Dustsucker #5 - best new indie & experimental albums: 14 Bandcamp picks and 11 notable mentions (Sep/Oct 2025)

A new stack of 2025 records I discovered during September and October.

Sorry for the slightly longer wait this time - it’s been a busy period (once again), and there was a bit of autumn break in between. Welcome to all new subscribers! So what’s been going on lately? We’ve played a handful of intimate shows with Quiet Sonia recently - at Stengade, Voxhall, and Headquarters - and in a couple of weeks we’ll be performing as a duo (acoustic + electric guitar) at Huset, opening for Town Portal. PCC has released a digital compilation with all proceeds going to Gaza - buy here <3 We’ve also put out a couple of singles with the art-rock/dreampop band Young Couple this fall. The first single from doom-pop band Catcase is coming soon, and I’m proud to announce that I’m working on releasing the upcoming collaboration between G.W. Sok (The Ex) and Ignacio Córdoba named This House. Follow us on Bandcamp for more news.

Quiet Sonia, Voxhall (Credit: Steffen Jørgensen)

I’ve written a critical yet constructive manifesto titled “Notes from a Microlabel – Precarity, Persistence and Resistance”, about the current state of the music industry. I’m considering uploading a few excerpts to Substack soon, but for now, it can be found here.

As always, I hope you’ll enjoy this month’s selection of the best new indie & experimental albums on Bandcamp (Sep/Oct 2025) - some really good stuff (again) this time, if I do say so myself, ha - and please recommend the blog/newsletter to friends if you like the recommendations! If there’s something on the list that speaks to you, please consider buying it on Bandcamp. Really. When you buy music from musicians, those musicians buy other musicians’ music, and that’s really how the ecosystem of music stays alive. This month again, I’ve bought every release I’ve included here that’s in fewer than around 50-100 Bandcamp collections.

I made a YouTube playlist with the highlighted fav tracks.

Oh, and also remember to check out the music directory on the web version of the newsletter (over on the PCC website - only visible on laptop) if you’re looking for new labels, radio stations, music magazines, and more.

Best, Nikolaj

Mark William Lewis - Sparkles 22-24 (Self-Released, UK) & Mark William Lewis (A24, UK)

Genre: Slowcore / Dreampop / Post-Rock

Rating: ***½ (Sparkles 22-24), ****½ (Mark William Lewis)

Sent from the heavens! If I could go to the finest gastronomic music-restaurant and order my absolute favourite musical meal, there’s a good chance that on many evenings I’d choose a menu consisting of a starter of Mark Eitzel ("60 Watt Silver Lining"), a main course of Bark Psychosis (everything), a dessert of The The ("Dusk"), and perhaps a cheese/coffee board with Durutti Column (a mixtape)… That was definitely kind of lame, and hardly a surprise to anyone who knows me, but there’s something in the air right now that makes this sound (which has long been, if not un-hip, then largely ignored) suddenly, somehow (perhaps partly thanks to Dean Blunt) perfectly acceptable, even kind of hip. I’m not complaining. To me, this is dance music, crying music, red-wine music, conversation music, listening music, party music. And the fact that he already has so much music to dive into, that everything seems to be of quite a high quality… Also: why on earth has no one thought to integrate harmonica into slowcore before...? Sounds absolutely fucking gorgeous..... Check out both releases!!

Nyxy Nyx - Cult Classics Vol. I (Julias War, US)

Fav Tracks: I don't know much about luv, hold me (I'm shaking), in haze, endless hex

Genre: Sludge Pop / Dreampop / Shoegaze

Rating: ****

Nyxy Nyx are without a doubt one of my favourite rock bands today (with Evan Øn as the primary songwriter and front figure), and my favourite project from Philadelphia’s newer experimental rock scene alongside Sun Organ (with whom they share members). They’ve previously described their music as “sludge pop,” which I think captures their sound perfectly - at times it feels like taking ’90s-era Stephen Merritt or The Go-Betweens and fusing it with sludge and doom metal, alongside influences from (perhaps especially American) shoegaze, Codeine-style slowcore, emotional lo-fi folk, and of course Philadelphia’s own uniquely rich indie scene (Alex G, Spirit of the Beehive, Strange Ranger, etc.). Nothing is ever stable in Nyxy Nyx’s universe: the rhythms drag slightly and often sit just off-time, the guitars constantly shift in pitch (that slow, woozy vibrato), everything is distorted or modulated - a surreal, dreamlike, synthetic world that stands in striking contrast to the deeply vulnerable, emotional melodies and lyrics. This fluid quality also reveals itself in their release history: tracklists shift, masters might be swapped, songs might be re-recorded...

Nyxy Nyx have already released a whole string of brilliant records on Bandcamp, mostly DIY cassette and CD releases with a strong lo-fi aesthetic. The project has been active since the mid-2010s and seems defined by a deep sense of community spirit and artistic autonomy (good values and a solid ethic...!). This is Nyxy Nyx’s most “polished,” hi-fi, professional-sounding release so far, and their first on a “bigger” indie label - amazing Philadelphia-based Julia’s War - which nonetheless fits their aesthetic perfectly. The result is outstanding. It’s heavier, more expansive, but still intimately fragile. I can’t quite decide whether to give it half a star more, time will tell. I have a feeling this album might become a defining work for the contemporary Philadelphia sound in the years to come.

"Luv, pain, the profound, the mundane: nyxy nyx is for the dreamers and true believers. Down the rabbit hole, caught in a snare, the project’s cyclical riffs and self-references blur the lines of time and reality, backing listeners into a deja vu box-trap of uncanny melodies and foggy-eyed double takes (...) Cult Classics Vol. 1 represents the heaviest iteration of nyxy nyx, capturing their sludgy and transcendent live energy – the ideal (re)introduction for heads and new initiates alike (...) Every song on this album was performed live, but none played the same twice." - official Bandcamp release page

Michael Beach - Big Black Plume (US, Goner Records)

Fav Tracks: Poison Dart, Sick Century, The Sea

Genre: Indie Rock / Post-Rock / Singer-Songwriter

Rating: ****

When you read the list of musicians involved in this record (see below), you’ll find a pretty striking - and otherwise rather hard-to-explain - key to how and why the music here sounds the way it does. Before seeing the musician credits, I’ve caught myself thinking, several times, what on earth is this? and I’d actually thought of several of these acts as potential reference points or sources of inspiration... so it’s quite something to discover they’re actually on the record.

On one hand, parts of this album sound like a mature, almost “old-fashioned” rock record - think Lou Reed, Thin White Rope, or something in that orbit. On the other hand, it’s full of these jazzy, experimental, post-rock elements that fit the songwriting beautifully, yet pull the sound into a different, more fluid territory. The result is elastic, breathing, living rock music. One of the absolute best records of the year.

"Equally informed by the songwriting of Bill Fay and Peter Laughner, the minimalism of Tony Conrad and Terry Riley, and the rock and roll heart of the Goner Records roster, Big Black Plume provides deliberate compositions adorned with genuine madness (...) Produced by Beach and Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm), the record includes Dirty Three guitarist Mick Turner, The Necks bassist Lloyd Swanton, Tropical Fuck Storm members Gareth Liddiard and Fiona Kitschin, folk artist Leah Senior, Oren Ambarchi collaborator Joe Talia, and Comets on Fire's Utrillo Kushner, among others (...) For years, Beach has been carefully fostering musical connections - for the making of Big Black Plume, it was time to bring the community together." - official Bandcamp release page

The Bats - Corner Coming Up (Flying Nun, NZ)

Fav Tracks: The Gown, Loline

Genre: Kiwi Rock / Jangle / Indie Pop

Rating: ***½

It’s always great news when The Bats return with new music. I don’t think they’ve ever released a truly bad record in their roughly 40-year career, and there are at the very least always a handful of genuinely strong standout tracks on each release. "Corner Coming Up" is no exception (on legendary Flying Nun, still going strong). Rarely have The Bats sounded this heartbreakingly melancholic and dark as on “The Gown”; on “Corner Coming Up” they turn the volume up more than usual, complete with a fuzzy, Yo La Tengo–style guitar solo; and “Loline” is pure classic Bats, melodic, upbeat, and somehow both sad and uplifting at once.

Širom - In The Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper (tak:til, SI)

Genre: Avant-Folk / Post-Minimalism / Drone

Rating: ****

This is truly extraordinary music for the attentive, curious and patient listener. The Slovenian trio perform on an array of both traditional and self-built instruments - everything from balafon and hurdy-gurdy to banjo, frame drums, violin, and all sorts of handmade resonating objects. Their music draws from European folk traditions, minimalism, drone, avant-garde... Absolutely phenomenal interplay with astonishing performances in hypnotic long-form improvisations. There’s really no one else who sounds like them, and they have fully deserved all the attention they’ve received in the wake of this incredible album.

"In the Wind of Night, Hard-Fallen Incantations Whisper is arguably the sharpest evocation yet of the group's highly collective music process, enveloping rustic melodic folklore, outernational textures, non-linear song structures and dissonance, and a buzzing ambiance that can at times feel like an ecstatic ritual. File this under contemporary classical, imaginary folk or rural underground, file it under Slovenian, file it under anything you want." - official Bandcamp release page

Now Always Fades - Into the Doldrums (Northern Underground Rec, AU)

Fav Tracks: Hybris, Branching Moments

Genre: Triptop / Ambient Pop / Dreampop

Rating: ***

The ’90s and early ’00s are still everywhere (that wave just refuses to die), and over the past couple of years it’s especially trip-hop that’s come roaring back. This album feels to me almost like the full-on culmination of that revival. It’s not just a case of throwing a few cool, Portishead-style baggy beats into an otherwise tight, fashionable indie-rock context - the ’90s influence here is absolutely soaked through, unapologetic.... We’re talking All Saints’ “Pure Shores” levels, though the record also threads in elements of This Mortal Coil-esque post-punk, dream pop, and much more. Two standout tracks are “Hybris” and “Branching Moments” - but honestly, listen to them and tell me you don’t hear Talk Talk (“I Believe in You”) in the former, and Air (“All I Need”) in the latter. I genuinely thought they were covers at first....

Cosimo Querci - Rimane (Quindi Rec, IT)

Fav Tracks: Telepatica Pretesa, Nina Ferale

Genre: Space Rock / Kraut Rock / Canzone d'autore

Rating: ****

It’s hard to believe this release came out this year. It sounds like a lost, forgotten masterpiece from 1970s Italy - a truly unique and wonderful fusion of kraut, psych, prog, and canzone d’autore. Even the cover screams 1974. I saw someone online describe it as a “future cult classic”, and I may agree. Amazing stuff. Btw, Quindi Rec is an interesting label to keep an eye on!

"In a mesmerising swirl of psychedelic songwriting shot through with lo-fi dub sensibilities, Quindi Records proudly present the debut solo album of Cosimo Querci. Taking cues from the motorik pulse of krautrock and the hypnotic romanticism of the 1970s Italian underground, Rimane offers a modern, singular approach to grandiose composition grounded by a naturalistic, earth-rooted sound. Turin-based, Tuscany-born Querci decamped to an old barn in central Italy's Casentino region to record Rimane, playing electric twelve-string guitar, electric organ, bass and singing himself while Walter Bellini assisted with drums and percussion. Long, winding songs emerged from the sessions, bathed in the shimmer of delay and reverb, catching the dub-fusion spirit of post-punk but applying it to sweeping, majestic melodies with a melancholic beauty." - official Bandcamp release page

Maruja - Pain to Power (UK, Music for Nations)

Fav Tracks: Look Down On Us, Reconcile

Genre: Jazz / Post-Punk / Post-Rock

Rating: ****

Not on Bandcamp. Usually a sign of an affiliation with the big three, and yeah, I read now that Music For Nations is a sublabel under Sony Music. I’m by no means a purist in this regard, and I don’t long for the days when bands were harshly shamed for their ties to the mainstream music industry. But..... I still can’t help getting a slightly strange taste in my mouth when bands as explicitly left-wing and politically charged as Maruja (singing about the miseries, inequalities and exploitations of late capitalism) choose to release through the majors. Honestly feels a bit like having your cake and eating it too. Anyway...

Manchester-based Maruja have released a series of pretty fantastic EPs prior to this debut album - an extremely convincing blend of Windmill Scene–style experimental rock, post-rock, jazz, and, especially prominent on this release, hip hop. They’ve pulled together many of the scenes, sounds and currents that have shaped some of the most defining music to come out of England in recent years. That’s impressive in itself. This is their big, difficult full-length debut: a record surrounded by huge expectations, and for the most part, the band really delivers (!). The production at times feels a touch too polished (Sony, grrr, ha ha) - the music and its lyrical themes call for something more raw and gritty - and yes, there are moments when you half expect some label exec to have whispered “RATM” in their ears... BUT: none of that changes the fact that Maruja’s compositional instincts are exceptional, their performances ferociously committed, their sound deeply personal and urgent. “Look Down On Us”, for instance, is seriously one of the boldest and most important tracks of the year.

Big Thief - Double Infinity (4AD, US/UK)

Fav Tracks: Words, All Night All Day, Double Infinity, Happy With You

Genre: Singer-Songwriter / Folk / Indie Rock

Rating: ****

Wow, I’d read that Big Thief’s latest release was supposedly a bit of a disappointment. But to me, Double Infinity already stands out as some of their finest work, maybe even my favourite release of theirs so far. They’ve invited Laraaji into the studio and gone full-blown cosmic folk - and of course, it’s brilliant. There’s the wildness, the ecstasy, the galloping musical excess of John Martyn’s underrated Inside Out, Tim Buckley’s late-’60s / early-’70s phase, and Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk - all sprinkled with a welcome dose of dream-pop shimmer. It’s chaotic, it’s kaleidoscopic, it’s more alive than ever, all anchored by their usual, ridiculously solid songwriting. Life-affirming, warm and uplifting. As if they’d decided to make an entire album that sounds like “Little Things” (my absolute favourite track from Dragon New Warm Mountain). Not a bad idea at all. Not at all. Wild to think we’re living in the same era as Lenker putting out her masterpieces. A living legend....

Steve Hauschildt - Aeropsia (Simul, GE/US)

Fav Tracks: Your Call is Important, Amongst Automata

Genre: Ambient / Progressive Electronic

Rating: ***½

While it’s not on the same level as Emeralds or his strongest earlier solo works, this is the best I’ve heard from Hauschildt in quite some time (perhaps since the 2015 release Where All Is Fled). The first half of the record - particularly tracks like “Your Call Is Important” - stands out as especially strong, and not to forget the 21-minute album closer, “Amongst Automata”, where the record turns into true cosmic Berlin School–style space ambient. Wonder if Simul is Hauschildt's new label?

The Necks - Disquiet (Northern Spy, AU/US)

Genre: Jazz / Free Improv / Post-Minimalism

Rating: ****

The Necks are back, and they sound fresher and more radical than I’ve heard them in a long time. They are without doubt one of the definitive best groups in the world (their improvisational skills and nuanced sense of dynamics are unparalleled), but on some releases, things can get a bit “The Necks-by-numbers” - as in, they’ve found a formula that works. On this record, there seems to be no formula at all. The Necks deal in warm, organic, long-form improvisations that have just as much in common with post-rock, ambient, drone, and modern classical avant-garde as with "jazz". Maybe a bit like if Talk Talk had studied jazz in Norway and released records on ECM, Hubro, or something along those lines - ha! Definitely one of the absolute top releases of the year and possibly one of the strongest records The Necks have ever made.

The Apartments - That's What the Music is For (Talitres, AU/FR)

Fav Tracks: Afternoons, A Handful of Tomorrow, That's What the Music is For

Genre: Chamber-Pop / Sophisti-Pop

Rating: ***½

The Apartments - now more or less synonymous with Peter Milton Walsh - remain something of a cult concern, especially for those of us with a soft spot for Australian and New Zealand alternative pop and rock from the ’80s and ’90s. I haven’t yet been completely blown away by Walsh’s songwriting, but to be fair, I also haven’t explored his full discography. That said, this feels like some of the strongest material I’ve heard from The Apartments so far (on the great French label Talitres). The mood, the sound, the feeling, all of it is wonderful: grey, elegant, rain-soaked melancholy in the finest sophisti-pop tradition, at times evoking The Blue Nile, David Sylvian or Prefab Sprout. Not every song stands out equally, and the tone can occasionally verge on the relentlessly sorrowful, but there are some seriously beautiful, hair-raising tracks on here.

川 - Wind Comes to Me (Self-Released, JP)

Fav Tracks: Heart, Iamu

Genre: Ambient / Ambient Pop / Experimental

Rating: ***½

A mysterious, beautiful Japanese ambient / experimental release with elements of alt-pop, modern classical, field recordings and poetic voice. I know almost nothing about this artist and couldn’t find much online (there’s some activity on SoundCloud and Instagram), but Wind Comes to Me is a very pleasant and at times genuinely touching record, each track offering small worlds of sound, something almost diary-like about it.... an album for deep listening, calm immersion, delicate introspection...

Notable Mentions:

Glint - Picture This (Deleted, US)

Fav Tracks: Stylus, New Convo, Inching

Genre: Ambient / Experimental Electronic

Rating: ****

This should have been in the section above because it's sooo sooo good. but it's also just sooo sooo short.... need more from this artist!

Flock of Dimes - The Life You Save (Sub Pop, US)

Fav Tracks: Defeat

Genre: Indie Folk / Singer-Songwriter

Rating: ***

I’m a huge Flock of Dimes and Wye Oak fan and have been waiting a long time for this release, but something about this record feels slightly off to me. Maybe it’s a bit too, I don't know, straight?

Prathloons - Breadbox (Sweet Tart Lover Thrills, US)

Fav Tracks: The Days We Had Each Other, Snowsoaked

Genre: Slowcore

Rating: ***

A very fine little slowcore release with its heart in the right place.

Ex Agent - New Assumptions (Collapsing Drums, UK)

Genre: Post-Punk / Post-Rock / Jazz

Rating: ***

This band will be fascinating to follow. A very promising EP from a Bristol-based group that has a bit of that current art-rock / avant-prog “Windmill Scene” sound - but these guys… they just do it a little better, and they sound like themselves. Some of the rock music emerging from this scene reminds me a bit of the old so-called Rock in Opposition records and the boldest, most experimental strands of early post-punk (think Metal Box, for instance). And that’s a very good thing indeed.

Componium Ensemble - 8 Automated Works (EM Records, JP)

Genre: Modern Classical / Electronic

Rating: ***

“8 Automated Works” is the first full release by Componium Ensemble, an “indeterminate chamber music” ensemble helmed by Spencer Doran of Visible Cloaks. Classical chamber instrumentation meets algorithmic composition, MIDI logic, automation and chance - the result feels both alien and organic, like music discovering itself in real time. Fresh and exciting.

They Are Gutting a Body of Water - LOTTO (ATO, US)

Genre: New Philly Sound / Shoegaze / Noise Pop / Experimental

Rating: ***

I think TAGABOW are perhaps a bit overrated compared to many other newer Philly bands, but it’s definitely a very solid and consistent release, just without many real "wow" moments.

Denevér - Economía Doméstica (Abraxas, HU)

Fav Tracks: Estorbas, Had Enough

Genre: Post-Punk / Minimal Wave

Rating: ***

A fairly solid post-punk / minimal-wave-leaning release with roots in Chile and Hungary, as far as I understand. At times it reminds me a bit of that Eastern European post-punk sound (like Siekiera).

Lauren Duffus - Can's Gone Warm (Body Motion, UK)

Fav Tracks: N.U.M.T.E.

Genre: Alternative R&B / UK Bass / Post-Dubstep

Rating: ***½

Emotional, dark and intense alternative R&B / UK bass with hints of post-dubstep. Very British, genuinely promising.

Healing - Demo (RoachLeg Records, US)

Fav Tracks: Sand Talk, The End of the World

Genre: Post-Punk / Lo-Fi / Experimental

Rating: ***½

A strange, lo-fi and super intriguing little release that draws on post-punk and avant-pop. Who wouldn't be tempted by this short description...?:

"Not Hardcore but Extreme, Long Distance & Deeply Personal Low-fi. Recorded in a Bushwick squat and Las Vegas hotel room." - from the official Bandcamp release page

David Garland - The Spark (Tall Owl Audio, US)

Fav Tracks: All With All, Mr. Dream

Genre: Chamber-Folk / Art Pop / Experimental

Rating: ***

David Garland is a fascinating (and really underrated) artist whose full discography I’ve been meaning to dive into for ages, but never quite found the time for. A New York–based artist, perhaps somewhat in the vein of Arthur Russell: boundlessly curious and experimental, flirting with the avant-garde yet with a strong melodic core and a persistent commitment to songwriting. Garland has - like the late Russell - also been producing since the ’80s (I’m sure he has a really interesting backstory), but the only other record I’ve spent time with is Verdancy: an extremely ambitious, wildly eclectic, and very (!) long work. I definitely don’t love all of it, yet it still contains a handful of my all-time favourite longform tracks. When Garland (to my ears) gets it right, he creates some of the most beautiful and endlessly fascinating music I can think of. The Spark is a more ‘conventional’ album, whose sound and expression perhaps bring to mind the "pop" records of Van Dyke Parks or Jim O’Rourke, but again with a deeply idiosyncratic and eclectic streak. The finished result doesn’t fully convince me from start to finish, but there are some wonderful highlights, and Garland’s overall attitude and approach - his clearly open, non-judgemental and playful way of creating - is something I find hugely admirable and worthy of praise.

John Johanna - New Moon Pangs (Faith and Industry, UK)

Fav Tracks: Seven Hunters

Genre: Folk / Lo-Fi / Psych

Rating: ***

A really interesting, non-fashionable and slightly mysterious British songwriter (discovered via the excellent blog Monolith Cocktail). The best tracks make me think of a meeting point between Steve Gunn, Richard Thompson, and something more lo-fi, like early Kurt Vile. I love the somewhat homemade, DIY-sounding production. For my money, the two opening tracks and the closing track are the album’s standouts.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to the artists and labels <3