Home Blog Page 9

Mayfield Records Presents Ben Lester’s Acclaimed Self-Titled Debut Album

Sistra News Team
-
0
Mayfield Records Presents Ben Lester’s Acclaimed Self-Titled Debut Album

Mayfield Records is proud to present the thrilling self-titled debut album by Ben Lester. Years in the making, these 13 tracks combine gorgeous melodies and evocative lyrics with a musical intricacy informed by Ben’s idol, Brian Wilson. The result is a distinctive brand of chamber-pop that resonates deeply with fans of music with meaning.

Ben Lester has been generating a fearsome buzz since his teens. A prodigious talent who performs and produces every note of his material, he was featured by BBC Introducing at just 19 and quickly hailed as a “hugely talented singer-songwriter” who “creates his own unique moods.” Named one of the hottest new British artists of 2018, Ben earned regular airplay with his early self-released recordings before signing to Mayfield Records.

Released to widespread critical acclaim, the self-titled debut won Ben a coveted BBC Introducing award and drew glowing praise from across the industry:

  • “Absolutely terrific” — BBC Radio London
  • “Great voice and great songs” — Talk Radio
  • “Brimming with ideas and musicality” — Prog Magazine

From its carefully crafted arrangements to its emotionally rich songwriting, the album showcases a young artist already operating at a high level of sophistication and heart. The songs feel both intimate and expansive chamber-pop that rewards repeated listens while remaining immediately compelling.

Ben Lester’s debut stands as a confident statement of intent: thoughtful, melodic, and full of the kind of musical depth that invites listeners to return again and again.

The album is available now via Mayfield Records and all major platforms.

About Ben Lester

Ben Lester is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known for his distinctive chamber-pop sound. Informed by the melodic and harmonic inventiveness of Brian Wilson, his music blends gorgeous melodies with evocative lyrics and intricate arrangements. A BBC Introducing featured artist from a young age, Ben writes, performs, and produces his own material, earning early recognition as one of the UK’s most promising new voices.

Steve Montgomery Drops New Album “Living the Dream Right Now”

Sistra News Team
-
0
Steve Montgomery Drops New Album “Living the Dream Right Now”

BC-based rock musician Steve Montgomery, writing and recording under the SkipRock Music banner, has released his latest full-length album, Living the Dream Right Now. The nine-track collection blends his signature classic rock energy and straightforward guitar-driven songwriting with a brighter, upbeat spirit—proving once again that great rock music is alive, loud, and still a whole lot of fun.

From the opening riff of “Crazy Town” to the anthemic closer “I Gotta Rock!”, the album delivers power-pop hooks and real-song craftsmanship that fans of Montgomery’s independent catalog have come to expect. Living the Dream Right Now continues the high-volume direction of recent releases while injecting a fresh sense of optimism and drive.

Montgomery’s career spans more than two decades of consistent independent output. He first arrived with Better Late Than Never, Skiprock in 2000, establishing a foundation of real songs and real guitars. Follow-up albums Alone In A Room (2002) and Hwy 3A (2004) explored a more melodic, reflective side, before Shut Up And Rock (2015) turned the volume back up. Time To Rock! (2024) kept the momentum rolling, and the 2026 release picks up right where that energy left off—louder, brighter, and fully committed to the joy of rock ’n’ roll.

“This one feels like living the dream right now,” the album title declares. With its mix of classic rock drive and infectious hooks, Living the Dream Right Now stands as both a celebration of Montgomery’s long-running craft and an invitation for listeners to crank it up and join in.

The album is available now on Bandcamp.

About Steve Montgomery / SkipRock Music

Steve Montgomery is a British Columbia-based rock musician whose work sits at the intersection of classic rock energy, power-pop hooks, and straightforward guitar-driven songwriting. Since his 2000 debut, he has released a steady stream of independent albums, each one rooted in real songs, real guitars, and an unapologetic love of rock music that still hits hard.

Distant Moon Cantina by Andrei British

Abdelrahman Khaled
-
0
Distant Moon Cantina by Andrei British

Andrei British has been building out this same fictional world for a while now. This cantina exists in the same universe as “Alien Jazz Girl,” his earlier single inspired by John Williams’ Cantina Band theme, and “Distant Moon Cantina” continues that project of imagining what a real, lived-in space tavern would actually sound like rather than just referencing one. Vocals here come from Phil Maher, and the pairing works well against British’s usual cinematic, world-building approach, one voice giving a face to the smoky, neon-lit setting British keeps returning to across these releases.

Musically, this is a well-produced, chill jazz cut that’s executed cleanly from front to back. It’s not reinventing anything; the outer-rim lounge concept and the general vintage jazz palette are familiar territory by now for anyone following this project, but if you heard “Distant Moon Cantina” come on at an actual jazz bar, it would feel completely at home there, which is really the test a track like this needs to pass. The groove holds up its end, too, maintaining enough forward motion to stay engaging all the way through rather than settling into background wallpaper.

The lyrics lean into that outer-rim outlaw energy, framing the cantina itself as a refuge for renegades and dreamers, and that theme gives the smoother jazz elements a bit of grit to play against. It’s a small narrative touch, but it keeps the song from feeling purely decorative; there’s a character and a setting behind the music rather than just a genre exercise.

Given how consistently Andrei British has been building out this cantina universe across singles, “Distant Moon Cantina” reads less as a standalone release and more as another room in a much bigger space he’s constructing one track at a time, and it’s a comfortable, well-crafted addition to that world.

A LITTLE PIECE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN!

Cherine Abulwafa
-
0
A LITTLE PIECE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN!

If a city could have a playlist, Marbella would probably have very strong opinions about the bass. Anna Kam’s “Marbella” leans fully into the destination’s sun-soaked, international energy, combining Latin pop, reggaeton and tropical house with playful “pero-pero” and “para-para” hooks. But the track is not simply manufacturing a summer vibe; it comes from Kam’s seventeen-year relationship with the city, making all that sunshine and escapism considerably more personal.

The song is at its best when it keeps things simple. Its tropical rhythms, melodic vocals and repetitive refrains create an instantly recognizable character, with the “pero-pero” and “para-para” phrases functioning almost like rhythmic instruments themselves. It is easy to picture the track spilling out of a beach club, rooftop party or car stereo on a coastal road; exactly the kind of setting it seems to have been made for.

What gives the track an added layer, however, is the story beneath its carefree surface. For Kam, Marbella is more than a glamorous Mediterranean destination; it is a place tied to friendships, memories, personal milestones and seventeen years of her life. Her decision to sing in Spanish, despite not being a native speaker, becomes part of that relationship with place, allowing the language itself to contribute to the song’s atmosphere.

There is also a natural connection between this and Kam’s wider work as a filmmaker and storyteller. Much like her films, “Marbella” takes a real place and transforms it into an experience, only this time through rhythm, melody and movement.

Anna Kam’s “Marbella” delivers exactly what its Mediterranean setting promises: warmth, movement and a little bit of escape. It may not ask the listener to overthink the journey, but that is part of its charm. Sometimes you just need a beat, some sunshine, and somewhere else to be!

BETWEEN THE EARTHLY AND THE ETHEREAL!

Cherine Abulwafa
-
0
BETWEEN THE EARTHLY AND THE ETHEREAL!

The most interesting thing about “Unicorn Stallions” by Cosmic Gloss might be the contradiction at its centre: a song built from electronic production that seems deeply preoccupied with the natural world. The moon, trees, flowers, the sea and even evolutionary imagery all find their way into Cosmic Gloss’s strange, fluid soundscape, creating something that feels both synthetic and instinctive.

The Leeds-based artist’s latest single moves through electronic pop and processed vocals without ever feeling particularly interested in staying still. Textures appear, disappear and return throughout the verses, creating a fluid, almost torrent-like motion. Rather than building towards one fixed sonic destination, the track keeps opening new spaces, mirroring its central idea of transformation and shapeshifting.

That sense of movement is also at the heart of the song’s story. Cosmic Gloss describes “Unicorn Stallions” as a response to restrictive worldviews and a growing desire for emancipation, a movement towards what they call our “unicorn-like ancient, timeless future selves.” It is an unusual phrase, but one that captures the track’s refusal to treat identity as something static.

The song’s creation process feels equally fluid. Recorded between the bedroom, dreamworlds, island coasts and wooded walks, the track emerged through conversations with “mirrored versions” of the self and others. Those surroundings seem to have found their way into the music, where organic imagery constantly collides with electronic textures.

And beneath all the cosmic imagery and sonic experimentation, there is something remarkably simple at its core: love as a force for transformation. As Cosmic Gloss puts it, “we’re shining proof of what love can do.”

“Unicorn Stallions” by Cosmic Gloss feels like an invitation to move beyond fixed states; to evolve, shapeshift, and find new ways of existing somewhere between the earthly and the ethereal!

FROM STUDIO JAM TO DANCE FLOOR!

Cherine Abulwafa
-
0
FROM STUDIO JAM TO DANCE FLOOR!

Somewhere north of Milan, an afternoon studio session turned into a dance-floor-ready night-time fantasy. That is essentially the story behind Kindoki’s LA NUIT ROUGE, a single that grew organically from the duo’s beat-making session and Carola’s spontaneous vocal improvisation.

LA NUIT ROUGE moves between deep house, French house and dancehall, building its atmosphere around a steady, hypnotic groove. What makes it particularly interesting is the balance between structure and spontaneity: while Kindoki were shaping the beat, Carola was improvising vocals, allowing the track to develop naturally rather than following a predetermined formula.

You can hear that freedom in the finished song. Carola’s vocals feel woven into the rhythm rather than simply placed over it, giving the track a fluid, almost dreamlike quality. It is easy to picture the world it evokes: a red moon overhead, the night stretching out, and that familiar urge to leave everything behind for a few hours.

Kindoki cite Underworld, Tosca and Daft Punk among their influences, and there are traces of that electronic lineage in the track’s combination of repetition, movement and atmosphere. But LA NUIT ROUGE is less interested in demonstrating its influences than in creating a mood of its own.

The release is about freedom: dancing alone, moving in sync with the world, and temporarily forgetting everything beyond the moment. There is something refreshing about how uncomplicated that invitation feels.

Kindoki’s LA NUIT ROUGE captures exactly what its origin story promises: a spontaneous studio collaboration transformed into something made to move with; from an afternoon jam to a night on the dance floor!

A LITTLE BIT OF SPICE GOES A LONG WAY!

Cherine Abulwafa
-
0
A LITTLE BIT OF SPICE GOES A LONG WAY!

Love songs have given us plenty of metaphors: stars, oceans, fire, heaven. Amanda Holley goes somewhere considerably more appetising. In “Seasoning,” attraction is measured in cinnamon, peppermint, citrus, and cravings; a playful way of describing what happens when someone suddenly makes an otherwise ordinary life taste different.

“Seasoning” blends contemporary R&B, soul, pop, and urban influences, carried by Holley’s striking five-octave vocal range. Produced by GRAMMY-winning producer Andre Fennell, the track combines infectious rhythms, layered harmonies, melodic rap, and dynamic vocal runs, giving Holley plenty of room to move between sultry intimacy and powerhouse delivery.

The song embraces its central metaphor wholeheartedly. “Boy you got that seasoning / Spicing up my life for me now baby,” Holley sings, before adding cinnamon, peppermint, and citrus to her list of flavours. It is playful without becoming gimmicky, using taste as a language for attraction and the almost addictive feeling of discovering someone who makes everyday life more exciting.

But beneath the flirtation is a more vulnerable confession. After declaring that “everything deep inside has changed,” Holley wonders, “if it’s too early / To tell if you’ll ever hurt me.” That brief uncertainty gives the song another dimension: falling for someone can be exhilarating precisely because it means allowing them to matter.

The official music video expands that emotional world through New York City streets and scenic landscapes across New York State, moving between urban energy and cascading waterfalls. Choreography by Frida Molina, performed alongside Chelsea Andell and Lia Fiahlo, gives the song’s playful sensuality a physical language of its own.

There is something fitting about seasoning as a metaphor for love: it does not replace what is already there; it changes how you experience it. By the time Holley admits, “You got me feenin / Boy you got that seasoning,” the playful metaphor has become a genuine craving.

With Amanda Holley’s “Seasoning,” love is sweet, spicy, unpredictable, and just vulnerable enough to feel real. Sometimes, a little bit of spice really does go a long way!

Racks on My Mind by Jovial Phenom

Abdelrahman Khaled
-
0
Racks on My Mind by Jovial Phenom

Jovial Phenom describes himself as a software engineer and tech founder by day, experimental hip-hop artist by night, and “Racks on My Mind” wears that dual identity openly, a song about money that’s far more interested in what money does to a person than in flexing it. The backstory, as he tells it, involves a foreclosure notice, late-night subway rides, and a briefcase full of cash he chose to turn in rather than keep, and whatever the exact details, that tension between scarcity and integrity is clearly the emotional engine of the track. He recorded it, by his own account, in a decommissioned bank vault using old analog gear, layering whisper tracks under the main vocal, and the mythology only escalates from there: hidden frequencies, reversed Nina Simone samples, Fibonacci sequences supposedly embedded in the vocal delivery. Some of that reads more like artist lore than verifiable production detail, but it’s consistent with an artist who clearly enjoys building a puzzle around his own music.

Whatever’s actually buried in the mix, the bassline is genuinely the standout element here, low and hypnotic, doing most of the work in making the money-as-energy concept feel physical rather than just conceptual. The vocals lean shouty at points, more intense than smooth, which won’t be to every listener’s taste, but it’s easy to see why that delivery was the right call for a song built around financial anxiety and grinding rather than comfort. The rougher edges in the vocal performance actually track with the abandoned-vault, lo-fi origin story better than a polished take would have.

Genre-wise, it sits somewhere between trap, soul, and something harder to pin down, which fits an artist positioning himself as someone who treats music like a science experiment. “Racks on My Mind” is the first single from an upcoming concept album, Currency of Souls, and if this track is any indication, that project is shaping up to be as interested in mythology as it is in melody.

 

Alone by Sam Ostler

Abdelrahman Khaled
-
0
Alone by Sam Ostler

Sam Ostler has quietly built one of the more consistent BBC Radio 2 track records among UK independents, with every single he’s released so far getting airtime and past tracks championed by presenters including OJ Borg and Jeremy Vine. “Alone,” out July 24th and produced by Adam James, is his latest attempt to build on that momentum, a piano-led pop anthem about missing someone who once meant everything, built to move from an intimate opening into a full, anthemic chorus.

The production is great, and the snare sound in particular is deeply satisfying, sitting right in the pocket where pop drums need to sit to feel physical rather than just programmed. The song flows like a very standard pop track structurally, which honestly explains why it’s found the radio support it has; that shape is exactly what appeals to the widest possible audience. But calling it standard shouldn’t read as a knock. Structurally familiar doesn’t mean cookie-cutter in execution, and the way the bright acoustic layers merge with the record’s contemporary pop sheen feels genuinely deliberate rather than default. It’s the kind of blend that’s easy to get wrong: too much gloss and the acoustic warmth disappears; too little and it loses the radio-ready polish. Ostler and James land it convincingly.

Ostler has drawn comparisons to Elton John, Coldplay and James Blunt before, and “Alone” makes the case for why those reference points stick: a piano-first songwriter working comfortably within big, accessible pop structures without losing the sense that there’s a real person behind the piano. With a run of shows alongside artists like Gabrielle, The Stylistics, and The Three Degrees already behind him and playing to crowds well into the tens of thousands, “Alone” reads less like a breakout attempt than another confident step for an artist who already knows what he does well.

Grant Harvey Dudson Releases Uplifting Summer Anthem “All of Me”

Sistra News Team
-
0
Grant Harvey Dudson Releases Uplifting Summer Anthem “All of Me”

Independent artist Grant Harvey Dudson today releases his new single “All of Me,” a radiant summer anthem that pairs infectious, feel-good energy with a lasting message of wholehearted commitment, authenticity, and living fully in the present.

Written by Dudson and produced by Swedish producer Jonatan Backelie, the track celebrates the beauty of choosing connection over fear and giving yourself completely to the people and experiences that matter most. Designed for long drives, festivals, and warm evenings, “All of Me” delivers uplifting melodies while carrying a deeper invitation: to stop holding back and show up as your complete self.

“All of Me was born from the belief that the best relationships aren’t perfect—they’re built through commitment, acceptance, and choosing each other every day,” Dudson explains. “It’s about putting your whole heart into something worth believing in and recognising that the greatest memories are created when we stop holding back and give our all.”

The collaboration with Backelie grew from a shared appreciation for uplifting pop with emotional depth. The pair connected through a songwriting academy during COVID and have continued to develop a creative partnership centred on strong top-line melodies and heartfelt lyrics. While Dudson handled songwriting and vocal performance, Backelie shaped the production into something vibrant, modern, and full of energy, keeping the emotion of the lyrics front and centre while giving the song an irresistible sense of momentum.

Recording took place across two locations that reflect the song’s intimate-yet-cinematic spirit. Vocals were captured in Dudson’s bedroom studio, proving that meaningful music needs only an honest idea and the desire to bring it to life. The production was then developed in collaboration with Backelie in Sweden, blending their perspectives into a polished, feel-good record. Every creative decision prioritised preserving the song’s sense of joy and emotional release rather than overcomplicating the arrangement.

As Dudson reflects: “The best moments in life happen when you stop holding a piece of yourself back and choose to give all of yourself to the people and experiences that matter most.”

Although “All of Me” carries the energy of a summer anthem, its message is universal and enduring. As an independent artist, Dudson is focused on creating music that leaves listeners feeling lighter, more hopeful, and more connected. He is currently introducing the track and his wider catalogue to new audiences through the release and media opportunities, with plans to bring the songs to the stage as his audience continues to grow.

About Grant Harvey Dudson

Grant Harvey Dudson is a Hove-based artist whose music is rooted in emotional storytelling and cinematic soundscapes. Having navigated a turbulent personal journey through his twenties and thirties, he found clarity and purpose through meaningful connection—a transformation that now fuels his songwriting. Collaborating closely with Swedish producer and songwriter Jonatan Backelie, Dudson favours dynamic builds and crescendos over formulaic structures, drawing inspiration from artists such as Michael Jackson. His work aims to feel both personally intimate and universally relatable, with the ambition of sitting comfortably on playlists and in film and television.

“All of Me” is available now on all major streaming platforms.

1...8910...406Page 9 of 406

Sistra.me is powered by Naqada Music Management. Technology by Digitology.