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ISMAY Half Truth Perhaps the most rewarding thing about music is deeply connecting with an artist and their debut album, then getting to follow them through their sophomore release, their third album, the fourth, etc.. and experience how they and their music grows and matures over time. You yourself also growing and maturing and if the connection to the music is deep enough, their albums and songs become part of your life experiences and story. We’re delighted to be on this journey with ISMAY (albeit unbeknownst to ISMAY). 2020’s Songs of Sonoma Mountain was fantastic, showcasing the artists quirky songwriting, skillful acoustic guitar fingerpicking, and melancholy frame of mind. Half Truth, what I’d call ISMAY’s third studio LP, is very different. There’s still more of the full band sound introduced in the second LP Desert Pavement, but now there’s more band. I think I even heard some arpeggiated synths! True fans don’t have to worry though, there’s still plenty of songs about horses. Brilliant. Also interesting that we may have two cousins vying for our album of the year pick. (12 Jun '26)  |
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H2 Running Late This is the debut release from H2, spearheaded by Luke Norman, a Boston-based fusion artist and violinist who has enlisted some fellow Berklee College of Music buddies to put together this exciting and frenetic new release. Bias warning here – we know Norman, like his music, and are going to give this a glowingly positive review :-) We like to hang in the living room or light the candles on the back patio at night, sip Miller High Lifes and Siesta Key Rum while overlooking the Gulf and talk music with him. Sometimes even jam a little together. While he has no problem keeping up with our favs – jumping in to accompany us or his sis on a Big Thief song, not an issue - when he starts talking about his influences, we are admittedly quickly overwhelmed. Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ghost Note and other progressive jazz fusion or jazz-funk artists roll off his tongue while we sit there with a blank “who?” expression on our face. He’s gracious enough to quickly turn the discussion back to Weyes Blood for us. Like his favorite artists, Norman’s music bridges the worlds of jazz, electronic, and experimental rock on this release. “Running Late” is our fav – not just because it does a killer job capturing Norman’s somnambular approach to attacking the workday through his voicemail in-box, but listen to that damn drumming! (1 June '26) |
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My Morning Jacket Peacelands The Louisville-based band is playing HSBG this year, not too long after releasing this one, an album of mostly unreleased, acoustic peaceful protest songs - some covers (e.g., Brian Wilson, Woody Guthrie, Buck Owens, Lou Reed) and some written by Jim James, the main songwriter for the group. The band has been around for a long time, so this is probably not the best representative piece of work for new listeners. It’s probably also not a must-have for long time fans. Although James acoustic cover of his song "State Of The Art" -- you know, A.E.I.O.U. -- was very interesting, but nowhere near as good as the original off his 2013 solo release Regions of Light and Sound of God. We also don’t think the covers here will be a strong way to get fans of the covered arts on board. But the release supports some good causes (ALCU, Doctors Without Borders, Rescueorg) and has a good theme / message. (25 May '26)  |
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Speedy J - Walkman Walkman Walkman, Rotterdam, NL artist Jochem Paap's first solo album in over 20 years, is a freewheeling, 20-track testament to his decades-deep studio skill and sonic versatility. From hours of jams Paap pulled together standout moments and moulded them into a mixtape-like narrative ranging from two-minute beat nuggets to full-tilt techno workouts and immersive ambient drops. The instrumentals here wrap you with a thick blanket of humming, harmonic waves with an electric emotional charge, journey through evocative blooms of melancholic, gritty pads and rugged, half-submerged tech funk, reach skywards with grand sweeps of dynamic, brilliantly rendered synthesis, and lurch forward with beatless swamp of synths. It keeps moving and covers a lot of digital ground, making for an apropos title. (15 May '26)  |
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Aldus Harding Train on the Island The fifth studio album for the New Zealand indie folk singer-songwriter is a good one. We admit bias here – we love how Harding plays around with her vocals, squeezing out different peculiar tones and often multitracking her vocals with a higher and lower register at the same time. We have ”One Stop,” a sort of staccato Juana Molina-like piece and ”Worms” on our heavy rotation. (8 May '26)  |
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White Flowers Dreams For Somebody Else The Preston UK duo have made a dreampop release that uses synths like an 80s band that’s somewhere between new wave and industrial, in a song context that sounds like it comes from a 90s alt rock female lead band like Cocteau Twins or Lush. Unfortunately, unlike deary’s new release Birding, which we've also recently reviewed, this one doesn’t hit the same highs as the original music if draws on. (1 May '26) |
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Carla dal Forno |
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Modern Woman |
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Liv Solveig |
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Miss Grit |
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Evolfo |
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Helmut |
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Charbel Haber |
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Mikeala Davis |
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American Football |
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The Lives of Famous Men |
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OOIOO & Lightning Bolt The Horizon Spirals / The Horizon Viral This appears to be a split album with half of it dedicated to OOIOO and the second half to Lightning Bolt. When you find two artists that play well off one another, these sort of split albums can be magical. Case in point: Akron/Family & Angels of Light. This one? Not so much. OOIOO has two very long songs that are mostly high energy jumble of noise. The longer song repeats the same two phrases for 11 straight minutes. Lightning Bolt was also experimental noise, kinetic, frenetic jumble of drums and distorted guitar instrumentals. (24 Apr '26)  |
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Model Man Over Over is an EP of music assembled from fragments that were never meant to be found, let alone released, from UK artist Model Man. A leg and back injury that laid him up for a summer, and the discovery of an old laptop with some old recordings, started the journey towards this release. The result, ironically, is music for the dancefloor. Mix and sample heavy house designed to get you moving. Perhaps Model Man was making something to get him moving and help him get through rehab? It’s a good release. (24 Apr '26) |
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Tanya Donelly and Chris Brokaw The Done Is Done Again Here’s the preface: Tanya Donelly—co-founder of Belly, Throwing Muses, and The Breeders—and Chris Brokaw, guitarist/singer for the legendary Come, Codeine drummer and longtime collaborator with Thurston Moore, have come together to reimagine the centuries-old form of medieval music for the modern. This EP of four songs is largely reverb drenched guitar softly laying down notes and chords that Donelly’s vocal musings can sing over. This one comes off more about the modern than the medieval. The press release was probably more exciting than the music. (17 Apr '26) |
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Starker |
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Parlor Greens Emeralds This is some funky lounge music that you’d expect to hear set in some late 70s Quentin Tarantino flik where folks are relaxed on Emerald green pleather banquets in a dark smoke filled lounge, 7 and 7’s in one hand and a lit Parlament in between the fingers on the other hand. The Hammond B3 takes the lead in all the instrumentals here, thundering along while a clear Telecaster plugged into a Twin Reverb plucks away next to it. Funky bass and drums delivering deep R&B grooves anchor the rhythm section. We haven't heard the Hammond take such a prominate roll in a band since our short stint as a professional musican back in the 80s. We’d love to hear these guys do a stand in at Herb’s Hideout in Denver on a Tuesday night when the B3 Project wants to take an evening off. (10 Apr '26) |
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Prism Shores Softest Attack Prism Shores are, in their words “Montreal janglers who cherry-pick the record crate for influence, recalling the best shambling C86, fuzzed-out power pop, and glistening shoegaze while leaving an idiosyncratic stamp.” We think they went heavy on the guitar-heavy alt-rock albums from the mid-90s while pursuing the record crate. This is straightforward guitar, bass, vocals stuff (and three dudes that all play guitar, bass and sing) with some big, loose, fill heavy drumming anchoring it down. The group likens itself to The Wedding Present, The Go-Betweens, Teenage Fanclub, Sugar, and The Lemonheads, The Boo Radleys and Velocity Girl. Yep, sounds like music of that era. (10 Apr '26) |
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Miserable Chillers Innocent Victims The long running music project of NY-based composer and artist Miguel Gallego and various collaborators, this album covers a lot of territory in the pop-rock realm. Like an MF Tomlinson release, there’s a multitude of instruments and orchestrations, pop friendly melodies and, at times, a shredding guitar solo going on in the background. If we had a “2026 or 1967” playlist, we’d put Miserable Chillers on it … along with Those Pretty Wrongs which we also reviewed in this haul. Very good release. “Hoping for snow,” maybe the most melancholy song on the release, is our favorite here. (3 Apr '26)  |
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My New Band Believe My New Band Believe The debut album from the project helmed by London-based Cameron Picton is like a musical piecing together conflicting, fragmentary, and hysterical ideas. It’s very cinematic, lots of stops and starts, slow story telling sections explode into loud action sequences … sometimes multiple times in a span of just a minute. These are nowhere near being 4-4 verse-chorus-verse, guitar, drums, bass songs with lots of reverb and effects. This is mostly acoustic / organic, but there’s a little bit of everything – you’ll hear the occasional folk rock-like picked acoustic guitar in a bit, you’ll catch lots of ruckus drums and percussion, there will be a quick interlude with a Spanish flamenco-style guitar thrown in there, squelching horn spitting, a brief flurry from a string quartet to make a point. This is interesting stuff. As the bassist and sometime frontman of black midi, Picton and his bandmates practiced an explosive form of musical world-building, weaving complex story-telling through thrilling passages of controlled chaos. When the group called it quits in 2023, Picton apparently doubled down on the chaos and took it acoustic it with this project. Opposite our normal MO, our first listen to this was a bunch of the songs here mixed with a bunch of others on shuffle. We didn’t get it. We went back and gave the full release a spin and it clicked. Very interesting and enjoyable listen. File next to The Soft Pink Truth and Jerskin Fendrix. (10 Apr '26) |
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deary Birding This is the debut long play from the London-based dream-pop trio that came into being during COVID lockdown. Immediately upon first spin of this, we’re thinking this sounds like a long-lost Cocteau Twins album. The comparisons are undeniable. No surprise then when we read that the first two members of the group quickly bonded over a shared love of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and MBV. The first artist they discussed at their initial meeting was Elizabeth Fraser, the enigmatic singer of the Cocteau Twins. As you might expect then, the album is drenched in multitracked reverb guitar with angelic vocals floating above and a big drum base holding it down. “Garden of Eden” is really the only song that doesn’t sound like it came off a Cocteau Twins album … and it’s the song we like the best. (3 Apr '26) |
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Wendy Eisenberg Wendy Eisenberg Brooklyn-based Eisenberg is a singer and songwriter who uses guitar, pedals, the tenor banjo, the computer, and the synthesizer to texture up Americana songs that feel … especially after looking at the layout and font styling of the album cover … like they could harken back to great female songwriters of 70s folk-rock. Although Eisenberg’s soft vocals quickly dispel comparisons to Carly Simon et., al. While it has all the trappings of a singer-songwriter and her guitar folk music, the songs often have a jazzy feel, and a little bit of improve going on in them, which may differentiate Eisenberg from a lot of other café open mic night trobairitz (that’s a female troubadour ... and same word for both the singular or plural). (3 Apr '26) |
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Fcukers Ö Is it just us or does there seem to be a thing about guy-girl duos from major markets producing high energy, ass-kicking alt-EDM music lately (looking at you 100 Gecs and Sha Ru)? Count New York City-based Fcukers in this camp. Big distorted bass, 4 on the floor, high bmp snare and bass drum, synth samples and textures, repetitive verses, big catchy choruses. This is music to rage to at the club. Despite “if you wanna party, come over to my house” -- a very apt title for the vibe of this release, we should note -- having way more plays, “I Like It Like That” is best in show here. (27 Mar '26) |
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The New Pornographers The Former Site Of We added this release to our monthly listening haul along with a gazillion of others so sort of forgot about it when listening. A couple of songs in, we’re thinking “who is this band, they’re pretty good,” We go check and, alas, it’s the New Pornographers. We were expecting some hit you over the head, in your face, teenage energy power-pop like on their early 2000s releases. Here though was a release of grown-up, middle-aged adult rock and storytelling. A welcome maturation. ”Spooky Action” and “Bonus Mai Tais” are our favorites here. (27 Mar '26) |
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Charlotte Cornfield Hurts Like Hell Hurts Like Hell is Charlotte Cornfield Merge Records debut and her sixth album overall. These are mellow, Americana songs that take their sweet time working their way through personal stories and character narratives. We like this genre, and this is an easy listen of very well-crafted songs. (27 Mar '26) |
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Big Harp Runs to Blue Chris Senseney, half of Big Harp with his wife Stefanie Drootin, has a deep, expressive classic country western voice that fills Big Harp’s songs here just like our other favorite baritone country crooners such as White Buffalo, The Handsome Family. The acoustic guitar picking and musical accompaniment is spot on as well on this album, which hits true to Nashville or Asheville-style Americana folk. It’s a solid album and good listen. (27 Mar '26) |
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Sofia Kourtesis DJ-Kicks: Sofia Kourtesis With 22 songs, you’ll certainly get your money’s worth from this release, part of the infamous DJ-Kicks series. Pitchfork writes “In her contribution to the long-running mix series, the Peruvian-born, Berlin-based DJ assembles a wide-ranging set of emotive house music that illustrates her ethos of ‘less perfection, more corazón.’” While this is mostly a mix intended to get you dancing, Kourtesis spins wide mix of artists here, including more dance-floor known entities such as Aphex Twin or Octo Octa, to Peruvian Latin chillers Novalima to ambient knob twiddler Jon Hopkins. (27 Mar '26) |
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Slayyyter Worst Girl in America Molly from I Enjoy Music writes about this one: “The album is pure messy party girl music … Last year Charli xcx brought cocaine pop back to the fore, but she also was working through anxiety and grief, and the music often slowed or chilled out to accompany those emotions. Slayyter, who is bottle blonde and puffy-lipped and 29 years old, keeps the intensity high and takes the themes back to basics: sex, alcohol, drugs, money, and saying things like "I didn't step off the train tonight to get mean-mugged in the club by some ugly bitches." She is spot on in her review. We can see third track “CANNIBALISM!’ crossing over to massive pop-hit land. 100 Gecs fans should give this one a spin. (27 Mar '26) |
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True Green Hail Disaster This is the sophomore release from Minneapolis-based artist going by True Green. The music is mostly clear guitar lines, simple bass and drum rhythm section, vocs and a little keys sprinkled in doing some straightforward upbeat pop-rock songs that sort of harken back to late 60s / early 70s. When you hit ”Jonathan,” one of the better sons here, True Green starts to really channel Lou Reed. You’ll swear it’s his ghost reincarnate. But the best song here is halfway though, when the album takes a left turn into darkness for just one song, and “Hail Disaster” (the best song here) does the minimalist soundtrack for a slow unraveling disaster … before the next song returns us back to pop-rock land. (24 Mar '26) |
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Alba Akvama Minute Nothing This Copenhagen-based producer and composer unexpected exploded beyond the local Copenhagen alt-pop scene via TikTok and Spotify algorithms in 2025. The EP, written largely in the artists bedroom is built from a minimal palette of gentle rhythms, acoustic textures, and warm, closely-held vocals. It’s well done, intimate, beautiful at times and an easy listen, but for us, the songs sort of floated along rather than reached out and grab or attention. (20 Mar '26) |
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Les Heures Bleues Circa Diem The trio Les Heures Bleues and Cypres Records, an independent music label based in Brussels invite the listener on a sonic journey to capture the cyclical course of the sun over about a day. Follow the rhythm of light as they play four sonatas by Tomaso Albinoni, each chosen and set in dialogue with different moments in the solar cycle – the gentle dawn, the intense brightness of the zenith, the enveloping warmth of the golden hour, the shifting shadows of dusk – and expressed through the richness of this Baroque music.Bandcamp calls it a “Dazzling modern classical with the lightest underpinning of medieval music, ‘Circa Diem’ is full of dancing flutes and violins.” (6 Mar '26) |
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DeLoyd Elze Nellene DeLoyd Elze is making some pretty Americana / country on this release that features an alligator (or crocodile?) lazing in a backyard swimming pool. However, Elze is chugging through this working out of LA instead of Nashville, where it sounds like this album would originate from. It’s a nice, short release that should be on any playlist designed to be spun on a sunny Sunday backyard bbq where you’re drinking Miller High Life’s and eating well. (6 Mar '26) |
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Jogging House Bones Ambient music from this Frankfurt Am Main, Germany artist, this was made using Digitakt II, MS20, Cocoquantus, Solid Felt, Mood, Meraki, Bim & Bam and recorded in single takes straight to 1/4" tape. It’s very good background ambient in a neutral to slightly cautious, curious, melancholy mood. We are finding it perfect to listen to on a rainy afternoon while doing taxes. (4 Mar '26) |
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Palo Canto Golden Runes The Budapest based, multicultural techno fusion formation and producer duo both aims to gravitate its listeners to their absolute higher self and implies to get infiltrated in their souls as an indigenous medicine, like the sacred smoke of burning palo santo. This is very good house that would work great in a club. It’s upbeat enough to get folks moving and also has enough going on from song to song to keep the people who are not on the dance floor energized. When we want to inject some energy into the lounge and get folks to start thinking about hitting the dance floor, we’d reach for this. (18 Jan '26) |
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georgia, georgia Looking for Affection Bandcamp writes: “Heartfelt lyrics and strident, confident choruses make the Italian singer-songwriter's latest an indie lover's dream.” We think georgia, georgia may be wishing that that she released this album in the height of 1990’s Lilith Fair movement. Girl power voice going soft to full power in the choruses; jangly guitars switching from acoustic to crunchy power pop rock chords during the chorus; solid drum and bass; no fancy synths or programmed beats. Yep, this would have slotted in right next to Sarah McLachlan, Lisa Loeb, Natalie Merchant and the gang. Give “Slow Down” a spin and you’ll see what we mean. (6 Feb '25) |
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Catherine Brookman If A Song Fades Out, It's Playing Forever Somewhere Brookman is a classically-trained Brooklyn & LA-based performer and composer, originally from Baltimore, who has previously performed with operas and orchestras across the U.S. as a contralto. She also makes music under the name Sullivann, where The New York Times has described her music as “vocally complex, rich and consistently surprising, with a sonic glow as entrancing as a phosphorescent sea.” This is a very nice album that’s sort of vocal performance – flexible range, vocals as texture, mult-layered vocals – over relatively sparce acoustic and digital instrumentation and a production that tilts towards experimental, moody, and chill. The songs (really, more pieces, like something you might experience in an art gallery), jump around a bit, presenting one collage, then shifting to another, then maybe another. We have “Night Ride” and “Swimming Pool” on heavy rotation. (7 Nov '25) |
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Those Pretty Wrongs Holiday Camp This one came on our radar as they were opening for Robyn Hitchcock at the Chapel in San Francisco, 14 May 2026. Turns out Jody Stephens was the drummer for the legendary band Big Star and his partner here, Luther Russell is an acclaimed solo artist and record producer. This release has that 60’s inspired feel, especially songs like “Always the Rainbow,” which you might have expected to come out of Laurel Canyon back in the day. The album is a mix of jangly acoustic guitar heavy folk mixed with dual harmonies boarding on twee rock territory, best demonstrated on probably the best song here, “New September Song. (31 Mar '23) |
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EL Khat ute This came on our radar upon finding that El Khat is scheduled to play at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2026. El Khat’s third album careens out of the speakers with a raucous intensity. Formed in the garages and warehouses of Jaffa and now based in Berlin the feel here is still of the streets of the motherland. Skittering drums and brass, a jagged organ, hypnotic Yemeni melodies and one-of-a-kind DIY percussion and string instruments. It’s kind of like clanging pots and pans and trying to string together some notes (against an Arabic scale) on whatever found instrument is around. We suspect it might be interesting to see in action at HSBG, it's probably not something we're spinning at home much. (13 Sept '24)  |
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OOIOO & Lightning Bolt The Horizon Spirals / The Horizon Viral This appears to be a split album with half of it dedicated to OOIOO and the second half to Lightning Bolt. When you find two artists that play well off one another, these sort of split albums can be magical. Case in point: Akron/Family & Angels of Light. This one? Not so much. OOIOO has two very long songs that are mostly high energy jumble of noise. The longer song repeats the same two phrases for 11 straight minutes. Lightning Bolt was also experimental noise, kinetic, frenetic jumble of drums and distorted guitar instrumentals. (24 Apr '26) |
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Model Man Over Over is an EP of music assembled from fragments that were never meant to be found, let alone released, from UK artist Model Man. A leg and back injury that laid him up for a summer, and the discovery of an old laptop with some old recordings, started the journey towards this release. The result, ironically, is music for the dancefloor. Mix and sample heavy house designed to get you moving. Perhaps Model Man was making something to get him moving and help him get through rehab? It’s a good release. (24 Apr '26) |
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Charbel Haber May a soft sun bless your sky while you wait for the inevitable Charbel Haber is Lebanese musician, performer, visual artist and composer from Beirut. Leaving the war-torn area for Paris, the city inspired him with this release. It’s landscapes and colors become a little more vibrant as he matched them, in his head, to radiant melodies he had previously written. This release of eight ambient instrumentals, all with long song titles, sounds like a soft, muted fight between light and dark amongst reverb drenched guitar, church organ sounds, ethereal voices, and unsettling samples. The light shimmers, trying to break through, while endless waves of melancholia wash up against it, trying to drown it out. Paris is giving him hope, but his home in Beirut is still embroiled in conflict. You can hear it in this release. (24 Apr'26) |
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Helmut Content Creatures With this pop-rock release and his fourth album, Berlin-based Helmut wants us to embrace the “beautiful loser”, a figure that had nearly vanished in so-called late capitalism. He posits that in a present where even suffering is often instrumentalized and optimized for clicks like a competitive sport, his album sets a counterpoint. Listening to it awakens the desire to be enchanting losers again: useless, joyfully messing up, losing something beloved, having one’s heart broken, giving up a dream, sinking into beauty. We like the simple pop-rock songs here, most of which have a bit more longing in them than they do giddiness. Probably due to Helmut’s mournful vocals, which typically float over a simple programmed drum beat, interesting percussion, a moving bass line and some keyboards & synths filling in for what is typically the guitar in most rock songs. Think of it as a mellower version of Washed Out, or Synth Pop meets Yacht Rock without any catchy hooks or thundering choruses. “Je t’adore l’ennui” is our best in show on this release. (24 Apr'26) |
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Courtney Barnett Creature of Habit New one from the Melbourne, Australia artist who now has a number of albums and years since we started following her with her 2015’s “sometimes I sit and think…” release. The deadpan delivery of seemingly more lyrics than will fit in a verse is still here, as is a very well-rounded musicianship and production. We sort of think of this as Australian Americana. Good music to listen to that’s going to go down as smooth as a Miller High Life after a long afternoon of yard work. “Site Unseen” is probably our favorite here, but none of the songs really jump out as significantly better (or worse) than the others. (27 Mar '26) |
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Sanaya Ardeshir Hand of Thought Hand of Thought is the first full-length release by Indian composer Sanaya Ardeshir under her own name — introducing a parallel practice that exists alongside her work as electronic producer Sandunes. We think it’s a beautiful neoclassical release, featuring mostly piano, with the accompaniment of a bass guitar, some horns and other instrumentation in some pieces. It’s a nice piano music to piece to put on in the background while you work, meditate, nap or lay around. The album title is inspired by Kosho Uchiyama’s Opening the Hand Of Thought - a seminal work in the development of Buddhism throughout East Asia. (27 Mar '26) |
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Neurosis An Undying Love for a Burning World This is the is the twelfth studio album by American post-metal band Neurosis and their first album in 10 years, albeit with new vocalist Aaron Turner after domestic abuse came to light with the Scott Kelly. This one kicks off with a great vocal-only track in “We Are Torn Wide Open” then gets to some heavy, dark songs after that. Often with apocalyptic themes of isolation, anxiety, environmental collapse, and the search for catharsis. This pretty good dark metal. You can expect the growling vocals, heavy guitars and thundering bass and drums. But there’s also spots here that are a bit more meditative, slower and set the stage for the onslaught. (20 Mar '26) |
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Anna Calvi Is This All There Is? EP Four songs and four outstanding contributors: Iggy Pop, Laurie Anderson, Perfume Genius, and Matt Berninger. Calvi is bringing it strong after her work scoring the final two seasons of Peaky Blinders and composing an opera with visionary director Robert Wilson. This release has the classic Calvi elements – sparse soft verses sung with the Calvi vibrato that explode into bigger than life choruses with driving bass lines, prancing drumming, 80s synth riffs, and plucked guitar lines moving you forward before the ship shows down again for the next verse. This time Calvi is joined by the aforementioned artists, letting each of their voice fill up the softer parts of a song while they tell their story in their own unique voices. We got a kick out of listening to Iggy Pop’s scraggly baritone on “God’s Lonely Man” back-to-back with the Perfume Genius’ delicate, fragile falsetto on “I See A Darkness,” our two picks for best songs here. (16 Mar '26) |
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Precenphix teichopsia The Harrisburg, Pennsylvania artist Ben Rabenold cites inspiration from artists such as Seefeel, Richard D James, Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, Jack Dangers, Björk, Coil, Scorn, Monolake and Autechre. They state the release is an amalgam of influence steeped in electronic music’s resurgence and prominence into the sonic landscape of the 1990s through the 2000s and beyond with a sound that ranges from IDM / braindance, glitch, ambient, dub, breakbeat, downtempo, industrial, modern classical, musique concrète and even score work. There are no ‘singles’ on the album. Rather, it is meant to be experienced in a single sitting. (13 Mar '26) |
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Simo Cell & Adbullah Miniawy Dying Is The Internet French producer Simo Cell and Egyptian singer, poet, producer and composer Abdullah Miniawy reunite to deliver this album. Cell has become known for his leftfield club music, twisting up adventurous rhythms and flamboyant production in pursuit of a perpetual freshness for the floor. His dubstep orgins sneak in on this release from time to time. Miniawy layers his Arabic lyricism and singing styles on top of a number of tracks here giving this release a The Club meets The Middle-East vibe. Playing to the theme of the release, the artists challenge you to set aside your social media swipe tendencies and dedicate time to listen to the entire release start to finish. (12 Mar '26) |
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Human Potential Eel Sparkles This is the solo project of Andrew Becker, former drummer for Dischord Records’ band, Medications and Brooklyn larrikins, Screens. It’s garage rock meetings a little 80s synth wave on ten songs here that are between 3 and 4 minutes long. On “The Sightseer”, Sparkles vocal performance sounds an awful lot like Jerskin Fendrix. Decent indie rock. (6 Mar '26) |
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Joshua Idehen I know you’re hurting, everyone is hurting, everyone is trying, you have got to trytbd Idehen is a British-born Nigerian based in Sweden. A spoken word artist, a musician, and a lover of long album titles. He has contributed poems to a number of Mercury-nominated albums from artists such as The Comet Is Coming and Sons of Kemet. Here he mixes his poems, often delivered in spoken word style, along with uplifting choirs, cozy samples and exuberant, sometimes house-tinged beats. This is pretty decent stuff. We can do without some of the new-disco tunes like “Don’t Let It Get You Down.” But we enjoy the spoken poems, especially the brilliant take on social structures describe in “Mum Does the Washing” and the advice to “choose a cat” in “Choose Yourself.” if you’re looking for some club music that is heavy on spoken word over some thick beats, give this a spin. (6 Mar '26) |
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Jogging House Bones Ambient music from this Frankfurt Am Main, Germany artist, this was made using Digitakt II, MS20, Cocoquantus, Solid Felt, Mood, Meraki, Bim & Bam and recorded in single takes straight to 1/4" tape. It’s very good background ambient in a neutral to slightly cautious, curious, melancholy mood. We are finding it perfect to listen to on a rainy afternoon while doing taxes. (4 Mar '26) |
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DeLoyd Elze Nellene DeLoyd Elze is making some pretty Americana / country on this release that features an alligator (or crocodile?) lazing in a backyard swimming pool. However, Elze is chugging through this working out of LA instead of Nashville, where it sounds like this album would originate from. It’s a nice, short release that should be on any playlist designed to be spun on a sunny Sunday backyard bbq where you’re drinking Miller High Life’s and eating well. (6 Mar '26) |
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Eliza Noxon Good Monsters with Bad Habits Fun fact: Noxon first gained recognition at age twelve with Hummingbird, featured on Orange is the New Black and streamed over eight million times. She is an Ojai, CA-based singer-songwriter whose music blends folk roots with indie-rock edge, exploring grief, identity, and the strange beauty of growing up. We generally like this girl, singer-songwriter sort of music. But the risk here is it becomes too Phebe on Friends in the coffee shop. Too simple with just an acoustic guitar and the same strum and too droning on about the singer’s relationship issues. This album comes a little too close to that edge for us, especially on songs like “Day After Day.” Most of the other songs are 90s Lilith Fair alt-girl rocker stuff. We do appreciate the changing time signatures from 6/4 to 3/4 on “One More Round.” (27 Feb '26) |
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Gorillaz The Mountain This is ninth the studio album for Damon Albarn’s Gorillaz and let’s hope it’s their last. Don’t get us wrong, this is a pretty good album. It’s just that out of all Albarn’s musical vehicles, this one puts out the worst music. Which is a little surprising as Gorillaz enables Albarn to experiment with other sorts of influences – E.g. the Indian vibes on “Damascus.” We’re hoping that Albarn ends this so he can focus more time on his solo music, more Blur albums, more The Good, The Bad and the Queen releases and more scores and soundtracks. These other projects/bands put out amazing music. Seems the point of Gorillaz is less about the music and more about who is featured on the release. This one includes: Ajay Prasanna, Anoushka Shankar, Asha Bhosle, Asha Puthli, Bizarrap, Black Thought, Gruff Rhys, IDLES, Jalen Ngonda, Johnny Marr, Kara Jackson, Omar Souleyman, Paul Simonon, Sparks, Trueno, Yasiin Beyputs and posthumous appearances from Dennis Hopper, Bobby Womack, David Jolicoeur from De La Soul, Tony Allen, Proof, and Mark E. Smith. We dig most of these artists on their own, but they’re not helping Albarn make better music in our opinion. (27 Feb '26) |
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Mitski Nothing’s About to Happen to Me Wow, Mitski is already eight studio albums into it? Live instrumentation, By The Land touring band, and ensemble arrangements - this one feels like a more mature Mitski on a lot of the songs. There’s still the angst-ridden yelling and banging on the loud distorted Les Paul in songs such as “If I Leave.” But if feels like that’s more the exception than rule … and in our point of view, the low points of the album. The song right after that, “Dead Women” as well as “Charon’s Obol” later in the release are beautiful songs with mellow melodies and orchestrations. “Rules” even has some swing and a Bourbon street clarinet to it. Great album. (27 Feb '26) |
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Final Gasp New Day Symptoms The Boston-based rockers are getting their angst out in album, which sounds like one of the dime a dozen local hard rock acts you’d see slogging at it in some small, dark, cheap basement bar in a working class corner of the city like Hamtramck in Detroit. You know the band, long haired, jeans, black leather jackets, distorted guitars leading a bashing drums and bass rhythm section while the singer jumps between pained verses and angry chorus. The 5 or 6 sweaty male band groupies form a make-shift mosh pit in front of the stage, bashing into each other and slinging beers around frantically during the last song. Playing this at our next dinner party? Hell no. But go to that stinky dive bar, drink some beers and catch this show? Yep. (27 Feb '26)  |
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Birds Weird Weather in Dystopia This is a three track EP from Birds, UK Born, Rotterdam based DJ, producer, performer and Feed The Void label owner. She calls her music genre fluid dance music and combines acid elements and classic Electro rhythms for diverse vocal driven tracks. It’s not really resonating with us that much. (27 Feb '26) |
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Milk for the Angry Hand Fed Fruit Very good stuff from this San Francisco band. It comes off a little twee pop, or rock lite. At its core it’s simple melodic 3 minute pop rock songs like the stuff The Beatles might have written in their early days. But there are some absolutely killer tunes here like “Chronicles of a Poster Child,” "Sons of Mighty May," and “Garlands of Marigold.” (27 Feb '26) |
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Hen Ogledd DISCOMBOBULATED Discombobulated indeed. We feel discombobulated right from song 2, “Scales will fall,” (which, BTW is the best song on the release) as a girl with a UK accent starts cutting rhymes and rapping … but not to a beat and samples background that is your standard hip-hop fare, but rather some indie rock band playing an over eight-minute anthem. The Newcastle Upon Tyne collaborative project of artists Dawn Bothwell, Rhodri Davies, Richard Dawson and Sally Pilkington follow that up with more pieces that mix art rock, experimental, noise rock, baby nursery rhymes and storytelling, bleeps, blips, choir, and electronic folk in songs between 4 minutes and 20 minutes long. This is sort of like Tunng but with perhaps a more experimental bent. (20 Feb '26) |
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Hiroshi Ebina On Solitude Ebina is a Japanese sound artist creating electronic/ambient music. The artist’s third album for KITCHEN. LABEL unfolds as a quiet rebellion against hyperconnectivity. It is designed to be quiet and plays out mostly in an ambient sound with forays to new-classical, soft techno or house, and what the artist calls post-digital minimalism. This is mellow mood setting instrumentals that will provide a soundscape and is probably best played start to finish. (20 Feb '26) |
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Hemlocke Springs the apple tree under the sea the apple tree under the sea is the debut album from Los Angeles-based alt-pop artist hemlocke springs. It’s a romp of well-produced pop and dance-floor songs. Assuming she has the appropriate skimpy attire and well-choregraphed troupe of dancers, we can see springs performing the half-time show of the Superbowl with “be the girl!” (13 Feb '26) |
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Charli xcx Wuthering Heights How do you follow up a hugely popular, pop culture defining album like BRAT? Apparently make an adventurous soundtrack for a blockbuster film. While the movie may be a period piece, this album, even with a heavy use of beautiful string arrangements in most of the songs, is very much of a modern-times pop culture vibe. If you otherwise know, we’re sure one would pick this out as a soundtrack just from listening to it. (13 Feb '26) |
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Servicio al Cliente Alien Tropical Alien Tropical is the second album by Servicio Al Cliente (Customer Service), the project of Colombian-born, Berlin-resident Juliana Martinez. When asked about Alien Tropical, Martinez pieces together fragments of memory: winter explorations, long road trips, navigating the highways and the heart. “I had been driving a lot at the time on the highway,” she recalls. “I depended on music I played in the car to manage my emotions and my thoughts on those long drives. Everything felt strange and unfamiliar on the highway, and I realised music was so psychological and my only tool to influence my feelings between highways and new places.” This seems more likely to be making an attempt to get spun on the dancefloor rather than your roadtrip playlist. It’s pretty basic stuff, same tone and beat over the whole song. Not that interesting to us. (12 Feb '26) |
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Twisted Teens Blame the Clown This is a lo-fi rocker from New Orleans garage-rock band Twisted Teens. It’s full of short catchy rock songs. We’re really digging the lo-fi aesthetics with straightforward simplicity a la Case Studies but with more of a punk rock feel here, sort of like early Clash. We’re really digging this one. “100 Bill is Gone,” “I Operate,” and “Circus Clown” made our heavy rotation. (13 Feb '26) |
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Mandy, Indiana URGH These guys have been around for a bit, but this is their debut for the fantastic Sacred Bones, label. The Manchester four-piece embrace an industrial on the edge of metal vibe here and give vocalist Valentine Caulfield free range to use her voice as a distorted instrument and a weapon, oscillating between playful and eviscerating. This is kind of like Myrkur meets Trent Reznor. (6 Feb '26) |
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MPTL Microplastics Sod In Heaven This is bad. Gravelly dude that speaks or yells at you. Very simple repetitive drumming - think bang on snare drum and floor kick together on 8th notes through the entire song. Distorted guitar and bass plodding out the same notes together. Banging on pots and pans. This is bad noise rock for very energetic long marches. We repeatedly got the “what is this horrible music?” refrain from other staffers when it was on in the office. That eventually transitioned over to a “why are we still listening to this?” question/plead. We ask ourselves the same question. (6 Feb '26) |
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Ratboys Singin' to an Empty Chair If you were a betting person, you’d mortgage the house and put the money on this band coming from Nashville or Asheville. However, despite having a very Americana mixed with indie rock sound, like the music coming out of those regions, these guys are from Chicago. Close enough, you’d perhaps argue. Fair enough, let’s call it Midwest (or MidSouthWest) Americana. A little power pop, some southern rock, a little americana country … the sixth studio album from Ratboys is a good one and showcases them at the top of their game. We’re filing this album next to Asheville artist Wednesday in our collection. (6 Feb '26) |
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Elfi Emo Deluxe This EP sounds nothing like most of the music we hear coming out of Berlin. With a straightforward guitar, drums, bass guitar and female singer playing three or four-minute, 4/4, verse-chorus-verse songs – and not a synthesizer in sight – this sounds like it should be coming from some band out of a basement in the Midwest USA. Then the singing starts, it’s all in German and you start to ask yourself, are we living “The Man in the High Castle?” Maybe all the good electronic club music is being made in Indianapolis now? Good album for non-fancy pop rock songs. “Am Kottbusser Damm,” with the ukulele strumming is our favorite pick here. (6 Feb '26) |
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Abul Mogard In a Few Places Along the River There are three pieces on this EP, each lasting between 10 and 20 minutes long, of dark ambient stuff that was originally released digitally in 2022. Like the best dark ambient, this stuff feels like the soundtrack for a dystopian movie. Mogard meticulously experiments with analogue and digital instruments, slowly evolving harmonic fields of layered drones and spectral textures across the record. They are enhanced by reverb from Scotland’s Inchindown oil tanks, which hold the longest reverberation of any man-made structure, giving the music a haunting resonance and a sense of suspended space. This soft, disturbingly quiet soundscapes that take a long time to build up from, and release back into, dark silence. Great stuff. (1 Feb '26) |
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Qasu A Bleak King Cometh Of this UK band’s album, the Quietus notes: “A pit of industrialised terror... Amorphous, evocative and detail-rich, and capable of blurring the line between dreams and nightmares to dizzying, frequently psychedelic effect. [Qasu] understand what makes black metal tick, but want to force its slippery substance into new shapes rather than be bound by expected norms." We’re mesmerized by how the drummer can work the kick bass drum. These are tunes where everything – drums, bass, guitars and the singer’s growls all blend together to form a wall of sound. (30 Jan '26) |
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Geologist Can I Get A Pack of Camel Lights? Geologist is the nom-de-théâtre of Brian Weitz, instrumentalist, best known as a member of the experimental pop group Animal Collective. His hurdy gurdy heavy electro-acoustic texture to songs makes for a release of interesting instrumentals, that ping pong between dudes doing improv, post-rock, and droney middle-eastern space rock. We enjoy having this on in the background as we chug through emails. (30 Jan '26) |
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Marta Del Grandi Dream Life The Milan, Italy based singer-songwriter starts this album off on a good note with “You Could Perhaps,” probably the best song here. She wraps up political and social issue commentary in breezy pop songs. It’s a solid album. (30 Jan '26) |
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Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon As of Now Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon is a Charlotte, NC artist who started in the music business by blogging about local rap and now is getting accolades from Pitchfork and other we known music sites. There’s hope for us yet :-) This release consists of seventeen hip hop tracks across 56 minutes. A good half dozen or so of those tracks have an abrupt beat switch mid-song to mix it up a bit. Otherwise, it’s sort of Ogbon rapping about stuff that’s familiar to him in his slightly higher-pitched voice which is often doubled with a monotone sort of moaned rap track parallelling the main verses. (30 Jan '26) |
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The Soft Pink Truth Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever? The Soft Pink Truth is the solo alter ego of Drew Daniel, one half of celebrated Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos. We’re listening to this release, scratching our heads thinking, what is this? It’s instrumentals, kind of like if vaudeville emerged in the digital age. There are exquisite arrangements and lush compositions, but they frequently float over a buoyant actionable bass part that we would sort of expect be used to keep viewers engaged in a silent movie. The craftsmanship and the international cast of collaborators from Turkey, Sweden, Italy, Spain and the United States that Daniel has working on this are top notch. They control a plethora of acoustic and electronic instruments that come in and out of the song like actors coming on and off stage in a play. The violins chirp as if they were in conversation. The harp pucks form the background to a mystery scene while strings swell and horns march in to move the action along. This is a soundtrack looking for a film. One that has romance, suspense, action, and drama. It’s fantastic, but we can’t help but thinking to ourselves, when we would ever listen to this? Perhaps the Wurthering Heights should have chosen this as their soundtrack instead of having Charlie xcx record something that doesn't sound like a soundtrack? (30 Jan '26) |
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Anton Anishchanka Krope Krope is a six-part conceptual album by Belarusian sound artist and producer Anton Anishchanka. Rooted in archival folk songs recorded between the 1960s and 2000s, it transforms fragile voices of the past into living, cinematic sound worlds. Created in collaboration with ethnographer Iryna Vasilyeva, the album weaves Belarusian traditional music with field recordings, acoustic instruments, and analog synthesizers. As The Quietus writes: "Belarus is not a place necessarily known for its transparency, which is why Krope feels like such an unexpected and extraordinary psychogeographic ramble around a country largely estranged from the rest of Europe." We find the writeups about this release more compelling than the music on it. (28 Nov '25) |
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Horse Lords & Arnold Dreyblatt FRKWYS Vol. 18 Extended Field We put this on as we start watching the MSU vs. UM hockey game. It’s our first experience with the Horse Lords, who have built an esoteric sound of their own, combining hard-driving rhythmic sprawls traditional ritual music, free jazz, and space age electronic psychoacoustic sounds. The quick pace of the beats in the first two songs match the pace of an exciting hockey game between the two best college teams in the land. By the mid-point of the second period we’re full on into the second song, the 12 minute long “Extended Field”. This song takes off, kinetic, frenetic, beat heavy free form improv jazz. Eight or nine minutes into it, It’s picking up pace just as the pace and intensity of the hockey game accelerates towards the end of the 2nd period. We’re getting to the end of the song .. .and the period and all hell is breaking loose. Bundles of nervous electrons delivered through the song seem to jump into my TV and energize the puck, as it rapidly goes back and forth across the ice. Boom, the 1-1 tie is broken with a goal by Michigan State. But the song keeps building energy, so do the Wolverines in trying to get one back. Just a couple minutes left in the period and everyone, everything is still on edge building, gong nuts until Boom – another goal by Michigan State. Fortunately for our nerves the period and the song end. A mellower song 3 from the 4 song album, and a the second intermission, eases our nerves. What a ride. (21 Nov '25) |
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Ismay Finding Lucinda We’re fans of Avery (ISMAY) so of course we’re spinning this one and are excited to see the related film Finding Lucinda. This album is the official soundtrack to that acclaimed film, the genesis of which stems from ISMAY setting off on a road trip to trace the roots of Americana music legend Lucinda Williams 6 years ago. The record includes covers recorded during filming, one with Lucinda's guitar and mandolin player Buddy Miller, and one recorded in the sheep barn on the Hellman family ranch where the journey began, and many of them recorded live. These songs are fresh takes on good ole timey Americana. What’s not to like. “Jackson” and “I Lost It” are our favorites here. (7 Nov '25) |
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Rosalia Lux Pitchfork notes that “the Spanish singer’s fourth record is a heartfelt offering of avant-garde classical pop that roars through genre, romance, and religion.” We’d note it probably is as much showtunes and theater influenced as it is classical. The end of “Mio Cristo Piange Diamanti” going into “Berghain” was fantastic. We also love the idea of “Berghain.” That an original classical piece seemingly out of the mid-1700s can cut to a thoroughly modern piece mid-stream in a pop music context. We appreciate the theatrics, genre-crossing nature of this and the fact that this music which is on the radar of pop critics feels like it could have been written in 300 or 400 years ago. (7 Nov '25) |
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The The Autumn 2025 Releases The The released a number of singles and outtakes over the last year or so that they’ve packaged up on their website as the Automn 2025 Releases. These include the singles “Risin’ Above the Need”, “Slow Emotion Replayed,” a couple of songs Johnson wrote for his brothers film Odyssey as well as some others. We really like the female vocalist throughout a number of these songs, including on “Live & Let Live” and the excellent remix/redo “Slow Emotion Replayed”. Those two songs are probably the best of the lot. (7 Nov '25) |
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Danny Brown Stardust This is the sixth album from the Detroit rapper who is known for his experimental approach to hip-hop and his eclectic sound. A lot has been made about Brown moving away from substance abuse and about this album being made while he was sober and enjoying his life. The other themes around this album are the artist embracing hyperpop and the wide range of guest artists, appearing on 12 of the 14 tracks here. This is a grandiose production of big arena pop music that throws some emo rave, bubblegum pop, R&B, techno, and glitchcore elements in the music while Brown raps over it at 100mph with his relatively high-pitched tenor vocals. (7 Nov '25) |
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Hilary Woods Night CRIU We came to know Mrs. Woods via her 2020 release Birthmarks. However, that sort of experimental release playing around with Ai never really caught on with us. Thankfully that’s behind her now because this is a much better release. “Taper” is excellent song, with it’s almost David Lynchian mixture of melancholy mystery. The whole album is very, slow, gloomy and Lynchian actually. We think it could fit right in as a soundtrack for Twin Peaks or True Detective. (31 Oct '25) |
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Juana Molina DOGA We understand that Rosalia is the Spanish speaking artist du jour this year, but the brilliant Argentina-born Juana Molina chugs along with her eighth full-length and first release in eight years. As usual, it’s a quirky art-pop, electronic folk rock gem. Lots of staccato and weird notes put together with a Stereolab meets Jane Weaver sort of vibe. Like RA puts it: “like listening to the musical equivalent of a Wes Anderson film.” “miro todo,” “la paradoja,” and “indignant a un zorzal” have made it to our heavy rotation. (5 Nov '25) |
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Alexa Rose Atmosphere We were looking forward to this Ashville-based artist’s follow up to her fantastic 2021 release Headwaters. With musicians who’ve worked with Big Thief, The Weather Station, and Watchhouse helping here, we knew the craftsmanship wouldn’t be in question. With the studio sessions wrapped last year, Hurricane Helene hit Rose like it hit us – i.e., caused a lot of re-work. In Rose’s case, she re-worked some of the polished studio performances with takes from her cabin outside Ashville for a sparser, more intimate approach. We didn’t hear the “before” but we like the reworked “after.” We have “Promising What,” “Anywhere, OH,” and “Arms” on heavy rotation with our ABC (Americana, Bluegrass, Country) playlist. If these three hit with anywhere near the power of “Clearwater Park,” “Human,” and “Wild Pepperment” from Headlands, we’re in for a treat. (31 Oct '25) |
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Bruise Blood You Run Through This World Like An Open Razor Bruise Blood is artist and musician Mike Bourne, founder member of Teeth of the Sea and Hirvikolari. This is his debut album for this project. A strong 140bpm kick drum with some cut & paste samples of what sounds like something being teared starts us off. It only gets faster and more frantic from there, combining soundscapes of industrial techno over a beat that will keep you moving on the dance floor. The second half of the album, starting from ”Until the Sun Breaks Down,” (our favorite song here) shifts from the dance floor to the lounge with a post-rock and ambient vibe. "Glass Nine", the last song here closes us out with something that would have been perfect as a soundtrack for that old movie Body Double. (31 Oct '25) |
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The Weather Station Airport & Only The Truth These are a couple of outtakes from the Humanhood recording that didn’t fit with the narrative arc of that album, but that are really solid songs that stand well on their own. We’d say these are pretty classic The Weather Station / Tamara Lindeman songs: Tight folk rock musicianship backing Lindeman’s mellow, understated vocals sort of in the back of the mix. (30 Oct '25) |
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Damien Jurado Private Hospital Man this cat seems to be constantly putting out albums. Seems like there’s 2 or 3 of them ever year, almost all of it really good. Apparently, this is the fifth and final installment of the "Reggae Film Star" pentalogy, which began in 2023. We think a couple of these songs - ”Howard Morton” and “Vic Tayback” in particular – would fit right in on a BC Camplight album. That is a good thing. (30 Oct '25) |
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Perera Elsewhere Just Wanna Live Some This is the project of Sasha Perera, a London-born, Berlin-based award-winning producer, DJ, multi-instrumentalist, and trumpeter. Of the fourth album from the artist, Bandcamp notes: “Perera Elsewhere delivers another winner—stark, moody tracks built on booming rhythms, shadowy and alluring.” The music is often coined Doom Folk but the genre may not be too accurate unless you think of folk music as being sample, dub, beat and electronica heavy. Perhaps as “Fountain,” an organic, acoustic song may fit that bill. We were not fans of the first couple of listens – some of the early songs on the album turn us off. But we figured out that the release really start hitting its stride around song 8 (of 12) when it settles down a bit and gets more reflective. By song 11, “Post Everything,” you’ve got a moody, lonely sax playing on a dark NYC alley late at night. We love those types of songs, and like this one here. The closer “One Day” is a similar in vibe - dark, lonely Eno if he did dubstep type instrumental. We really like it. We played this one right after AraabMuzik and they were a great fit. (24 Oct '25) |
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Rafael Toral Travelling Light This Lisbon-based artist is making some ambient electric guitar led post-jazz. Featuring guitar slow picking over soundscapes created by organ, flute, saxophone, bass guitar, amp feedback and other effects, It’s slow, contemplative, takes time to unfold, and savors every sound as it goes. This is late night music setting the mood for a dark back alley in the seedier side of town in a film noir feature. (24 Oct '25) |
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Läuten der Seele Unterhaltungen mit Larven und Überresten The solo project of dark folk artist Christian Schoppik, RA does a nice job describing the album unfolding “as a haunting electroacoustic collage, looping fragments from vintage Heimatfilme, field recordings, and diverse instruments to evoke a surreal, dream-prone nostalgia.” The Quietus adds that “sampled voices and found footage drift in and out like a radio dial operated by a Ouija board.“ Yeah, there’s nothing that intersects with mainstream music here as it veers from WTF to unsettling. When there is a semblance of singing, like on the most sort of normal "song" here, "Letzle Lichter," it’s in a creepy German voice. While it’s not going to make our heavy rotation, we have to give this one a little extra credit just for being so interestingly unique. (24 Oct '25) |
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Spiritual Cramp Rude Bandcamp writes that “the San Francisco band's dub-infused punk n' roll gets an arena-ready update. emphasizing bold hooks, big charms, and beefy production.” This has basement feel vibes but in a well-produced package. At times it kind of reminds us of ska / reggae era The Clash. At other times, it’s more straightforward Green Day style rock. It’s a nice second album for the six-piece band. Should be a good show when the tour hits The Great American Music Hall during their SF stop. Although we were hoping to see them at a more intimate joint such as Thee Parkside ... but alas, these are all closing in SF unfortunately. “Young Offenders” is our best in show here. (24 Oct '25) |
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Lily Allen West End Girl I’m sure by now you know that the songs here are an “insider’s account of a tabloid divorce” as Bandcamp writes. We knew that going in but were a little surprised to hear just how much the album documented the specifics of the breakup. Ouch! We’ve always liked Allen’s pop sensibilities in her early releases but had not been paying her new celeb career much attention. This is a reminder that she makes really good pop music, now with a drama filled storyline that keeps you hooked. For a listen of the best tracks and an overview of the drama, spin “Tennis,” “Madeline,” “Pussy Palace,” and “Let You W/In.” (24 Oct '25)  |
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Vanity Mirror Super Fluff Forever The sophomore release for this duo who recorded it by passing tracks back and forth between each other in Toronto and LA, is, as Bandcamp notes, “A cabinet of bedroom pop curiosities full of Casio arpeggios, fuzzy melodies, and wistful jangle.” This is lo-fi pop rock with guy-guy harmonies, jangly guitars, simple bass and drum beats and occasional piano in the style of the early Beatles meets Apples in Stereo. “I Don’t Wanna Hold Your Hand” could be a B-side to the Beatles’ 1963 single “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” We shuffled this album with songs from With the Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, and Beatles for Sale and that playlist worked very well for a classic & new pop rock playlist. (24 Oct '25) |
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Carrier Rhythm Immortal Pitchfork notes “The Brussels-based producer fled the strictures of techno and drum’n’bass in search of a freer sound. On his astonishing debut LP under a new alias, he seems to rewrite the laws of physics.” This is dark ambient meets drum’n’bass made for a late-night Halloween evening listen (so, appropriate release date) in the lounge rather than on the dance floor. We slotted a couple of songs here this in our Dark Ambient playlist. (24 Oct '25) |
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Sha Ru Vibra Vibra This 6 track EP from NYC-via-Berlin duo is described as a heavy, body-shaking deep study of low-end vibration, energy, and movement. One can definitely hear the low-end here when listening with very good headphones, but this one is probably best experienced when feeling the bass coming out of a very large bank of subwoofers as there’s a lot going on at the lower end frequencies here. It’s a little similar to NYOS (also reviewed this haul) in that each group is a duo based in Northern Europe whose music has relatively less interesting stuff over their differentiator – bass and low tones here, drums with NYOS. Perhaps the two groups should collaborate? (24 Oct '25) |
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Silly Boy Blue goodbye matters Each song on this 5-track EP uses season titles (summer1, autumn, winter, spring, summer2) as a stage for a mourning process for the French singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Accordingly, the songs here are often quiet, sparse and reflective using mostly acoustic guitar, strings, and piano to convey the emotion. We think this is a solid listen. If you ever wanted to imagine Sigur Ros’ song (njósnavélin) done on an acoustic guitar with a female signing in English, give “spring” from this release a spin (24 Oct '25) |
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Majken Korus Bandcamp says: “This Malmö-based musician delivers a wild ride: Tricky, impossible-to-pin-down art pop with odd angles and slinking melodies.” We’ve been a little partial lately to artists that feature harp in their recordings (hello Weyes Blood) so Majken’s use of the instrument, along with acoustic guitars and analog synths, intrigues us. No single song here really stands out to us, but overall, this is a nice, well crafted release. (24 Oct '25) |
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Josi Miller 4 Stages of Sleep The debut album from Berlin-based DJ and artist Josi Miller is, as Bandcamp notes: “A hazy collage of breakbeat, downtempo house, and hyperpop.” The Quietus notes: ”The album is a journey through dream worlds marked by fear, panic, and healing, born from drug-fueled dreams, and combines breakbeat, pop, and electronica with shimmering vocals, analog synths, and soul samples.” They also note “the album is divided into four stages of sleep that alternate between melancholy, rave, and surreal soundscapes, described as powerful and fragile, club-ready and cerebral, beautifully melodic and daring at the same time.” We’d dig hearing “I see all my girls” at the club and have “Dreams are my reality” made our Dark & Interesting playlist. (24 Oct '25) |
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Lowli Window in the Woods Bandcamp notes: “Stark and beautifully haunting piano-based songs from this Irish musician that are alternately comforting and spectral.” Lowli is the music of Roisin Lowry, a composer and musician hailing from Galway, Ireland. Her music bears elements of neoclassical and dark folk and has been influenced by artists such as Agnes Obel and Olafur Arnalds, artists we really dig, so we were keen to dig into this one. “Interlude” and “Undone” are very Agnes Obel circa the Aventine album – piano, cello, violin, occasional female voice. Other areas of the album are very piano-lead neoclassical tunes, sort of Ludovico Einaudi-like compositons, especially “Lament.” Nice release. (24 Oct '25) |
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Earth Ball Outside Over There This stuff is a beautiful noisy mess of experimental metal meets improv jazz. Songs drone on with steady beating rhythms and simple steady bass while screeching saxophones, some spoken song words, guitars being thrown around, the kitchen sink, whatever, intertwine above it. No verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus here. More like louder, quieter, louder … messy, less messy, more messy … that guide you to how furiously and out of control you should be when nodding your head up and down. We love how the Quietus calls out the band’s “penchant for free-roaming instrumentals that don’t so much expand upon the main theme as plunder its village and torch all the domiciles.” No trying to cherry-pick hit singles here. This is music to put on start to finish and rage to. Your neighbors will absolutely hate you. (20 Oct '25) |
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CV Vision Release The Beast This is the sixth studio album from this Berlin-based artist known for his eclectic, experimental approach to electronic and psychedelic music. Northern Transmissions says the album “finds the sweet spot between psych rock, Detroit techno, fried synths, black metal and library music.” The Quietus says it’s music created by “an alien who has been tasked with back engineering lounge, exotica and late 60s style psychedelic pop music using only these mid-90s recordings for reference. So if you’d ever wondered what a mix of Jane Weaver, Hieroglyphic Being, Stock, Hausen & Walkman with David Axelrod producing would sound like, maybe it’s time to stop wondering.” We give it some kudos for creativity, but nothing here is a must listen for us. (24 Oct '25) |
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bloodsports Anything Can Be a Hammer Bandcamp notes: “Lo-fi noise rock with folksy instrumentation and a simmering slowcore underbelly from this scrappy Brooklyn outfit.” We hear a lot of mopey singing over standard rock band setup of distorted guitar, bass and drums played really loud. Minor keys give it some melancholy and some slow and contemplative parts between the otherwise heavy noise rock provide a little texture. “Rosary” is probably our favorite here. We’re not a fan of “A River Runs Through It”- dude slowly, repeatedly swiping his thumb down on the strings of an acoustic guitar while moping in the background. (17 Oct '25) |
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plainhead You Are More Than A Thousand Words Bandcamp says: “Lithe clarinets and off-kilter drum loops make the German band's cozy bedroom rock a refreshingly unpredictable change of pace.” We say: Low softly sung, mumbly, mopey vocals in the back of the mix here - often repeating the same thing over and over make this a pretty uninteresting listen for us. There were songs (e.g., “Stars”) where a clanging repetitive pattern was loudly marched over the tune, which made it seem more like listening to an alarm clock than a song. (17 Oct '25) |
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operazioni REvolution This is the debut album for operazioni, the project for occupying the time of actress, visual artist, and musician Corinne Isabelle Rinaldis during the pandemic while the world stood still. The album moves through styles ranging from film scores to minimal music, jazz, chamber music, and even prog rock with the theme of nature infused within. The artists uses her vocals in a lot of different ways here -- breath samples, call and response singing, spoken word, grunts, background ohhs and ahhs -- and mixes it with other digital textures. Rinaldis recommends listening to this start to finish and we agree this is probably the best way to experience the release. (17 Oct '25) |
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Rural Tapes Oneiric Rural Tapes is the moniker of Norwegian composer and multi-instrumentalist Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen. On his fifth studio album, the artist uses his analog sounds from digital equipment know how to great effect, producing a dozen mostly instrumental songs that float between shorter ambient and field sample moments to Space-age French Pop instrumentals. For example, on “Lucid Dreaming,” we’re pretty sure the drum beat is one of the 7 pre-built options available via the clunky white knobs on mom’s 1970’s Hammond organ. “Flower Lab” sounds like some chill piece of a late 90s AIR release. “Retire the Fool,” with Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor sounds like a mopey, depressing minor key tune off a mid-aughts Mount Eerie or The Antlers release. While we think the shorter quieter songs such as “Woolgathering” and especially “Reverie” are best in show here, we’d urge you to perhaps start with “Lingering Souls,” featuring Gary Olson of Ladybug Transistor. This is probably the most accessible, straightforward dream pop song here. (17 Oct '25) |
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Jane Inc. A Rupture A Canyon A Birth Nice third full length release from the solo project for Carlyn Bezle, who performs with U.S. Girls and Ice Cream. Bandcamp writes: “A triumphant new full-length from Jane, Inc. takes her experimental art rock to the mutant disco.” This is some danceable synth-pop sounds with good use of 80s styles and an air of late 70s sounds—queue the Rhodes keys on some of the mellower tunes—and disco beats throughout. If you can’t get enough of Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love,” give “what if” a spin. That song, and “Freefall,” are the tunes to get your dance groove on. (17 Oct '25) |
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Ex Colorado Ex Colorado 3 Bandcamp notes this as a “stunning work of exploratory krautrock from Argentine musician and producer José D’Agostino.” This has sort of gotten the moniker “dreamykraut” as sort of a dreampop and krautrock. We see more of a utopian community post-rock sort of vibe here. It’s easy and breezy, upbeat, upbeat instrumentals with reverby guitar plucking or piano plodding over swirling sounds. William Taylor's Modern Country doing 80s synth. Very Noveller sounding songs but with a fuller spectrum than just multiple guitar overdubs. Its a very enjoyable instrumental listen start to finish … and that’s really the way this needs to be enjoyed. (17 Oct'25) |
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Elysian Fields Swirling Flame First thought: been a while since we’ve listened to these guys, originally digging 1996’s Bleed Your Cedar. Second thought after we start the album: this is a completely different sound, when did they trade in the alt noir indie rock sound for neoclassical? We figured it out. Same name but not the same band. This version is from Australian electric viola artist Jenny Eriksson. She uses the instrument to create beautiful hauntingly Celtic meets classical songs. We’re told this is the perfect overcast Sunday cooking breakfast music. (10 Oct '25) |
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Aarktica Ecstatic Lightsongs Bandcamp says: “L.A.’s Aarktica sculpt magnificent art rock with no easy comparisons—sweeping songs with the scope of a Tarkovsky film” Aarktica is the ambient/atmospheric project of Jon DeRosa. The artist’s audio explorations span decades and include a wide- range of styles, straddling shoegaze and ambient, electronic and drone, and most recently immersed in deep, meditative sounds for cosmic journeys. Some of this, especially “Ecstatic Light Transmission” and “The Bird That Hides Itself” reminds us of fellow LA artist Noveller’s trippy guitar instrumentals loopers. Best in show here: “Destination Paradise” with Brit Warner singing. That’s in our Heavy Rotation playlist. (10 Oct '25) |
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Madison Cunningham Ace Bandcamp notes that “the California musician’s third solo album is quieter and less accessible than her past work, but sacrifices none of her musical sophistication.” We love the addition of woodwinds, strings, and some brass. We like her moving the piano forward in the mix. It’s good stuff. The vibe is sort of 70’s folk rock (the Joni Michell comparisons are there) meets more modern Americana. “Shore” made our Heavy Rotation playlist as we loved the verses of the song, despite the chorus being not so great. We feel that way about a lot of this album – great spots here and there but then the rest of it is sort of uninspired or tries too hard. Put the verse of "Shore" with the Chorus of "Goodwill" and the bridge of "Best of Us" and you'd have an incredible song. (10 Oct '25) |
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Larkin Poe Bloom + An Acoustic Companion, Vol. 2 Larkin Poe is the Nashville-based dynamic, easy on the eyes, sister duo of Megan and Rebecca Lovell, known for their electrifying blend of Southern rock blues and Americana music. Their latest album “Bloom” delves deep into personal narratives with universal themes of self-acceptance and individuality, and follows their 2024 Grammy-winning album "Blood Harmony." We agree with Bandcamp’s “country-rock scorcher” label here. Which is why this Acoustic Companion version of the album was pretty nice as it includes five additional unplugged versions of songs from the album. We loved hearing the rock it out vs. unplugged takes. We liked the scorcher versions of “You Are The River” and “Bloom Again” but preferred the unplugged versions of “Mockingbird” and “Little Bit,” all of which made our ABC (Americana, Bluegrass, Country) playlist. (10 Oct '25) |
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Atlas Maior Palindromair Austin, TX based experimental jazz quartet comes up with an interesting release, “informed by Jazz, Arab, Turkish and Latin American musical traditions,” writes Bandcamp. They continue “Atlas Major’s jazz is by turns mysterious and serene.” We agree, we’re hearing saxophone mixed with cello and some plucked ancient middle eastern percussion and string instruments. There is a lot of negative space here – quiet between the notes – and a very improv feel to it. Good stuff that won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. (10 Oct '25) |
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Blawan SickElixir This is the second album for Blawan, the project for UK artist Jamie Roberts, whose obsession with rhythm began behind a drum kit in a metal band during his teenage years. He shifted gears into techno and dubstep while attending the West Indian Centre in Leeds. This release finds him expanding on a techno base to add elements of industrial, mechanical and glitch to his “syncopated sludge” as DJ Mag would call it. This release has gotten some good critical praise. It’s not our cup of tea. (10 Oct '25) |
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Yara Asmar everyone I love is sleeping and I love them so so much Bandcamp calls this “A beautiful new LP from Beirut’s Yara Asmar—compositions that slowly build in volume and texture, remaining utterly hypnotic throughout.” Most of the release is gentle mbira (that small hand-held wooden box with a hole, over which is attached staggered metal tines and that is played with the thumbs and fingers) plucking sounds over some ambient textures. These songs are nice, but probably not worth running out to buy the vinyl. The first and last songs here though are the gems of this release. The ambient backing gets more interesting on "Beirut" which features sounds from field recordings from home and more interesting accompanying instrumentation. (10 Oct '25) |
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NYOS Growl Bandcamp writes: “Finnish instrumental duo juxtapose dissonant post-rock with refined jazz fusion for an unpredictable, immersive listening experience.” This one takes some patience, an open mind and even then may still just be an acquired taste. A duo where one dude is the drummer means you’re going to get a lot of drumming in the mix. In this case, kinetic frantic manic drumming. Imagine giving a hyperactive 10 year old boy five sugar donuts, 4 lines of coke, 3 shots of espresso, a pair of drum sticks and putting him front of a full drum set and letting him rage on while dude #2 plays a repetitive, non-stop to the point of annoying, set of guitar notes over and over. We alternative between thinking, “man this is annoying as hell” to “wow, that drumming is spectacular.” (10 Oct '25) |
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The Antlers Blight This is the seventh studio album from this Brooklyn band led by Peter Silberman. Their 2009 release Hospice got us hooked. This one has many of The Antlers signatures – softer, gentler, slower, organic feeling melodies with understanded vocals singing about bleak subject matter and an occasional outburst. This time the topics are about the passive nature of destructive human behavior on the earth. It’s good stuff. “Consider the Source” and “Something in the Air” with an unusual for The Antlers 3/4 time signature – think slow bleak song played out like a waltz - may be our favs on this album. (10 Oct '25) |
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Black Eyes Hostile Design Pitchfork notes: “The D.C. art-punks return with their first record in over two decades, adding a new emphasis on dub grooves to their controlled chaos and righteous indignation.” This hardcore act was around in 2001 through 2004, putting out two albums during that time. After 20 years they’re back with Fugazi front man Ian MacKaye resuming his role as producer. In these songs, you’re likely to get some soft nice dub beats in the background as you’re getting yelled at by someone with a squeeky high pitched voice over the top. "Burn" is a rager, the best in show here. (10 Oct '25) |
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feeo Goodness Pitchfork’s says “The London singer embraces the darkness on her quiet and ominous full-length debut—it’s one of the most breathtakingly beautiful albums of the year.” This is spoken word or spoke-sung poems over an assemblage of drone, ambient, experimental electronics, improvisational music and minimalist soundscapes. “Days pt. 1” and some other tunes feels like they borrowed Sha Ru’s low bass guru. There’s a bit of a similar vibe to Sealionwoman here with the female vocs over minimalist, bass-heavy dark ambient backgrounds. “The Mountain” maybe showcases this the best and is our favorite here. (10 Oct '25) |
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Blindfolded and Led to the Woods The Hardest Thing About Being God Is That No One Believes Me This technical death metal band from New Zealand hits all the usual notes – heavy, distorted guitars powering through bar chords and solos of fury, double-bass drum often used at full speed, and lead singer that growls and shrieks his way through each tune. Songs are moments that alternate between discrete guitar/bass/drums chug chug chug then all out wall of sound on the other hand. (10 Oct '25) |
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Jerskin Fendrix Once Upon A Time ... In Shropshire It’s safe to say Fendrix is a zone of interest to Hollywood, having scored the soundtrack to Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness and Bugonia. On his sophomore release here, Fendrix crafts a soundtrack to his past life growing up rural Shropshire, England. He recollects mundane things - gathering daisies for old crushes under the flower moon, drinking White Claw in the pub with his friends – while beautifully contemplating life, family, love, and death. The theme is UK realities, not some dumb American fiction. Musically, the holdovers from his electronica, Auto-Tune drenched experimental Barbie-pop debut album aren’t here. Rather this is the maetro at work, composing a score and performing it himself. It alternates between trilling pianos and rapidly excited falsettos reaching higher highs before they explode in the sky like an Oppenheimer creation and drift to earth amidst soft strings, sparce piano and Fendrix’s slow, low baritone explaining the anatomy of that fall. We’re filing this one next to C. Duncan and MF Tomlinson under “Sensitive Anglo Male Composers Who Go By Their Initials,” and adding “Mum & Dad” and "Together Again" to our Cinematic and Music to Cry to playlists. (10 Oct '25) |
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Madi Diaz Fatal Optimist This, the seventh album from Nashville-based singer-songwriter is considered to be the final chapter in her heartache trilogy. For us this, this very stripped down production – mostly featuring just Diaz’s voice and an acoustic guitar – has a very coffee shop, open mic night feel to it. If you’re sort of cringing imagining that visual, that’s also how we feel at times listening to the album. We’re passing on this one. (10 Oct '25) |
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Amaarae Black Star This is the third studio album by on-the-rise Ghanaian-American singer Amaarae. This one is start to end music for the dance floor, heavy on the beats and the autotune. While it’s not our cup of tea, it is well produced and has a sound that feels like it belongs on the big stage. (8 Aug '25) |
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Jay Som Belong This, the fourth studio album by American indie musician Melina Duterte and first album in six years, will likely get a good amount of attention due to Duterte’s soundtrack efforts and Grammy winning work with boygenius. It’s a well-produced and recorded album with a slight throwback to 90s alt rock feel. “Drop A” is our pick as best song here but nothing here really screams needs to be on Heavy Rotation for us. (10 Oct '25) |
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Joe Westerlund Curiosities from the Shift Sort of unbeknownst to us, we’ve listened to Westerlund laydown percussion under many guises – as a percussionist with acts such as Megafaun, Mandoline Orange, Califone, Watchhouse and The Dead Tongues – but this is our first experience with his solo albums. For him, solo releases mean meditative percussive music and sheer rhythmic patterns. This release of instrumentals - ideas originally germinating for a Califone project that didn’t materialize- begins with junkyard percussion and delightful bass splashes and walks that to an ending of surrealistic boom-bap of thumb pianos and shakers. Throughout, this is an album lead by percussion and beat. Instruments (flutes, woodwinds, violins, keyboards, etc.) fill in around the percussion, not the other way around. The percussive focus makes it very active ambient. Enoesque with energy. This is a very good album. If we were going to single out one song here to show off the release, it would probably be “Felt Like Floating.” (3 Oct '25) |
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Volk Soup 10p Jazz This is the debut from the Leeds-based six piece post-punk band that probably captures the mood of a busy Saturday night at the local pub. It's blistering songs that are brass-infused and packed with ruckus shouting, hollers and hoots from a packed room of guys and girls as the band freefalls through post-punk, noise rock, and disjointed rhythm. At about the halfway point through the album (or our night at the bar) we get a brief repreve with the tender “Holy Building Tourist” before catching our second wind. Abrasive and theatrical songs pick back up with sudden turns, fractured structures, and a chaotic sense of momentum that reaches its creshendo with the brilliant rager ”Spellbound by the Phallus” -- it's the Sugarcubes "F*ckin in Rythym and Sorrow" meets the Dropkick Murphy’s -- before settling down to the album (evening) closer, a mellow, introspective 8 minute last call "Meet Me By the Willow." This is going to be worth every minute of the "what the fuck are we listening to" verbal abuse that we know is coming when this pops up on our playlist during upcoming dinner parties ... unless the Woo Hoo girls are there. They would dig it. (3 Oct '25) |
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Agriculture The Spiritual Sound The Spiritual Sound is the second studio album by LA noise metal band Agriculture. It’s metal chugs, scorching guitar riffs, high pitched back-in-the-mix gravelly voiced screaming that is sort of more bizarrely whispered to you than shouted at you, aggressive playing of the crash and ride symbols and a drum bass beat that alternates between 110bpm and 340bpm. “Bodhidharma” is our pick of the release. (3 Oct '25) |
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Sirom In The Wind Of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper This seven song release of mostly instrumental music has three tracks that clock in between 14 and a half minutes to 19 minutes. This gives the songs some time to drone on and have plenty of instruments come in and out of the mix. Here’s what they got: violin, viola, ribab, qeychak, balafon, frame drum, chimes, fipple flute, banjo, three-string banjo, gembri, morin khuur, balafon, and various amounts of percussion. About two dozen instruments in all, some that are handcrafted. The band’s fifth studio album here is a great showcase for their roots-based, tribal folk music. At times listening to this album we felt like we were out at drumming down the sunset on Siesta Beach. When their droning beat gets going, it takes on a life of it’s own. (3 Oct '25) |
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Malibu Vanities This is the debut full-length release from Malibu, the alias of French artist Barbara Braccini’s ambient music project. The release feels like rainy day ambient to us. Its moody but not dark or night. Its organic, feels like it’s breathing – especially with the many hushed vocals and very low bass rumblings. It’s melancholy, cinematic. We’re almost looking forward to the next dark gray rainy Saturday when we can put this one on and nap on the couch with the cat. (3 Oct '25) |
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mildred mild The debut EP from this Oakland, CA band is a mellow slow … and well, mild … indie rock album. Pretty straight forward bass, drums, guitar, and dude singing with some harmonies affair that was recorded over the course of a couple weekends in the group’s living room. “Laila” is our pick for best on the EP but this is a release that, while not having anyone song jump out at you, is a consistent easy listen from start to finish. (3 Oct '25) |
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Cate Le Bon Michelangelo Dying We were excited about this one as we like the Welsh producer and composer’s past works – both her studio albums (this is her seventh) and her production credits with John Grant, Devandra Banhart, Horsegirl and others. While it was made post-breakup and is supposed to be an all-consuming heartache and a kind of exorcism, it comes off in typical Le Bon fashion: a little head held high pop. Buttoned up. Orchestrated but not orchestral. Basically, haute couture music. We have “Is It Worth it” in our heavy rotation. (26 Sept '25) |
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Jeff Tweedy Twilight Override Tweedy’s been around forever -- best known as the frontman, songwriter, and guitarist for Wilco, the Chicago-based band he co-founded in 1994 after the breakup of his earlier group Uncle Tupelo, and now with this, his fifth solo studio album. Wwe’ve never been big fans of the previous work, despite trying many times … you know, 'cause everyone loves Wilco. Some of his older, solo work is resonating with us though, including a couple off this release, including “Forever Never Ends” and “New Orleans.” Loved seeing him HSBG. (26 Sept '25) |
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Doja Cat Vie Vie (French for "life") is the fifth studio album for Doja Cat (born Amala Dlamini,) an American rapper and singer. Since massive Billboard topping pop acts are usually not in our diet of steady listens, we won’t add much here. But if you like that stuff, you’re in luck: Jack Antonoff executive produced this. You can probably spin any Billboard top 10 or Taylor Swift album and get basically the same stuff. If we needed to pick a favorite here, it'd be "Come Back". (26 Sept '25) |
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Geese Getting Killed NYC band Geese certainly does have a unique sound. At least enough to captivate critics, who are heaping praise on the band like they’re the second coming of 100 gecs. Cameron Winter’s always-present whiney baritone vocs, seemingly sung an octave too high, sticks out. As does the often frantic, kinetic garage riffs and instruments around him. This would be a fun band to see at your local dive bar. “Au Pays du Cocaine” and "Bow Down" are our favorites from this release. (25 Sept '25) |
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MICROCORPS Clear Vortex Chamber MICROCORPS is artist, musician and producer Alexander Tucker (Grumbling Fur, Brood X Cycles, Nonexistent, Charlemagne Palestine Time Machine Orchestra) exploring electronics, cello and voice. MICROCORPS focusses on modular systems, strings and voice manipulation, ranging from mutant beat exploration to granular frequency cut-up. We love Tucker’s 2018 album “Don’t Look Away” where he uses his baritone vocals in traditionally structured songs. He’s evolved though. With MICROCORPS the traditional song structure disappears and is replaced by experimental dark ambient techno. It’s not until you really listen to it that you realize that the instrument in the background creating the slightly agro soundscape is really Tucker screaming at the top of his lungs. There’s a lot to unpack in this driving, dystopian, scifi soundtrack, but another beautiful song such as “Objects” or “Visiting Again” off that aforementioned 2018 release? That’s not here. (19 Sept '25) |
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Wednesday Bleeds This one, the sixth studio release from the Ashville band seems to be getting a lot of buzz. Perhaps because guitarist MJ Lenderman saw some success with his recent solo release? This sounds like it might be good ole guitars, bass, drums, female singer indie rock, with a hint of Southern rock influences. But the songs here seamlessly shift between getting heavy on the distorted guitar and Karly Hartzman yelling her lines at you to going lighter with acoustic instrumentation and Hartzman’s vocals becoming more warbly and vulnerable. If you listened to “Wasp” and “Gary’s II” back-to-back you might be scratching your head wondering how the heavy metal band and the Appalachia folksy band ended up on the same album. We’re finding a little more beauty in the softer points of this release, such as “Elderberry Wine,” “Phish Pepsi.” And “Gary’s II.” It’s a very good album. (19 Sept '25) |
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Margaret Glaspy The Golden Heart Protector Brooklyn, New York artist Margaret Glaspy hit our radar as she is playing HSBG. Glaspy’s last album, 2024’s The Sun Doesn’t Think was pretty much a girl and her guitar affair. On this one she invites a cast of really good artists (Madison Cunningham, Andrew Bird, Norah Jones to name a few) to accompany her as she reinterprets songs by Wilco, Magnetic Fields, Lucinda Williams, Rufus Wainwright, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Blake Mills, and Nico. (12 Sept '25) |
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Algermon Cadwallader Trying Not to Have a Thought This is the third album, and first in 14 years, from the originally from Philadelphia but now bicoastal rockers. The LP consists of winey, yelpy male vocals over late-90s / post-millennial emo rock with some guitars that shift between jangly and distorted power chords and straightforward 4/4 drumming that includes times where it’s bang, bang, bang on the snare and cymbal at the same time. (12 Sept '25) |
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Fruit Bats Baby Man This is somewhat different album for the Fruit Bats, the project of singer/songwriter Eric D. Johnson, who is the band's sole permanent member. The usual full, lush rich multi-layered recordings are pared back to a minimum here, being usually nothing more than an acoustic guitar or a solitary piano. Longtime producer Thom Monahan encouraged the artist to explore the full power and range of his voice, pushing his vocals forward in the mix. We loved the Bat’s last album, A River Running to Your Heart. But we’re not sure Johnson’s voice and singing are the strong points of the band. The songs here are nice, but nothing really catches our attention. (12 Sept '25) |
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Joanne Robertson Blurrr This is the sixth solo release from the Glasgow via Manchester singer songwriter. It’s often a spare, intimate ordeal of a girl and her acoustic guitar. One where you can hear the fingerpicking and strumming so distinctly that you can almost identify the guitar strings and make and model of the guitar. Pitchfork notes the release “… is spectral and breathtaking. It’s a mood record of immense solitude, beauty, and free expression—with a crucial assist from the cellist Oliver Coates.” We agree completely on the value of cellist’s contribution. Without that, it’s sort of like a girl and her acoustic guitar live from the coffeeshop with a lot of reverb. “Why Me” is best in show here. (10 Sept '25) |
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Saint Etienne International It’s a little hard to give this one, the group’s 13th and final album, an end-to-end listen without the weight of the trio’s history in the back of your mind. We took an intermission halfway through it to spin the group’s brilliant LP “Good Humor,” which we’ve still been regularly spinning since its release in 1998. The changes in production value and many special guests here give it a more modern feel, but underneath that there’s still the classy, worldly eclectic dance pop you’d expect. As Pitchfolk says: “the trio is determined to go out with a bang, once more mapping dance music’s energies onto tender feelings of longing, optimism, and nostalgia.” (5 Sept '25) |
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James K Friend This is the third full-length album from New York-based artist Jamie Krasner under her moniker james K. We’ve been enjoying spinning this one for a couple of months. Some songs on this release, for example “On God” or “Collapse” feel a lot like if we were listening to Lush back in the early 90s. Not only in sounds but also how the vocals are used less for communication than they are for setting an atmosphere. There’s also a late 90s trip hop meets shoegaze vibe in many of the songs. However this is more moody, ethereal and ambient release at times than any of those 90s bands. “N’Balmed” and “Rider” are our favorites from this release. (5 Sept '25) |
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Lucrecia Dalt A Danger to Ourselves The seventh album from Colombian-born Berlin-based musician is a nice one. Dalt has a great mixture of organic and robotic, of past and future. Songs are very rhythmic, acoustic and organic but with electronic accoutrements and mechanical underpinnings. Think Tom Waits Bone Machine. Negative space is used exceedingly well here, for example on “stellaformia”. So, no surprise to see fellow Spanish speaking artist Juana Molina (whose new album is also reviewed in this haul) as a contributor. There are a lot of similarities in their music. We suspect Spanish speaking artist Rosalia (another one whose new album is also reviewed here) will suck up most of the critical acclaim for best Spanish language album of the year, but this one would probably get our vote. “amorcito caradura” is a great little play on a traditional Mexican melody. “Caes” is another beautiful one that made our Dark & Interesting playlist. (5 Sept '25) |
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Suede Antidepressants Suede (or The London Suede in the US) and Pulp coming out with new releases within 5 months of each other? What is this, 1994? This is the tenth studio album for the English alternative rock band and first one we picked up in some three decades. We totally forgot that Justine Frischmann was/is the guitarist in the group. Thankfully she broke up with Damon Albarn and inspired him in his writing on the Blur album 13. That’s a brilliant album. While Blur (one of the original Britpop four with Suede, Pulp and Oasis) expanded their musical scope significantly with their release last year, here it seems like I’m still listening to something from the mid-90s. "Somewhere Between An Atom And A Star" is our best in show here. (5 Sept '25) |
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Water From Your Eyes It's a Beautiful Place This is the seventh studio album by Water from Your Eyes, the NYC-based American indie pop project of Rachel Brown and Nate Amos. The bulk of the album was recorded in Amos's bedroom then released through Matador Records. It’s a pretty much a pop-rock album with some interesting nuances, including some ambient soundscape (“You Don’t Believe in God”,) electronic experimental drone rock a la Stereolab meets Cornelius, and shifts in style between and within songs that keep it interesting. It’s a decent release. “Playing Classics” and “Blood on the Dollar” are our best in show here. (22 Aug '25) |
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Max Richter Sleep Circle The business side of media (you know, advertising to pay the bills) is often not so interesting – especially when the topic of music comes up in small talk and stale billboard toppers or classic rock bands are thrown out there. We’d like to think the creative side of the house would have more interesting recommendations than the media side, but we digress. So imagine our surprise when we’re having a nice industry dinner at Da Damiano in Köln when the topic of favorite artists comes up and my young dining companions actually mention interesting artists such as Ludovico Einaudi and Max Richter. This prompted us to spin “Sleep Circle”, the new release from Richter that marks the tenth anniversary of his landmark project "SLEEP." That project, like this release explore a hallucinatory trip into the hypnagogic state – the time period when the brain transitions between a state of wakefulness and sleep and the state during which the individual dreams. This is beautiful ambient classical music for sleeping and relaxing (4 Sept '25) |
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Ane Brun Songs 2013-2023 This was another artist that came up in conversation over an fancy ad industry dinner at Da Damiano in Köln (yes, for DMEXCO, scroll down and read our Max Richter bit.) We have to say, we loved our dinner guests, and their music recommendations, that evening. Brun’s recent release Benjamin (From the TV series ‘Etter Benjamin’) was fantastic and is on our heavy rotation. To dig deeper, we pulled up this one up from the Stockholm-based, Norwegian singer-songwriter. This compilation album marks Brun's second decade as a recording artist, following her previous career-spanning compilation Songs 2003-13 released ten years earlier. It’s very good, adult contemporary style, music that would have fit in perfectly on a playlist spun during that dinner. “Fingerprints” and “Don’t Run and Hide” are our favs on this release. (May '23) |
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Agness Twin Turn to Gold This four song EP was mostly a product of the 2020 pandemic but took didn’t materialize until after Agness Twin, the musical project of California based artist Elisa Ovrahim, wrapped up their 2023 US tour backing Vinsantos as he open for Love & Rockets. Ovrahim’s style is reminiscent of early 90s alternative music mixed with a little dark folk. Vocal layers, enigmatic ringing guitars, chattering piano all arranged with modern elegance. The artist suggests “In the dark” as the standout single, but we think the two moodier closers “Ice Caps” and “The Flood” that play on the same hypnotic bass and guitar riffs that remind us a bit of something we might hear from Vetiver – at least until Vinsantos comes in on the piano. (May '24) |
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Modern Studies Cassandra Busy year for Modern Studies as they put out there second release of the year. Although they call it an EP, it has eight songs, so pretty LP like as far as we’re thinking. This one is pretty standard from the Scottish band – mellower indie rock that doesn’t stray too far off path. No synths, no programmed drumming, no horn section, no strings and orchestrations. There are some samples in the background for a bit of a moody ambience, otherwise it’s just guitar, bass, drums, guy-girl singing. The songs have a solid drone-like structure, but none of them are much over three and a half minutes, so we’re not post-rocking here. Nope, just good indie rock that break up solid drone verses with very beautiful girl-guy harmony led choruses. Good stuff. (Nov '22) |
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Modern Studies We Are There The sixth long play from this underrated Scottish band is very much like their previous releases. Although it isn’t as solid as 2018’s Welcome Strangers – which we think was a brilliant release – the mellow indie rock is very much in the swimlane of that, and their previous releases. Straight forward indie rock that borders on slowcore on one side, hints at drone space rock on the other side but never goes too far down either side. But, as always, the star here is the guy-girl harmonies as they tackle almost all songs together singing in almost a deadpan style but perfectly in synch. It’s Hush Kids-like, albeit with a more mopey song set, in how well the guy-girl harmonies work here. “Wild Ocean” is the best song here. (Feb '22) |
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Vinsantos A Light Awake Inside A new friend recently brought us to a pop-up art show and musical event in a venue on a sketchy alley off the Tenderloin in SF. Boy did we get a treat seeing Vinsantos, Agness Twin and our friend performing live in a very intimate, candlelit space and getting to mingle with them afterwards. We like Vinstantos the person as much as we like the artist’s dark cabaret theatrical music. We love “Vertiga Before the Pride” and especially ”Anger Makes Me Mad” off this album but were blown away by seeing it performed live on a grand piano in this wonderful space. (Dec '09) |
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Broncho
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