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Watch: ‘Stars In Heaven’ by Gong

Posted: 5 November 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Bright Spirit, Cosmic, Daevid Allen, Drain Hope, Experimental, Gong, HENGE, Jazz, Kavus Torabi, KScope, Psychedelic, Single, Stars In Heaven, Stream, UK Tour, Video, wrird

Legendary psych outfit Gong are back today with their new single ‘Stars In Heaven’ alongside a brand new music video created by Drain Hope. The band have also teased the release of their new album which fans will see in 2026 and shared the album’s name – Bright Spirit.

“It’s such an eclectic record,” says singer and guitarist Kavus Torabi. “This is the most colourful and kaleidoscopic album so far from this incarnation of the band. There are Eastern-infused epics, long instrumental jazz-inspired sections, meditative and cosmic detours and blistering, incendiary psychedelic rock. When picking the first song to be released, it has felt as if there’s an extra weight on the choice, as if the song somehow has to represent the whole album.”

Lyrically it expands on the idea that the world is as you are. “If you are a cynical, defensive or suspicious person, then that’s the world you’ll inhabit,” continues Kavus. “You’ll see mean-spirited behaviour and selfishness all around you but it’s always a choice. I think perhaps some people forget that. That’s not the world I live in, nor would I want to. It’s a sad old world for sure but it’s also a beautiful one bursting with hope, possibility, wonder and magic in every single moment.”

‘Stars In Heaven’ is the first single to be released from the new album Bright Spirit which will be released in 2026 on Kscope. Bright Spirit continues the legendary Gong catalogue – an extensive and acclaimed collection of releases that has seen Gong produce over 30 studio albums during a career spanning more than 50 years, since the band was founded in 1970 by the late Daevid Allen.

Gong continue to carry the torch ignited by Daevid Allen with their UK tour alongside fellow psych legends HENGE currently underway -

UK TOUR DATES 2025/26

GONG – UK

Nov 08 – Bedford Esquires, Bedford

Nov 14 – Marine Theatre, Lyme Regis

Nov 15 – The Boileroom, Guildford

Nov 16 – The Piper, St Leonards

Nov 25 – Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich

Nov 29 – Club 85, Hitchin

GONG & HENGE – UK

Nov 05 – The 1865, Southampton

Nov 06 – Trinity Centre, Bristol

Nov 07 – Dreamland, Margate

Nov 09 – Colchester Arts Centre, Colchester

Nov 11 – The Globe, Cardiff

Nov 12 – Exeter Phoenix, Exeter

Nov 13 – Princess Pavilion, Falmouth

Nov 19 – Crookes Social Club, Sheffield

Nov 20 – The Leeds Irish Centre Leeds

Nov 21 – Northumbria Students’ Union, Newcastle

Nov 22 – Kanteena, Lancaster

Nov 23 – St Luke’s Glasgow, Glasgow

Nov 26 – Cambridge Junction, Cambridge

Nov 27 – The Robin, Bilston

Nov 28 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Nov 30 – Earth Hall, London

Mar 19 – Chalk, Brighton

Mar 20 – Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury

Mar 21 – Hangar 18, Swansea

Mar 26 – The Drill, Lincoln

Mar 27 – New Century Hall, Manchester

Mar 28 – Hangar 34, Liverpool

Bite the Boxer – Venom Test

Posted: 3 November 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
Tags: Ambient, Bite the Boxer, Cinematic, electronic, Haunted Remains Pt.2, Haunting, Industrial, instrumental, moody, Review, Single, Venom Test, Video

Christopher Nosnibor

Bite the Boxer is unquestionably an unusual and intriguing name for a musical project: my mind immediately leaps to the infamous ‘bite fight’ between Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield in 1997, where Tyson lost through disqualification after biting off a chunk of Holyfield’s ear in one of sport’s most shocking moments.

In combining an eclectic range of elements spanning industrial, alt-pop, trip-hop, and ambient lo-fi, there’s nothing about Matt Park’s music which indicates any connection to this moment in sporting history. The same is true of his objective to create music imbued with ‘he feeling of impending doom but with just a glimmer of hope’, which is inspired by ‘horror video games and dystopian, post-apocalyptic films’.

‘Venom Test’ is haunting – at first ambient, before bursting with an expansive, cinematic feel, then plunging into darker territory. Even without the aid of a beautifully-shot and remarkably stylish video, the rack leads the listener through an evocative sequence of sonic transitions. Although never harsh, the distant drums are weighty, powerful, and the overall experience feels like a juxtaposition of must and decay with rays of shining hope breaking through cloud. The listener feels as if they’re being pulled in opposite directions, the suspenseful end offering no conclusion, but instead, leaving a sense of emotional quandary, an uncertainty. ‘Venom Test’ creates a tension, and provides no closure or conclusion, only a sense of a door being left ajar. It’s a deftly woven piece, and one which feels very much like it belongs to a much larger project – which it does, being a taster (which doesn’t remotely have the flavour of bloodied ear, to the best of my knowledge) for the forthcoming album, Haunted Remains Pt.2. As a choice of single, it’s a good one, leaving us in suspense to hear it in the context it was intended.

Watch: ‘Like A Freak’ by Paradox Obscur

Posted: 31 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Dance, dark, EBM, EDM, Groove, IKONA, Like A Freak, Metropolis Records, Paradox Obscur, Pavel Vishnevsky, Single, Stream, synth, Techno, Video

Filmmaker Pavel Vishnevsky returns to collaborate again with Paradox Obscur, bringing a dynamic new visual interpretation to ‘Like A Freak’, an electrifying track from IKONA, the recently released new album by the Greek synth duo.

In a vivid performance, Nicola Di Pierro defies cliché and convention, embodying the song’s spirit of freedom and self-expression – because everyone, regardless of age, has the right to dance. The result is a cinematic celebration of exuberance and individuality, amplifying the pulse of Paradox Obscur’s kinetic sound.

‘Like A Freak’ opens side 2 of IKONA with a wild jolt, pulsing with the edge of the Hexagon house music label’s rebellious spirit. Powered by the Behringer Crave synthesiser, it spits out raw analog grit – the bass growls, the synths snarl – creating a feral, ecstatic soundscape that is as visceral as it is infectious.

Lyrically, ‘Like A Freak’ explores the duality of ego; the composed persona we present to the world versus the wild, unfiltered self that thrives in secret. It is a song for those sweaty, sunrise hours when inhibition fades, judgement dissolves, and you move only for yourself as you ask: Does it make you click? / Now it’s time to go deep. / Way deep. Like a freak. / Taste my analog kick!

Watch: ‘Fish-Like Things’ by Suspicious Liquid

Posted: 30 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: alternative, Atmospheric, dark, Doom, Fish-Like Things, Jazz, Prog, Riffs, Rock, Single, Stream, Suspicious Liquid, Video, York

Relative newcomers Suspicious Liquid have crashed the York scene in a big way with some powerful live shows, and now, with an album in the offing, they’ve gifted us with a video for ‘Fish-Like Things’.

It’s the perfect introduction to the band – melding elements of stoner / doom, prog, psychedelia and even a hint of jazz, and driving them home with some big riffage, ‘Fish-Like Things’ encapsulates the weird and wonderful sound of Suspicious Liquid. The accompanying video is suitably dark and twisted, and locals have the added bonus of being able to play ‘identify the location’.

Watch: ‘Murder White Noise’ by Sword Tongue

Posted: 29 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: alt rock, Anxiety, commentary, Murder White Noise, Single, Stream, stress, Sword Tongue, true crime, Video

Oakland alt-rock trio Sword Tongue presents ‘Murder White Noise’, a wry commentary on the state of the world and our attempts to soothe ourselves to get through it. The latest offering from their explosive Bonfire In The Tempest EP – their fourth to date.

In an increasingly stressful world, this song explores how people try to externalize their anxieties by consuming content that allows them to feel better about their own lives. We attempt to cope with the pressure of maintaining equilibrium by coming together to grieve, worry, and comfort each other, often finding that the only way to feel good about our lives is to reflect on others’ misfortunes.

Creating dark music for dark times, Sword Tongue is vocalist Jennifer Wilde and guitarist Gaetano Maleki, a husband and wife who launched this project in the pandemic year of 2020, now joined by renowned drummer-producer Dan Milligan.

“I started consuming true crime content as a way to turn off the thoughts that kept me awake at night and distracted me during the day. One day I told a friend I was a listening to a livestreamed trial where a lady put her husband on a burn pile. She said “WHOAH, what is that, murder white noise?” As I told people about the song, I found many others watch crime stories as a release from their stressful lives. It is important to bring that into the conversation about how we are coping today,” says Jennifer Wilde.

“Finding comfort in tragedy is new for me; during the pandemic and especially in the last year I find myself needing to look for reassurance that whatever I am facing is not as bad as it could be. ‘Murder White Noise’ was written as a way to come to grips that someone else’s pain is that content, and what that says about where we are as a society right now. Gaetano wrote the perfect guitar line that hooks you in to get to the truth of the song.”

On ‘Murder White Noise’, soothing vocals contrast with the song’s macabre lyrical content, while steadily thrumming instrumentation lulls you into a false sense of security. For a moment, the listener feels heard and encouraged, then questions their own motivations, left to wonder whether they are now the tragic victim in this story.
”From a songwriting perspective, this pulled a lot of anxiety out of me,” says Gaetano Maleki. “While writing the guitar and bass lines, I wanted to bring out tension to mirror the vocals, but with some kind of seductive undertones. I feel the instruments really complement the lyrics, like a hard boiled soundtrack.”

Watch: ‘House Of Rain’ (feat. Ann-Mari Edvardsen) by Novembre

Posted: 26 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: anthem, House Of Rain (feat. Ann-Mari Edvardsen), Novembre, Peaceville Records, Single, Stream, Video, Words Of Indigo

Italian masters of doom Novembre are back today with the second single from their new album Words Of Indigo, set for release on Peaceville on 7th November. Speaking about the new track, titled ‘House Of Rain’, songwriter Carmelo Orlando shared –

“The moment the main motif of ‘House Of Rain’ poured out, I knew we had something special. It’s not the kind of theme you stumble upon every day. It’s an instant sing-along and had to be handled with special care if we didn’t want it to go to waste on a two-bit tune. That’s why we decided to put extra effort into putting this track together. Once it was done, I felt it needed another vocal line an octave higher to go along with mine. That’s where the idea of female vocals came in. Luckily, one of my all-time favourite singers, Ann-Mari Edvardsen, ex-singer of the Norwegian legends The 3rd and the Mortal—with whom we had already collaborated years ago on the album Novembrine Waltz—had just moved to my hometown in Sicily. It only felt natural to give her a call and suggest a second collaboration, which, to my surprise, she happily accepted. So I flew back to Sicily to meet her in a studio, and that’s where the magic happened.

Then the band was phenomenal, the rhythm section thundering ahead like a train, and the central solo lifted the piece to soaring heights.

And like something out of a fate-driven novel, it all came together—Ann-Mari, my return to the old country—and the lyrics could only be about an old house, the houses we leave behind, and the silence they must have carried all those years without us kids tearing through its rooms. Do they miss us? Do they feel lonely?”

Novembre by Giacomo Mearelli

Watch: ‘The Preacher’ by Hollow Ship

Posted: 25 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Heavy, Hollow Ship, PNKSLM Recordings, Psychedelic, Single, Stream, The Preacher, Video, Weird

‘The Preacher’ is the new single from Gothenburg’s Hollow Ship, recorded and produced together with tape wizard Don Alsterberg. Leaving the noisy compressed sound that defined their acclaimed debut LP Future Remains behind and entering a rich new sonic texture while unmistakably still the heavy hitting Hollow Ship.

‘The Preacher’ arrives after a summer during which the band found themselves topping Spotify’s viral charts in the US, UK, their native Sweden and many other territories with ‘Magic Mountain’ from the cult classic Future Remains. With the band set to head out on tour in Europe later this year ‘The Preacher’ also serves as a first taste of new music with their second full-length due next spring.

‘The Preacher’ arrives together with a video by Freddy Wallin and is out now digitally via PNKSLM Recordings.

LIVE

Nov 7 – Berlin, DE – Neue Zukunft

Nov 8 – Brno, CZ – Metro Music Bar

Nov 9 – Prague, CZ – Café V Lese

Nov 10 – Vienna, AT – Arena

Nov 11 – Weimar, DE – C. Keller

Nov 12 – Amsterdam, NL – Nachbar

Dec 2 – Hannover, DE – Glocksee

Dec 3 – Hamburg, DE – MS Stubnitz

Dec 4 – Düsseldorf, DE – Ratinger Hof

Dec 5 – Rouen, FR – Le 3 Piéces

Dec 6 – Paris, FR – Le Mécanique-Ondulatoire

Dec 7 – Nijmegen, NL – De Onderbroek

Watch: ‘Beyond The Veil’ by ATMAEN

Posted: 24 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Atmaen, Atmospheric, Beyond The Veil, dark, fugue state, hypnagogia, Inertial Music, Lullabies From The Dark Ether, melancholic ambient, Single, Sleep, Stream, trance-like, transition, Video

Italy-based melancholic ambient artist ATMAEN has released the song ‘Beyond The Veil’, taken from the artist’s new EP Lullabies From The Dark Ether, out on December 12th via Inertial Music. This latest work is meant to be a bridge to cross the line between being awake and falling asleep.

Lullabies From The Dark Ether is music that flows gracefully in the quiet darkness of the night, like an owl flying silently, lifting the veil between the world of daylight and the world of dreams. Otherworldly soundscapes create the frame within which soulful melodies unfold. Wordless vocals seem to come from a different dimension. They flow and blend with the synth sounds, creating a rich evolving sound tapestry, to drift into dreams as wide as the universe. Some songs also feature a beautiful heavily processed piano that sounds like it’s coming from another world, yet speaks directly to the listener’s soul. A gentle invitation to feel lighter, to let the mind dissolve in the night sky, to let the spirit roam free and blend with the vastness of space.

ATMAEN is a project created by Valentina Buroni. She’s a singer, a songwriter, and a researcher in the field of sacred ritualistic chanting and of self-transformation through sound and music. Her songs are prayers, invocations to the spirits of nature, sacred chants to connect with the spiritual dimension, medicine chants, sonic journeys and meditations to expand the consciousness. She creates dreamlike, magical, otherworldly atmospheres in her songs. She is influenced by Celtic music, folk music from Western Europe, ritualistic chants of contemporary indigenous cultures, electronic music, ambient music and movie soundtracks.

Valentina is trained in early music singing, modern singing, Irish traditional singing, overtone singing, Gregorian chant singing. She also plays the frame drum. She is a dance therapist and a professional holistic operator with more than 20 years of experience in the use of voice and singing for personal growth and well-being.

She has released 7 full-length albums with different music projects (Dragonheart Records, Standing Stone Records, Inertial Music) ranging from heavy metal, to electro-acoustic ambient, to world folk music. She has played big festivals like Triskell Celtic Festival, Nomad Dance Fest, and Wave Gotik Treffen.

ATMAEN by Roberto Lo Schiavo

Watch: ‘The Pilgrim’s Arc’ by Papillon de Nuit

Posted: 23 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: collaborations, Dramatic, Gothic, Melody, Papillon de Nuit, Single, Spoken Word, Stream, The Pilgrim's Arc, theatrical, Video, York

The catalogue of material released by Papillon de Nuit, the ever-shifting, ever-evolving musical project of Stephen Kennedy, continues to expand with the release of single number eight.

Kennedy’s approach to the project is both interesting and unusual, with each song recorded at a separate session, often not even fully-formed in terms of writing and arrangement beforehand, and realised with various guest musicians and vocalists. Retuning once more to Young Thugs studio in York, ‘The Pilgrim’s Arc’ again sees Stephen handle a considerable range of duties, from drums to grand piano and providing spoken and sung vocals, as well as writing and arranging the song itself, while joined by Michalina Rudawska (cello) and Karen Amanda O’Brien (spoken word).

The Exceptional Mr Hyde make a guest appearance here, providing ‘menacing spoken word’, while Steve Whitfield added bass and guitar, as well covering production work

The result is a striking, dramatic, percussion-driven piece with some chunky bass, and layered vocals creating an almost schizophrenic mutter behind a soaring melody.

Watch: ‘Human Nature’ (live session) by Mission Jupiter

Posted: 17 October 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
Tags: Aftermath, alternative metal, Drama, epic, Human Nature, Label 51 Recordings, Live, Mission Jupiter, Single, Video

Minsk, Belarus-based alternative metal act Mission Jupiter have recently issued Aftermath, their third album but first with powerhouse new singer Kate Varsak, whose voice is suited perfectly to a set of epic, drama-packed songs that should see the group achieve lift-off far beyond their home territory.

Describing the song’s meaning, the group explain that “it asks if we can be less selfish. Most of us tend not to look beyond our own doorstep….can we be better?”

Aftermath contains ten superbly produced songs in all. Fans of alternative and hard rock, progressive rock, metal and even Eurovision-esque crossover rock (on ‘Jak Spyniajecca Bol’, recorded in the group’s mother tongue and translated as ‘How The Pain Stops’) will be wowed by Mission Jupiter’s new songs, which combine sounds, moods and melodies wrapped around a stunning voice to leave listeners breathless.

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