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Electrobuddha – The Man Who Killed The World
A Protest Song Made at Home
At Electrobuddha Towers, Mark McCaffer assembles a view of the wider world from a Glasgow home studio. “The Man Who Killed The World” draws drum, bass and guitar samples together with strings, while his own vocals carry lyrics about war, starvation and inequality. McCaffer calls the approach “eco rock”, placing environmental unease alongside the human cost of destructive behaviour.
The remix’s accompanying video extends that solitary working method. McCaffer collected and edited the clips himself, using earbuds to match his vocal performance to the footage. That attention to the small mechanics of making a video sits beside the song’s broad concerns. Beneath Electrobuddha’s retro psychedelic vocabulary is a direct question about responsibility: what happens when people recognise the damage around them and still carry on?
Bad Valentines – November Shadows
Company in the Autumn Dark
Bad Valentines find a companion in the shadows on “November Shadows”. Guitarist and songwriter Pekko Mantzin began with a blues-based version before the Helsinki band developed it into a faster meeting of Motown and rock and roll. The autumnal city setting remains, but darkness becomes something to inhabit rather than escape.
The five-piece brings together vocalist Hon, drummer Sirpa Immonen, bassist Lasse Girs and guitarists Kupe Wessman and Mantzin. Following the EP Memory Tattoos, the song forms part of the material recorded for their debut album. Its change in pace gives the writing a useful tension: the band keep moving while the narrator makes room for loneliness. Shadows are allowed to stay, offering a kind of company of their own.
Photo: Sonja Vainiopää.
Chet Nordy – For You
An Acoustic Promise, Recast in Rock
Chet Nordy’s “For You” began as an acoustic song Dave Nordstrom wrote for his wedding 15 years ago, a private promise to remain present through life’s highs and lows. Reimagined as a rock ballad, the track carries that sentiment into a fuller arrangement, with electric guitar lines and a singalong chorus before an acoustic outro returns to its origins.
Nordstrom recorded the song at Nordy Studios, the basement facility he designed and built in Freeland, Michigan. He wrote, performed, and recorded every instrument, then mixed Josh Paulino’s vocal tracks. The project marked his first time overseeing all the instrumentation and recording himself, bringing his musicianship and production work together while keeping the wedding vow at the heart of the song.
Faint Halos – I Don’t Wanna Know
Charging Unease With Live-Wire Alt Rock
Faint Halos turn private dread into collective momentum on “I Don’t Want to Know,” a tense collision of introspection and full-band force. Founded by Paul Hashemi after a long absence from music, the project grew from bedroom recordings into a Philadelphia outfit driven by Miguel Padro’s bass, Bill Hallinan’s drums, and Matt Ciejka’s guitar. Together, they give the song a muscular alternative-rock pulse without burying its unease.
The lyrics trace fear, self-protection, and the instinct to disappear, while the arrangement pushes stubbornly outward. Echoes of The National’s emotional weight and The War on Drugs’ expansive guitars surface in the interplay, but the tension belongs to Faint Halos: a band turning the desire to retreat into a reason to make noise.
Cruel Ploy – Fear
Hooks In The Spiral Of Anxiety On Fear
Cruel Ploy‘s Fear lives in the uneasy space between self-doubt and self-discovery. Across five songs, the Cincinnati five-piece draws together shimmering indie rock guitars, emo urgency, and alternative rock weight, exploring perfectionism, concealed identities, and the regrets that linger long after their cause. Tight melodies meet atmospheric guitar lines, while restrained production leaves the arrangements’ rough edges exposed.
The title track, “Fear,” circles anxious thoughts without offering a simple way out, establishing the emotional tension that runs through the EP. Rather than treating vulnerability as a problem to solve, Cruel Ploy lets uncertainty remain audible in the music, beneath swelling guitars. Fear traces the slow, uncomfortable process of confronting what has been hidden and learning to live without every answer.
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