09.26.2025 – 26.09.2025 – 09/26/2025 – 26/09/25 – Sept. 26th, 2025
Worlds collide as disco and lounge-funk acts team up to battle brash post-punks for control of the Atari.
The electronic underground leaned ambient this week, giving the music world a temporary reprieve from the raga-influenced dubstep comeback, a move that clears the playing field enough to see the question “Fight or Flight?” posed as punky aggression meets escapist cinematics. But is it bedlam or Belgium, 1975?
Meanwhile, twee indie artists are caught in their lab coats, working out the esoteric details of experimental balladry atmospherics with only the briefest realization of an audience behind them.
Highlights, Curiosities, and Observations:
- If you squint your ears when you listen, EERA’s “Honey, Do You See Me?” seems to imply a nod to the gloomy chord progression of Jeff Buckley’s “So Real,” warranting a mention.
- Wais P, Roc Marciano, and Static Selektah collab on head-bobbing hip hop appetizer “Put Jewels On It.”
- Although they technically never left, this week nevertheless seems like a comeback for Kasabian, who along with Kids Return, have a pair of tuneful and catchy choruses waiting in ambush.
- It’s up to debate whether or not Village Cuts and the ever-dependable Ibibio Sound Machine might have mislabeled their new Maxi-single as an EP, but they nevertheless confidently show off three different versions of new single “Anyone Like You” – featured here is the radio edit.
- Automatic‘s new LP comes with a generous helping of strong tunes.
I always like when a band selects “Can we pull this off live?” as their primary guiding directive in the studio, and keyboardist Izzy Glaudini seems to get better at on-the-fly synth effects with each release. - The always-classy and elegant Sven Wunder seem to have been studying their vintage James Bond soundtracks, if new instrumental “Misty Shore” is any indication.
- Kit Sebastian show off the funky first song from their new setlist. It’s more of the same sort of sci-fi-twinged Turkish lounge bombast that made their last LP New International such a standout, and that’s not a bad thing – you have to just love how complex some of these melodies can get.
- As if not to be outdone by the last two acts mentioned, Yin Yin seemingly tone down their primary East-Asian melodic influence to give us something more sitar-fueled, this time with smeary falsetto vocals — and a third-act breakdown that would make Daft Punk proud.
- It’s nice to see northerners English Teacher on the list again, even if it is in service of a decidedly abstract and choppy vocal remix of Honeyglaze singer Anouska Sokolow.
- Michael Nau of Maryland and Lael Neale of Virginia prove themselves to be masters of aesthetics with a pair of wholesome ballads with their production tuned to perfect levels of brightness, with Nau highlighting a cozy world folk arrangement, and Neale doing something more akin to an icy, organ-backed impression of mid-1960s singer-songwriters like Dusty Springfield and Nancy Sinatra.
- The somewhat loose, if not outright sloppy, singles from Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy‘s massive triple solo album “Twilight Overture” might just betray the precision and thoughtfulness of some of the album’s deeper cuts, as evidenced here by the inclusion of the more cerebral “Mirror” from the first disc.
- Finally, Bitchin Bajas are on a “cute ambient” tear with their new four-instrumental release, and because we’ve already featured single “Skylarking” back in July, we’re rounding things out with the drony, woozy “Keiji Dreams.”
Recommended LPs: Automatic, Bitchin’ Bajas, Jeff Tweedy
As always, Enjoy!
-Martin
LINKS:
Leave a Reply