Bridging the gap between their childhood love of Heavy Metal with the 90's American Indie music of their formative years, Puppy is the brainchild of Jock Norton (vocals, guitars), Billy Howard Price (drums) and Matthew Rickelton (bass). Puppy formed in 2014 and following a few months of writing and recording released two tracks Forever and The Great Beyond, gaining them early attention from the likes of Noisey, NME, DIY and Consequence Of Sound, as well as support dates with the likes of Gengahr and Pity Sex.

Puppy's debut self-titled EP is out digitally through Best Fit Recordings on October 9. A limited edition vinyl pressing is available to pre-order now (expected shipping time November).

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At only nineteen its almost intimidating the confidence Sabella displays in her songwriting and by the nature of the track’s narrative, her maturity to acknowledge the time spent wallowing in longing and heartbreak is time ill spent. Clocking in at just under three minutes, Loving Like This exemplifies Sabella’s lack of necessity to spend on the subject of the track and provides a small open window as to what’s to come from the soon to be announced EP.

Raised within earshot of Glastonbury, Sabella’s writing was born and inspired by her love for literature. With an intuition for story telling from a young age, she began to write her own short stories and poems, which she soon found to be the best way to express her feelings. Her writing then naturally progressed into song lyrics as her interest in music grew she began to experiment with her own recordings. After being introduced to producer, Authr, the pair set about exchanging ideas and formulating the recordings that make up her debut release, due late Spring 2015 on Best Fit Recordings.

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“Oh I can’t stand the thought of us being over / cos’ tell me how will I ever get over you, I won’t”
“Keep your feet on the dancefloor / encore / I’m not ready for this”

It’s clear that Ji Nilsson is not a fan of saying goodbye….which is ideal, as we say hello to Best Fit Recordings’ newest signing.

Working out of her apartment/studio in her native Stockholm, Sweden there’s no more apt Twitter bio than Nilsson’s – it simply says “I write, produce and sing”. As she says herself it’s where she eats, sleeps and makes music while dreaming about mermaids, the ocean and living for “danceable songs about heartbreak”.

While the young Swede has been writing and producing her own R&B-influenced pop material since 2010, Nilsson took a break from her pursuit of the perfect tearful dancefloor banger in 2012 to write for other musicians, most notably her fellow Swede and close friend Marlene with whom she created the masterful pop of “Love You Anyway”, which she realised had helped her develop as a songwriter. Yet the urge to make her own way in the pop world was hard to keep in check; during a break in New York City, living in an apartment with “paper thin walls and a rock hard bed”, Ji wrote her first single “I’m Her” in 2013 before following it up with the intimate-yet-clubby “Heartbreakfree” (just the ONE MILLION PLAYS on Spotify and drawing praise from Nordic By Nature, Indietronica and Radar) and “Encore”, where Nilsson’s sweet and pure voice begs for just one more dance before the song – and relationship – ends.

In talking about these songs and what else we can expect from Ji Nilsson, the singer explains that we will find “Pop, R&B, handclaps, thematic lyrics and underwater magic mermaid sounds” but also some emotions that we can all identify with: “I also hope you'll recognize some of the feelings I describe, hope it makes you want to dance and maybe cry a little. And I hope you want to keep listening.” A woman in complete control of her musical vision, Ji Nilsson makes serious and seriously good pop music.

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Given the tendency of popstrels to emerge fully formed from the ether, the development of North-Londoner Pawws (aka singer-songwriter Lucy Taylor) has undoubtedly been a much-needed breath of fresh air. Describing her sound as “upsetting disco”, her work details trials of love lost and won, while her impossibly smooth voice washes over the kind of 80s-influenced synth pop that is having a well-deserved renaissance. 

Classically trained in both the flute and the piano, Lucy started her career as a live session musician for Kele Okereke and also performed with the likes of MGMT. Her experiences with them led her to write her own tracks, recording them at home and posting them online under her adopted nom de plume. Her first releases gained her a huge amount of attention, heralding praise from the likes of NME and Billboard. Not long after releasing her debut single Time To Say Goodbye / Slow Love she signed a deal with Three Six Zero, a management company partnered with Roc Nation. 

Sugar, her debut EP, is set to be released on June 16 via Best Fit Recordings. The record is coloured by a subtlety of emotion and lingering nostalgia that encapsulates the maturity of her sound, all the while exploring the tempestuousness of relationships. “I guess the main theme of this EP is the what happens when you continue loving someone, even when you know it is bad for you,” she explains.

“Although the EP is generally about the pitfalls of love I still think it has an element of hope to it, because you only take risks and end up in those situations when you’re open with your heart.”

Produced by Daniel Lindegren, a friend who also co-wrote three of the tracks, allowed for an honesty that is clear in the frankness of the lyrics. “Daniel is a very talented guy and a good friend which made it easier to be open about the themes in the tracks which is important to me. I also co-wrote one of the tracks, Sugar, with Jimmy Hogarth, and the three of us had a lot of fun working on the record together.”

The Sugar EP will be available worldwide as a digital release from June 16 closely followed by a highly limited CD and vinyl edition. 

Each CD will be hand finished by Pawws herself whilst the 12" version will be pressed onto pink coloured vinyl. Both formats are available to pre-order now (all pre-orders will receive a digital download of the EP on the day of release).

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Postiljonen is a dream pop trio deriving from Scandinavia. The band emerged quietly back in September 2011 and is composed of Norwegian vocalist Mia Bøe alongside Swedish multi-instrumentalists Daniel Sjörs and Joel Nyström Holm. 

After releasing a handful of online only singles in their native Scandinavia, the trio have managed to create a highly characteristic sound, where ethereal and alluring vocals are interwoven in a mystical, ambient, dreamy and lovable expression. They have been compared to the likes of M83, Air France, Sigur Ros, jj and Cocteau Twins. 

Taking inspiration from old black and white movies, the golden 80s, Balearic scenery, sleepless summer nights and describe themselves as nostalgic daydreamers, all of which mirrors beautifully within the group’s debut LP Skyer’s 10 songs.

Featuring singles ‘Supreme’ and ‘Atlantis’ and ‘All That We Had Is Lost’  - a heartbreaking interpretation of Whitney Houston’s classic ‘How Will I Know’ - Skyer is summery pop music at its best; made for lazy days and dreamy nights.

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Hailing from Stockholm, couple Linnea and Joel Edin, aka The Forest & The Trees are a striking addition to the canon of quintessential bittersweet indie-pop to emerge from Sweden in recent years. Creating delicately crafted songs, their work showcases a talent for combining playful melodies with the perfectly balanced harmonies of their vocals. 

Having originally played together in Joel’s band Tupelo Honeys, they formed in 2008, before releasing their self-titled debut in 2010. After playing throughout Europe they released their “What We Lost” EP in 2011, featuring remixes from the likes of NIVA and Houses.

In the years that followed the ennui of daily life kicked in, and when Linnea lost her job and Joel found himself bored of his studies, inspiration to write new songs proved hard to find. The couple decided to “take action and leave the Swedish darkness”, and moved to Valencia for four months, a city they’d first visited and fallen in love with when they'd played there several years earlier.

The influence of their time in the city is palpable, lending their new album a sun-drenched optimism, despite having only written one song (lead track “You’re In My Skin”) during the duration of their stay. It’s a noticeable shift in mood, and one that the duo acknowledges: “Whereas our first album evolved around escaping and fear of growing up, the new songs are mostly about facing that fear and dealing with stuff instead of running away. We decided to name the album Missions, from one of the songs on the album, because it sums it up, it’s more positive. These songs are more about facing problems and doing something about them, rather than escaping.”

Drawing on the music they listened to as teenagers, bands like Popsicle, The Cardigans and The Cocteau Twins, has driven their sound to develop precision, while retaining a balance of the carefree and complex. Such a middle ground was hard to find, so despite early plans to produce the record themselves, they eventually decided to bring in Johannes Berglund, who'd previously worked with The Radio Dept. Shout Out Louds and The Knife, seeking some necessary objectivity. “We’ve been acquainted with Johannes for a few years and we totally love the work he’s been doing. So we asked if he wanted to mix our single “Putting Down the Gun” which he did and we were so pleased with the result,” they explain. “It felt like he really understood what we wanted and could help us with that final push. He really works with his gut and puts so much feeling into his mixes - we’ve been very lucky to get to work with him.”

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Having cut his teeth playing with sought after Swedish band The Sonnets, Stockholm-based musician Per Magnusson now arrives under the new guise of Sportsman to present his perfectly elegant, sumptuous brand of modern, heartfelt R’n’B. 
 

A self-proclaimed “pop melody whore”, Sportsman is a project which embraces unforgettable hooks, soaring vocal lines and soul-filled bass-lines, an outlet which serves not so much as a reference for Magnusson’s inspirations as a way of transporting his listeners to the source of the sound.
 

With sought after Swedish production duo Montauk – Johan Cederberg and Victor Holmberg – brought on board, the initial, romantic and evocative vision of the project was able to be brought fully to life. Working alongside the pair, as well as featuring a guest appearance from Those Dancing Days’ Linnea Jönsson, Sportsman hasn’t turned out to be a purely solo effort as much as a solo vision executed by one inspired individual and a handful of carefully selected kindred spirits.

“Music, to me, has always been an excuse to escape,” Magnusson explains. “Escaping to a world just a little bit more enchanting than the every-day-toiling-routine.”

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After a four year wait, Stockholm three-piece Museum of Bellas Artes finally cut the ribbon on their eagerly anticipated debut LP, Pieces, in the late winter months of 2013.

Full-bodied, baroque and seductively melodramatic, Pieces trails the darker climes of luxe-pop, melting disco beats into church organ, sustained synth pads into chiming bells and pistols-at-dawn guitars into post-punk basslines.

Childhood friends Joanna Herskovits, Leonard Öhman and Alice Luther assembled the band back in 2009 and released the neon-flecked debut EP Days Ahead a year later. As they up the sonic histrionics and dim the lights, forget everything you thought you knew about Swedish pop and start over.

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