Also on this week’s essential new music roundup are Another Country $$$$, Normal Village, MLEKO and Ashinoa.

Courtney Barnett – ‘Stay in Your Lane’

Courtney Barnett is back with ‘Stay in Your Lane’, the first taste of new material since her 2023 instrumental album ‘End of the Day’ (which soundtracked accompanying autobiographical film ‘Anonymous Club’)’. Paired with a music video directed by Alex Ross Perry, the sudden announcement has got fans buzzing with excitement for a release that feels long overdue. Courtney is known for her jaw dropping guitar work and evocative lyricism, and ‘Stay in Your Lane’ takes the same approach, fostering a chaotic and frantic garage rock sound that wouldn’t feel out of place in the ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ soundtrack. Underpinned by drum machine textures and powered by a heavy and fast acting bass line, the new track hints at an exciting and fresh new chapter for the Aussie icon, showcasing a newfound experimentation and flair. Serving as the first non-instrumental release since 2021’s ‘Things Take Time, Take Time’ too, could this suggest a new Courtney Barnett album on the horizon? (Sam Schlipalius)

Skiving – ‘Ich Bin Ein Beginner’

Corporate culture is ubiquitous. The omnipresent spectre of workplace optimisation smears everything from commuter advertising and short form social media content to blockbuster entertainment and even food and drink. This inescapability is arguably the most malicious factor baked into business culture – we did not sign up to this and yet we are forced to participate. On ‘Ich Bin Ein Beginner’, Skiving (formerly known as Human Resources) elucidate the individual’s struggle against late capitalism via art-rock jolts and droll lyrical dexterity. Melding juddering guitar and drum coughs with warped bass, ‘Ich Bin Ein Beginner’ clatters with equal parts vivacity and vitriol. Always animated and enthralling, Skiving’s talents have consistently paired the lyrical gymnastics of vocalist Harry Handford with equally invigorating rhythmic accompaniment. As the track progresses from post-punk shunts to garage-rock assaults, Handford’s quips about resisting the loom of contemporary capitalism are quick and stark, peppering the puckish release with references to fast-food, The Simpsons and meme culture. Another cutting triumph from one of London’s most dynamic and bracing exports.  (A. L. Noonan)

Dreamwave – ‘Moon Buggy’

Laced with a dimension-doubling elixir of tripped out psych-rock roguery, Dreamwave’s ‘Moon Buggy’ is a pedal to the metal, vibrational phantasmagoria of fun and energy. The new track is set to be the lead single from the Bristol band’s upcoming EP ‘Drifter’, releasing via Stolen Body Records, and it showcases yet another string on the quartet’s eclectic songwriting bow. Leaning into a scrappier, garage psych-punk dimension that recalls the likes of contemporaries such as Thee Oh Sees or Frankie and the Witch Fingers, ‘Moon Buggy’ is a track that was originally born from the band’s live improvisations, evolving over 2 years of experimentation into a free standing, super-charged beast of mind-melting mosh fodder that will get you thrashing about in no time at all. (Hazel Blacher)

Another Country $$$$ – ‘TETHER’

Spawning from a nascent new wave of Manchester acts unreeling dynamic (and occasionally unhinged) cuts of indie-leaning experimental/electronic-pop – see SILVERWINGKILLER and Crimewave – underground project Another Country $$$$ continue their remarkably consistent run of releases this year with new single ‘TETHER’. Kicking off with an ambient intro before rooting itself in the jagged, digitized environments of glitching breakbeat and cut-up vocal samples, the track is oddly melancholic, eerily serene. Anticipating upcoming shows with SCALER as well as a slot Pitchfork Festival London too, ‘TETHER’ marks another fine cut on the Spinny Nights label (BUFFEE, Robbie & Mona, Lynks). (Elvis Thirlwell)

Normal Village – ‘Bereft’

The latest in a prolific run of releases from Leeds based label & promoter Private Regcords (see recent bangers from Bathing Suits and Rhiannon Hope), this barbed, labyrinthine new single from avant-punk quartet Normal Village heralds the release of their debut EP ‘Pile On’. Marrying the impassioned growing pains of Martial Arts with the errant, emo-leaning unpredictability of UNIVERSITY, ‘Bereft’ tumbles and crashes from jagged section to jagged section. Wiry guitars spark off each other like loose live wires, and a howling vocal is pitched somewhere between ecstasy and despair. The energy and innovation here is infectious. (Elvis Thirlwell)

MLEKO – ‘Gub Rock’

MLEKO are the newest outfit signed to Heist or Hit (home to releases from the likes of Her’s, Nature TV and Westside Cowboy), and their debut single ‘Gub Rock’ has officially landed. What is ‘Gub Rock’, you ask? If this track is anything to go by, its definition is an embrace of post-rock, jazz and art-rock that bubbles on the fringes of folk, striking a delicate balance between tenderness and grandiosity. Of course, the self-proclaimed genre is in tongue-in-cheek, with the band elaborating: “Gub Rock? It’s been termed post-punk, art rock, post-rock, alt rock, prog rock, to the point where we are just as lost as everyone else.” A marvellous debut from an exciting new outfit who stand tall as the monarchs of the ‘Gub Rock’ scene. Fans of caroline and Black Country, New Road – take heed. (Brad Sked)

Ashinoa – ‘Room Of Whispers’

A musing krautrock stunner, ‘Room of Whispers’ is the absorbing new single from French experimental trio Ashinoa. Lulling us into a cosmic dreamscape of Brian Eno-esque liminal ambience, the track marries the hypnotic soundscapes of Gwenno with the heady motorik mesmeric cadence of Can, entrancing the listener across 3-plus minutes of extraterrestrial expedition. Taken from the Lyon-based outfit’s forthcoming album ‘Un’altra Forma’ (set for release via Fuzz Club Records in November), ‘Room Of Whispers’ follows the more acid-jazz stylings of lead single and title track ‘Un’altra Forma’, making for a splendid space odyssey. (Brad Sked)