Three Track Week: Signals #10
- Raven
- Jul 30
- 4 min read
How Independent Artists Resist Conventional Narratives
Music careers are often told as straightforward stories. Artists find their voice, success follows, and each new release becomes another step forward. Independent music rarely unfolds so neatly. This week's Three Track Week Signals 10 brings together THUNDER BAE, MOMO. and redolent, three artists approaching artistic development from very different directions. Whether rejecting fixed categories, committing to decades of creative practice, or embracing an unconventional path through the music industry, each release challenges the idea that progress should follow a predictable route.
Listen to this week’s Three Track Week: Signals selection
This week’s tracks are available in our playlist INDIENOXZINE | Selections, offering a direct way to engage with the sounds discussed in this feature. Follow the playlist on Spotify to stay updated with new selections each week.
THUNDER BAE - Refusing Simple Categories
When artists talk about identity, they often end up talking about labels. Pop. Alternative. Queer. Electronic. Female. THUNDER BAE seems far less interested in any of them.
That became obvious while listening to "Gay Alice In Wonderland" Although the song follows Alice through questions of belonging and self-worth, it never feels like it's trying to arrive at a final definition. Instead, it accepts that growing up is often confusing, contradictory and occasionally surreal. The music reflects that same attitude. Electronic production sits comfortably alongside alternative pop, indie rock and darker textures without announcing when one genre ends and another begins. Rather than sounding eclectic for its own sake, the album simply follows wherever the songs seem to want to go. That feels surprisingly relevant. Music platforms still rely heavily on categories. Genres help people discover artists, but they also encourage increasingly fixed expectations about how musicians should sound and who they should be. THUNDER BAE pushes gently against both ideas. Even her own description is telling: "I don't think in genres." It sounds less like a manifesto than a practical way of making music.
The same openness runs through "A WOMAN". Instead of presenting identity as something that eventually becomes settled, the album leaves room for uncertainty, contradiction and change. In that sense, "Gay Alice In Wonderland" isn't really about finding a finished version of yourself. It's about becoming comfortable with the possibility that there may never be one.
🎧 Stream “Gay Alice In Wonderland” on Apple Music · Follow Thunder Bae on Instagram
MOMO. - Staying With the Work
Independent music spends a lot of time celebrating beginnings. First singles. First albums. The moment an artist finally gets noticed. Much less attention is given to what comes afterwards.
That's what I found interesting about ”Tum Tum Tum”. MOMO. isn't introducing himself or announcing a dramatic new direction. He's releasing his eighth album and talking about something far less glamorous: continuing. That idea runs through the record. The musicians know each other well enough to leave space instead of filling every moment. Songs develop through interaction rather than careful control, allowing performances to breathe in a way that's difficult to fake. Listening to the album, it's easy to believe that trust has taken years to build. There's something quietly unfashionable about that. Music culture often rewards constant reinvention. New sounds, new aesthetics and new stories are treated as signs of progress, while consistency can easily be mistaken for standing still. "Tum Tum Tum" argues for something different. Growth doesn't always announce itself. Sometimes it happens gradually, through repetition, patience and people learning how to listen to one another.
MOMO.'s international background naturally shapes the album, but I don't think that's what stays with you. What lingers is the sense that this is music made by people who have spent enough time together to stop trying to impress each other. They simply play.
🎧 Stream “Tum Tum Tum” on Apple Music · Follow MOMO. on Instagram
redolent - Taking The Long Way Around
Music careers are usually told as a sequence of milestones. The first breakthrough. The record deal. The album that changes everything. redolent's story doesn't really work like that.
The Edinburgh band spent almost ten years writing songs before much of the outside world knew they existed. Even after attracting a major label, the story refused to follow the script. The deal ended. The debut album arrived anyway. It went on to win the Scottish Album of the Year Award. That makes "ok wow" feel surprisingly fitting. The song itself is remarkably restrained at first. Robin Herbert sings quietly about the aftermath of an argument before electronic textures gradually begin to reshape the track. Nothing arrives all at once. The tension builds patiently, almost refusing the kind of immediate payoff modern listening habits often encourage. That patience feels connected to the band's wider story. Independent music often celebrates momentum. Artists are expected to move quickly, remain constantly visible and treat every opportunity as though it might be the last. redolent's career suggests something different. Progress isn't always linear. Sometimes the long route produces the work that couldn't have existed any earlier.
Their newly released documentary reinforces that idea. Rather than presenting success as a clean upward trajectory, it embraces the uncertainty, setbacks and unlikely turns that shaped the band along the way. In doing so, "ok wow" becomes more than a new single. It reflects a creative practice built on persistence rather than predictability.
Across these three releases, artistic development emerges as something far less predictable than conventional music narratives often suggest. THUNDER BAE resists fixed definitions of identity and genre. MOMO. finds creative strength through continuity rather than constant reinvention. redolent demonstrate that unconventional paths can shape some of the most compelling artistic journeys. What connects them is not style or geography, but perspective. Each artist challenges the expectation that creative lives should follow a clear, linear trajectory. Instead, these releases remind us that independent music often finds its greatest strength in resisting the stories it is expected to tell.
Further perspectives are available in our Artist Features, Cultural Essays and On This Track, each situating music within broader cultural and structural contexts.
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