Constant Follower – Happy Birthdays (video premiere)

Just a few days ago, we openly admitted our deep love for Constant Follower and their latest album.
Clearly (though we had no doubt), we’re not alone!
This morning, the news broke that Constant Follower’s album The Smile You Send Out Returns To You (released by Last Night From Glasgow in February of this year) has been longlisted for the Scottish Album of the Year Award (SAY Award).
To celebrate this milestone, Constant Follower are releasing a new video from the album. It was directed by Martin J Pickering, and accompanies the album track Happy Birthdays.
And, perhaps because of our lifelong love for them, Constant Follower have chosen TRISTE© to present the world premiere of this amazing and moving video.
We are flattered and thrilled.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 224: Glo-Worm

Glo-Worm (©Pat Graham)

Glo-worm formed in Washington D.C. in 1993, “or it might have been sometime in ’92, no one can remember“. Previously, singer Pam Berry had been in Black Tambourine. Guitarist Terry Banks played in Tree Fort Angst, with an earlier stint in English indiepop combo St. Christopher, and drummer Dan Searing had been in Whorl. During the course of glo-worm’s two-and-a-half-ish year lifespan, the band released three 7” EPs, issued successively by the Somersault, Slumberland and K Records labels all leading up to the Glimmer album which was released (as a CD) by K in 1996 and includes the songs on Glo-Worm‘s volume in the International Pop Underground series, Travelogue, as well as all the other 7″ releases from Glo-Worm.
Pam Berry vocalisations are quite unique, pleasing. If the original question is “What kind of heaven do you want?” the obvious answer is “One where the angels can sing like Pam Berry.” (Calvin Johnson- K Records).
Now, almost 30 years later, Glimmer was released on September 19th via K Records as a 12” vinyl LP.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 223: Chantal Acda

Chantal Acda (©Jurgen Augusteyns)

Dutch-born Chantal Acda, who is now based in Belgium, has been making music under the name Sleepingdog since 2006. Between 2006 and 2011, she released three albums under this moniker, culminating in With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields, a collaboration with Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid, A Winged Victory For The Sullen). Having earned her stripes in bands like Isbells, True Bypass, and Marble Sounds, Acda sought out like-minded musicians to create an album filled with freedom, intensity, and meaning. She found them in German pianist and producer Nils Frahm (Ólafur Arnalds, Woodkid), Icelandic cellist Gyða Valtysdóttir (Múm), and American multi-instrumentalists Peter Broderick (Efterklang) and Shahzad Ismaily (Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog). Following her first solo album, Let Your Hands Be My Guide (Gizeh Records, 2013), arrived The Sparkle In Our Flaws (2015) and Bounce Back (2017). Live at Jazz Middelheim (Glitterhouse), by Chantal and Bill Frisell, was released in 2018. Again in 2018 came out Nu Nog Even Niet, in which Acda sings the verses of the Dutch poet Lotte Dodion. In 2019, Chantal created Pūwawau, a musical theater performance for the Oerol Festival in the Netherlands, in collaboration with Valgeir Sigurðsson (Björk, Thom Yorke, Sigur Rós) and singers from the Dutch Chamber Choir. In 2021, Chantal released the album Saturday Moon( with Bill Frisell and Mimi and Alan Sparhawk, among many others). Her collaboration with Italian composer and pianist Bruno Bavota resulted in the album A Closer Distance, released in 2022 on Temporary Residence. Chantal Acda & The Atlantic Drifters‘ album Silently Held came out in 2024), featuring contributions from Bill Frisell, Thomas Morgan, Eric Thielemans, Shahzad Ismaily, Colin Stetson, Jozef Dumoulin, Niels Van Heertum, and Joachim Badenhorst. Chantal is also a member of the bands Distance, Light & Sky (with Chris Eckman of The Walkabouts and Eric Thielemans) and Isbells. On 19 September 2025, Chantal Acda will release her new album (on Starman Records): The Whale, a rougher and more rock-oriented project.

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Tulpa – Let’s Make A Tulpa! (Single)

Tulpa consist of Josie Kirk (vocals, bass), Daniel Hyndman (guitar), Myles Kirk (guitar) and Mike Ainsley (Drums), and are based in Leeds. Daniel was lead guitarist and songwriter in esteemed post-punk band Mush.  Tulpa are nothing like Mush, and yet… all the energy, ambition and inventiveness of that earlier group are still here: it’s just that the creative power has been diverted into the service of a set of pop songs in love with melody. 
Tulpa are very new: yet, before even releasing this debut digital single, they attracted the attention of Marc Riley & Gideon Coe, who invited the band to record a live BBC6 Music session this summer.  Around the same time, Skep Wax Records were sent the finished album and knew they had to release it.  Meanwhile, in the creative hotbeds of the UK’s DIY festivals and indie venues Tulpa are quickly gathering a loyal following.  They have recently supported Throwing Muses, Pale Blue Eyes and Bug Club and will be playing a series of headline gigs in October and November 2025.
Let’s Make a Tulpa!, the debut single, is out today and is an upbeat crunchy pop song that explodes into a huge chorus, somewhat in a Breeders vein, that will encourage sober people to throw themselves around their living rooms. Their debut album, Monster Of The Week will be out on November 28th via Skep Wax.

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(Make Me A) TRISTE© Mixtape Episode 222: Hotel Artesia

Hotel Artesia

Kevin Wright is a unique figure in British pop music: his career has flourished with cult labels such as él, Cherry Red, Le Grand Magistery, Siesta, and more. In the late ’80s, under the name Always, he issued the exquisite Thames Valley Leather Club and Other Stories (él, 1988), a suite of literate miniatures that fit perfectly in that label’s eccentric constellation, and Looking For Mr Wright (Suburbs Of Hell 1990). Soon after, as Mr. Wright, he released a string of fragile albums across cult imprints such as Siesta and Le Grand Magistery (The Fancy Man, Le Grand Magistery 1997; Star Time, Le Grand Magistery 1998; Hello Is Anyone Out There?, Le Grand Magistery 2001 Metropolitan, Siesta 2004; Diary Of A Fool Series Two Records 2009). In the new millennium, under the guise of The Dreamers (with Sarah Nyberg Pergament) the cult indie folk record Day For Night (Friendly Noise 2007). His work with él Records, in particular, remains extraordinary, not only for its crisp production and cultivated sensibility, but also for the way it captured Wright’s nostalgic, intricate songwriting at its most intimate. Fast-forward to more recent years: under the moniker Hotel Artesia, Wright quietly released fourteen lo-fi pop tracks on YouTube between 2021 and 2023. These tracks, collected as Everywhere Alone, were lovingly assembled into a vinyl release in November 2024 by Honey Muffin Records, thanks to the support of Noah Wilson (aka Mr. Muffins), who felt these songs deserved a life beyond the obscurity of YouTube. Reissued on CD in 2025 by fabulous Brest-based label Too Good To Be True, the album was followed last week by the Something to Sing About EP, the eighth in the label’s 2025 EP series, featuring lush dream-pop textures, tight arrangements, and wistful lyrics typical of Wright’s unique style.

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