Daniel Eagle & The Uncommon – Share of Your Love
Daniel Eagle and The Uncommon layer funk grooves beneath alt-folk warmth on this warm, generous debut. A Southampton seven-piece with something genuinely special to say.
"Share of Your Love" has the quality of late August light: warm and generous and already starting to cool at the edges. The debut video, shot entirely on phones during a camping trip, tells you everything about the band's ethos before the music even starts. Daniel Eagle and his six bandmates bring a rich, full-band sound that layers funk grooves beneath alt-folk acoustic warmth in a way that should not work as well as it does. It just sounds fantastic, and is produced wonderfully. But it's Eagle's voice that shines brightest, a lovely tone, bags of character and he just sounds like a lovely lad. Fell for this one immediately. Gorgeous.
Daniel Eagle & The Uncommon are a Southampton seven-piece born from a pre-pandemic songwriting session between friends with wildly different musical influences. They draw from The Teskey Brothers, Joni Mitchell, Tom Misch and Glen Hansard, building something communal around Eagle's songwriting. Gorgeous folk-soul, full-blooded and immediately loveable.
Noble – Warm Air
Noble's 'Warm Air' is a gorgeous slice of Irish indie folk, a bittersweet, string-laden single that earns its emotional weight completely
'Warm Air' opens with the perfect end of summer chords, and a voice that knows exactly how much to hold back. The strings swell in gradually, never overwhelming the song's lovely centre, and by the time the arrangement reaches its peak you realise how carefully the whole thing has been built. It's a track about emotional transition, about letting something go, and the production mirrors that perfectly: spacious, warm and fantastic. And that moment where everything pulls back before the final chorus? That's the badger. Stunning indie folk, tender and richly textured.
Noble are an Irish band based in Galway, and 'Warm Air' is the first single from their debut album The Witching Hour, due out on Blowtorch Records this October. The record was produced and mixed by Mercury Prize-nominated artist Ed Harcourt and mastered at Abbey Road. Two years in the making, apparently, and you can hear the care in every layer. We're genuinely excited to hear where the rest of the album goes. One to watch, this lot.
NickyNill – Skoven Hjerte
NickyNill's 'Skoven Hjerte' is a joyful indie folk anthem, turning 1980s Danish childhood into something irresistible.
NickyNill wants you to remember what it felt like to be a kid in a forest. 'Skoven Hjerte' builds from that premise, layering warm acoustic textures with a gentle rhythmic pulse that keeps the whole thing moving forward. The lyrics paint specific pictures: muddy knees, unsupervised afternoons, the particular freedom of being outside before anyone thought to call you home.I It's loads of fun, and it opens up at just the right moments. Uplifting indie folk, infectious and genuinely heartfelt.
NickyNill is the project of Danish artist Niels Juul, based in Viby Sjælland. The name reflects a creative duality, with Nicky representing one side of his artistic personality and Nill the other, and the music draws heavily from his own childhood memories of playing outdoors in pre-digital Denmark. It's a specific well to draw from, and it gives the work an authenticity that's hard to fake. We're really glad to have discovered this one, and we'll be paying close attention to whatever comes next.
ERIC ALEXANDRAKIS – ONE MORE ANGEL [A TRIBUTE TO RAUL MALO]
Eric Alexandrakis transforms grief into celebration on 'One More Angel', a gorgeous folk rock tribute that honours Raul Malo with exactly the joy his legacy deserves
Three chords. That's all 'One More Angel' needs. Eric Alexandrakis spent months wrestling this Raul Malo cover into shape, trying it slow, trying it weird, running through time signatures like a man searching for a key he'd misplaced. Then he found it: not melancholy, but celebration. The track opens warm and full, a band sound that builds with purpose, layers of instrumentation added by collaborators who clearly got it. I love the rhythm here, with acoustic and electronic elements working well together. And the chorus really does soar. The result is a tribute that refuses to mourn, choosing instead to honour a voice that brought so much joy by creating more of it. Gorgeous folk rock, tender and triumphant in equal measure.
Eric Alexandrakis is based in Rethymno, Greece, but his story stretches back decades and across continents. Discovered by Duran Duran's John Taylor, he's collaborated with John Malkovich, David Lynch, Yoko Ono, Dolores O'Riordan, and members of The Cure, The Smiths, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He produced the first digitally watermarked CD. His connection to Raul Malo and The Mavericks goes back thirty years to Miami, and the first song he ever learned on guitar was their 'From Hell to Paradise', fiddle solo included. A limited vinyl run of 500 copies is coming, with all proceeds going to the American Cancer Society in Raul's name. A true creative unicorn, this one, and we're really glad to have him on the blog.