2025.131
Oren Armbachi: Ghosted III
This is jazz music in 2025, a sound perfectly suited for this moment. Guitarist along with his trio-mates Johan Berthling on bass and Andreas Werliin on drums are at the vanguard bridging the analog and digital, acoustic and electronic. It's minimalism to the maximum, soothing ambient that layers to an ecstatic intensity. Straight to your sweet spot. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.132
Organic Pulse Ensemble: Oppression Is Nine Tenths Of The Law
The name is 2 truths and 1 lie. The music pulses and it's organic but it's no ensemble. Somehow it's just one dude creating this spiritual jazz masterpiece. While you sit & wonder how all those horns and overlapping rhythms and the easy flowing chemistry is a single human, don't forget to take in the impressively stirring music. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.133
Joseph Decosimo: Fiery Gizzard
In the same vein as Jake Fussell & Nora Brown, Decosimo takes old southern and Appalachian folk songs and channels their ancient spirit as much as interprets them for the modern age. He recruits some help from the ever-evolving NC music scene in which he floats, fleshing things out, but at his best with fiddle or banjo and the source material at its rawest. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.134
Linda May Han Oh: Strange Heavens
I saw this trio (bass Oh, drums Tyshawn Sorey, trumpet Ambrose Akinmusire) earlier this year & it was so good I had to go again. If the record doesn't quite capture the live magic, it's damn close. It's best listened to back-to-front, taking in the drums/bass first. The pair has such mastery, chemistry & creativity, the melody almost don't matter. Almost. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.135
Spaceface: Lunar Manor
Not complaining, but a lot of psychrock these days can be kinda serious & heavy. That's part of what makes this LA band so enjoyable. Operating in the mix of dreampop, chillwave, and psychedelic, their sound maintains a certain density but with heavy doses of whimsy. It's fun! Sure they'll evoke some old favorites but they've got their own energy, one I'm sure you'll enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.136
Chip Wickham: The Eternal Now
The UK flute/sax player delivers one of his best yet. This is jazz for those who maybe don't realize they like jazz. It's groovy and sexy and warm and cool. A musical umbrella providing an oasis of dry and calm in a rainstorm. This is a headphone bop, as much in the details as the mood. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.137
Peki Momés: s/t
Turkey by way of Germany, Momés' debut is rich with the good stuff. It's almost two albums in one: an instrumental Turkish funk with rather irresistible grooves and a psychedelic pop overlaid adding a rather dreamlike quality. It's a heady mix for someone who appears to have arrived at a music career accidentally. Your weekend begins now. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.138
Go Kurosawa: soft shakes
One of the great recent gone-too-soon acts has to be Kikagaku Moyo, the Japanese psych band. The silver lining in the dismay that those guys still had great things left in em is that they DO have great things left, like this from drummer + founder of the Guruguru Brain label. Playing every instrument & nearly every genre, it's a work of art & a passion project. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.139
Yoo Doo Right with Population II & Nolan Potter: Yoo II Avec Nolan Potter
This collab between two Montreal bands and the Austin psych maestro is an intracontinental 6-man Voltron of awesome. Heavy-churn psychedelic krautrock that's as freewheelin' as it is potent. A lotta drum, a lotta guitar, a lotta keys, a little horn, zero tariffs required. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.140
Orcutt Shelley Miller: s/t
Every once in a while you're in the room catching a set that makes you turn & think "man, I wonder if anyone was taping that!" I imagine that's what the crowd did after this one; no surprise they decided to release it. This meeting-of-giants trio rips the guitar/bass/drum rock instrumental modality a new one, each third contributing equally to a monstrous whole. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.141
Anna Tivel: Animal Poems
Tivel is the kind of songwriter who seems to spool new worlds in each song, like you're returning from Oz when they end. The title track of her latest plays like her mission statement, each lyric a mantra worth repeating. While her music usually requires little more than voice and guitar, here it's a full band helping create these sonic soundtracks-to-your-day. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.142
Holly Palmer: Metamorphosis
The vocalist takes a new direction on her latest, her voice a lyricless instrument and barely even the lead one on her own album. Teaming with a stellar cast of colleagues (Lefebvre! Guliiana! Parker! Et al!), she creates delicate sonic impressions ranging from jazzy to hallucenegenic. At barely three minutes a piece, the tracks are exquisite studies on form. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.143
Ancient Infinity Orchestra: It's Always About Love
More great jazz from the UK. This is a 15-large ensemble from Leeds, but, despite the size, it's a light spiritual jazz. It *feels* spiritual. The music shifts easily between composition & communal improv, mixing in folk & classical. It's hard for instrumental music to feel like it's "about" anything but this does the album title justice. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.144
Tera Tera: s/t
Debut of a collaborative Italian duo Jacopo Battaglia (drums) and Adriano Viterbini (guitar). The two went into the studio, improvised, and then curated and spliced the results into these tracks. It's a constantly-mutating taffy-pull, landing somewhere between Eno-infected Afrobeat and chaotic psychedelia and, more often, beyond convenient genrification. A promising start. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.145
Sam Prekop: Open Close
If you are not familiar with Prekop, he was a principal in Sea & Cake and his own solo career. He brings the same sense of airy melody to his analog synth work. His latest is a brilliant headphone-ready electronica. An ambient that will turn any activity - a trip to the museum, a drive in the country, a walk downtown, navigating the airport - into beautiful art. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.146
Drink the Sea
New "supergroup" with a mix of old school altrockers. Not necessarily the frontmen, the lack of a dominant personality does them many favors. The songs come from many voices and while some are stronger than others, the complete package is both modern and throwback, a Gen X sound for today. There are actually 2 volumes released in short succession, no lack of great ideas here. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.147
M. Sage: Tender/Wading
Matthew Sage's music is like a gentle breeze - less about the moving air itself then how it ripples through the grass, plays with a tree's leaves, feels on your face. He starts with a base of keyboards and clarinet, but it's really all about the other little details he adds in the crevices: guitars and synth and field recordings and more. A lovely, provacative calm. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.148
Mulatu Astatke: Mulatu Plays Mulatu
In case you're not familiar, Astatke is a patriarch of so-called Ethio-jazz. Here he revisits many decades worthy of material: rearranging, re-recording, updating. He's got a large ensemble in tow and they're a force, an afrogroove machine that's both powerful and elegant. The album is a nice, rhythmic reminder of his continued influence and relevance. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.149
Sven Wunder: Daybreak
Sometimes the movie is fine, but the soundtrack is pure fire. That's the kind of music Wunder makes and this is a prime example of his sound. Flute-centric with strings and a seriously elegant groove. It feels like Wunder is constantly out with something new, I was surprised to learn this is only his fifth full-length. It's a delight in full technicolor. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.150
Psychedelic Source Records: The Tail, the Head and the Snake Itself
I am legally obligated to rec a psych rock band from Europe every few days here, so let's turn our ears to Hungary. These guys are so psychedelic it's in their name, it's in the album artwork, and it is heavily in their music. It's a hearty goulash of guitar, bass, keys, and drums. Altogether relentless. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.151
Johnathan Blake: My Life Matters
Blake is one of *the* go-to drummers in jazz today. He plays with everyone and it's no wonder, he makes em all sound great. Of course, that goes for his own stuff and here he delivers his magnum opus (or first one, at least). A wide-scope, message-heavy jazz record on the classic Blue Note label with a band of voracious young talent. It combines a classic jazz sound with a forward-looking one, and plenty of killer drumming, natch. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.152
The Diasonics: Ornithology
Today we've got the excellent sophomore full length from these Moscow funkmeisters. The album is inspired by birds and birdsong and each track is named after a different kind of bird. You can actually hear it in the songs - from the owl to the chickadee - which balance a sharp-beaked groove with a feathery melodic lightness. This one really soars. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.153
Trio of Bloom: s/t
Well, either you think Nels Cline, Craig Taborn, and Marcus Gilmore are household names or I question the household you're living in. But just in case this wasn't on your radar, please do check out this monumental record from three dudes who legitimately might be the best at what they do. Unsurprisingly, they also kind of kill it together. Each of them is no stranger to the pocket nor to getting totally unhinged and this record alternates between a deep pocket and utter insanity. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.154
Animal, Surrender!: A Boot For Every Bane
Equally as important as my Eurojam conquests is my evangelizing super-creative music being made in NYC. I need to make sure y'all know about bands like this one led by bassist Peter Kerlin. His instrument takes the lead on a unique sound that's like an instrumental mix of prog, postrock and jazz. It's intricate and simple at the same time, incredibly melodic and easy to digest. An album that reveals new secrets with each listen. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.155
Langendorf United: Undercover Beast
Here's a fire quintet out of Sweden. Led by saxophonist Lina Langendorf, this quintet draws players from a few different groups to form a powerhouse Ethio-jazz ensemble. The original compositions mixing heavy afrobeat and world rhythms with a Scandanvian sleekness creates a uniquely forward-thinking brand of groove that's as much about rule-breaking as it is about reverence to past masters. Damn funky, though. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.156
Zachary Cale: Love's Work
At its heart, this is another album of beautiful solo guitar music by a talented player. But on top of that core there's quite a bit going on. Cale recruits some of my favorite NYC musicians: a rhythm section of Shahzad Ismaily and Jeremy Gustin, and a bunch of appearances by other faves on pedal steel, violins, piano. It's an altogether loose, improvisational feel on a sparse Americana frame creating fully-realized pieces out of his lovely compositions. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.157
Matt LaJoie: Stonehouse
These days there are almost as many ways to do the looping-guitar thing as there are ways to play the guitar itself. On his latest LaJoie starts small and builds and builds and builds. A little drum machine, but mostly just layers of guitar riffs and melodies. The result is impressive architecture. Brutalist in its balance of intensity and beauty. Enjoy!
#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #guitar
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.158
Dayna Stephens: Monk'D
The jazz saxophonist's new album has him not playing sax and is a tribute to a pianist, go figure! Stephens turns to the bass and brings along a talented band including Ethan Iverson on piano and crafts a most excellent tribute to the legendary Thelonious Monk. He is appropriately liberal with the material, mash-up-ing some compositions together, going full interpretive on others, and then, for good measure, playing some of it wonderfully straight. I'm sure TM would approve, maybe you will as well. Enjoy!
#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #jazz
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.159
Faten Kanaan: Diary of a Candle
The Brooklyn-based composer creates a fantastical blend of classical and a kind of baroque folk here. It sounds like some imagined music that is played by elves or somesuch in a middle earth. Dreamlike minimalism somehow feeling both ancient and modern, rootsy and otherworldly. Get lost in this one. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.160
Elias Meister: Chinchilla
It's a fun but rare occurrence when a show you've seen gets released as an album. That's the case with this set that I thought was pretty great at the time and certainly holds up. The NYC guitarist led a jammy trio through a set of original material that served as launching pad for some stratospheric improv. His playing his great, but zone in on his bandmates, drummer Jeremy Gustin and bassist Scott Colberg - it's a truly balanced jammer. This starts off pretty great but ends, as all great sets do, in serious holyshit! territory. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.161
Oddjob: Atlas
Sometimes I hate to use the term "jazz" because as all-encompassing as it is, there's still some heavy connotations. This Swedish group is definitely jazz, but really that's just the base camp for some genre-agnostic exploration. Each track has a different destination and a different mode of travel, with electronics and pop and rock motifs. It's its own thing and a highly listenable one at that. Enjoy!
#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #jazz
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.162
Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan: Public Works and Utilities
Gordon Chapman-Fox's electronic music project is a mouthful, but it's also a mission statement as he charts societal dissolution and urban decay. His latest plays like a musical soundtrack to a non-existent documentary about the loss of public works for the public good, an engaging ambient. The focus is his hometown in the UK, but the themes, and the music, is universal. It's brooding and thoughtful, occasionally dark and, dare I say, ultimately hopeful, leading to an epic forward-looking final track. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.163
Muriel Grossmann: Breakthrough
The Austrian saxophonist leads her quartet through a masterful four-track 45-minute set that overlays spiritual jazz with an organ trio sound. The music lays its roots in a soil rich with the groove, but then branches out into the sky above, a cycle of searching and exploring. It's absorbing and inspiring, both. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.164
Upupayāma: Live At Fuzz Club Festival 2025
In the studio, Upupayāma is one of these one-man operations, so it's cool to get this live release with the material fleshed out full-band style. The performance recorded at a European psych fest earlier this year has the Italian outfit sounding like a old school jamband, with two guitar interplay and heavy doses of flute giving it jazzy pastoral texture. It's pretty rippin'! Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.165
Saha Gnawa: s/t
Gnawa, for the uninitiated, is a traditional Moroccan music characterized by the constant chatter of qraqebs and the otherworldly groove of the guembri. It gives off an energy that is equally ancient and futuristic, like an electronica without electronics. This group of Gnawa masters takes that foundation and mixes in some of the finest NYC's experimental jazz scene has to offer (not to mention special guests with names like Cline and McCaslin). The result mixes the hypnosis of the traditional Gnawa with the experimental spirit of the outer boroughs. Absolutely entrancing. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.166
Essendon Airport: MOR
Here's an Australian band that I'd previously never heard of. They broke up over 40 years ago! They've returned and released this album filled with reworked versions of old material and some new and... it's kind of awesome? The music is 2025-ready, an easygoing instrumental with excellent use of pedal steel, a low-key exotica and surf combo that reminds me of some of favorite of John Zorn's more accessible projects like The Dreamers. Perhaps they were ahead of their time - no time like the present. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.167
Hyloxolos: s/t
Guitarist Dave Harrington is in so many mix-and-match bands, he makes a mockery of the concept of "the supergroup." I mean, when you're in the double digits, can they all really be considered super? Maybe! The latest one to pop up out of nowhere certainly is. Much more vicious and rocking than some of his other projects. Hyloxolos features Harrington with Peter Matthew Bauer, (The Walkmen), Dylan Carlson (Earth), Dylan Fujioka (Meatbodies) and Otis Bauer (Trench). Their self-titled debut is a turn-that-shit-up psychrock, a sort of Eurojam-meets-altrocker sound. So turn that shit up. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.168
P.E.: Oh!
With as much punctuation as text in their name and album title, this Brooklyn band puts a period and an exclamation point on things with their final album. It's an art rock delight, evoking past masters like Devo and the Talking Heads with a quirky, fun, and super catchy set of tunes. It's dense with ideas and rhythms, and infused with just the right electronic depth. Rather irresistible. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.169
Jonny Fritz: Debbie Downers
Fritz has called his music "dad country" and it does have a sad/aggrieved energy of a divorced dad. His songs are funny, smart, catchy and topical. The opening title track is a hilarious rant about MAGA relatives and that pretty much sets the tone. A great cast of Nashville country musicians backs songwriting that carries a range of viewpoints, giving you the world according to Jonny Fritz circa 2025. A perspective both amusing and poignant. Enjoy!
#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #country
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.170
Jesse Harris: If You Believed In Me
We're back to finish the year strong! If you're unfamiliar with Harris, he's a songwriter and artist whose orbit takes his music across jazz, pop, and folk and a slew of cool projects and talented collaborators. Norah Jones is an oft-cited comp and she does make a guest appearance on his latest release. The sound is a warm jazzpop, classy strings here and there, a heady instrumental or two, and Harris' knack for melody and lyricism throughout. A perfect winter listen. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.171
Nusantara Beat: s/t
Indonesian psychfolk from Amsterdam, eh? While it's tempting to lump them in with other "exotic funk from lands far-flung" "it" bands of the moment, this debut album has so much meat on its bones, good enough to feed the entire family. Yes, there's a serious groove there that might remind you of this, that, or the other, but there's also an expansive psychedelia taking each track to seriously interesting places. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.172
Magic Fig: Valerian Tea
Sure, plenty of bands can claim old Genesis and Yes as influences, but few pull off updating the sound quite like this San Francisco band does. It packs a punch of pure proggy perfection with an overlay of ethereal dreampsych vocals. Ornate without going over the top, it balances a nostalgic sound with an undeniable freshness. If you dig this stuff, you're really gonna dig this one. Enjoy!
#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #progrock
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.173
Me and My Friends: Bring Summer
Just in time for a cold snap, here's an infectious dose of warmth and sunshine. This UK group is like a chamber pop band that's been infiltrated by afrobeat. It's all sorts of catchy, groovy, literate, and fun. Violins and clarinet and harmonies and an undeniable "positive vibes only" energy. It's a big bag of delicious that's tough to put down. Betcha dig. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
2025.174
Düül Suns: s/t
Don't let the umlauts trick you, these cats are not another Scandanvian Eurojammer. Nope, they're from NYC, actually. Their brand of psychrock'n is purely local, but no less compelling. Their debut EP easily slides between retro psych and a more modern indie rock matching a heady exploratory spirit with some impressive songcraft. It's a promising 30 minutes, feeling like a teaser of more to come. Something to look forward to and hopefully catch em live soon as well. Enjoy!
Album links in LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/recommneds
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