On Love and Fortune, the third album from Australian musician Stella Donnelly and first for Brace Yourself Records, Donnelly returns with a deeply personal and anchored set of songs, a body of work that traces the journey back to herself after a period of profound change. Recorded in Naarm/Melbourne, the album carries the grounding energy of place, offering a sonic landscape that feels both intimate and expansive.

After several intense years on the road, Donnelly stepped away from touring to re-evaluate her relationship with music and to ask whether she still loved it. That quiet pause led to a deeper listening: to her instincts, her emotions, and the many past versions of herself. What emerged is a collection of songs shaped by multiple endings — the dissolving of relationships, the closing of chapters, the echo of things that once felt permanent. These are breakup songs, but not just of the romantic kind. They mark a shedding of skins, a release of old expectations, and a cautious openness to what might come next.

“These songs wouldn't leave me alone,” Donnelly says. “Like seagulls, they screamed at me when I rode to work, they pecked at me while I wrote essays, and they stole my chips the second I thought I was happy without music.”

Tapping back into this source, Donnelly arrives at a starker sound that lays bare the individual behind the artist. Love and Fortune blends pianos and guitars, as in her earlier work, but this time the arrangements are more exposed, more intentional. It captures the stiller self, the reflective self, that gently asks where to next. There is a clarity here, the kind that comes from reconnecting with what matters. The result is Donnelly’s most open-hearted and self-assured work to date — a record about loss, certainly, but even more about the quiet, enduring fortune of finding one’s way home.

Love and Fortune follows 2019’s Beware of the Dogs and 2022’s Flood, two albums that marked out Donnelly as one of Australia’s finest contemporary songwriters and drew praise and acclaim from the likes of The Guardian, Pitchfork, NME, BBC Radio 1, Clash, DIY, NPR, BBC 6 Music, Paste and many more. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: A profoundly gorgeous selection of pieces that move between barely adorned, vocal-forward folk (Love And Fortune / Baths / Ghosts) and the more dynamic, upbeat groovers (Being Nice / Feel It Change). For me, 'Baths' is a probably the most heartfelt, affecting thing she's done. A stunning, beautifully textured whole.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. Standing Ovation
2. Being Nice
3. Feel It Change
4. Baths
5. Year Of Trouble
6. Please Everyone

Side B
7. W.A.L.K
8. Friend
9. Ghosts
10. Love And Fortune
11. Laying Low

If there's one thing Panic Shack know, it's how to have a good time. Comprised of Sarah Harvey (vocals), Meg Fretwell (guitar/backing vocals), Romi Lawrence (guitar/backing vocals), Em Smith (bass/backing vocals) and Nick Williams (drums), the band formed in 2018 as a middle-finger to the “members-only club” atmosphere of indie and punk scenes – not just because they’re male-dominated, but because they make playing music seem out of reach or, even worse, boring. “Boys make it look so hard,” Em says, rolling her eyes. “Whenever I see someone on the floor fiddling with their pedals with a face like a slapped arse I think, you're making this look so unattainable and it’s actually so fucking easy.”

This carefree approach gives Panic Shack’s music the same effect as popping a bottle of Prosecco – explosive, intoxicating, and delightfully chaotic. With barely any music available online, they built a word-of-mouth following off the back of their live shows, which have been praised for fusing “thrashy early LA-style punk with choreography that owes something to the Go-Go’s and Iron Maiden all at once” (The Guardian). That quickly snowballed into tours with the likes of Bob Vylan and Soft Play, and festival appearances at Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Green Man, End of the Road, SXSW and more. Released in 2022, their acclaimed Baby Shack EP bottled the lightning they have on stage, cementing their ability to blend killer hooks with a contagious sense of humour. The first vinyl pressing – splattered pink, obviously – sold out almost instantly.

Panic Shack’s self-titled debut album represents a serious level up. Linking up with producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius, Yard Act), it finds the band expanding their gutsy punk sound into fuller territory, packed with vocal harmonies, synths, electronic experimentation, and even a trumpet at one point.

Over 11 breakneck tracks, Panic Shack never lets up or loses momentum. It opens with the rising sound of chatter, glass clinking and laughter, most of which was recorded in the beer garden at an Amyl & the Sniffers gig. Fizzing with the anticipation of walking into a club at the start of a night out, it feels like party-punk’s answer to the intro of Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’. From there, the bouncy bass line and blistering guitars of ‘Girl Band Starter Band’ kick in, and the band pulls you into their world the way a friend would grab your hand and drag you onto the dancefloor. “Four iced lattes / Sit outside / Smoke a rolly / Sun is shining / People watching / Things are moving / Got us talking…” Sarah chants, the pace ramping up like a heartbeat beginning to race.

Across the album, the lyrics are conversational, often stemming from in-jokes, while the subject matter spans the full range of the feminine experience. Whether it’s everyday stuff like browsing Hinge (‘Unhinged’) and remembering everything you need to stick in your bag because your dress has no pockets (‘Pockets’), or broader societal issues like the impact of toxic tabloid culture on body image (‘Gok Wan’) and sexual harassment (‘SMELLARAT’), no topic is too frivolous or too vast. There’s no point-scoring or political commentary to be made here, though. The songs spring naturally from the way they live their lives, which is, more often than not, with a great deal of enjoyment.

Irresistible because of their simplicity and charming because of their familiarity, Panic Shack are the answer to a question that, quite frankly, isn’t asked often enough: what if the funniest girls you know started a band? The sonic equivalent to a coming-of-age film unfolding over a single night, Panic Shack takes the shape of a bender, beginning by approaching a bar and ending with an impassioned speech at sunrise about how much you love your friends. Swerving the expected topics of sex and romance, the entire album revolves around the ionic bond between the four girls.

“This band has taken us on the most mental journey that nobody else will fully understand,” says Meg. It’s only right, then, that their debut marks a celebration of that as much as it does the start of a new journey entirely. “We've always wanted people to come in and be part of our world, and this album is every part of who Panic Shack are. The party side, the angry side… It’s a story about us, really,” Sarah explains. “That’s why we named it after the band. We can't help but be ourselves.”

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Bouncy, punky dance music that's rooted in garage rock and the clattering mayhem of lo-fi but is shining with the sort of modern production and song structures that lean heavily into modern, wild party music. RIYL a good time.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE A:
1. Girl Band Starter Pack
2. Gok Wan
3. Lazy
4. Tit School
5. We Need To Talk About Dennis

SIDE B:
6. Do Something
7. Personal Best
8. Pockets
9. Unhinged
10. SMELLARAT
11. Thelma And Louise

Following the force of their introductory singles 'Tabernacl' and 'St Agatha', the band return with an invitation to explore their landscape of violent poetry and gothic propulsion to the fullest extent yet. Prepare to be lulled under their spell once more with the slow-burn of forerunning single, 'Remoter Heaven'.

Produced by long-time collaborator Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard's Tom Rees. It begins in a dream state of hypnotic repetition that mounts in intensity, with vocalist Jack Shephard presiding over it all with his distinctive, poetic drawl. His protagonist is revisiting a memory of the pain inflicted by a thorn as a child; "I was awake with feeling", he confesses, before the song takes on the momentum that feels like a triumph over the numbness attendant to adulthood.

Of the track, Shephard shares: "I liked the idea of writing a very simple narrative to a big, epic song - something as modest as the story of a child playing in some flowers and then bursting into tears when a thorn pricks their leg. The words are an ode to that sensitivity we embrace when we are young. Then, when we become adults, we insist on subjugating all of that wonderful, absurd rage."

'Remoter Heaven' follows on from 'Tabernacl' and 'St Agatha' which earned Slate rave write-ups and support from publications including NME, CLASH, So Young, DIY, Buzz Magazine, The Most Radicalist and more, as well as early radio plays from the likes of Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq on BBC 6Music, Matt Wilkinson on Apple Music 1, John Kennedy on Radio X and Jack Saunders on BBC Radio 1.

Emerging from the depths of Cardiff’s burgeoning music scene and heirs to their country’s lineage of storytellers, Slate are barely touching their twenties, but together, they have command of post-punk which rings with the gravitas of a death knell; a grasp of atmosphere and melody which touches on the ethereal.

Their debut EP, Deathless, is their most ambitious act of storytelling so far. Recorded in one take, the narrative of its six tracks takes place within a single room - or, perhaps, one mind. It begins with what the band feel is some of the darkest material they will ever write, to reaching, in its second half, a place of transformation and epiphany. On the EP's vinyl edition, the lyrics are written out like a diary entry, each one penned in another member's hand. 

STAFF COMMENTS

Darryl says: Fantastic six track Ep from Cardiff's Slate. Lead track "Remoter Heaven" is 7 minutes plus of pure bliss, revisiting the epic extended grooves of 'A Storm In Heaven'-era The Verve.

TRACK LISTING

1. Remoter Heaven
2. The Heir
3. Sun Violence
4. Deathless
5. Shade In Me
6. Hailstone 

Once described as “Kate Bush’s gothic darkness brought to the edge of oblivion”, the enigmatic and provocative New Yorker Heather Elle knows that a key component of the artistic process is the tedious and uncomfortable excavation of self. Hence the Flossing moniker. Flossing has received support from publications such as DIY, Clash, Gigwise, So Young Magazine and well coverage at BBC 6Music. 

After tackling misogyny in their last single Men On The Menu, Heart of Hearts is the impassioned new breakup song from the New York project, Flossing where singer-songwriter Heather Elle (ex-BODEGA/The Wants) channels the vulnerability of Depeche Mode and Tears for Fears in order to process a major breakup in the midst of chaos and change (the pandemic). Co-produced with Elijah Sokolow (The Living Strange) in Heather’s home studio in Brooklyn, the two manipulated an old vibraphone they once shared with their ex-partner to rework the song from scratch.

When the 2020 pandemic sideswiped the world, Heather found themselves thrown from touring in two buzzy post-punk groups — Bodega and The Wants — and into a dizzying state of overdue decompression. Aching to artistically progress, they had to completely untether themselves. They departed from the two bands, left a long-term relationship, and quickly began writing and recording songs in their new bachelorette pad. They dug up five-year-old songs, random ideas written on the road, and unexpectedly wrote a new song — the hedonistic and confessional debut single Switch — which pushed them to take the project further. The following year, with help from Trout Recording’s Adam Sachs (Swans, Amen Dunes, Joan As Policewoman) and London’s Brace Yourself Records, the debut EP Queen of the Mall was released to critical acclaim, describing Heather as a “mischievous pop poet” and the “newly appointed master of psychological provocative.”

TRACK LISTING

1. Men On The Menu
2. All We Are
3. Heart Of Hearts
4. Side Eye Life 

In spring 2020, having been forced to postpone any live action due to lockdown, John set to work on the follow up to their Out Here On The Fringes album. It seems that the enforced confinement allowed them time to fine tune both their songwriting and sound and produce their best LP to date. The album opens with “Return To Capital” a brooding, slow-build instrumental that’s escalating nicely until it suddenly plummets head first into “Sibensko Powerhouse”, a ferocious collision of distorted guitars, pounding drums and snarled vocals, which kind of sets the tone for the rest of the album. Being a two piece, they operate with limited tools: drums, guitar and vocals, but that doesn’t in any way limit their sound. Seeing them live reminded me of seeing No Age play live for the first time and being blown away by how much noise two people could generate. And they’re creative with that limited palate too, this isn’t all a 100mph dash for the line, it’s a very nuanced sound, there’s plenty of texture. Idles have been an obvious reference point in recent reviews, but to me their sound is rooted in the US hardcore scene of the 80s: The kind of stuff that was being released by the likes of Touch And Go and Dischord Records. (There are definitely echoes of Mackaye / Picciotto in the dual vocals at times.) That’s not to say their sound is dated, far from it, they’re one of the most vital bands around at the moment.

STAFF COMMENTS

Laura says: Ooof! This is just awesome! Intense, dynamic guitar noise that has more in common with the likes of Jesus Lizard or any number of bands from the 80s DC scene than any more contemporary noisemakers. (The dual vocal on Šibensko Powerhouse in particular brings to mind Mackay / Picciotto.) That's not so say their sound is dated, far from it, this is the most vital noise around right now.

TRACK LISTING

1. Return To Capital
2. Šibensko Powerhouse
3. A Song For Those Who Speed In Built-Up Areas
4. Haneke'd
5. Austere Isle
6. Jargoncutter
7. Stadium Of No
8. Power Out For The Kingdom
9. Northwood Turret
10. Nonessential Hymn

‘Bad Time’ is the new EP from Peeping Drexels. The London based 5-piece, who have been together since they were sixteen, have to date released a series of singles on the Permanent Creeps and Fierce Panda labels. This is their first release on BY Records. They've previously received support from the likes of Steve Lamacq, DIY, So Young among others. They've also performed live with artists such as Shame, Goat Girl and Public Practice.

First single, 'High Heels', sees Peeping Drexels eulogise about white pills and night thrills - anxious overtones abound until the crescendo of guttural angst takes over. "High Heels is a dimly lit journey through the narrow corridors and backrooms of a twisted underground club, all whilst under the influence of an unknown substance. The song is the first taste of Peeping Drexels rebirth; experimental new sounds, broader instrumentation, yet pop music to the bone. A never ending loop of bad-trip fuelled excess, and there is no way to escape."

Prior to lockdown, Peeping Drexels played a Sold Out Parallel Lines headline show at London’s Bermondsey Social Club and ended it with a sold out main support slot for Fat White Family at EartH (Evolutionary Arts Hackney).

The project takes influences from a broad musical spectrum, from the dance vibes of Gary Numan and Mr. Fingers to the intensity of Tyler The Creators' synth-heavy Cherry Bomb and the maximalist work of Kanye West.

Songs tackle a range of themes; from leaving your childhood home only to enter the cycle of drug addiction and artistic hindrance (Pit), toxic lust and obsession for an unavailable person (Bloody Gums), only finding anything close to pure happiness in escapism from the real world (Miami Lounge) and hardcore hedonism (High Heels).

TRACK LISTING

1. Miami Lounge
2. Pit
3. Bloody Gums
4. High Heels
5. Part II