A selection of new and/or relevant INDIE tracks from SEPTEMBER 2026 that have recently left an impression on us. For the full playlist, click here.
Sky Is Alright – “Summer in Galt”
Sky Is Alright make their return count with “Summer in Galt,” the lead single from their first album in five years. The track carries the weight of grief and turns a personal story into something hopeful and uplifting.
Written by Rishi Neal Arora (who leads the project) following the loss of his sister, the song finds a strong balance between sadness and optimism. Shoegaze textures dominate the track, while melodic passages give it a dramatic edge, which I liked a lot.
What really stands out to me is the emotional contrast. The subject matter may be heavy, but the music feels alive, and creates a kind of dynamism without dwelling too much on the melancholy. As a comeback single, it does exactly what it should. It leaves you curious about what comes next.
Joshua Woo – “The Typewriter”
Joshua Woo gets super unsettling on “The Typewriter,” a haunting goth rock track that explores what happens when technology starts blurring the line between creator and creation. The beat is rumbling as he sings “And I think that I’m about to lose my mind,” and you can almost feel the mental frenzy.
As the centrepiece of his upcoming debut album “Remove The Name,” the song feels like a dark theatre production.
Woo combines brooding guitars, electronic textures, and dramatic orchestral touches to build a tense atmosphere. The typewriter itself becomes a metaphor, starting as something familiar and creative before taking on a much darker meaning. Woo’s decision to write and produce the track himself also gives it a strong sense of cohesion.
With its mix of goth rock, psychedelia, shoegaze, lo-fi, and electronic influences, the song shows Woo building a world rather than simply chasing a genre. Dark, theatrical, and slightly creepy, it definitely leaves an impression on you.
The Race – “Family Tree”
The Race gives the idea of family and blood relationships a moving twist on their new song “Family Tree.” The Reading-based shoegaze rock band uses the image of a tree to explore the bond between parents and children, with each part depending on the others to grow.
The heavy, reverb-drenched guitars do most of the talking in the song. They gradually build in intensity before reaching the hook, where Dan Buchanan repeatedly sings, “you are enough.” His delivery is full of honesty and conviction.
Buchanan wrote this song at the request of his son which makes it so much more personal. The song carries a sense of warmth that makes its message land harder.
The song ultimately lands as a simple reminder that wherever life takes you, you are loved, you belong, and you are enough.
Fish and Scale – “Song of a Life”
Fish and Scale’s “Song of a Life” is a soundtrack to your overwhelming thoughts. Built around soft acoustic fingerstyle guitar, gentle piano touches, and soulful vocals, the song is a mix of sadness and calm.
The lyrics dig into overthinking, love, loss, loneliness, and all the emotional chaos that comes with caring too much. There’s no attempt to dress those feelings up. The vocals land somewhere between singing and spoken-word poetry, making every line feel that much impactful.
The sparse arrangement gives the words a lot of room to breathe, while the piano adds little moments of warmth in a soundscape largely created by acoustic guitar. “Song of a Life” carries plenty of sorrow, but listening to it feels oddly peaceful too.
It’s an emotional spiral, but one you somehow don’t mind getting lost in.
Space Cadet 56 – “Blonde and Gifted”
Space Cadet 56 go full theatrical mode on “Blonde and Gifted,” opening with opera-style vocals, stacked choruses, and organs that immediately give the track a larger-than-life feel. It sounds like someone found a forgotten 1960s rock record and decided to crank everything up.
Then the electric guitars arrive. Spacey and slightly wild, they push the song into glam-rock territory, while the switch between female and male vocals keeps things moving.
The 60s influence is impossible to miss, from the vocal arrangements to the organ-heavy backdrop and big rock energy. Every section feels designed to make a grand entrance, and that theatrical quality is easily the song’s biggest strength.
“Blonde and Gifted” is loud, colourful, retro, and gloriously over the top.
