Quoted as a “textural, tangible, and touching experience” by The Line of Best Fit, queer music and performance artist Freddie Lewis is on the rise. In the summer of 2021, Freddie launched his career with his single Growing Pains which made a significant impact on the UK trans community. He’s also played at festivals such as Glastonbury, The Great Escape, and Iceland Airwaves.

Self-described as dreamy and introspective, when listening to Cuckoo Spit you enter into a daydream-like state. Starting as just Lottie, the band has already attracted venues like the Windmill in Brixton, headlined shows, and supported sold-out bands… Cuckoo Spit are quietly storming into the music scene. 

Soon to release her second EP, Eliza Oakes is embracing the messy and uncertain nature of personal growth, allowing us in on the process of evolving as a human and as an artist. Her latest single Green Light does exactly this, delving into the unknown, and contemplating the vulnerability, faith, and strength in embracing what we can't control.

Whilst there’s easy comparisons to make with Ahmed’s influences - MF Doom, Tyler, the Creator, MIKE - he’s undeniably genuine, both in his music and in person. There’s no bravado or fake sincerity about ‘WHATCHIMACALLIT.’ and whilst we chat, it becomes evident that Ahmend is a pretty multifaceted individual. He’s got a healthy sense of humour and manages to balance music, his pharmacy career, collaborations with other creatives, events…In his own words, he just ‘like[s] just knowing people’.

Ngaio may be based in Bristol but her music certainly shows she will not be pinned down. Her soulful vocals combined with jazz influences - all underpinned by African beats - create a sound all of its own. But it’s not just her music that’s eclectic, her career itself is eclectic too. Not only a recording artist, she is a spoken word artist, activist, DJ and founder of Booty Bass, a Black-led female/non-binary DJ crew. 

As I'm writing these words, we have just released our debut EP. It's called 'Welcome To The Family', and despite the song’s subject matter, this thing we've created is absolutely that – a family. 

Producer and DJ Michael Diamond blurs the boundaries between electronic and jazz, layering his productions with organic instrumentation that slips in cleanly with the crunching beats and shapeshifting synths. His new album Third Culture, released on June 24, is a seven-track cycle that slides gracefully between minimal, percussive atmospherics and scattered dancefloor rhythms. We caught up with Michael to chat about his new album, the Oxford scene and the many artistic intersections of his practice.

Poetry intertwined with popular music is something the world needs more of. Luckily, current poet laureate Simon Armitage is doing just that with his leftfield ambient post-rock band LYR. Alongside Armitage, LYR are comprised of singer-songwriter Richard Walters and producer Patrick J Pearson. Following the release of their acclaimed debut album Call in the Crash Team LYR have recently released a new EP, Firm as a Rock We Stand, which is part of a wider multi-disciplinary project including a documentary film inspired by the story of Durham’s Category D villages.

Twenty years ago Canadian performance artist and musician Merrill Nisker, better known as Peaches, released her seminal debut album The Teaches of Peaches. As well as paving the way for an explosion of electroclash dance-punk into the musical spotlight the album was a gamechanger in other ways too. In an era when female sexuality was in the main still only put on public display for consumption by male audiences (and even then it was kept neat and sanitised), gender identity was still an underground concept and body shaming was ingrained in popular culture, Peaches unashamedly tackled these issues head-on, both in her music and on stage.

With a big blues voice, a rock star energy on stage and a style that combines country and Irish folk music, Derby-based singer/songwriter Kezia Gill has transcended the narrow confines of musical genres to hone a sound that is truly inimitable.

The jazz/hip hop duo CoN&KwAkE are the latest artists to release on Shabaka Hutching’s label Native Rebel Recordings, but neither are strangers to the London music scene. Con, otherwise known as Confucius MC, has been a major name in UK hip hop since the early noughties, and Kwake Bass is a producer and current or recent Musical Director for big names like Sampha, Kae Tempest and Nightmares on Wax, as well as the drummer of choice for, amongst others, MF DOOM and Lianne La Havas.

I Used To Be Sam is the latest step in an ongoing creative journey. Songwriter and vocalist Annie Goodchild took the brave step of exploring tough questions of identity, family and belonging through their music under their most recent artist moniker, I Used To Be Sam. We had the great pleasure of chatting with I Used To Be Sam from their home in Basel, northern Switzerland, taking in everything from family connections to graphic novels and artist friends.