“Twin Lakes” by Dust Cwaine

Vancouver drag performer and indie-pop rocker Dust Cwaine just dropped the second single off their upcoming album with the title track, “Twin Lakes”

With a frenetic urgency to it, the new song is about Dust growing up in the Kootenays & the passing of their father, as they explain: “I wrote this song about growing up in an isolated community, and the pain of being further isolated from the people within it. I realized that in death, my father had bypassed any chance to be held accountable for the things he put me through. This song imagines what it might have been like to finally say what needed to be said.”

Still no release date for the album, but you can check out the video below — directed by Luke Beach Brown & filmed at the Britannia Mine Museum — below!

Kirk

“Caught Light” by Great Lake Swimmers

The new album from Great Lake Swimmers, Caught Light, officially has a released date of October 10th - just in time to kick off their tour with Elliott BROOD!

Last week they released the title track “Caught Light”, which might be my favourite of the new music so far. The press release makes reference to photography (quite literally catching light), which as the photographer around here I can appreciate.

As for the song itself, singer Tony Dekker says it is about “a skydiver who strays off course while in the air, and then takes stock of his surroundings while on the ground in unfamiliar territory. The ‘caught light’ of the song has multiple meanings, in that it implies the metaphor of a mirror reflecting one’s life back to one’s self; the photographic aspect of light being ‘caught’ on paper and creating a physical document of the ephemeral; and also the discovery of a lack or a low reservoir, being ‘light’ on what is needed to make meaningful sense of the predicament of being lost.”

More songs with photography metaphors please!

Christine

“Lost Without You” by Luca Fogale

I have a playlist that is simply called “Morning” that I listen to almost every morning when I’m camping, and when Luca’s song “I Don’t Want To Lose You” comes on I stop whatever I’m doing and just listen to it.

When I saw the words “Luca Fogale” and “Piano Ballad” I knew I was going to love this new track immediately and I wasn’t wrong.

“Lost Without You” is beautiful, elegant and heartfelt - it tugs at my imposter-syndrome when it comes to relationships. Luca says: “I wrote ‘Lost Without You’ as honestly as I possibly could and the result was a song about accepting love at a time when I was not fully able to accept some parts of myself, in the hopes of finding a way to dismantle the patterns of thought that have held me down.”

This is his third single of 2025, so I’m hoping that means even more is coming out soon!

Christine

“midnight magic” by Ada Lea

We’re only a couple weeks away from the release of Ada Lea’s new album, when i paint my masterpiece, as she releases the third single from it with “midnight magic”.

The ethereal song is is accompanied not only by a surreal video, but a painting as well. Alexandra Levy painted it herself, and then collaborated with visual artist Clarice Hana to bring it to life in a video where “a giant creature woman births a candlestick holder, a cloud-sized egg, a piano, an enormous tube of paint and finally, she gives birth to me,” Levy explains. “The OBGYN has 4 eyes and uses 3-foot scissors to cut the cord.”

You are definitely going to need to check out the video below, and then keep a look out for when i paint my masterpiece on August 8th. Ada Lea is also hitting the road this fall for a massive tour, which includes a stop here in Vancouver on October 25th at the Kingsway Club!

Kirk

“itero” by bloom effect

Last week the Vancouver-based transatlantic trio bloom effect announced their upcoming EP oscilón, with the release of the first single, “itero”

The track is an instantly catchy, fuzzy shoegaze jam, which is described as “a melancholic anthem for love that could’ve been.”

Check it out below & let it wash over you, and you can pick up their new EP oscilón on September 19 via Kingfisher Bluez.

Kirk