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2026.1

Jake Xerxes Fussell/James Elkington: Rebuilding

Fussell and Elkington are storytellers, two flavors of folkie. The former channeling ancient Appalachia and the latter an elegant finger-picker. They join forces here for a film soundtrack that combines their strengths perfectly. These fairly short tracks tell a story with mood, a quiet, beautiful instrumental Americana. I know nothing about the film this score is for, but with music like this, I can only imagine. Enjoy!

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2026.2

Badge Epoch: Furry Worried Ape

Badge Époque Ensemble is one of those under-the-radar groups that only puts out must-hears and this extends to spin-off projects like this not-an-ensemble one-man effort. This tight 30-minute 6-track'er out of Toronto is dense with slick funk and a surprising amount of jamminess. Get to it! Enjoy!

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2026.3

Anuk Schmelcher: Something Else

This Swiss performer enlists the Brit songster Rozi Plain as "mentor" and guest on one song and Plain's aesthetic carries over nicely. The result is daydream prismatic art-folk. Great songs, a confident voice, and a lushly-produced sound. Like a painting you can stand in front of for hours discovering new bits to tickle the fancy. Enjoy!

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2026.4

Zach Tenorio: Field Trip

Before we get too deep into 2026, important to make sure some of 2025's must-hears get into your ears. That's definitely how I feel about this solo effort from the keyboardist from Arc Iris and Taper's Choice. Short snippets of pure musical joy. Ultragroovy and sure to put a smile on your face. Guaranteed. Enjoy!

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2026.5

Will Stewart: Memory Man

About this time last year I rec'd an EP by Alabaman Stewart that was gentle country-ish covers of Morphine songs. You should check that one out if you haven't! This new EP is, I believe, mostly/all original music and carries that same understated beauty. This is a quiet and emotionally-tinged country folk, a gentle confluence of lyricism, melody, instrumentation, and Stewart's voice. Enjoy!

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2026.6

Den Kosmiske Overorden: Verden

I know, I know, you've been patiently waiting for some sexy Eurojams and, hey, who loves ya? The latest from this Oslo band is fascinating. At four tracks totaling over 70 minutes, it is a journey and then some. The opening movement is pure ambient drone, glacial in its evolution, but as the album progresses it explodes with genre-bouncing abandon. Jammy rock-outs, dancehall electronica, jazzed freaking and more. Stick with it. Enjoy!

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2026.7

Tyler Ramsey & Carl Broemel: Celestun

The Asheville guitarist/songwriter and the My Morning Jacket guitarist team up for a debut duo record. Pensive instrumental folk mixed in with a couple songs with vocals and a Neil Young cover as well. Acoustic guitars, mostly, with occasional pedal steel and some electric sprinkled in at appropriate moments. It's thoughtful and lovely, the two friends sharing a musical chemistry that's easy to love. Enjoy!

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2026.8

Girls in Airports: Imaginal

Won't get to all the late-2025 leftovers, but... This Copenhagen collective is somewhere in a swirl of post-rock and orchestral jazz, alternatively sounding bigger or smaller than they really are. Here they pair with the strings of Halvcirkel who make the big moments feel bigger and the small moments smaller. It's the soundtrack to a movie you're watching inside your dream. Music that'll make you feel smarter, happier, and cooler. Enjoy!

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2026.9

Temple Gong: Distanz

This collaborative project between Munich-based JJ Whitefield and Johannes Schleiermacher is a delight of retrofunk. A lot of it sounds like it could be theme music to 70's TV shows you don't remember watching as a kid. A healthy dose of flutes and killer bass grooves galore. Apparently more where this came from is in the works. Betcha dig. Enjoy!

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2026.10

Winged Wheel: Desert So Green

We need a new word for a band made up from musicians from other bands when "supergroup" doesn't quite fit. These guys, drawn from a myriad of sources and influences, have evolved into their own thing and along the way hit many of rock's great hyphenations: post-rock, psych-rock, jam-rock, math-rock. Their their release is filled with some seriously well-executed and developed complexity you don't find from just friends just messing around in the studio. Enjoy!

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2026.11

Chewing: Quintet (Live in Los Angeles)

One of the great things about the digital age is the gap between playing a great live and getting a recording of that set up on Bandcamp et al. is miniscule. And so we all get to hear jammers like this one. Keys man Nik "Chewing" Ewing leads another kinda-supergroup with Dave Harrington, Spencer Zahn, Ryan Hahn, and Griffin Goldsmith. It's blissjammy improv, loose explorations and lots of peaks in its brisk 25 minutes. This one surfaced in mid-Dec and may have gotten lost in the end-of-year shuffle. Well worth a listen. Enjoy!

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2026.12

Papir: IX

In a just world, we'd all be wearing Papir t-shirts and arguing the case that they're possibly the best psychjammers on the planet. In this quite unjust one, we just have to content ourselves with one monster under-the-radar release after another. I've been following this Copenhagen trio since at least IIII and can safely say they only put out winners and that's definitely the case with their latest. Yet another must-hear masterpiece of guitar/bass/drum improv. Enjoy!

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2026.13

Eyal Talmudi: Sonolodge III

The Israeli saxophonist draws equally from traditional sounds and instruments and electronica motifs. This is the third in a series released throughout 2025. While there are still some of his usual far-away grooves, this is largely an album of much-needed introspection and meditation. A deep loveliness. Enjoy!

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2026.14

The Natural Yogurt Band: Red Sky at Night

There are portions of the latest from this UK band that sound as if Mozart was scoring 70's spy thrillers and 80's video games, a funky kind of harpsichord sound. That's just part of it, though. It abounds: psychedelically dense layers of sound and a free-roaming creativity, without ever losing its groove. Give it a whirl, at least once with headphones, best to not miss the details. Enjoy!

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2026.15

Erik Hall: Solo Three

This is "contemporary classical" music, but don't let that scare you! Hall performs 4 pieces by American minimalism masters here in the third of a series. As it says, it's solo, and with these pieces the single-musician-doing-it-all serves to properly highlight the artistry in the overlapping layers. The music is playful and beautiful and most of all joyous . For zoning out with a smile on your face. Enjoy!

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2026.16

Phil Martin: Mystical Funk II

This album title is more or less truth in advertising. The latest from the Dutch musician is 31 flavors of funkification, from afrobeat-inspired to Daft Punk dance throwback and many points in between. I mean, c'mon!, there's a track on here called "Galactic Afro Groove" and it's a banger. Honestly, they all are.nEnjoy!

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2026.17

Ryan J Raffa & Sam Prekop: Only Came To Say Goodbye

This one came out in December, but didn't come onto my radar until last month and I'm glad it did. This collaboration is electronic music that transcends electronic music. Beautiful and blissful, minimalist but lush, the cross-continental duo hit many many sweet spots... emphasis on the sweet. Enjoy!

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2026.18

Luke Marantz & Simon Jermyn: Echoes

There's a whole class of if-you-know-you-know NYC musicians who are under the radar, even locally, but if they're on a live bill you just know it's gonna be good. It's always a pleasure to spread the word about music those guys are making. That makes this release doubly sweet as it features two of those artists working together to bring their individual talent up a notch. The two mix piano and guitar (with same-category Josh Dion on drums!) to create sparkling pieces, loosely traipsing between jazz and rock, composition and improv. It's got the magical energy of a random midweek set in a small club in Brooklyn. The good stuff. Enjoy!

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2026.19

Cordovas: Back to Life

This Nashville band continues to do the big things right, straddling the country-rock divide with great songs and an easy-to-dig sound. But on their latest they really sharpen up on the small things as well. The right dosage of pedal steel and mandolin here and there and laying on their stoner bonafides at the appropriate moments. And they take things one step further with a surprising and excellent guest appearance from Kamasi Washington, who elevates his appearance into a cool psychjazz space. A little bit for everyone. Enjoy!

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2026.20

Muriel Grossmann: Plays the music of McCoy Tyner and Grateful Dead

This is not Grossman's first appearance here, her brand of organ groove is almost always rec-worthy. But here, as the title implies, she takes some very cool source material and forces it through her stylistic colander. It's 4 tracks of extended, funkiness that loves the originals, but not enough to prevent a full topsy-turve. Mostly, it's just fun as hell, with equally great alternate versions. Hopefully this one has already been in your rotation, but if the weird end-of-year release date got it lost in the shuffle, now's your chance. Enjoy!

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2026.21

Lo Greco Bros: Latin Bilbao

I'd love to tell you something about this album, but the who/what/how is surprisingly tough to find online. What I *can* tell you is that this is pure Latin funk perfection. If you heard any track on here at the proverbial club, you'd be checking your phone to find the source and if you play it at any social gathering of your own, your guests will be doing the same. Absolute groovy heat to get you through the cold months of winter. Enjoy!

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2026.22

Yin Yin: Yatta!

This quartet is from the Netherlands, but their latest is a combination of Asian motifs and American disco, with a few other excursions thrown in. All in all, it's a delight of funkiness, culling groove from all sorts of far flung inspiration. Enjoy!

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2026.23

Forever Pavot: Melchior, Vol 1

If I'm translating correctly, Emile Sornin, the French musician who performs as Forever Pavot, feels like he's working too hard making music and so he built a robot to do it for him. That's the conceit of this kind of concept album. Like most of his stuff, it's delightfully cartoonish and deeply interesting. A mash-up of styles and various levels of fun, never dull. Give it a whirl! Enjoy!

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2026.24

Leroy From the North: My Favorite Gun

In some ways, it's kind of hard to believe this is brand new music. The songs have a lived-in familiarity to them, like a leather coat pulled off the vintage rack that fits just right. This is southern rock at its best, a music that feels like it's been covered in whiskey bars and honky tonks for 5 decades, not 5 weeks. Great songs and a timeless sound, occasionally leaning more country or folky, but mostly just rockin'. Enjoy!

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2026.25

Orchestra of the Upper Atmosphere: Theta Seven

On their seventh (and apparently finally) album, the UK collective covers a lot of ground. It's a wild diversity of instruments, sounds, and genres. Even on the micro-scale: at any given moment in the album there are impressive sonic layers, such that two people might be hearing completely different music listening to the same thing. It's a total brain-tickler, occasionally going unhinged. Each track flows one into the other, even as the pace of musical change seems disconnected from those boundaries. Interlocking pieces of a larger puzzle. Enjoy!

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2026.26

Lyke Rayne: The Time Will Sort Ye Out

Sean Conrad's music was made in the Pacific Northwest, but it has the sounds of some mythical Britain. To my ears, it's a mix of woozy London psychedelic, lush UK prog, and pastoral Britfolk. Perhaps just grey skies from a slightly different point of view. There's a homemade unevenness that's endearing, but when it gets there, it really shines. A promising debut. Enjoy!

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2026.27

Various Artists: Don't Forget Your Guitar

Don't do a lot of compilation records here, but this one's definitely worth pointing your ears towards. Joel Harrison runs the Alternate Guitar Summit which does guitar-centric shows and workshops and more. For this album he's gathered a host of one-off guitar duos, many (but not all!) from the NYC music universe. The music runs the gamut: genres, moods, adventurousness; familiar names and some you won't know. You might not love it all, but guarantee there's enough that you'll absolutely *love*. Enjoy!

#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #guitar

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2026.28

Seven Teller: What Are The Chances?

Been sick for a few days this absolute banger out of Baltimore is a perfect way to clear out the cobwebs and head into the weekend feeling good. Densely layered rhythms, irresistible bass ripples, and catchy-as-heck synth melodies, Sam Cochran's band sounds like they've listened to a crapton of LCD Soundsystem and taken all the right lessons from it. I betcha dig it. Enjoy!

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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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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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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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2026.32

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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2026.33

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!

#newmusic #MusicDiscovery #piano

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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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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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2026.36

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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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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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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2026.39

Zahn: Purpur

Some great rock music from this Berlin trio. There's plenty of great bang-your-head heaviness in here, but the album seems to evolve as it goes, exploring a variety of increasingly interesting sounds. You go from "yeah, this is pretty good" to "damn, this is sick" in due time. And ready to return to the start when you get to the end. Enjoy!

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2026.40

Pan-American: Fly the Ocean in a Silver Plane

Mark Nelson says his latest is about travel, both the physical journey and the metaphysical one to the beyond. The music is a solo ambient guitar electronica that drifts and floats. There's a sense of journey, yes, but maybe even more so, the preparation and expectation of the journey to come. Music for airports, but also awaiting lift-off on a trip to the moon, or perhaps the waiting room for afterlife. It's beautiful. Enjoy!

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