Music for 10/8/26!!! Carmain Villain

@@@ Carmen Villain: Villain (Smalltown Supersound, 2026) Slotted as experimental music in this week’s Pitchfork email and out on Smalltown Supersound, a decent sized indie label in Scandinavia, let’s give this thing a whirl. This is a record by a female artist who is of Mexican and Norwegian descent which is interesting but does not necessarily mean something vis a vis the record we have playing right now. I do like Mexican electronic music, I dig it, not all of it but a whole bunch of it. Thus far in Track 2 it’s a 7 minute banger and it’s pretty ambient with some slow rolling burbling rhythms underneath, it’s nice background music and I’m not being a bitch about it using those words. The third track, Memoria, is even slower and tilts more ambient, I respect it, I’m not super in the mood for it right now, but that doesn’t say much about the quality of it as a piece of music. These fourth and fifth tracks pick up the pace and by the end of the record I’m feeling like the back end of the record is more interesting to me than the first half and I’m not sure what to say about that. In addition to that comparing ambient records to one another seems quite fruitless; how you feel about ambient music has to do with what kind of sounds you like, it’s really just personal preference. I’m psyched I liked the back half, I listen to more than 1500 records a year and liking half a record is way more positive than the usual result. Mixed bag it is.

Music for 10/7/26!!! Wired, Pokey Lafarge

@@@ Wired: Basement (Run for Cover, 2026) I’m just about out of bands on my Clash magazine best of the year thus far and I’m checking out these guys who’ve been making music for 20 years and they’re returning to their post hardcore band. Thus far I’m mostly feeling the drummer, he’s got swagger and I’m listening to him. They are a very polished outfit, they know what they’re doing when it comes to playing together. Do I love what they have going on? Occasionally.

@@@ Pokey Lafarge: Rent Money (oneRPM, 2026). I was just listening to the latest Alabama Shakes record and was saddened to hear how sleep it sounded. The same thing could have happened with Pokey Lafarge, he’s been in the music slinging game for a long time and he could get all tired and brunchy but not on this opener. He’s not burning down the house but he’s sharp and got a sharp energy going on, let’s hope he keeps it coming. The great thing about Pokey Lafarge and his music is when he’s got his simple pimp walking style going on it crackles, background vocals pushing their way through, the drums open sounding, some old school Howling Wolf-ish chicken scratch guitars, he’s 2 for 2 on this record thus far. I listened to 8 tracks out of the 11 tracks that span 35 minutes and I think this is a banger, it’s mature, it’s got attitude it’s a pose obviously his whole retro rocker wisecracker thing I get that but it works for me. Don’t sleep on this record.

Music for 10/6/26!!! Adrian Younge

@@@ Adrain Younge: Afro-Disco Makossa (Linear Labs/Sony, 2026) I got to this release off this week’s All Music notable release email and the idea of Afrobeat and disco making a baby is not an objectionable idea in my world. I don’t love either genre whole heartedly and maybe together that’s gonna be a beautiful baby. It’s a nice palm sized record, 6 tracks over 26 minutes so let’s peep. When I hear the call and response vocalizing going on it sounds like Sly Stone has entered the chat. The second tune, Shake Down, is driven by bongoes and in combination with the drums high up in the mix it’s a ripper. I’m not saying that the huge Fela Kuti jams are my favorite shit ever but one thing I respect about Fela is that he was a man on a mission, a mission for his country and his people and I don’t hear that hear. I like a party record as much as the next guy but this genre of music has freedom and liberation baked into from day 1 and this record feels light on that. That said the drummer here is the very definition of popping, he’s fully got my attention. Some more variation in the vocalizing area would deepen the record in my opinion. I think I’ve got this record correctly grokked, it’s important to be honest about what’s going on.

Music for 10/5/26!!! Useless Eaters

@@@ Useless Eaters: Music for Clout (Halo FX, 2026) A punk record released in August that opens up with an young African American losing her shit and vowing revenge. That’s a great sign, I love hearing people lose their shit. This first tune after the opener ‘Contrast’ is half punk/half new wave, I guess that used to be called no wave I think these labels are a drag but we use words to describe music to each other and that’s what we got. Mechanical drum beats, thick grizzy bass, sloppy ass guitars with distortion but certainly not a blizzard of hardcore punk and a monotone detached singer, this formula is pretty well established. They ramp it up on the fourth tune, Lush Bomb, and to be honest it’s too staticky and no wave-y for my taste, it’s making me grind my teeth and I’m not into it. I do get the punkness of that, it’s like what the butthole surfers did for many years. This record is 11 tracks spread over 28 minutes and I’m going to tip after the sixth tune. I don’t dislike it, it’s the headache thing, I love noisy records, I love sound and noise but this sort of nihilistic punk grating has never been something I’m into. It’s like watching somebody bone a barnyard animal (pick your fav and put it here), I get the entertainment value but I don’t share the enthusiasm. No judgment.

Music for 10/3/26!!! Nick Hakim

@@@ Nick Hakim: I Can See (Earseed, 2026). I got this record from a best of year thus far list from Clash Magazine. I peeped a bit earlier today and it’s in the Jeff Buckley super meaningful singer songwriter tired rock vein. It opens a bit haunted house, tinkling pianos, a lotta tape hiss, abandoned house action. He’s rocking a beautiful falsetto voice in the opener, fragile and emotional. Does the rest of the arrangement need to be the same? We’ll see and it depends on taste. A little bit of gospel in the background vocals, a little bit of blues a lot of brunch. The second tune, Know My Name, switches the beat and goes with something brisker and Mr. Hakim drops the falsetto but he keeps it light and fragile. The tunes are very minimalistic and I appreciate that. I’m enjoying some of the sounds, but I’m not sure I’m sure feeling the intent of the sounds. I think I understand what the tunes are trying to do, he wants to comfort listeners, bring them close to him, and create a bond with shared melancholy and feeling. Is there anything else? Is that just my interpretation? I can’t tell you for sure, I don’t fully know myself and most folks reading this don’t fully know themselves including the artist, who knows the motivations he had in making this music this way. It might be trying a bit too hard to comfort, I guess different listeners comfort themselves in different ways and in different amounts. When you read the blurb on bandcamp and I encourage people to do that there are phrases like ‘this is an assured, patient unfolding that floats through profound layers of romance and the deep pull of familial connections across generations’. I don’t get the generation part, I hear him singing but I didn’t glean that from his singing and the lyrics that I heard, maybe I got a bit lost in the meta sound. Second blurb: “Sonically, it’s some of his most grounded work to date and a perfect summation of his medicinal sound and vision as he pursues truth in every note played and lyric sung.” Everybody has a different truth and when somebody is marketing a certain piece of music as more truthful than other music I object to that. At a very practical level this record is not for hipsters or total music obsessives like myself it’s for the brunch crowd and the serious people with high paying jobs looking for meaning in their lives, simple as that. Will they find that meaning? I’m not sure I care about those people enough, I hope the musician is a cool dude.

Music for 10/2/26!!! Xylitol

@@@ Xylitol: Blumenfantasie (Planet Mu, 2026). With a record title like Blumenfantasie you would expect continental European music some techno out of the emerging Nazi-ish Germany or some daft French poptronica, but this is a UK electronic musician and the record is out on Planet Mu, an imprint I really like. The opening track pops but to my chagrin it’s a glitched drum ‘n bass beat that I’ve as much as I’ve heard the Beatles tune Hey Jude, I’m done with both of them. I will give this record a couple more tunes because the top bits, the garnish, the melodic components are interesting and I do respect this label, maybe I’m fetishizing this beat negatively. I’m asking myself am I being a bitch? You listen to a rock record and you get a rock drummer and rock beats. Are they more varied than what’s happening here? Yes actually a great rock drummer has variation and sections and different flavored beats to draw upon. Can you make more beats with a drum machine than with a human drummer? Again, I think yes, you can use different kit sounds, you can strip out elements, you can break down sections into components and change the beat up, so to me to hear an almost identical beat for every track is a bit of a failure of imagination. The programmatic nature of the drum machine gives a lot of options. I’m not saying to eliminate that beat for now and forever I’m saying give the listeners a break and then return to it, switch up the tempo, switch the tones up, keep it moving like you’re already doing with the top bits. That’s where I’m at with this record, unfortunately. If you love drum ‘n bass have at it and enjoy and I mean it.

Music for 10/1/26!!! North Face Nace

@@@ North Face Nace: Living Type Dangerously Vol. 1 (StarkerLTD, 2026). Banging through the bottom end of the top 100 of 2026 thus far best records of the year from Quietus and it’s going pretty well. Gotta get some hip hop going, spread the reviews around break out of my left field hip hop devotion to Billy Woods, Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal. Oh Jesus, he comes out of the gate with some mellow sounds but some quick as fuck rhymes, putting a lotta energy into the tongue, it hits you, the words that is. This is 19 tracks in 22 minutes so these are quick hits, ain’t no shame in it. Outside of Mr. Nace’s energy his tone is gruff, not crazy gruff and not bad more like he sounds like he could use a beverage it sounds a little hoarse and gravelly up in there. You might not notice the arrangements that much but they fit what’s happening with the rhymes, they sync up extremely well. I like the rapid fire short tracks, it’s a celebration of rhyming, a lot of quickness and maybe trying to outdo one another. I’m guessing you can’t rap this quickly for three minutes straight so you break it up into smaller pieces. This record is right on the cusp of being on the year end list, I will be listening more and again when I have time. If you like hip hop you should check this record out it’s got a lot going for it.

Music for 9/30/26!!! Fire-Toolz

@@@ Fire Toolz: Lavendar Networks (Warp, 2026). There’s a little trend going right now where folks take mainstream pop sounds and make a giant super stacked sundae of sounds so you can get your pop on and your anti-pop satirical feels at the same time. There’s a moment here when the female singer who’s doing a pretty pop section segues into some sort of crazy ass ill orc voice, yowsa big jarring shift. The record is 10 tracks over 37 minutes, so not huge tunes but weird ass titles like Kiss the Bladed Cat Find Ways to Stretch Time, they’re all like this I’m not shitting on it I’m just informing you. This second track, fascinatingly, is a mashup of heavy metal sounds and ideas with pop and dancefloor ideas, it’s jarring and I can’t decide if it’s good or bad. I don’t have to decide right now, I’m not one of these dumbass pop enthusiasts that says if you don’t feel the track within 3 seconds or it’s toast. The formula does grab you, the question is whether this record is the best way to execute this formula only time will tell on that. I don’t know if it’s my ears adjusting or if this fourth track is the best deployment of the heavy metal pop mash em up cars, but I like the tune more than the other ones. I think the tunese where the metal influence is less do not work as well as the tunes that are more balanced. So the opening track hints at a big stacked sandwich of pop sounds but that’s not really true it’s just that she restricted the metal feels to the orc voice. The record would work better if she had maintained a more consistent blend of guitars, metal voices and thundering drums throughout, just my dumbass opinion. It is misleading to put a mostly pop tune at the top of the record and then proceed to undercut that with the next three tunes, a lot of people would say that doesn’t matter but I do. That first hit is important.

Music for 9/29/26!!!! Serakolo 7

@@@ Serakolo 7: Maramfa Musick Pro (Nyege Nyege Tapes, 2026). #100 from The Quietus’ top 100 records of the year, a list that came out in July. This outfit is from Uganda, and it’s a stew of layered rhythms, mostly brisk, whistles, retro cheesy synths, vocal bits and vocal performances at certain points. It’s loose and chaotic but funky. Regular readers of this blog know that I’m very partial to African electronic music and this is no exception, the energy here is hip and abundant, I dig it. It is pretty hard in places to distinguish what is drum machine action and what is hand drumming done by humans, I certainly hope it’s a blend because the contrast between the two works for me. This not your typical West African guitar based African business, it’s synth driven and I’m not sure I’ve heard a bass yet. I’m on the fourth tune and when you can insert yourself and just listen closely to what’s popping and pushing through the mix it’s really really quite funky and weird and joyous. Maybe some folks who like 3 minute indie tunes will be like this is too it’s not like a song I know and I be like yeah let’s do it, it’s loose and wild. Most assuredly going to make my best of year list. How these musicians can carry on their traditions while they renovate and keep shit fresh is inspiring. Don’t sleep on this record, it’s bangers bangers bangers.

Music for 9/28/26!!! Metropolis Ensemble

@@@ Metropolis Ensemble/Erik Hall/Sandbox Percussion: Canto Ostinato (Western Vinyl, 2026). Sneaking into #92 on a list of the best albums thus far of 2026, hey they made it to the list and I will peep it! I’m guessing that this is gonna be some classical crossover, or collective jazz-ish type record and there’s no shame in that, just a prediction. This is a big record, and it’s a classical crossover record out on Western Vinyl which usually doesn’t release music like this, big respect for switching it up. 9 tracks over 65 minutes with an opener that spans 11 minutes. The opener is piano, vibes (?) and strings in some places. It’s a pretty restrained vibe here, this is not some stormy Wagner or Beethoven symphony, it’s circular and measured. What do I think of this record? It’s for people with good paying jobs who don’t want to sweat or pay attention, it’s background classical music which I don’t think is great for listeners or for classical music. My son studies cello at a conservatory and I’ve gotten an appreciation for abstract and/or passionate works of classical music, this is not one of those. Feel free to like this if you want, it’s most definitely your choice but I find it mad snoozy. Listen to some Bach Organ fugues if you want some devastating symmetrical classical music.