Based out of Glasgow, although largely not originally from there, Dancer is the latest project from musicians who perform in the likes of Robert Sotelo, Current Affairs, Order Of The Toad and Nightshift: Gemma Fleet (Voice/Words), Chris Taylor (Guitar/Keytar), Andrew Doig (Bass) and Gavin Murdoch (Drums). The band recorded the tracks that would become their self-titled debut mini-album, released via GoldMold in February 2023 in Green Door studio last winter. Dancer’s second EP of the year was out in October, once again via local label GoldMold on Cassette and digital download, with artwork by Scott Jason Smith. Five new songs recorded again at Green Door Studio in Glasgow, live to tape with Ronan Fay, the group has heightened some still burgeoning characteristics this time. The harsh songs are harsher, the considered warmth of slower efforts chime more melodically. This latter approach can be found most diligently on lead track ‘Love’ where the elasticity of the superb guitar arrangement weaves euphorically through a soaring love song narrative. Never has the attempt to marry a Life Without Buildings influence with the band’s own natural persona felt so worthwhile.

Red Pants are the duo Jason Lambeth and Elsa Nekola from Madison, Wisconsin. The two have been making music together for the last five years, with Elsa mostly on drums and Jason on mostly everything else. After a couple of singles and three Ep in 2018, the duo released the first album, Distortion And Snow, on Painted Blonde, in 2019, and, three years later, a second album, When We Were Dancing, on the same label in collaboration with the superb Paisley Shirt Records. Their latest album, Not Quite There Yet, out now via Meritorio Records, was recorded by Jason & Elsa at The Foundry & The Green Monster, from February 2022 to July 2023, and masted by Álvaro Lissón. Nearly all of the songs on the new album are sung by Jason, but Elsa branches out to singing lead vocals and adds other instrumentation with Jason’s noise pop arrangements. For fans of 90’s Yo La Tengo or Sonic Youth, early Blonde Redhead, with brushes of Trish Keenan melodies.

The South London six-piece – Ike Gray (vocals/guitar), Will McCrossan (keys/drum machine), Tom Rogers-Coltman (guitar/saxophone), Ronnie Longfellow (bass), Emily Hubbard (cornet/synth) and Wilf Cartwright (drums/cello) – describe Tapir! as a ‘boiling together’ of different mediums: at once musical, theatrical, mythological, artistic, collaborative, narrative-led and, above all, something to be enjoyed and shared. The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain, their first album, follows a three-act structure – released by Heavenly Recordings as three four-track EPs (Acts I and II in 2023, Act III early 2024) – telling the story of a solitary traveller, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape. Prior to the pandemic, Gray and McCrossan had been putting on ultra-inclusive, ultra-informal poetry nights, creating comical videos and promoting gigs as part of the Brixton art collective My Life is Big. The platform had likewise motivated the pair to form Tapir! in 2019. Having brought Rogers-Coltman and Longfellow on-board during the pandemic (Hubbard and Cartwright would join later, in the summer of 2022), Tapir! released their debut single My God in February 2022. When Honeyglaze drummer Yuri Shibuichi saw Tapir! live at the venue, he encouraged them to record their songs, and the band stress it was his enthusiasm that led them to take the project more seriously. Shibuichi’s playful, carefree production (always urging the band not to overthink) perfectly suits Tapir!’s unassuming, handmade, DIY nature.