It’s been said that having an inner monologue can help regulate your emotions, nurture self-awareness and build a healthy appreciation of the world and your place in it—all the signs of good living. But the question remains: are you really living if there’s no soundtrack to back things up?
Can you imagine what The Lord of the Rings film trilogy would be like without the expert touch of composer Howard Shore? Perish the thought.
The genre hardly matters. After all, music is art, and art is subjective. What does matter is how it makes you feel—how it inspires your daily living and pushes you to embrace creative self-expression in all the ways that are quintessentially you. That being said, there are quite a few genres out there that are floating across the technological ether. We wouldn’t blame you for not being able to keep up.
Avant-garde pop and progressive heavy metal. ‘90s hip-hop and 00’s pop-punk. Ambient, jazz, classical and everything in between. Even more niche subgenres like shoegaze and Midwest emo.
Each suite of monthly music sees new and returning artists delving into these disparate genres, and October was no exception. This time around, it was all about the guitar—whether of the six, seven or eight-stringed variety.
Let’s be honest: it’s probably the first instrument that comes to mind when you think of band music. The guitar is a magical instrument capable of moving across genres seamlessly, be it furiously strummed head-down, with the user laser-focused on their sprawling pedalboards, a la shoegaze staple Diiv; slowly, earnestly plucked with calloused fingers as accompaniment to the soul-stirring folk music of The Tallest Man On Earth; or placed with surgical precision on the grid of a digital audio workstation, and subsequently shredded at near light speed by progressive metal acts like Portraits. It’s the emotional heartbeat of bands everywhere, and this month was its chance to shine—to remind the world of what a handful of strings and a plank of wood can do in the right hands.
Read about all of this and more below, in the October edition of Vogue Singapore’s monthly music roundup.
1 / 8
Zirp! by Diiv
The boys are back with another set of bangers. Since the Brooklyn band’s astounding 2012 debut Oshin, the four-piece outfit has grown, their sound evolving from dreampop-adjacent shoegaze to grungy production at home in a ratty garage and back. 2016’s Is the Is Are carried the torch lit by Oshin with unerring confidence; in 2019, Deceiver focused their iconic sound through a terrific magnifying glass of pure shoegaze bliss; and their last record, 2024’s Frog In Boiling Water, saw frontman Zachary Cole Smith level up his vocal and lyrical chops to a remarkable degree. On Zirp!—a cheeky reference to the economic phenomenon that blew up in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis—the band’s taken a left turn yet again, notably in the production department. Seated behind their soundboard for the first time is none other than A. G. Cook, beloved industry staple and pioneer of the hyperpop genre. Cook’s touch on this record speaks for itself. In Diiv’s latest, their approach to shoegaze is, thankfully, very much preserved in glowing amber, but their work now proudly wears the badge of effervescent pop. Case in point: ‘Trillions’, its sparkling production adorned with self-aware lyrics. Zirp! is a real contender for album of the year, equal parts catchy and compelling.
Listen to Zirp! here.
2 / 8
Save As by Ex:Re
Do you miss crying to ‘Youth’ by Daughter—or, really, any of the storied folk band’s songs? The trio originally disbanded in 2018, then reunited for their last album, 2023’s Stereo Mind Game, and every step of the way has been paved with the loving tears of their fans. However, since then, it’s been radio silence. Fear not: frontwoman Elena Tonra is still alive and kicking, and in many ways, her work as a solo act functions very similarly to Daughter. Ex:Re’s self-titled 2018 debut featured understated electric guitars, expressive piano groupings and, of course, Tonra’s signature gossamer vocals—a voice that, to this day, seems purpose-built to make listeners extend a shuddering hand in search of the nearest tissue. Save As follows this formula largely to a T—just at a brisker pace, evidenced by the likes of opener ‘Radio Station’ and mid-album track ‘Save As’. The former is a love letter to folksy pop, leaning on the soulful strumming of acoustic guitar to deliver Tonra’s message of existential dread with piercing clarity. The latter’s elegant use of a relatively upbeat drum track follows suit, transforming what would otherwise be a mournful elegy into something bordering the fringes of hopeful longing.
Listen to Save As here.
3 / 8
AT/DC by Andrew Tuttle and Darren Cross
If you need help sleeping, Andrew Tuttle is the musician to look for. The Australian multi-instrumentalist wields the five strings of his banjo as effectively as the six strings on his acoustic guitar, his work conveying a distinctly pastoral ambience that dances on the edge of your senses like a rolling fog over hill and dale. It certainly helps that he titles many of his songs after seemingly mundane locations—roads, parks, even shopping centres. Hit play, close your eyes and, in a mere few seconds, be transported to lush soundscapes that cascade with a hazy, dreamlike quality, almost stream-of-consciousness in nature. Each lick of the banjo, every strum of the guitar extends an invitation to feel at one with the earth—even, and especially, parts that you’ve never been to before. On AT/DC, Tuttle continues his long-standing tradition of working with other musicians, like with Padang Food Tigers on 2021’s A Cassowary Apart, by reaching into his expansive Rolodex of past collaborators and calling on the help of fellow Aussie songwriter Darren Cross. Together, Tuttle and Cross have created a short, but striking collection of atmospheric delight, contrasting the majestic sighs of synth pads with folksy guitar and banjo, meandering through largely unstructured, evocative arrangements.
Listen to AT/DC here.
4 / 8
Vaguely Western by Portraits
2026 has been a real win for progressive metal heads everywhere. Just last month, Showing Teeth released a thunderous debut, and now, Portraits’s newest release offers instrumental lovers a clear path to melodic nirvana, every second a reminder of what two dudes with eight-string guitars can do when they put their heads together. While opener ‘Stereoscope’ might give the impression that the album is a practice in meditative, ambient guitar, wait until the one-minute mark hits and some of the most tasteful noodling you’ll hear this side of 2026 sends harmonising arpeggios down your ear canals and shivers down your spine. The two are wizards in every sense of the word. Take standout single ‘Glitch’, for example—a lovely, trippy mindbender, repeatedly moving the downbeat a sixteenth note forward in a jarring, but oddly reassuring manner. ‘Seeker’ takes a step back, adopting a jazzy fusion approach to songwriting by employing the sultry lilt of guest vocalist Madeleine Daye. And closing track ‘Psyche & Matter’ ends the affair on the highest of notes: from start to finish, it’s a grand symphony of slow-built tension, implementing tasteful bouts of selective picking a la Tosin Abasi of Animals as Leaders, ultimately crescendoing in magnificent form with a gut-churning breakdown.
Listen to Vaguely Western here.
5 / 8
Sektape by Sekko
What do you get when you mix eclectic guitar riffs with a metric ton of electronic samples? You get Sekko, whose debut record—aptly, and playfully, named Sektape—looks to get your hips shaking, whether in the club or at home. Originally recommended to me by Joel Amey, the drummer of indie rock outfit Wolf Alice, Sekko has only ever released isolated singles before. However, those tracks have, at long last, found a home: Sektape is just the right amount of fun and emotional, its tracks featuring a strange blend of nostalgia and melancholy in their orchestration. Yes, there are catchy beats. The first ever single the Dutch musician published, ‘I Wanna Rock’, opens with samples that tease hints of a dancefloor banger, as does the track ‘Dust it off’. But then the guitars kick in, and all hell breaks loose. You’d be forgiven for tearing up—or at least reminiscing on some obscure past memory that tugs at the heartstrings—even as you bob your head in time with the funky, syncopated rhythms of his drum tracks. In Sektape, Sekko wears multiple hats, but the main star is undoubtedly his tasteful, poppy guitar work that skirts the periphery of rock and blues.
Listen to Sektape here.
6 / 8
Dopamine Chamber by Fontaines D.C.
Dopamine Chamber is the Irish post-punk band at, quite possibly, their most post-punk. Led by crooning, brooding frontman Grian Chatten, Fontaines D.C.’s latest efforts are, on the whole, less straightforwardly pop than 2024’s ‘Starburster’ or 2022’s ‘Jackie Down The Line’. It’s been seven long years since their debut Dogrel hit the music industry like a lightning bolt out of the blue, and it shows—the world’s gotten longer in the tooth, and so have the lads from Dublin. At times, Fontaines DC comes across as a more modern, more punch-drunk version of genre peers like Idles or Shame, their sound a rousing, dark cacophony of emotional angst. Chatten and his droning, esoteric musings are, of course, a big part of the reason for the band’s allure on tracks like ‘Tongue’: “Oh, she has a tongue to take apart your life.” However, listeners would do well to attribute as much credence on this song and others like it to the talents of bassist Conor Deegan III and drummer Tom Coll, who jump from the starting line with a pulsing, scintillating rhythm track that gallops forward from the start and keeps pace until the last note quickly fades into the ether.
Listen to Dopamine Chamber here.
7 / 8
Be Not Afraid by Polyphia
Approximately 35 seconds into Be Not Afraid, you’ll notice an extremely large elephant just barged into the room, trumpeting loudly in a manner that might leave you very confused. Let’s rewind time first: for 13 years, Polyphia made their name shredding at unbelievable speeds and with incredible virtuosity. Plenty of listeners regard them as one of the most interesting progressive metal bands alive. Even when they hung a left in 2018 on New Levels New Devils and embraced a trippier, trap-rap approach to production and beatmaking, their new sound was just a different platform upon which their iconic guitars could shine front and centre. Now, with Be Not Afraid, they’ve committed what many fans consider a cardinal sin—one they won’t be forgiving the band for anytime soon. Everything is over-produced, each song on every track blown out and positively drowning in saturated excess noise. It’s really, really hard to hear those guitars sing. Sure, Tim Henson and company have always been ambitious with their creative vision, and Be Not Afraid takes those ambitions to dizzying, if often confusing, heights. But whether it’s a stylistic shift they’re adopting or thematic statement they’re trying to make, the jury is still out. All that being said: personally, I dig it. It’s definitely not what fans are used to, but it’s catchy as all hell, and sometimes that’s just what the doctor ordered.
Listen to Be Not Afraid here.
8 / 8
Just Beyond Endless Mountain by The Tallest Man On Earth
Kristian Matsson can’t be stopped. Standing at a mere 170 centimetres, the Swedish singer-songwriter is definitively not ‘the tallest man on earth’, but he is still a force to be reckoned with, having released new albums nearly every two years since his 2008 debut Shallow Grave. This would be impressive by most metrics, even if bands like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard hold the crown for prolificacy. But as a solo act, who rarely strays from his modus operandi of ‘man plus guitar’, in what can only be described as one of the purest forms of folk music in 2026? When you’re only working with two ingredients—in Mattson’s case, a simple acoustic guitar and his wholly inimitable voice—that’s objectively impressive. On occasion, like on 2023’s Henry St., he’ll rope in drums to spice up the affair; but for the most part, The Tallest Man On Earth is just Mattson’s signature, finger-plucked guitar and his craggy, yearning, poetic waxing on love and longing. His lyrics aren’t necessarily complex—”I see you; Drift onto my; Little gravel road of time”—but they don’t have to be. His sheer economy of language boasts a sense of purpose that is utterly moving.
Listen to Just Beyond Endless Mountain here.
