The fabulous Canucks, Actors, return with a smashing track influenced by Pete Shelley’s “Homosapien.” The Americans might have the edge at ice hockey, but they don’t have any acts this sharp in the post-punk game.
Latvian-born Victoria Nordmann offers Italo-influenced pop to lift your spirits in the gloom of winter:
The sun is on my face
I‘m in a happy place
My heart is beating fast
This joy is made to last
Not a million Swedish miles from the sound of Fever Ray, this. Nano Ona‘s “Diamond Dust” gets the remix treatment from Pelotone.
The original is found on the post-Covid album, Now, Not Later. Pelotone adds vocals to the original and takes it into an even icier, bleaker landscape. Frostier than the Judderman after a sip of Metz.
This is not a love song. Hana Piranha are back with a view of romance through a cracked mirror. Hold the wilted flowers and melted chocolates – Dogtablet are on the scene to administer electro-industrial aid.
The Swedish duo, Ankomst, give their own spin to the Kent classic, “Hjärta” [EN: “Heart”]. The song was written to give succor to missing persons and the relatives left behind. Ankomst performed it at Kentfest, a 2026 event in Gothenburg, and quickly issued it as a single.
Jenny Palmé’s vocals are strong here, while Mikael Lastin’s electro,instrumentation puts a poptronica twist on the original.
Peter Coyte returns as Shape Navigator with a new single and an album on the way. “Sternenabfall” [EN: “Star Litter”] pays tribute to the kosmische sounds of yesteryear, while managing to impart a modern feel. It arrives ahead of Journal, the first Shape Navigator album, which is released on 27 February 2026.
The act played an important role on the Guerilla label founded by Dick O’Dell and William Orbit. Tracks like “Crystalize” set the standard for progressive house, back in the 90s. On the present evidence, it has not stood still; nor lost any of its innovative appeal.
Bradford-born, Goldsmiths-educated, Primal Scream-associated, Avril Lavigne-loving Hannah Hu is back with a new track. “Love Is Easy Chaos” channels her 1960s Motown and Carpenters inspirations and shows off her vocal abilities. More like this, please
The Sonic Youth founder, Kim Gordon, offers a thoroughly compelling take on a relationship that has gone wrong. Richard Butler likes to write songs like this, but Gordon has it nailed: vulnerable and empowering, in equal measure.
“Never mind the mess, it’s just my dress”
A new song from the Swedish supergroup Gone Future takes a wedding song in a different direction. They explain:
Lifetime is a very personal song about finding love in the wrong time and place, not being able to fully commit, and dreaming of an alternate reality where things would be different.
Winnipeg, Canada, is a frozen wasteland for most of the year. The new wave band, Johnny Zhivago, emerged from the ice with songs that fit with the growing influence of European music. A mainstay of public access television programming, the band also warmed up for passing electronic and new wave artists brought to town by the promoter, Mike Lambert.
Sadly, most of their material has been unavailable for forty years. We were thrilled, therefore, to find this specimen from 1983 online.
