On This Track: Weekend Listening #15
Five tracks about unexpected connections, memories that linger, learning to accept yourself and the question of what happens when the feeling fades.
Some songs take you back to a person, a place or a version of yourself you thought you'd left behind. Others capture the moment when someone new walks into your life and everything suddenly feels different. This week's On This Track Weekend Listening 15 moves between those feelings. Panchiko turn a collision into something strangely romantic, Zoumer finds her way through memories that refuse to stay in the past, and Julia Sommerfield asks to be accepted without having to change. Steven Boom wonders if a summer romance can survive everyday life, while Andy Tongren celebrates the rare feeling of meeting someone who somehow already feels familiar.
Panchiko - “One Car Hits Another” (feat. Mei Semones)
Panchiko have come a long way from a band whose forgotten demo CD turned up in a charity shop. The Nottingham group reunited after fans tracked them down online and what began as a strange piece of music history has grown into a career with sold-out tours and a huge younger audience. Now they're announcing their new album, "Chimera", due April 9 via Nettwerk, with “One Car Hits Another” featuring Mei Semones as the first single. The title sounds like the beginning of a disaster, but Andy Wright had something more surreal in mind: a car crash unfolding in slow motion, with everyone involved somehow singing along. The track has a loose, swaying rhythm that gives its fatalistic story an oddly romantic feel. Britpop-sized melodies meet the hazier side of indie rock, with a touch of the off-kilter atmosphere that has always made Panchiko difficult to pin down. "Chimera" promises more of that unpredictability, moving between shoegaze, hip-hop, pop and quieter ballads. The band recorded the album in their own studio, continuing a process that has grown alongside their unexpected second life as musicians.
🎧 Stream “One Car Hits Another (feat. Mei Semones)” by Panchiko on Apple Music
ON AIR LIBRARY - “A Letter to Benjamin Spock”
ON AIR LIBRARY came out of from New York's late-'90s underground, when bands like The Strokes, Interpol and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were bringing the city's music scene into the spotlight. The trio took a different route. Founded in 1998 by Wann and Claudia Deheza, later joined by Claudia's twin sister Alejandra, the group made hazy, Eno-inspired pop that favored atmosphere and texture over the garage-rock sound dominating the city at the time. The Deheza sisters would later become known for their work in The School of Seven Bells, but ON AIR LIBRARY's early recordings captured a different side of their musical world. For the 25th anniversary of their self-titled 2001 EP, the band is bringing the long out-of-print release to streaming services for the first time and issuing it on vinyl. The first single, “A Letter to Benjamin Spock”, unfolds slowly through floating synths, worn guitar tones and Claudia Deheza's ghostly vocals. Made with modest analog equipment, the recording has a dreamy, slightly frayed quality that feels far removed from today's polished, plug-in-heavy productions. There's a more difficult story beneath the calm, too: the lyrics turn toward childhood hurt, love and the decision to move on. Alongside the reissue, ON AIR LIBRARY have announced their return, with new music on the horizon.
🎧 Stream “A Letter to Benjamin Spock” by ON AIR LIBRARY on Apple Music
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Julia Sommerfield - “As I Am”
Rejection can make even the simplest things feel like something you have to earn: being heard, being wanted, being accepted without conditions. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Julia Sommerfield addresses that feeling directly on “As I Am”, a soulful pop ballad written during a period when she was hearing “no” more often than she wanted. The song starts with soft guitar and delicate vocals before building into a much more urgent plea to be loved without having to become someone else. Sommerfield's background as a film student at USC feeds into the cinematic quality of her music, where emotion and storytelling take the lead. Produced by Brian Squillace, “As I Am” gradually grows from a quiet admission into a full-bodied release. It doesn't dress up its central request or try to make rejection sound like a gift. Instead, it stays with the uncomfortable space between wanting approval and knowing you shouldn't have to change yourself to get it. Sommerfield has spoken about how one person saying yes can change the direction of a life. It's a simple thought, but one that carries weight when you've spent too long feeling that you're not quite enough for the room you're trying to enter.
🎧 Stream “As I Am” by Julia Sommerfield on Apple Music
Tour Alert: Night Teacher - European Tour 2027
American singer-songwriter Lilly Bechtel brings her project Night Teacher to Europe in February and March 2027. Moving between doom-folk, indie rock and alternative pop, her music pairs poetic songwriting with an intense, distinctive voice.
Following the release of her latest single, “Reckless”, Night Teacher will play 18 dates across Germany, Denmark, Austria and the UK, including a show at Berlin's Kulturhaus Insel on February 15.
Night Teacher - Tour Dates 2027
February 11 - Dresden, Ostpol (DE)
February 12 - Magdeburg, Volksbad Buckau (DE)
February 13 - Copenhagen, Råhuset (DK)
February 14 - Husum, Speicher (DE)
February 15 – Berlin, Kulturhaus Insel (DE)
February 17 - Linz, Smaragd (AT)
February 18 - Vienna, Haus der Musik (AT)
February 20 - Leitersdorf, Roter Gugl (AT)
February 23 - Frankfurt, Ponyhof (DE)
February 24 – Munich, Lost Weekend (supporting ELI) (DE)
February 25 - Duisburg, Bora (DE)
February 26 - Cologne, die Wohngemeinschaft (DE)
February 27 - Offenburg, Spitalkeller (supporting ELI) (DE)
March 2 - Brighton, The Brunswick (UK)
March 3 - London, Camden Barfly (UK)
March 4 - Bristol, Exchange (UK)
March 5 - Manchester, Gullivers (UK)
March 6 - Glasgow, Nice N Sleazy (UK)
Steven Boom - “End of the High” (feat. Philip Strand & Amanda Collis)
The beginning of a relationship can make ordinary life feel like a film. Everything is brighter, plans seem easy, and the future feels wide open. Steven Boom's “End of the High” starts from that rush, then asks what happens when summer ends and real life returns. Can two people hold on to what they felt when the excitement settles? The Dutch producer brings Swedish vocalist and songwriter Philip Strand together with Dutch singer Amanda Collis, letting the two voices tell the story from opposite sides. Co-produced with Maarten Vorwerk, the track leans into melodic, emotional dance pop, built for a big chorus but centred on a question that has little to do with the dancefloor: was the connection real, or did it belong to that particular moment? Boom first learned how music could bring strangers together through DJing in the Netherlands and at summer events abroad. After spending years working outside music, he's now building a project around collaboration, bringing together vocalists and songwriters for each release. “End of the High” sets out that idea clearly: an upbeat dance track with a little uncertainty running underneath it.
🎧 Stream “End of the High” by Steven Boom on Apple Music
Andy Tongren - “lucky me lucky you”
There's a particular kind of connection that makes a new person feel strangely familiar, as if you've known each other for years before you've even had the chance to learn the basics. Andy Tongren builds “lucky me lucky you” around that feeling. The anthemic indie-folk single has a nostalgic, almost cinematic quality, but its heart is in the small details: a chance encounter, an ordinary stop for gas, and the sense that something unexpectedly important has just happened. Tongren is best known as the frontman of Young Rising Sons, whose debut single “High” helped launch the band and whose catalogue has accumulated more than 225 million streams. As a solo artist, he brings that instinct for big melodies into songs drawn from everyday experiences. He's been teasing “lucky me lucky you” online for almost a year, so its release marks the end of a long wait for listeners who've already connected with it in fragments. The song's optimism feels earned rather than grandiose. Finding your person doesn't have to arrive with a dramatic revelation; sometimes it's the feeling that a stranger somehow isn't a stranger at all.
🎧 Stream “lucky me lucky you” by Andy Tongren on Apple Music
People don't always arrive in our lives with a clear explanation and feelings rarely follow a neat timeline. A memory can pull you backwards, a new connection can make everything look different and rejection can leave you wondering whether you need to change or simply find people who see you clearly. These five tracks approach those moments from different angles, but each leaves room for the uncertainty that comes with being close to someone - or finally learning to trust yourself.
Keep discovering independent music with our other On This Track, Three Track Week and Artist Features.
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