Unmarry Me – Clean Fight

We begin Vol 388 with a startling cut from Happy Soul Records out of London who proclaim that this is their second release in thirteen years. If you do dare to check out Alasdair Roberts & Ivor Kallin – Jesus Christ (Ex Sebadoh) you’ll understand that you stumbled upon unknown territory. Lise Frances (Help She Can’t Swim), Chris Rowley (Huggy Bear, Adulkt Life) and Jon Slade (Huggy Bear, Snoozers) are Unmarry Me by way of London to Brighton and back (they say), not so sure that explains anything. As group they have been together for about half a year of a world in trouble, (again according to their PR blurb)Therefore they are group trying to carve out some joy and light as a form of resistance, no small feat or maybe grandiose but worth stating. They are comprised of personnel who have all had time or continue to have time in other groups, who did not take easy routes or money and didn’t make many friends, so it goes.  Yet again we rely on their statements which also include the following, “Unmarry me are about bending, queering, breaking and resetting rules, smudging boundaries and having a lovely time. Unmarry me is a romance but you might not or might want to identify with its protagonists, Uunmarry me is up to you, make the right choice”. Well, fortunately for them or maybe us, I love what they are up to. For a moment I wondered if this was a long lost 7” I’d forgotten about from circa 1978 when enterprising souls took their hand stamped sleeves with a “Porky Prime Cut” pressing on it over to Notting Hill to bother Kickboy Face at Rough Trade for a place in the new release bin. Of course, that’s just me having an unreal flashback. This is in fact their first release from November 2025 with Spanner In The Hurt on the other side. With enormous pleasure I cannot (will not) slot this darling release into a well-worn genre. It’s unnerving, mysterious and charming.

Soft Blade – Ophelia

Russian-born musician and artist, Violetta Shabash presents as Soft Blade, she is currently based in the UK. Her Softic 2 LP was created in Russia, Serbia and UK (with love, she adds). She also tells us, “I love cowbells and my keywords are abandoned pop, fantasy, diary”. Along with her intelligent melange of electro, techno, breakbeat, dub, folk and house Violetta singing in Russian ably shares her emotions. This is captivating, innovative music that prompts the listener to learn more while being charmed. Soft Blade’s artistry is not confined to studio recordings. Her project, eight years in the making, is audiovisual in spirit, with Violetta creating her own cover art, merchandise and cassette designs. Do not overlook and search out the available videos.

Ayaluna – By Ur Side

New Zealand-based DJ, producer, and musician, Ayaluna is a prominent figure in the Aotearoa music scene. She specializes in deep, minimal dubstep, experimental R&B, and ambient bass music. Her name derives from Aya – Japanese for design/beautiful and Luna – Latin for moon. Indulge in her hypnotic grooves on the Almost Lost EP, then explore her back catalogue. Plus be sure to search out her videos, the Keep Hush DJ set would be an excellent introduction.

Miriam Ingram – The Stranger’s Grave

This release is part of a Bring Your Hammer series where composers, singers and musicians are asked to create songs rooted in the Irish writers born in the nineteenth century. The Stranger’s Grave, written by the poet, novelist and historian, Emily Lawless (1845-1913), was published in 1902 as part of her poetry collection, With the Wild Geese (1902). Lawless was from a wealthy landed family in Co. Kildare but also spent much of her early years in the west of Ireland. The poem offers an extraordinary evocation of an ‘unknown drowned man’ buried in a ‘graveyard upon Inishmaan, dedicated to unbaptized babies’. By the time the poem was published, Lawless had retired to Surrey where she had built a cottage, spent much of her time tending to the garden and lived with her close companion, Lady Sarah Spencer. Ingram offers a stunning re-interpretation of the poem through a beautiful vocal performance and striking musical arrangement. Miriam Ingram is an Irish musician who has been singing, writing and performing music for many years. She has released two albums, an EP and several singles – most recently – Ten Today. Miriam has written music for film, theatre and television. As well as writing, recording and performing her own material, Miriam has collaborated with many artists in live and studio settings. Miriam’s third album, Mariana Trench is currently in post-production. Plus, she has appeared before on LEM and we consider her a dear friend. 

Penfriend – Climbing On The Furniture

Penfriend – Disco Loadout

Laura Kid a music producer, songwriter and recording artist based in Nottingham, who uses the moniker, Penfriend, she used to present as She Makes War. We have included her charming monologue Climbing On The Furniture along with Disco Loadout from her album, The Ghost In The Attic – Online Gig November 2025. As Laura shares her anecdote  and then segues into the song her almost innocent demeanor belies a knowing aura. Her admission “Sad songs to make you feel better” is even more potent when she includes, “A tour souvenir created before the tour took place”. You must listen to this LP in full, not necessarily in one sitting, dip in and out if you must, but give Laura Kid your full attention. Exceptional.

Liza Dries, Mathilde Nobel – Akyra

What we have here are three cuts that will prompt repeat play. All too short, all splendid, disconcerting and most enjoyable. Akyra is the collaborative EP by Dutch electronic artists Mathilde Nobel and Liza Dries, who meet in the realm of the weird and the ethereal. Written, produced and performed together, the record bridges Nobel’s painterly, deconstructed soundscapes with Dries’ glitchy, transformative pop instincts. Apparently, the EP took shape during a shared residency in a French monastery, where long corridors, echoing chapels and shifting atmospheres seeped into the recordings. In this charged space, Nobel and Dries encountered both ghostly presences and unexpected inspiration, channeling the building’s mystique into three spectral tracks. Akyra captures that residency’s strange energy, music as séance, documenting voices and visions that linger between past and future. You are advised to indulge in Liza Dries’ back catalogue. 

Sofoquina – Sombra de Noche

From the opening cut of Sombra de Noche I knew I was about to be enchanted by the album, La Colección De Garabatos (The Scribble Collection) by Sofi James Martíne AKA Sofoquina. With just two inexpensive keyboards, Sofi composed, wrote and sang each track. There are eleven unrestrained songs created from the mischievous innocence of a child approaching music without preconceptions or prejudices. Sofoquina defies all the clichés associated with lo-fi pop, so sincere that they make everything else seem contrived. Sofoquina sings about life, and along the way, makes it better. Sofi is also responsible for the decidedly appropriately innocent artwork. Originally self-released in April 2025, now reissued by Cimatario Fuexo Recordings, who proudly announce they bring “the best of the Iberian Peninsula and always will be”. You can affirm that by checking out their other releases. Lovely!

Betty Hammerschlag – Fake Girl

First of all, I love this LP Fake Girl on Blush records out of Glasgow. The eight songs deceive with a dubby cloud over abstracted folk leanings. Beautiful and etherial, sometimes dark and alluring with “other voices” buried in the mix(es). Betty composed and produced the album and confidently toys around with manipulating her voice on occasion while sensitively handling the mixing board. I have to imagine, she knew where she was going before entering the studio, I won’t accept that these inspired zigzags in the production were by chance and not intended. The psychedelic-ish video for Deep like the cover photo for Fake Girl perfectly set the tone for how I imagine Ms. Hammerschlag glides through life. 

Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi – My Mother And Me

My producer, Stephanie sighed, “Oh, I do love the sound of a cello and I do like the sound of whales”. That took me by surprise. I had not realized how closely Stephanie was listening to My Mother And Me from Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi. Nor did I comprehend that she was reading the notes to Ms. Hansen-Knarhoi’s album where she states, “Whale Noise enthusiast”. Brilliant observations from the undeniably exceptional person who keeps me from wandering too far off course and connects with all the artists who send us music. Undertow is the debut Long-player from London-based composer/singer-songwriter Sophia Hansen-Knarhoi who also has mastered the cello. She unveils a stark vulnerability ensconced in a brooding ambiance that is both intimate and expansive. “The cello is widely considered the closest instrument to the voice. This is something that continually bleeds into my practice, finding the connection between voice, cello and body. The physicalization of this combined practice creates a sense of corporeality in my sound. I let it be intuitive, my playing and singing guided by my breath and the way my body moves. I found the duality of this expression informed reflections of sensuality and intimacy throughout the album” writes Sophia. “My storytelling comes from a deeply emotional and intuitive space. But it also serves as a reflection of the web of lives and stories that are woven through my life” she adds. Born in Perth, Western Australia, Hansen-Knarhoi grew up surrounded by the natural world. Undertow draws on the stark landscapes and vast waters of Western Australia. Sophia’s origins as a composer coalesced in her early teens. “I would sit in my bed at night after school and write at least one poem a night.” In these moments, she built the foundations of her storytelling voice. “It was purely for myself. I didn’t want anyone to read them at the time, and created melodies for my words, sometimes drawing maps. Singing these melodies to myself would imprint them into my head.” I chose My Mother And Me to illustrate why Undertow should be eagerly welcomed into your collection. Emotions overflow in the song and the accompanying video is crafted so perfectly I thought it was true. 

Peter Perrett – Proud To Be Self-Hating (irony and provocation)

In my opinion Perrett is one of the most important voices in the history of rock ’n’ roll. Previously I have ranted on at length about the importance of Another Girl, Another Planet. And, each and every time I mention Peter’s name I have to caution myself from once again waxing lyrical about his iconic voice, his songwriting and his well-known dependancies. Yet, here we are more decades than I can count on from the original release of Another Girl and Peter Perrett is against all odds making pivotal music. On 9th August 2025, Peter Perrett alongside 531 other people was arrested at the protest organised by Defend Our Juries against the proscription of Palestine Action as a terrorist group by the English Government. Perrett – who is Jewish – has been supportive of Palestine for numerous years. Of the song, he says: “Usually I write music about love and the human condition. However, I haven’t been able to write whilst watching the horrors unfold over the past two years. I needed to write this song; it has been cathartic and exorcised demons.” Peter tells us the single is available to stream globally as he hopes this song will “open hearts everywhere to the genocide happening in Palestine. Happy Hanukkah/Christmas to all my Zionist Friends 🇵🇸 ☮️ Please share 🙏 To spread peace, goodwill and empathy throughout the Universe”.

Henry Greenleaf – Ghost Town

Qualified Trainspotters will be able to easily distinguish between 2-Step, Garage, Dubstep, Grime, Drum & Bass etc, but honestly for the rest of us why not just enjoy the splendor of all modern techno music with a heritage in Jamaican Dub and Chicago House. Henry Greenleaf is a producer/DJ from London who’s Jazz-inspired productions are full of off-beat drum machines, simplistic melodies and warm harmonious chords. His music showcases his attention to detail and love of sound design. His Ghost Town EP is courtesy of Dimeshift out of Bristol. Cool graphics, too.

Ago – Memories (feat. Teresa Ross)

Listen to this one while driving down the AI Autostrada at dawn with the intent to pull over at a small village for cappuccino and cornetto, then you hit replay and keep on driving. From Florence on Innamind Rrecordings Ago gives us Memories featuring Teresa Ross on vocals, six impressive Dubstep cuts on the Naked City EP. In case you were wondering, the sun-up drive is after a night of Downtempo body-slouching at an all-night after party at a villa in Arezzo in Eastern Tuscany. Keep on driving and make sure to give a big thumbs up to Marco Chiaramonti & Agostino Isola for the very cool artwork.

Emer – Nobody Speak

“Born in Lithuania, living in Brussels, musician and sound artist Marija Rasa explores in her practice sonic spatialisation, texture, and fragility. Since her studies at the Institute of Sonology in The Hague (NL), she has been working on a series of acousmatic pieces for multichannel speaker setups. In these compositions, she carefully sculpts fictional soundscapes out of delicate noise, electronic sounds, and field recordings, attentively put together by using a micro montage approach. Her collaborations extend to diverse musical fields, from electroacoustic experimentation with the duo ugne & maria, with Ugnė Vyliaudaitė, to the electronic music duo forgotten plants, with Konradas Žakauskas. An author of the cassette, ‘sea salt‘ (Lillerne Tapes), double single in collaboration with Ugnė Uma (STROOM), and her latest LP ‘Fog’ (Short Span), written under the moniker Emer. Her music has been described as “delicate but imbued with enormous emotional resonance. This music doesn’t call attention to itself; it doesn’t attempt to pummel you with concrete realizations. Instead, Rasa has shaped a galaxy of gentle swaying soundscapes in which voices are left to wander through nebulas of amorphous melody as we engage with a persistent desire to sink further into these celestial spaces.” words courtesy of Joshua Picard. Fog is Marija Rasa’s debut album on Short Span as Emer. Exceptional artwork by Micah Giraudeau.

Makyo – Things Ah Get Tuff / Things Ah Get Dub

From Dakini Records, Japan, Makyo taps into his love of roots reggae for this deep, dark and dreamy cover of Things Ah Get Tough by the legendary Bristol band Talisman. The Tokyo-based producer transforms the original, while keeping true to the essence of the original, whose lyrics meditate on the greed and destruction caused when corporations benefit from a nation’s downfall. “I’ve listened to this song for years,“ notes Makyo, “and it just felt more relevant than ever when I started working on it in 2024, with all the wars, election madness, wildfires, inflation and nuclear posturing. The mood just seemed to reflect where people were at.” This sparse and bittersweet version of Talisman’s tune is the first in a series of contemporary covers Mayko has planned. Chill, Dub, Ambient Deliciousness. 

Photograph by Winstone B. Handy 1950 – 2010 “Halloween Party, Hudson, NY, 1999” Kodachrome print. Courtesy of Norman B’s collection