Songs Of Green Pheasant is the work of Duncan Sumpner, an artist / teacher from Oughtibridge in Sheffield. His self-titled debut album was released on FatCat in August 2005, and drew widespread praise. Fragile, yet coherent and utterly charming songs with a warm cloudy depth, sweet melodies and some gorgeous vocal harmonising, beautifully sung and played. In the following couple of years, Songs Of Green Pheasant had two more records on FatCat: Aerial Days (2006) and Gyllyng Street (2007). After a five year’s hiatus Sumpner and his project returned with Soft Wounds, via Rusted Rail, “micro-Independent record label” based in Galway, Ireland. In 2015 Songs Of Green Pheasant self-released two mini album: Horseflesh – Chapter 1, a short comic book dedicated to Vinni Reilly which also contained a 5-track CD of original songs, and Mullock and Moil, a nine-songs mini-album that accompanied a 24 page illustrated book. Until today the latest offering from Songs Of Green Pheasant was When The Weather Clears a new album which, after a tormented implementation process, was out, again via Rusted Rail on December 4th 2020 (and reprinted a couple of times since). Today Rusted Rail announced the release of a new double A-sided digital single by Songs of Green Pheasant: Have Patience/Street of Mirrors.

LOWMOON is the lofi indie bedroom pop project of Yorkshire based musician/producer Mikey Wilson. Channeling post-punk, dreampop, new wave and shoegaze references LOWMOON exists within its own unique sound. Blending jangly guitars and synths with vintage drum machines and reverb drenched vocals. Embracing a DIY approach Mikey writes, records and mixes the music. His first full lenght album, Monochrome, was out in May this year via Safe Suburban Home, and reminds the dark sound of the 80s, magnificently blended with jangly and bright guitars: eight songs with original and great melodies, drum machine and hazy vocals. LOWMOON’s videos are aptly set to footage from 80s blockbuster movies (The Breakfast Club, Bright Lights, Big City). Cathedrals is the new single to be released tomorrow, November 22nd, through Safe Suburban Home and you can listen to it and watch its video on premiere here!.

Tom Brown is a indie DIY scene veteran who released a number of “fuzzy, jangly and melodic” records with his bands Rural France (on Meritorio Records) and Teenage Tom Petties (on Safe Suburban Home and Repeating Cloud). Let’s get to know his new project, Lone Striker. Captured at home using a selection of bedroom instruments and samples, off-kilter soul drum loops and found sounds, Tom has spent five years making a record that takes a lifelong love of warped Americana (think: Sparklehorse, Mercury Rev, Silver Jews) and puts it through a very British lens. A patchwork of sounds and stories, beamed from a broken transistor radio. The songs themselves are immaculately crafted. With nods to the melodies, structures and arrangements of the Brill Building golden years, Lone Striker’s scruffy, warm heart has melancholy and melody pumping through it. While Lone Striker has been a long and mostly solitary pursuit, there was room for a few guests. Most notably, Billy Fuller of BEAK>, who lends his beautiful bass lines to the weary first single, Dunno (and to Cursed Like Roy).

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. If you follow us you should have checkd their lates album, Not Quite There Yet, which was out in 2023 via Meritorio Records. We introduced Red Pants through their great TRISTE© Mixtape (Episode 133) and now, a few days ahead of the release date of their latest EP, Pale Shadows, we have the honour and opportunity to host the world premiere of a lovely little video supporting Proto Punk, the second track from the EP.

Alpaca Sports are Andreas Jonsson, Amanda Åkerman and Lisle Mitnik (Tiny Fireflies, Fireflies, Very Truly Yours). It’s six years since their second album, From Paris With Love, came out and one can imagine that their twee pop formula may have changed, matured, grown up. With their new song Tomorrow I’ll Be Fine, out today on Elefant Recors, it’s (thankfully) very soon clear that it’s not the case. Listening to indie pop with adolescent characteristics is a source of comfort and relief for everyone of us and Alpaca Sports once again don’t let us down. Since they might be the group that currently best represents that crystalline pop sound (think of Aztec Camera, The Field Mice, Belle And Sebastian, Orange Juice, Sambassadeur), that’s why the arrival of new songs is such big news for all of us grown up adolescents. Tomorrow I’ll Be Fine is the first advance single of their upcoming new album, and it makes all the good things about the band clear: their sensitivity, exquisite vocals, jangling guitars, unforgettable choruses, and a mix of drum machines and live drums.