We Speak Music

Riot Son’s Unveils New Single ‘Pulse’

Published

1 month ago

August 11, 2026

Riot Son doesn’t sound particularly interested in making himself comfortable. Hailing from Boone, North Carolina, the artist takes the quieter, inward-facing tendencies of contemporary alternative music and throws them out of the window on “PULSE”, a track that operates at maximum dramatic pressure. Rather than shrinking its world down to something intimate and easily digestible, the song expands until it feels almost widescreen — all shadow, velocity and oversized rock ’n’ roll ambition. There is nothing tentative about it; Riot Son wants the listener to feel the walls move.

His voice is the track’s most immediate weapon. There’s a vintage swagger lurking in the delivery, with traces of Elvis-era theatricality, but it is pushed somewhere more sinister and unpredictable. Behind him, London producer Philip Spalding, working as Flip X, keeps the arrangement in constant motion, allowing the song to veer between menace and spectacle. The arrival of its taut, angular new-wave passage brings a flash of Devo-esque eccentricity, only for the restraint to give way to a towering final surge of guitars and operatic intensity. “PULSE” has the instincts of a classic rock performance, but its execution belongs to a much stranger and more restless landscape.

The record’s journey across borders feels appropriate to its ambitions. Spalding’s connection to the production world of Martin Rushent — whose influential work intersected with records by artists including Joy Division, Buzzcocks, The Stranglers, The Human League and Generation X — adds another layer of history to the track, while the analogue mix and master by VE Beats in Quebec completes its international route. Yet despite that global construction, the emotional geography of “PULSE” remains firmly rooted in Appalachia. Riot Son’s “Appalachian Gloom” concept turns the isolation and harsher realities of the high country into something mythic, drawing from punk darkness, glam excess and the bombast of ’90s alternative without simply recreating any of them.

What makes “PULSE” compelling is its refusal to behave like a cautious introduction. Riot Son sounds as though he is already building toward a much bigger version of himself — one made for smoke, lights, amplifiers and rooms considerably larger than the bedroom. With his debut EP due August 12, Northeast shows on the horizon and a London date planned, the project is beginning to trace a route well beyond its Appalachian starting point. In an era where understatement can sometimes masquerade as sophistication, Riot Son makes a persuasive case for the opposite approach: bigger guitars, stranger instincts, more theatre and absolutely no fear of excess.

We Speak Music

Phoebe June Traces Love, Distance and Heartbreak on New EP ‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’

Published

2 days ago

September 11, 2026

Joni Jones

For Phoebe June, some stories are easier to tell through music.

Her new EP, ‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’, is an intimate collection that traces the emotional journey of a relationship from the exhilaration of falling in love to distance, uncertainty, heartbreak and, ultimately, learning to let go.

Inspired by artists including Gracie Abrams, Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers, Phoebe June combines diary-like lyricism with melancholic ballads, subtle uptempo moments and an understated, emotionally honest production style.

At the centre of the project is ‘Thursday’, a bittersweet track about loving someone from a distance and holding onto the hope that the connection might survive.

Written after Phoebe left a country that held deep personal meaning, and left someone she cared about behind, the song looks back at the relationship from its beginning. Even its title is personal: the two first met on a Thursday.

The song captures the complicated feeling of walking away from something meaningful without believing that it necessarily has to be over. It’s about distance, memory and the possibility of finding your way back to someone, while recognising that hope only works when it goes both ways.

Across six tracks, the EP develops that story in sequence.

‘Everything You Are’ opens the project with the warmth of new love, while ‘Dead Sea’ explores the security of finding someone who helps you stay afloat through difficult times. As the story progresses, ‘Thursday’ introduces separation before ‘Getaway Car’ moves into the aftermath; unanswered questions, lingering attachment and the realisation that someone can profoundly affect your life while still being unhealthy for you.

‘One Day’ leaves the door open to the possibility of a future reunion, balancing hope with the understanding that some relationships may only exist in memory.

The EP closes with ‘Ophelia’, its emotional breaking point. Inspired in part by Friedrich Heyser’s painting of the same name, the track confronts the pain of feeling manipulated and unappreciated after giving everything to someone else.

The result is a project that deliberately moves from light to dark. Phoebe June considered not only the narrative but the emotional progression when sequencing the EP, allowing the brightness of its opening to gradually give way to the heartbreak of its closing moments.

Even the title reflects that feeling.

‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’ takes its name from a flower, with the image of a gate separating two people becoming a metaphor for a love that remains beautiful but just out of reach. To reach over it requires effort, just as maintaining a connection across distance, uncertainty and changing circumstances does.

Ultimately, Phoebe June isn’t interested in simply documenting her own heartbreak.

She wants listeners to recognise themselves in it.

‘Kiss Me Over The Garden Gate’ is a collection about love, nostalgia, hope and regret and about what remains when something beautiful ends up on the other side of the gate.