Stream: Peaks - Age

I’m crashing hard on some post-mediterranean blues and this lush track from Irish / Australian duo Age is seriously not helping.

Gentling lapping at my mind like warm waves, Peaks has some gently echoing percussion and an ethereal melody that gives this a serious mediterranean feel. Add the male / female vocal interplay of duo Gavin Dwight and Jen Cosgrave and you get something utterly heartbreaking.

The emotional feel of this record fits perfectly with the subject matter, as Dwight describes it:

“We wrote ‘Peaks’ at a time when we could see a lot of people around us crossing over the line of what's safe and not taking care of themselves. We live in a place and a city where it's too easy to do. It's a love song to those people.”

The pair have been recording in bedroom sessions in London’s Clapton and nighttime shifts at the Tileyard studios. With co-production support from mixing engineer Russ Fawcus (Wild Beasts, Noah and the Whale) and mastering from Mandy Parnell (Jamie XX, The Knife) Age have unveiled this new single, due for release on 14 July. They are currently working on their debut EP.

Stream: Armour - Minke

Back with a follow up to her debut single Gold Angel is alt-R&B / rock artist Minke.

Armour is focused on the sensation of letting go of your desire for guarded self-preservation and exposing your vulnerability. The track boasts gorgeously soft production work from Rory Andrew, whose complex layering adds to the song’s complex-yet-uplifting emotional core.

Most of us have moments of wrestling with when we need to wear that armour and when we are okay to reveal how we feel. Minke’s new single captures the sense of relief that can come from being at one with how you feel and finding other people that accept that.

Describing the track, Minke says:

"I wanted to celebrate being vulnerable, celebrate the people around us who pick us up, that it's fine not feeling fine - you’re not alone. Everyone goes through shit and the best thing we can do is to be ourselves, truly, always. Even when sometimes its not that pretty."

Video: Kaleidoscopes - Transviolet feat. Reo Cragen

Announcing their first release of the year in the form of a forthcoming EP are LA four-piece Transviolet. To kick it off we have the opening track from the EP, Kaleidoscopes, featuring Reo Cragen.

Melding big synth waves and clattering percussion, Transviolet have created a lovely piece of atmospheric pop here. The male / female vocals skirt around crisp production to create something positively tropical.

Check out the video below:

Stream: 4AM - Sorcha Richardson

I've been kind of in love with Sorcha Richardson's form of melancholic narrative driven folk pop since 2015's gorgeous Petrol Station.

Following on from last year's Ruin Your Night, Richardson is back with a new single in the form of 4AM. The track's most instantly recognisable component is the unrelenting bass that underlines the majority of the song, snatching the subtle momentum created in the bridge and running with it. It's the moments of exposed fragility that really make this though - Richardson's emotional honesty as she lays down her frustration at her lover's door at the at the two-minute mark: "You always think you can just stay 'til the morning like it's not even important what I want / you really think you can just tell me your sorry, and I'll be ready and waiting to move on?"

These moments act as a sharp contrast to the desperate and emotionally battered lines "Please don't say you're coming over, I just finished cutting all the cords from the telephone"... You can't help but feel uncomfortable as Sorcha pleads "It's four in the morning, I think you should go" on the track's chorus, over and over. It is almost like that insistent bass line is a metaphor for a partner that doesn't quite know how to give a bit of space.

As is typical for her music, Richardson has made another song that is both beautiful and thoughtful.

Produced by Alex Casnoff Mixed by Sean O'Brien Mastered by Pete Lyman, Infrasonic Mastering Artwork by Yimmy Yayo

Stream: If - Wens

Following on from recent single Bleed, Wens is back with new track If.

Treading a similar path to Bleed, If is another doped up track dealing with feelings of love and fears of rejection. It's a tribute to the moment of honesty when you confess your true feelings, although in this instance Wens confesses she didn't get what she wants. Sometimes unequited love is the most honest kind.