Dutch art-rock band Lesoir have announced the Autumn release of their new album Tomorrow Is Now Today. In the meantime Today the band have a new single, Is It Nothing?”, with a stunning video to accompany it. Prog rock with a commercial bent is no mean thing and blessed relief from meandering nonsense which sometimes goes under the prog banner. Crystal clear vocals with an equally succinct message exploring humanity’s with our home planet. There are few spaces left musically with cleverly combined instrumentals and effects. A video with mystical magical and futuristic images with tantalising surprises enhances the listening experience.

When you link Faceless Mirror guitarist Dean Macaw with singer /policeman Adam Marsh whose vocals have a similar tone to David Gilmour you end up with this highly creditable song by the Swamp Parrots. Dean who if you have followed our writings of Faceless Mirror band on atthebarrier is proud of the fact that his guitar work has been likened to that of our Floyd master and there is more than a heavy hint of it in There For Me

The song may be a one- off effort between Adam and his wife Ellen using not only Dean’s production talents but also his searing guitar playing ones. The song promoting the need for partners to support each other has passionate and emotional lyrics which are not soppily sycophantic.

The partnership has some mileage and one hopes we are treated to more in the future.

It’s only a matter of days since we were charmed and excited by Creatures, a song that, until now, represented the most recent development in the life story of Liverpool genre-spanning five-piece, Sisters. Creatures was a ‘long read’ version of a song that featured on the band’s 2025 debut EP, Bite. Now, Sisters are back, with their first new music since that landmark EP.

New single, Guerrilla, is a song that, in Sisters’ words: “…transforms personal frustration into something expansive, volatile and cathartic.” Written from a place of emotional inertia, the song captures the tension between internal movement and an external world that appears frozen. Sisters’ vocalist and lyricist Gigi explaind further: “It was written out of frustration, with the name itself implying the initiation of a war, which feels like an absolute necessity for me when I feel like I’me being forced to stew in stagnant air.”

Guerrilla switches mood frequently and unpredictably. The quiet passages are soft, gentle and – almost – lazy-sounding. But Sisters’ punky energy bubbles beneath the surface and, when it breaks through, the effect is disturbing and disorientating. The lyrics: “Dress me how you like – and I’ll hate it,” have a disturbing undercurrent, too. Guerrilla is odd, it’s unusual – and it’s strangely alluring.

Elephant Sessions seem to be everywhere this year, helming the closing show of this year’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and appearances at a wealth of UK festivals. Somehow, within that punishing schedule, they have hooked up with rising star of Scottish indie-trad, Andrew O’Donnell, who trades as Beluga Lagoon. Of distinctively smoky voice, he takes the honour of the first song featuring vocals, by this neo-trad powerhouse of funky fiddle and mandolin led bangers.

Aficionados of the band may find this a little poppier than they might expect, with some of the hardcore funk dialled down, which is surprising, as new bassist, Calum McQuarrie, on board since 2024, is, given live shows, anything but lacking in that department. But let that expectation slip away and embrace the commercialism. As with the last Mànran album, it reflects the wider absorption of outside influences that can only enhance the overall whole.

Whether this is a one-off, or whether we can look forward to a welter of guest vocalists remains to be seen. Such a step has done RURA precious little harm, to be fair, without detracting from the instrumental thrust of concert performance. Exciting times!

Is there a more chilling sound than the soul searing clarity of Lankum’s Radie Peat? In the gaping chasm left behind following the demise of Sinead O’Connor, I honestly feel she currently comes closest to bridging that loss.OK, maybe alongside Lisa O’Neill.

Here, unsurprisingly, it is her voice, a haunting, keening presence, that takes centre stage, over a fairly elemental backing, smacking of a ruined chapel on the wild Atlantic way. An old song, from the tradition, and dug out the archive by fellow traveller, John Joseph Flynn, there is little beyond the sound and message of the lyric to hang on to. The sound of desolation, her voice is exactly the instrument of choice to carry that mood.

Like the rest of Lankum, Peat is as busy outwith the confines of the band as she is within. This represents a further honing of her MO, stripping all as far back as to leave only residual skeleton, which is still more than enough.