During the last quarter of 2025, desert rock duo ‘SoftSun’ released their second album ‘Eternal Sunrise’. Since their debut LP was a near flawless slice of deep psych infused desert/stoner, there was a great deal riding on ‘Eternal Sunrise’ in terms of overall quality, but it’s fair to say that it was everything fans of the debut could’ve hoped for.
Nilagia McCoy can often be found fronting Boston based garage pop/power pop/alternative band The Jacklights. In the main, their Drive Thru Facelift project couldn’t be any more different, stylistically speaking. Billed as “two humans and a drum machine writing a soundtrack for our dystopian times”, the duo explores a sound that blends industrial loops with deep, goth influenced bass grooves, creating a dark yet danceable sound that has a heart in the very early 90s.
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we throw a spotlight on some of the best new tracks that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. It’s quite a rocky selection this time out, with an Irish band fusing some early 90s riffs with a distinctive voice, a groove laden track that takes the bones of garage rock and adds a heavier twist and a rock band reworking a 70s classic in an even harder style, but there’s variety too, with a dash of country and a couple of singer songwriters awaiting your attention. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy…
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Montreal’s Museums arrived on the shoegaze scene in 2024 with ‘Sink Your Teeth In My Brain’, a two track digital release that captured a wealth of heavily treated guitar sounds and swirling atmospheres rather effectively. Coupled with a strong sense of indie-centric melodies and a clean, almost dream pop-esque vocal, the material was accessible for the style; the production values showed some obvious budgetary limitations, but the band’s bright and breezy style marked them out as an act to keep an ear for in future. Subsequent singles ‘Ur Best’ and ‘In Waves’ continued the streak of great retro sounds. With its fusion of indie and bubblegum pop, and incessant hook – sort of like a collaboration between Velocity Girl and Rilo Kiley – the latter more than suggested that Museums could be capable of delivering something much bigger in time.
When it comes to compilations, the UK rock scene of the late 1960s/early 1970s has been covered extensively – to the point of absolute overkill. It’s easy to feel that this is a part of musical history that no longer needs revisiting, just as many “new” articles on The Beatles, the Stones and Queen now border on being digital landfill. With that in mind, it’s always far more interesting when attentions are turned to overseas acts. Cherry Red’s rather excellent set ‘Living On The Hill’ promised “a Danish underground trip” upon its release in 2020 and subsequently did exactly what it said on the tin, giving the keener rock fan three discs’ worth of genuinely unfamiliar sounds from the North, with Blast Furnace being the compilation’s nearest to a “known” name.