Watch: Vision by Snake Orange Cake

Following on from her hypnotic BlackPlastic.co.uk debut, Stitch, from last year, Berlin artist Snake Orange Cake has just unveiled the new single Vision.

Snake Orange Cake, the musical pseudonym of Julia Carlsson, deals in similarly textural, collage-like soundscapes on here as she did on Stitch. However, where Carlsson previously embraced distortion, on Vision she deals in clipped percussion and minimal melodies that weave together a melancholic soundscape. Droplets of sound evoke the feeling of trickling water as deep pulsing bass forms an anchor for the overall song. The result feels perfectly constructed for the currently slow and frozen January many of us are experiencing.

Vision comes with a video, filmed by Maren Frey in Berlin. Arriving on shortly after 2026’s arrival, Vision invites the listener to stare into a crystal ball and reflect on what’s next.

Listen: Selfish by Sofi Vonn

Coming ahead of her forthcoming EP, Lucky With A Side Of Depression, NY artist Sofi Vonn’s new single Selfish is a slow-moving piece of emotive electronic R&B.

Opening with a vocal that depicts a dark dose of introspection, Selfish rides a minimal aesthetic. Clipped percussion, electronic bass tones and synth notes create a sense of uneasiness, as Vonn sings of giving into self-centred tendencies. The overall effect shuffles with a creeping sense of emotion, oscillating between desire and a kind of self-evaluation and criticism.

Vonn has created a piece of music that feels stripped naked and guilty — the embrace of dark desires that you know lead only to trouble, yet feel all the more alluring for that fact. Peaking synth melodies nudge Vonn forwards as she commits to fulfilling her selfish instincts.

Check out Selfish below, and look out for Lucky With A Side Of Depression from 12 December.

Listen: Heavy World (Remix) by Nik Brinkman

Following on from his sophomore solo album, World Within, which is made up of indie dream pop, Nik Brinkman has remixed his own song, Heavy World, creating the tight electronic reimagining you can hear below.

Having spent years in bands, publishing and touring with the likes of Beach House, Ladyhawke, and Foster The People, as well as writing music for other artists, Nik Brinkman has returned to the relative simplicity and authenticity of guitar-based music. Those acts — particularly Beach House and Ladyhawke — can be heard, respectively, in the original and remixed versions of Heavy World.

Taking the central refrain from the original, Nik’s remix re-filters the melodic hook from Heavy World’s chorus, giving it a new life here, set against lightly processed vocals and warm, elastic bass. The result reminds me of Neon Indian’s blend of indie pop and electronics, particularly on their underrated Era Extraña album. This is music that sits at the perfect intersection of electronic, indie and pop, creating a blissful, psychedelic blanker of sound. Towards the end, Brinkman’s vocals and layered and looped as distortion and synth swallow the listener whole, creating a wonderful feeling.

Listen: X-Ray by The Notwist

Having spent recent years pursuing a form of musical experimentation, notably in the form of 2021’s improvisational, jazz-influenced album Vertigo Days, German outfit The Notwist are back with a renewed focus on creating pop songs.

With a new album, News From Planet Zombie, forthcoming next year, new single X-Ray is a preview of what to expect. Whilst not perhaps pop in the sense that is going to bother the top of the streaming charts, there is a psychedelic sense of wonder in the song’s cacophonous melodies and the innocent sound of Markus Acher’s vocals.

Shifting back and forth between playful nostalgia, and dark waves of layered distortion, X-Ray audibly sits somewhere between hope and terror. Guitars screech, a metallophone builds a sense of child-like curiosity, and loose drums patter. X-Ray is a wonderfully sloppy collage of sound, like heading to space in the rocket from a child’s drawing, wet pitch-black synths eventually swallowing you up like a black hole.

Check out X-Ray below, and look out for the album News From Planet Zombie, due via Morr Music on 13 March 2026.

Watch: Song By The Sea by Tsar B

Tsar B has just unveiled her latest single, Song By The Sea, taken from the forthcoming album, The Writer.

The musical pseudonym of Belgian artist, composer and multi-instrumentalist Justine Bourgeus, Tsar B takes elements of pop, dance and classical-baroque sounds to create a sound that brings together artistry, emotion, and experimentation in equal measures. Here on Song By The Sea, the result is stark, vulnerable, and beautiful, blending humanity and crisp electronics, evoking the sounds of FKA Twigs and Björk.

Song By The Sea depicts a love that consumes a couple, with lyrics that depict the experience of falling for someone so deeply that you give yourself over to it. Describing the song, Bourgeus says Song By The Sea is ‘about two lovers entwined in an eternal hug, transformed into stone like the lovers of Pompeii, sanctified, canonized, as they made love on the beach’.

Organs underpin transcendental vocal flourishes and slow-moving percussion to create a feeling that shimmers with romance and sexuality, whilst encircling a sense of disaster. Tsar B’s melodies tease like fingers tracing the contours of a body — irresistible and constantly leaving you wanting more.