If 2025 wasn’t quite busy enough for Amelia Fletcher and Rob Pursey’s Skep Wax label -- in widening its scope via a slew of new signings and extra global connections -- then 2026 looks set to just keep on building upwards and outwards, with some pretty epic touring schedules and a flux of new releases already in the calendar well into the spring.
Monthly Archives: February 2026
8 posts
Paper Masks is a lovely focused affair where the hypnotic pull of the words shimmer in a peppery abstraction that invites you to taste the kernelling kinetics behind what’s being spoken.
...a product of near-seamless mind-melding that traverses multiple timelines of choice historic influences, without any fashion-focused anxiety.
...this second full-length set from Melbourne’s capital letter-averse kisses has a lot to live up to, both in comparison to the label’s stunning sole LP 2025 outing from Sienna Thornton and the quintet’s own utterly sublime self-released eponymous album from 2024.
Dignity opens with a five-part suite that delves into Isabelle’s feelings of dignity and how we can better live in that manner, with the other players lending a hushed setting which allows the flute to travel, snaking carefully and wavering gently as the Hammond holds out its hand and lends support.
Dialling down prior murkier and less direct tendencies to markedly push guitarist and lyricist Etienne Quartey-Papafio’s now-more-assured vocals much further to the fore, the sophomore Sunlight Echoes is a substantial and soulful step forward for the foursome, rounded out by drummer Jagun Meseorisa, guitarist Michael Adelaja and bassist Vanessa Govinden.
If you imagine a post-hardcore band had ditched guitar and voice and replaced them with two saxes, this is the sound you would have. The interplay of the reeds is really natural and they fill in for each another covering a wide range of tones and are not afraid to change things mid-flight as a air of repetitive notes tugs at one another like two dogs with a rope.
...turns back the clock with a re-curation exercise, to add a key chapter from her earlier work into the same label catalogue fold. Hence, 2010’s The Fallen By Watch Bird reappears in a double-duration coupling with 2011’s close companion collection, The Watchbird Alluminate, which were both previously released on the Bird imprint