Listening to Arnold J.’s new single, "Muddy Waters," isn't quite like anything else swirling around right now. It arrives with the gentle insistence of incoming tide, pulling you into its specific gravity. Arnold J., Ghanaian-born and now Canada-based, weaves a sound tagged as alt-country and folk, but those labels feel thin, like trying to contain smoke. There’s earthiness, sure, but his soulful vocal lines...

This one hits like finding an unexpectedly perfect strawberry in a punnet full of slightly squashed ones. Lemon, the Dutch outfit featuring Mark ‘Bong The Bass’ Bongers, Paul Hesen, Ralf Hesen, and Thomas Gense, lob "Gimme Something True" into the fray, and it lands with a bright, almost demanding, splash. It’s got that sun-drenched, baggy strut of Madchester about it, doesn’t it? A psychedelic...