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Living Without Borders in the Digital Nomad-Driven Economy

Our Culture Mag & Partners
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Living Without Borders in the Digital Nomad-Driven Economy

The 9-to-5 grind is fading as digital nomads redefine work and lifestyle. Unbound by location and driven by freedom, they’re thriving from Bali to Barcelona. Fast Wi-Fi, strong coffee, and rooftop co-living fuel a borderless life where flexibility matters more than routine, signalling a new economy centred on autonomy, experience, and living without limits.

A Cultural Shift in Work and Life

Remote work was once a perk. Now, for many, it’s the default. The new age has normalised Zoom meetings from kitchen tables and Slack messages sent from mountain lodges. This shift didn’t just disrupt corporate culture, it catalysed a movement.

Digital nomadism represents a broader cultural trend: a desire for autonomy over location, schedule, and even income streams. In this freedom economy, people are designing lives that prioritise experiences over possessions, time over money, and meaning over metrics.

The Rise of Tools for the Unbound

With this shift has come a wave of new platforms and tools. Co-working apps like Croissant and Deskpass let nomads tap into flexible spaces across the globe. Services like Nomad List offer data on the cost of living, weather, and community vibes in hundreds of cities. Meanwhile, cloud-based everything, from banking to productivity suites, ensures that mobility never compromises efficiency.

Alongside mainstream platforms, digital nomads are increasingly also turning to fringe ecosystems that offer even more control, especially when it comes to how they entertain, spend, and manage their time online. For instance, when it comes to iGaming, some international players would prefer to explore a casino not on GamStop, as part of a larger trend of individuals seeking services that mirror a lifestyle that is mobile, accessible, and minimally restricted.

For digital nomads, especially those moving between countries, these platforms offer more flexible options without the geo-restrictions or signup barriers often associated with UK-licensed providers.

Leisure in Motion

Contrary to the cliché, being a digital nomad doesn’t mean working all day with a cocktail in hand. Burnout is real, and balancing exploration with productivity requires structure. Many nomads carve out specific routines: coworking before lunch, a language class in the afternoon, and downtime with digital platforms, whether streaming shows, gaming, or engaging with online hobbies. Leisure becomes a conscious part of the work-life blend.

Just as a remote professional might choose a city with great hiking trails to unwind, they may also prefer entertainment platforms that offer them more control and freedom, free from geographic or regulatory constraints.

The Economics of Choice

Living as a digital nomad isn’t just about chasing sunsets, it’s a strategic economic move. Many earn through freelance gigs, remote contracts, or by building startups and passive income streams. Navigating multiple currencies, payment systems, and time zones, they rely on tools like cryptocurrencies, borderless banking (such as Wise or Revolut), and flexible payment platforms to stay agile.

This demand for financial flexibility shapes how nomads unwind as well, as they seek services and platforms that mirror their need for autonomy. Whether for work or leisure, these tools help maintain balance and consistency in a constantly shifting lifestyle.

Building Community Across Borders

While freedom is central to the digital nomad lifestyle, so is connection. Constant travel can be isolating, which is why many nomads actively seek out communities designed for remote professionals, through meetups, coworking hubs, or language exchanges.

These interactions go beyond networking; they foster a sense of belonging in ever-changing environments. Cities like Lisbon, Medellín, and Tbilisi have become magnets for nomads not just because of affordability or infrastructure, but because of the vibrant, welcoming cultures they offer. In a life without fixed roots, shared experiences and local friendships become the foundation for stability and growth.

What Lies Ahead?

As governments start to recognise the economic contribution of digital nomads, visa programmes are emerging to accommodate them. Countries like Estonia, Portugal, and Barbados now offer specific visas aimed at remote workers, legitimising a lifestyle that, until recently, was seen as a temporary workaround.

What hasn’t yet caught up is regulation around global digital services. Most national frameworks still assume that users are static; that someone logging in from Manchester today will still be there tomorrow. But for the growing number of people who live across time zones and borders, that assumption no longer holds. This makes fringe services a growing part of how digital nomads navigate life, finance, and entertainment.

Conclusion

The freedom economy is more than a trend, it’s a shift in values. As more people seek autonomy over their time, place, and resources, tools that enable this lifestyle will continue to thrive. What digital nomads are quietly proving is that life doesn’t need to follow a conventional structure to be successful or fulfilling. It just needs to be mobile, intentional, and unrestricted.

Bully for Me: The Enduring Appeal of The Bully of Barkham Street

Richard Klin
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Bully for Me: The Enduring Appeal of The Bully of Barkham Street

The Bully of Barkham Street is a work of juvenilia, written by Mary Stolz and published in 1963.  It was a companion piece to A Dog on Barkham Street, which had been published two years earlier. I read them both as a preteen in the 1970s. (There is also, as I just discovered, a third title in the series: 1985’s The Explorer of Barkham Street, which seems akin in its gratuitousness to The Godfather Part III.)

The protagonists of A Dog on Barkham Street are the young Edward Frost, his best friend Rod, and their families. Crucial to the book’s development is the arrival of Edward’s free-spirited Uncle Josh and his dog, Argess.

Edward is plagued by his next-door neighbor, Martin Hastings, the lumbering bully of the block, hated and feared by the neighborhood kids and scorned by the adults. In The Bully of Barkham Street, Martin becomes the protagonist. The narrative is drawn from his viewpoint, with Edward Frost and company the secondary characters.

The Bully of Barkham Street made a colossal impression on me, which on some level I can’t fully explain, nor can I fully explain why the book has stayed with me all these decades later. There were always kids like Martin Hastings about. To say I felt no affinity  for them whatsoever is a polite understatement. But Stolz’s narrative rejiggering–Martin as a secondary character in one book, as protagonist in another–fascinated me. I had never come across that before and remember—vividly—that sense of discovery.

There is an element of authorial bravery to plot a book from the perspective of a bully: an unsympathetic, loathsome figure. Stolz walks a fine line, her subtle perch neither downplaying Martin’s bullying nor condoning it, but offering abundant explanation. For one, Bully of Barkham Street reveals that its bully-victim dynamic is slightly more complicated than is portrayed in Dog on Barkham Street. Edward and his friends are not entirely victims, but also instigators, tormenting Martin with cries of fatso and blimpo.

The friendless Martin is in sixth grade, a year older than his classmates and he is—in the unforgiving parlance of the day—fat. His spelling and handwriting are atrocious. Diagnostic understanding, in 1963, was not a thing. Kids like Martin with learning issues were plopped into school and, for the duration, made to feel stupid.

He is also impulsive and undisciplined, lacking the ability to properly care for his beloved dog, Rufus, who—after ample parental warnings—is given away. The presence of the dog Argess—right next door at the Frost household—becomes an endless torment for Martin, a constant reminder that his own ineptitude has cost him his beloved dog.

Bully of Barkham Street also offers an in-depth exploration of the Hastings family. Matin is in constant conflict with his popular, well-adjusted older sister, Marietta. (This equals Martin Marietta, the name of a corporation. One would hope this is sheer coincidence and not some weird product placement.) His father works for an insurance company and is physically and emotionally absent from the household. His mother sells “cosmetics in people’s houses, and it kept her pretty busy afternoons… because the Hastings family needed the extra money she made.” Martin often comes home to an empty house. His family is by no means poor. But there is the steady undercurrent of economic insecurity.

Martin is coarse and hectoring, but he has an active imagination—too active—and he possesses a perceptiveness about the foibles of the adult world. He is antiauthoritarian—misplaced and self-destructive as it may be: “Grown-ups filled him with defiance.” There is an admirable reservoir of cunning, enabling him to wiggle out of potential punishment by confusing the issue at hand: “That was what nearly always happened when grown-ups had ‘little talks’ with him. They started out talking about one thing and ended up in all sort of other directions…”

Bully of Barkham is in–believe it or not–Leave it to Beaver terrain: the same era, the same age cohort, the same vague, but distinctive geographic locus. That show was a much less idealized depiction of family life than is commonly assumed—and also harsher in some of its depictions than people realize. One can’t help reference Larry Mondello, Beaver’s schlubby, good-natured friend. Mr. Mondello is always away and—as is the case with most fathers on Leave it to Beaver—he inspires a good deal of fear. Martin Hastings can be construed as the malevolent Larry Mondello.

I also found Bully of Barkham Street extraordinarily moving—again, for reasons I can’t fully understand. Martin receives the high honor playing reveille on his bugle for the school play. He is uncharacteristically diligent, practicing faithfully and executing a flawless rendition. But on the night of the play, he peers out at the audience from backstage, searching for his mother: “He turned to see his mother, to wave to her and show her how he was one of the good ones this time, and found her yawning widely.

     “And after that everything went wrong. He had such a feeling of being let down by evidence of her boredom that all the fun went out of the evening for him.”

Then the unthinkable happens: He steps on stage, puts the bugle to his lips, and produces a “hideous mess,” ruining it completely.

“He looked painfully, through blurred eyes, toward his mother. She wasn’t yawning now. She was sitting up stiff and straight, and when she caught his eye, wriggled her fingers at him and smiled, pretending everything was fine.” But he bravely completes his garbled reveille, returning later to thunderous applause. And, as his mother explains later, she is not bored, but simply tired.

By the book’s end, Martin comes to the point of realization that his methods of functioning are unsustainable: “A step at a time, Martin made his way out of the bully’s desert.” He garners a coveted slot as a paperboy and–with the help of melon and what’s unappetizingly referred to as “dietetic cookies”—makes a conscious effort to slim down. One gets the sense that things will be okay.

When I read Bully of Barkham Street in the early 1970s, the outdated slang puzzled me, but was not a major impediment. The book abounds with creaky vernacular like crums, for the luva mud, in a pig’s eye. Stolz was evidently writing for the 1950s. Yet I didn’t find Bully of Barkham Street all that dated. Eras morphed and shifted, which made for a fascinating, eclectic mélange. The 1950s, to a large extent, were still alive and well. Kojak and The Partridge Family were some of my viewing staples, as was endless news about the Vietnam War. But The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, and Humphrey Bogart movies were staples as well. Even some physical books from the 1940s made it into my reading life. When I was reading the Barkham books, World War I, silent movies, and the Great Depression were living memories for a good chunk of the population.

I doubt The Bully of Barkham Street would hold any interest whatsoever for today’s young reader. And it might be a stretch to credit it as the forerunner to the more realistic school of YA; a proto-Outsiders. A contemporaneous Kirkus Review lauds the book, but does not find its realism and psychological sophistication startling or even exceptional, which suggests that less rose-colored juvenilia like Bully of Barkham Street was not such an anomaly in 1963. But it still stands out as a work of ingenuity, depth, and emotional power.

The Bully on Barkham Street is, in its own way a bildungsroman, albeit on a small, nondramatic scale. The assumption is that Martin has tamed most of what has bedeviled him and is ready to proceed, more at peace with himself, his family, and the world. It is not the stuff of high drama. But—ultimately–that is the stuff of true profundity

19 New Songs to Listen to Today: Turnstile, Indigo De Souza, and More

Konstantinos Pappis
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19 New Songs to Listen to Today: Turnstile, Indigo De Souza, and More

There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Wednesday, April 30, 2025.

Turnstile – ‘Seein’ Stars’ and ‘Birds’

Turnstile have shared two more songs from their upcoming album Never Enough. ‘Seein’ Stars’ is airy and danceable, a more fully-formed version of what the title track offered us, while ‘Birds’ is more in line with the kind of anthemic hardcore that Turnstile built their name on. The tracks come paired with a double video directed by the band’s own Brendan Yates and Pat McCrory.

Indigo De Souza – ‘Heartthrob’

Indigo De Souza is shoegazing things up with ‘Heartthrob’, the driving lead single from her new album Precipice. “I wrote ‘Heartthrob’ as a way to help process something that is often hard to talk about—the harmful ways I’ve been taken advantage of in my physical memory,” De Souza explained. “‘Heartthrob’ is about harnessing anger, and turning it into something powerful and embodied. It’s about taking back my body and my experience. It’s a big fuck you to the abusers of the world. A sarcastic, angry cry for all bodies that have ever been touched in harmful ways.”

Debby Friday – ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’

Debby Friday has announced her next album, The Starrr of the Queen of Life, and shared ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’, which makes for a bold, hedonistic introduction. “The video is really about discipline and craft,” she shared. “It’s about the transformations that happen when you devote yourself to a process over time. The starrr is a metaphor for all these thoughts I have around fame, success, failure, love, power, god, death, life, everything. My starrr is in me, and your starrr is in you, and it’s just a matter of surrendering to it.”

Kacey Musgraves – ‘Lost Highway’ (Hank Williams Cover)

Kacey Musgraves has signed to the newly relaunched Nashville-based label Lost Highway, marking the announcement with a pretty straightforward cover of Hank Williams’ ‘Lost Highway’. “Lost Highway was always a musical stable for artists who might be considered outliers or outlaws; those who live on the fringe,” Musgraves explained. “In 2011, when other record labels questioned my songwriting and my more traditional country sound, Lost Highway believed in me, signing me to my first label deal and helped me take my music around the world. That journey has now come full circle in such a special way with John Janick and Interscope and I’m deeply honored to be able to once again call Lost Highway my musical home.”

Hotline TNT – ‘Candle’

Hotline TNT are gearing up for the release of their new album Raspberry Moon, and today they’ve shared the fuzzy, infatuated ‘Candle’. “This song was the first thing we wrote for Raspberry Moon – it flowed out of our guitars quite effortlessly and it barely required even 1% of our power to put the parts in the correct order,” Will Anderson commented. “Just to make sure it was as good as we thought it was, we brought the song over to Japan, and this video documents the reaction from that experiment. ‘Candle’ is LIT.”

Sufjan Stevens – ‘With Dignity (Demo)’

Following ‘Mystery of Love (Demo)’, Sufjan Stevens has shared another demo that will appear on the deluxe reissue of his 2015 album Carrie & Lowell. The previously unheard version of ‘Death With Dignity’ is as lovely as you’d expect.

MIKE and Tony Seltzer – ‘WYC4’

MIKE and Tony Seltzer have previewed their forthcoming collaborative record, Pinball II, with a hypnotic new song called ‘WYC4’. It comes paired with a music video directed by Ian Lopez.

 

Blondshell – ‘Event of a Fire’

Ahead of the release of her new album If You Asked for a Picture on Friday, Blondshell has shared a new track, ‘Event of a Fire’, which is the most vulnerable single off the LP. The track was inspired by a 4am hotel fire evacuation outside Boston while Blondshell was on tour. “It’s not really ‘what if I’m burnt out from touring,’” Sabrina Teitelbaum explained. “It’s like, ‘what if I’m burnt out from just existing?”

Barbra Streisand – ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’ [feat. Hozier]

Barbra Streisand has enlisted Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Mariah Carey, Ariana Grande, Sting, and more for a new duets album, The Secret Of Life: Partners, Volume Two. Today, she’s shared rendition of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ featuring Hozier, who commented: “Barbra Streisand is one of the most enduring and iconic vocalists of our time, and somebody who defined an era with the sheer force of her voice, her talent, charisma and vision. To be asked to join her on a duet was a huge honour and came as a wonderful and welcome surprise. Ewan MacColl’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, made famous by the stunning Roberta Flack recording, has always mystified me. It is, to me, one of the most beautiful love songs ever written. Like so many, I was deeply saddened to hear of her recent passing. Along with the honour I have to sing on this record with Barbra, I hope this duet offers something of a gesture to Roberta Flack’s incredible legacy.”

Mal Blum – ‘I’m So Bored’

Mal Blum has announced a new album, The Villain. It’s out July 11, and the lead single I’m So Bored’, which explores the dissolution of a relationship, is out today. Its biggest dig? “You don’t have friends/ You have meetings.” In a statement, Blum shared: “On one hand, ‘I’m So Bored’ is about a very specific moment of disillusionment in a power-imbalanced relationship, when you realize someone’s bad behavior is actually so predictable that it’s almost trite. The other layer is clearly about myself — mired in familiar patterns, tired of my own bullshit, making cyclical mistakes.”

Miya Folick – ‘Laid’ (James Cover)

In a Reddit thread, people theorized that everyone from Chappell Roan to Waxahatchee is singing the cover of James’ classic ‘Laid’ that serves as the theme song for Peacock’s acclaimed new series of the same name. It’s actually Miya Folick, and her rendition is officially out today.

TOPS – ‘ICU2’

TOPS have signed to Ghostly International, marking the announcement with a dynamic, flirty new single, ‘ICU2’, which they debuted at Coachella. The song arrives with a lo-fi music video directed by Frankie Ray.

Benny the Butcher – ‘Duffel Bag Hottie’s Revenge’ [feat. Boldy James]

Benny the Butcher has announced a new seven-song project, Excelsior, which is out Friday and features Styles P, Skyler Blatt, P.R.E.M.O., Sule, and Fuego Base. Boldy James appears on the lead single ‘Duffel Bag Hottie’s Revenge’, which coasts on a hypnotic horn loop from producer Nunchuk.

Kae Tempest – ‘Know Yourself’

Kae Tempest has announced his fifth studio album, Self Titled, with ‘Know Yourself’, a striking conversation with his younger self. “I love this song,” the rapper said. “It samples a lyric I wrote years ago, where my younger self is talking to their younger self. A dialogue between selves across time, in real time. Or maybe I could put that simpler – When I was young I sought help from my older self. I came into my head, I told me know yourself.”

Béton Armé – ‘Chemin De Croix’

Montreal oi band Béton Armé have dropped a strutting, anthemic new single, ‘Chemin De Croix’. It leads their forthcoming record Renaissance, which arrives on June 13.

Sally Shapiro – ‘Did You Call Tonight’

The theme of ‘Did You Call Tonight’, the latest single from Sally Shapiro’s new album Ready to Live a Lie, is microcheating. “Musically it’s inspired by 80s electro breakbeat, a bit slower and funkier than our usual style,” the duo noted. It makes you focus a bit more on the story, and it’s quite evocative.

 

Kassie Krut – Hooh Beat (Panda Bear Remix)

Kassie Krut have announced an expanded edition of their self-titled debut EP. Ahead of its June 6 release, they’ve shared Panda Bear’s take on ‘Hoot Beat’; the band is going on tour with the Animal Collective member, along with Toro y Moi, in May.

Avalon Emerson – ‘On It Goes’

Avalon Emerson has shared ‘On It Goes’, an exhilarating new track built on a Storm Queen sample. It’s the latest offering from the DJ and producer’s new project Perpetual Emotion Machine.

The Best Albums of April 2025

Konstantinos Pappis
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The Best Albums of April 2025

In this segment, we round up the best albums released each month. From Bon Iver to Maria Somerville, here are, in alphabetical order, the 10 best albums of April 2025.

Black Country, New Road, Forever Howlong

Building on 2023’s Live at Bush Hall, Forever Howlong leverages Black Country, New Road’s fluidity as a band with a heightened level of precision and strikes a subtler balance between sonic lightness and emotional intensity. With vocals, and largely songwriting, now split between Tyler Hyde, Georgia Ellery, and May Kershaw, the album serendipitously, yet potently, coalesces around a female perspective, yet the experiences they relay reach far beyond these three women. It’s in the loneliest moments that you hear them band together, all playing out time. Read the full review.

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Bon Iver, SABLE, fABLE

First, Bon Iver reframe the entirety of last year’s SABLE, EP by repurposing it as the prologue to their fifth studio album. Throughout it, Justin Vernon puts a lot of stock in that prefix: things are perpetually jumbled, but they can be remade, maybe even replaced. Each new path buzzes with possibilities, but fABLE does away with the fear and paranoia these can stir up, attaching itself, miraculously, to an abundance of joy. It’s clear-headed and radiant, drawing upon elements of soul and R&B that Vernon has harnessed before, but never with such refreshing immediacy and purpose. “Seek the light,” he urged all those years ago, and damn it if he won’t keep looking. He’s in such good company, after all, and it’s showing more than ever. Read the full review.

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Colin Miller, Losin’

While he continues to build an impressive resume as an engineer, Asheville musician Colin Miller found time to release Losin’, the heart-wrenching follow-up to 2023’s Haw Creek. Featuring MJ Lenderman on drums and guitar, as well as his Wednesday/The Wind bandmates Ethan Baechtold (bass, keys, aux percussion) and Xandy Chelmis (pedal steel), the album was recorded at Drop of Sun with producer Alex Farrar. There are a couple of layers to the its title: the record untangles a period of intense grief following the death of Gary King, who owned the Haw Creek property and served as a father figure to Miller; it’s also a literal reference to trying to win the lottery in hopes of buying the home, which he rented for 13 years. Even when the pain swells, echoing in every note his friends play, Miller keeps up the effort – if not for the unattainable, then simply to keep the engine running. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Colin Miller.

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Florist, Jellywish

Emily Sprague has no trouble baring her soul out in her lyrics. Intimacy, like tenderness, has and never will be a difficult thing for the Florist enterprise, or “friendship project,” as they call it, which includes Rick Spataro, Jonnie Baker, and Felix Walworth. The challenge, bigger than ever on their first album since their resplendent 2022 self-titled effort, is sounding at peace with a world hurtling towards catastrophe; staying soft, friendly, and curious when grief continues to bear its mark on you. But the music can also only be as delicate as the line between the threads of consciousness Sprague bounces between – waking, altered, existential – thin enough to let light slip through yet expansive enough to get lost in. For all its quiet optimism and awe, Jellywish is never quite restful or easygoing; much in the same way that, for all its introspection, it never truly stands alone. Read the full review.

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Jane Remover, Revengeseekerz

Jane Remover could have spent several albums coasting on, even softening, the blend of shoegaze and bedroom pop that made 2023’s Census Designated a success. Instead, the experimental artist cemented their status by pushing everything – including the limits of those genres, but also rap, pop, and club music at large – to the red. Revengeseekerz puts its money on the feverish excess and self-referentiality that could deter fans who came on board with the last album, but the unbounded rawness that rises to the fore makes this record an absolute blast. It’s explosive and dexterous in ways that put the self above everything: “Might close up shop,” Jane sings ‘Fadeoutz’, “if it means I can live my life.”

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Lily Seabird, Trash Mountain

Trash Mountain is named after a pink house sitting on a decommissioned landfill site at the back of Burlington, Vermont’s Old North End, which Lily Seabird has called home for several years now. But the singer-songwriter has also spent much of that time on the road, touring her own music and as a bassist with Greg Freeman, Lutalo, and Liz Cooper. Freeman, along with Robber Robber’s Nina Cates and drummer Zack James, accompany her on just a few songs on the new album, which is intentionally sparser than previous efforts like 2024’s Alas, (which was accompanied by an acoustic EP in its Lame-O Records reissue) and 2021’s Beside Myself. Rough-hewn yet warmly realized, the album centers on Seabird’s captivating voice as it lingers on a moment, trembles in grief, or sighs around a melody for just that bit more relief. “Where the wind blows everything I try to remember and forget/ On the edge of town/ Where when I’m home I rest my head” is how she describes Trash Mountain, recording to bask in its comfort a little longer. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Lily Seabird.

Maria Somerville, Luster

On Maria Somerville’s 4AD debut, Luster, there’s hardly a line between pristine songs and spacious atmospherics. The Irish musician is an expert at diffusing it, just like her curiosity towards the natural world wafts into her internal one. The follow-up to 2019’s All My People is lush, liminal, and luminous, all those “l” words that earn the record its title. Even at its most reserved, it expands beyond the sense of solitude it seems to be inspired by, rendering it one of the most inviting – and best – dream pop albums you’ll likely hear all year.

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Samia, Bloodless

Samia introduced her third album by tracing a line between the inexplicable phenomenon of bloodless cattle mutilation – ‘Bovine Excision’ – and her own experience of womanhood. Though there are pockets of Bloodless that remain a mystery no matter how many times you listen or scrutinize the lyrics – too many poetic turns of phrase, contexts erased, men blurring together – the bigger draw is Samia’s unique ability to turn the inexplicable into the phenomenal; to make beauty out of a void, not necessarily by filling it. It may leave you with more questions than it answers, yet it astounds and surprises you at every turn. The songs rip straight through the heart – even if you have no idea how they even got there.

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Thanya Iyer, TIDE/TIED

Thanya Iyer‘s immersive collage of spiritual jazz, experimental pop, and ambient folk grew more fully-realized on 2020’s Polaris long-listed KIND, and the multi-instrumentalist and her band continue to home in on it on their latest LP, TIDE/TIED. Though they released an EP, rest, in 2022, the five-year gap between albums lends the new collection a different kind of gravity, and the group – including co-producers Pompey and Daniel Gélinas – deftly bear the weight. It is a stirring, swirling antidote to numbness, but it is also the rare kind of therapeutic, jazz-inflected, spiritually-minded music that doesn’t skip to mantras so much as circle the journey around them, paddling through uncertainty and pain. “What do we do when we can’t breathe?/ I forget how to be, how to feel like I’m free,” she sings on ‘Low Tides’. Riding with the feeling, with this group of people, brings her closer to a future far beyond our immediate line of vision. Read our Artist Spotlight interview with Thanya Iyer.

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The Ophelias, Spring Grove

It’s been five years since the Ophelias’ last album, Crocus, but its follow-up, Spring Grove, is by no means a post-pandemic document. Spencer Peppet’s lyrics burrow much deeper into past wounds, burdened by dreams that recur without end or explanation, blurring the line between the present moment and what’s clearly come to pass. When the titular Spring Grove cemetery comes up, it is in reference to the summer of 2014, yet as if neither person would now be the first to speak. “The feeling of you haunts me and I/ Know that I can recognize that,” she confesses on new single ‘Cicada’, and the whole record gives it shape even when the ghosts cease to follow. Read our interview with the Ophelias.

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Lorde Announces New Album ‘Virgin’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Lorde Announces New Album ‘Virgin’

It’s officially Lorde season. Last week, the New Zealand superstar returned with ‘What Was That’, and today, she’s announced her fourth album. The follow-up to 2021’s Solar Power is called Virgin, and it’s out June 27 via Republic. Check out its cover artwork below.

Lorde co-produced Virgin with Jim-E Stack. It features contributions from Fabiana Palladino, Andrew Aged, Buddy Ross, Dan Nigro, and Devonté Hynes. Spike Stent and Tom Elmhirst mixed the LP, while Chris Gehringer mastered it. In an email to fans, Lorde wrote:

THE COLOUR OF THE ALBUM IS CLEAR. LIKE BATHWATER, WINDOWS, ICE, SPIT. FULL TRANSPARENCY. THE LANGUAGE IS PLAIN AND UNSENTIMENTAL. THE SOUNDS ARE THE SAME WHEREVER POSSIBLE. I WAS TRYING TO SEE MYSELF, ALL THE WAY THROUGH. I WAS TRYING TO MAKE A DOCUMENT THAT REFLECTED MY FEMININITY: RAW, PRIMAL, INNOCENT, ELEGANT, OPENHEARTED, SPIRITUAL, MASC.

I’M PROUD AND SCARED OF THIS ALBUM. THERE’S NOWHERE TO HIDE. I BELIEVE THAT PUTTING THE DEEPEST PARTS OF OURSELVES TO MUSIC IS WHAT SETS US FREE.

COMING JUNE 27

Virgin Cover Artwork:

Indigo De Souza Announces New Album ‘Precipice’, Shares New Single ‘Heartthrob’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Indigo De Souza Announces New Album ‘Precipice’, Shares New Single ‘Heartthrob’

Indigo De Souza has announced a new album, Precipice, which arrives on July 25 via Loma Vista. The singer-songwriter worked on the follow-up to 2023’s All of This Will End with Elliott Kozel, who’s worked with the likes of SZA, Yves Tumor, and FINNEAS. Check out a video for the lead single ‘Heartthrob’ below, and scroll down for the album cover and tracklist.

A press release talks about De Souza “leaping forward” in a spiritual sense: “taking control of difficult memories and charged emotions via pop bombast and diaristic clarity, and finding a stronger self.” But ‘Heartthrob’, which is shoegazey and soaring, suggests a kind of sonic leap, too. “I wrote ‘Heartthrob’ as a way to help process something that is often hard to talk about—the harmful ways I’ve been taken advantage of in my physical memory,” De Souza explained. “‘Heartthrob’ is about harnessing anger, and turning it into something powerful and embodied. It’s about taking back my body and my experience. It’s a big fuck you to the abusers of the world. A sarcastic, angry cry for all bodies that have ever been touched in harmful ways.”

“Life feels like always being on the edge of something without knowing what that something is,” De Souza added. “Music gives me ways to harness that feeling. Ways to push forward in new directions.”

Revisit our Artist Spotlight interview as well as our 2023 inspirations feature with Indigo De Souza.

Precipice Cover Artwork:

Precipice Tracklist:

1. Be My Love
2. Crying Over Nothing
3. Crush
4. Not Afraid
5. Be Like The Water
6. Heartthrob
7. Dinner
8. Clean It Up
9. Heartbreaker
10. Pass It By
11. Precipice

Debby Friday Announces New Album, Shares New Single ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Debby Friday Announces New Album, Shares New Single ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’

Debby Friday has announced her next album: The Starrr of the Queen of Life is out August 1 on Sub Pop and in Canada via Royal Mountain Records. The anthemically immediate, hedonistic ‘All I Wanna Do Is Party’ leads the follow-up to the Nigerian-Canadian artist’s debut album GOOD LUCK. The track is accompanied by a video co-directed with frequent collaborator Kevan Funk. Check it out and find the album cover and tracklist below.

“I want to be a starrr, I can’t hide that desire,” Debby Friday said in a statement. “But what I don’t want is to live someone else’s dream or to follow a pre-set path.” She worked on the new LP with Australian producer Darcy Baylis (Wicca Phase Springs Eternal), Graham Walsh (METZ, Holy F*ck), Tayhana (Rosalia, N.A.A.F.I.), and HiTech. “This album is about the idea of reaching towards something,” she added. “It’s about seeing the signs and following that impulse, always with the potential of either flying into the sun or falling back to earth.”

Commenting on the new song’s accompanying visual, Friday shared: “The video is really about discipline and craft. It’s about the transformations that happen when you devote yourself to a process over time. The starrr is a metaphor for all these thoughts I have around fame, success, failure, love, power, god, death, life, everything. My starrr is in me, and your starrr is in you, and it’s just a matter of surrendering to it.”

Check out our Artist Spotlight interview with Debby Friday.

The Starrr of the Queen of Life Cover Artwork:

The Starrr of the Queen of Life Tracklist:

1. 1/17
2. All I Wanna Do Is Party
3. In The Club feat. HiTech
4. Lipsync
5. Alberta
6. Higher
7. ppp (Interlude)
8. Arcadia
9. Leave.
10. Bet On Me
11. Darker The Better

How gaming is shaping New Zealand’s growing tech market

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How gaming is shaping New Zealand’s growing tech market

When you think of New Zealand, a wealth of different images may appear in your mind. It might be the sight of the iconic All Blacks performing the Haka before a game of rugby, or maybe a beautiful landscape of crystal-clear lakes and stunning mountains. For some, it could even be the image of two hobbits on a journey to save Middle-earth. What many people aren’t aware of, however, is New Zealand’s growing presence on the global tech scene, with several of the world’s most exciting tech startups and companies calling it home. Within this, it has also emerged that it is in fact the gaming industry that is leading the way, helping to shape the future of New Zealand’s growing tech market. So, what exactly has been simmering in this exciting Pacific nation?

An emerging tech hub

New Zealand’s tech sector has experienced impressive growth over the last twenty years, with the number of companies working within the sector nearly doubling and the annual revenues of its 200 biggest companies reaching a massive $17.95 billion. Much of this growth has come from high-tech manufacturing and ICT services; however, other sectors such as biotech, fintech, and gaming are now starting to make a real impact on the industry as it looks ahead. Notable members of this emerging tech hub include cloud-based accounting company Xero, who now employ over four thousand people and offers their services on an international scale, as well as innovative startup Halter, which is helping to bring agriculture methods to a new level with their virtual fencing and digital pasture management methods. Wherever you look in New Zealand, it appears as though talented and driven teams are finding opportunities for technological upheaval, bringing new ideas to the table and, importantly, creating products and services that people want.

Gaming industry driving growth

The gaming sector is one such area that has seen significant activity, quickly growing into one of the country’s fastest-growing creative industries. In fact, 2024 saw gaming revenues up a huge 26% on the previous year, reaching $548 million and highlighting the upward trajectory the industry appears to be following. This is made all the more impressive considering New Zealand’s turbulent economic position over the past year, which has seen the country dip into recession.

One of the key reasons behind the sector’s success lies in the multi-faceted nature of its output, with high-quality products emerging from every direction of the gaming sphere. Kiwi video games have been the main driver thanks to the success of recent releases from established developers like PikPok and Grinding Gear Games. And as the iconic Weta Workshop looks to release its Tales of the Shire game later this year, industry insiders are confident that video games will continue to provide a vital engine to the sector.

Elsewhere, New Zealand has experienced somewhat of an explosion in the popularity of online casino games in recent years, creating a new channel for investment and innovation. While Kiwis can already access many minimum deposit casinos at Casino.org, upcoming changes to New Zealand’s gambling laws will likely open up this sector even more, providing the chance for emerging startups to find their place in the market and allowing iGaming to provide a boost to the overall gaming sector.

The third area of gaming that has found impressive, and to some, maybe unexpected growth, is in traditional board and table games. This has been primarily influenced by the resounding success of Legendary Story Studios’ trading card game Flesh and Blood. Such a hit in fact that the developer was crowned the fastest growing business in New Zealand by Deloitte in 2022. Finding success in what is an increasingly niche market like board games truly highlights New Zealand’s unique ability to nurture gaming talent.

Why New Zealand

So, what is it about this small country in the South Pacific that makes it such a fertile breeding ground for emerging gaming companies?

Government support

Recognising the country’s impressive ability to punch above its weights in the gaming sector, in 2019 the government followed through with its promise to commit $10 million towards the establishment of the Centre for Digital Excellence (CODE) in Dunedin – a purpose-built hub ‘designed to support a sustainable and equitable expansion of New Zealand’s video game development industry.’ With such strong government support, emerging companies will feel confident that their industry is a priority and a key cog in government plans for economic growth.

A talented workforce

Without a worthwhile product to sell, it is impossible to find success in the gaming industry. Fortunately for New Zealand, it appears as though they have a high density of talent in their small gaming workforce. With little over 1,000 people working in gaming in the country (for context, US developer Activision Blizzard counts 13,000 on their books), the ability to produce such high-quality releases like Path of Exiles 2 highlights a unique ability to tap into what players actually want to play.

Global market focus

As a small nation, New Zealand’s tech industries operate with a global mindset from the get-go, aware that meaningful growth will ultimately come from exporting to larger markets. This means that companies think big, focusing on global trends and preferences while fostering international partnerships early on. This mindset is reflected in the country’s games industry, where thinking beyond borders is a necessary strategic decision.

As New Zealand’s tech market continues to develop, its importance to the country’s economy is becoming increasingly evident. Driven by sectors such as gaming, which are providing the blueprint for other areas to similarly expand and grow, New Zealand could soon see its tech companies become its largest and most valuable export. While there remain challenges ahead for these emerging sectors, most notably tackling the ongoing issue of skills shortages in key areas and competing with developing industries elsewhere, it is hoped that vital talent will continue to emerge.

How Online Platforms Reflect Thai Gambling Identity

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How Online Platforms Reflect Thai Gambling Identity

Thailand has always had a unique relationship with chance. Whether it’s the lottery numbers hidden in a dream or a whispered sports tip passed along at a street market, gambling—formal or otherwise—sits quietly but powerfully within Thai culture. It’s not just about the thrill of the win. It’s about tradition, belief, and a little bit of magic.

Now, with smartphones replacing bet slips and live odds showing up where incense once burned, platforms like ยูฟ่าเบท are becoming unlikely but fitting temples of luck. These digital spaces aren’t just tools—they’re cultural mirrors. They reflect how modern Thai gamblers engage with identity, history, and technology all at once.

A Longstanding Dance with Luck

To understand the present, it helps to look back. Gambling in Thailand dates back centuries, woven into festivals, folklore, and everyday life. Before apps and logins, locals placed bets on Muay Thai matches, cockfights, and informal card games. The Thai government even ran its own lottery system as early as the 1800s—part entertainment, part revenue generator.

But even before the numbers were printed on a ticket, they were drawn from dreams. Many Thais believe in interpreting dreams, signs, and omens as messages from the spiritual realm. A snake in a dream could mean a lucky number is coming. A certain date on the calendar might feel cosmically significant. Gambling, in this context, isn’t seen as a vice—it’s a form of communion with fate.

The Spiritual Layer Most Outsiders Miss

Western narratives around gambling often strip it down to logic and luck—odds, math, maybe addiction. But in Thailand, there’s an entirely different layer. Many bettors light incense before a lottery draw. Others visit temples and ask monks for lucky numbers. Some even make offerings to ancient spirits or deities believed to bring fortune.

This blend of spirituality and chance hasn’t disappeared with the arrival of online betting. In fact, it’s evolving. Thai gamblers still look for signs. But now they might enter those numbers into a digital sportsbook or casino platform instead of a physical ticket. They might watch a live football match on their phone, whispering a quick prayer before placing an in-game bet. Ritual meets real-time tech.

Platforms Like UFABET Aren’t Just Convenient—They’re Familiar

Let’s talk about why Thai players are turning to digital platforms like ยูฟ่าเบท. On the surface, it’s about access. These platforms offer easy sign-up, live updates, secure payments, and a menu of games that range from baccarat to Premier League betting.

But there’s more to it than convenience.

Thai users aren’t just playing to win—they’re playing to belong. Online platforms have become social spaces. Group chats buzz with tips and lucky streaks. Communities form around certain games or strategies. There’s even a language to it—slang, emojis, and phrases that are uniquely Thai. It’s a cultural identity that’s gone digital.

And these platforms don’t ignore that. Many are designed with Thai language support, popular local games, and payment systems that align with how people already use mobile money in their daily lives. It’s not just gambling; it’s gambling in Thai style.

Superstition Still Shapes the Digital Experience

Even in digital spaces, tradition persists. Some users only log in on “lucky days” based on their zodiac sign. Others swear by specific colors or screen names that have brought them good fortune. Some even pick betting times based on auspicious hours recommended by fortune tellers.

Online gambling platforms—knowingly or not—have become a new ritual ground. And users bring all their cultural habits with them. One bettor might avoid certain numbers that are considered unlucky. Another might always bet after meditating. Technology hasn’t erased these habits; it’s adapted to them.

Betting as a Form of Cultural Rebellion

It’s important to acknowledge the legal gray area. Gambling is heavily restricted in Thailand, with the exception of the national lottery and betting on horse races. But underground betting and online platforms are booming. Why?

Because gambling also acts as a quiet form of rebellion.

For many, placing a bet is more than just a game—it’s a way to push back against a system that doesn’t always feel fair. It’s a way to take control, even if just for a moment. And digital platforms offer a discreet, safe space to do it. No smoky back rooms. No risky handoffs. Just a login, a mobile screen, and a moment of personal agency.

Thai Games, Global Style

It’s fascinating to see which games Thai users gravitate toward. Sports betting is massive, especially football. But casino games like baccarat and hi-lo (a traditional dice game known as “Sic Bo”) also have deep roots in local culture. These games mimic real-life versions often played during festivals or family gatherings.

So when someone in Bangkok logs into a digital casino to play baccarat, they’re not just mimicking a James Bond movie—they’re reliving family nights, street corner challenges, or temple fair fun. And the fact that these platforms offer localized versions of such games? That’s not just smart marketing—it’s cultural fluency.

Mobile-First, Culture-Forward

One key reason why online gambling fits so well into Thai culture: mobile-first behavior. Thailand has one of the highest mobile internet usage rates in Southeast Asia. People are used to doing everything from paying bills to ordering street food through their phones.

So naturally, betting followed suit.

Platforms that perform well on mobile—both in function and feel—are more than just popular. They’re practical. And the ones that embrace local customs, payment methods, and visual styles? They feel like they were built for Thai users, not just available to them.

Why This Isn’t Just a Trend

What we’re seeing in Thailand isn’t a fad. It’s a cultural shift. It’s not about tech replacing tradition—it’s about tech supporting it in new formats. And that’s why it matters.

Thai gamblers aren’t giving up their values. They’re carrying them online. They’re blending belief and behavior in a way that makes perfect sense for a society that’s long embraced both spirituality and innovation.

And that makes online gambling platforms more than a pastime. It makes them part of the national story.

Final Thoughts: What the “Temple” Really Means

Calling a platform like UFABET the “new temple of luck” isn’t about exaggeration. It’s about recognizing that these platforms aren’t just functional—they’re sacred in their own way. They offer ritual, community, tradition, and a sense of connection to something larger than the game.

For Thai players, a bet isn’t just a wager. It’s a wish, a belief, a personal symbol of hope. And now, thanks to modern tools, they can place that wish anytime, anywhere—without losing the cultural heartbeat behind it.

So the next time someone logs on, they’re not just gambling. They’re continuing a legacy.

And that’s the real jackpot.

Navigating a Forced Sale: What Every Co-Owner Needs to Know

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Navigating a Forced Sale: What Every Co-Owner Needs to Know

When two or more people jointly own a property, one of the owners might force the sale of the property by implementing a partition action or a lawsuit.

According to statistics, of the about 1.8 million property transactions, an average of 82,000 transactions per year, 6.1% are forced transactions.

If you’re also a co-owner of a property and there’s a forced sale coming up, then here is everything you need to know.

What is a Forced Sale?

A forced sale, also known as a partition lawsuit, is a legal procedure in which any co-owner of a jointly owned property can order a court-ordered sale.

The sale takes place under court supervision and ends in the division of the property or through the sale proceeds. However, filing a lawsuit should only be considered as a last resort.

Before going to court, remember that you can also force the sale through persuasion and even the threat of a lawsuit. Here are some tips to keep in mind:

  • See yourself from the other co-owner’s perspective and try to figure out what they want and why.
  • See how the other co-owners might be harmed if you take matters to court.
  • Explain how a voluntary sale could prevent the unnecessary time and money associated with litigation.
  • Try to devise a specific course of action, such as a buyout, voluntary sale, or even keeping the property.

Disagreements in Co-ownership of Properties

Two or more people might want to co-own a property for many reasons, such as making it an appealing investment opportunity, a joint tenancy with a family member, or a vacation timeshare with a loved one.

However, when joint owners can compromise on dividing the assets and splitting the profits, there are litigation teams that are specially trained to handle court-ordered forced sales.

Another thing to remember is that any decision related to the property requires agreement from all the co-owners. This is why, when there are disagreements, mitigating them can become a challenge.

There are different reasons why co-owners might disagree on a jointly-owned property:

  • One co-owner might need funds for personal use, which might prompt them to sell the property.
  • One of the co-owners might decide to move somewhere else or start a family on a bigger property.
  • There can be sudden conflicts over property management, such as disagreements on repairs and maintenance.
  • If the property proves to be an investment, then co-owners can have different ideas, such as whether to keep or sell the property.

Partition Action on Inherited Property

As a co-owner, you must know your rights to an inherited property. Partition actions can arise in the context of probate when there’s a dispute regarding the joint ownership of a property that has been passed down from an ancestor.

Maybe multiple beneficiaries have inherited the property together through an estate or trust fund distribution.

However, if beneficiaries don’t want to jointly own the property or they can’t agree on how to divide up their interest, then a partition action can be brought and forced.

For example, when someone leaves a will mentioning the property to multiple beneficiaries, the ones who wish to terminate their obligation to the property can seek a partition lawsuit.

If you’re from California, get in touch with a reliable real estate attorney California. They will have all the knowledge about local laws and regulations, ensuring a favorable verdict.

Requirements for a Partition Action

The most basic requirement for a partition action is that you have to be the co-owner of the property. If your name doesn’t appear on the property title, you can’t file a lawsuit.

When it comes to probate, a will or a trust might designate the property to pass over to more than one estate beneficiary.

However, until the executor or trustee transfers the title to the beneficiaries, the latter will not be allowed to bring in any partition action.

For example, if the executor or trustee delays selling or transferring the property because they are living in it without paying any rent, you can claim to remove or surcharge the executor or trustee for fiduciary or financial misconduct.

How to Win a Partition Action?

You first have to pressure the other party by convincing them of a voluntary sale or by obtaining a court order for sale.

However, if you wish to stop the sale, you can win through a buyout or by asking the other owners to halt the partition action.

If any resolution fails, the party wanting the property sale will probably win the partition action.

Conclusion

As a co-owner, you need to know your rights and duties regarding a jointly-owned property. So, don’t wait anymore and get in touch with a reputable attorney today.

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