Category Archives: Music

Some New Playlists

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Well, it’s been a while. I don’t have a good reason for why I haven’t written music picks since December 2018. It’s not like I have stopped listening to music. Some of what I’ve been listening to is in this thread on Twitter, and some of it has been popping up on my instagram stories.

I’m planning to get back into posting album recs soon, but I figured I’d ease back into this thing by posting links to a few playlists that I’ve built over the last 9 months. A majority of my playlists come from me hitting “shuffle all” on my phone when I’m driving. Sometimes I’ll hit 4 or 5 good songs in a row that really work together, and then I will usually start building a playlist around other stuff that fits thematically. Sometimes I just have a neverending string of perfection, other times it’s a couple of tracks that are jams and then slowly adding other good jams as I think of them or find them.

Anyway, here’s a handful of playlists that have gotten a lot of listens by me in 2019–they’re all summer focused because my brain operates seasonally and has been in summer mode for at least 4 months–and they all work just a good shuffled as they do in order:

Neverending Spring

A light, sweet playlist for a fun Saturday morning. This is the one playlist here where order matters: it progresses from very mellow to less mellow.

Aaa Weird Goth Summer

A dark playlist that’s full of left turns, lots of punk-adjacent music and plenty of bummer lyrics. Uh but it’s still, like summery and fun. This playlist was 100% created by hitting shuffle on my library and at some point I decided it worked.

Is This Summer 2019?

This started as a playlist of tracks from movies and evolved from there. It’s pretty chock full of total jams.

The Hobbit

My daughter did a book club with some friends this summer and they read The Hobbit. I did a book club for the Hobbit in 2012 and this was the playlist (well, this is what I could find on streaming services). I don’t think she listened to it, but it’s perfect for reading the Hobbit, in my opinion.

Also, I used to do an actual mix podcast with a good friend. You can listen to the episodes still here. My playlists are labeled as by Moon Cities. But listen to the mixes that Scholastics did, they’re better.

Ryan’s Music Picks 🎄Christmas 2018

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Hey there. Thanks for subscribing. I love Christmas music, and it’s all I listen between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I’ll have a favorites of 2018 list at some point in January.

⬇️ Joyful Noise Records – Holiday Party, Vol. 2 (Bandcamp)
A nicely out-there compilation of Christmas classics. Some indelible performances on here and at least one track that will haunt you in the dark.

⬇️ Joyful Noise Records – Holiday Party, Vol. 1 (Bandcamp)
Just as charming as Volume 2, but weirder. Includes a great Curtis Mayfield cover!

Jherek Bischoff – Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire Walk with Me (Bandcamp)
Six Christmas classics, that get as close as possible to Angelo Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks score without losing their spooky seasonal spirit.

Delicate Steve – The Christmas Album (Bandcamp)
Delicate Steve takes your traditional festive songs and gives them the “Sleepwalk by Santo & Johnny” vibe combined with his perfectly lyrical guitar playing. Ends with a psych jam and 15-minute noise rock freakout.

⬇️ Said Fantasy – Chorus Noel EP (Bandcamp)
A wonderfully wistful original track followed by four switched-on seasonal favorites. Synthesizer carols played by a master.

xmas movie soundtrack (Bandcamp)
One of my favorite Christmas traditions, this album of 5 original tracks all have that unmistakable feel of the holiday but are each wholly original. I 💖 this album so much.

The Rosebuds – Christmas Tree Island (Bandcamp)
A brand new classic–13 original songs that perfectly evoke the songwriting and instrumentation that tell your heart that it’s Christmastime. AND it has a song called Christmas Clown!

John Legend – A Legendary Christmas (Spotify)
Mr. Legend lives up to his name by releasing an album that seems perfectly constructed to become a standard of the season.

Aloe Blacc – Christmas Funk (Spotify)
Channeling Parliament/Funkadelic into a good mix of holiday originals and classics is a hell of a risk, but it pays off nicely on this album. Check out the rad reinterpretation of All I Want For Christmas Is You!

⬇️⬇️ The 8bits of Christmas (Download, archive.org, direct link)
A 15-year old compilation of chiptune carols, created directly on consoles. Foundational and still great.

Ryan’s Music Picks 🎛 November 2018

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Here’s some new stuff. A lot of it is pretty mellow. Expect a Christmassy one of these soon.

Also, I started a new podcast where my friend Alan and I talk about comics. Check it out at youshouldreadthis.club

Lullatone – Thinking about Thursdays (Bandcamp)
Fifty-two charming soundtracks of tiny moments.

Shinichi Atobe – Heat (Spotify)
Driving, squelchy beats dusted with ethereal noise. Perfect listening when working on The Cyber.

Soda Plains – Reconcile (Bandcamp)
Twenty-four minutes of killer dystopian instrumental future bass.

Anthony Naples – Take Me With You (Bandcamp)
An album of instrumental electronic grooves that’s both warm and chill simultaneously. A salve in a hectic season.

[The User] – Symphony for Dot Matrix Printers #2 (Spotify)
It’s literally recordings of a dot matrix printer that’s printing the titles of the songs. Hits on 3 levels: nostalgia factor, weird glitch, and technological ASMR.

Moon Racer – Is It Really a Secret? (Bandcamp)
Fuzzy, intimate homemade sad songs that sparkle like nobody’s business. Enrapturing.

Beta Librae – Subspecies (Bandcamp)
Squelchy hypnotic beats that traverse a transdimensional line between dub and drum-n-bass.

Mondo Lava – Ogre Heights (Bandcamp)
The soundtrack for a post-apocalyptic tiki bar on the moon.

Ghost Cop – One Weird Trick (Bandcamp)
Dark vaporwave pop that’s rooted in 80s cop movie soundtracks.

Africa – Songs from “Lil Brown” (Spotify)
Forgotten psychedelic grooves from 1960s doo-wop musicians in 60s LA. Totally killer.

Ryan’s Music Picks 🍂 October 2018

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I’m tired. It’s been too long of a year. I’m glad it’s fall, my favorite season, but time’s moving too fast.

Eric Copeland – Trogg Modal Vol. 1 (Bandcamp)
A playground of sound with fun beats and a sunny disposition.

Psychic Temple & Cherry Glazerr – Houses of the Holy Vol. 1 (Bandcamp)
An astonishingly perfect collection of songs covered in 70s cowboy glitz and very 2018 world-weariness.

Pastel Ghost – Ethereality (Bandcamp)
Chill interstellar synthpop sent to wrap you up and hold you close.

Maribou State – Kingdoms in Colour (Bandcamp)
Hypnotic but with a down-to-earth, handmade feel. This is chock full of low-key jams perfect to make your afternoon better.

Jookabox – Dead Zone Boys (Spotify)
An unhinged rap-rock opera about zombies, from the perspective of the zombies. Not for kids. “You Cried Me” is insane and fantastic.

Dead Man’s Bones – Dead Man’s Bones (Bandcamp)
Take puppy-eyed actor Ryan Gosling, a children’s choir from the hippest neighborhood in LA, 50’s crooner songwriting, and a “we’re not goth, just spooky nerds” vibe and you get one of the best Halloween albums ever.

The Blasting Company – Over The Garden Wall (soundtrack) (Bandcamp)
The perfectly haunting soundtrack of the undersung autumn animated miniseries Over the Garden Wall. A delightful combination of late 19th and early 20th century sounds to charm you.

Mesarthim – The Density Parameter (Bandcamp)
Metal as black as the inky darkness of space, but wrapped in gentle ambient electronics, like a tiny metal satellite.

Geotic – Traversa (Bandcamp)
Sun-dappled, cozy pop that brings the same warmth and joy as a sleepy pet or a weekend road trip.

Brandon Coleman – Resistance (Bandcamp)
In a world that can seem endlessly dark and hopeless, pushing for positivity is important work. Let this endlessly funky album be an embrace of happiness and robot singing to lift your heart.

Ennio Morricone – Crime and Dissonance (Bandcamp)
A psychedelic compilation of some of the legendary film composer’s lesser known and weirder work. Prepare for free jazz, unexpected moans, and trippy grooves.

The Marshmellow Ghosts – The Marshmellow Ghosts (Bandcamp)
The Casket Girls team up with label owner and sometime Black Moth Super Rainbow member Ryan Graveface for an album of buzzy, spooky tunes. A Halloween soundtrack for the ages.

The Daysleepers – Creation (Bandcamp)
Cavernous throwback shoegaze perfect for dark moods and dark nights.

The Chiller 5: Call of the Chiller (Bandcamp)
A home-grown mixtape of spooky insta-classics that will make you want to look up these bands you don’t know.

🎃👻☠️🕸️

If you missed it, my ambient dread Halloween playlist is here:

Ryan’s Music Picks 💨 September 2018

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It’s been a long but fast month for me. I traveled for fun and for work, and felt busy and slightly overwhelmed for most of the month. (That’s not even taking into consideration news and world events.) I don’t know if it was just an emotional month for me or if this crop of albums is especially good, but a number of the albums in this list are likely end of on the list of my favorites this year.

The September Equation – Frail Formations (Bandcamp)
Warm analogue glitch soundscapes. Pastoral and inviting with intricate details like a thriving synthesized forest.

Menace Beach – Black Rainbow Sound (Bandcamp)
Bratty post-punk swirling with synthesizers and motorik beats that would be all transcendent and stuff if it wasn’t too busy just having fun.

Dustin Wong – Fluid World Building 101 with Shaman Bambu (Bandcamp)
N-dimensional sonic structures spoken into being by enchanted electric guitar. A delight to explore and inhabit.

Tuluum Shimmering – Dark Star (Bandcamp)
Organic drone that feels birthed directly from jammy 70s folk rock. Fully transportive and immersive. (Not on Spotify)

Cryptacize – Mythomania (Spotify)
Breezily experimental rock equally indebted to Les Paul (and his Les Paulverizer) and Koji Kendo’s Legend of Zelda soundtrack with flat out gorgeous vocals from Nedelle Torrisi.

Indian Wells – Where the World Ends (Bandcamp)
If you could construct dance music out of flowers in some sort of Inception/Doctor Strange folding dimension, you’d get close to what this sounds like.

Casino Versus Japan – Suicide by Sun (Bandcamp)
Immersive soundscape blankets that you can wrap yourself in. There’s an invigorating hint of guitar here too, so you might find yourself simultaneously relaxed and stoked.

Richard Swift – The Hex (Bandcamp)
Finished weeks before his passing this year, The Hex really cements together Swift’s songwriting prowess with some of his more out-there production while being more honestly sad than I’ve ever heard him.

Crooked Man – Crooked Man (Bandcamp)
Throwback grooves that hint at carefully-tapped pop sensibilities while deploying bass precisely to get your butt moving.

Sandro Perri – In Another Life (Bandcamp)
Two sides of an LP or a cassette as two single songs, written and played buy a dude who is king of sonic texture and no slouch when it comes to writing perfect songs. Low-key but masterful.

Advance Base – Animal Companionship (Bandcamp)
Owen Ashworth excels at writing songs that trade in the mundane joys and sadness of real life, with hints towards transcendence. His dreampop production here definitely helps the astral planes come out.

Tim Hecker – Konoyo (Bandcamp)
If you play this loud enough, the whole world fades away.

Mountain Man – Magic Ship (Bandcamp)
The sonic equivalent of a rustic mountaintop retreat amongst the elves. Stark, yet warm and inviting.

Danielson – Snap Outtavit EP (Bandcamp)
A slab of kick-in-the-butt songs that get right to your heart from the chaotic good force of nature that is Daniel Smith.

It’s October now, so keep an eye out for a bonus spooky playlist from me!

Ryan’s Music Picks 🔥 August 2018

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Looks like you made it through August. Nice.

Dntel – Hate In My Heart (Bandcamp)
A tape of bleeps and bloops, wooshes and swoops for your hazy late afternoon enjoyment.

JFDR – Brazil (Bandcamp)
Enchanting and haunting like the ghost of a siren. Gorgeous and exquisitely produced.

You Drive – You Drive (Bandcamp)
Makeup & Vanity Set backs up singer Jasmin Kaset and takes synthwave to the next level: actual songs, with killer choruses.

Omma – Teplo (Bandcamp)
Gently balearic dream pop with a good helping of both bass and whimsy. Put this on, look at a gif of a palm tree swaying in the breeze, and make your day better.

Odd Nosdam – Burner (Bandcamp)
A noisy and emotional sound collage album that gets impressively transcendent more than a few times.

Steve Hauschildt – Dissolvi (Bandcamp)
An album that takes the vibe of the legendary 90s Pure Moods compilation and updates it with a dark edge, Julianna Barwick, and a 2018 feel.

Anaphylaxis – One Million Tomorrows (Bandcamp)
A beautiful illustration of how close the borders are between psychedelic jams, blackened doom metal, and crushing noise. It’s a beautiful place in the underdark.

Aretha Franklin – Live at Fillmore West (Spotify)
The woman, the myth, the legend. Live in 1971 and on fire.

Hilary Woods – Colt (Bandcamp)
Heavy and goth-dark, this drifts towards Twin Peaks but avoids nostalgia in favor of confidence.

X George & Jonathan – III (Bandcamp)
Smooth Sega Genesis jams perfect for neon nights and summer beach days. (This is on Spotify but not Apple Music)

Open Mike Eagle – Brick Body Kids Still Daydream (Bandcamp)
Dense, intricate verses flow impeccably over beats bordering on experimental. Chock full of a whole bunch of low-key jams that engage heart, mind, and body.

Optiganally Yours – O.Y. In Hi-Fi (Bandcamp)
A slab of charming pop with surprisingly layered production.

Lineland – Logos for Love (Bandcamp)
Complex electro-acoustic instrumental tracks equally adept at deepening your chill or motivating you to get stuff done.

Joey Dosik – Inside Voice (Bandcamp)
A nice young man with a golden voice singing smooth, catchy soul with lush, classic production. Some good easy livin’ music for a Monday morning.

Switched on SNES – The Lost Levels Vol. 1 (Bandcamp)
An album of gorgeous instrumental synthesizer tracks inspired by 16-bit Super Nintendo soundtracks. Warm and friendly and super chill.

Demon Queen – Exorcise Tape (Bandcamp)
Grimy synth funk that’s both sonically and lyrically dirty. Funky as hell though.

Renick Bell – Turning Points (Bandcamp)
Music for hacking, made by robots. This is algorave, music created by writing code live on stage which generates music and I, for one, welcome our new robotic music overlords.

Aretha Franklin – Amazing Grace (Spotify)
Don’t forget that besides being a world-changing soul/R&B/pop/Motown singer, Aretha absolutely tore the roof off when singing to The Almighty. Makes “modern worship” seem like whispering.

Ryan’s Music Picks 🌴 July 2018

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At the beginning of June, one of my favorite singer/songwriter/musician/producers, Richard Swift, passed away. He was involved in a ton of my favorite music and I’ve listened to and written about a lot of his music over the years. The first 8 picks this time around are albums he was involved with.

Yuuki Matthews – Funny Morning (Bandcamp)
A guy who plays in your favorite bands records a near-perfect dream pop song, gets Richard Swift to remix it, then adds two gorgeous, enveloping ambient tracks to even out the LP.

Instruments of Science & Technology – Music for Paradise Armor (Bandcamp)
Fifteen warm instrumental tracks of technological bleeps and boops, clicks and clacks, and hums. Recorded by Richard Swift for Asthmatic Kitty’s Library Catalog Music Series.

Gardens & Villa – Gardens & Villa (Bandcamp)
Synth-heavy, close-harmonizing beach goth from Santa Barbara. Richard Swift collaborated with the band and produced this album, their debut.

Map – Secrets by the Highway (Spotify)
Starts with a solid gold opening track and it remains great the whole sad way through. Richard Swift coproduced and sang and played on this album, but Josh Dooley’s melodic guitar is the star of the show.

⬇️ Jessie Baylin – Pleasure Center EP (Soundcloud)
Nashville singer Jessie Baylin and Richard Swift recorded this little EP straight to four-track cassette and it has a sultry 70s glitzy backroom vibe that I keep coming back to. It looks like there’s nowhere to download this album from the internet anymore, so click here to download.

Marco Benevento – Swift (Bandcamp)
Piano-driven pop with a throwback edge and so much of Richard Swift’s patented basement glitz that the album is named after the collaborator/producer.

Starflyer 59 – Old (Bandcamp)
SF59’s been ahead of their time the entire time they’ve been releasing albums. Richard Swift jumped into the producer seat on this album and added wall of sound/kitchen sink production that would be all the rage about 10 years later.

Richard Swift – The Novelist/Walking Without Effort (Spotify)
Swift’s debut album is really his first two albums. The Novelist is a Tin Pan Alley concept album, and Walking Without Effort is an experiment in pure pop songwriting. They’re all-time classics.

Mike Adams at His Honest Weight – Casino Drone (Bandcamp)
Cavernous midwestern dream pop with an uncommon warmth.

Tanukichan – Sundays (Bandcamp)
Sun-baked, fuzzed-out California dream pop. Intimate and handcrafted less like a purchase from Etsy and more like something a friend made for you.

Pure Bathing Culture – Pray for Rain (Bandcamp)
Pop that’s sunny and dreamy at the same time with huge choruses meant to push you towards a better day.

The Ophelias – Almost (Bandcamp)
Totally chill art rock that’s too punk to be chamber pop but too florid to be straight up punk rock. It’s urgent and straightforward but has intricate instrumentation that takes it to another level.

Balún – Prisma Tropical (Bandcamp)
The perfect dreamy summer album. Made of equal parts warm evenings, cool breezes, fruit-flavored drinks, and sultry glances. One of my favorites of this year.

Thousand Foot Whale Claw – Black Hole Party (Bandcamp)
Noodling space drone at its finest. Proggy and grand while riding a hardcore mellow vibe, yet still danceable when it feels right. (Fans of S U R V I V E & Stranger Things soundtrack, get into this!)

⬇️ Bwana – Capsule’s Pride (Bikes) EP (Download)
A long EP of heavy, brooding tracks amalgamated from samples of the Akira soundtrack (30 years old this year!). Really excellent headphone music for computer work. The album can be downloaded by putting your email address at the link above, or by clicking here.

David García Díaz – RiME (Deluxe Soundtrack) (Bandcamp)
Gentle and suitably epic, this orchestral soundtrack is an excellent companion to the magical mystery of puzzle-solving game RiME.

Nitemoves – Don’t Ask! (Bandcamp)
Electronic music that traverses the continuum between ambient noise and four on the floor dance beats while keeping the listener enthralled and a little haunted.

Capitol K – Goatherder (Bandcamp)
Weirdo beats and paleo dub constructed in a cave out of reeds, and electric bass guitar, and a drum machines.

Dana Buoy – Ice Glitter Gold (Bandcamp)
Future pop aiming for digital maximalism but with too much personality and soul to feel like a sanitized product. Wild and fun.

The Budos Band – The Budos Band III (Bandcamp)
Conspiratorial instrumental jams perfect for your latest caper. Featuring unstoppable horns that register somewhere between mariachi and Fela Kuti. (Shout out to @DoorMatPrice for this excellent recommendation.)

Off World – 2 (Bandcamp)
Sandro Perri and a whole cavalcade of collaborators construct alien music that remains warm and inviting.

Via Vegrandis – II (Bandcamp)
Five songs of dreamy noise pop or noisy dream pop, complete with big choruses, big synths, big vibes, and small moments of perfection.

Lydia Képinski – Premier juin (Bandcamp)
Perfectly-produced pop en français that has an undeniably Montreal feel–melancholy but still with that joie de vivre and experimentalist streak that make things really stick in your head.

⬇️ leon chang – re:treat (Bandcamp)
Gentle tunes ideal for maxing and relaxing, but with precisely-placed oomph to get you to nod your head. Fans of Animal Crossing and other good, friendly things, take note.

Ryan’s Music Picks ☁️ June 2018

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June’s Ryan’s Music Picks is a little thin. I took some time off twitter for my own mental health and that bled over into me not posting albums on twitter. On the upside, I made you a Southern California Goth mix!

Ghost – Prequelle (Spotify)
The psuedonymous phenomenon continues to chronicle metal’s history with a collection of heavy sabbath-y tracks and some incredible instrumental interludes featuring tons of synth and saxophone!

Bernie Worrell – Blacktronic Science (Bandcamp)
Unstoppable jams from the Funkadelic keyboardist that range from solid throwback to startlingly fresh for an album from 1993.

Stubbs the Zombie Soundtrack (Spotify)
The fun and rewarding soundtrack of a somewhat-forgotten video game that features 00s indie all-stars (Death Cab, The Raveonnettes, and Cake?!) covering classic 50s and 60s bubblegum hits. Too good to be forgotten.

Neko Case – Hell-On (Bandcamp)
Neko Case is mad, and she brought along some friends to tell us exactly how mad and why and to also remind us all that she’s one of the best songwriters working today.

Long Distance Poison – Knock Magh (Bandcamp)
Post-apocalyptic drone and noise that is less an assault on your ears and more of a companion as you try to make it to the next step in your urban quest.

Glissandro 70 – Glissandro 70 (Bandcamp)
Sandro Perri and Craig Dunsmuir get together and let their musical ids run free, birthing hypnagogic chants and gently constructed acoustic dub. A hidden gem.

Angels of Light – We Are Him (Bandcamp)
Michael Jira from Swans teams up with an early-in-their-career Akron/Family to take goth rock as close to black metal as you can on sheer attitude and shredding alone.

Clara Warnaar – Hollow Siren (Bandcamp)
Four tracks of immersive, human noise that sound like what you’d pick up from a microphone on the outside of a time machine.

Gui Boratto – Pentagram (Bandcamp)
Kaleidoscopic, pastoral acid house that channels a lot of Tears for Fears this time around, especially by adding huge pop-song choruses.

Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage (Bandcamp)
A psychedelic journey that covers 60s ye-ye, 90s shibuya-kei, 00s sampledelia, and twenty-teens nü-gaze on the way to totally transcend genre.

Summerween 2018

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A mix for the June/July gloom and the Southern California Beach Goth in all of our hearts. It’s been cloudy every morning since June started, and a lot of the days, the clouds haven’t burnt off. The days have been long and bummers have abounded, so I wanted to make a mix that reflected that gloomy Summer feel as opposed to the windows-down blast of joy that most Summer mixes are. Nothing against windows-down blasts of joy, mind you, it’s just not where my head was at. This mix takes you on a journey, and I hope you find something to like in it.

  1. Balmorhea – Greyish Tapering Ash
  2. Caroline Says – Black Hole
  3. Starflyer 59 – Trucker’s Son
  4. Monsters of Folk – The Sandman, The Brakeman and Me
  5. The Mountain Goats – In Memory of Satan
  6. Dan the Automator – Stroker Ace (Instrumental)
  7. TV on the Radio – Blind
  8. Clams Casino – A Breath Away (Instrumental)
  9. Taken By Trees – Pacific Blue
  10. Chloe x Halle – Warrior (From “A Wrinkle in Time”)
  11. Salt Cathedral – Dirty Me
  12. Arizona – Ghost
  13. The Fatales – Islands of Fortune
  14. Cavern of Anti-Matter – Solarised Sound
  15. Anamanaguchi – The Dark One
  16. Von Südenfed – The Rhinohead
  17. Janet Jackson – The Knowledge
  18. Chip Tanaka – Prizm
  19. Radioactive Man – Bonnet Bee
  20. Simian Mobile Disco – Tangents
  21. Amon Tobin – Bloodstone
  22. Eola – Future Hymns
  23. Mazzy Star – So Tonight That I Might See (.ascension version)

Ryan’s Music Picks 🌴 May 2018

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I love finding new music. May sure was another month! Lots of good stuff this time around. This time out, the ⬇ means that the album isn’t on streaming services.

Galactic Empire – Episode II (Spotify)
Even more Star Wars instru-metal, this one covers a lot of the newest movies, along with the Battle of Yavin. #MayThe4BeWithYou

Yonatan Gat – Universalists (Bandcamp)
Is a musician allowed tap into the astral plane, transcend music itself, and then somehow channel that back through a guitar onto tape? Seems unfair, especially if they bring a space arkestra and Ennio Morricone with them.

Fontän – Fontän (Bandcamp)
Driving balearic grooves, coated in magic dust and launched into space by a wizard.

DJ Koze – Knock Knock (Spotify)
It’s gnarly to see that techno has progressed to encompass early 2000s sampledelia and late 2000s chillwave and vaporwave into something that feels more like future pop than the oontz oontz cliche of the 90s.

John Maus – Screen Memories (Bandcamp)
Throwback post-punk synth jams with an icy gothic feel.

Afternoon Freak – The Blind Strut (Bandcamp)
Free jazz jams with bass, drums, and keys that grooves hard like a summer afternoon.

Beach House – 7 (Bandcamp)
Beach House keeps their signature dream pop feel but chooses enhance their songs with space sounds from deep time.

Dustin Wong + Takako Minekawa + Good Willsmith – Exit Future Heart (Bandcamp)
Sublime joy transmuted into sound. Noisy improvisation coalesces into grooves, melodies, and uplifting sounds, and then disperse to reform in new ways. Incredible.

Mechatok – See Thru EP (Soundcloud)
Like dance floor-ready dungeon synth, or PC Music instrumentals for Kendrick.

Yalls – Stuxnetflix (Bandcamp)
An ep of electronic music meant to be listened to while reading terms of service and technical documentation. Synthy and mellow.

MONO – Requiem for Hell (Bandcamp)
Japanese instru-metal that’s epic and emotional and cinematic and gorgeous.

Seekersinternational – RunComeTest EP (Bandcamp)
It’s like boneless dub—with the drums and bass stripped out this music becomes ambience, echoes, noise, and the ghost of rhythm.

Emily R. Sprague – Water Memory (Bandcamp)
Immersive ambient waves of sound to soothe your dry soul.

Nedelle Torrisi – Only For You (Bandcamp)
Effortlessly complex future pop clearly populated with authentic heart and soul. A deep listen.

Micronism – Inside a Quiet Mind (Bandcamp)
Twenty-year-old meditative house that’s still enthralling and chill.

Pacific Coliseum – Ocean City (Bandcamp)
Make your rainy Monday feel like a sunny Saturday with this balearic-as-f instrumental LP.

Young Galaxy – Down Time (Bandcamp)
We might have called this “trip-hop/downtempo” about 15 years ago. It sits comfortably between chill and ethereal but remains beat-driven with just the right amount of haunted vocals.

Johnny Jewel – Themes for Television (Spotify)
More moody atmospheric synthesizers like only Johnny Jewel can do.

CHVRCHES – Love Is Dead (Lnk.to)
Indelible electronic jams to sing along with in the car. Huge and cathartic.

Blue Hawaii – Tenderness (Bandcamp)
Taking the precise balance between pop and experimentalism from late-90s Björk and wedding it with R&B nostalgia. Tons of unexpected jams.

Daedelus – Taut (Bandcamp)
The sampling shapeshifter makes a welcome return with more synths, twisted beats, and actually cool jazz.

Chad Valley – Imaginary Music (Bandcamp)
Robot-tinged pop with big choruses and bigger heart.

Blondes – Warmth (Bandcamp)
Complex, driven, and evolving, this album has the heart of a robot who loves warm hugs and sweaty dancefloors.

⬇ Bosque Brown – Little Sea (Bandcamp)
Devastating songs about life and living presented with the gentle warmth of a handmade, careworn blanket.