A Daylight Walk in the Underground Forest - June 2025
The Underground Forest is back, with a twist! A Daylight Walk in the Underground Forest will focus on music that feels like morning sunlight; music that sounds like it is coming from the mysterious undergrowth of the forest, some light pop, jade green folk, and everything strange and wonderful in between.
Featuring Jessica Risker, Suzie Ungerleider, Frog, Gina Zo, Tom Cox, Elle Barbara, Lena Raine, Blue Bayou, Dean Johnson & Lyra Pramuk.
This week’s edition features; a song that sounds like it is from a concert that takes place in a cozy, lamplit sitting room in Autumn; a song that was recorded using Tascam reel-to-reel tape machine; a pop song that is so good it sounds like it is unreleased track by a pop icon (Taylor Swift, Little Boots levels of pop chorus perfection); a song that has one of the most bewitching soundscapes I have heard in a long time; a warm and gentle folk song; a piece of music that reminds me of the movie Coraline, and more!
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Jessica Risker - City Hours
If you told me that this was a previously undiscovered recording from the late 1960s, recorded in NYC’s Scepter Studio, down the hall while The Velvet Underground and Nico were recording their historic album (or even The Beatles in Abbey Road Studios), I would believe you.
City Hours descends on your ears with a wave of lush, slightly psychedelic folk music, with surreal fantasy-like synths and vocals shimmering at the edges of your ears. The song was recorded all at once, to tape (more on this below, from the artist), which is why it sounds so authentically like it is from that era (as opposed to modern recording and tracking, in which (for the most part) everything is recorded separately).
Jessica Risker weaves a truly beautiful tapestry of sound.
Risker said, "I was always most excited about bringing ‘City Hours’ to the band for the new album. While the demo of ‘City Hours’ is literally just me singing over an acoustic guitar, we took a very maximalist approach when we were recording it."
She continued, "The foundation of the track — drums, bass, keys, electric guitar — was recorded all at once, to tape, to keep the driving energy locked in. Vocals, other synths, some percussion, and a few other ideas were layered on top later. To me, ‘City Hours’ is all about the energy that comes through in a big city: this kind of driving, chaotic momentum that then slows down, takes a breath, and reflects before whirring back up again."
Connect with Jessica Risker
Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X
Sirens - Suzie Ungerleider
I love Suzie Ungerleider’s music. To me, her music sounds like a walk through a lush forest of pine trees, it feels like being immersed in nature, and like the act of contemplation itself.
Sirens is taken from her new album Among the Evergreens; it is gentle, it is warm, the blend of twinkling textures with the melancholy tone of the lyrics makes it sound like it is already a folk classic.
Another song I adore is the album’s opening song, The Prize; the mellow glow emanating from the music inviting to you to slow down, to fully take in the lyrics and the message of the album.
Connect with Suzie Ungerleider
Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X / Facebook
Before You Hit the Ground - Dean Johnson
Taken from the upcoming album (out August 22, 2025), I Hope We Can Still Be Friends. The opening lines are :
"How do you put the sun in a song?
I still can’t find a way
I don’t know why, but I always get it wrong
And they come down like a rainy day."
The songwriter manages to do this, however, as the song is a true delight to listen to. If this came up on YouTube in a playlist or compilation titled 'old folk classics' alongside Woody Gutherie and others, I would fully believe that this was from that era.
The arrangement, mixing, and songwriting make it sound like an old folk classic - like it's coming to your ears from the dust-filled winds of the past.
Connect with Dean Johnson
Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X / Facebook
Frog - SAX-A-MA-PHONE (Live on KEXP)
If you are feeling like you are sinking into the depths of despair and apathy, prepare to be brought back to life, as the NYC-based band Frog revealed a new song via a KEXP session, one which has been taken from their upcoming sixth studio album!
There is something inherently kitsch at the core of Frog, this being present in opening discordant piano chords, and avant garde vocal delivery. It feels like someone playing a live concert in a dusty antique shop in NYC,or a second hand bookshop in Portland. SAX-A-MA-PHONE is a delight.
Connect with Frog
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Rewild - Lyra Pramuk
Another glorious Bandcamp discovery; this was taken from the album Hymnal by multidisciplinary artist Lyra Pramuk.
Opening with strings from the artist’s collaborative recording session with the Berlin-based Sonar Quartett, which were subsequently “re-amped, re-sampled, and processed to join her sonic world” (an extract from the artist’s Bandcamp page; you can read more about this here).
We open with gliding strings, with interspersed, shimmering vocals joining, more and more elements gradually being added, making the soundscape subtly more rhythmic and rich; the results being a hypnotic and bewitching piece of music that is like no other.
This is nothing short of enchanting.
Connect with Lyra Pramuk
Website / Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram / Facebook
Gina Zo - Dirty Habits
This is so good; that it genuinely sounds like a previously unheard song from a pop icon that was leaked online; sending the stans wild (if you were on the internet in 2015, unreleased Lana del Rey songs were a huge part of what made the internet fun).
I can honestly say that Dirty Habits is some of the strongest pop songwriting I have heard in a long time. The chorus is a true earworm (I am talking Taylor Swift and Little Boots levels of masterful chorus melodies) - this could very easily dominate the radio airwaves this summer.
Connect with Gina Zo
Website / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / X / Facebook
Magnetized - Tom Cox
A DIY artist to his core, Chicago-based Tom Cox records, produces, and mixes all of his own music; he also prefers to work with analog gear, and recorded his upcoming album at home, beginning each track on a Tascam reel-to-reel tape machine. You can hear the warmth of the analog gear from the moment Magnetized begins playing; the indie-pop textures inwoven with a slightly dreamy shoegaze quality.
There is a certain indie-pop sound that I associate with the worlds depicted in Bryan Lee O Malley’s comics Scott Pilgrim and Seconds, and this is one of them, and it is wonderful.
On the song the artist says "'Magnetized' is about finding connection with another, how alluring, exciting, chaotic, and fleeting it can all be, and how lucky we are to find it when we do. I knew that I still needed a jam that could jumpstart the album and it started around that first chord progression. I came up with the instrumental pretty quickly and threw in a bunch of electronics terms in the lyrics for a laugh. A bunch were left on the cutting room floor, all for good reason. What are you supposed to rhyme 'diode' with anyway?"
"I’ve always felt much more engaged with working this way, where the tactility of all of the elements is present and available. Also, recording onto tape, specifically, has a distinct set of sonic characteristics that lend themselves to the genres I’m drawing from."
Connect with Tom Cox
Website / Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram
Before and After - Elle Barbara
The newest single to be released from Elle Barbara’s highly anticipated upcoming album ‘Word On The Street’ (out June 27th).
Before and After opens with the ambient sounds of a train station, with what sounds like a steam engine chugging in the background, before descending into the sultry, luxurious sonic glamour that I have begun to associate exclusively with Elle Barbara. The vocals flow over the deluxe instrumental like silk; making you feel like you are in a fairytale field of buttercups and endless blue skies, with a marching beat underneath.
Another wonderful Elle Barbara experience.
Connect with Elle Barbara
YouTube / Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram / Facebook
Verdant Mysteries - Lena Raine
This is taken from EARTHBLADE ~ Across the Bounds of Fate; a series of songs developed and written with the intention of being in the world of the game Earthblade, which was sadly canceled (Bandcamp did a great interview with Lena on this).
Verdant Mysteries is a magical journey, the piano notes sparkling at the very edge of your ears, transporting you to a lush, magical, shimmering green world.
This kind reminds me of the music from Henry Selik’s Coraline.
Connect with Lena Raine
Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram
Blue Bayou - Hide & Seek
This sounds as magical as the artwork above suggests; the lyrics in this are very visual and also unusual, which I love, as they immerse you fully into the world of the song.
This feels like a lamplit concert in someone’s cozy sitting room on a Saturday night in Autumn. The chamber pop textures and shimmer synths all transcend, ending on with a 1970s style string-fuelled euphoria.
Connect with Blue Bayou
Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram / Facebook
Spotify Playlist
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
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