What We've Been Listening To...Holy Fuck, Chalk, Porchlight, Cult of Dom Keller, Vehicle, Hot Face, Westside Cowboy, Sunstack Jones, DEADLETTER, Helicon, Al Lover

2026 has arrived with a glut of rather fine tunes. 

I'd forgotten how much I like the bruising chug of Holy Fuck. It's been 6 years since their last album 'Deleter' came out, and interim tracks 'Airport Dreams' and 'Ninety Five' suggested they might be on the turn. However, new single 'Evie' suggests enough of a return to form for me to justify getting some tickets for their tour in September. New album Event Dreams drops in March. 

Cult of Dom Keller have also been pretty quiet since their last album 'They Carried The Dead In a UFO' came out in 2021. A new album is on the way, with new single 'Leaders With Hooves' an appropriately noisy sign of intent. 

Slightly more regular are DEADLETTER, whose new album 'Existence is Bliss' lands on the 27th February. It Comes Creeping is the band's second single from the album and very good it is too.  

A couple of weeks after DEADLETTER's album comes the debut album Chalk. The band have settled into a more dance floor focused sound these days, as demonstrated by the latest track to land from the album 'I.D.C.' which falls hot on the heels of the excellent 'Can't Feel It' and 'Pain'. I.D.C. has a more commercial feel to it, and the presence of auto tune on the vocal is not something you really want to hear, but it doesn't detract too much.​ 

Helicon and Al Lover's new album 'Arise' is but a few weeks away, due out on the 13th February. Latest singe 'Not a Thought' is a woozy little number, pure prime time psychedelia. Early signs suggest they may have a pretty stellar album on the way - check out title track 'Arise' too, its class.  

Over in the wonderful world of Speedy Wunderground, things have got very punky on the debut album from Hot Face. Ten tracks clocking in at a mere twenty four minutes and all them thrashy numbers, and why not?

If beautifully crafted songs are more your bag, have a listen to the debut EP from West Side Cowboy 'So Much Country 'Till We Get There' - tis a thing of beauty. Looks like they may have been snapped up by Universal now too, so expect to hear from a lot in the future. Similarly pleasurable is the new single from 'Sunstack Jones 'Rainy' a taster for their new EP due out next week. 

Elsewhere Porchlight have popped up with a belter in the form of 'Hotchkiss Gun' and Vehicle have a  quality tune out in the shape of 'You Are Not A Cowboy'. If the sardonic vocals on the Vehicle sound familiar, it's because they are from Michael Cable, formally of Perspex.  

All the tracks above will feature on our monthly playlist, updated at the end of the month, so go and give it a save. 

​Happy Listening!