20 Great Albums of 2025 (So Far) + 8 Honourable Mentions
- Nikolaj Bruus
- 9. apr.
- 20 min læsning
Opdateret: 11. apr.
I’ve decided - to the extent that time and life allow - to start writing a bit about the new music I’m already spending so much time seeking out. It’s something I enjoy doing. That said, I also run a record label, play in a band, and work two jobs that help keep food on the table. My plan is to do a small monthly round-up here on the blog, covering the best new releases I’ve come across. Since this is the first post, and I want to cover everything I’ve missed so far in 2025, it includes a few more albums than I expect to feature going forward. I’ll focus on albums and EPs - not singles. There’s already too much focus on singles, and not nearly enough on full-length records these days. The name is taken from one of my favourite albums: Codename: Dustsucker by Bark Psychosis.
I won’t go full manifesto-mode just yet, but my answer to the question why another music blog? is simple: there are far too few of them compared to the sheer volume of great music being released every day. Gatekeeping culture is strong, and only artists with backing from the biggest indie labels or the most well-connected PR firms tend to receive much meaningful attention. And look at how consistently UK and US artists dominate coverage (give me more obscure experimental rock from Belgium, more dream pop from Santiago, please!). And personally, I guess it’s a way of expanding the purpose of the label.... Not just obsessively pushing our own music out into the world (which can be a very lonely business), but finding a way to live out the fact that we are massive music nerds who want community. Not least, I hope a few international readers will discover some new and exciting Danish releases through this.
I’ve also put together a kind of music directory here on the site (only visible on desktop, not mobile). It includes some of my favourite blogs, labels, radio stations, and the like. In that sense, this page functions both as my own little “holy grail of music nerdery”, and as a humble attempt to perhaps create a bit more transparency and cohesion within the alternative and experimental indie music scene. There are so many unpaid, dedicated music writers out there sweating over their work every single day - receiving little to no recognition - and at the same time, there are way too many small indie acts who have no idea where to send their music (making them unreasonably dependent on PR agencies and labels). And, of course, many people who’d love to discover new music have no idea where to begin, other than surrendering to the streaming platforms’ algorithms. This page attempts to gather some honestly better alternatives.
Thanks for reading.
Warmly, Nikolaj
The Weather Station - Humanhood (CA, Fat Possum)
Genre: Folk-Pop / Art-Pop / Sophisti-Pop
Fav Tracks:
Rating: ***
Tamara Lindeman has been one of my favorite songwriters since I discovered her around the release of All Of It Was Mine (listen to Yarrow and Mint to get a sense of her early songwriting - an outrageously beautiful song). Since then, she’s released many outstanding records - All Of It Was Mine and Loyalty being heavily folk-oriented, The Weather Station leaning more towards rock, and Ignorance marking an unexpected move into art pop and sophisti-pop. Her lyrics shift between sensuous impressionism and introspective existential monologue, and on her recent releases - including this new one - she addresses themes like the climate and biodiversity crisis, consumerism, and other sore spots of late capitalism, accompanied by vivid phenomenological depictions of living as a Western individual today, entangled in anxiety, shame, and a sense of powerlessness - related to our way of life and what is, honestly, a frightfully bleak outlook for the future. Stylistically, Humanhood partly follows in the footsteps of Ignorance - the sophisti-pop and art pop elements are still very much present - and the beautiful organic and freely improvised touches that made Ignorance's pop songwriting so vibrant are once again used to great effect. As a whole, the album isn’t quite as strong as its predecessor - there are a few too many moments where Lindeman and her band seem slightly directionless - but on tracks like Neon Signs, Mirror, and Humanhood, Lindeman shows exactly why The Weather Station remains one of today's most consistently vital acts.
“In a mess of scraps, colors, clash, I know
I'm sewing together a day
From these hours and the way you touched my hand just now
The things you say, blue” (Weather Station, Sewing)
Eterna - Debunker (ES, Partisan)
Genre: Experimental Rock / Dream Pop
Fav Tracks: Missing Lluna, Debunker
Rating: ***½
There isn't much information to be found about Eterna online – a male musician born in Barcelona and now based in South London is about as much as I've been able to dig up. I think I first stumbled upon him during the brief period I was on Nina Protocol (before I read a rather convincing critical article about the platform), and I was instantly hooked - something new and exciting going on, as well as something oddly familiar (but obscure!). I later came across an interview with him on Nina Protocol where he mentions having listened a lot to Team Sleep – a pretty eclectic side project by Deftones' Chino Moreno that sounds a bit like Linkin Park playing post-rock – as well as the British band Hood. And funnily enough, those were exactly the two acts that came to mind when I first heard Eterna! There are a few weaker moments here and there, but they’re far outweighed by the serious highlights. This is genuinely exciting, sensitive, experimental rock music that ventures into all sorts of fascinating corners.
The Tubs - Cotton Crown (WLS, Trouble in Mind)
Genre: Jangle Rock / Post-Punk / Folk
Fav Tracks: The Things Is, Freak Mode, Chain Reaction, One More Day, Fair Enough, Strange
Rating: ****½
I’ve been deeply, deeply in love with The Tubs for a couple of years now. I mean, I’ve been obsessed with jangle rock and kiwi pop for as long as I can remember, and over the past perhaps 5–6 years, I’ve fallen head over heels for British '70s folk rock - Richard Thompson, Sandy Denny, that whole world. So when a band comes along that manages to combine these influences so elegantly and effortlessly - and even throws in the occasional blast of Hüsker Dü-style post-punk - well, then I’m just plain happy. I only found out today that The Tubs are from Wales, and weirdly, it made perfect sense. I’m not well-versed in British dialects, to me, they could just as easily have been a London band. But bands from the big cities often sound eerily alike. The Tubs have an outsider sound. They don’t (like far too many jangle rock / kiwi pop bands) come off as nostalgically trying to recreate some lost era. They take familiar ingredients and turn them into something entirely their own - in a way that makes it feel like The Tubs have always existed, and that there could never be another band quite like them.
Honestly, I might just have to declare The Tubs my favourite band right now. This album is just as strong – if not stronger – than their debut. And that’s saying something.
An excerpt from the devastingly beautiful closing track, "Strange":
"The summer after was nice
Played in New York and it was alright
There when I found out the method
From an article in WalesOnline
A picture of my mother in a weird hat
Under an overcast sky
"Successful music journalist, mother of two
Takes her own life"
Joshua Burnside - Teeth of Time (NIR, Nettwerk)
Genre: Chamber-Folk / Singer-Songwriter/ Experimental
Fav Tracks: Up and Down, The Good Life, Marching Round the Ladies, In The Silence Of
Rating: ****½
Time for another love letter. Joshua Burnside is criminally, criminally underrated. Everything he’s released since Into the Depths of Hell (a masterpiece) has been nothing short of incredible. He’s one of those artists I often catch myself wondering about when he’ll release something new, because I genuinely feel like I need it.
Burnside stands with one foot firmly rooted in traditional Irish folk music, and the other in a shifting sea of more contemporary influences: from indie rock to modern classical to experimental sound art. Rarely has the meeting between the traditional and the radically contemporary been so clearly defined, and so successfully and tenderly executed. His music hits me right in the heart in a way very few artists do. It’s become a vivid, living part of my emotional landscape over the past few years. So thank you, Joshua, for all of it. And may I one day be lucky enough to hear you live.
"This album is about growing older, becoming a dad, getting by and making do (...) It’s about being stuck in traffic with a hangover, and doom scrolling at 3am. It’s about trees as gods in the imagination of a child, about lands divided, and never-ending wars fought under the banner of capitalism. It’s about Belfast, the north and about saying f*ck that to those that would divide us. It is about losing the ones we love and carrying on." (Burnside)
David Michael Moore - Umburkus Returns (US, Ulyssa)
Genre: Avant-Folk, Avant-Blues, Modern Classical
Fav Tracks: Buster Buster, Blue Train Into the Red Sun
Rating: ****
I honestly don’t quite know what to say about this album yet - but rarely have I been this wildly intrigued. Whether it’s your thing or not, one thing seems clear: there’s something truly unique, singular and accomplished going on here. Here’s a little taste from Ulyssa’s official description just to set the mood:
For the partitioners up there in the nosebleeds, David Michael Moore, 74, is a musician and woodworker from Rosedale, Mississippi. He creates elegant and unconventional woodcraft. Shaker chairs and birthing chairs. He weaves sycamore branches into benches, cradles, and canopy beds (...) We’re gathered here today because David also makes his own instruments. Zithers, bass harps, wooden drums, buzz boxes, boing boxes and dog bone xylophones. He uses these “perverted,” hybrid instruments — along with more standard instruments like piano, synths and drums — to make ecstatic compositions twirling amid zydeco, Sufi mystical music, Moondog and the prepared piano pieces of John Cage.
David Ivan Neil - I Hope Yer Ok (CA, Kingfisher Bluez)
Genre: Anti-Folk, Slacker-Rock
Fav Tracks: Drums, K-Hole, My Only Way
Rating: ****
Alright. There’s punch in this album. A fantastic wildness and vitality. Honesty and a real I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude. Anti-folk at its finest. That’s perhaps what happens when the first lines of the first song go: “I wanna play the drums / I wanna play ’em loud,” and, as the brilliant Rosy Overdrive (thanks for the recommendation!) rightly pointed out, all punctuated by some outrageously delightful “na na na”s and “ooh”s. I love vocals that truly embrace the full spectrum of the voice as an instrument: from growls to snores to microtonal shifts to shouting and hooting to gliding bends to weird outbursts to conversational tones… David Ivan Neil’s voice ventures far and wide in a wonderfully slack, punkish, unvirtuosic way. The enthusiasm that bursts through at times on this album is hard to find elsewhere, and it either makes you smile or makes you want to cause a little trouble. Oh - and the album is sometimes tender, too. I’d absolutely love to read the lyrics from this record. I have a strong feeling they’d be both hilarious and life-affirming. Glorious stuff. A criminally underrated gem from this year.
The official Bandcamp album bio:
"I Hope Yer OK is a message scrawled on a napkin, a transmission from the outskirts, a half-smile from across the bar that says, I know something you don’t. David Ivan Neil writes songs like he’s whispering secrets through a busted PA - somewhere between a joke, a confession, and a dare. Lo-fi country-folk for the ones who left town but never really escaped. If these songs don’t haunt you, you weren’t really listening."
Jim Ghedi - Wasteland (GB, Basin Rock)
Genre: Progressive Folk / Avant-Folk
Fav Tracks: Hester, Wishing Tree
Rating: ****½
I'm still only beginning to grasp the depth of this album. I’ve never fully connected with Ghedi’s earlier releases, but something truly magical happens on Wasteland. It’s the blend: traditional English folk interwoven with hyper-saturated, warm, and richly textured production; apocalyptic, at times almost industrial-sounding drums and electric guitars (at times, I found myself thinking about the radical nature of the production on Low’s HEY WHAT); sweeping atmospheric strings (which still manage to retain some of that essential earthy folk sensibility)...There’s something deeply intimate in the intricate acoustic steel-string guitar compositions - and yet they’re set against a grand, full-band backdrop that recalls both Swans and The Waterboys in equal measure. It feels like an epic, a kind of musical reinterpretation (I can't speak to the lyrics, as I haven’t been able to track them down) of T.S. Eliot’s famous poem of the same name, but this time with the most urgent issues of our time at its center. It doesn’t take much imagination to understand why Wasteland is a painfully appropriate album title in 2025. The 2020s have some striking similarities with the 1920s. My first impression was that the production might be too saturated, maybe too compressed – there’s little of that open airiness that’s often a hallmark of well-recorded and well-mixed folk music. But then again: how much open air, how much room to breathe is there anyway in Ghedi's imagined wasteland? The media landscape, the sharply drawn political lines and extreme positions, the panic, the anxiety - in many ways, Western societies today feel overwhelmingly compressed and saturated, mirroring the album’s atmosphere of claustrophobia, paranoia and disquiet. And yet - the dream, the hope, the whisper of freedom is still there. Wasteland urges us to find it within ourselves. That much I can hear (even without reading the lyrics).
Oklou - Choke Enough (FR, True Panther)
Genre: Alt-Pop / Electronic / Hyperpop
Fav Tracks: Endless, Family and Friends, Choke Enough, Harvest Sky
Rating: ****
An extremely charming low-key alt-pop / alternative R&B album from the French star, drawing on a wide range of contemporary electronic currents - including ambient trance and touches of hyperpop. I don’t have a lot of clever things to say about this album. It’s one of those records that - depending on your own mindset, I guess (and at the risk of sounding old) - could work just as well with a quiet glass of red wine as it could on the dancefloor. Packed with strong melodies, gorgeously warm harmonic textures, and tons of atmosphere and personality.
The Young Mothers - Better if You Let It (US/NO, Sonic Transmission)
Genre: Free Jazz, Experimental Rock
Fav Tracks: Hymn, Scarlet Woman Lodge
Rating: ****
This has been one of the year’s biggest surprises for me so far. An incredibly warmhearted, exuberant fusion of jazz, experimental rock, hip hop - even bursts that sound like metal. This is living, breathing, creative, organic music in its purest form - music that, like consciousness itself, can veer off in any direction at any given moment. It sounds free in the best possible sense, much like the finest jazz and experimental rock albums of the late ’60s and ’70s - no forced stylization, no cautious rehearsed gestures, just pure, serious play. A heightened, attentive being-in-the-now. Equal parts Albert Ayler, Captain Beefheart, Miles Davis, DNA, and who knows what else. Highly recommended.
Prism Shores - Out from Underneath (US, Meritorio)
Genre: Jangle Rock / Indie Pop
Fav Tracks: Holding Pattern, Southpaw, Sudden Sting, Fault Line
Rating: ****
Another gem I discovered through Rosy Overdrive. There really is nothing quite like stumbling upon a fantastic jangle pop / indie pop record in early spring, just as the first sunlight starts cutting through the cold…This album showcases consistently strong songwriting - with wonderfully resilient melodies and chord progressions, and an overall tone that’s hopeful and uplifting, yet naturally tinged with melancholy (otherwise, I probably wouldn’t like it). The production is super sharp as well, though both the production and performance do occasionally veer into what I might, in weaker moments, write off as “too indie.” But they more than make up for it with their songwriting chops and a certain dose of punkish fragility, imperfection and energy that ends up shining through beautifully.
You’ll find clear traces of kiwi pop, twee, C86, indie pop, shoegaze - a total paradise for lovers of noisy, bittersweet, major key-drenched guitar pop.
Yumiko Morioka & Takashi Kokubo - Gaiaphilia (JP, Métron)
Genre: Ambient / Neoclassical New Age
Fav Tracks: Gaiaphilia, Veil of the Night
Rating: ***½
A very beautiful and delicate ambient / experimental new age release from two Japanese masters. I don’t have much else to say, other than that I can feel my soul being nourished by this. I’ll let an excerpt from the official Bandcamp album bio do the rest:
Rooted in shared philosophical interests, Gaiaphilia reflects a profound reverence for nature’s resilience and harmony. Themes of Gaia, Mother Earth’s renewal, and the interconnectedness of life are central, with inspirations drawn from cosmology, sacred geometry, and Japan’s mystical Katakamuna tradition (...) From the jungles of Borneo to the gentle rhythm of ocean waves, Kokubo’s globe-spanning recordings transform into immersive soundscapes that perfectly complement Morioka’s introspective piano compositions. “The title, Gaiaphilia, is a newly created word to encompass our love and respect for nature and life, this feeling is the theme we hoped to express.”
Mount Shrine - The Mount Hibiki Tapes (BR, Cryo Chamber)
Genre: Ambient / Drone
Fav Tracks: Absent Sens Part 1, Sun Praising Through Part 1
Rating: ****
I listen to a lot of ambient music (without being an expert). A lot of more generic ambient music can sound pleasant, harmonious, and beautiful, and serve a “functional” purpose - being calming, soothing, meditative - in short, it tends to lend itself to becoming a kind of utility music, or muzak. Which, in fairness, isn’t necessarily far removed from the original idea behind ambient (inspired by Morton Feldman?): A kind of musical space you’re free to exist within, to drift in and out of. Still, I really value it when I can feel a presence behind the music - an artist, a personality - when I sense a particular harmonic sensitivity, a distinct tonal language, a specific sonic atmosphere. When it’s obvious that the music had to be expressed this way, and no other (and I say this as someone who genuinely loves Feldman’s compositions - but they also sound very much like Feldman!). I’ve experienced that with various ambient artists over the years - Kyle Bobby Dunn, for instance, who’s one of my personal icons in the genre. And I felt something similar when I first heard The Mount Hibiki Tapes by Mount Shrine. It’s hard to explain. But this project felt incredibly authentic and intimate. RIP Cesar Alexandre (a victim of COVID-19).
Fennesz - The Last Days of May (AT, Longform Editions)
Genre: Ambient / Electroacoustic / Drone / Glitch
Rating: ****
Fennesz has done it again. In fact, I’d say he’s experiencing something of a late-career peak right now - last year’s Mosaic was also remarkably strong. Even after nearly three decades of releasing music, he still composes with the emotional, beating heart of someone in their early twenties; there’s an affective purity and intensity in his music that feels as if it's being expressed for the very first time. Of course, age has nothing to do with the quality of art - many artists produce their best work well into later life - but it’s true that certain raw, affective, sensual qualities sometimes fade over time, giving way to other virtues. Fennesz, however, has managed to preserve that emotional core without ever sounding forced or calculated - and I love him for that. His continued use of the laptop + guitar setup is another testament to the idea that “new” doesn’t always mean “better”; sometimes, the artistic path lies in refining, deepening, and expanding what you already know to be true. Naturally, it’s not all pure sentiment, longing, and desire - as always with Fennesz, there’s a careful balance between Dionysian sensual surrender and Apollonian intellect. This gorgeous piece, by the way, is one of the final releases from the excellent label Longform Editions. Thanks for the journey.
Robbie Basho - Snow Beneath the Belly of a White Swan : The Lost Live Recordings (US, Tompkins Square)
Genre: American Primitivism
Fav Tracks:
Rating: *****
This is perhaps the musical equivalent of grand cru wine, caviar, or whatever other luxuries the upper classes indulge in. Robbie Basho is - in my humble opinion - perhaps the greatest acoustic steel-string guitarist to ever walk this earth. He ranks firmly in my personal top ten musical performers of all time, and this is a collection of some of the strongest performances I’ve ever heard from him. And I've listened to just about his entire discography. So what does that amount to? An absolutely essential, five-star release, really. This live collection will sit on my shelf like a trophy - right alongside the live albums that are among my all-time top 500 records, including Miles Davis’ Dark Magus, Tim Buckley’s Dream Letter, and Bob Dylan’s The Rolling Thunder Revue. This is transcendent music. It’s the sound of fire.
Here’s a bit of background, taken from The Quietus:
"Snow Beneath The Belly Of A White Swan is a follow up of sorts to 2021’s Song of the Avatars: The Lost Master Tapes, and is sourced from the same suitcase of tapes that filmmaker Liam Barker tracked down while making his essential documentary on Basho, Voice of the Eagle. Barker says that during filming, he found out that Basho’s personal collection of his own master tapes had been bequeathed to a member of Sufism Reoriented following his untimely death after a chiropractic accident. From there they found their way to a follower of the movement’s founder, the Indian spiritual master Meher Baba, whom Barker was able to track down and who gave Barker access. The case was a holy grail, containing over 100 reel-to-reel tapes which have now been curated into two box sets: the 2021 studio set and now this collection of live recordings, some of which have vague provenance because of poor labelling, meaning that identifying dates and locations have often come down to deduction or guesswork."
Huremic - Seeking Darkness (KR)
Genre: Post-Rock, Experimental Rock, Shoegaze, Emo
Fav Tracks: Impossible
Rating: ****
Wow. Yet another strong contender for album of the year. I’ve always been fascinated by Parannoul’s aesthetic - the talent is obvious - but something has always kept me from fully embracing the music. This latest release feels very different. Maybe it’s because we’re now leaning more clearly into old-school post-rock territory - which, if anything, is my home turf. But what can I say... This is a wild, explosive, unpredictable record. Dark, intense, emotional. Big dynamic swings, sharp shifts, insane grooves, and absolutely soul-piercing noise. Lo-fi mystique (delivered with just enough hi-fi punch), broad and interesting instrumentation, detailed production, and a glorious number of subtle layers and sonic elements - a headphone album in the truest sense. There seems to be a foundation of inspiration drawn from Bark Psychosis - the deep grooves, the use of percussion, the repetitive basslines, that mysterious, melancholic, urban-night-time vibe - blended with the sheer force and noise of Swans. Add a shot of the uncontainable lo-fi energy that’s been defining South Korea’s shoegaze scene in recent years. You don’t get the sense that Huremic - or contemporaries like Panda Rosa - are all that concerned with situating themselves in a broader musical lineage, and that’s exactly part of what makes this feel so fresh.
Bubbling Well - Bubbling Well (DK, Part Time Records)
Genre: Jangle Rock / Indie Pop / Post-Punk
Fav Tracks: Tallis Are You Listening?, Seabrain, 15 Rooms
Rating: ***½
I knew Emil and Søren from Bubbling Well a little bit back when we all lived in Denmark’s third-largest city, Odense — where I grew up. I must’ve been around 14 or 15, just starting to go out to shows and bars with friends. I’d often run into the two of them (a bit older than me), and we’d find ourselves caught in conversations about whether we preferred The Raincoats or The Slits — and other similarly urgent matters. Even back then, we were all very much into jangle, twee, kiwi pop and related things, and I was genuinely happy to see that they’re still writing and making music! This album is truly, truly lovely. The influences are clear — but that doesn’t matter when it’s delivered with this much warmth and enthusiasm. At times, it sounds like a lost classic from The Bats (or perhaps even more so, Magick Heads) in their finest years — and that’s saying something, considering The Bats still hold such a remarkably high standard. The two vocalists complement each other beautifully, and the occasional hint of a more punkish Hüsker Dü vibe is also a very welcome touch.
Nausia - Finding a Circle (DK, Vasen)
Genre: Jazz / Post-Minimalism / Kraut / Post-Rock
Fav Tracks: Eco Death
Rating: ***½
I’ve been curious about Nausia for quite some time now, but hadn’t yet found the right moment to dive into their music. This young group has serious drive, and they’re playing their own unique interpretation of what might be called “jazz” (but in the least “conservatory-trained” way possible).
If anything, they seem equally - if not more - aligned with the aesthetics and attitude of experimental rock. You’ll also find strong elements of krautrock and post-rock threaded through this release. Here in Denmark, they’ve played shows and gained attention in contexts that are quite unusual for an experimental instrumental band - one that’s so clearly focused on developing a personal and distinctive sound. And that alone, I find admirable. There are echoes of the experimental jazz scenes in places like London and Berlin in recent years, and at times, I’m reminded of a band like Maruja from the UK - but honestly, I can’t think of anyone else who sounds quite like Nausia. I don’t think they’ve peaked yet - there still seems to be something huge on the horizon - but on a track like “Eco Death,” they already show exactly why we should all be paying close attention to what comes next.
Kitchen - Blue heeler in ugly snowlight, grey on gray on gray on white
Genre: Indie Folk / Slowcore / Lo-Fi
Fav Tracks: Real Estate Agent, Grey on Gray on Gray on Gray on Gray on Gray, Blue Healer,
Rating: ****
My heart melts for Kitchen. Here is an artist who wears his heart on his sleeve - and in the best possible way. He might just be our era’s Jason Molina. And criminally overlooked. I haven’t dug deeply enough into his catalogue yet to say whether he’s released a full-blown “masterpiece” yet but I can safely say that there are moments of absolutely stunning quality across his discography. And I’m genuinely excited to explore it further. What we have here is a very intimate, close-up kind of lo-fi indie folk / slowcore - alternating between solo acoustic songs and tracks with minimal rock instrumentation. It has that living room or bedroom feel. Fair warning though: this is heartbreakingly melancholic music. I first caught a glimpse of him at a tiny bar in Berlin a few years back. I’d been at a friend’s birthday dinner and only made it in time to hear the final song. But it was devastatingly powerful, and I was left with a lump in my throat. If this album were to hit full marks for me, it could maybe use just a bit more tightening - but there are so many incredibly strong tracks here: Seaglass Wish, Real Estate Agent, Blue Healer, Gray on Grey...
"Gonna lose a friend again
Can't build a bridge even worth burning
Every question is an attack
And I'm sick and tired of learning
Where my faults lie
If you could be an animal
Dumb luck and dumb desire
Would you be so bought and sold
Mined for coal to fuel the fire
Black smoke and black sky" (Seaglass Wish)
Constant Follower - The Smile You Send Out Returns to You (SCT, Last Night from Glasgow)
Genre: Avant-Folk / Dream Pop / Slowcore
Fav Tracks: The Smile You Send Out Returns to You, Patient Has Own Supply
Rating: ***
I don’t know much about Scottish band Constant Follower, other than the fact that I’ve become deeply captivated by a few tracks on this album - especially The Smile You Send Out Returns to You and Patient Has Own Supply. What draws me in even more is the sense that they’re part of a new wave of British folk artists who seem, at least in part, to be looking toward post-rock and dreampop for inspiration - there’s no fear of experimenting with production, grandeur, and dreamlike textures. The band describes the album as “a song cycle that tackles addiction and recovery, parenthood, and the impact of kindness.” Without having closely read or studied the lyrics, I’m not surprised by these themes. The album gives off a sense of insight and emotional weight, as if something personal and essential is being worked through. I’ve never heard folk music with a production like this before. On one hand, it’s strikingly glossy, almost pop-like in its surface aesthetic; on the other, it’s something far more eclectic. There are moments that recall Low and Lankum but also so much more.
Ganavya - Daughter of a Temple (US, LEITER)
Genre: Spiritual Jazz / South Asian Classical Music
Fav Tracks: Om Supreme, Prema Muditha
Rating: ***½
“Daughter of a Temple,” the final album I’ll be writing about in this round, is yet another truly fascinating and unusual release. From what I understand, the album is intended as a tribute to the magnificent Alice Coltrane - and consists of a blend of interpretations of classic works by both John and Alice Coltrane, alongside what I assume are original compositions. What makes this release stand out is not only its tribute format, but also the sheer number of incredible performers brought into the project - and, perhaps most strikingly, the meeting between Southeast Asian devotional music and spiritual jazz. Ganavya is an extraordinary vocalist, and there are numerous moments of trembling, spine-tingling beauty throughout this release. She is without doubt an artist I’ll be following closely from now on.
Here's an excerpt from the official label bio:
‘Daughter of a Temple’ was recorded over a week in 2022 at the Moore’s Opera House in Houston, Texas, after ganavya had reached out to friends and associates over the preceding months to join her for “a gathering in and for devotion”. This was to draw on studies of what she terms the musico-philosophies of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda (...) Consequently, the album – which also brings the Hindu tradition of harikatha into the 21st century – draws upon a vast cast of contributors across multiple disciplines (...) The results, an innovative and deeply moving blend of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotional music."
Honourable Mentions:
FACS - Wish Defense (US, Trouble in Mind)
Genre: Post-Punk / Noise-Rock / Slowcore
Fav Tracks: A Room
Rating: ***½
Jules Reidy - Ghost Spirit (US, Thrill Jockey)
Genre: Electroacoustic / Avant-Folk / Glitch
Fav Tracks:
Rating: ***
Ex Void - In Love Again (UK, Tapete)
Genre: Jangle Pop / Post-Punk
Fav Tracks:
Rating: ***
Rapt - Until the Light Takes Us (GB, Start Track)
Genre: Indie Folk / Singer-Songwriter
Fav Tracks: Fields of Juniper
Rating: ***½
Iano - Be Again (Dismiss Yourself)
Genre: Indietronica / Art Pop / Progressive Electronic
Fav Tracks: Too Late, Still Waking, Pulled Me Up
Rating: ***
Hesse Kassel - La Brea (CL, Self-Released)
Genre: Avant-Prog / Post-Rock / Noise-Rock
Fav Tracks: Postparto, Vida En Terranova
Rating: ***
Minor Conflict - Parallels EP (UK, PRAH)
Genre: Post-Punk / Chamber-Jazz
Fav Tracks:
Rating: ***½
Snapped Ankles - Hard Times Furious Dancing (GB, The Leaf Label)
Genre: Post-Punk / Alternative Dance / Synth-Punk
Fav Tracks: Pay the Rent, Raoul
Rating: ***½
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