The nu-R&B experimental singer Miso Extra, has released her debut album ‘Earcandy’ on 16 May. The album follows her two EPs ‘Great Taste’ in 2022 and ‘MSG’ in 2023. 

‘Earcandy’ features 12 bubbly tracks which blend KPOP with UK Garage and R&B. The 30 year old singer was born in Hong Kong to her British father and Japanese mother and is now based in the UK with both cultures influencing her sound and musical influence. Her record label, Transgressive Records, describes her influences: “J Dilla, the late MF DOOM, Daft Punk and Kelis. Aside from music, anime has been a huge inspiration, with all these references woven into her work today.”

This playfulness and animation comes through in the album with standout tracks such as ‘Good Kisses’, a blend of Japanese and English lyrics with an addictive hook as she sings “Am I trippin’?’ over a bouncy R&B beat. The song has quickly become a fan favourite since its release in November 2024, amassing over 600,000 listens on Spotify.

Miso Extra talks positivity in creating with Dork Magazine. She shares: “The vision is just having fun making music and just making,”. She goes on to say, “This album is about being youthful and hopeful but also with the naivety that comes with that,”.

This notion certainly comes through in airy anime-inspired tracks such as ‘POP’ which she describes as “cutely aggressive”, toeing “the fine line you’ve got to tread with love and obsession”.

As well as this, she explores a relatable naivety in ‘Done.’, taking a strong Y2K R&B influence. The singer shared her thoughts with Flood Magazine, stating that she got inspiration from popular 90s/ 00’s girl group Destiny’s Child for the track. This is clearly seen in the hook “don’t waste my time”, which has similarities to the message of many of the band’s hit songs, namely ‘Bills, Bills, Bills’ from 1999. Similarly she features R&B voices such as London singer Tyson who accompanies her in ‘Candy Crushin’’. She goes on to explain the album’s relationship with euphoria, stating that ‘Earcandy’ is “euphoric”, whilst ‘Slow down is “euphoric exhaustion”.

The singer’s artistry in production can be seen in her incorporation of AI sampling in tracks such as ‘Playboi’. With Flood Magazine she says, “I wanted the AI section to feel as if you’re asking Siri or ChatGPT for answers”. She has showed her production prowess when performing a DJ set with ID*Room, available on YouTube.

Miso Extra will be performing in the UK at Rough Trade West and is set to embark on a UK/EU tour in June. Tickets can be found on her website.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Craig David (@craigdavid)

The new album will play host to an exciting selection of features, including Mike Brainchild, Toddla T, Tre-Jean Marie, Wretch 32, Jojo, Tiwa Savage and Louisa Johnson. The first taste of the album has been given in the smooth breakbeat banger ‘Wake Up’. The track draws influence from the silky 2-step sounds of the 2000’s, with David singing and rapping over those staple string stabs and rumbling bass. “Roll pon a riddim, roll pon a riddim — know/I know you’ve been hurt before, gotta let it go”, says the singer, with lyrics summing up his duality as a soulful love-singer and garage icon.

The Southampton-born singer gave a press statement on the new single and its meaning to him:

“‘Wake Up’ for me is my way of not only respecting my garage roots, but also keeping alive the cultural foundation of the sound from where it all started.  The lyric reinforces literally & metaphorically the essence of making sure we don’t fall asleep on the importance of nurturing something we care about. Especially if we don’t want to end up losing it by taking it for granted. This echoes how I feel about the unique sound of UK Garage and the importance of nurturing it for generations to come around the world. I felt super inspired mixing in the vibes of ‘Indo – R U Sleeping’ on this one, just like me playing out a TS5 garage set. The whole vibe ignited some core memories for me that not only had me in my feels, but inspired me to grab the mic & spit bars again. Just like when I was on pirate radio MC’ing back in the days.”

‘Wake Up’ was released as a single featuring three other tracks that may appear on the upcoming album – a soft dancehall collab with Tiwa Savage titled ‘Commitment’, a tropical-house tune called ‘SOS’ and a song called ‘In Your Hands’ which has an almost Avicii-like whistle-pop quality. 

Craig recently joined Usher onstage at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday, April 5, duetting his classics ‘Fill Me In’ and ‘7 Days’ with the American star. David stepped out to a roaring crowd, who excitedly sung back the words to his iconic tunes.

Feeling truly blessed to share the stage with the legend @Usher This is a real full-circle moment for me Growing up, I had ‘I Think of You’ and ‘U Make Me Wanna’ on repeat He’s always been an artist I deeply respect and one of the greatest to ever do it Thank you… pic.twitter.com/LeMnpTbmux

— Craig David (@CraigDavid) April 5, 2025

‘Commitment’ is available for pre-order here.

Cole will tour the UK, kicking things off at Bristol’s SWX on December 4 before making stops at Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, and then closing out at London’s KOKO on December 11.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by MJ Cole (@mjcole)

Cole made the announcement on Instagram last week, a day after playing a sold-out show at London’s Jazz Café on Thursday, March 27. He wrote: “Last night was absolutely incredible. Thank you so much to everyone that came through (will be saying more about how special it was soon).”

“It’s made me even more excited to announce this… I’ll be heading on the road this December to play my biggest ever live shows, which will include some VERY special guests at each show.”

‘Sincere’ is a highly praised album within the UK dance scene, being one of the first full-length releases to push garage into the mainstream spotlight. Its moving mix of 2-step beats and soulful instrumentation put a more emotive spin on the rising genre. It was a breakthrough for the garage genre, with its title track ‘Sincere’ being one of the first to break into the Top 40. ‘Crazy Love’ peaked at No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart.

The album managed to get MJ Cole a nomination for the Mercury Prize in 2000, and he also won the “Best Producer” award at the MOBO’s the following year. It was included in the book “1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die”.

In a retrospective review of the album, Passion Of The Weiss said: “While Cole’s peers like Wookie and Zed Bias had deeper basslines or knottier drum patterns, Cole was the undisputed master of UK Garage at its most sophisticated and seductive. His star making hit single and an undisputed top 5 Garage anthem, “Sincere,” is a microcosm of everything that allowed the genre to take London by storm. ”

Since then, he’s kept his spot as one of garage’s titans, releasing two more albums – ‘Cut To The Chase’ in 2003 and ‘MJ Cole Presents Madrugada’ in 2020, as well as dropping other new music in between. He’s also worked as a producer and remixer with some big names including Amy Winehouse, Dizzee Rascal, Mary J. Blige, Stormzy, Alicia Keys, Katy B and more.

Details for the MJ Cole 2025 tour dates can be found here. A pre-sale will take place at 10am on Wednesday, April 2. General sale tickets will go on sale at 10am on April 4.

Prior to release, PinkPantheress shared three singles: “Mosquito,”, “Capable of love” and “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2” with Bronx rapper Ice Spice, the cutesy summer bop that vaulted up the charts earlier this year. While all three tracks maintained the signature glossy early-2000s club sound that had catapulted the singer to fame, they also unmistakably hinted at a new chapter in the artist’s musical journey.

Listen to “Capable Of Love” below:

Indeed, on Heaven Knows, much of the new material feels more mature and complete. PinkPantheress, a homemade superstar who initially rose to fame with viral internet pop bites that clocked in at under two minutes to appeal to the short-form media zeitgeist, largely dispenses of her original approach on this new record.

In an interview with NME earlier this year, the singer had expressed a desire to make “a shift towards other styles of music” – a vision that has now materialised on Heaven Knows. Here, PinkPantheress reveals the depth of her artistic versatility, flexing her abilities as a writer, producer, and expert curator of guest spots.

The long-awaited 13-track project sees the Bath-born artist enlist a crew of both familiar and new collaborators on writing and production duties, including two-time Grammy producer of the year Greg Kurstin, Caroline Polacheck producer Danny L. Harle and “Boy’s a Liar” co-writer Mura Masa, whose contributions as an additional producer are manifest on most songs.

Listen to “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2”, co-written by Mura Masa and featuring rapper Ice Spice, below:

Upon announcing her debut LP in October, PinkPantheress explained:

“This album is an accumulation of music I’ve made over the last two years, with some beloved tunes that might sound familiar and some cutie features who I can’t wait to announce. I love everyone here, I cried the other day thinking of how lucky I am to have people willing to listen to me, you are never taken in vain.” 

A press release further revealed that Heaven Knows is about “grief for a loss, but being at peace with yourself in your aloneness. Journeying from hell into purgatory, but I’m OK with being there.”

The freestyle exudes thrift. The mic stand that Mike Skinner, the Streets front-man, is spitting into is set up in his bedroom. Skinner’s freestyle reflects a degree of maturity, not heard on the snarling garage tracks of his prime. The beat rolls and the piano pulsates around the emcee ‘s lyrics. Skinner’s calm delivery gives the freestyle the feel of a spoken word piece, and the wordplay interlaced throughout maintains this appearance. Difficult Times has sparked intrigue amongst fans,ahead of the release of the Street’s new mix-tape, None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Alive. The tape represents the first, original, body of work that The Streets have released since their 2011 album Computers and Blues. Therefore, it is hard to predict exactly what the diverse Skinner has in store. He has previously ranged from vintage garage and grime club anthems to an in-depth personal story-telling experience. Skinner is the band’s talisman and brainchild, however their success is also owed to Kevin Mark Trail, a vocalist and producer who has featured in Skinner’s tracks since 2004.

View this post on Instagram

pre your bundle of album orders! bio hazard!

A post shared by Mike Skinner (@mikeskinnerltd) on Jun 16, 2020 at 12:40am PDT

The Street’s have already stirred the imagination after collaborating with Tame Impala for the single, Call My Phone Thinking I’m Doing Nothing Better. Skinner revealed,in an interview with The NME, that he ‘could not believe‘ that Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker wanted to work with him, labelling the band as ‘like a Hip-Hop Beatles‘.This collaboration gives the biggest hint as to the contents of Skinner’s new work, as he has since revealed that the mix-tape is littered with high-profile features such as Ms Banks and Donae’O.

The Streets are a British institution. Albums such as Original Pirate Material (2002) and a Grand Don’t Come For Free (2004) are credited with evolving the UK Garage scene, and making it more accessible. The new Difficult Times freestyle sounds unlike their previous releases. It is hauntingly poetic and echoes a new maturity. Fans are excited to see just what exactly The Streets have in store, and will be counting down the days until the release of None Of Us Are Getting Out Of This Alive on the 10th of July.