With oft cited influences that include The Velvet Underground, The Cure, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, the uninitiated may be forgiven for assuming that this solo recording project of Chicago’s, Austin Smith (although he teams up with Drew Keenan on this track) would be an ode to some sort of glorious miserabilism.

However, this Upside Down single is truly typical of the Triange Rain Club’s signature sound and Smith’s ability to add invigoration to the underlying dank, with jangled riffs and a melodic intent that should feel apposite to all that engulfs it, but works with beautiful effect.

There is the overwhelming feeling that Vancouver based foursome, The Sylvia Platters, knew that they just could not hold onto this single until some ‘new album time’, as it just needs to be out there.

Their charitable spirit is our gain, as Blue Juniper grips at the edges of just about everything 60s pop that was so important. With the under-production of The Velvet Underground, the massed vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys and tight chiming riffs of early The Kinks, this single might be the first time that ‘those people’, who believe all music stopped in 1967, post something new (or at least ‘new old’) to their Facebook pages !

It is well over 2.5 years since JanglePopHub and the majority of the micro-blogs that really matter, were fawning over Lost Film’s‘ superlative Zero Summer album and its array of Sarah / Creation Records anglophile, jangly indie-pop reference points.

This time this solo recording project of Easthampton (MA)’s, Jimmy Hewitt, sees the Big Talk single move towards a sound that is steeped in the modernity of lo-fi, jangly dream-pop of acts such as Community Swimming Pool, Wake In June and Swiss Portrait.

According to the Bandcamp release bio this is the first of a collection of tracks recorded during the pandemic lockdowns, so this could be the start of much more music from this great act.

Dreamback is the project of Staffordshire-based producer/musician Jamie Duddy, whose musical modus operandi has hitherto drifted towards the subtle end of the fuzz and distortion of acts like Slowdive and Lush.

This Sometimes single sees a fresh approach. The fuzz, gaze and distortion is merely perfectly hinted at here and is largely replaced by a sweet, luscious guitar-pop that is reminiscent of the Trembling Blue Stars sound of early 1990s yesteryear.

I hope he explores this truly beautiful sound further.

With superb releases by Cœur-joie and Persica 3 already in the bag for 2022, Toulouse (France) based label, Hidden Bay Records, is rapidly assuming the right to sit at the same table label as the best of other jangly cassette labels such as Z Tapes and Shiny Happy Records, with a signature sound that rips and tears away at the parameters of what psyche rock, gaze and jangle-pop could (…and possibly ‘should’) be.

This In Your Cave single by the Paris based Healees, carries on this appeal, taking retro production techniques, ramshackle jangle rock and the slightest of gaze persuasions, to force a sound upon our aural sense that simply crashes with melody. Sounds conflictual? It is…perfectly so and signal huge potential for their self titled debut album, that is out in the middle of June 2022.

Another jangle rock act and arguably the best around at present (sorry Smile, apologies Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever…), Toronto’s Kiwi Jr are back with a Night Vision single that is the first to be released from a Chopper album that is out on Sub Pop in mid August 2022.

With a more subdued sound permeating the track, the aesthetic now takes on a darker, more dank vibe, that is reminiscent of early era Bloc Party, juxtaposed over their usual melodic rock bias.

Those of you who have followed this blog since the start, may have heard me opining the loss of my early 90’s, gig going youth, much of which was spent in the presence of one of my favourite acts of the time, Thousand Yard Stare.

Resurrecting themselves a few years back, this Adverse Cambers single, is the latest in a series of CD singles out of the Stifled Aardvark Records label and sees TYS slow things down considerably, to offer a sound that is full of beautiful, crystalline jangle-pop in the same vein as the current The Shop Window or Lost Ships sound.