[00:00] Julian Vance: From Neural Newscast, this is Stereo Current, sound, culture, and the systems that shape them.
[00:05] Sloane Rivera: The needle drops, the dust clears, and the frequency finds you.
[00:12] Sloane Rivera: Welcome to Stereo Current. I am Sloan Rivera.
[00:16] Julian Vance: And I am Julian Vance. It's February 22nd, 2026, and we're coming to you from the warm glow of the analog heart.
[00:25] Julian Vance: Sloan, it's been a week of heavy ghosts and very bright futures.
[00:30] Sloane Rivera: That's a delicate balance to strike, Julian.
[00:33] Sloane Rivera: We're oscillating between the funeral pyres of legends and the first cries of solo reinventers.
[00:39] Sloane Rivera: It feels like the industry is shedding its skin in real time.
[00:42] Julian Vance: Exactly. We've got the return of Eugene McGinnis, some Mori Cohn sampling disco from Jesse Ware, and a major statement from the Gorilla's Camp that feels less like a record and more like a global wake.
[00:55] Sloane Rivera: Um, before we get to the icons, let's talk about the sound of a fever dream, Julian.
[01:01] Sloane Rivera: Cameron Picton, formerly of Black Middy, has finally broken his silence.
[01:06] Sloane Rivera: He's heading a new collective with the rather cheekily literal name, My New Band Believe.
[01:12] Julian Vance: I love the origin story on this one.
[01:15] Julian Vance: Apparently, the name came to him while he was battling a sudden illness in a Chinese hotel room,
[01:20] Julian Vance: just like ribbons of scrambled text and weird imagery.
[01:24] Julian Vance: It's very Picton, turning delirium into art.
[01:27] Sloane Rivera: The album is self-titled, Out April 10th on Rough Trade.
[01:32] Sloane Rivera: They've dropped a track called Numerology that's actually not even on the standard LP.
[01:37] Sloane Rivera: It's this exclusive bonus energy that feels very record store clerk's secret handshake.
[01:43] Sloane Rivera: It's erratic, it's brilliant, and it reminds us why that whole South London scene changed the game a few years back.
[01:50] Julian Vance: Speaking of changing the game, let's talk about the mountain.
[01:55] Julian Vance: Gorillas are back, but this isn't just Damon Albard and Jamie Hewlett playing in their cartoon sandbox.
[02:01] Julian Vance: This is a noble send-off.
[02:03] Sloane Rivera: Right. Michael Tetter over at SPI called it a hell of a wake.
[02:08] Sloane Rivera: They're celebrating collaborators who've passed.
[02:10] Sloane Rivera: Mark E. Smith, De La Soule's Trugoy, Bobby Womack, Tony Allen.
[02:16] Sloane Rivera: It's heavy on the heart, but Julian, the production sounds absolutely cosmopolitan.
[02:21] Julian Vance: It's a world tour in 80 minutes.
[02:24] Julian Vance: You've got Bizarap bringing that Argentine EDM energy, and then you have the empty dream machine,
[02:30] Julian Vance: which is a wild pairing of Black Thought, Johnny Marr, and Anushka Shankar.
[02:35] Julian Vance: It shouldn't work, but Elbarn's utopian streak somehow glues the grief together.
[02:41] Sloane Rivera: It's that late period optimism.
[02:44] Sloane Rivera: He's nearing 60, and suddenly he's more interested in bridging cultural gaps than being the cynical critic of modern life is rubbish.
[02:54] Sloane Rivera: Though I did catch that note about the sweet prince sounding like something you'd buy at a Starbucks.
[02:59] Sloane Rivera: A little too polite for the gorillas, maybe.
[03:02] Julian Vance: Maybe, but then they drop Damascus with Omar Suleiman and Yassim Bey, and you remember,
[03:09] Julian Vance: they can still set the dance floor on fire.
[03:11] Julian Vance: It's a record that proves art is the only thing that actually survives the finality of death.
[03:17] Sloane Rivera: Julian, while we're on the subject of reinvention...
[03:20] Sloane Rivera: And Julia Cumming of Sunflower Bean has officially stepped out on her own.
[03:25] Sloane Rivera: Her debut solo album, Julia, is landing April 24th via Partisan.
[03:30] Sloane Rivera: The first single, My Life is already making waves, partly because the video was directed
[03:35] Sloane Rivera: by none other than Edgar Wright.
[03:37] Julian Vance: Wait, what?
[03:39] Julian Vance: Sloan, it's such a liberation track.
[03:41] Julian Vance: She's calling it the ultimate anti-cool album.
[03:45] Julian Vance: She's leaning into that joyous space for the misfits.
[03:48] Julian Vance: Recorded it in LA with Chris Cody and Brian Robert Jones.
[03:51] Julian Vance: Even Nick Zinner from the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's popped in.
[03:54] Sloane Rivera: It's a far cry from the guitar-heavy grit of Sunflower Bean.
[03:59] Sloane Rivera: She's citing Carol King and Brian Wilson.
[04:03] Sloane Rivera: It's refined, but it's got that rebellious middle school girl who doesn't fit in energy.
[04:09] Sloane Rivera: I think it's going to be one of the definitive releases of the spring.
[04:13] Julian Vance: If we're talking about spring anthems, we have to mention Jesse Ware.
[04:17] Julian Vance: She just shared Ride from her upcoming album Super Bloom.
[04:21] Julian Vance: It's a disco western.
[04:23] Julian Vance: She's literally interpolating Ennio Morricone's theme from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.
[04:28] Sloane Rivera: It's cheeky, Julian.
[04:29] Sloane Rivera: Cinematic and powerful.
[04:32] Sloane Rivera: She's been sitting on this since 2024 when she first played it at Glastonbury.
[04:36] Sloane Rivera: Pairing the desert whistle of a spaghetti western with a four-on-the-floor beat
[04:41] Sloane Rivera: It's exactly the kind of high-concept escapism we need right now.
[04:46] Julian Vance: It feels like she's digging deeper.
[04:48] Julian Vance: She's moved past just the pop star drag and is exploring the fear of losing the love she's found.
[04:54] Julian Vance: It's textured.
[04:56] Julian Vance: It's got that Stuart Price polish, but with a very human heart.
[04:59] Sloane Rivera: Um, let's take a sharp turn into the avant-garde.
[05:04] Sloane Rivera: Have you seen the new Fur Trapper video?
[05:06] Sloane Rivera: Yeah.
[05:06] Sloane Rivera: Lisa Riffle has released Rot for Spite, and the visuals are this haunting claymation universe created by her sister, Carla Riffle.
[05:19] Sloane Rivera: It's very Havisham-esque.
[05:21] Julian Vance: That's surprising.
[05:23] Julian Vance: It's Baroque art pop at its most twisted.
[05:26] Julian Vance: The track sounds like it's being played by a coin-operated mechanism.
[05:30] Julian Vance: It's wickedly ornate.
[05:32] Julian Vance: Right.
[05:32] Julian Vance: Lisa is exploring the psychology of being slighted, how misanthropy can become a self-built cell.
[05:39] Julian Vance: It's not exactly radio-friendly in the traditional sense, but it is absolutely magnetic.
[05:45] Sloane Rivera: It's that fringe territory.
[05:47] Sloane Rivera: If you miss the Dresden dolls or the legendary pink dots, this is your new obsession.
[05:53] Sloane Rivera: And speaking of magnetic, the Los Angeles virtuoso, Bebe, just released two moons with London producer Paul Elliott.
[06:03] Sloane Rivera: It's a lunar New Year celebration that bridges 2,500 years of tradition with analog sins.
[06:11] Julian Vance: The way she uses the gujang and gucci against those tactile lo-fi rhythms, it's a unified ecosystem.
[06:19] Julian Vance: Gaoshan Electronica is a standout for me.
[06:22] Julian Vance: It's lively and effervescent.
[06:23] Julian Vance: It doesn't feel like a fusion gimmick.
[06:25] Julian Vance: It feels like...
[06:26] Julian Vance: The instruments were always meant to live together in this cinematic ambient space.
[06:31] Sloane Rivera: It's the sound of ancient heritage meeting modern technology, without losing its soul.
[06:37] Sloane Rivera: A rare feat.
[06:39] Julian Vance: Sloan, we have to talk about the creative handbrake.
[06:42] Julian Vance: There's a fascinating and polarizing discussion happening over at ANR Factory about universal
[06:48] Julian Vance: basic income in the UK music industry.
[06:51] Sloane Rivera: Amelia Vandergaskis, it's a biting take on the hustle culture that's suffocating artists.
[06:57] Sloane Rivera: She argues that the UK music scene is running on adrenaline and overdrafts, and that UBI could be the thing that finally lets musicians breathe.
[07:06] Julian Vance: The argument is that security breeds participation, not idleness.
[07:11] Julian Vance: It's a direct challenge to the myth that people won't work if they have a basic floor.
[07:15] Julian Vance: For musicians who already work obscene hours for free, it would mean they could tour without calculating if petrol money means skipping a meal.
[07:24] Sloane Rivera: It's about who gets to tell stories.
[07:27] Sloane Rivera: Right now, the pipeline is filtered by class.
[07:30] Sloane Rivera: If you don't have family money or a safety net, you're squeezed out by rent and zero-hour contracts.
[07:35] Sloane Rivera: tracks, UBI would flatten those edges.
[07:39] Sloane Rivera: It's a radical idea, especially in a political climate that treats handouts like a dirty
[07:44] Sloane Rivera: word.
[07:45] Sloane Rivera: But maybe it's the only way to save the soul of the scene from the algorithmic creep
[07:51] Sloane Rivera: of AI.
[07:51] Julian Vance: It's a conversation we need to have before the ground shifts completely.
[07:56] Julian Vance: Security shouldn't be a luxury for the creative class.
[08:00] Sloane Rivera: Before we sign off, a few quick rotations you shouldn't miss.
[08:03] Sloane Rivera: Eugene McGinnis is back with Icarus.
[08:07] Sloane Rivera: It's his first real move since leaving Domino years ago.
[08:10] Sloane Rivera: It's got this trademark smirk, glossy confidence, and a tape groove.
[08:14] Sloane Rivera: He's comparing his career trajectory to the myth, but with a wink.
[08:18] Julian Vance: And check out Two Fly Guys by Realism.
[08:21] Julian Vance: She's the first Filipino rap artist in the U.S.
[08:24] Julian Vance: And this track is a soul-rich hip-hop meditation.
[08:27] Julian Vance: Very woozy guitars, very kicked-back bars.
[08:31] Julian Vance: It's short...
[08:32] Julian Vance: sweet, and deeply intimate.
[08:34] Sloane Rivera: And South End on Seas, the trusted, just dropped spin.
[08:38] Sloane Rivera: It's a rush of jangly guitars and sun-soaked indie pop,
[08:42] Sloane Rivera: pure festival energy for when the weather finally catches up to our moods.
[08:46] Julian Vance: The scene is alive, Sloan, whether it's coming from a Chinese hotel room or a clayamation studio,
[08:53] Julian Vance: the signal is strong.
[08:54] Sloane Rivera: It always is if you know where to listen.
[08:57] Sloane Rivera: That's our show for today. I'm Sloan Rivera.
[08:59] Julian Vance: And I'm Julian Vance. Keep your records clean and your mind open. We'll see you tomorrow on Stereocurrent.
[09:06] Julian Vance: Neural Newscast is AI-assisted, human-reviewed. View our AI transparency policy at neuralnewscast.com.
[09:13] Julian Vance: Check us out at stereocurrent.neuralnewscast.com.
[09:16] Julian Vance: This has been Stereocurrent on Neural Newscast. Sound, culture, and the systems that shape them.