Those paying very close attention to the rock underground over the past couple of years may well have encountered Desert Kites. The Dundee based band have released a string of singles and an EP that gained some positive online press.
The band are back with the surprisingly sparky ‘Simple Cure’, which takes their riff-based approach in a slightly different direction from the EP’s post grunge sounds..
Those paying attention to the UK’s indie, shoegaze and dream pop scenes early in 2026 might have already discovered ‘Find Me There’, a fantastic track from Wiltshire based Shapes Like People. A fantastic single that sounded like the perfect dream pop throwback to 1993/1994 with its Cocteau Twins inspired shimmering guitar lines and clean vocals, it suggested that the upcoming Shapes Like People album would potentially be great.
Asylum Road closed their 2025 with a very uncompromising single, ‘Mask of Oblivion’. The track’s mix of metalcore and hardcore with a pinch of death metal darkness left nothing to chance in terms of overall heaviness.
Marking the end of a three year silence, singer songwriter Caïman released the wonderful ‘Dreams Are A Way To See Dead People Again’ in June 2025. The low key track blended indie, pop and dream pop elements in a way that helped to bring out the best in a light, melodic vocal, making it easy to hear why some had dubbed the performer “the French Marika Hackman”. It was an absolutely fantastic return.
The promotional cycle for Shannon Smith’s debut album ‘Out of The Shadows’ didn’t take a standard route by any means. Looking beyond the typical approach of “let’s release a couple of singles over a couple of months, then get the album onto the streamers” favoured by so many in 2025, Smith started the ball rolling far earlier. His first single, the fantastic ‘Dance The Night Away’, appeared in late 2023, almost eighteen months before it was clear an album would be forthcoming.