sharp pins - radio ddr

Sharp Pins: Radio DDR (2025)

It’s raining, and the camera tracks in toward the window of a yellow school bus. A young child, dripping wet, stares wistfully out the window at something. Cut to an over-the-shoulder shot as we see what the boy is staring at. It’s blurry due to the camera’s focus on the window, but that shifts to outside. We see a young girl twirling in the rain, her head tilted toward the sky, smiling as the teachers run in slow motion to usher her to the bus. What? Oh, something from Sharp Pins. Anything from the Radio DDR album that came out a few months back. Yeah, that one. Just use that in place of any sound…

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deer hoof's noble and godlike in ruin album cover

Deerhoof: Noble And Godlike In Ruin (2025)

Is there a good place to start with Deerhoof? I always confused them with Deerhunter, a band I discovered around the same time, but my only experience with the San Francisco quartet was their 2007 release Friend Opportunity, an album I barely remember except as “weird.” Almost 20 years later I made the impromptu decision to try again. Enter Noble And Godlike In Ruin, their latest critically acclaimed record in a delightful light green vinyl. It’s still weird, but in a way the intervening 18 years of listening have prepared me. Still, there’s a part of me that feels unequipped to explain why now I can find a lot to enjoy in its anarchic chaos.

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julie - my anti-aircraft friend

Julie: My Anti-Aircraft Friend (2024)

I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way…especially if you’re teaching them by way of Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine. That’s what I hear when I listen to julie, a trio out of Los Angeles who have taken the gospels according to Moore and Shields to heart, and crafted in My Anti-Aircraft Friend a fun and vibrant debut full-length that works for what it is: a catchy and frazzled indie rock gem, slightly flawed and wearing its influences in each facet of its cut, but sincere and earnest in how it goes about it.

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golomb - the beat goes on

Golomb: The Beat Goes On (2025)

At this point I can’t remember what turned me on to Golomb, the trio out of Columbus, OH that somehow manages to sound like Kevin Shields was behind the boards for The Beat Goes On, the band’s sophomore LP. It’s a new release, although you’d be more than forgiven for thinking this came out alongside albums by The Breeders and Velocity Girl in the 90s; it has that exact vibe: loose and grungy with fuzz, doubled vocals, and a real knack to carve out sweet melodic hooks underneath the shoegaze heavy distortions. It’s not without a few missteps, but even those missteps add to the album’s overall charm.

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ivslys - 07410

IVSLYS: Zero Seven Four One Zero (2025)

If there is one thing you can rely on when it comes to the work of the entities known collectively as 夢遊病者, it’s their ability to surprise. We’ve heard dissonant noise and Frank Zappa-esque freak outs, shades of space rock and drone as well as classical and world elements on their last release. Now we have the veiled and impenetrably named offshoot IVSLYS, returning with their first new batch of tunes in seven years with the equally obtuse title Zero Seven Four One Zero. One thing that is NOT obtuse or ambiguous is the music: this might be some of the most accessible set of tunes to come out of this camp, with each of the four tracks settling into different moods that veer from dark noir-ish cinema to swirling psychedelic folk.

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steven wilson - the overhead

Steven Wilson: The Overview (2025)

Maybe a part of it is because I’m reading his memoir Limited Edition Of One at the same time. Maybe I’ve just put asides expectations and refused to engaged in speculation based on marketing, promotion, and that heavily burdened world “prog”. Maybe it’s just this time, this state of being that is so fraying that hearing The Overview, the latest album from Steven Wilson gives me what I need: a floating, exploratory record that both soothes and reflects in its electronic excursions some of that static that sits within. or maybe I’m just old, and I dig what he’s puttin’ out, you know?

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