New Music: Sliced By A Fingernail

           

Dry Cleaning have released a new single, "Sliced By a Fingernail." The song comes with an unsettling visualizer by Bullyache, where a dancer takes frontperson Florence Shaw's lyrics quite literally—"Do a headspin / When it's a grubby round ball, grubby round ball"—by... spinning their head in circles on top of a basement washing machine?. The track was inspired by illustrator Jooyoung Kim's Welcome to My Life, a humorous picture book about a dog with a long body. "A lot of attention makes them feel sliced up. So they fantasize about being hidden inside a huge flower bud and about being anonymous in a crowd at night,"nt. 

New Music: Automatic

           

Jessie Ware shares new single, the smooth "Automatic" taken from the artist forthcoming new album "Superbloom". This the third single taken from Jessie Ware’s hotly anticipated sixth studio album, Featuring the dulcet tones of Euphoria actor Colman Domingo, ‘Automatic’ was co-written with Kamille, Karma Kid and Baz and leans into the soulful '70s disco sound Ware has made her own in recent years. Explaning how the collaboration with Domingo came about, Ware says, “‘Automatic’ was the first song where I really felt like I was bringing the dance and soul world together for this album. I wrote it with Kamille, Karma Kid and Baz. Karma had this amazing sample and groove, and it all clicked instantly. Kamille and I couldn't stop writing; it just flowed really naturally. That's probably what I love most about it, it feels effortless and like it can exist in any setting. It's a celebration of romance and connection. 

News: Erasure/Blancmange Project Doublespeak To Release Debut Album

Doublespeak – a new collaboration between Erasure's Vince Clarke, Blancmange's Neil Arthur and electronic producer-writer Benge – will release their self-titled debut album in May.

Arthur and Clarke first worked together back in the '80s, when the Blancmange man contributed an unused song to Clarke's short-lived project The Assembly. In 2017, Arthur approached Clarke with the idea for Doublespeak, pitching a collection of covers of artists including Young Marble Giants, ABBA, The Carpenters and David Essex using analogue electronics. Bengle – producer of the last six Blancmange albums and Fader – got on board, completing the three-piece.

"I knew so little about some of these songs that they were like demos to me," says Clarke. "They felt like brilliant new songs that you want to get your hands on. I’ve had people do cover versions of my songs and honestly there’s no better tribute. So that’s what we wanted to do here."

"What’s really stood out for us on this journey is how good these songs are," adds Arthur. "It's from doing your own version that you realise what incredible pieces of work they are."

Doublespeak is out 29 May 2026

 

Doublespeak Track List:  

 

1. Back To Nature (originally by Fad Gadget)

2. Brand – New – Life (Young Marble Giants)

3. The Visitors (ABBA)

4. I Can’t Escape Myself (The Sound)

5. Goodbye To Love (The Carpenters)

6. Rock On (David Essex)

7. Smoke And Mirrors (The Magnetic Fields)

8. Day Breaks, Night Heals (Thomas Leer and Robert Rental)

9. Gentle On My Mind (John Hartford)

10. Richard! (Ed Dowie)

11. End Credits (Laptop)

New Music: For You

           

The new single from the French artist Requin Chagrin "For You" is arriving now, taken from the bands forthcoming album "Décollage" available here https://requinchagrin.lnk.to/Decollage , the video has been directed by Simon Noizat.

New Music: Island Of One

           

Miki Berenyi Trio's new song "Island Of One" is trippy and hypnotic, and it reminds more of Stereolab than Lush. Along with the studio recording, they've shared a video where they play a longer version of the track live in studio. Benreyi said: "Island Of One" took shape because I became quite obsessed with the track "Just A Western" by Nilüfer Yanya last year, and the Latin-y beat got me inspired. But I wanted a lively, catchy song to add to our live set, so it ended up less laidback and more 60s-breezy with some driving, scratchy guitars — once all three MB3 members pile in on the embellishments, a song ends up a fair distance from where it started! As ever, recording and production took place in our various home-studio set-ups, and the song was mixed by our brilliant Bella Union labelmate, Paul Gregory... the video was directed by Sébastien Faits-Divers

New Music: Winter Sky

           

Big Country’s co-founder and longest-serving band member, Bruce Watson, has announced that as of 1st January 2026 the band will move forward under the name Big Country Redux. 2026 marks the 25th anniversary of the passing of songwriter, frontman, and co-founder Stuart Adamson. Now there's a new single off "Winter Sky" taken from the forthcoming album Eastworld releasing Sept 2026. The track FeaturesMick McNeill of Simple Minds on accordion.

New Music: Stop

           

Embrace are approaching their 30-year milestone with a startling sense of clarity. Their upcoming album, Avalanche, marks a departure from the self-imposed pressures of their arena-filling past, leaning instead into a raw and uncomfortable honesty. Band's new single "Stop" is the heartbeat of this shift; born from a realisation of life’s fragility, the band views the fleeting nature of existence not as a tragedy, but as a liberating reason to drop the act and actually live in the moment. Of the single, vocalist Danny McNara comments: The track "Stop" pretty much says it all. It’s the clearest statement of where my head was at when we started this record. I was thinking a lot about scale, the fact that we’re on a rock spinning through space at a million miles an hour, heading into absolute nothing, with almost no control over the big picture. One day everyone and everything we’ve ever known will just be a fine layer of calcium, and there’s nothing we can do to change that. Oddly, I don’t find that depressing. I find it freeing. If none of this is permanent, then the pressure we put on ourselves, to be better, bigger, fixed, sorted, is kind of absurd. That song is a demand, to myself as much as anyone, to stop, look around, and actually live in the moment.

News: Pink Floyd/LiveFrom Los Angeles Sports Arena Soon To Come Out

Pink Floyd’s 1975 concert at the Los Angeles Sports Arena was first released on blu-ray last year on the Wish You Were Here 50th anniversary reissue. It's soon to come out on vinyl, via the previously announced 4LP set for Record Store Day but is now confirmed as a 2CD set in late April.

The performance was never professionally recorded so the origins of this recording is via the late bootlegger Mike "Mike the Mic" Millard, whose tapes from concerts across Los Angeles in the 1970s became renowned for their surprisingly clear sound quality. To conceal his recording equipment from venue security, Millard would often pretend to be disabled and arrive to concerts in a wheelchair.

The performance opened with early versions of songs initially titled as "Raving and Drooling" and "You've Got To Be Crazy", which later evolved into "Sheep" and "Dogs" which ended up on Animals.  "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" in its two parts bookended another new composition, "Have A Cigar". Following these new compositions, the band performed The Dark Side of The Moon in full, with "Echoes" as an encore.

Meticulously restored and remastered by Steven Wilson, this is as good as it’s going to get in terms of a live recording of Pink Floyd’s 1975 tour.

The 4LP clear vinyl edition is released on Record Store Day on 18 April, and the 2CD edition is released six days later on 24 April 2026.

Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena - 2CD/4LP set Track List: 

 

1. Raving and Drooling (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

2. You’ve Got To Be Crazy (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

3. Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1-5) (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975 )

4. Have a Cigar (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

5. Shine on You Crazy Diamond (6-9) (Live bootleg – Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

6. Speak to Me (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

7. Breathe (In The Air) (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

8. On the Run (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

9. Time (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

10. The Great Gig in the Sky (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

11. Money (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

12. Us and Them (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

13. Any Colour You Like (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

14. Brain Damage (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

15. Eclipse (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

16. Echoes (Live from the Los Angeles Sports Arena, 1975)

In Memoriam: Iconic And Veteran Actor "James Tolkan" Dies At 94

James Tolkan, the veteran character actor best known for his stern authority roles in "Back to the Future" and "Top Gun," has died at the age of 94.  James Tolkan, known for his roles as an authoritarian figure in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94.

Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died "peacefully", but no cause of death was given.

In Back to the Future, Tolkan portrayed the bow tie-wearing vice-principal Gerald Strickland, who eyeballed students for trouble in the halls of the fictitious Hill Valley high school – in particular Marty McFly, played by Michael J Fox. "You got a real attitude problem, McFly," Tolkan's character says in the 1985 film.  "You're a slacker. You remind me of your father when he went here. He was a slacker, too."

Tolkan also appeared in Top Gun as commanding officer Tom "Stinger" Jardian. Near the end of the film, when Jardian asks Tom Cruise’s character, Capt Pete "Maverick"  Mitchell, about his choice for future duty, Mitchell replies that he wants to be a Top Gun instructor. "God help us," Tolkan's character replies, laughing. Tolkan's big-screen résumé also included The Friends of Eddie Coyle, The Amityville Horror, Wolfen, WarGames, Masters of the Universe, True Blood and Opportunity Knocks.

Born on June 20, 1931, in Calumet, Michigan, James Stewart Tolkan cycled through Chicago after his parents divorced and wound up in Tucson, Arizona, where he graduated from Amphitheater High School in 1949. After a stint in the U.S. Navy, he attended Coe College and the University of Iowa, came to New York with $75 in his pocket and studied with Stella Adler and Lee Strasberg at The Actors Studio, where Beatty was a classmate in 1956.

He made his onscreen debut in 1960 on an episode of ABC's Naked City, and in 1966 he understudied for Robert Duvall before replacing him as bad guy Harry Roat in the original Broadway production of Wait Until Dark, starring Lee Remick. 

Later, Tolkan played insurance investigator Norman Keyes on five episodes of NBC’s Remington Steele and several characters over 21 installments of A&E’s A Nero Wolfe Mystery (he directed a couple of episodes as well). He also guest-starred on Miami Vice, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Wonder Years, Leverage and many other shows.

Survivors include his wife, Parmelee, who worked at the American Place Theater as a costumes and scenery painter. They met on the set of the 1971 off-Broadway play Pinkville when he was acting in it and she was a prop girl, and they married that year in Lake Placid. Donations in his memory can be made to your local animal shelter, animal rescue organization or Humane Society chapter.

Tolkan also played Napoleon and his look-alike in Woody Allen’s Love and Death and was the crooked accountant known as Numbers who works for Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) in Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy.He appeared in three movies directed by Sidney Lumet: as a cop in the Pacino-starring Serpico, as a determined D.A. in Prince of the City and as a judge in Family Business.On Broadway, Tolkan portrayed salesman Dave Moss in the original 1984-85 production of David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross. (Ed Harris played the character in the 1992 movie adaptation.)

Tolkan is survived by his wife of 54 years, Parmelee Welles.

New Music: Days We Left Behind

           

Paul McCartney announces the released of his brand new album "The Boys Of Dungeon Lane" due out this 29th., May. The album title comes from a lyric in this track "Days We Left Behind". I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I'm just writing about the past but then I hink how can you write about anything else? said Paul himself. This nostalgic new single suggests a convincing mature style, without the unnecessary straining for relevance that marred some recent solo releases