Bash Co. – Velvet
Bash Co.'s 'Velvet' is a tender alt-folk love song steeped in Prague's revolutionary history, beautifully crafted singer-songwriter storytelling that earns its emotional weight.
Bash Co. opens 'Velvet' with unhurried confidence. The track is a love letter to endurance, to staying through the difficult stretches, and its six days in Prague are woven into every line. Kafka surfaces alongside nods to the Iron Curtain and the 1989 revolution. The first half breathes acoustic warmth, voice and guitar intimate and close. Then the percussion arrives, deliberate and march-like, evoking troops moving through those same streets. It's a clever, affecting touch. The INXS influence is there if you're looking, grandeur held in check by restraint. Tender alt-folk songwriting, personal and historically grounded.
Bash Co. hails from Portugal, a teacher and songwriter who's been making solo work since 1999. By night he's spent thirteen years performing Portuguese music with a band, but this project is separate, a space for the deeply personal stuff. 'Velvet' arrived fully formed during that Prague trip, released on his birthday. An artist who clearly cares about the craft, and we love the concept, and the song's even better.
Tara Van – Miles On It
Tara Van's 'Miles On It' is a lush neo-soul meditation from Toronto, immersive production and a vocal that lingers long after it fades.
Now here's a stunner. Tara Van's 'Miles On It' settles into a warm, Fleetwood Mac-esque groove that owes a little to Khruangbin and Leon Bridges, all golden tones and space to breathe. But very much in Tara's own lane. The arrangement sounds deceptively simple, just vocals and guitar at its core, but the layered electronic textures build something otherworldly, particularly when the bridge opens up and everything shimmers. Lyrically it's about impermanence, about sitting with what's been rather than mourning what's gone. And that vocal? So good. Gorgeous neo-soul, warm and wonderfully restrained.
Tara Van is Toronto-based, with a genre-eluding sound rooted in soul, folk, pop and jazz, writing songs since she was scribbling in notebooks up trees at four. Her 2023 debut ‘RISE’ was produced by Malory Torr, and since then she’s moved closer to neo-soul through her work with Mark Calderone at the now-closed Apt Sea studio. The ‘Miles On It’ EP lands 16th October. A real October highlight, this one.
Lanusa – Line After Line
Lanusa's 'Line After Line' is a stunning slice of soul-driven indie folk from Virginia, a missed-connection song with a stunning, neosoul soundworld and weight
The rim shots land like a slow heartbeat on this. 'Line After Line' opens with 'What can I say, it's always been you, boy, they've all been decoys', and from there Lanusa builds something heavy out of regret. This is a song about a love that never happened, a standard set by someone who got away. Her vocal just absolutely perfectly in this, intimate, evocative and beautifully honest. And that groove? Jesus christ it's the barest, most beautiful thing. Gorgeous soulfolk, tender and knowing.
Lanusa is a Nashville-raised songwriter now based in Harrisonburg, VA, back with us again after featuring the wondeful 'Jupiter' last week. Her sound pulls from folk, rock, jazz and soul, with Ani DiFranco, Paul Simon and Erykah Badu all in the mix. She's been a fixture at New York rooms like Rockwood Music Hall and Pianos, and her 'Going Gone' LP lands later this year. A real highlight this autumn.
Martin Lloyd Howard – Surrey Bells
Martin Lloyd Howard's 'Surrey Bells' is a gorgeous instrumental folk piece that builds an incredible landscape, ringing out across an imagined English valley
Two guitars, one close, one distant and echoey. That's the whole architecture of 'Surrey Bells', and it's more than enough. Martin Lloyd Howard's composition sits in DADGAD tuning throughout, letting the open strings ring and overlap until you're hearing bells that aren't there. The call and response between the parts creates genuine space, a winter morning in Surrey with sound travelling across a valley. It's lovely acoustic folk, patient and richly atmospheric.
Martin Lloyd Howard is an English guitarist based in Reigate, returning nine months on from 'Selene'. He trained in the classical tradition but has pushed outward into folk, blues and rock across both electric and acoustic instruments. His main guitar is a fifty year old handmade classical, though he's equally at home on slide and in altered tunings. He's collaborated with Mark Johnson of The Midnight River Crew, and his focus remains original instrumental work. A real beauty this one.
Kalina Armenliiska – Paws & Whiskers
Kalina Armenliiska's 'Paws & Whiskers' is a gorgeous contemporary piano piece that captures feline mischief in shifting harmonies, intimate and utterly delightful
There's a kitten in this piano. You can hear it in the way 'Paws & Whiskers' moves, all sudden darting runs and then stillness, a paw batting at something invisible. Kalina Armenliiska opens in A-flat major but keeps slipping sideways into unexpected places, touches of D minor that land like a cat knocking something off a shelf. The composition tells its story through contrast: gentle passages that could be a cat curled sleeping, then bursts of energy scattering across the keys. It's playful, and fun without going into twee. The home recording has a warmth to it, close and personal. Lovely contemporary piano writing, expressive and full of character.
Kalina Armenliiska is a London-based composer and pianist who writes in her spare time, creating solo piano works born from everyday life. Her daughter inspires most of her compositions, though this one belongs to a kitten. She's learning Cubase to sharpen her recording quality, and that dedication shows. We're excited to hear more, as this one has such a lovely, relaxing feel. A great track.