Hot Press

Blending haunting vocals with emotionally rich storytelling, EvieB has released her second single of 2026, 'Make It Real'. Her sound continues to shape a distinctive sound rooted in vulnerability and lyrical depth. She combines folk influences with atmospheric pop production and delicate melodies. Her songwriting explores identity while balancing intimacy with cinematic emotional depth.

Hot Press Classics is back with its new instalment, today focusing a pair of landmark Boards of Canada EPs - Twoism from 1995 and 2000’s In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country. In the new episode, Paul Nolan is joined by Hot Press contributor Killian Murphy to discuss Boards of Canada's storied career, including their brand new album Inferno, fan reaction online and the evolution of their style.

Production is underway for One Good Sparkle, a spoken-word album based on Irish poet, playwright and television presenter Pat Ingoldsby’s poems. The first two singles, ‘Words to the Virus Which Found Me in 1942’ (read by Ingoldsby) and ‘Da Down the Garden’ (read by Daragh Fleming), were released earlier this year. A third single, the title track 'One Good Sparkle' (read by Anna D), will be released in coming weeks. The 18 featured poems are set to music by Welsh composer, Philip May.

Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins has signed a record deal with Decca Classics as a composer and will release his first album on August 21. The 88-year-old is publishing a collection of pieces that he has worked on for six decades, titled Life Is a Dream. Playing piano since the age of four and composing music since childhood, his upcoming album is "inspired by his childhood memories of Margam in South Wales," according to Decca.

Kneecap have announced a charity gig in Falls Park, Belfast for August 6 . The Irish rap trio have been announced as part of the line-up for the community arts festival Féile an Phobail, with all profits going to two Irish language projects in West Belfast and Derry. Support for the gig will come from Bob Vylan, Miss Kannina, and Liambo Slice.

Kneecap have announced a charity gig in Falls Park, Belfast for August 6 . The Irish rap trio have been announced as part of the line-up for the community arts festival Féile an Phobail, with all profits going to two Irish language projects in West Belfast and Derry. Support for the gig will come from Bob Vylan, Miss Kannina, and Liambo Slice.

Ellie Goulding will perform at the England vs Norway World Cup quarter-final in Miami, Florida on Saturday. “Performing at halftime for England vs Norway has me feeling like truly anything could happen…” read the caption of her Instagram post announcing her performance, alongside photos of her jumping excitedly on her bed.

Last time Hot Press saw Allison Russell in person, she was playing organ for Hozier on ‘Through Me’ at Malahide Castle in June 2023, a few months before she released her sophomore solo album The Returner. That proved to be a defiant, full-bodied gospel of joy, which followed the shattered testimony of her stunning debut Outside Child. That record is also possessed of a beautiful communal transcendence, something which In the Hour of Chaos also possesses in abundance.

Despite wrapping his journey as the star of Stranger Things, downtime is not an option for Finn Wolfhard. Less than a year after his debut album Happy Birthday, the actor and burgeoning-musician returns with his sophomore LP Fire From The Hip. This latest outing finds Wolfhard fleshing out the indie-rock rawness of Happy Birthday while pushing simultaneously at the boundaries of his ambition. If his debut studio album was the rallying cry, then Fire From The Hip is the world widening around it.

“You discovered a great truth about the world, but you forgot it?” asks one character. “Yes.” “The world or your world?” “What’s the difference?” It is the kind of exchange that seems to arrive out of nowhere in Francesco Sossai’s The Last One for the Road, tossed into the air between drinks before drifting away again, unresolved.