by Dan Goldin (@paintingwithdan) and Mirah Tulley (@katznpajamas)
Welcome to FUZZY MEADOWS, our recap of this month’s new music. We're sharing our favorite releases of October in the form of albums, singles, and music videos along with the "Extended Listening" section of new and notable releases. It's generally written in the late hours of the night and semi-unedited... but full of love and heart. The list is in alphabetical order and we sincerely recommend checking it all out (especially as we try not to repeat selections from last month). There's a lot of great new music being released. Support the bands you love. Spread the word and buy some new music.
AUTOMATIC
“Shadowplay” (Joy Division cover)
Los Angeles’ Automatic have been busy out on the road ever since Is It Now? was released back in September of last year. Ahead of their final US dates for the year, a headlining slot on Stones Throw Records’ 30th anniversary festival, and their upcoming Australian tour ahead, the group shared new single “Shadowplay,” a cover of the Joy Division classic from Unknown Pleasures. While the song is thoroughly engrained in the collective post-punk consciousness, Automatic do the impossible and make it sound as though the song was written for them all along, a pulsating, supremely cool, and inherently natural fit for their razor-sharp and minimalist noise pop. Playing it relatively close to the original, Halle Saxon-Gaines and Izzy Glaudini remove some of the metallic sheen that clangs throughout and replace it with an out of focus haze and incessant synths that lend to the alien atmosphere of the programmed beats and general disorientation. - DG
BEING DEAD
“Man or Myth / Aquarium”
There’s something undeniably charming about Being Dead’s complete lack of self-seriousness when paired with their ability to write massive glowing hooks at every turn. The Austin based trio’s brand of psych pop influenced art rock swarms with one gluey earworm into the next, as brilliantly composed as it is careful to keep things goofy and delightfully askew. After a pair of albums for Bayonet, Being Dead have made the move to Polyvinyl Records (Dummy, Squirrel Flower, Anamanaguchi) for their latest single, “Man or Myth / Aquarium,” two songs that truly highlight the many delights of their FM gold leaning experimental pop. The melodic riffs and knotted pulse of “Man or Myth” is as infectious as they come, a song that winds and coils with mutant hooks that seem to grow impossibly bigger with each subtle shift. “Aquarium” opts for the laid back approach, but remains equally inescapable, with harmonies folding in on each other and a masterclass of stick-in-your-head forever songwriting. Ain’t no two ways about it, these are smash hits. - DG
CATE LE BON
“Something Fragile”
Mexican Summer (Iceage, Drugdealer, Robert Lester Folsom) have built a reputation for exceptional label compilations, pulling together their diverse roster to capture a dynamic feeling, an ever changing place and time. Following last year’s Sitting on the Moon, a record with a running theme of summer at its heart, the label returns with Everybody’s Got a Song To Sing, a new collection with unreleased recordings from L’Rain, Starcleaner Reunion, No Joy (feat. Morgan Greenwood), and beyond. The theme of the record stems around lyrical exploration, the feelings and sentiment at the hear of each artist. Cate Le Bon’s “Something Fragile” is an immediate highlight, a slinky track that feels like a blend of Le Bon’s album synth pop and the earnest warmth of her earliest songs. Exploring ideas of personal reflection, lingering depression, earned truths, and the fragility of being, we’re invited into a kaleidoscope of acoustic guitars, soft but skittering drums, pianos, and layered synths, a candlelit swirl of gorgeous wonder. - DG
CLASS
“Take Me With You”
The past four years have been good for fans of CLASS. The freewheeling punk band from Tucson have released three LPs and as many EPs during that time, kicking up the dirt with their own rock ‘n’ roll boogie, a pressurized mix of combustible garage rock, acid spiked power-pop, and the friendliest damn anarcho punk you’ve ever heard. Their music plays out like a masterclass of the many ways you can make punk with raw hooks and brash charm. Scratching The Ceiling, due out November 13th via Feel It Records (Soup Activists, Spread Joy, The Drin) is their fourth album, another shapeshifting dose of deranged jangle and swaggering three-sheets to the wind punk anthems. “Take Me With You” opens with a haymaker of Southern grit, bleeding with sustained progressions and a tightly wound drum beat that carries a good ‘ol boy flair and they rip and sputter around the front porch atmosphere of wailing guitars, territorial attitude, and fun by the barrel. - DG
CURBSIDE LAMBSEAR
“Put Rings On All My Fingers To Weigh Down My Hands” LP
Spoiler alert: this record was released in September (not October). We were late to the party but as we always like to mind everyone, it’s never too late to discover great music you might have otherwise missed. So with that, we’re including this in our October picks because well, we can’t stop listening to it.
Put Rings On All My Fingers To Weigh Down My Hands is the debut album from London’s Curbside Lambsear, a record that morphs and mutates, stumbled and crystalizes, an album that is both utterly hypnotic and delightfully jarring. The duo of Magdalena McLean and Annabelle Mödlinger pair together eerie electronic pulses, shadowy distortion, malleable art rock dissonance, creeping melodies, and gripping production to create their own unique brand of experimental pop brilliance. From dreamy to dreadful, the record evolves in constant motion, slinking toward deterioration one moment and ascending into fractured bliss the next. It’s a triumphantly strange trip into their world; gentle vocals meet beautiful yet harsh environments, warm loops and airy harmonies meet surrealist structures; their alien pop charms meet avant-garde nuance in an slow dripped glow of all encompassing noise. From the magnificently seasick groove of “No Ordinary Word” to the circular repetition and machete sharp violins of “Uneasy,” Curbside Lambsear remain off centered, focused on a point in the far distance as the earth beneath us spins far beyond its axis. - DG
FASHION CHANGE
“Golden Handcuffs”
Seattle’s Fashion Change play hardcore with the resolve of a wrecking ball, barreling straight through structural integrity at high velocity, but as ruthless as they might be, there’s a great deal of depth to be found throughout their upcoming album, Paranoid. Released on October 30th via Iron Lung Records (Brain Tourniquet, Consensus Madness, Alien Nosejob), the band quickly establish a sense of terror and fury but as the record unfolds, Fashion Change take many liberties away from the hardcore “standards,” diving into elements of sludgy psych, grinding metal, murky post-punk, and everything that lurks in the shadows between. That being said, we’d be remiss if we didn’t focus on the stampeding carnage of it all, which is captured to perfection on “Golden Handcuffs,” a song that runs of blistering riffs and a dizzying decimation of the drums that circles like vultures with death near. Fashion Change are locked into the eye of the tornado, the sheer sonic pummel of it all all encompassing in its frantic brutality. - DG
FINE
“Jazz Dreams” LP
Jazz Dreams exists in a layer of disorientation, a setting that suggests nothing is exactly as it seams even in the arid landscapes of Fine’s intimate compositions. The Copenhagen based songwriters vision is equal parts enigmatic and surreal, her songs moving between warped acoustics and manipulated tape, big grooves and sparse reflections, the unflinching heat of pop splendor and the thick smoke of lounge experimentation. Fine Glindvad effortlessly weaves these worlds together, her music an undefinable wash of art folk, psych pop, and bedroom rock that feels equal parts alien and human, gentle and at ease in an amorphous sea of change. As she wanders from moments of Hope Sandoval influenced dream-pop with pronounced hooks and radiant accessibility into songs that feel closer to minimalist improvisation, the unflinching core of Fine’s music feels rooted into a state of dazed focus. As she reflects on the day, her relationships, and the dreamscapes that result, everything feels rearranged, half remembered, and open for interpretation and that’s exactly what makes Jazz Dreams such a magical record. - DG
FOOT FOOT
“PREY TIME” EP
Upon the release of PREY TIME, the new EP from foot foot, the group’s record label proudly described them as “the weirdest band in Bristol”. Honestly, it was enough to get me to press play on the record and I sure am glad I did. The self-proclaimed “art frog snail prog” quartet make very ambitious music that never reeks of ambition. Their choices feel spontaneous, natural, logically illogical. While their debut, Still Waters, Empty House, opted for a heavier approach to their artistic carnage, PREY TIME embraces a more psychedelic approach to their free-wheeling prog and mutant folk songs. There are a lot of records that get described as unpredictable, but few throw caution to the wind in the way foot foot have, swirling in the cosmic magic of what might come next and what actually comes next. For all that dexterity though, the band are still writing beautifully earnest songs with solid structures and gentle melodies. foot foot aren’t out here being weird for weirdness sake, rather the quartet are coloring outside the lines to make music that’s as interesting as it is engaging, pulling at strings to see if it will unravel only to shift and rebuild. - DG
GABE ‘NANDEZ & PRESERVATION
“Galleon”
Last year Gabe ‘Nandez and Preservation teamed up to release Sortilège, their first collaborative album, and one of the year’s absolute best records. The album felt like a match made in underground hip-hop heaven, ‘Nandez’s stream of conscious lyrics grooved in the cut of Preservation’s magnetic beats and cinematic orchestration. With a musicality that leaves most beat makers in the dust, Preservation plays it cold but wild, transporting us across the globe and into the galactic unknown with a sense of menace while Gabe ‘Nandez does lyrical gymnastics without a hint of exuberance. With the release the Sortilège Instrumentals via Backwoodz Studioz (Curly Castro, Open Mike Eagle, Armand Hammer) comes “Galleon,” a brand new single from the duo. Whether cut from the Sortilège sessions or the start of a follow-up (fingers crossed), the pair find that magic once again as Preservation weaves mesmerizing drums, auxiliary percussion, and sustained strings into a piece of gorgeous dread, proving once again that he belongs in any conversation about hip-hop’s best (and most visionary) producers. Never one to let a phenomenal beat go to waste, Gabe ‘Nandez laces the track with a poetic grace, a mix of personal and hallucinatory bars, transporting us from the backs of elephants to the seas of Moby Dick with the confidence of a MC traversing his own non-linear path. - DG
HAVANA SYNDROME
“Havana Syndrome” LP
There are “hardcore” bands that want to be part of the mainstream lexicon and there are hardcore bands that prefer manic depravity, their sound violent and unwelcoming, sordid and erosive. Havana Syndrome reside in that world of depravity, spewing their damaged punk from the gutters of Buffalo with a penchant for frantic filth and feral tenacity. Their self-titled full length is as unglued as it is rotten, a record that matches its bile and bite with a reckless fractured skull kind of charm. While the project’s early releases were the bulldozing solo work of Lucas Kaleta, they’ve expanded to a quartet, the implications of which feel like an implosion at close range. Their album is permeated in dirt, the sound of basement crust informed by low ceilings, walls that sweat, and ear-drum bursting levels of toxicity. Which is all to say, Havana Syndrome is doing everything right, nailing the sound of causitc abandon as they peel between laser focused synths, earthquaking drums, guitars that shred (with their own demented mutated boogie), and the fried bark of Kaleta’s harsh but bugged out vocals. - DG
LAND OF TALK
“Dogs” + “Cats”
Land of Talk has never seemed particularly interested in playing it safe. Throughout Elizabeth Powell’s two decades committed to the project, they’ve always opted for the road less traveled, pushing their songwriting to places previously unexplored. For the Montreal based songwriter, music is chance of renewal, a place to temporarily wash the dirt of the world away, capturing their inner most axieties and letting them unravel. No two Land of Talk records sound quite the same, but they are tied together by Powell’s vulnerability and depth of beauty. LASTS, due out November 13th via Saddle Creek (Feeble Little Horse, Stef Chura, Adrianne Lenker) is a return to the project’s swarming immediacy, a record of intimate reflection that still feels brash as the seams. Written with direct confrontation in mind, Powell and their collaborators maneuver between boisterous energy and expanded instrumental warmth, keeping the project grounded even as the songs look to float elsewhere. “Dogs” and “Cats” come as back to back companion singles, the former an ominous art-pop ripper (that should appeal to fans of Youbet), reminding us that “it’s a basic instinct, even dogs know better” over shuffling drums and contorted melodic progressions. “Cats” on the other hand is astride in groove, a silky reversal of the previous song’s musical themes, met with resolve as the lyrics struggle with themes of peace, love, and impending death before spiraling away. - DG
MEYHEM LAUREN
“Radikon”
We’ve said it before and will say it again, Meyhem Lauren embodies the golden era of rap, a Queens based legend in his own right with an unshakable flow and an iron grip on the mic. After a productive streak that included collaborative albums with Daringer and the duo of DJ Muggs and Madlib in 2022 and 2023 respectively, Meyhem Lauren has returned with Table For One, an album of extravagance and immorality from Michelin star dinners to guns in the waistband. While the dirt of the streets is ever present, Meyhem Lauren is in a state of celebration, eating gourmet lobster from his seat in the lap of luxury. With production from The Alchemist, Buckwild, Icerocks, and Real Bad Man among others, Meyhem Lauren continues to loom larger than life, his voice booming and his rhymes as hard as concrete. “Radikon,” produced by Muggs, finds Laurenovicci in diamonds and expensive taste mode, spitting with an effortless flow in widescreen over a set of crisp drums and hypnotic keys. There’s a menace to it all but Meyhem Lauren is forever unfazed, he’s preoccupied with opulent maneuvers - “Can’t stop, never would lord I’m too driven, yo rap, what you wish I downplay what I’m living? Bullet proof coffee in the morning got me thinking new ways to multiply bread without blinking.” - DG
OR BEST OFFER
“Fast Strong Horse”
Or Best Offer occupy a sonic world all their own, a sound that eschews passivity in favor of pulling you deep into their vortex, a place familiar on first glance but otherwise innately alien. Center, their first full length, demands to be listened to uninterrupted, ebbing and flowing among its own detached and detuned twists and turns, inviting us to live in the amorphous and cathartic ether. Two years later the duo of Brian Culligan and Grace Schmidhauser are back with their much anticipated second album, It Will Appear, due out January 15th via Good English Records (Billboard Style, Victoryland, Crate). Lead single “Fast Strong Horse” cements us back into the band’s beautiful fusion of post-everything experimental indie rock, moving with a sense of patience, the unease of not knowing what comes next, and the murky push and pull of the knotted rhythms and discordant guitars. For all the tension at the heart of Or Best Offer’s music there’s a bright radiance that comes out the gloom, a hope that bursts in loud crescendos and tangled outbursts. The duo pair grit and grace in ways that are hard to separate, blurring the lines where one begins and the other ends, and we’d have it no other way. - DG
PUBLIC ACID
“Pay No More” EP
INVERTEBRATES
“Accosted” EP
It was the thick of summer and the Operation Hardcore US Tour was pummeling across the country, pillaging and decimating eardrums with the one-two punch of Public Acid and Invertebrates, two of the genre’s more blistering bands (who happen to share a couple members). While each had an EP on the way via Beach Impediment Records (Crazy Clue, Heaven’s Gate, Paranoid), the two Richmond bands brought a tour exclusive 12” split with them on the road, collecting both Public Acid’s Pay No More and Invertebrates’ Accosted releases. Several months later and the EPs are officially released as stand-alone 7” singles, two doses of ruthless punk violence that come across both caustic and cathartic. While the records absolutely compliment one another, there’s a marked difference in their approach to brutality. Public Acid opt for devolved carnage, an unrelenting aural assault that lays waste from start to finish, fraying every last nerve in our system. It really doesn’t get much better, a rampage of thrashing insanity, primal vocals, and skull cracking drums. Invertebrates on the other hand, while certainly chaotic in their own right, lean more toward velocity than overt devastation, blinding us with aggression at impossible speeds, providing whiplash as they grind and beatdown the block at a mile per minute, as nimble as it is savage. - DG
SEQUESTRUM / TORTURE RACK
“Split” LP
There is none more disgusting, none more putrid, and none more rotten than Sequestrum and Torture Rack’s new full length split, a vile and depraved union of grinding terror, merciless inhumanity, and festering death metal. If a split release can feel less essential by design than a “proper” full length or EP, no one bothered to tell these bands, who together have turned in a noxious masterpiece of bile splattered depravity, a record that lives as much on the sound of oozing secretions as it does monolithic brutality. For those that like their death metal decaying under heaps of claustrophobic filth, there are few better up-and-comers than Copenhagen’s Sequestrum (who share members with Undergang, Phrenelith, Chaotian, etc). Pairing the blunt force trauma hallmarks of Danish death metal with the unspeakable ugliness of goregrind, the quartet gurgle and spew between shifting tempos, a sense of abject horror, and serpentine riffs that both crawl and bludgeon. Then there’s Portland’s Torture Rack, an equally unsavory companion, their savagery leaning more toward the caveman end of the spectrum, but bent toward sheer sonic annihilation and grinding repulsion. There are times Torture Rack almost approach hooks, hooks that claw with the kind of subtlety of having your eyes gouged out with a rusty scalpel. - DG
STAR MOLES
“Born Again”
A familiar yet new sound, Star Moles releases a single “Born Again” from her yet-to-come Highway to Hell reissue, due out December 4th via her new label, Dead Oceans (Mitski, Wednesday, Greg Mendez). With a mix of punchy harmonies, utterly captivating guitar tunes, along with upbeat keys play a flip to the lyrically stark side of growing up in your 20s. A predicament faced by Gen Z, parents who raise you right to write emails until you die, leaves a lasting impression of what’s not said but felt by many. While bringing twee back into the realm of folky rhythmic sounds, Emily Moales (Star Moles) uses her bittersweet resonance to create this tension that is rather enduring for the three minutes of listening. - MT
TROPICAL FUCK STORM
“Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2” LP
There are bands where you wonder if touring is meant to support the release of new records, or if new records are meant as means to support endless touring. For Tropical Fuck Storm, we’re grateful whichever way that answer shakes out. The Melbourne based quartet have been warping post-hardcore skronk, deranged but hooky alternative pop, and tinnitus inducing noise rock into undefinable shapes for the better part of a decade, each album reshaping and expanding upon their wandering psychedelic charm, their unbridled punk energy, and their unique sense of apocalyptic humor. This is perhaps never captured better than in a live setting, as evident on Inflatable Graveyard Vol. 2, captured during a three night stint at TV Eye in NYC. Tropical Fuck Storm melt away thought and concern in a deluge of caterwauling dissonance and brilliant disarray. Gareth Liddiard, Erica Dunn, and Fiona Kitschin bend perception and harness distortion in a way that hasn’t been done since Drive Like Jehu, transfixing impossible melodies from a tidal wave of piercing riffs and stabs of atonal abandon while human sledgehammer Lauren Hammel keeps it all in place on the drums. For all the impenetrable noise, Tropical Fuck Storm remain ever focused on great songwriting, the melodies and inescapable harmonies every bit as important as the unhinged and clamoring attack of their guitars. - DG
WENDY EISENBERG
“Wweennddyy Eeiisseennbbeerrgg” LP
With a catalog that often feels defined by constant growth and continued learning, Wendy Eisenberg only gets better with each successive release. Their self-titled album, released earlier this year, stands as a defining accomplishment, not only one of the year’s best records but likely one of the more forward-thinking experimental folk albums of our generation. As profound as it is beautiful, there’s an instinctual feel to it, which makes sense given Eisenberg’s gift for improvisation and collaboration. With that in mind comes, Wweennddyy Eeiisseennbbeerrgg, an expansion in every sense of the word (right down to the wonderful title and cover art). “Meaning Business” and “The Walls,” two stand-outs from the self-titled release are given improvisational reworks, stretching the collective nine minutes of the original songs into a (not so) lean forty minutes and the results are absolutely stunning. Recorded together with frequent collaborators and likeminded visionaries Trevor Dunn (bass), Mari Rubio (violin), and Ryan Sawyer (drums), Eisenberg approaches the songs from a different angle, letting them unfold and reshape, to skitter and clamor and find their own space, adapting and shifting focus as the songs breath, dissipate, and return with radiant focus. “Mmeeaanniinngg Bbuussiinneessss” might not appeal to casual listeners, but that’d be missing the point, this is deconstruction at its best, patient yet mesmerizing, a masterclass in limitless sprawl. - DG
WHITNEY’S PLAYLAND
“Bottled Lightning”
A year after the release of the Long Rehearsal EP, San Francisco’s Whitney’s Playland return with the blissed out fuzz pop glow of Bottled Lightning. Due out November 20th via Dandy Boy Records (Aluminum, Softjaw, Motorcycle), the quartet continue to blur the lines between FM gold alternative rock, indie pop, shoegaze, and psychedelic dream-pop. With a greater emphasis on hooks and Inna Showalter’s (Magic Fig, The Odyssey Cult) comforting vocal melodies, everything here sticks like superglue, the band jangling between one softly lit progression to the next in a widescreen approach to pop. The record’s title track and first single relies on repetition and hazy splendor, finding the sweet spot between airy pop and the crunch of feedback, Whitney’s Playland are at home in that realm, grooving around evolving synths one moment and locked into a bright melodic crackle the next. There’s an ease to “Bottled Lightning” even as the band delay the song’s sense of satisfaction, they’re building a space for peaceful reflection, and they’re making some endearing noise pop in the progress. - DG
extended listening:
@ “I Know You Are (But What Am I Thinking)”
200 STAB WOUNDS “Sweet Suicide”
A COUNTRY WESTERN “I Found”
ATLAS SOUND “Octoberland”
BABY TYLER “Ignoring Signs” EP
BALACLAVA “What A Regular Day”
BANE CAPITAL “Amigos Da Dundas” (feat. Ghostface Killah)
BESOTTEN “Cruentation”
BILLIAM “Unemployable”
BLOODSPORTS “Ten Thousand Feet”
BLOODY KNIVES “Kill Me Again”
BOLDY JAMES & REAL BAD MAN “Flowers At The Bezzle” (feat. Wiki)
CAMMY CAUTIOUS & THE WRESTLERS “Hot”
CATHERINE ELICSON “I’m On Fire”
CHE NOIR “Fame & Fiction” (feat. Black Thought)
CIVILIZED PEOPLE “Demo” EP
CLINIC “Energies”
CLOUD NOTHINGS “Death Keeps Me Alive”
THE CONSEQUENCE “Suffer”
CONWAY THE MACHINE “Diggwutumsayn!”
CURREN$Y & HARRY FRAUD “The Telethon” (feat. Rome Streetz)
DAZY “Reasonable Person”
DEAD GOWNS “Hardcore or Wellness”
DEERHOOF “Master Mademoiselle”
DIALL “Suzerain b/w Anhedonia”
DISFEAR “Shackled To Our Vice”
DOECHII “Bombs”
DUMMY “N of 1"
EPIPHÄNY “Ill Gotten Gains”
ERROL HOLDEN & 2000 SOULS “Cakeman & Steven Baker 2” EP
EX:RE “Sleep”
GHOST FUNK ORCHESTRA “Leave Me Alone”
GOLGOTHAN REMAINS “An Emanation of Exorcism”
GUIDED BY VOICES “Designed For Use”
HANNAH FRANCES “Circadian Heart”
HELENA DELAND “Tip Of My Tongue”
HELLO SHARK “Country Club”
ICONIC FUGUES “2025 Dream / 2025 Blues”
IDEATION “Hatred For Your Kind” EP
JOE GLASS “Outontouragain”
JUNE MCDOOM “Human Angel”
L.A.R.M “Cult”
L’RAIN “Muney”
LAMBRINI GIRLS “Spilt”
LANE “Miranda”
LOST ANIMAL “After the Sun Cleared the Rain”
LOU TURNER “Beaver Moon”
MATHEMATICS “God Body” (feat. Method Man & AZ)
MEMORIAM “Nothing More To Say”
MERCY “Grow To Die” LP
MIA JOY “Wings of Desire”
MIA JUNE “Evil”
MIZU “Overture”
MOCKERY “Demo” EP
MOLDER “Face The Tearer”
MONDE UFO “1159”
MÖRTUAL / NOROTH “Split” LP
MUTANT ACADEMY “We’ll Swap It Out, Vol. 2” LP
NISEMONO “目の前 (Menomae)”
NOUN “Virago”
THE NU-VILES “Get Happy” EP
OSEES “Live on KEXP”
PART COMPANY “I’ll Only Let You Down”
PARTY DOZEN “Full Powers”
PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE “Blind Faith”
PISS “Rote Zora. ‘Resistance is Possible.’ Emma, no. 6, June 1984, pp. 39-41.”
POISE “Poison Moth’s Lair”
PORCELAIN “DSD”
POWER TRIP “Precinct 3 / Scavenger”
PYREX “Gargoyle”
REAL BAD MAN “Trifecta” (feat. Gabe ‘Nandez & ICECOLDBISHOP)
ROBBER ROBBER “Said and Gone”
SAMMY WEISSBERG "Brass Quintet No. 1 Mvt. II"
SANCTUARIUM “Pendulous Lacerations”
SCARFACE “Smile (NPR Tiny Desk Live)”
SHADY BUG “Seed”
SHINER “Dirty Jazz”
SIGHTLINE “Sightline” EP
SLEEPY BROWN “Dooley Wap” (feat. Big Boi)
SNOOPER “Orange Exposure”
SOUL GLO “Ppl Worried”
SOUP ACTIVISTS “Johnny”
SOUR WIDOWS “Lullaby”
SPECIAL WORLD “CGI Castle (pt 1)”
STARCLEANER REUNION “On The Curve”
STATE ENEMY “Demo 2026” EP
STATIK SELEKTAH “Champagne Wishes” (feat. Raekwon, Freddie Gibbs, & Ab-Soul)
TERMITE “Inside These Walls” LP
THEY ARE GUTTNG A BODY OF WATER “Illusion Hue” (feat. Toner)
THIS IS THE KIT “Safety Valve” (feat. Richard Dawson)
TIA ROSA “The Game”
TIERRA WHACK “Whack’s Museum (Deluxe)” LP
TONER “Ride at Nite”
TRAUMATIZER “Condemned”
TWISTED TEENS “Stalks”
UNDEATH “Arterial Bombardment”
UNSCHOOLING “Perform”
VAN VEEN “Object Cinema”
VÉR “Paranoia”
WESTSIDE GUNN “Zilla”
WHAIT “Falling Down”
THE WOMACK SISTERS “Live on KEXP”
Consider this the official “you might consider this biased, but I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t include it warning.” I’m not going to share too much of my written thoughts, but just know that I believe in the music released by Exploding In Sound Records with all my heart (or I wouldn’t bother doing it).
I think Anna McClellan is one of our generation’s most gifted songwriters (I’ve done plenty of writing about her releases on Father/Daughter Records) so to say it’s an honor for EIS to release South of Dodge is a massive understatement. With an ability to write songs fragile, funny, earnest, and endlessly relatable, McClellan has a habit of releasing records that feel like they’ve been with us our entire lives. Her voice is beautiful, her songs are beautiful, and the perfect imperfections add a sense of beauty and humanity that’s all too often missing.
There’s a new Krill record coming out in November, and well, it’s most definitely one of the year’s defining releases as far as I’m concerned. “Hawaii” is the record’s second single, a song I will forever remember seeing played solo by Jonah Furman when the idea of reforming Krill was likely just a pipe-dream. It gave me goosebumps. It still does.
Pet Fox have released their latest album, Balance, and it’s safe to say it’s their best record to date, giving focus to the depth of Theo’s Hartlett’s songs and the subtle interplay of the trio that makes their softer edged art-pop so transfixing. The “Moving Along” video is an ode to love via sock puppets and honestly, what more do you really want in this cold world. Check it all out. I can’t recommend it enough.