Sin Circuit pitched "Pay My Tuition" as a playful EDM release. One question about the production led to a much bigger conversation. Editorial Review | Partner Feature In On This Track 32, we explore Sin Circuit's latest single "Pay My Tuition" and the ideas behind one of the project's most talked-about releases. When Sin Circuit introduced ”Pay My Tuition” to INDIENOXZINE, Seth Walker described it as a high-energy EDM track with tongue-in-cheek lyrics and a club-ready sound.

Five new releases exploring where independent music goes next Not every great release demands attention the same way. Some arrive with a huge chorus. Others take their time. This week's On This Track Weekend Listening 6 brings together five artists who couldn't sound more different, yet each reflects a different corner of today's independent music scene: from hardcore communities and alt-country storytelling to improvised collaboration, personal grief, and the tension between

Five songs about the moments that stay with us Some songs catch your attention straight away. Others take a little longer, quietly working their way back into your thoughts after they've finished. This edition of On This Track: Midweek Listening 3 brings together four new releases that do exactly that. From restless indie rock and shimmering pop to electronic textures and darker, more atmospheric songwriting, each artist approaches familiar emotions from a different angle, pr

Five new releases that prove independent music never stands still. Some weekends call for familiar favourites. Others are a good excuse to discover something new. This edition of On This Track: Weekend Listening 5 moves between jangly guitar pop, alternative rock, post-hardcore and boundary-pushing indie, bringing together five artists with very different ideas but the same instinct to write songs that stay with you. Whether reflecting on change, identity or the strange routi

Seeing Beyond Sight Perception is often mistaken for certainty. We assume that seeing the world means understanding it, rarely questioning how much of our reality is shaped by habit, expectation or assumption. Yet perspective is never universal. Every person experiences the world differently, and sometimes it is those whose experiences fall outside the majority who reveal how limited our own understanding can be. On This Track 31, Doctor Noize's "Some People See, But I Don't"

Four female artists worth turning up this weekend Four releases by female artists exploring identity, belonging and self-worth This week's On This Track: Weekend Listening 4 brings together four female artists whose music turns inward without losing sight of the world around them. Moving between indie pop, Americana, experimental folk and alternative music, these releases reflect on growing up, conditional love, belonging and the ongoing process of becoming yourself. Rather t

When Losing Your Balance Becomes a Way Back to Yourself Editorial Review | Partner Feature Security often reveals itself as an illusion only after it disappears. We build routines, relationships and ambitions believing they will remain unchanged, until a single moment exposes how fragile those foundations have always been. The challenge is rarely the collapse itself, but deciding what deserves to be rebuilt once certainty is gone. On This Track 30: The Nagual Effect "Dive Awa

Five releases worth spending time with this week. Finding yourself in the spaces between certainty and change Not every journey of self-discovery looks the same. This edition of On This Track: Midweek Listening #2 moves between alternative pop, indie folk, alt-rock and grunge-inspired indie, highlighting five releases that explore identity, healing and emotional growth. Whether through reclaiming autonomy, confronting loss, navigating inner conflict or questioning adulthood,

When Letting Go Means Finding Yourself Again Breakups are often framed as stories about losing another person. Less often are they understood as stories about losing ourselves. Relationships inevitably reshape identity, quietly influencing how people think, behave and see the world until it becomes difficult to separate who they are from who they have been with. When those relationships end, healing is rarely just about moving on. It is also about rediscovering the parts of y

When Bullying Doesn't End With Childhood Bullying is often treated as something people eventually outgrow. It belongs to school playgrounds, childhood memories and awkward teenage years, safely left behind as adulthood promises greater maturity. Reality is rarely that simple. The desire to exclude, belittle or control others frequently survives long after childhood ends, merely adopting more socially acceptable forms. Gossip replaces taunts, prejudice replaces cliques, and mi

Five releases worth spending time with this weekend Five releases questioning the stories we tell ourselves This week's On This Track: Weekend Listening #3 moves between post-punk, indie-pop, art-pop, shoegaze and alternative pop, but each release begins with a familiar assumption before quietly turning it inside out. Whether questioning success, fear, healing, independence or the way songs themselves survive, these five artists remind us that some of the most interesting mus

When Music History Has To Be Recovered Before It Can Be Heard Music history is often told as if influence naturally leads to visibility. The artists who matter are expected to remain present, whether through constant reissues, streaming access, canonisation or the simple fact that their work never fully disappears from public reach. In reality, underground music rarely functions that neatly. Some of the most influential bands in a local scene end up becoming difficult to hear

When Pain Makes You Feel Less Than Human Modern culture still treats emotional suffering as something that should remain legible. Grief is expected to move through recognisable stages, depression is often reduced to a vocabulary of sadness and recovery is framed as a gradual return to normality. But some forms of psychological pain feel far less orderly than that. They can distort a person’s sense of self so completely that the problem is no longer just suffering, but estrang

Five releases worth spending time with this weekend Five releases about identity, expectation and the things we struggle to leave behind With temperatures climbing across much of Europe, On This Track: Weekend Listening #2 offers five releases worth spending time with indoors. Moving between alternative rock, pop and post-punk, this week's selections explore identity, expectation and the things we struggle to leave behind. Nova Twins – "Monsters" Photo courtesy of Marshall Re

Why Happiness Rarely Arrives The Way We Expect Modern life is organized around milestones. We are taught to chase promotions, relationships, achievements, experiences and ambitions, always looking ahead to the next moment that promises fulfillment. Happiness is often imagined as something waiting at the finish line, a reward for persistence, effort and endurance. The problem is that life rarely works that way. Photo credit: Simon Walker On "Avalanche", Embrace challenge this

The Loneliness of Getting What You Wanted Popular culture is full of arrival stories. Work hard enough, travel far enough, achieve enough and eventually everything will click into place. The problem is that reality rarely follows the script. Sometimes the life you've imagined for years finally arrives, only to bring unexpected feelings along with it. Photo by Crich Gilligan Sorcha Richardson's "Illinois Again" lives inside that contradiction. Written from the perspective of s

Isolation as Infrastructure, Freedom as Tension With “Towers”, Vancouver post-punk band DOUR examine a form of isolation that increasingly defines contemporary life. Rather than focusing on loneliness as an individual experience, the song explores how modern social and technological structures encourage people to withdraw into self-contained worlds, transforming comfort and convenience into a subtle form of confinement. Photo by DOUR Released ahead of the band's debut album "

Five releases worth spending time with this week. Finding resilience through uncertainty, connection and change Not every song about struggle sounds the same. This edition of On This Track: Midweek Listening #1 moves between hardcore, punk, alternative rock and pop, highlighting five artists confronting uncertainty from different angles. Whether through personal transformation, burnout, conflict or friendship, these releases explore what it means to keep moving forward when c

Punk as Responsibility, Solidarity as Action With “In Solidarity”, Canadian skatepunk veterans Belvedere reaffirm a long-standing tradition within punk culture: the belief that music can function not only as expression, but as a call to collective responsibility. Released ahead of their upcoming album "Seven Years of Bad Luck", the track examines the consequences of indifference and the importance of defending vulnerable communities before injustice becomes impossible to igno

Catharsis as Practice, Friendship as Survival With “ORANGUTAN”, Dublin trio DIVIL approach songwriting not as reflection after the fact, but as a process unfolding in real time. Released ahead of their debut EP "DIVIL I", the track emerges from a period shaped by grief, illness and uncertainty, transforming personal turmoil into a document of collective survival. DIVIL by Meghan Law The origins of DIVIL are inseparable from the circumstances that brought the band closer toget