Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Making Friends by Or Sobre Blau

For fans of Caroline, Duster, the later work of Lou Reed, krautrock, and that one friend you only see once every couple years but you still think of as one of the most important people in your life, Making Friends by Or Sobre Blau tackles the complicated beauty of adult long-distance friendship using an electronically-augmented, Iberian-influenced version of the London post rock style.

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Eyes Full by Zoh Amba

For fans of the Big Thief extended universe, experimental old time music, and a counter narrative to all the Americana slop generated by mainstream culture, Zoh Amba’s new record Eyes Full takes this artist’s experience in the jazz avant garde to a unique voicing of the music of their native East Tennessee.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Abagnale by Medieval Found Footage

For fans of Slint, Mr Beast Death 2030, early Black Country, New Road, first wave emo, and the agony of staying up at night wondering what could have been, Abagnale by Medieval Found Footage comes to terms with the permanence of past mistakes through the course of a manic, jagged post rock narrative.

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Poetics of a New Estate by Soli City

For fans of Schatterau, weed420, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, specifically the low-tempo electroacoustic moments off of Drukqs, and personal tragedy hiding within an ostensibly cheery crowded public space, Poetics of a New Estate by Soli City blends serene minimal arrangements with the messily maximalist environments of our contemporary world, capturing the constant conflict between our senses and our subconscious.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Glued to the TV by LA Timpa

For fans of Bod, William Basinski, Forma Norte, psych pop, and the Backrooms movie, Glued to the TV by LA Timpa explores a dark, lonely, exhausted corner of psychosis by hitting the crosspoint of psychedelia and hypnagogia.

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More West by Combwalker

For fans of Sentries, My Wife’s an Angel, Shearling, the current wave of country and post hardcore fusion, and the horrifyingly damaging lie of manifest destiny, More West by Combwalker continues this unique noise rock band’s mission to expose the absurdity of the mythologized American West.

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Dragon of Shame by Chaepter

For fans of Artificial Go, Cistern, Robber Robber, bedroom pop, and the struggle to recapture rock n roll energy in the most self-conscious era in human history, Dragon of Shame by Chaepter fuses early rock aesthetics with indie rock sensibilities and post punk structures to lighten the epidemic burden of self-doubt.

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The Endless Dance by Hannah Peel and Beibei Wang

For fans of The Avalanches, Zaliva-D, LCD Soundsystem, recent IDM, and the melancholic glow of the spring rain, The Endless Dance by Hannah Peel and Beibei Wang smoothly integrates contemporary electronic dance music with traditional Chinese instrumentation to tell the story of the relentless turning of the wheels of time.

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Sade’s Garden by Marcy Firelife

For fans of Alice Does Computer Music, Geologist, Lydia Roberts, progressive soul music, and the self as a system of roots which soak up centuries of ancestors and surroundings, Sade’s Garden by Marcy Firelife crafts an emotionally captivating ambient sound with subtle influences from soul, gospel, and the R&B cannon, echoing the artist’s own cultural context and inviting us into the garden from which they grew.

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Tough Love by Simon Joyner

For fans of The Velvet Underground, Champion Trees, Leonard Cohen, the 90s wave of melancholic singer-songwriters, and the tragedy hiding behind the eyes of everyone you pass on the street, Tough Love by Simon Joyner explores the many strange ways we grieve and love through a warm folk sound with a dense foundation of experimental influence.

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Supercollider by Supercollider

For fans of Weatherday, Tongue Relaxer, Asian Glow, this very riffy yet abstract moment from late 90s indie rock, and taking a spin at the great roulette wheel of romance, Supercollider by Supercollider oozes with passion through its anthemic deployments of slightly glitchy noise rock.

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The Sun Turned Black by Aho Ssan

For fans of Saba Alizadeh, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Pyur, electroacoustic, and loving the journey because it’s all you have left, The Sun Turned Black by Aho Ssan presents an ambient experience in constant motion with no destination, one informed by the internal struggles of diaspora.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

The Beatniks Couldn’t Save the World by i.o

For fans of Hella, Don Caballero, Still House Plants, first wave emo, and those final days of naive freedom from late adolescence, The Beatniks Couldn’t Save the World by i.o focuses our view of nostalgia into only those most impactful and useful moments for our future development.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Ascent Effort by Rhododendron

For fans of Duster, Great Falls, Febuary, classic dissonant post hardcore, and winter in both the literal weather sense and the metaphorical cultural and historical sense, Ascent Effort by Rhododendron locks us in a tense emotional climb up a mountain with no summit.

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Lambspring by Lulamoon

For fans of MF DOOM, JPEGMAFIA, Backxwash, jazz rap, and laughing in the face of a world out to destroy you, Lambspring by Lulamoon uses a progressive boom bap hip hop sound to show us a view of politics from the perspective of someone whose identity remains a bargaining chip of the culture war.

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Ether Unending by Sanctuary of Praise

For fans of Swans, Joy Division, The Velvet Underground, everything to ever experiment on the foundations of British folk music, and the dark edge of the essential pulse of life, Ether Unending by Sanctuary of Praise draws an intimate connection between the morose gothic aesthetic and the universal essence of spirituality.

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Love Is in the Shit by otay:onii

For fans of Lingua Ignota, Uboa, Julie Christmas, darkwave, and the realization that we all ultimately grieve alone, Love Is in the Shit by otay:onii puts all the presence and personality of a singer-songwriter tape into the form of a deeply experimental post-industrial labyrinth.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Are we friends yet? by 1000 Rabbits

For fans of Editrix, Black Country, New Road, Björk, baroque pop, and the ambiguity of brand new acquaintances, Are we friends yet? by 1000 Rabbits subtly vents scalding emotional anguish through a veneer of tightly orchestrated, aesthetically beautiful neoclassical alternative rock.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Extinction Burst! by Guttersnipe

For fans of Skin Tension, Melt-Banana, Napalm Death, experimental noise rock, and catharsis which achieves the opposite of the desired effect, Extinction Burst! by Guttersnipe rides an emotional snowball through a journey of absolutely pummeling noise rock.

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Album Reviews Michael Scharf Album Reviews Michael Scharf

Dirt by Jim E. Brown

For fans of New Order, The Smiths, The Cure, outsider alternative rock, and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, Dirt by Jim E. Brown serves up a dazzling view into the life of an up-and-coming pop sensation.

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