and written entirely by Harris from direct personal experience: the heartbreak of losing someone and the ongoing effort to win them back. And the hook in the chorus wastes no time in capturing that emotion beautifully. The composition and production is great while Harris brings the vocal, and the creative chemistry between them gives the track a spiritual intensity that sits in the Motown tradition without simply imitating it.

Harris is a Detroit-based singer-songwriter who records at a studio located directly behind the legendary Motown Museum, and the geography is not incidental: the Motor City soul tradition runs through his work as a living inheritance rather than a stylistic reference. His late mother taught him everything he knows about singing, and her influence shapes both the emotional register and the technical instincts of his performances. Since 2020 he has been on a sustained songwriting mission, accumulating enough material for three full albums. It’s a great single, and we hope there’s more in the pipeline for Michael Harris.

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DEEP HOUSE BOP OF THE WEEK

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Warm synths, layered vocals, and the specific emotional weight of a connection that hasn’t quite ended yet: deep house this week from Ascot.

RobbaDucky – The Echo Before Silence

RobbaDucky’s “The Echo Before Silence” is an excellent piece of cinematic deep house: atmospheric, emotionally precise, and proof that dance music and genuine intimacy can co-exist

“The Echo Before Silence” occupies the emotional space of a connection that has started to fade but hasn’t gone yet: that uneasy distance before the silence proper arrives. It’s almost hard writing that, as we’ve all been there. It’s a vibe this one though, and it captures that mood well. There’s plenty of strings and cinematic texture to keep it from sitting purely in dancefloor territory, but it pulses hard when it comes in and should be on every big emotional electronic playlist.

RobbaDucky is an Ascot-based independent electronic artist whose work across deep house, electronic pop and cinematic production has been built from personal storytelling since he began releasing music. Previous singles include “Gravity of You,” and the catalogue he is building shares a consistent preoccupation with the textures of emotional experience: connection, longing, distance and self-discovery rendered in warm synths and feeling-first production. This one’s an absolute bop, and we’re really excited to see where he goes next.

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THIS WEEK’S INDIE FOLK BOPS

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A surgeon who spent forty years writing songs in his head, a Miami debut distributed by Sony, an Albuquerque studio built outside the Nashville machine, a Corby bluesman on his second album, and a Tampere multi-instrumentalist who knew when to ask for help: indie folk this week is five very distinct bangers. Let’s get stuck in.

Tim Camrose – Break The Chains

camrose’s “Break The Chains” is a stunning Americana rock single: written in New York City and carrying the kind of direct emotional weight that it needs to make it work

“Break The Chains” was written during Tim Camrose’s last overseas trip to New York City with his late wife Deb, and the weight of that context sits in every bar. It draws a melodic and structural line from that Cat Stevens’ banger “Father and Son,”. It’s got an almost motown feel to the chorus which I love, especially when the chords shift and the backing vocals come in. It’s fantastic. Extra points to this absolute zinger of a guitar solo, contributed by Jim Kirkpatrick, which sends the outro to the moon. Sadly though, minus points for the fade out, because fade outs are awful, but we can look past it this time. Excitingly, ‘Break the Chains’ will feature on the forthcoming album American Stories, dedicated to Deb’s memory.

Tim Camrose is a singer-songwriter based in the north-west of England who grew up in London and left music behind for over forty years to pursue a career as a surgeon and university professor. Not your typical career change, but we’re glad he’s back. Melodies and lyrics continued to come to him throughout that period, during long journeys and across extensive travels in the United States, where he trained in Chicago and Palo Alto. It’s a great single, and I’ll definitely be diving into the album when it comes out.

Micayla Shafran – Fallen

Micayla Shafran’s “Fallen” is a superb and genuinely affecting piece of ethereal folk-pop, and well worth your attention this summer.

“Fallen” draws on vintage, dreamlike and mythological imagery to build something that feels both intimate and ceremonial. Shafran describes the song as an anthem for people who have sacrificed their own wellbeing to hold things together for someone they love, and the production earns that ambition. The track is released through The Orchard, distributed by Sony Music Group, a significant milestone for a songwriter whose previous work had been self-managed. But best of all, it’s a hazy, dreamy banger and captures a real mood in a fantastic way.

Shafran is a Miami-based singer-songwriter who works in a mode she describes as haunting ethereal pop, pulling from vintage and mythological sources. “Fallen” is her first release under a major distribution deal, a development she has spoken about with notable candour as entirely unexpected, given how personal and exposed the material is. That honesty sits at the core of what makes her work interesting: the songs feel like they come from a real and specific place rather than a carefully managed persona. We’ll certainly be watching her next releases with a very close eye.

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Vincent J. Rigney – My Love Is Just Enough

Vincent J. Rigney’s “My Love Is Just Enough” is an excellent blues-inflected indie folk single: soulful, direct, and proof that Corby has a genuinely distinctive voice in British roots music.

“My Love Is Just Enough” is taken from Rigney’s second album Steel Town Boy, a 2026 release that follows Songs from the Water Tower, his debut. This one’s right to the heart, lovely plaintive vocals and rooted in honest, personal storytelling. The hook is the standout here, and “love being just enough” is a sentiment that’s genuinely touching. We’re not surprised that international blogs, radio stations and playlists have already picked up the track.

Rigney is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer from Corby, a town whose industrial heritage runs through the emotional geography of his work as visibly as it does through the place itself. He performs with a confidence and stage presence that has been building his live fanbase steadily alongside the recorded output, and his reach has extended well beyond the UK through radio and playlist support. My Love is Just Enough is a little stunner and we’ll be returning to it time and time again.

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Grekula – Detached

Grekula’s “Detached” is a genuinely gorgeous piece of introspective alternative rock: a DIY multi-instrumentalist, a pianist colleague from the day job, and a track that neither of them could have made alone.

“Detached” was recorded partly in Grekula’s own studio space and partly at home, and its centrepiece is a piano performance by Mathias Thijssen, a colleague Grekula works with day-to-day who turned out to be the element the track needed. It’s got a hint of late era Talk Talk, in the beautiful Mark Hollis-esque delivery, and is an intensively evocative piece, with an unusual depth for a home production. The subject is the way memory becomes increasingly strange and distant as time passes, how past versions of yourself begin to feel like someone else’s experience entirely. It’s compelling stuff.

Grekula is a multi-instrumentalist from Tampere who typically handles every instrument himself, building alternative rock with a soulful, introspective quality drawn from the moody lineage of Greg Dulli’s work in Afghan Whigs and Twilight Singers. “Detached” is the first time he has brought in an outside collaborator for a central performance, and the results make clear it was the right call. A beautiful single, building into something beautiful.

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Lancaster Rayne – Little Country Boy

Lancaster Rayne’s “Little Country Boy” is a brilliant piece of Modern Bakersfield country: Telecaster twang, a wam heart, and a reminder of the power in roots music

“Little Country Boy” is a real, warm-hearted tune. With a great vocal performance, a brilliant chorus lift and shadows-esque guitar accompaniments. That Telecaster twang sits at the centre of the arrangement, rooted in the Bakersfield tradition that runs from Buck Owens through Dwight Yoakam, and the melody is engineered with genuine radio ambition: wide, driving and direct. There’s definitely a bit of grit in here too, despite that radio sheen, and it’s a memorable, narrative piece.

Lancaster Rayne is an Albuquerque-based singer-songwriter and producer who works entirely from a private studio, outside the Nashville infrastructure. His “Modern Bakersfield” framing describes a genuine aesthetic position: the honky-tonk grit of Dwight Yoakam and Buddy Holly’s melodic instincts run through contemporary production values without softening into the pop-country mainstream. “Little Country Boy” is a brilliant evocative single, and we’re excited for what he does next.

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THIS WEEK’S POP BOPS

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An Oslo tribute to ancient Athens, a London dance-pop star stepping into a more personal register, and a Tønsberg vocalist with ten years of stage experience and a song about pure romantic bliss: pop this week comes in three very distinct flavours.

Grey & Purple Songbook – Athens, Your Spirit Remains

Grey & Purple Songbook’s “Athens, Your Spirit Remains” is a lovely piece of cinematic pop storytelling: the kind of song that takes a genuinely ambitious subject and makes it feel emotionally immediate.

“Athens, Your Spirit Remains” is a tribute to Athens as the birthplace of democracy and modern science, and it earns that ambition through the relationship between its lyrics and arrangement. Not your average pop tune then, but it all really works. The melodic structure works, it’s groovy in a kind of 80s way, and put together in a well-crafted way. The refrain, “Athens, your spirit remains, through the ages it complies” functions as a one of the more unlikely hooks this year, but it really works.

Grey & Purple Songbook is an Oslo-based project operating under the label Grey & Purple Inc., focused on what they describe as text-based music stories: compositions where the lyrical content and musical arrangement are developed together as a single system rather than separately. Their work moves across genres while maintaining a consistent commitment to culturally significant themes and narrative cohesion. Check it out, it’s a great single, and I wonder which city they’ll tackle next.

Allegra – Waterfall

Allegra’s “Waterfall” is an excellent step forward from one of the UK’s exciting pop artists: personal, direct, and straight to the heart.

“Waterfall” arrives as Allegra moves from dancefloor-oriented collaborations into a more intimate, emotive pop space. It’s a natural progression for an artist who scored a number 1 on the Music Week Commercial Pop Chart with her Tiësto remix of “Round & Round,” reached number 2 with “Love You Right Back” featuring DJ Alok, and has placed seven consecutive singles in the Top 3 of that chart since her 2021 debut. Impressive stuff, right? But the main thing to celebrate here is the tune itself. It’s a big, shiny pop track with a zinger of a chorus full of wonderful lines. By the time the second chorus hits, we’re fully sold and it’s lighters in the air time.

Allegra is a London-based pop artist who has built one of the more quietly impressive track records in UK commercial pop over the past five years, accumulating millions of streams, a Top 10 position on the Billboard Dance Chart in the US, a number 1 on iTunes UAE, and BBC TV features alongside her run of Music Week chart placings. “Waterfall” marks a new chapter, with Allegra taking greater creative control of her direction. And we’re very glad for it, because this track is fire. More please, Allegra.

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TRiNA – Save Me

TRiNA’s “Save Me” is a gorgeous Britpop-influenced pop single: warm, nostalgic, and a joyful addition to your summer playlist

“Save Me” is built around the specific feeling of falling completely in love, and it commits to that subject without pausing to reflect. The production draws tastefully on retro textures and Beatles-adjacent melodic instincts, blending them with modern indie pop energy in a way that feels genuinely fresh rather than merely nostalgic. It’s got a lovely, careful build and it all feels very warm and unhurried. But also kinda brash, in the best possible way, it’s above love after all. It basically needs to go right onto your next summer playlist.

TRiNA is a vocalist and songwriter from Tønsberg, Norway, who has been performing solo and with bands for over a decade, including appearances at VervenFestivalen, Fjordbluesfestivalen, and Christmas concerts at Tønsberg Cathedral. She is currently the lead vocalist for the group Ragdolls and has been releasing original material since 2022, with “Save Me” among her most fully realised recordings. It’s a brilliant, well produced single and we’re very excited to see where she goes next.

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THIS WEEK’S SYNTH POP BOPS

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Boston piano-rooted synthwave, a London producer chasing a new dance craze, and a Prague electronic artist building cinematic emotional pop since 2017: synth pop this week spans three cities and three very different ideas of what a dance track can do.

MOMARZ – Party Moves

MOMARZ’s “Party Moves” is a brilliant synthwave dance track: piano-rooted, hypnotic, and a joyful slice of Boston-based electronic pop

“Party Moves” is built on the piano-rooted melodic instinct that runs through MOMARZ’s catalogue, here sharpened into something explicitly designed for movement. And move we will, cos it’s a real zinger this one. It’s filled with hypnotic percussion sequences layered under synthwave textures, with bags of analogue warmth. MOMARZ builds everything himself using a Yamaha electronic piano P-125, a KORG microKEY, and an M-VAVE MIDI piano, all routed through GarageBand, and the quality of that process is audible: the track breathes rather than pounds.

MOMARZ is a Boston-based producer and multi-instrumentalist whose focus on piano-led melody within electronic frameworks gives his work an unusual warmth for the genre. He builds his productions entirely from live keyboard performance and sequenced percussion rather than samples or preset loops, which is what keeps the synthwave influences from feeling nostalgic. “Party Moves” is essential synthwave this year.

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I’m Not a Blonde – Scegli Me (ft. Rachele Bastreghi)

I’m Not a Blonde’s “Scegli Me” is a stunning bilingual electropop single: minimal, melancholic, and one of the most emotionally precise duets this year

“Scegli Me” is the third single from I’m Not a Blonde’s album 11 (The Art of Being a Couple), and it has this wonderful tension at it’s heart: groovy as fuck arpeggios and tight rhythms, set against an ambitious melody wide enough to carry the whole thing. For this listener, it’s produced like a dream, a real treat for the ears and involves synth work that genuinely brilliant.

The track unfolds as a bilingual inner dialogue, Chiara singing in English and guest Rachele Bastreghi of Baustelle in Italian, moving between past and present as the central question sharpens into focus. The use of two languages works great; drawing a picture of how communication in a long relationship operates across registers that don’t always meet cleanly.

I’m Not a Blonde are a Milan-based Italian-American duo, Chiara Castello and Camilla Benedini, whose sound combines 80s synths, 90s Brit-wave guitars and sharp pop melodies into something they describe as wrapped in a veil of melancholy. Live, they build their sonic architecture from layered loops of vocals, guitars, synths and electronic beats, a setup that has taken them to the stages of Franz Ferdinand’s 2018 Bologna show at the Unipol Arena, The Killers at Rock in Roma, and support slots for Wolf Alice and Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. Pretty cool musical CV, huh? But the best bit is the music, cos this is a banger. Check out their whole album below.

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Floor Element – Do The Funky Robot Remix

Floor Element’s “Do The Funky Robot” is an excellent piece of in your face, high-energy electro: dense, stunning and wonderfully brutal

“Do The Funky Robot” is the lead single from Floor Element’s upcoming LP 8 Elements, and it arrives with its own choreographic instruction manual built into the track: Wave, Work, Lock, Pop and Reset. Pretty cool right? Musically, it’s a big old banger this one, with the production fuses 90s Britpop vocal stylings with classic Acid Pro production, creating a deliberately dense sonic environment that sits somewhere between industrial electronic and high-energy workout music. It definitely reminds me of The Prodigy, but it’s also firmly in Floor Element’s own lane, as there’s a keen melodic ear to it too.

Floor Element is a London-based electronic producer whose work spans breakbeat, electro, experimental electronic and commercial dance, drawing on the golden era of dance music while pushing its conventions outward. His productions are built on infectious rhythms and deliberate experimentation, and his catalogue rewards listeners who come from across the genre spectrum rather than a single corner of it. Excitingly, we hear that there’s an album coming soon. And if it’s half as good as this, then we’re in for a treat. Essential stuff.

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MIR3 – I Let You Go

MIR3’s “I Let You Go” is a gorgeous piece of cinematic electronic pop: atmospheric, melancholic, and the kind of immersive dance-pop you can climb inside

“I Let You Go” features atmospheric vocals from MRS over a production that moves between melancholic melody and immersive modern synths. MIR3 works in a space where emotional vulnerability and commercial electronic production occupy the same track without cancelling each other out, and “I Let You Go” is a strong example of that balance. It’s got a brilliant synth hook that’s kind of irresistible, and will definitely sound track my summer. The subject is the specific emotional weight of releasing someone, and the cinematic scale of the arrangement earns the feeling without overstating it.

MIR3 is a Prague-based independent electronic producer and artist who has been active since 2017, beginning with the debut single “Love Is a Drug.” His work blends emotional dance-pop with cinematic electronic textures, and the consistency of that approach across nearly a decade of releases has given his catalogue a coherence that single-focused artists often lack. This is a summer banger and we will be excited to hear what MIR3 does next.

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THIS WEEK’S INDIE POP BOPS

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A Boston bedroom studio, a Los Angeles debut EP follow-up, and a London solo artist who started making jewellery during lockdown: indie pop this week travels light and arrives somewhere interesting.

Fanta Vibez x Gasoline Monk – Keep You Close

Fanta Vibez x Gasoline Monk’s “Keep You Close” is a gorgeous bedroom pop love song: intimate, sepia-tinged, and an absolute R&B stunner

“Keep You Close” was recorded partly in Gasoline Monk’s home studio and partly at Record Co in Boston, the regular workspace for Monk’s Temple Records, and the split environment is audible in the best way: the track has the the perfect warmth of something made in a bedroom and the focus of a proper session. It’s produced in a genuinely beautiful way, channeling indie stuff like Bloc Party but also tasteful neo-soul vibes too. The vocal is the standout here though, it’s beautiful, unique and absolutely compelling, the whole thing deserves to do really well.

Fanta Vibez x Gasoline Monk are Boston-based collaborators and co-owners of Monk’s Temple Records. Gasoline Monk plays bass, keys and guitars across his productions while handling drum programming, and Fanta Vibez brings a vocal range that moves easily between neo-soul, R&B and indie pop. Their reference points include Frank Ocean, Smino, SZA and Willow Smith. “Keep You Close” follows Fanta’s solo EP Project RED and the collaborative single “Could Be The Problem”. It’s one of our favourite singles this month, and we’re really excited for what happens next for this pair.

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Stefanie Michaela – Let Me See the Real You

Stefanie Michaela’s “Let Me See the Real You” is an excellent cinematic pop single: polished, direct, and a genuinely strong follow-up to a stunning debut EP

“Let Me See the Real You” follows Turning Pages, Stefanie Michaela’s debut EP, and takes a direct line on authenticity and vulnerability as its subject. Vocally it’s great, and the euphoric vibes really work here, supported by production that’s modern and cinematic. The track sits happily in the electronic pop and indie pop space, giving it a lovely danceable feel but this one will also work on the radio. The hook is the standout of course, and it shows an artist who clearly understands how to build a song around a specific feeling.

Michaela is a Los Angeles-based pop and R&B artist and a mother of five, including two sets of twins. She came to songwriting through the specific pressures and perspectives that shape a life lived at that scale, and the resilience and self-discovery that run through her work are rooted in that experience rather than borrowed from convention. “Let Me See the Real You” is a stunning pop indie single, and we can’t wait for more.

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Pocket Lint – Amethyst Cameo

Pocket Lint’s “Amethyst Cameo” is a brilliant piece of new wave indie pop: a heady mix of synths and vintage drum machines confronting obsessive creativity

“Amethyst Cameo” is taken from the album Wunderkammer and is about the compulsive need to make things. Its origin story says something about that compulsion: in summer 2020, Mark Heffernan spent three weeks on his balcony teaching himself to carve cameos from amethyst by hand, accumulating piles of purple dust and increasingly sore hands before finally abandoning the project and going into the studio instead. It’s quite the backdrop to a song, and the results are wonderfully vibey. It’s all hazy synths, guitars and vintage drum machines, sitting in the lineage of The Smiths and synth-pop with enough of its own character to very much sit in it’s lane. The production is a dream too.

Pocket Lint is the solo project of London-based Mark Heffernan, whose approach to songwriting centres on slices of music, specific moments rendered in sound rather than narrative. The album reflects that instinct on a larger scale, assembling a cabinet of curiosities from Heffernan’s genre-hopping influences and self-taught instrument work. “Amethyst Cameo” is a real banger, and we’ll be digging into the rest of the album this weekend. Essential stuff.

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THIS WEEK’S ROCK BOPS

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Florida Americana grit, a Dutch-Danish trio processing gun violence through swampy grunge, and a Brussels metalcore collective who recorded the old-school way: rock this week means four very different rooms.

Fringe Frontier – Criminal Hour

Fringe Frontier’s “Criminal Hour” is a brilliant insomniac rock single: crunchy, melodic, and a scarily vivid evocations of a sleepless 3am you’ll hear all year.

“Criminal Hour” is the title track of Fringe Frontier’s new album, and it announces itself with a lovely driving rhythms and guitars that cut through the arrangement. The song is set in the specific quiet of closed bars and empty streets, the mental loop of a mind that refuses to switch off, and the production really commits that restlessness. And as someone who struggles with sleep, this one really lands; all taut and melodic, but a hell of a lot of fun along the way. And lyric of the month has to. be “Tomorrow’s a train speedin’ round the corner / it’s times like this I wish I were a smoker”.

Fringe Frontier are a Florida-based rock band whose previous LP, Songs from the Wirehouse, was mixed by McKenzie Smith, the Midlake drummer and two-time Grammy winner, and mastered by Grammy-nominee Kim Rosen. Their songwriting draws from Americana storytelling and gritty guitar work, moving between the back counties of the South and New York City as a kind of conceptual geography. It’s a zinger of a single and we hope they continue in this form.

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Subterranean Street Society – Thomas Matthew Crooks

Subterranean Street Society’s “Thomas Matthew Crooks” is an excellent piece of folk grunge: a slow-building, swampy groove with gunshots woven into the production and the nerve to let the listener decide what it means.

“Thomas Matthew Crooks” grew out of a single day in which vocalist Louis found himself dealing simultaneously with a depressed flatmate blaming him for their suicidal thoughts and the breaking news of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump. The track makes no clean argument about either event, instead constructing a swampy, bluesy, repetitive groove that moves slowly towards a final eruption, with the sounds of gunshots woven into the production both literally and abstractly within the instruments. The band have described it as something they themselves cannot fully decode, which is exactly what makes it stick. It follows the critically acclaimed single “Kindness” and a support tour through Germany with Laura Cox.

Subterranean Street Society are a Danish-Dutch trio based in Amsterdam, blending folk storytelling with raw grunge energy in a way that sits somewhere between Nirvana and Mumford and Sons without fully belonging to either. Their songs move between fragile, confessional passages and explosive dynamics, and they have a recent NL club tour announced alongside the release. “Thomas Matthew Crooks” is their current single.

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Karma Noir – This Is Her Time

Karma Noir’s “This Is Her Time” is a stunning metalcore statement: recorded at Brussels’ Noise Factory Studio with the visceral, unpolished mix that modern production almost never allows.

“This Is Her Time” was recorded at Noise Factory Studio in Belgium, where the producer has previously worked with Channel Zero, and the production is a deliberate rejection of clinical modern mixing. Minimal guitar overlays keep the arrangement open, letting the emotional weight of the song land without competition. The track charts a relationship that shifts from love into manipulation and control, and it handles that subject by blending harsh vocals with clean singing over hooks strong enough to make the darkness genuinely accessible. It sits in conversation with 80s thrash and 90s hardcore without being a pastiche of either.

Karma Noir are a Brussels collective whose songwriting is shaped by a shared fascination with fate, destiny and the forces that operate on human lives beneath the surface of conscious choice. Every member contributes their own influences to the writing process, which is what gives the compositions their shifting atmospheres and prevents the heavy framework from becoming monotonous. “This Is Her Time” was released on 1 October 2025 and is their current single.

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THIS WEEK’S INDIE ROCK BOPS

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Halifax literary grit, Glasgow five-piece energy, a 1991 seven-inch finally going digital, an Ireland-based duet, and a Chicago suburban bedroom recording: indie rock this week arrives from five very different corners.

Velour On Tap – Hourglass Lake Ahead

Velour On Tap’s “Hourglass Lake Ahead” is a brilliant debut single: literary, jangly, and a lovely piece of fully realised Canadian indie rock

It’s debut time for Velour On Tap, and we like what it establishes. The guitars is jangly, the vocals are plaintive, and compellingly arranged, with a smidge of Elvis Costello about them. The rhythm section kicks things along nicely, laying a foundation for an absolute zinger of an indie chorus. That imagery ranges across roadside gas stations, a mother glazing by a lake, hunters with tattooed sailor arms: vivid, weird and vague. It’s a heady combo which makes up quite a wonderful little indie banger.

Velour On Tap is the project of Halifax songwriter Ian D. Brimacombe, whose route to this debut EP spans three decades; playing the Montreal circuit in the 90s, co-founding The Stir in London alongside Becky Jacobs, later of folktronica group Tunng, and released three albums and an EP under the name Ian Pryde between London and Chicago. Throughout the 2010s he was a member of Mira Pardelha – who are definitely worth a listen. This is an exciting new project though, and we’re very keen to see where it goes.

Point Pleasant – I Recall

Point Pleasant’s “I Recall” is an excellent slab of Britpop-informed indie rock: big choruses, warm overdrive tones, and a live-band feel that most five-pieces would struggle to manufacture in a studio.

“I Recall” builds the way good Britpop singles always did: stripped-back verses that create genuine anticipation, then a banger of a melodic chorus that pays the whole thing off. The production got a touch of the warm overdrive rather too much digital sheen, which keeps things close to how the band sounds in a room. There’s also a slightly gritty edge to the vocal that suits the vibe, and I love the Stone Roses-esque melody line too.

Point Pleasant are a Glasgow-based five-piece led by Geordie vocals, drawing their reference points from 90s Britpop and modern indie in roughly equal measure. Their sound moves between moodier, atmospheric passages and big, danceable crescendos, and they cite Idlewild and Shed Seven as key touchstones. “I Recall” is a little indie stunner, and I hope there’s more up their sleeve this year.

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Tabitha Zu – Heard It Before

Tabitha Zu’s “Heard It Before” is a superb slice of early-90s UK underground: raw, energising, and urgent in a way that three decades have done absolutely nothing to diminish.

We were first introduced to the fantastic Tabitha Zu last month when we featured their stunner ‘On Reality‘. This one’s even better if I’m honest, and was originally pressed as a limited split seven-inch in 1991 alongside TLF label mates Homage Freaks. It reached number 15 in the UK Indie Chart on first release and was championed by NME, Sounds, and Melody Maker. Well add our little blog BOPS to the list, as we love it too. It’s fast, got a great hook, and tumbles along in a lovely, dream rock kinda way.

If they’re new to you, Tabitha Zu are an early-90s UK alternative scene, a London band fronted by Melanie Garside that combined chaotic grit with ethereal pop. In 1992 they shared a Reading Festival bill with Nirvana, Public Enemy and Nick Cave, played with Suede in Camden, and toured nationwide on Radio 1’s Strollercoaster tour. Garside subsequently built a solo career as Melanie Garside and Maple Bee, and went on to front Vertigo Angels, Huski, and Moontwin. This is a fantastic single, and we can’t wait to hear what else they’ve got in their re-issue treasure trove.

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tcr! – Yesterday Blurs

tcr!’s “Yesterday Blurs” is the best kind of bedroom indie rock single: jagged, melodic, and with a compellingly emotional heart

“Yesterday Blurs” runs on a contradiction that most rock songs try to smooth over: it is anxious and buoyant simultaneously, the guitars jagged but the melodic instinct underneath them pulling things forward. The title phrase, “Yesterday blurs but it’s not dismissed,” functions as an kinda honest thesis about how memory actually works rather than how songs usually portray it. There’s a hint of Devo to the vocal stylings of the chorus, but ‘Yesterday Blurs’ is definitely in its own wonderful, noisy lane.

tcr! is a Gen X musician from the Chicago suburbs who writes, plays, records, mixes and masters everything himself. He operates from a position of deliberate independence, viewing the rougher edges of his work as a feature rather than a limitation, and the results consistently bear that out. “Yesterday Blurs” is a fantastic, off-kilter indie rock single and we’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on his next releases, because this one’s bags of fun.

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Damien Cain – Caleb (JD Radio Edit)

Damien Cain’s “Caleb” is a gorgeous and emotional pop-rock ballad: a duet this direct and honest is one of our highlights of the year so far

“Caleb” rides in built on piano, a steady groove and a wonderfully direct vocal. It’s got this unique, conversational quality that elevates this from a conventional ballad. Performed as a male/male duet, the two voices move skillfully between perspectives on memory and loss, and the world built in the arrangement is a compelling one. ‘Still those memories stay with me, every day’ lands as a hook and a half, making its case without ceremony and with a direct, emotional gut punch.

Damien Cain is a German-born, Ireland-based artist who has been working in rock and alternative music since the late 1980s. His project CAIN produced the cult single “Age of Darkness,” which sold over 250,000 copies and earned an IMPALA Award, before he stepped back from the industry for a period. It’s a welcome return, and his track Standarte marked a shift towards more personal, stripped-back material. “Caleb” continues that direction, and we’re really, really excited for whatever comes next.

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THE WEEK’S INDIE FOLK BOPS

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Indie folk bops of the week, it’s the kind of music that’s going to get the heart pumping and emotions flowing. So let’s dive in ✨

Nemesis Uncle – The Sword

Nemesis Uncle makes “The Sword” a superb piece of alt-folk: shadowy, spaghetti-western strange, and impossible to forget.

“The Sword” follows a disillusioned pilgrim through a landscape built from acoustic dark matter: sparse, deliberately unhurried, all negative space and creeping atmosphere. It sits somewhere between Delta Blues and a 1960s Ennio Morricone score, and the tension between those two poles is exactly where the track lives. Definitely not the typical tune we get over here at BOPS, but all the better for it. It’s one of the most-streamed songs on the album “Songs Of Judas”, and has a brooding beauty that’s hard to resist.

Darren Purvis records and produces everything solo from a studio bunker in the Forest of Dean, and before this project he was fronting Germinal, a Welsh alt-rock band whose album “From Hibernation” built a real following. The move to Nemesis Uncle is a complete reset: existential literature, and experimental folk colliding in a way that owes nothing to current trends. Whatever button was pressed, the result is genuinely stunning and we’re eager to hear more. A great single.

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Mark Andrew Hansen – You Come to Me

Mark Andrew Hansen’s “You Come to Me” is a stunning orchestral folk ballad, one of the most emotionally complete singles you’ll hear this year.

“You Come to Me” was recorded in a single sitting: lead vocals and acoustic guitar captured in one take at 10:30pm, orchestral arrangements finished by 3:30am. That’s far better than my work rate, but the compressed timeline has built something very special here. The song begins with just Hansen’s voice over guitar, then opens outward through a full orchestra, a harp solo cutting through the centre at a point where most pop productions would reach for a key change. The build is huge, emotions running high and the cinematic feel takes the track to a really compelling place.

Hansen is a Sydney-based pianist and composer whose instrumental piano music has accumulated over 100 million streams across Spotify and YouTube, earning awards in both Australia and the United States and appearing in advertising campaigns across Europe and the UK. He plays keyboard, guitar, bass, mandolin, ukulele, violin and cajon, and draws his songwriting instincts from Chopin through to Elton John and James Taylor. “You Come to Me,” written about a lost creative partner who appeared in a dream, is a genuinely stunning moment and you should definitely check it out below.

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Devan – Wyatt Earp

Devan’s “Wyatt Earp” is a brilliant debut: wonderfully raw Americana with a voice that earns every comparison thrown at it.

“Wyatt Earp” arrives as the lead single from Devan’s debut EP, written in collaboration with Patchwork Music, an award-winning songwriting team he teamed up with in August 2025. It messes literally no time in getting into a pretty hefty country rock groove, and carries the weight of a first proper statement of intent. Vocally is clearly where Devan shines, but when his abilities are wrapped around such a well-written, well-produced banger, things genuinely get exciting.

Devan grew up third-generation on farmland in March, Cambridgeshire, singing country folk songs with his grandfather, a shepherd well-known in the local community. That upbringing runs visibly through his songwriting, which focuses on his grandfather’s life, leaving home, and growing up in the countryside. ‘Wyatt Earp” is his first released song, and as well as introducing a genuinely distinctive voice in UK Americana, it absolutely rocks. Exciting stuff.

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seeTrees – Easy Times

seeTrees’ “Easy Times” is a gorgeous piece of West Coast Americana: warm, unhurried, and one of the most satisfying listens on any folk-rock playlist this month.

“Easy Times” sits happily in the lineage of Tom Petty and Wilco: mid-tempo, melodic, built on the kind of chord progressions that feels lovely and familiar. These lads are definitely in their own lane though; musically this one’s a genuinely beautiful track, with the kind of chorus that sort of tumbles in without fanfare, but grabs your heart al the same. Analogue synthesisers fill out the texture alongside the guitars without crowding them, and even before the lovely piano-led outro, these guys have definitely got themselves a new fan. Minus points for the fade out, because fade outs are awful, but aside from that – it’s a real stunner.

seeTrees formed in 2024 when Drew Lawrence, formerly of Americana band The Dales, connected with Los Angeles-based drummer and producer Luke Adams. The duo played 50 West Coast shows in 2025, running from San Diego to Seattle, occasionally opening for The White Buffalo. “Easy Times” is the lead single from their second album, and we can’t wait for it. Essential stuff.

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Jason Lenyer Buchanan – Gus Gus

Jason Lenyer Buchanan’s “Gus Gus” is a stunning piece of piano-forward Americana: an ensemble performance of real warmth and quality

“Gus Gus” was recorded at Dead Aunt Thelma’s in Portland with engineer Andy Jones, and brings back the full band from Buchanan’s previous EP: Scott Mulvahill on upright bass, Nate Leath on fiddle, and Jacob Schrodt on drums. It’s a cast that builds something genuinely compelling here, with a whole lot of craft, a touch of knowing humour, not to mention some beautiful performances. The standout is the unlikely narrative here though, and the ‘mouse searching for some cheese‘ lyric puts this single firmly into banger territory.

Buchanan is a Portland-based singer-songwriter, originally from Cheyenne, with a baritone rooted in Texas country and songwriting that pulls from the wide-open Midwest. His previous EP, Under a Thumbnail Moon, established the ensemble he works with, and “Gus Gus” is his first release since leaving Cheyenne. In 2026 he was selected as an Easyfolk Featured Artist, recognition that reflects the growing audience for the kind of unhurried, ensemble-driven Americana he makes. A brilliant single, and we can’t wait for the album.

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THIS WEEK’S ROCK BOPS

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Three rock acts, three entry points: a Birmingham multi-instrumentalist working from his own studio, a Rome guitarist stepping out after seventeen years in a band, and a New York songwriter releasing decades of writing all at once.

PJD – On New Horizons

PJD makes “On New Horizons” into a brilliant alt-rock stunner: live, restless, and recorded with an genre-hopping urgency that’s loads of fun

“On New Horizons” opens PJD’s album “A New Religion” with its subject matter right there in the title: the human compulsion to keep moving, to believe something better exists beyond the next ridge. Recorded mostly at PJD’s own Newfield Studio in Birmingham, with drums captured at a larger studio to give the rhythm section room to breathe. This reminds me slightly of a Pink Floyd song, possibly in it’s chord structure, or it’s lyrical tone. But it’s definitely a unique piece, shifting between synths, screaming guitars, a great vocal, and an insistent rhythm that I love.

PJD spent years as a session guitarist working prestigious venues and festivals before channelling that experience into a solo project where he controls everything: writing, instrumentation, vocals, production. His touchstones are Bill Nelson’s melodic invention, Gary Moore’s guitar weight, Eric Clapton’s feel and a touch of Bowie. Some big names then, but the result sounds very PJD. Excitingly, the “A New Religion” album doesn’t sound like it will lack ambition, tackling everything from humanity’s relationship with wealth and power to personal loss connected to the 2025 LA wildfires. It’s a great intro to the world of PJD, and we can’t wait for more.

Lipford – THE MUSIC

Lipford makes ‘The Music’ into a superb hard rock stunner about creativity as survival, and the conviction behind every bar makes it impossible to resist.

“THE MUSIC” is a deliciously hard rock track about one thing: using music as a lifeline. It wastes no time in getting down to it, and the production keeps the intensity front and centre. Guitars are crunching wonderfully, while the lyrical theme of resilience through art gives the whole thing a personal urgency that goes a long way beyond generic rock posturing. Melodically it’s great, and like all good rock music, it’s not just whizzy guitar solos, there’s also a genuinely good song at the core.

Lipford was born in Rome in 1985 and spent seventeen years as guitarist and composer for Italian rock band MANTRAM. When the group disbanded in January 2019, he chose to reinvent himself, stepping out under his own name with a sound shaped by those years of composition but no longer filtered through a group identity. His solo work is great, blending heartfelt melodies with introspective lyrics, and we’re very glad he made the move into his own stuff. On the strength of this, he’s got a very exciting future.

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36 Plots – Since You’ve Gone

36 Plots make “Since You’ve Gone” into a genuinely excellent rock track: the kind of song that sounds like it has been waiting years to exist.

“Since You’ve Gone” arrives as part of “12 Reimagined Souls,” a project built around songs by the wonderfully titled AC Cashdollar. He’s written across decades, revisited and released for the first time in 2026. This one’s a big, bold and beautiful rock ballad with a lot of 80s influences, and the melodies are exactly what you’d hope from a track in this space. There’s a stunner of a guitar solo too. The hook and the chorus lands, and it’s definitely lighters in the air time.

AC Cashdollar has been writing songs since the age of 14, working as vocalist, bassist, and guitarist across a string of bands and projects before releasing his own acoustic album in 2002. He subsequently moved into electronic music production, which gives the 36 Plots project a broad technical range to draw from. The name “36 Plots” comes from the concept of 12 Reimagined Souls, and it’s good to have more music with an ambitious framing these days. However it’s framed, it rocks and you should check this banger out below.

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