I Dream of Vinyl Presents…..at The New Colossus Festival

Keren Ilan’s music is a journey through longing, identity, and nature, shaped by her personal story and a love for blending genres. Born in Vietnam, growing up in the Middle-east and now based in London, Ilan has crafted a sound rooted in both the soulful pop she grew up listening to and the natural world she now finds herself surrounded by. Her music speaks of the complexities of love, home, and belonging, all drawn from her experience as an adopted child navigating dual identities.

Her songs, which began as a way to articulate feelings she couldn’t express in words, soon became the foundation of her musical identity.

Since 2019, Keren has been actively writing, recording, and touring her original material. Her debut EP, “This Morning, Yesterday”, received airplay on London’s “Get In Her Ears” and led to a solo tour across Italy. In November 2024, she released her second EP, “NostosAlgos”, which continues to develop her emotionally direct, instrument-driven sound.

Keren’s formal training includes songwriting, theory, and performance studies at BPM College of Music (2018–2019), followed by production and recording studies at Pluto School of Sound (2021–2022), where she worked extensively with Ableton Live and live instrumentation.

In 2025-2026, she is completing her Music Masters degree at Goldsmiths, University of London. 

After a rapid rise in the Portuguese indie scene with their reverb-soaked debut album Liquid Springs, the Canadian/Portuguese band spent the following years touring across Europe and releasing sharp one-off singles that captured the attention of listeners worldwide. One of those singles, “Seth Rogen”, released in 2018, became a niche viral hit, amassing over 6 million streams on Spotify and millions more on TikTok. The song, which opens with a Key & Peele sample — “they’re smoking the reefer, doing the hanky panky with boys” — became a cornerstone of the vaporwave community, soundtracking smoking sessions in bedrooms all over the world.

Unwilling to be boxed into the bedroom pop or synth pop labels that never quite defined them, the band released their sophomore album Blossom in 2022, featuring a collection of pop-infused gems written between Lisbon, the Azores, and Geneva, and featuring French singer Laure Briard. The album unveiled a more mature sound, drawing from the ’60s, ’70s, and ’90s to craft sophisticated songs blending Brazilian rhythms, French pop sensibilities, and British Invasion jangle.

After Blossom took Ditch Days to international stages and audiences, the Portuguese-Canadian trio felt the need to recenter and reflect on their next steps. They built a studio, conveniently called FRASCO (which translated directly to “jar”), made it their creative base, and opened up the writing process to friends and collaborators. Not content with keeping these songs confined to the studio, the band took the new material on the road for a tour along the U.S. East Coast, with a few strategic shows in Portugal, before returning to FRASCO to put the finishing touches on the album. The result is a collaborative and pluralistic body of work, experimental in spirit but carefully assembled by the band.

2026 is shaping up to be a busy year, with new releases and a return to the road, proving that Ditch Days are one of Lisbon’s most compelling bands, and that longevity is, above all, a creative challenge.

For most young artists, a debut recording is a snapshot—a fleeting moment in time. For Ken Park, it documents a full coming of age.

Ken Park, the self-titled EP, is the culmination of a six-year journey that began while Liam Creamer was still in high school. Its earliest song, “Sleep Paralysis,” was written and recorded when he was just 17, using only an iPhone. Rather than revisiting or refining it years later, Creamer chose to preserve the original recording, embracing the rawness and immediacy of a first creative breakthrough as an essential part of the song’s identity.

That philosophy guided the creation of the EP as a whole. Recorded in bedrooms over several years and on both coasts, it was completed in 2025 in his newly adopted home of Brooklyn, New York. Ken Park reflects a wide range of influences and a restless creative curiosity—from the shoegaze-tinged blast that opens “Maybe Delete” to the introspective, ambling folk of “Crawl.” The EP is intentionally multifaceted, with each song capturing a distinct moment in Creamer’s personal life and evolving musical tastes.

The final track written and recorded for the release, “Dragonfly,” is caustic and deliberately extreme, standing in stark contrast to the gorgeously shimmering “Sleep Paralysis” created years earlier. Its dry, Slint-like percussion and harsh, JAMC-inspired guitar feedback point clearly to his influences, while also reflecting the unraveling end of his first full year in New York—a period that left him alone in a nearly empty apartment, with little more than the music itself.

With distance, Creamer views the EP as a document of growth shaped as much by uncertainty as intention. The long, winding path to his first proper release—missteps included—ultimately became part of its meaning, capturing an understanding that life rarely unfolds as planned, and that its unpredictability is precisely the point.

BRNDA is a four-piece from Washington D.C., with a few rules: No covers, No love songs. Simple, right? Think again. After perusing the late 70s, 80s and 2010s for musical detritus, it was discovered that only the least ostentatious, most off-kilter sound is fit for BRNDA. And so, if you find yourself unable to put your finger on just what you’re hearing, it is because BRNDA is not just some rehashed comfort listening.

Since their genesis in 2012, BRNDA has released 4 albums (2014, 2015, 2021, 2025) and an EP (2018). One could say that the stream of consciousness featured in 2021’s  Do You Like Salt? was arguably BRNDA’s richest yet. Topics of interest include salt, tennis, existentialism, poached avocado, your 45-year plan, tea, incorrect orders… all of which are expressed through a carousel of honest vocal performance (singing, shouting, speaking, radio static) from all members of the band. Above all, BRNDA pulls off an unpredictable and incredibly entertaining sound that can shift between testy art punk, noisy no wave, and groovin’ indie rock at any given moment.

They then topped Do You Like Salt? in 2025 with the release of Total Pain. Here we see the band dipping into 60s Art Nouveau with Punk, leaving the salt from 2021 behind and embracing the voyeurism of the zoo to reveal a brand new side to the ever-evolving BRNDA, a band for active listening and analysis, not passive background ambiance. To celebrate the record, the band went on a US East Coast run in the Fall. Looking onward to 2026, the band is preparing to make their appearance at The New Colossus Festival in NYC and even embark on their first European tour in June 2026. Life is pain… but BRNDA is not.

Prism Shores are Montreal janglers who cherry-pick the record crate for influence, recalling the best shambling C86, fuzzed-out power pop, and glistening shoegaze while leaving an idiosyncratic stamp. Softest Attack, their new album, arrives April 10, 2026, on Meritorio and Having Fun (Canada). Recorded hot on the heels of 2025’s breakthrough effort Out From Underneath, it finds the band catapulting into a more immediate, hook-laden direction, relying less on nocturnal atmospherics and leaning into the pure, undiluted strength of their melancholic songwriting.

Softest Attack was written during a banner year for the band, composed of Jack MacKenzie (guitar, bass, vocals), Ben Goss (guitar, bass, vocals), Luke Pound (drums, guitar, vocals), and Finn Dalbeth (guitar, vocals). Out From Underneath was released to acclaim from outlets like Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim, Stereogum, and Raven Sings The Blues, landing on several year-end lists. Its underground success led to the band’s first American shows, festival appearances, and opening slots for several established artists. This newfound buzz stoked a desire to take a big swing with the follow-up. To accomplish this, the band enlisted the help of Scott “Monty” Munro (Preoccupations, Ribbon Skirt, Knitting), who produced and engineered the album at Studio St. Zo. His collaborative spirit and deft hand allowed the band to realize the densely ornamented guitar pop record they set out to make, embracing an amps-to-eleven maximalism without sacrificing the interlocking jangle and delicate melodic work that’s become their calling card. The album was mixed by René Wilson (Nap Eyes, La Sécurité) at Value Sound and mastered by Mikey Young (The Tubs, Dummy).

Hartlepool’s Marketplace have quickly become ones to watch, turning heads with their infectious indie pop earworms and magnetic personalities. Known for their engaging live shows and playful DIY videos, they’ve built a loyal fanbase from the ground up. 

Their latest EP, Marketplace Mean Business (released 6 June 2025), marked a significant step forward, earning support from BBC Radio 1, Radio X and BBC Introducing, alongside editorial playlisting from Apple Music and TIDAL. This momentum has translated into a packed run of live dates and festival appearances, including The Great Escape, Kendal Calling, Y Not Festival and Supersonic in Paris.

Drawing influences from a wide range of artists including Alvvays, The Beths, Pulp and Talking Heads, the band made up of Evie Rhodes (vocals/guitar), Joel O’Beirne (vocals/bass), Jack Purcell (guitar), Matthew Short (synth/vocals) and Ross Dixon (drums) bring their own individual tastes to create the signature Marketplace sound.

With tastemaker backing already in place, support slots with artists including Alfie Templeman, Swim Deep, The Lottery Winners and Abbie Ozard, and sold-out headline shows in Manchester, London, Leeds and their hometown of Hartlepool, Marketplace are entering their next chapter with confidence. Supported by the PPL Momentum Accelerator Fund, the band are currently working on new music with long-term producer Chad Rodgers, alongside confirmed appearances at SXSW in Austin, Texas, the New Colossus Festival in New York, and a Spring 2026 UK tour.

Wes Kaplan started Lane in 2019, thinking there might be common ground between his pop ambitions and mutant guitar style, drafting Jesse Weiss on drums (Palehouse, Pet Fox) and tapping into Boston’s evergreen coterie of DIY guitar freaks. In 2020 Lane released Copse, earning comparisons to Calgary stars like Women and Each Other. 

Longtime friend, Julian Fader (Ava Luna, Nadine), took over for Weiss in 2022, after having produced 2021’s Theremin EP. 2024’s Receiver brought Lane to national underground prominence, with Hump Day News calling them “a guitar-driven band that takes a surgeon’s scalpel to rock n roll clichés” and ranking Receiver among its Top Albums of 2024. Likewise, QRO Magazine praised the band’s vintage “Lower East Side flavor” and “arch, angular intensity.” Some said Beefheart, some said the Strokes, but all seemed to agree Receiver had recaptured some of the searching aggression of 90s post-hardcore, from Fugazi to Unwound.

The 2025 single “Scream”—a complete 90s pop backflip—sets the stage for their 2026 album Love is in the Rain, released to strong acclaim (and a Creem feature). Follow-up single “Lane Says” (March 2) leans Spits while maintaining Kaplan’s unmistakable guitar sound. Expect Love is in the Rain to get stuck in your head and under the fingers of any guitarist who chances on it. 

The 7th Edition of The New Colossus Festival is taking place at 12 venues across NYC’s Lower East Side from Tuesday March 3rd until Sunday March 8th. The schedules have been announced so you can start planning who you are going to see. I’ve attached the festival playlist to help you with that! Visit the festival website for all the info and to get your badge if you don’t have it yet.

www.newcolossusfestival.com

We’ll be at the festival from Thursday to Sunday – come and see our showcase on Saturday and make sure to say hi!