Music Review

For obvious reasons, I’ve had Moon on the mind all week. So I was trying to figure out what I should recommend this week that would thematically fit. Brian Eno’s Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks is incredible, and if you haven’t listened to it, go do that now. But it also seemed a bit on the […]

Los Thuthanaka basically came out of nowhere last year to capture Pitchfork’s album of the year with their self-titled debut. Because it wasn’t available on streaming, it largely flew under the radar. I honestly kind of forgot about it until Pitchfork gave it the number one spot in its year-end list. In retrospect, I’m not […]

Last week’s recommendation, Sotomayor’s Wabi Sabi, has a very particular vibe that you don’t find in a lot of records. One of the few things it called to mind was 2022’s Topical Dancer from Charlotte Adigery and Bolis Pupul, which I ended up revisiting this week a lot. The two records don’t seem particularly alike […]

Shout out to subscriber N_Gorski for today’s pick. They popped into the comments on last week’s recommendation to ask what I thought of the new Sotomayor record. Well, I hadn’t actually heard it yet, but now I’m obsessed. The group consists of siblings Raul and Paulina Sotomayor from Mexico City. Wabi Sabi is their first […]

The opening notes of “Kravitz”, which kicks off Mabe Fratti’s 2024 record Sentir Que No Sabes, are lodged in my brain permanently. It’s not a showy album, by any means. But there’s something about the buzzing of her cello, plucked as you might an upright bass. The way they ring out before coming to an […]

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Laurie Spiegel for the site. As preparation for the interview, I spent a lot of time over the last couple of weeks revisiting Spiegel’s records, most notably The Expanding Universe, her 1980 masterpiece that blends synth experimentalism with early examples of what would eventually be called ambient music, […]

Often, I focus on recommending older media that isn’t currently getting a ton of attention. But this week, I can’t stop listening to the new Mandy, Indiana album long enough to even think about anything else. It’s early still, obviously, but URGH is my favorite release of 2026 so far. The band that I fell […]

New York City got hit with a hell of a snowstorm last week. And, inevitably, when I’m watching the snow fall, wandering the oddly quiet streets after dark, people hiding inside and staying warm, I put on M83’s sophomore record, Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts. Before Nicolas Fromageau left the band and Anthony […]

Billy Woods has one of the highest batting averages in the game. Between his solo records like Hiding Places and Maps, and his collaborative albums with Elucid as Armand Hammer, the man has multiple stone-cold classics under his belt. And, while no one would ever claim that Woods’ albums were light-hearted fare (these are not […]

My introduction to Sudan Archives was the song “Nont for Sale” from her first EP Sink in 2018. I’ve been a die-hard fan ever since. With each album, she finds new ways to sculpt the sound of her violin, contorting it in defiance of expectations. Athena found her in conversation with it, leaving its timbre […]