highlighting new music by Hooky & Winter, Horsegirl, Preoccupations, Toro y Moi, Frog & MORE
An overwhelming amount of music is released daily, and we're here to help you weed through it all. Every week, we share select releases we are all looking forward to and personalized picks from a few of our editors.
Welcome to our new releases guide featuring the most notable music released the week of February 14.
BLIGATORY Picks
Hooky & Winter - Water Season
Dream Pop, Noise Pop, Slacker Rock
via Julia's War Records
write-up by Dominick Baglivo
Hooky—the Philly-based project of Scott Turner and Sam Silbert—and Brazilian-American singer-songwriter Samira Winter both had a notable 2024. We got the fourth Hooky album with Mirage, while Winter shared the …and she’s still listening EP.
This week, Hooky & Winter share a collaborative EP titled Water Season. Winter, who recently relocated from Los Angeles to New York, links up with some of Philadelphia’s most captivating song-crafters. Water Season is a small sample, but the four tracks feel like a decisive yet seamless merging of each act’s respective sounds.
A gentle and playful springiness underscores the opening track “horseshoe” and the pairing is an immediate match. The next two tracks are more subdued, but the allure of Water Season never wavers. A lo-fi excursion of dreamy trip-hop marks “in your pocket,” while “lost tears” drips sentimentality under its coat of indietronica. Hooky and Winter close out the night with the glitchy and bubbly “i like you,” repurposing some vocals from the opening track into a semi-minimalistic, dance-ready closer.
Water Season is out now via one of the finest labels in Philly (and much farther beyond), Julia’s War.
Horsegirl - Phonetics On And On
Indie Rock, Slacker Rock, Twee Pop
via Matador Records
write-up by Peter Doherty
The subtle, sweet, and ever-deadpan sounds of Chicago's Horsegirl return for their sophomore outing Phonetics On and On.
Simple yet sophisticated. Playful yet supremely serious. Heartfelt yet cold as ice. Upset yet at peace with the changing moods. Unimpressed with what you suggest. Instinctual doubt that things will get better. Twee but not naive. Soft but stern, resilient. Calloused hands; velvet soul.
Horsegirl remains among the best that the contemporary music scene has to offer. Their light-hearted-heaviness comes as a welcome respite for those looking for a dose of quiet confidence.
Preoccupations - "Focus"
Post-Punk, New Wave
via Born Losers Records
write-up by Peter Doherty
Preoccupations return with "Focus," the lead single in the build-up to album number five, Ill at Ease.
"Focus" finds a relatively happy-sounding Preoccupations at work. These clouds have silver linings; however, the clouds remain prominently featured. There's no rainbow without some rain.
Ill at Ease releases May 9 via Born Loser Records and is the band’s first release on the Philadelphia-based label. Preoccupations will play a six-date tour of the UK in May with North American dates following across the end of May and all of June.
Atticus' Picks
Toro y Moi - "Daria" (prod. by Kenny Beats)
Alt-Pop, Alt. R&B
via Dead Oceans
Chaz Bear is back with a B-side track left off his 2024 album Hole Erth, titled “Daria.” The multi-instrumentalist and vocalist behind Toro y Moi worked with the versatile producer Kenny Beats to create “Daria,” which was originally released as a bonus track exclusively on the physical copies of Hole Erth in Japan.
This track sounds more like a MAHAL-era leftover, as it sits upon a tight drum break closer to his previous indie rock palette than the recent hip-hop drums. The echoey electric guitar melody leaves room for a grungy bass riff, and Bear’s nonchalant vocal delivery feels more natural for him than last year’s shouty, pop-punk single “Tuesday.”
I can see why this was left off Hole Erth, since it is not very experimental for Toro y Moi and doesn’t reflect the Y2K aesthetic of the project. But for long-time fans of Chaz, this might be more pleasant than most of Hole Erth was.
D. Savage - WE LOVE D. SAVAGE
Pop Trap, West Coast Hip-Hop
via EMPIRE
Indie Rock, Indie Folk
via tapewormies
Dominick's Picks
Piper's Bellflower - Outside The Meeting House
Psychedelic Folk, Folk Rock
via Rock Records
Piper’s Bellflower is the project of Philadelphia-based musician Erik Hilbert. Hilbert plays guitar in the band A Country Western, who released the phenomenal Life on the Lawn last March. In April, he shared his most recent work as Piper’s Bellflower, with a mix of psychedelic rock, folk rock, and indie rock converging on Giddy Flame.
Outside The Meeting House is a new EP from Hilbert with four new ones that see a slight haze linger above a rolling hillside of psych-tinged folk rock.
It’s also worth mentioning Hilbert’s bandmate Paris Parker (aka Solvent OS) just shared their new record Panacea about two weeks ago. Outside The Meeting House isn’t currently on the Piper’s Bellflower Bandcamp (though several more projects are), but you can find it on Spotify and Apple Music.
Cross Record - "God Fax"
Experimental Rock, Avant-Folk
via Ba Da Bing!
Cross Record is the work of UK-based singer-songwriter and Loma lead vocalist Emily Cross. Last month, Cross shared “Charred Grass” and announced Crush Me, her first album in six years.
“God Fax” unfolds in slow motion and peels back a fragmented vision atop a series of tape loops, feedback, and distortion. Cross’ auto-tuned vocals are borderline uncanny, with a flat, expressionless demeanor.
“Theo [Karon] came to me with the idea for this song and I kept saying ‘Okay we’ll try, but I might scrap it at any time’ right up until the end,” Cross says. “I was asked to breathe in and out (kind of gasping) rhythmically and with different pitches until I almost passed out. I showed it to one of my friends when the rough version was done and he seemed scared of it, which to me was a positive sign.”
Crush Me is out March 21 via Ba Da Bing!
Florist - "Gloom Designs"
Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk
via Double Double Whammy
In April, Florist are set to drop their fifth album Jellywish. They have already shared the singles “Have Heaven” and “This Was A Gift.” This week brings us another one from the New York four-piece, now sharing the album’s closing track, “Gloom Designs.”
Florist is led by songwriter, singer, and guitarist Emily Sprague. Of “Gloom Designs,” Sprague says:
“A mile marker in the sand. Thesis statement for Jellywish. Macro reckoning with living. At first looking inward at my own life story, then reflecting on what it means to be continuously sifting through the everyday towards death, the magic and horror, being tired, earthly desire, destruction, fear, hopelessness, appreciation, empathy, illusion, mundane, wish. Witnessing human evil. The whole history of us, the question mark for what comes next. Love for our planet Earth and the goodness that so many people still exert for it and for each other. Thinking. Finality but not finished.”
In addition to the new single, Florist have announced North American tour dates in May. Jellywish is out April 4 via Double Double Whammy.
MORE ALBUMS/EPs:
French post-punk group Cathédrale share their fifth album, Poison. (Modular Records)
Raw egg punk on Demo No. 3 from Cosme, a band out of Ciudad López Mateos, Mexico. (S/R)
Volatile and high-energy punk from Bristol's Möney on their Hegemony EP. (Chicken Attack Records)
A blitz of hardcore on the self-titled first full-length from Sydney, Australia's Rapid Dye. (Cool Death/11PM Records)
today station dropped the almost everything EP on Bandcamp about a month ago but it just hit streaming services. A versatile and crushing mixture of post-hardcore and post-rock. (Pollen Thief Records)
MORE SINGLES:
Brooklyn art-punk outfit Consumables share the title track from their debut album, Infinite Games, ahead of its release on March 7 via We Are Time.
Fantastically warm dream pop/jangle pop from Venice, Italy's Glazyhaze with their new single, "NIRVANA." Their latest album, Sonic, is out on March 21.
Santa Cruz melodic hardcore/alt-rock group Scowl release "B.A.B.E." from their upcoming record Are We All Angels. Watch the video here. Scowl's new album is their first for Dead Oceans and is out on April 4.
With a hazy, grungy, and unmistakably PNW sound, Seattle band Swamp Wife announce a new EP behind lead single "Cadmium Red Light." Your love is all I know is out April 4 via LACE Records.
Two weeks out from their new album A Harmony of Loss Has Been Sung, the noise rock duo Tunic share the single and accompanying video for "Ordinary Unique Pain." (Midwest Debris)
Chicago's Bnny share "Love Trap," a new single taken from the recording sessions of their 2024 album, One Million Love Songs. (Fire Talk)
England's Hallan share "Lilian's Regret." (S/R)
Melbourne's Jade Imagine share "Hot Bath." (Remote Control Records)
Manchester band Pyncher share their debut single, "Get Along." (S/R)
Just a month after the release of PP7, Virginia-based POWER PANTS share more "egg punk from another world" with two tracks, titled "Dragonfly" and "Ramone," released as CS3.
Robin Kester's first release on Memphis Industries sees her & Rozi Plain (featured) pair up for the lovely "Departure."
Aussie punks Split System deliver a one-two punch of no-frills, high-energy rock with the pairing of "On The Edge" and "On The Loose." (Legless Records)
Peter's Picks
Richard Dawson - End Of The Middle
Singer-Songwriter, Progressive Folk
via Weird World Record Co.
Newcastle native Richard Dawson releases his eighth studio album. End of the Middle puts the every day under sonic inspection; the family home becomes a never-ending world of potential and history under the eye of Richard Dawson. The little things you never noticed slide right on by, until you notice them; now, they are all you see. The beauty of it all lies right beneath our noses.
Nothing ever happens, then it all happens at once.
End of the Middle is out now via Domino.
clipping. - "Welcome Home Warrior" (ft. Aesop Rock)
Industrial Hip-Hop, Glitch Hop
via Sub Pop
clipping. continue their journey towards their upcoming full-length Dead Channel Sky with "Welcome Home Warrior."
clipping., via their Instagram, state: “we made a song with our favorite rapper.” Aesop Rock steps aboard the steampunk train as the futuristic worlds of clipping. and their mechanical elegance throttle forth once more.
Dead Channel Sky releases March 14 via Sub Pop Records.
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