ALBUM DISCOVERIES OF 2025

Hyperdawn, Institute of Contemporary Art, London 2025

Albums of 2025 (in no particular order):

Nadah El Shazly - Laina Taini (One Little Independent Records)
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What El Shazly is creating resists my own impulse to impose tidy musical categories, instead demanding to be encountered on its own terms. Ethereal vocals drift over beats that recall Fatima Al Qadiri’s explorations of East–West tension. On Laini Tani (which translates to “find me again”), the Egyptian-Canadian musician is deeply engaged in this crossover: she sings in Egyptian Arabic, with melodies that at times gesture toward classical mawwāl forms, her voice employing traditional modulation techniques even as the ground beneath it shifts. That delicacy is paired with deconstructed club elements, rhythms and textures that misalign, blur, and quietly reform. Heady, soft, and beautiful, this is a record that deserved far more attention than it received.

Listen if you like: Fatimah Al Qadiri’s East-West abstractions, Deena Abdelwahed’s Arab-futurism, Arabic vocal traditions refracted through contemporary electronic form.

Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, and Andreas Werliin - Ghosted iii (Drag City)
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Ghosted III picks up where II left off, and it doesn’t disappoint. Endlessly listenable—the trio of guitarist Ambarchi, drummer Berthling, and bassist Werliin, plays in delightful harmony with one another, with the same caliber of heady departures from each of these incredibly talented artists taking shape across the album’s slow burn. Underpinned by Werliin’s hypnotic basslines, the momentum swells into a space I could live inside of.

Listen if you like: Can’s Future Days, Jan Jelinek’s loop logic, Drag City’s patient faith in progress

David Grubbs - Whistle From Above (Drag City)
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An all-instrumental departure from the Gastr del Sol vet (who recently collaborated with Water Damage on the collective’s latest LP Instruments), Whistle From Above is a highly listenable—and at times downright hypnotic—excursion into an Americana-inflected landscape tinged with ghosts. Supported by some equally heavy hitting music legends and the unexpected instrumental entries of cello, trumpets, harp, analog electronics, and piano (among others, of course), the album is a cerebral and contemplative journey that spans the breadth of Grubbs’ musical inclinations.

Listen if you like: Jim O’Rourke’s quiet structuralism, Gastr del Sol at their most skeletal

Phi-Psonics - Expanding to One (Gondwana Records)
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Cosmic; sometimes jazz really allows you to feel the connection between the musicians. Expanding to One unfolds like a shared condition, through presence rather than propulsion. The explosion of new-era jazz artists coming out of the LA scene has been something to behold these past few years. Bulbous yet soft, this album is stripped of climax, instead favoring a slow accumulation of trust. You simply love to feel it. Put this record on on a slow, sun-kissed Saturday morning and make a divine breakfast for the person you cherish.

Listen if you like: Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Carlos Niño, the Gondwana/International Anthem space-time continuum

Los Thuthanaka (Studio Pankara)

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It’s not just me here, the internet is seemingly in unanimous agreement on this: Los Thuthanaka is something incredible. A project created by musician siblings Chuiquimamani-Condori and Joshua Chuquimia Crampton—who are each incredible in their own right—their dizzying (and unmastered) collaboration is a frenetic, logic-defying collage of genres and time. At times panic-inducing, at times serene, Los Thuthanaka takes the listener to somewhere I guarantee they have not been before. Combine the syncopated samples of Indigenous Andean percussion with loops of heavily distorted guitar and layer daub after daub of stabbing synth and gregarious radio DJ tags over one another and you might start to form a fuzzy picture of what’s going on here. If it seems hard to imagine, that’s simply because it is—this needs to be heard to be understood.

Listen if you like: Grupo Aymara, listening-as-ritual

Maria Somerville - Luster (4AD)
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This is an album to lose yourself in. It makes sense that the most ethereal shoegaze emanates from beautiful, soft-spoken, kind Ireland. Maria Somerville, who fittingly opened for My Bloody Valentine at a series of their recent concerts, casts an almost illusory presence over the already misty layers of guitar-driven pieces on Luster.

Listen if you like: My Bloody Valentine, Grouper, Cocteau Twins, Broadcast, Atlas Sound

Sa Pa - Ambeesh (Matthew Kent)
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A mesmerizing album, suffused with weight and texture. The whole thing sounds like when you’ve just left a club, but you can still hear the bass thumping through the heavy doors. It’s muddled out, jarring, and beautiful. Like Andy Stott from far away.

Listen if you like: Andy Stott’s bruised, low-light atmospheres, Deepchord’s submerged drift, Demdike Stare, Vladislav Delay, ambient techno

Basic - Dream City (No Quarter Records)
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Every now and then there is a recording that makes me jealous—I want to have been in the room playing with them while they were laying it down. On Dream City, it really feels like esteemed musicians Chris Forsyth, Douglas McCombs, and Mikel Patrick Avery were just out there having so much fun. The 26 minutes of jams, which grow and develop with take-it-away nods from one musician to another, are foot stompingly joyous.

Listen if you like: Tortoise, Horse Lords, Bitchin Bajas

Joanne Robertson - Blurrr (AD 93)
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Blurrr opens with “Ghost,” and it’s not far-fetched to imagine this as the ghost of the Dead Deer that Liz Harris’ Grouper Dragged Up a Hill way back in the aughts. The music grows out of a space Harris began building more than twenty years ago, and Robertson taps into and expands the sense of shimmering isolation that took root in Grouper’s work.

But this record isn’t indebted to Harris alone. Echoes of grunge-era vocals and power chords softly pepper the album as well. “Why Me” channels Cobain or J. Mascis, while Robertson’s frequent collaborator Dean Blunt looms over the record’s quick nine tracks, each imbued with the DIY, minimalist, figure-it-out-as-you-go aesthetic he so often conjures. None of this is to say that Blurrr is derivative. Robertson creates music that is wholly her own, despite—or perhaps because of—the many influences that lead us here. It’s a mesmerizing, transportive, and nostalgic album, the likes of which I haven’t encountered in quite some time.

A handful of tracks are supported by the phenomenal experimental cellist Oliver Coates, who adds depth and density to the otherwise sparse compositions that define the record. “Gown,” in particular, ascends to near-orchestral heights, giving Robertson the space to explore the further reaches of her seemingly limitless ability. Beyond her work as a musician, Robertson is also an accomplished artist and poet. Her visual practice tends toward large-scale, abstract oil paintings (which I very much yearn to collect), and she is represented by major galleries in both Paris and New York. If I were to break my own album-ranking rules, this one would land very near the top.

Listen if you like: Dean Blunt and company, half-erased folk songs, Grouper’s joyous despair, Jessica Pratt’s introspection, AD 93

TLF Trio - Desire (15 Love)
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Simple is good. Simple is beautiful. On Desire, the Danish TLF Trio—cellist Cæcilie Trier, pianist Jakob Littauer, and guitarist MK Velsorf—aren’t looking to challenge. Obviously, I don’t say that disparagingly (this is a best of list!). I am moved by how plain this album is, austere. It’s not minimalist—there are dense and mushrooming layers of sound that cross each other, creating moments of both harmony and discord—it’s restrained without being cold.

Listen if you like: Contemporary classical, ECM Records, Nils Frahm, Kali Malone, Tim Hecker

Michael Grigoni & Pan American - New World, Lonely Ride (kranky)
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As has been noted in previous years, I’m a sucker for ambient Americana. Well, this collab between Michael Grigoni and Mark Nelson aka Pan*American is exactly that. Soft pedal steel twangs ring out over grassy plains; hushed, textured shimmers flit across a starry sky at night. New World, Lonely Ride is gorgeous—let this album be your desert companion.

Listen if you like: The patient elements of Gastr del Sol, Talk Talk, kranky records

The Sorcerers - Other Worlds and Habitats (ATA Records)
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This one is FUN. The Sorcerers are a quartet of white guys from Leeds crafting some of the unexpectedly teeth grittingly funkiest, head bopping Ethio-inspired jazz around. When I first listened to this I knew nothing about the band, but, if I’m honest, this flatcap-toting group of Brits is not who I was picturing behind these grooves. It just goes to show you that music can be transcendental (and that there are some interesting things going on in Leeds).

Listen if you like: Mulatu Astatke, Hailu Mergia, Getatchew Mekurya

Eiko Ishibashi - Antigone (Drag City)
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With Antigone, Eiko Ishibashi returns to a more playful, left-field pop sensibility after a run of orchestral and soundtrack work (including the absolutely terrific Evil Does Not Exist and Drive My Car—both movies meeting the high bar of the music), without abandoning the compositional depth that’s come to define her prolific output. Ishibashi’s breathy vocals move easily between syncopated drums, searching woodwind solos, sparse piano, and, at moments, the sweep of a full orchestra, weighting the record with a certain lightness. On “Trial,” a thumping, funky bassline anchors the song, recalling a strange but satisfying midpoint between Talk Talk’s elasticity and George Clinton’s cosmic funk, a juxtaposition that recurs through the album’s eight pieces. The string and horn arrangements—a collaboration with her frequent comrade in instruments, and partner, Jim O’Rourke—unfold with a palpable softness and restraint. “Mona Lisa” drifts into languid, buttery territory, its mellow layers and sultry saxophone flourishes nodding toward ’90s R&B. Throughout, Antigone feels buoyant and curious yet immensely decisive.

Listen if you like: Talk Talk’s stretchy boundaries, Ryuichi Sakamoto’s pop restraint, Arthur Russell’s warmth

EsDeeKid - Rebel (XV Records/Lizzy Records)
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I have to admit, I play this in my headphones with a cheeky smirk on my face—it’s my little secret: the Brits don’t know that this American geezer on the train to Manchester is listening to a young, Liverpudlian MC rapping in a heavy Scouse accent about sniffing shards in Prague. (I’m reminded of this scene from Office Space, only it’s the Brits that I’m afraid of.) The accent and flow are compelling draws, and certainly make EsDee kid stand out from the growing pool of talented MCs coming out of the UK right now, but it’s the grimy drill beats with blasted out—decimated, even—bass that take Rebel to another level. You’ve not heard anything like this mate.

NB, for my coolness points: I heard this months before the Mr. Chalamet made his appearance with the young MC!

Listen if you like: Dizzee Rascal’s Boy In Da Corner, Wiley’s Wot Do U Call It?, Ruff Sqwad

EsDeeKid · 4 Raws

Flur - Plunge (Latency)
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One of my favorite musicians of all time is Dorothy Ashby. The way she maneuvers the harp—an instrument I instinctively associate with classical tradition rather than a conduit to outer space—into a vehicle for amniotic, interdimensional jazz planes is nothing short of alchemical. It would be an overstatement to claim Flur achieve the same effect, but on Plunge the London trio extend their reach deep into the astral. Miriam Adefris’ drifting, resonant harp lines stretch across wide horizons, while Isaac Robertson coils searching saxophone phrases into slow-moving vortices. On drums, Dillon Harrison threads rhythms that are at once abstract and grounding, periodically drawing the music softly back toward earth. In the kosmische interstitial space the trio explore, absence and presence are held in careful balance, moments of pregnant silence ringing out with the weight of notes themselves.

Listen if you like: Dorothy Ashby’s jazz expansiveness, Alice Coltrane’s journeys into the astral plane, Pharoah Sanders’ widening gyres, The Necks’ contemporary cosmic restraint

Orcutt Shelley Miller - S/T (Silver Current)
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An absolutely thunderous anchor of a bassline rips open Orcutt Shelley Miller’s eponymous album, recorded live at LA’s (and formerly New York’s—those were the years) Zebulon in April 2024. In no time, Bill Orcutt’s signature high-end wail begins to braid itself through Russell Miller’s arpeggiating lows, with the thrashing tempo upheld by Steve Shelley (of Sonic Youth fame) on the cans. “Unsafe at Any Speed” tears into a classic Orcuttian riff of beautiful, freeform guitar phrasing, but what sets this apart from his solo work is the way it’s underpinned by full-fledged rock and roll.

This rock and roll megalith of a record is a far cry from the scorched-earth, feral punk of Orcutt’s former ’90s band Harry Pussy; the Orcutt Shelley Miller strain of rock is decidedly more accessible. (In fact, listen closely and you’ll catch segments that sound like they could have been clipped from the breakdown of the most lathered moment of a live Sabbath show in 1976—meaning even your parents might be able to get down with this noise!) This recording stands as a testament to Orcutt’s prolific output in recent years. The veteran guitarist has been dropping dime after dime of apex-quality, mesmerizing shreds, including what has become—without a doubt—the best Christmas album of the decade (NB: it’s the only post-Peanuts released Christmas album I’ve listened to, also I don’t think it technically is a Christmas album, but it sure does feel right around the tree). With more planned for 2026, now’s the time to pay attention if you haven’t already.

Listen if you like: Harry Pussy’s physicality, Chris Corsano’s energy transcribed for guitar, Sonic Youth’s fuzzed out power, Water Damage’s trance-inducing power rock

Malibu - Vanities (YEAR0001)
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A lot of music writers panned this—I don’t understand the disdain. I found it to be a patient, swelling album, dotted with moments of 90s new age synth pads and Enya-esque interludes. Good fun for an ambient record, if you’re asking me.

Listen if you like: ambient pop; Huerco S.’s devotional calm; I find a strange similarity between Vanities and Oklou’s Choke Enough—so see if you can find the crossover there, I guess

Carrier - Rhythm Immortal (Modern Love)
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It’s no surprise that Carrier appears on Andy Stott’s Modern Love roster. Operating in a similar, shadowy margin of club music, Rhythm Immortal trades forward motion for atmosphere, its eroded, submerged beats echoing Stott’s low-end introspection and Sa Pa’s ambient drift. The record, which features a track with the phenomenal Voice Actor, hovers in suspension, rewarding listeners willing to sit within its dark, enveloping embrace.

Listen if you like: Andy Stott, Sa Pa, Debit, Demdike Stare, post-club, ambient techno

Takuro Okada - The Near End, The Dark Night, The County Line (Takuro Okada)
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Good vibes only, as the kids say. Even the searching, minor-key piano line of “Shadow” resolves toward optimism, eventually battened down by the slow, accumulating growl of Takuro Okada’s guitar pushed into overdrive. The Near End, The Dark Night, The County Line thrives on contradiction: gentle envelopes of guitar hum and rippling water samples are interrupted by eddies of metallic noise, only to slip again into a stream of soft cymbal edges and Okada’s patient tremolo. At times the record drifts into spaghetti-western territory, evoking a dusted-off Ennio Morricone score; elsewhere it settles into a hazy morning light, filtering through the warped wood of a dusty bayou saloon, complete with a distant dog’s howl. The album travels far without ever feeling restless, and we are left immersed in a soundscape that evolves gently, serene and quietly joyful.

Listen if you like: SUSS, William Tyler’s instrumental work, Ryley Walker’s quieter moments, Bill Frissell when the atmosphere takes presedence

Fust - Big Ugly (Dear Life Records)
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I married into the South. If you’d asked me twenty years ago whether I would have spent even a few minutes with a record like this, I’d have laughed the very idea away. I was dumb! There’s an entire world of beautiful music I was too closed off to know how to hear. On Big Ugly, sweeping guitar lines punctuated with pedal steel are grounded by singer Aaron Dowdy’s conversational baritone, while strings and piano anchor the blue-collar lament of “Doghole,” a sentiment that runs throughout the North Carolina band’s songs. Like their fellow North Carolina musical travelers Wednesday, the band write with a clear eye for place, digging into everyday American life and its quiet, accumulating pains to create music that feels both timely and deeply human.

Listen if you like: David Berman’s everyday observation, Will Oldham, Jason Molina’s folk/Americana peregrinations

Wednesday - Bleeds (Dead Oceans)
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I wish this had existed when I was in high school. I can picture exactly when it would have lived in my headphones—angry, sad, jubilant, sometimes all at once. Asheville, North Carolina’s Wednesday, like their perhaps more cosmopolitan counterparts Geese (who arguably also deserve a place on this list), have earned the wave of praise surrounding their recent output. Country filtered through pop-punk energy and bursts of full-throttle overdrive, Bleeds is a warped tour of the contemporary American South. Descended from bands like Drive-By Truckers, Dinosaur Jr., Modest Mouse, and Pavement, singer Karly Hartzman leads a group of accomplished young musicians (including MJ Lenderman) to make something that feels at once urgent and generous, nostalgic and unmistakably new.

Listen if you like: Drive-By Truckers, Dinosaur Jr., Modest Mouse, Pavement, and MJ Lenderman

HONORABLE MENTION:

Wino-E - S/T (Wino)
MANSLAUGHTER 777 - God’s World (Thrill Jockey)

Liam Grant - Prodigal Son (VHF)
Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love (Tan Cressida)
Amelia Cuni - Melopea (Black Truffle)
Bitchin Bajas - Inland See (Drag City)
Geese - Getting Killed (Partisan Records/Play It Again Sam)

NON-2025 ALBUM DISCOVERIES:

Benitez-Valencia Trio - Ecuador (1958 Cook Records)
Grupo Aymara - Lo Mejor (1993 Discolandia Dueri & Cía. Ltda.)
Leech - Data Horde (2019 Peak Oil)
David Grubbs - Act Five, Scene One (2002 Blue Chopsticks)

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ALBUM DISCOVERIES OF 2025

Albums of 2025 (in no particular order):

HONORABLE MENTION:

NON-2025 ALBUM DISCOVERIES:

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