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2026.38

Plankton Wat: The Vanishing World

Dewey Mahood has been making music as Plankton Wat for quite a while now and as a fan, my impression has been an excellent DIY, lo-fi psychedelic. His latest is surprisingly rich, with a full band of great talent from his Portland hometown. Its breadth stretches from classic rock to prog to surf, with horn-laden rave-ups and funk as well. There are trinkets of weirdness and psychedelia mixed in, too. Most importantly, it all kinda crushes. A welcome addition and expansion of the deep Plankton Wat catalog, or a great place to start. Enjoy!

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2026.37

Fabiano Do Nascimento & Vittor Santos Orchestra: Vila

I thought you could use some good vibes for your weekend, so I'm bringing you this ray of sunshine from this LA guitarist. Here he pairs with an orchestra and this music is really all about the strings. Those on the guitar and how they resonate and jibe with those in the larger ensemble. It's really magic. There are some horns and reeds and vocals in there as well, and sounds from Do Nascimento's native Brazil and it all mixes to a totally relaxed *mood.* For lazy Sunday mornings or whenever else you might need it. Enjoy!

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Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds

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2026.36

Wet Tuna: Vast

The latest from Matt Valentine and Co is a trip... almost literally. The album is a psychedelic wunderkammer full of Garcia Easter eggs, electronic hallucenations, loose indiejams, and just general weirdness. An all-around escapist delight. Enjoy!

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Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds

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2025.35

The Tomeka Reid Quartet: dance! skip! hop!

If you didn't know who the leader of this quartet was and you listened to this album, I think you'd be hard pressed to figure it out. The playing and interactions between the four musicians is democratic and fluid, like four top-tier athletes moving as a unit up and down the field. The fact that the cellist is joined by high-caliber players like Halvorson, Fujiwara and Roebke doesn't hurt. Their jazz is equally smile-inducing transcendence and edge-seeking exploration. The exclamations in the album title are warranted and then some. Enjoy!

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2026.34

Ivan the Tolerable: Chromophobia

It's that time again! This guy's putting out great music faster than I can get to it. This one comes from the I the T vaults, recorded in 2018 and revisited and rejiggered more recently, a tribute to the producer, Nigel Crooks, who has recently passed. A set of semi-simple motifs that evolve and mutate into pieces groovy, psychedelic, and, occasionally sublime. Excellent, as always. Enjoy!

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2026.33

Brian Marsella Trio: Play Zorn's Bagatelles

Marsella is in that "best pianist you don't know" category, an incredible and creative jazz talent. Here he's in trio with the equally powerhouse Trevor Dunn and Kenny Wollesen. They're tackling selections from the Zorn Bagatelles songbook, which is like both having guardrails and none at all at the same time. This set is adventurous in several directions: beautiful, chaotic, cerebral, inspiring. This is piano music at its finest. Enjoy!

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2026.32

Booker Stardrum: Close-Up on the Outside

Stardrum is a guy you'll find lending his talents to a wide variety of projects, including drumming for SML. His latest has some of the usual trappings of a solo drum album: textures of electroacoustic percussion panning your headspace. But there's some cool world-building here, too. A smattering of guests feature on the highlight tracks - ambient to experimental to exploratory - elevating the album in the process. Enjoy!

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2026.31

Sightseeing Crew: Muffled Ears, the World Sounds Bad Quality

This new music out of London is a real tweener. Somewhere in between genres, although hard to pin down which ones. Somewhere in between instrumental and not. Kind of feels like a concept album but hard to say what the theme is. What is certain is that it's a bold suite of music, with strings and horns, moments of rockin', groovin', and plenty in between. A delightful specimen of art rock. Enjoy!

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2026.30

Evan Shornstein & Celia Hollander: Unexpected Music II

The climate calls for some peace and this live performance, captured at a lovely-looking venue in Woodstock is just the thing. A duet matching piano with synth and more, it's a delight of ambient minimalism. The music comes in tiptoes and whispers, deep zones of quietude. Close your eyes and you're there, immerse yourself. Enjoy!

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Album links in LinkTree :https://linktr.ee/recommneds

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2026.29

Shake Stew: Ten One Two

The album title refers to both the Vienna band's tenth year in existence and that they are celebrating with a one-two double release. They've certainly got enough killer ideas to fill an oversized album. Don't try to categorize it, they'll just prove your labels wrong on the next track. Two basses, two drums, and a horn section gives the ensemble an incredible flexibility. Jazz, funk, rock, ambient, kraut, spacejam... All that and then some, they crush it all. One of the winter's best new releases, doubly so. Enjoy!

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Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds