New music by Jane's Party, The Elephant Trees, Don't Fear the Natives, In the Valley Below, Happiness Junkies

Another batch of all-indie music - from five different countries! - fills our New Music bin this week. All are tracks that made their Birch Street Radio debut on our Sunday free-form show, The Detour, and earned their way into our rotation.

We previously added a couple of singles that Toronto alt-rockers Jane's Party released ahead of their new album, Casual Island. Now that the full LP is out, we're adding "Arrow" to our playlist. The track features what Canadian Beats describes as "bouncing base, kicking drums, upbeat layered vocals, and tight electric guitar."

Our regular listeners also know The Elephant Trees, an alt-rock trio from Manchester, U.K. Their latest single is an edgy synth-driven number called "4100." Lead singer Martha Phillips said “It’s different in style to our earlier music but I think that comes from a place of growth." She wrote the song, she said, "about the things we use to distract us from life.”

Jumping over to Donegal, Ireland, we catch up with a recent release from Don't Fear the Natives, a six-piece band built around the duo of singer Claire McDaid and guitarist/songwriter Denis Kelly. Their EP Stupid Heart includes various styles from rock to folk. We're featuring the title track, which lands somewhere in between, with a gently rolling melody threading through a low-fi rumble of drums and keyboards.

In The Valley Below's sophomore LP, The Pink Chateau, is due in April. It will include the previously released title track and "Desperate Dance." The California-based duo of Angela Gail and Jeffrey Jacob has just spun out another single, a slow-burning song of perseverance called "Rise."

Also in the "slowbeat" vein, we're picking up a track from Amsterdam's Happiness Junkies. The duo of vocalist/pianist El and guitarist Onno serves up what Indie Spoonful describes as "rock melancholia with intelligent lyrics that you can ease your mind into." From their recently released debut album, we're featuring "You Can Leave Your Light On."