Photography: Andrew Faram

Canadian singer-songwriter Clara Cloud returns with Rabbit King — the second single from her upcoming sophomore album As Above, a dark, folkloric twist on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. With a voice as hypnotic as the tales she spins, Cloud leads us down the rabbit hole — not to Wonderland, but into a shadowed realm where power seduces, crowns corrupt, and even kings can fall. Blending medieval chamber pop, forest-soaked folk, and stormy alt-anthems, Rabbit King carries the theatrical sweep of Florence Welch, the raw spark of Mumford and Sons, and the untamed magic of AURORA. Inspired by Alice in Wonderland’s iconic White Rabbit — here recast as a lost wanderer crowned by a Hades-like Red Queen — the track beats with a ceremonial refrain, “Ra ta ta ta…,” charting his tragic rise and ruin. It’s a descent, a warning, and a fable for anyone who’s ever reached too far, too fast.

Rabbit King builds on the critical acclaim of Cloud’s visual album The Woods, deepening her reputation as “BC’s Kootenay fairy songstress” — a genre-blending artist with theatrical roots and a love for Celtic traditions, dreamy pop atmospheres, and the mysticism of folklore. Raised in the mountain town of Kimberley, BC, Cloud has been weaving music, film, and theatre into her work since 2018, all while mentoring the next generation of artists through her role as a music educator and her upcoming 2025 choral workshop with Selkirk Secondary School. Produced by Sal Verma and mastered by Greg Mindroff, Rabbit King stands both as a spellbinding standalone track and as a pivotal chapter in As Above — a sweeping, mythical opera of love, loss, and longing, where every note feels like a step deeper into the forest.

https://www.claramacleod.com/musician

Some records feel like they’re built for rooms; Guitarworks II feels built for ruins. John Beckmann, working under his Mortal Prophets banner, has carved sixteen pieces of music that sound less like compositions and more like transmissions from forgotten places. Named after pre-Columbian sites — Chaco Canyon, Cahokia Mounds, Serpent Mound — these tracks arrive weathered, worn down, half buried, yet glowing with strange life.

Beckmann is a composer and visual artist by background, and that dual sensibility runs through the music. The Mortal Prophets is not about virtuosity or about the “guitar album” in the classic rock sense; it’s about concept, texture, and the way sound can occupy space like light or architecture. Each track feels like an installation piece, a room you step into and inhabit for a few minutes before moving to the next.

The guitar is the only real instrument here, but it never behaves conventionally. Beckmann routes it through vintage amps and analog effects, embracing hiss, drift, and imperfection. The result is a sonic palette that constantly shifts shape: bells in “Chaco Canyon,” a chiming folk motif stretched and warped in “Cahokia Mounds,” underground rumble in “Bighorn Medicine Wheel,” and throat-song drones in “Wupatki.” “Hopewell Culture” threads bright guitar lines into an interlocking lattice that recalls the looping experiments of Fripp and Eno — but with a rougher, hand-played edge that resists digital neatness.

The record’s sequencing is deliberate. Luminous pieces like “Mesa Verde,” with its Byrds-like shimmer and faint organ chords, give way to darker passages — the cavernous growl of “Chimney Rock,” the de-tuned unease of “Hovenweep.” Just as the listener acclimates to the meditative drift, Beckmann snaps the spell: “Angel Mounds” closes the album with a sudden bluesy eruption, slide guitars colliding with Beefheart-like abrasiveness, even horns pushing through the haze. It’s not just unexpected; it reframes the entire journey, reminding us that ritual can be joyous, chaotic, and earthy as well as spiritual.

What elevates Guitarworks II beyond mere “ambient guitar” is its refusal to settle into wallpaper. Plenty of albums in this space drift politely in the background, but Beckmann doesn’t allow that luxury. His pieces feel deliberate, ceremonial. Each is a small act of conjuring, a ritual that pulls history, myth, and memory into the present. The imperfections — the hiss of the amp, the occasional digital pop, the unsteady layering — don’t detract but rather enhance the effect, like cracks in an ancient artifact that make it feel real.

There’s also a conceptual weight at play. By naming each track after archaeological sites, Beckmann forces us to listen not just to sound, but to history. These are places that carry stories of lost civilizations, vanished cultures, and sacred geometry. The music doesn’t attempt to reconstruct them, but to evoke their aura — the silence that hangs in the air, the sense of time stretching backward and forward at once. Listening becomes an act of travel, not just through sound but through the echoes of human memory.

That duality — the past bleeding into the future — is the thread running through Guitarworks II. At moments it feels like an artifact unearthed from centuries ago; at others, it could be a broadcast from some future civilization remembering us. It is, in the truest sense, timeless.

Beckmann could easily have taken the safer path: refine a single texture, repeat it across albums, become another ambient specialist with a signature sound. Instead, he treats the guitar as an open-ended tool for exploration, reinventing what it can be from track to track. Guitarworks II is the sound of that curiosity, that restless imagination.

It’s not always easy listening, nor should it be. The record demands solitude, twilight, and good headphones. It’s music to inhabit, not consume; music that lingers like a half-remembered dream. And like the ruins that inspired it, it leaves you wondering who walked here before, and who might return again.

Guitarworks II isn’t just another ambient release. It’s a meditation on time itself, and Beckmann proves himself an artist willing to ask questions most musicians never even think to raise.

Website

Instagram

YouTube

Beloved Adelaide rapper, singer, and songwriter Allday has returned with his new single underneath, a slinky, layered cut that continues the rollout of his highly anticipated next album. Known for blending moody hip hop with sharp wit and raw honesty, Allday delivers once again with a track that showcases his evolution as a charismatic storyteller and creator.

“underneath is the next in the Allday album roll out. a bit slinky and with trademark intricate bars and multi layered meanings.”

Musically, underneath leans into Allday’s talent for balancing atmosphere with detail. Built on a sultry, low-lit beat, the track threads slick wordplay through shifting textures, creating a song that is equal parts hypnotic and introspective. It’s a confident reminder of the depth in Allday’s catalogue and the unique space he continues to carve within modern hip hop.

This new single follows a wave of momentum across 2024 and 2025 that has reaffirmed Allday’s place at the forefront of Australian music. With over 340 million global streams, seven Gold and two Platinum ARIA accreditations, and 500,000 Shazams, Allday has consistently proven his reach and staying power. His previous singles have been widely supported, with Peroxide earning spins across triple j, SYN, Inner FM and 5 Triple Z, while also landing playlist covers and placements on Spotify’s sadboi hours, New Music Friday AU & NZ, and editorial backing from Apple Music and Tidal. The follow-up, falling under, premiered on triple j, was added to multiple global playlists across Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon, and drew praise from outlets including Music Feeds, Aus Music Scene, and Yahoo!.

Beyond the studio, Allday has released three Top 10 charting albums, played sold out national and international tours across the US and UK, and performed at some of the country’s most iconic festivals including Splendour in the Grass, Beyond The Valley, Groovin’ The Moo, and Spilt Milk. His live presence remains undeniable, with rapidly sold-out concert hall tours across Australia and a headline national run in September 2024 further cementing his reputation. Along the way, he has collaborated with household names like Troye Sivan, Sofi Tukker, Mallrat, and Amy Shark, while drawing accolades from global tastemakers such as Sway, Complex, NME, Clash, Rolling Stone, Line of Best Fit, and Pigeons & Planes.

With underneath, Allday steps further into his most refined creative era yet, a chapter marked by clarity, momentum, and an ever-deepening connection with fans at home and abroad.

CONNECT WITH ALLDAY