Needed this, this morning, cheers guys, first track on my Soundcloud 'Best of 21' for sure.

Amber Hotel – Lean Closer EP

Step inside. The lights are low, the air is thick, and the night feels endless.
Welcome to Amber Hotel — five rooms, five stories, one descent into the heart of modern desire and disconnection.

Across Lean Closer, the Chicago-based trio turns post-punk and darkwave into a cinematic fever dream. It begins with Amber Hotel, a statement of intent — pulsing basslines, sharp guitars, and a voice that commands and confesses in the same breath. It’s not just a song; it’s an invitation. Check in, and let the walls start whispering.

From there, the descent deepens. Digital Ghost drifts through blue-light hauntings and broken connections. Automatic Devotion dances in obsession’s glow — seductive and claustrophobic all at once. Shadowed Face forces you to confront the version of yourself you’ve been hiding from, while Midnight’s Echo pulls you fully into the dark — a slow hypnosis where time dissolves and echoes replace memory.

Influenced by the timeless pulse of Bauhaus, The Cure, and She Wants Revenge, Lean Closer captures a world where emotion and machinery blur. Every track hums with the tension between control and surrender, reflection and release.

Amber Hotel isn’t nostalgia. It’s a mirror for now — flickering, dangerous, and alive.
Five songs. Five keys. One door you may not want to close again.

Welcome to Amber Hotel.
Check in. Lean closer. Don’t count on checking out.

Amber Hotel - Midnight's Echo

Ghosts

Leaving for Orlando

Going Away

One Shot

Hallan - Hands Up

Flawed Design

Clover

The debut single from Iris Doe.

Eric Avery / Leslie Van Trease / Jebin Bruni / Iris Doe 

Engineered by Darrell Thorp, Chris Steffen, Jeffrey Cain
Mixed by Darrell Thorp
Mastered by David Ives

The Times

Vinyl

Iris Doe - The Times

BMH is the third single from Scottish folk-pop collective Randolph’s Leap’s forthcoming album Spirit Level.

“On one hand, it’s about the pretentious things people say to appear interesting. I found humour in the idea that the Big Momma’s House film franchise could be based on a critically-acclaimed and cherished novel (spoiler: it isn’t) and there are some digs at hipster culture. It’s also about a house not feeling like a home. Looking back, I reckon I was probably exaggerating the flaws in the house but I got a bit fixated on it, almost like it was haunting me or conspiring against me somehow.”

Spirit Level is an upbeat, melodic indie-pop album full of personality, catchy hooks and memorable lyrics, rich in textural, polyphonic arrangements, and capturing the infinite charm of Adam Ross, the leader of this 8-piece band.

As a core songwriter with a large ensemble, Adam Ross may draw comparison with Stephin Merritt or Neil Hannon, while mining the rich Scottish seam of Postcard Records and C86. And as with contemporaries King Creosote or Withered Hand, is unafraid of drawing on folk music’s story telling tradition, detailing the minutiae of life’s fluctuations, here packaged up in glorious, anthemic and energetic pop.

The titular ‘spirit level’ is a steady reference point over what had been an unsettled spell writing the album, with Adam Ross uprooting from a decade in Glasgow to a tauntingly lopsided house in rural Aberdeenshire, navigating his way through shifting phases in his well-being and happiness, and reflecting on the untimely death of two greatly admired acquaintances. That balancing act came in the form of music, in an optimistic, even celebratory, collection of songs.

Recorded over a period of a year in Glasgow with keyboard player Pete MacDonald engineering, mixing and producing the sessions at home, the album went off to mastering in the nick of time: the following night Pete’s flat went Up In Smoke in a massive fire, taking everything bar Pete (and his pet hedgehog, Frida) with it.

“The next generation of witty Scottish indie pop” The Quietus

“A band deserving of every shred of love and success which came Belle & Sebastian's way” The Scotsman

"The Jonathan Richman of Scottish indie" The Herald

Randolph’s Leap started out as a pseudonym for the solo output of Adam Ross, and now includes up to 8 people in the full live band. The debut Randolph’s Leap album, Clumsy Knot, came out in 2014, with another four live and studio albums and a handful of singles across labels Fence Collective, Olive Grove Records and Lost Map. In 2018 a touring theatre show called The Isle of Love was devised around the songs of Randolph’s Leap.

They’ve recorded several Marc Riley sessions, performed at Green Man, T in the Park, Indietracks, and The Edinburgh Fringe, and have toured with The Burning Hell and James Yorkston. 
The Randolph’s Leap name is taken from a scenic location on the River Findhorn.

Randolph’s Leap are Adam Ross (songs, vocals, guitar), Adam Armour-Florence (drums), Ali Hendry (trumpet), Andrew MacLellan (guitar), Fraser Gibson (trombone) Heather Fox (violin), Pete MacDonald (keyboards) and Vicki Cole (bass).

Spirit Level

Randolph's Leap - BMH

From Mia Joy's debut album "Spirit Tamer" out May 7th on Fire Talk. 

Pre Order: https://ffm.to/miajoy

Spirit Tamer

Mia Joy - See Us

A fusion of shimmering, mind expanding aural surrealism and neo-psych grooves.
The Watchmakers' growing reputation as one of the must see live bands in the North West has received hype from the likes of Fred Perry, NME, Manchester Evening News, BBC Introducing and XFM, drawing comparisons from Revolver-era The Beatles to The Verve and Primal Scream. The band will follow December's now sold out ‘To Be Part Of You’ limited edition release on Blak Hand Records with new material in the spring.
 
“Imagine if Noel Gallagher’s solo record had actually been willing to cut loose and explore its boundaries, and you might be arriving somewhere near to their sound.” - (Drowned In Sound)
 
"Putting the strut back into psych." - (NME)
 
“One of the juiciest psych-rock delights you could pluck from the music playing fields of the UK right now.” - (Louder Than War review of Before Questions Became)
 
“The visceral charge of BRMC and the psychedelic adventure of Primal Scream.” - (Manchester Evening News)

Clover

The Watchmakers

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