Phantom Handshakes is a lo-fi, dream pop collaboration between Federica Tassano (Sooner, Mônetre) and Matt Sklar (Exiles) based in Brooklyn, NY. They had a mini album out in 2020, Be Estranged, a collection of 7 tracks ranging from jangly indie pop to shoegazey post-punk recorded at home during April and May of 2020 (mastered by Carl Saff at Saff Mastering in Chicago) and their upcoming full-length, No More Summer Songs, will be out tomorrow, April 30th on Z Tapes. The whole new album was created in true DIY fashion by the duo from their respective homes in Brooklyn and Manhattan from August until November 2020. No More Summer Songs has been previously introduced by a pair of tracks of shimmering lo-fi dreampop, Cricket Song and No Better Plan.

John Myrtle, originally from Birmingham but now London-based, had his debut EP out back in 2019: “Here’s John Myrtle” is a journey across love, heartbreak and loneliness, made of jangly acoustic pop at its best. Influenced by “’90s Liverpool music scene, ’70s Jazz, C86 bands and Sarah Records”, John signed for Sad Club Records and his debut album, Myrtle Soup – “an exploration of love and identity, diffused within the difficult and lonely period of writing during lockdown, packaged together as a homely bowl of soup” – is due in early June.
There are a couple of singles out yet, both exciting! “Get Her Off My Mind” is 60’s inspired and warm, filled with the upbeat hope and optimism of new love, while the new “How Can You Tell If You Love Her?”, is an infectious indie-pop anthem embracing his own anxieties surrounding love.

In March, “Tolmie Wild Thymes”, a new 10″ mini-album by Bart & Friends, is released on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten, a small but wonderful label based in Augsburg, Germany.
Bart & Friends is a collaborative songwriting project from Melbourne, Australia led by Bart Cummings. Bart is a well-known figure in the indie-pop underground scene—he’s been active since the ’90s in bands such as The Shapiros, Girl Of The World, Pencil Tin, Hydroplane, The Cat’s Miaow, and many other bands.
Bart & Friends have already released an album and several singles and EPs in the past with labels such as Lost & Lonesome, Matinée, Cloudberry, Drive-In and Shelflife. They create wonderful, song-oriented jangle/indie pop with help from other musical luminaries such as Scott Stevens (Summer Cats, Tangible Excitement!, The Earthmen) Jeremy Cole (The Zebras) Mark Monnone (The Lucksmiths, Monnone Alone), Louis Richter (The Lucksmiths), Pam Berry from the legendary Black Tambourine, Glo-Worm, Veronica Lake, and Gary Olson, who recently released his first solo album on Tapete Records and a fantastic 7″ for our KUS two years ago (Gary is also known as a producer and musician/singer in The Ladybug Transistor).