Dustsucker #4: 16 New 2025 Albums (Discovered in July/August) + 10 Honorable Mentions

Life is back in motion after the summer break, and things are moving fast. We already put on a label night at Raahuset in Copenhagen with Zeki Jindyl, Deirdre, and my own band Quiet Sonia, and there are two more coming up this fall - October 2nd at Stengade (Homesickness, Quiet Sonia, Ignacio Córdoba) and October 9th at Institut for X in Aarhus, same setup. We’re about to release the first single from "yc", the debut album by Danish art rock band Young Couple, landing this autumn, and there are a few other fall surprises bubbling under too, while we’re at the same time knee-deep in planning next year’s releases…

In between all of that I’ve been reading, and scribbling notes, on a huge stack of books about the music industry and all its crooked ways (I’m reading about platform and monopoly capitalism, the gig economy / precarious labor, cultural imperialism, inequality in the cultural sector, musicians and unions, musicians’ mental health, music as social protest movement, and much more), and I don't know whether I should actually try to make a book of its own, or just a series of blog posts. As always there’s neither enough time, nor enough money, for everything I’d like to do, and I’m running fast trying to keep it all together, with probably too many balls in the air - in this ongoing attempt to figure out how to most sustainably work with the music and culture I love so deeply, hopefully for the rest of my life.....Big questions, yeah yeah. But anyway, let’s get to the 2025 releases I stumbled upon in July and August.

The New Eves - The New Eve is Rising (UK, Transgressive Records)

Fav Tracks: The New Eve, Circles, Rivers Run Red

Genre: Art Punk / Avant-Folk

Rating: *****

Naturally, aesthetic judgments (or “judgments of taste,” as Kant called them) are never fully objective, but always carry with them a good deal of subjectivity - yet I would still insist (as Kant did) that judgments of taste have a striking tendency to be intersubjective (they possess, after all - at least within certain cultures, and, most importantly, within certain aesthetic fields - a generality that allows us to discuss art and beauty in a way that is at least somewhat meaningful). This “intersubjectivity” shows itself in everyday life when engaging with art: at a concert you more or less expect to share an impression with the stranger next to you of whether what you are witnessing is something extraordinary or something dreadful; or, to give a personal example, I (like many other active listeners) will very often hand-pick albums from a discography that I consider to be the strongest - without having read a single review or taken in anyone else’s judgment - only to later discover that these same albums are the ones most highly prized by other obsessives in the same field. This is in fact the rule rather than the exception, provided you share a basic fluency in the same aesthetic codes. Yet sometimes, of course, an album’s popularity is more the product of hype (social media visibility, the right clothes, a certain alignment with the zeitgeist), or the brute force of a money-driven PR campaign, within a musical ecosystem that increasingly ensures only the well-funded and well-established voices are heard. And of course it also happens that two listeners, equally versed and equally experienced in a given aesthetic world, may still come away entirely divided about the quality of a piece of music.

But if we live today in a deeply unequal musical world - one where independent criticism is under threat, where larger outlets lean ever more toward the familiar and away from the new and the marginal, where major PR firms increasingly dictate what gets covered, and where major labels consolidate ever more invisible power (a monopolization taking place here just as it does in every other sector); where pop aesthetics seep steadily into even the old alternative bastions; and where non-musical factors such as an artist’s branding on social media, the blind chance of algorithms, and, above all, the sheer entrepreneurial stamina required to survive in today’s precarious industry (it takes remarkably robust souls, in sharp contrast to the traditional figure of the suffering artist, to succeed as small-scale capitalists in an ever more commercialized marketplace) become ever more decisive - not to mention the wider realities of class, race, and gender: then it becomes harder and harder to trust in the value of intersubjective judgment, harder to believe in anything resembling a meritocracy (the best receiving their due), harder to believe, put simply, that the music presented to us in the media is in fact a broadly representative slice of what is best, most urgent, most relevant today.

Yes, it has become easier and cheaper than ever to record and release music. But it also means more music is being recorded and released than at any other time, which in turn means the competition has become immense, and it has become ever more difficult for the listener to orient themselves: where do you actually find the best new music? This is why music media still matter, and why Substack is on the rise. This “overproduction” of music - coupled with the promotional necessity of a strong digital presence - has also meant that majors and larger indies today almost exclusively sign artists who already have substantial digital followings (a far safer bet, yielding quicker and more reliable returns, than investing in an entirely unknown act). But building such a following can take years, and often multiple releases - which has the consequence that much of the music we see elevated today does not in fact represent what is truly moving right now. The gap between the underground and the marketplace has never been wider.

And so, much of the very best, most exciting, most radical, most contemporary music will remain unheard, not because it lacks merit, but because many of the finest artists are not hardened entrepreneurs, neither by choice nor by temperament, and because many would far rather devote their time to creating urgent, meaningful art than to endlessly promoting their persona (as opposed to their work) on social platforms they may not even believe in. That music will remain buried on Bandcamp, and circulate only as well-guarded secrets within small underground communities across the world. There is both a fragile beauty in this - the strength of local communities, and art that does not primarily exist in order to be commodified - but there is also an injustice: the vast majority of musicians seek, if nothing else, recognition for their work, and there is a wealth of fantastic music that never reaches the passionate niche listeners around the world who would deeply appreciate it.

Let us now take a closer look at The New Eves’ debut album, The New Eve Is Rising. They have a major UK/US indie label behind them, Transgressive Records, which also releases artists such as The War on Drugs, Black Country, New Road, Damon Albarn, etc., and also provides management - so they have likely had relatively solid financial support enabling the excellent recording, mixing and mastering, physical pressing, as well as a professional PR campaign. They have been reviewed in outlets such as The Guardian (a truly rather condescending/patronizing review, though), Treble Zine and Beats Per Minute - publications that are difficult, if not impossible, to reach unless you are writing through a larger, well-established PR company. The band comes from Brighton and, although not from London, they nonetheless draw legitimacy and cultural, economic, and social capital (pre-given resources) from being situated within the cultural empire’s core (where it is decided what will be heard, read, and taken seriously globally), and they are, in principle, in a position to reap the fruits of the national bias of the most influential music media (The Quietus, The Guardian, NME, etc.) and the canon-formation that comes with it. They have a lot of shows lined up over the next while, and there’s definitely a bit of hype as well.

Here’s the good news: the music is really, really good. In fact, when I listen to The New Eve Is Rising, I immediately think “new-classic status" (I apologize in advance, I'm shaped by oldschool music journalism). First and foremost, what we have here is outstanding lyricism, closer to literature and poetry than to conventional songwriting, something that could be published in book form and analyzed at university: a lyrical landscape that blends geology, mythology, and history; a kind of pagan feminist reckoning with patriarchal constructions; a declaration of freedom with comic overtones. The lyrics draw on archetypes - Eve, Mary, Genesis, medieval myths - but develop them into a surreal, feminist-poetic mythology that flirts with folklore. Their words raise questions of identity, female autonomy, nature, and mythological transcendence. Musically, The New Eve Is Rising is every bit as strong. Post-punk, experimental rock and kraut elements are interwoven with British folk traditions, evoking equal parts The Raincoats, Velvet Underground, Can and Shirley Collins. The production is refreshingly raw and grounded, giving the record a sense of immediacy and timelessness - it could just as easily have been released in the late seventies as today, for instance - and the performances are extremely intense and present. There’s a playfulness and collectivist spirit, as well as a vast creative surplus that permeates the entire album, which as a whole pushes at both political and aesthetic boundaries. In music criticism, people often talk about that elusive quality that gets labeled everything from “nerve” to “vitality” to “urgency” - terms which, on the one hand, are often tied to old-fashioned rockism and can seem vague to the point of emptiness, but which, on the other hand, if you ask many seasoned listeners, point to something very real. And here, one simply has to say: The New Eves can be felt in every single note and phrase.

Now, here’s the twist: The New Eves have yet to be reviewed in Pitchfork or The Quietus. They currently have around 250 user reviews on RYM (a lot for artists on my label, but very little if you have industry backing like The New Eves), and several - typically young men - post the usual condescending nonsense, such as “this would have been interesting 20 years ago,” or asking if this isn’t just “The Raincoats.” Men, apparently, are heirs and innovators (think Interpol and Joy Division); women are copies, imitators, almost always patronizingly tethered to the same few female predecessors. Alex Petridis at The Guardian does exactly the same thing when he spends most of his review emphasizing that the band aren’t actually as original as they themselves might think. The Uncut reviewer, too, feels strangely compelled to point out this supposed lack of originality. Yet every publication that has reviewed The New Eve Is Rising so far must admit that something truly good and exciting is happening here. Really good, in fact. But there seems to be something that holds critics back. A certain skepticism, a certain restraint.

Even though everything should be in place for The New Eves - they are on a prestigious indie label, they have a solid PR campaign, they come from England, and, not least and most importantly, they have released a truly fantastic record that to me screams new-classic - it still seems that it may simply be harder to release, let's call it, a "canon-worthy masterpiece" when you are a female rock band. Even though we live in a present supposedly so attuned to precisely these issues. It's simply easier for men to be granted canonical status (to be “groundbreaking” and “defining”), while women are allowed to be “promising,” “interesting,” and “important contributors.” We live in a time where we talk about young women needing role models in pop and rock music, and we’re fully aware of the structural inequality and sexism in the industry. The New Eve Is Rising is an incredibly coherent, semi-conceptual work that stands equally strong aesthetically and politically, musically and lyrically. Besides functioning as a revitalization of rock music - unpredictable and transformative - it is also, and more importantly, an enormously important contemporary document on a societal level, with its sharply carved, poetic, and liberatory feminist messages. When we have a masterpiece right in front of us - whatever one thinks of such a term - why not seize the opportunity and call it what it is?

Brighde Chaimbeul - Sunwise (SCT, tak:til)

Fav Tracks: A' Chailleach, Bog an Lochan

Genre: Scottish Folk Music / Avant-Folk / Ambient

Rating: ***½

A truly beautiful album from the Scottish bagpiper, and probably the best I’ve heard from her so far. She seems to be relatively popular here in Denmark, having played several concerts here in recent years, including a sold-out show at Alice this October. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get a ticket. A wonderful blend of ambient/drone, modern classical, and inspiration from traditional Celtic folk music.

A quote from the label:

Bleary Eyed - Easy (US, Born Losers)

Fav Tracks: Easy, Smile

Genre: Experimental Rock / Shoegaze / Noise Pop

Rating: ***½

“Easy” is probably one of the records I’ve been most excited about in recent years. I love the experimental, shoegaze-inspired rock scene that’s been unfolding in Philadelphia lately, and I’ve been following projects like Sun Organ and Nyxy Nyx closely. Bleary Eyed released an absolutely brilliant self-titled EP in 2023, and since then I’ve barely been able to wait for something new. When I go into something with such high expectations, I often end up feeling a little bit.... disappointed. And after quite a few listens, I still don’t really think this is the masterpiece I was dreaming of - the kind that could, for example, stand alongside Sun Organ’s Candlelight Showertime or Strange Ranger’s Pure Music.

But! It’s still excellent. Like much of the current shoegaze/dreampop scene, Bleary Eyed have absorbed a good dose of grunge and/or Deftones-inspired aesthetics, but they pull it off better than most, and they also set themselves apart with a range of intriguing electronic elements and a super creative, detail-rich production (even if, on a basic level, I would wish for more clarity in the highs and more weight in the lows/lower mids). I’ll definitely be spending more time with this album, and I’m sure it will grow on me even more. If you don't know this band, a strong recommendation.

James Yorkston - Songs for Nina and Johanna (SCT, Domino)

Fav Tracks: A Moment Longer, Love That Tree

Genre: Singer-Songwriter / Chamber-Folk

Rating: ***

I’ve really grown fond of Scottish songwriter James Yorkston over the past years, and he’s one of those relatively rare songwriters who I feel has become significantly more interesting with age. I consider The Wide, Wide River (2021) to be a masterpiece in his discography (let’s call it a kind of indie folk), his first with Sweden’s The Second Hand Orchestra - and by that point in his career Yorkston had already released well over 10 records (among which there are certainly many fine works).

This new release also features members of The Second Hand Orchestra, along with two top Swedish vocalists: Nina Persson (The Cardigans) and Johanna Söderberg (First Aid Kit). The songwriting is top notch - there’s really nothing to fault - but compared to The Wide, Wide River we seem to be in slightly less complex, more accessible indie-pop territory, for better and for worse in my perspective. I do miss the more expansive arrangements, the wild organic improvisational feel, and the emotional ambivalence of The Wide, Wide River. At times it gets a bit too ‘cute’ for my taste - something that occasionally also seems to be the case with fellow Scottish songwriter King Creosote, an artist that comes to mind when I listen to this album. But there's definitely a bunch of highlights on the album, and if you haven’t yet explored Yorkston’s work, this is by no means a bad, easily accessible introduction. He truly is one of the great songwriters of our time.

Far Caspian - Autofiction (UK, Tiny Library)

Fav Tracks: First Day, Autofiction

Genre: Indie Pop / Dream Pop

Rating: ***½

Joel Johnston - the owner of the very promising label Tiny Library, which released one of my absolute favorites from last year, 22º Halo’s Lily of the Valley - also runs this musical project, which I wasn’t familiar with until the singles from Autofiction started coming out. I was blown away when I first heard the single First Day, a fantastic, euphoric yet melancholic indie pop gem with the most wonderful bedroom DIY sound, surging forward with a beautiful intensity and emotions worn right on its sleeve.

We’re somewhere between The Radio Dept., Bedhead, and the best of contemporary English DIY bedroom indie. And he’s from Leeds (though originally from Ireland), which is currently home to much of the most exciting alternative rock music in England, including great labels like Devil Town Tapes. Deeply human, vulnerably honest, truly beautiful music.

From the official Bandcamp bio:

Olli Aarni - Dimension Scrolling (FI, Mondoj)

Genre: Ambient / Experimental Electronic / Epic Collage

Rating: ****

A wonderful, creative, pop-collage-like blend of experimental electronic sound art and poetry released on the great Polish label Mondoj - airy, delicate, sparkling, playful, equal parts joy and sadness, what the artist describes as "distant pop songs, fields of fair folk spinning vocoded fudge, an exquisite tasting menu, the shiny towers of an inflatable castle protruding from underground (...) spoken word, diatonic harmony, wide stereo fields, spectral shenanigans, strong scores of wonder and tenderness on the Geneva Emotional Music Scale."

An enormously inspiring and well-crafted project, in fact one of the best electronic albums I’ve heard in a long time. There’s a truly unique, coherent sonic universe at play here, but also a remarkably sharp harmonic ear and a strong emotional depth; an all-encompassing creative production (a real treat on headphones with its wide stereo field), truly beautiful harmonic and melodic passages, and deeply captivating contemporary poetry (unsurprising, perhaps, given that Aarni also works as a publishing editor and holds a master’s degree in language). Too many highlights to mention any favorite tracks, have to checkout the rest of his discography....

The lyrics to Air Ornament, one of my favorite poems from the album:

"digitally decorated air pressure fluctuations

with seasonal semantic ingredients

an air ornament

cauliflower-colored snowstorms

skittles scattered on blue meadows

dimension scrolling

twelve equally tempered sour flavours

(the synthesized essences of non-existent things)

pointing towards objects such as Citrus, Cherries,

Vinegar, Toxic Waste Candy, et cetera

mirrors upon mirrors

distorted yet yummy

”O’ Water-Soluble Thought Process,

we dreamed for aeons in strawberry years…”

(us = the fairies dressed in kiwifruit fur cloaks)

this is a two-dimensional surface spread in time

and advertisement language used for suggesting

a spectral placeholder for a worldview

clearly not a song"

Ferries - Eye Flutter (NL, Bergpolder)

Fav Tracks: Numan's New Year, Subtraction

Genre: Experimental Rock / Kraut / Synthpop

Rating: ****½

The most mysterious release of the year so far! And at the same time one of the best… What is this? Gong, Rock in Opposition, Can, with a touch of Gary Numan and Bowie, a bit of Silver Apples and The Residents? With some dips into Landing-like slowcore psych? Honestly… And on top of that from a Dutch label (apparently Ferries is Dutch as well, though we don’t know much more), which has supposedly put out some other top-quality releases, but doesn’t even have a website or a Bandcamp?

To be completely honest, there’s a lot of semi-cosmic, half-improvised proggy rock that I simply don’t have the patience for, but this is so fresh it almost feels like it’s coming from another planet. Sometimes it’s groovy, krauty odd-pop with a hint of glam (like on Numan’s New Year and Eye Flutter I), at other times it’s ridiculously beautiful, tender cosmic dream pop (Subtraction), ESG/Liquid Liquid-style post-punk/funk (Re-Move), obscure Crammed Discs-like avant-pop (Louder), and so on, and so on… I can throw around niche genres, but maybe it’s better just to let the label’s own very fine description speak for itself:

Almost an Island (US, Past Inside the Present)

Fav Tracks: Wide Open (In Two Parts), Perfume Gloves

Genre: Ambient / Dream Pop

Rating: ***½

Past Inside the Present has become known for releasing some of the best-sounding ambient records these days, and they’ve built a large following because of it. What sets this particular ambient release apart is perhaps the inclusion of a diverse range of instruments such as electric guitar, bass, strings, pedal steel, vocals, harp, and even acoustic drums - elements that often push the music toward shoegaze, drone, post-rock, slowcore (with hints of Americana), and the like, evoking artists such as Windy & Carl, Labradford, Rachels, Stars of the Lid, and others (all names I listened to heavily in my youth). The project is a collaboration between producer Kenneth James Gibson and husband-and-wife duo James and Cynthia Bernard. A fantastic album to drift away to. Highly recommended.

ex_libris - 002 (NL, Self-Released)

Fav Tracks:

Genre: Dub Techno / Ambient Dub

Rating: ***

Experimental long-form ambient / leftfield house compositions from Dutch artist Dave Huismans, whom I wasn’t previously familiar with. Wonderfully organic, fluid, percussion-driven atmospheric tracks that, among other things, remind me of Arthur Russell’s club work, Vladislav Delay’s more beat-oriented pieces and Quelza’s recent Pensa Poetico. I like 002 much better than 001.

No Joy - Bugland (CA, Handdrawn Dracula)

Fav Tracks: Bugland, My Crud Princess, Bather in the Bloodcells, I Hate That I Forget What You Look Like

Genre: Shoegaze / Dream Pop / Experimental Pop

Rating: **** 

This album struggles to really get under my skin, however drawn in I am, much as I often feel with much of Medicine’s material, as well as A Sunny Day in Glasgow; the shiny, expansive, and ornamented soundscape is easy to lose oneself in, yet the harmonic/melodic universe (with the exception of a small handful of more graspable bangers) is - at least to my ears - elusive and fluid in a strange way, never quite sticking, however poppy or accessible the material might look if written out on a score. This, however, is also one of the record’s (and the above-mentioned names) great qualities: that there seems to be something fleeting, hard-to-define, merely suggestive at play, as though outlines of grandiose, sugar-coated pop constructions are being drawn, but never colored in, leaving the listener’s imagination and active co-creation required. There is something sublime at work here, in Lyotard’s sense: works of this kind to some degree challenge or exceed our cognitive grasp, forcing us to become active co-creators of meaning. In this sense, the title also fits perfectly, since we should not necessarily assume that we can fully comprehend everything going on in “Bugland” (!) - a new language-game is required. Records like this are fascinating, the kind you can return to again and again, discovering - and creating - new qualities. But they are also the kind of albums where, in the short term, it is difficult to determine whether it’s a 3.5 or a full score. So for now, it lands on ****. And I know I’ll be listening to this record a lot more.

Josh Halper - Schlemiel (US, Glamour Gowns)

Fav Tracks: Use a Friend, Paul and Jane, Schlimazel, Sorry in B Major

Genre: Indie Folk / Experimental Rock / Slacker Rock

Rating: **** 

Who is this stunning new songwriter? He sounds like someone who’s already released 10+ albums, as if he’s always been there - but this is, in fact, his debut. He moves effortlessly from Americana to post-rock-ish jazzy experiments, to slacker rock, to indie folk, and beyond. There’s an immense sense of ease in his expression, as though he’s fully at peace with his own voice, while drawing from a wide palette of influences. It’s this diversity and the organic, unforced way he shifts between styles (never once sounding schizophrenic) that fascinates me the most about this release (beyond the fact that the songwriting is rock solid). It’s rare to hear an album out of Nashville, Tennessee, where the musicianship isn’t top notch, and this one is no exception. An incredibly recommendable release, and I can’t wait to hear more!

Florian T M Zeisig - A New Life (DE, Stroom)

Fav Tracks: Thank You Pharoah, Diddy's Lament

Genre: Ambient / Spiritual Jazz

Rating: ***½

An incredibly pleasant ambient record with clear inspiration from spiritual jazz. A fantastic combo, in case anyone was wondering. Cue the usual string of adjectives I reach for when it’s something I really like: organic, warm, grounded, sensitive, breathing....

The Mary Column - Very Sparrow (SCT, Errol's Hot Wax)

Fav Tracks: Love Can Make You Cry, FUA

Genre: Post-Punk / Jangle Pop / Indie Pop

Rating: ***

A really lovely indie pop / jangle rock release from Glasgow, Scotland. Every track is good, though not all equally memorable, but there’s a solid handful of highlights. There’s a directness, an honesty, and a rawness here that suit the record incredibly well. It brings to mind The Go-Betweens, The Replacements, and even Deacon Blue (I love the crunch the singer sometimes gets in his voice, and the backing vocals are wonderful too). Recommended!

Spafford Campbell - Tomorrow Held (UK, Real World Records)

Fav Tracks:

Genre: Folk / Post-Rock / Chamber Classical

Rating: ***½

This entire album is enjoyable to listen to (though the vocals on ‘All Your Tiny Bones’ are not to my taste), but it’s included here primarily because of the longform masterpiece ‘Tomorrow Held’ - a stunning blend of contemporary folk, modern classical and post-rock (an incredibly moving and inspiring composition, giving equal space to both the rough and the beautiful). The closing short piece ‘Four’ is also highly recommended. Much of the rest of the release feels a bit like imagining Jakob Bro meeting contemporary spiritual folk (think The Gleaming). There’s an incredible sense of dynamics throughout - at times it almost feels like lowercase music - though harmonically it sometimes comes across a little too polished and pretty, leaving me wishing for just a touch more contrast.

Teppana Jänis & Arja Kastinen - Teppana Jänis (FI, Death is Not the End)

Genre: Finnish Folk Music / Karelian Folk Music

Rating: ****

Oh my. Death is Not the End really is one of my favorite labels. And what a completely fantastic and unexpected release this is… Here we have a Finnish musician, Teppana Jänis, born in the small town of Uuksujärvi in Suistamo on June 21, 1850. The label describes how, after going blind later in the 19th century, he went from house to house making a living playing the kantele, a traditional Finnish and Karelian string instrument "belonging to the southeast Baltic box zither family". He performed at dances and in schools. In 1917, folk music researcher Armas Otto Väisänen (1890–1969) recorded 14 wax cylinder recordings. This release, Teppana Jänis, blends those original recordings with pieces reinterpreted by kantele player and researcher Arja Kantinen, together with the late Finnish folk musician Taito Hoffrén - ‘taking into account the additional information and notes found in Väisänen’s sheet music manuscripts.’ There’s an ambient quality to these recordings, a devotional spirit of sorts, airy, delicate, flowing - at times you almost think of Laraaji… An incredibly beautiful and fascinating release.

Nourished by Time - The Passionate Ones (US, XL Recordings)

Fav Tracks: Idiot in the Park, When the War is Over, 9 2 5, Tossed Away

Genre: Bedroom Pop / Alternative R&B / Hypnagogic Pop

Rating: **** ½

Everything Nourished by Time has released so far has been excellent, but this is by far his best work yet. The Passionate Ones is an absolutely outstanding release without a single weak moment. It’s like a (well-produced) lo-fi/bedroom take on alternative R&B and sophisti-pop - I’ve honestly never heard anyone who sounds quite like him (and in that uniqueness, he even makes me think of someone like Arthur Russell). This could very well be a future classic. I simply can’t stop listening, and the songs just keep growing on me. Not to be missed. I really hope I get the chance to catch him live when he comes to Copenhagen soon.

Notable Mentions:

Fantasy of a Broken Heart - Chaos Practitioner (US, Dots Per Inch)

Fav Tracks: Star Inside the Earth, We Confront the Demon in Mysterious Ways

Genre: Noise Pop / Experimental Pop

Rating: ***

When this band is good, they’re among the very best new acts out there (and they give me some serious indie nostalgia - think the Broken Social Scene days). Unfortunately, I do feel the music is a bit uneven in quality. That said, Star Inside the Earth and We Confront the Demon in Mysterious Ways are real highlights on this release, and I’m excited to follow them going forward.

Field Designer - Passion Without Applause (Audio.Visuals.Atmosphere)

Genre: Ambient

Rating: ***

Another truly beautiful release from Field Designer, one of my new favorite ambient projects, this time released on the Antwerp-based label Audio.Visuals.Atmosphere. Few artists manage to create such a unique and coherent sonic universe, one that completely pulls you in and unfolds a wealth of mental images and emotions, the way Field Designer does.

PYNKIE - Big Feeling (UK, Devil Town Tapes)

Fav Tracks: Big Feeling, Down

Genre: Dream Pop / Slacker Rock / Indie Folk

Rating: ***½

Devil Town Tapes is one of my new favorite labels. They almost never disappoint (which, unfortunately, cannot be said of many record labels these days), and they showcase some of the best and most exciting new alternative rock/pop music in the world, often with a lo-fi/bedroom touch. They’re connected to the music scene in Leeds, where so many exciting things are happening right now (London? Yawn). It really feels like they play an active role in the local community, and they seem to embody that genuine DIY spirit I value so highly. PYNKIE is a new discovery for me, but this EP offers five truly delightful semi-bedroom indiepop/dreampop tracks, with touches of folk, a bit of slacker rock, and a dash of shoegaze…

Water From Your Eyes - It's a Beautiful Place (US, Matador)

Fav Tracks: Nights in Armor

Genre: Experimental Rock / Noise Pop

Rating: **½

It’s interesting to see a band with this kind of aesthetic releasing on Matador Records (a huge indie). This sort of ‘blown-out,’ experimental, dreampop/shoegaze-inspired, genre-bending rock (think Julias War) has so far mostly been the domain of smaller indies. But perhaps this ‘new’ American underground sound is starting to seep into more mainstream circles… Water From Your Eyes certainly have an impressive social media following, so Matador is guaranteed to see some sales and publicity. For now, I have to be honest and say the project feels a bit overrated to me, but ‘Nights in Armor’ is a fantastic track.

Kettel - Inmate Shuffle (NL, Analogical Force)

Fav Tracks: Inmate Shuffle, Park Here Harper

Genre: IDM

Rating: ***

Kettel, the artist moniker of Dutch electronic musician Reimer Eising, is a super intriguing electronic project. Active since the late ’90s, Kettel has become a highly respected cult name within IDM/ambient, though he never quite reached the same level of recognition as Mike Paradinas and many others. That’s despite the consistently high quality of his work (I still have much of his discography left to explore, but his collaboration with Secede on Tryshasla is easily one of my favorite electronic albums). This new EP - especially the first two tracks - is a fantastic burst of euphoric, intelligent, pop-leaning IDM...

Jeremiah Chiuh & Marta Sofia Honer - Different Rooms (US, International Anthem)

Fav Tracks:

Genre: Progressive Electronic / Post-Minimalism / Ambient

Rating: ***½

A highly recommendable release, though at times - in all its harmonic lightness - it does risk blending a little too much into the background (the best kind of background music imaginable, though).

Mike Polizze - Around Sound (US, Paradise of Bachelors)

Fav Tracks: After the Deluge, Everybody I Know

Genre: Indie Folk / Psychedelic Folk / Slacker Rock

Rating: ***

This release carries a lovely light, organic spirit, with an unmistakable Philadelphia indie-folk sound (think Kurt Vile). Polizze is indeed from the city, and also plays in Purling Hiss, a band that has put out some fine work as well. There are a couple of really strong tracks here (especially if you love the sound and spirit as much as I do), and quite a few that are pleasant enough to listen to, but feel somewhat unfocused and a bit too casual, perhaps.

Winter - Adult Romantix (US, Winspear)

Fav Tracks: Existentialism, In My Basement Room, Hollow

Genre: Slacker Rock / Noise Pop

Rating: ***

Spot-on 2025 indie rock/indie pop, drawing on all the ‘right’ references and nailing the ‘right’ sound (plenty of those very on-trend ’90s and early ’00s nods). All the songs are good, none below average - which is quite an achievement - but it does feel a bit on the ‘safe’ side, with only a few tracks really reaching the next level… Still, it’s definitely a very solid release.

ear - The Most Dear and the Future

Genre: Glitch-Pop/Indietronica

Rating: ***½

Incredibly satisfying glitchpop/indietronica that almost sounds like something I used to listen to a lot in the mid-00s - that kind of Morr Music / Lali Puna / Múm vibe. I wonder if the 00s revival will also soon extend to this kind of music? It would be lovely, since indietronica (which Noah from the Absent Friend blog reminded me of) is such an unfairly forgotten and underrated genre!

forever - Second Gen Dream (US, á La Carte Records)

Fav Tracks: 3 Point Star, Supercharger

Genre: Shoegaze / Drum n Bass / Breakcore

Rating: ***

It should be obvious to any connoisseur that when you blend shoegaze, drum’n’bass, and breakcore, you end up with some of the most intense, grand music imaginable… And of course, I’m a fan! This release is exceptionally intense. I love that a bit of Curve-worship has finally made its way into a branch of today’s shoegaze scene. There’s really nothing better than dancing to all-encompassing, crashing guitar noise paired with a heavy beat. Here in Denmark, 100%Wet are doing this exceptionally well. This EP might not be flawless from start to finish, but tracks like 3 Point Star and Supercharger really hit hard (especially if you’ve got the volume turned way up).