It’s hard being an indie musician — like, really hard. People are trying to leave Spotify now, which is great, but the alternatives being offered are always, like, Tidal and Apple Music… which feels a little like offering up Temu as an alternative for Amazon. I get it, though. We’ve gotten so used to streaming, and I can’t say I’ve managed to get rid of my Spotify yet. (Yet! That’s the important term!)
A lot of it is that music discoverability is not what it used to be, and Bandcamp — bless the site, but it is not particularly navigable. But that’s why I’m pleased to bring you a big, honking list of bands and artists that brought out new music in 2025! This is grouped…very roughly by genre, but by my take on genre, so your mileage may very.
A few notes first: One, I keep it close to the ground. That means, no big names. I try to keep it in perspective, of course, in that who I consider a ‘big name’ is not a big name for everyone else. I actually had to remind myself that Deerhoof is not exactly a household name and that they definitely belong on here. So you’re not likely to recognize most of the names on here, and that’s on purpose. Two, some of these bands are working in languages I don’t have the foggiest clue about. The music sounds awesome, and that’s all I know. I do my duty as much as I reasonably can to fish out questionable bands, and I’ve caught a few right-wing musicians before hitting publish before, but when someone’s singing in Korean or Polish or Belarusian, I can’t make any guarantees. What I do know is, three, these folks are all trying to make money off of an art form that we all love and appreciate, but that is incredibly hard to make money off of. If you love any of these artists, consider buying the album or single, not just listening. It’s a few bucks for you, but it’s a sale for them and it’s a token of your appreciation that goes a long way.
Finally, if you’re a musician on this list and you’d like to correct some information — whether it’s pronouns (if I’m uncertain, I will generally use they/them rather than potentially invade privacy, but please do consider it a placeholder), genre, time active, or anything else, my contact form is here. I’m also always happy to hear about upcoming releases from you or anyone else you think I’d like.
Without ANY further ado — It’s The Big List!
INDUSTRIAL/NOISE — OR — LOUDER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!
We’re kicking things off with probably the least accessible genre, because it’s my website and I do what I want. Not all of the artists on here are sorted according to the genre tags they’ve used; this is because I find that sometimes people aren’t using the genre tags that would bring them to the best audience. (That’s me trying to figure out a polite way of saying you got your own music genre wrong.) I’m only being half serious with that — but more genuinely, I try to sort on vibes as much as anything else.
Oh, Bella. I love your work so much. Bella actually debuted a lot of her work this year, which makes the amount of tracks on her Bandcamp really impressive; the one I’m linking to directly today is also the one I covered way back in March because it’s my favourite, S.O.S. But Bella’s also released a cover of Waiting For The End, Doomsday Culture, Dysphoricide… and that’s not even all of them. Goddamn.
S.O.S. is an anarchist call to action and scream for help at the same time, and full of solidarity from anti-colonial statements (“in the land of the white man, nothing’s free”) to drawing connections between trans and disability struggles (“and our prescriptions are no longer subsidized/we’ll be deprived of friction and paralyzed”) and an anti-ICE statement that’s only gotten even more appropriate (“SHOW US YOUR PASSPORT WITH YOUR GOD-GIVEN NAME AND YOUR GOD-GIVEN GENDER/SHOW US YOUR HANDS & GIVE US YOUR DRUGS, YOU AND YOUR GANG OF THUGS”)
Another musician I covered earlier this year that just hasn’t stopped! Zoyya went through a rebrand, too, so I’m excited to be sharing her work again. As well as COWARDS, Zoyya has released Loser, Future Wannabes, Girl Dinner, Virtuoso Magnifique, Ruin Me and self-titled album Zoyya.
COWARDS is the one that’s still stuck in my head — I’ll catch myself humming it sometimes, particularly the chorus. “C O W A R D S Oh
show me who you are, my guy/C O W A R D S Oh hide behind a stupid lie/C O W A R D S Oh Why do you all fucking hide /C O W A R D S Oh Show me who you are, my guy” — Especially with the pounding drums, it’s hard not to headbang at least a little bit. (Or a lot. I’m a repeat offender. I keep losing my glasses.)
3. Cynthoni – LAMENTING MALICE
I love how noise music as a genre has completely different metrics for whatever the fuck it’s doing compared to other genres. I say that completely sincerely — there’s a reason it and industrial are sharing the first space on here! Cynthoni is having an absolute ball with this album, which is a blend of noise, drum & bass, industrial, and electronic — basically, imagine if early/mid-career Pendulum, Skrillex and Black Dresses got together and did a bunch of ketamine. Standout track for me: MentallyILL.
Cynthoni also released the Lifeless Misery EP, Shut Your Bitch Ass Up: Prolapse Of The Mind, Lost In Her Virtual Eyes, SNØWCR4SH N’ BURN and Felt Sentient, Might Delete (all three with Projekt Melody), Lexapro Pill(s) and Draining Love Story (In The Eyes of Cynthoni) all this year.
4. Billy Barty’s Bitch Brigade – Music For Setting Fires To
Grinding, rhythmic and foreboding, Music for Setting Fires To (released in May) is tagged as horrorcore and I love collecting new genre names for exactly this reason. What’s horrorcore? I don’t know but I love it. I also love how unhelpfully helpful the album description is. “For entertainment purposes only. Don’t actually go out and set fires.” Enigma indeed. Billy Barty’s Bitch Brigade is either one face of or part of the same label as (it’s really kind of hard to tell on Bandcamp) other projects Brimstone, Grug and Post-Modern Trauma, who also all have releases this year — BBBB slipped this release just under the rug on the 31st, called Alien Love Themes. (They also released Toxic Shock in November and The Dark Arts in July. Billy Barty’s Busy Bitch Brigade I guess!)
5. Ada Rook – UNKILLABLE ANGEL
What industrial list would be complete without Ada Rook? Best known as one half of Black Dresses, Ada Rook is a force of nature in her own right, and UNKILLABLE ANGEL is beautifully inaccessible in the best tradition of industrial noise music. I want to show this to someone who only listens to Sabrina Carpenter with no warning and watch them have a stroke. (I’m teasing, I’m teasing. I actually have so much respect for Sabrina.) I reviewed the opening track cortisol_inside cortisol_explosion excessive_cortisol cortisol_everywhere earlier this year but the whole album is a banger. Special notes and respect for how Rook leans into queer sexuality tropes — real ones — in PARTY TIME SEXY DISORDER. The track holding your sleeping body i prayed to god for the first time in my life that I could keep you safe is a particularly excellent showcase of Rook’s lyrical brilliance and raw emotional energy, in which I mean I had to try very hard not to turn into a blubbering mess over it. This year, Rook also released naiad with blackwinterwells, TRY as half of Door Eater, and a second album of her own with 59 Nights at the end of October.
6. The Bloody Beetroots – FOREVER PART ONE
The Bloody Beetroots are admittedly hard to classify. I don’t know if many people will agree with my choice to put them here rather than down in electro — but they dance between so many different genres that it’s hard to classify. This particular project goes between cleaner and rougher edges so often that it’s hard to say, but I encountered them through their contacts with the industrial world. This album is definitely more Justice than Daft Punk, a little more Pendulum than NIN — a little bit like getting the Clash and early-career Porter Robinson to collaborate after a couple of bottles of wine. Part of what makes this work is the amount that Bloody Beetroots enjoys collaborating with others. Almost every song has a different guest artist on it, sometimes two — N8NOFACE and Teddy Killerz feature on track 2, This is Blood, and Bob Vylan feature on KILLING PUNK, one of the singles from the album. The result is a dynamic, gritty, intense album that changes from moment to moment.
I have an enormous amount of respect for independent artists making music in Russia — or really, anywhere in Eastern Europe — right now. Pussy Riot are, of course, the most famous; but their fame also gives them a certain amount of protection. By contrast, independent artists like Schizowelder are just doing what they can and keeping their heads low to the ground. Probably not coincidentally, and in keeping with both their and their album name, SCHIZO is an intense, paranoid album. Nothing quite beats the frenetic energy of track 1, buried alive, but the other two have an unnerving quality to them all their own.
8. ALT BLK ERA – RAVE IMMORTAL
I’ve been a fan of Alt Blk Era ever since I ran into Off With Their Heads just by total accident, and I keep waiting for them to become the Next Big Goth Band. I’m sure it’ll happen any moment now; they’ve got a wonderful blend of drum&bass, industrial, hip-hop, and gothrock/alt-rock elements going on. From more ballad-like songs like Straight to Heart, to more club-ready ones like Crashing Parties and Run Rabbit Run, this is a hell of an achievement for a first full album.
Jake Duzsik, vocalist of HEALTH, always surprises me with his vocals — even through the layers of synthesizer, they’re always incredibly affecting, and never fully lost in the walls of sound that rise up around them. CONFLICT DLC (released December) is no different — in fact, there’s even more of a note of sorrow to this release than usual, especially marked by the album notes: ““No, it’s not just your imagination. The future is shit and the phone you are reading this on is making it worse, but please don’t put it down. We are delighted to announce 12 new tracks of anger, fear, sadness and death, and to beg for yet more of your addled attention.” There’s something operatic about a lot of these tracks, especially Don’t Kill Yourself.
10. x2001x – We Hold Ourselves To This Standard, Let’s Never Be Naked
x2001x is one of the many faces of Será Louise, multi-instrumentalist and woman of many faces — and another band I covered earlier this year! Now at the end of the year, Louise has racked up a number of fun, odd releases — single Nerves, the album We Hold Ourselves To This Standard, Let’s Never Be Naked, and album Music. All of them play with plunderphonics, vaporwave, harsh noise, grinding, glitching, and dissonance in really interesting ways, with my personal standout being Send Someone Over from WHOTTS. In Send Someone Over in particular, there’s an interesting half-narrative in the instrumental that could mean literally anything — or nothing — but the title ends up suggesting just enough to make the scattered noises act as a Rorschach. (Which is part of the fun of noise music, I think.)
11. Radical Deformation – Siberian Gabbers/Razor Edge
Hardcore techno/industrial is such an interesting niche. Much like a few of the other bands on here, I have to figure out how to communicate that it’s unpleasant to listen to but like, on purpose, because that’s the goal — it’s playing with dissonance and intense soundbites as part of the genre trappings. For people who largely listen to other genres from this list it can be a bit of a weird sell, and Siberian Gabbers are pretty far into this niche! Radical Deformation lives up to its name as an EP, playing with glitch and breakdown noises, corruption, and… very little in the way of active harmonics. But it’s an intense experience, and I happened to listen to this for the first time while playing a Cube Escape/Rusty Lake game which was… definitely a good idea because damn. Relevant note: I’m not entirely sure if Siberian Gabbers is the band or the label, or if the band is in fact Razor Edge; usually it’s formatted differently, so I’ve given both just in case. Either way, they’re based out of Russia.
12. Angstraum – No God, No Master
HAHA. GOD. I’m trying not to show my biases too much but this is so DELIGHTFULLY, like, Back To Industrial Roots in every way. The lyrics. The churning music in the background. The message. Plus, well, Berlin has been a hothouse for industrial music for a long time. Angstraum’s EP NO GOD, NO MASTER (I’m too much of an anarchist to let that title pass uncommented, by the way,) is not a subtle album, and it’s not trying to be. Between “A dead man can’t take your money” and “Isn’t this what you want? To be a rat in a big wheel” it’s not fucking around with pretty words, and yet it’s still doing great stuff with them. It’s a great call back to the OGs of the genres it’s playing in, while very much a response to the current moment. It was also released on Halloween which is just the final touch on something that picked up the poison darts, went “nah” and picked up a blunderbuss, because, fuck you, that’s why.
TECHNO/ELECTRO/HOUSE – OR – BEEPS, BOOPS AND BYTES
I must be clear: There are all sorts of important distinctions between techno music, electro, dubstep, EDM, IDM, “house”, etc. I don’t know any of them. I hear music that goes beep beep and I like it. The only distinction I care about is the one between “synthwave” and techno, which is that synthwave 1. has lyrics more often than techno and 2. has more rock elements, and that darkwave/witchhouse is what happens when you give Wednesday Addams access to a Moog. Relatedly, I mark the quality of techno music on a bell curve based on how much I think it’s ripping off of Eurodancer by DJ Mangoo and/or Sandstorm by Darude, and if that’s not enough for you to completely discount any and all of my opinions on techno music… continue.
The musicians listed here are really quite good. I just think my lack of expertise should be properly explained.
Okay, this one is kind of a cheat. It’s electronic music, sort of, except that GHOSTsTALKER defines themself as writing ‘cinematic metal’, and the metal elements are absolutely there. It’s a little bit like how Skrillex is an electro guy who wanted to write metal. (Or whatever the story is there, I don’t remember and I’m too lazy to look it up.) Anyway, this is great. It’s a lot more hardcore than a lot of the electro music I run into, and if GHOSTsTALKER’s instagram is to be believed, an awful lot of it is played on proper instruments and just looped all to hell. (Which is no commentary on people who don’t, by the way; instruments are expensive and synths are great. But it’s increasingly a surprise, you know?) Favourite track: Eulogy. There’s something about the melody of it is that is really affecting. (And seriously, I can’t decide whether or not this is in the right section. It’s tagged electro but I keep trying to decide whether or not to move it.)
14. Shakthi SriP. – AILUROPHOBIA (The Fear Of Cats)
Shakthi SriP is an electronic composer from Colchester and also very cheerfully weird with it, judging by this song about a fear of cats (released November). It’s a stressful, high-pitched, high-tempo song that’s still compelling in a high-octane drive kind of way. It’s the kind of electro music that revels in walking the line between being unpleasant to listen to and drawing you in out of curiosity. I do find it deeply entertaining that the single includes a warning about the song ending on a heart monitor noise… and there’s so, so, so many dissonant noises on the way there that are, in my opinion, just as bad as a flatline noise. But points for being thoughtful.
Shakthi SriP released a bunch of work this year, actually. This is just the one that crossed my feed first — but there’s also Eukaryotic Archaebacteria, In My Hands Already, Wood, Metal and Plastic, Psychedelically Recognize, and dozens more.
A little more lowkey than Shakthi SriP’s work, Zecidkhur is a Ukrainian composer who released this, their debut work, in May of this year. Since then, they’ve released about a dozen more — but Ulgizha is the one that got my attention. It’s all the more impressive since Zecidkhur is just one face of Gansahtar, a musician who also dabbles in black metal as Cunnalhum, ambient music as Ulfagur, lo-fi, electroclash… Dang. It’s possible I’m misreading what’s actually a label, but in all fairness, there’s not a lot of information. (The language barrier is actually less of a concern here than a mischievous opaqueness on all fronts which I actually appreciate.) Anyway, Zecidkhur’s music has a kind of fairylike shine to it that I really enjoy, even if the tracks themselves go on a little longer than they perhaps need to.
Technically a lot of these songs would have been first ‘released’ years ago, but they’re lost tracks — B-sides that never quite got printed or got lost when labels went under. It’s one of the downsides of having a long but underground career, although Oak’s work has been much more influential to things like microfunk and electrofunk than most people realize. A lot of these tracks are laid-back, gentler than many other electro genres, the kind of thing you lie back and listen to on a summer day, and it also shows just how good Oak is at his craft — there’s so much detail to even simple tracks.
17. cunt era – scumfuck brojob
I actually wrestled with whether or not to put this one under noise or electronic, and it would probably fit equally well under both; I could probably switch it with Bloody Beetroots without much issue, but at 100 entries, I’m feeling a little lazy. Anyway, cunt era is one of the faces of Ellie Death, an electronic/breakcore artist from Pittsburgh. Some of Ellie Death’s other releases this year are more solidly noise, like Shopped & Chopped, while some like Couple Joints are a little more laid back, while still (deliberately) glitchy. Appropriately for something under another name, scumfuck brojob has a bit of a different feel to it, with a smoother undercurrent and a tighter energy. (Does any of that make sense? I don’t know, man, I don’t really go here. I don’t know the lingo. I LIKE IT IT SOUND GOOD.)
18. Celini – Umrze/People in the Bottom/Gettin Money
There’s New Age-ish chanting, a disco beat, and for some reason it’s tagged as ambient music. I don’t know what the hell’s going on, but I listened to it once and then it was in my head for a million years. (Isn’t this how Ace of Base got big?) Celini is based out of Dortmund, Germany and this is only their second release. The other two tracks, People in the Bottom and Gettin Money are a little more disco/Eurobeat and little less New Age but still super-fun listens, but Umrze is absolutely my favourite. Also, a shoutout to a distinctive but simple album cover. Thank you for not using AI, my friend.
Vectorgeist is an artist I covered earlier this year, but they’ve actually released another album since — Almanac dropped in December, and is chock-full of cyberpunk/synthwave beats that are, apparently, also furry music? I don’t know what makes something furry or therian music. Probably just that it’s made by someone who identifies that way. (I’m not… not a furry. I’m just kind of vaguely in the outskirts nodding sagely to a bunch of stuff I don’t really understand while also having an obsessive interest in Watership Down, so don’t ask me anything.) Point being, this is great music — I’d love to tell you more about Vectorgeist themself (themselves?) but their site is currently being reworked. Favourite track: (b)rainforest.
I’m usually pretty serious in my music listening (I remember years ago someone found out I liked Uptown Funk and was shocked that I liked a song that wasn’t depressing or angry) but speaking of furry music, this song is so spiteful and cheerful in its spite that I’m bringing it back from my March column. It’s also just a catchy song! I don’t know the circumstances around the composition of Furry but the little ‘yip yips’ mean I don’t really need to. It’s just great.
I love taking note of how many artists I end up with from around the world, and M.philips is from quite literally the other side of the world from me in Chile. Not just him, either – this entire label is apparently Chilean. This is why I love Bandcamp. M.philip’s Irregular EP is his debut, released in December, and uses vocal samples (from the sounds of it from sci-fi movies, although I can’t place them) mixed with an aural soundscape that feels less at home in a club and more in a (very pleasant) shroom trip. I really enjoy the narrative in the first track in particular, which seems to be describing a UFO. (Although, once again, lyrics please!!)
This is a much more classical house song compared to my usual tastes, but I like it a lot — partially because for all that it’s a more mainstream type of house music, the lyrics add a spooky overtone. I’m actually surprised this wasn’t a Halloween release, but that almost makes it better; the spookiness is understated as a result. It’s a ghost story on a disco floor! I don’t know anything else about Sosh & Mosh other than what’s told here, that they’re brothers in Los Angeles. They’ve got a few other releases this year as well, including Dancing on a Dream, and their debut EP Sounds Like A Plan came out back in July. (Hold on, this was their debut year? Dang.)
23. Brass Rave Unit – Show us the Light
Brass Rave Unit are described in their sidebar as a mix of acid, trance and techno — with horns! And I am so into it. Bandcamp is one of the only places where I seem to organically run into more ‘old-fashioned’ modes of music anymore, and Brass Rave Unit come off like a horn trio that found a Moog and went “let’s see what happens”. And of course they’re from Amsterdam. This EP is fun, bouncy, and absolutely belongs in the club (not that I know a damn thing about ‘the club’. Fictional place.)
SYNTHWAVE – OR – DIGITAL DREAMSCAPES
Technically speaking, synthwave is just a microgenre of electronic music. Having it be its own separate section but lumping house, dubstep, etc. all into their own category is favoritism in action — but at the same time, at least to me, there are two things that make synthwave easier for me to identify. One of them is that electronica will occasionally have lyrics but just as often (as most of the above are) be instrumental; synthwave is much more likely to be structured around its lyrics. (Or it’s possible I’m describing something else entirely. But like, this distinction is one I can see. Or, well, hear. You know what I mean.) The second is that synthwave is so deeply pulling from the 80s, or a dreamed version of it; it’s more like synthwave is constructing its own universe and mythology out of threads pulled from an 80s tapestry. In any case, the projects below feel more like synthwave than pure electro to me; the distinction, to you, may be pointless, but I’m the one writing the column, so nyeh.
24. eisenacher project – holy ground
I think shoegaze is another appropriate label for this particular project, although to my bemusement, the provided labels are ‘acoustic’ and ‘electronic’. Neither of which seem quite like the right fit. There’s not a lot of information provided about Eisenacher Project, however, other than that they’re based in Manchester, so I have to assume this is someone just making what feels right to them. Either way, the music here is gorgeously optimistic, avoiding the usual pitfalls of “peace and love” style lyrics but still touching on that energy. My favourite of the four tracks (it’s more of an EP than an album) is definitely afterglow, and by the way, PROPS for actually GIVING YOUR LYRICS. The music’s wonderful on its own, but being able to read the lyrics means I can appreciate the poetic imagery for its own merits as well. “deep in the meadow, close the circle, reap the corn/hundreds have died here, hundreds waiting to be born/sometimes, inside your mind, you can feel the undertow/sometimes, when it’s gone, you can see the afterglow” *chef kiss*
This fellow is from Puerto Rico! The prominence of Latin America in underground music doesn’t really shock me, but it does underline just how much the U.S.’s position of prominence in music is… well, artificial. Gamblid is from Caguas specifically, and making 80s-styled synthpop that feels like it belongs in the soundtrack of Drive. I’m particularly pleased with the amount of layers and aural depth — if I don’t feel like I’m floating, I’m not satisfied with synthwave, and there’s a few too many songs that don’t quite hit that point for me. (A little rude for me to say when I’ve got electronic ears, but call it hard mode.) I also think the track called Tony Montana is just funny. I love that.
Denuit is an electro-goth group (also known as ‘a very quick way to get my attention’) from France, who have had a number of releases this year; the first is the mentioned and linked Faceless, followed by LOVE violence and the remix collection ULTRAVIOLENCE.
In terms of style, they’re also calling back to the 80s and 90s (which is really a huge part of synthwave) but they’re tapping into Switchblade Symphony and Cocteau Twins, who are two of my favourite bands; so they’re definitely up my alley. I also love when accents are audible in someone’s voice; it means they haven’t polished away everything that makes them distinctive or interesting.
27. Circuit des Yeux – Halo On The Inside
I covered this album earlier this year when it first came out, and I’m always a little skeptical of the validity of my own opinions; so imagine my surprise when it showed up on Bandcamp’s Albums of the Year! It’s very much earned it, though; this is a fantastic blend of influences. The surrealism of Megaloner alone is worth a listen, and it’s so lovely hearing a female artist willing to push her voice down so deep (with a vocoder or otherwise, that’s not really the point).
Whenever an artist comes out in the middle of a career, it’s always a huge moment for them — coming out before you make it big is, after all, one thing. And when you’re already big, like Elliot Page, who’s going to give you trouble? But when you’re thoroughly in the middle, on the rise, you risk losing everything. Max Fractal did just that, and came out the other side even fucking cooler, with all the same panache and a new perspective that shines through in Fractal’s first post-transition release. This is queer darkwave dripping with sex and chaos, while still being beautifully polished and shimmering with temptation.
29. Blinky Blinky Computerband – Never Again Is Now
I just need to take a moment to appreciate the juxtaposition of this absolutely ridiculous artist name with the extremely on point album name. There’s been a few of these but this is my favourite so far. It’s a little bit like that damn frog in Portland.
Anyway. This is great. Like a lot of these, this actually edges into industrial, but has enough pop/electro elements from Blinky’s prior work to keep it here. It’s fun and dancey while having quite the edge — the first track I listened to is still my favourite, Antifascista, and that’s because “alerta! alerta! antifascista! alerta! alerta! antifascista!” is just an excellent earworm. This is another artist based in Germany, too, so the combination of protest music with electro is very culturally/historically apt. (One day I want to do a deep dive into Germany’s history as a home for rave and industrial music.) Even more impressive is that this is Blinky’s second protest album of the year; the first one was Burned to Ashes, which keeps a few more electro aspects but also has more guitar. Releasing two of these in a year (technically, two and a half; there’s also Electronic Redux, which contains several remixes of songs from Burned to Ashes) shows just how pissed off BBCB is. Dang.
WITCHHOUSE/DARKWAVE – OR – MOOG HORROR SHOW
What, exactly, is witchhouse? Or darkwave? Good question. Darkwave, in its truest sense, is a broad and inclusive term that includes goth rock and other gothic-aligned genres; it’s running off of ‘new wave’ (as in Bauhaus), not synthwave. Witchhouse is, on the other hand, technically another microgenre — it’s trap and/or house music with gothic trappings and tonal influences. The reason I’ve put the two together is to capture all of the musicians who are occupying the electro-goth, moody, non-metal area of the dark music world — especially since almost none of them are using the electro-goth label. In fact, goth as a music label is oddly out of style. Faeriecore keeps getting used as a label for things that are pretty unequivocally goth — but I might just be old.
30. The Allegorist – From Birth Until Death
Sometimes, the music alone is only half of what makes something amazing to me — sure, it draws me in, it compels me, but then I read about it and it takes it to the next level. The work of The Allegorist is like that. The songs on this album are sonically dense in a way that my mechanical ears actually struggle with — they’re layered field recordings of birds, passing cars, everything, with vocal takes that are sometimes years old. From the Bandcamp page: “The bass and ambient textures are crafted using an array of analog hardware, while all vocals, both lead and backing, are performed and recorded by Jordan. Some of the vocal takes were intentionally left raw, capturing the spontaneous energy of early recordings, while others were re-recorded to balance the album’s organic yet polished feel.” The album itself took six years to make, which is long even for big-label releases; for an indie project that’s a lifetime. (As an easy contrast, how many of the bands on here have multiple releases listed for the year?) On top of that, Anna Jordan apparently played this live several times, having it shift in her hands, before committing it to a studio format. I’m just — astounded by the amount of work that went into this, and it shows. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and rather than classifying it as ambient, I felt like it fit here with the witchhouse/darkwave collection to honor the album’s interest in death and the gothic architecture of the songs themselves.
This moody little number is an actual witchhouse number from Igor Zhukov, also known as Nezhiletz, through the label SkyQode. Nezhiletz also released The Smell this year, although Smoky Song is the one that captured my attention in April; it’s another one I covered at the time. It’s also the song that first introduced me to the term ‘witch house’, and why not? Eerie vocals, distant-feeling instrumentals, a rising sense of unease but nothing immediately distressing… It’s the sonic sensation of a haunted house, but in the proper Gothic tradition of a slow, disquieting build.
32. Deflexity – Phobos and Deimos
Another band from the skyQode label, Deflexity offers a different take on witchhouse. Phobos and Deimos has big beats, spacy synth and grinding distortion all playing against each other, giving a similar if more intense ambiance to Nezhiletz but more active and intense. I wish the lyrics were supplied because I’m so curious about what’s going on with this track — but the track on its own is such an interesting listen anyway that it almost doesn’t matter. This is a single released in promotion of an upcoming album, too, so if you like this, there’s more coming!
This is another project just as fascinating politically as it is musically; Returning as a band are a duo of animist, anarchist pagans who have become connected to animism and land defense through the Indigenous folks in their area (Olympia, Washington – home to the Coast Salish among others). As a result, this album — which is in many ways black metal — is also a religious invocation, a prayer, a call to action, and a summoning of the Sacred from the Earth. (To paraphrase some of their own words.)
As someone who is religious in ways that are similar but still quite different, this definitely resonates with me although I don’t know if I fully understand. But on top of it all, it’s gorgeously written and produced music — so even if the heart of it isn’t quite reaching you, the beauty of it will. (Although a love for the earth should move us all.)
34. Skooma – Totentanz Vol 1: Schattenschrein
Right off the bat: I’m loving the grandiosity of Vol. 1, just, conceptually. At first, that made me think this would be more of a metal album — but instead, it’s very much a low-key ambient album, going for Creepy Vibes more than anything else. According to the Bandcamp brief, this was made with analog synths, real instruments and distorted field recordings — which is really impressive, honestly, considering how tempting it probably is to reach for MIDI, etc. Unfortunately (once again!!!) lyrics aren’t provided so some of the effect is lost on me, but it’s a very, very cool soundscape experience.
35. மௌனம் (Mauṉam)– இருண்ட உலகம் (Irunta Ulakam)
I mentioned above that some of these bands are ones I’m listening to from across quite a wide cultural divide and this Tamil blackvapor band is possibly the most extreme example yet. Not because Tamil culture is so difficult to understand — I’ve had a few Tamil friends — but because the band’s album name, description, and band name are all in Tamil script, as are all the song names. I’m depending on Google Translate not just for translation, but for transcription, which I’m providing above with heavy asterisks. But lucky for me, they’re an instrumental band — and they’re fantastic. Mauṉam, which Google informs me means ‘Silence’, aren’t a metal band — instead, they’re inhabiting the other side of the world of Gothic music, providing slow, harmonic, quiet music that would feel at home in a graveyard. More at peace than Skooma’s music, but still with hints of disturbed rest, it reminds me of Poe’s work and Fall of the House of Usher; both the show and the original story. (The name provided for their Bandcamp URL is ‘Silencetomb’, which tells me that the word may have a few meanings, or that they simply were beaten to the punch for the url Silence.)
36. Old Moth Dreams – Moonsick
So funny story about this one and the next — literally while I was putting this list together, someone posted on Bsky about how we hadn’t quite found music intended to inspire horror yet. I wasn’t so sure about this take and mentioned dark ambient, and someone else brought up dungeon synth. I wasn’t sure — and two people showed up with examples to prove me wrong! I love being proven wrong especially when it results in me finding new stuff to listen to. Old Moth Dream is one of our dungeon-synth musicians who intends to put the listener on edge and a little freaked out — the tracks on Moonsick are ever-so-slightly dissonant and “off” enough to start ratcheting up the anxiety. Perfect for reading horror books at night, or going out to call your dog in when you spontaneously remember those clown sightings a few years ago…
Old Moth Dreams has been busy in 2025; they’ve also released A Curious Collection, Ascending the Chronomancer’s Gray Tower, Hypnagoguery, Canonical Delirium and a collaboration with European Drought, The Vampyr, Part 1.
My second dungeon synth newcomer, Plague Relic hails from Iowa and leans further into the ambient-side of the genre at least with this release. I feel less like I’m dreaming and more like — you know those bits in Skyrim when you’re early level and you know there are fucking Draugr nearby but you can’t find them? That’s it. That’s the mood. That, except it’s in person and I might actually get shanked by an undead Viking. More proof that capitalism is a plague, because I wouldn’t need to go graverobbing if I got paid a decent wage. “Adventuring” is just subsidizing the upper classes.
…Er, back to the main point. The vibes of this release are impeccable, which in dungeon synth means impeccably awful, but either you get it or you don’t. Cortisol for days. This is particularly true, for some reason, with “Cursed Lands” — although I could not tell you why. I don’t know enough about sound theory.
AMBIENT, INSTRUMENTAL AND NEO-CLASSICAL – OR – PURE VIBES, MAN
Trying to describe ambient music is….weird. A decent chunk of it is what you’d expect, sure; whale noises and whatnot. Traditionally (or as traditional as ambient music gets) it’s about feeling calm and relaxed, and disregarding classical ideas of melody or structure in favour of Nice Sounding Noises. But there’s a clear divide between music that aspires to ambience, and music that makes use of ambience. So a good half of the songs that were originally in this section and had the label have been shuffled elsewhere as a better descriptor of what you’re actually getting. What remains overlaps with general instrumental music, and neoclassical — that is, work that uses the format and structures of classical music, maybe fucks with it, but doesn’t quite get to the point of jazz or experimental.
This is a lovely, slow-paced, meditative album that takes a little bit of time to get to where it’s going but honestly, it’s in no rush and you shouldn’t be either. A featured review on the Bandcamp page talks about how the songs “ride and chime, sink and swim”, and it’s such an apt comparison that I can’t not cite it. It reminds me of the work of my favourite neoclassical composer, Jean-Michel Blais, especially in the first track From Now On. I also very much appreciate that she knows exactly how long she wants her songs to be — I talk about the album not being in a rush, but it’s not wasting time either. Some ambient musicians create quite long compositions and I sometimes wonder if they’ve earned that length, but these songs are very appropriately sized.
James Murray is another artist from label Home Normal, the same that features Federica Deiana, and his longform piece Safehaven takes a more expansive approach to the same genre. With thrumming synthesizer and notes that are sometimes as low as a whisper, this is one of those pieces I would show someone if they wanted to understand what ambient music looks like — down to it clocking in at just under 11 minutes. Listening to it while doing something mindless like dishes (or just lying back in bed and letting the mind wander) is a lovely experience, though, especially since I often take my hearing aids out for the latter; I have more control over silence and sound than the average person which puts me in a unique position to appreciate ambient music. Murray also released Clearings this year, which is a revisiting of some of his older music, and a rerelease of Landscapes of Lovers.
In a third release from Home Normal — I swear this was an accident — this project is actually a collaboration between Ian Hawgood and Warren Forrest Kroll. The reason this is relevant is because Hawgood is the curator of Home Normal itself, so the excellence of the tracks I’ve heard is directly attributable to his good taste. If Safehaven is longform, though, this is macroform — it clocks in at an incredible thirty-five minutes and twenty seconds. Or rather, that’s incredible to multigenre listeners. Even more incredibly, that’s not actually the longest ambient piece I’ve heard, or listened to the entirety of. Still, it’s definitely on the longer side, and requires a patient ear to appreciate. If you’re the right audience, though, you’re absolutely rewarded for it; this is the kind of music you use for meditation, trance, or just a beautiful day in the middle of nowhere, and it’s very deliberate with how slowly it leads you up one rolling peak and down another.
As for Home Normal, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on their work. I’m an appreciator of ambient if not necessarily what I’d call a dedicated fan, but the quality in their output is worth noting. They’re offering a subscription package at the moment that, if I was more financially stable, would be quite tempting — 25 pounds a year (roughly 45-50 dollars) and you get the whole (massive!!!) back catalogue and everything else new they create. Considering that the musicians I’ve mentioned here are less than a handful of their group, it’s very appealing. To me, anyway. If you’re not into nearly-40-minute meditative mellotron compositions, maybe not.
I know that repeat band names are just a part of life, but there being both a Landschaft and a Lantscap in ambient music, both with releases this year, is a particularly bad stroke of luck. And their releases are both close to 40 minutes! They do, however, feel very different upon listening. Some of that’s key, and some of that is that sogetsu #4 is — as Landschaft puts it — a very spare piece. The synth here doesn’t fill the silence so much as underline it; the sonic focus ends up being on the punctuating chimes and their echoes. Landschaft describes how it’s made in the notes, and I’ll be honest, I don’t think I have the technical brain to fully understand it. But it sounds very cool. (And I’m better than some folks, I know what Dorian and Mixolydian are! That’s something!)
Part of what I find interesting with this piece is the relationship between the music and its title. I haven’t listened to the other pieces in the series, but Sogetsu is a Japanese school of flower art — and a rather avant-gardist one at that. So the choice of kale on the front is, for one, very deliberate. Unfortunately my knowledge only takes me that far, which is as far as “that’s cool!” But I’m sure there are others who have even more appreciation for that.
42. Daniel Kowalski – Her Will Be Done
Speaking of relationships between artforms — this one isn’t ambient music at all, but a soundtrack, to a film that is still on the festival circuit! (I know this because I checked. I got curious.) It’s a film about witchcraft, that’s all I know — that and it’s directed by the composer’s… sister, I believe? They’re certainly some relation, as is often the case with indie productions. Even on its own, though, this is a fantastic bit of work. Eerie, a little off-kilter, sometimes lurching fully into horror as in “From soul to soul” — this album alone has made me want to watch the movie. Not just on the power of composition alone, either — the breadth of instruments used in the album includes field recordings made while filming, and a broken flute. Why a broken one? I don’t know but it sounds cool as hell.
43. Lena Raine – EARTHBLADE: Across The Bounds Of Fate
I covered this album earlier this year but the story behind it still makes me sad. EARTHBLADE, the eagerly-awaited follow-up game to CELESTE, was cancelled in 2024 after a number of years in development; Lena Raine, who composed the music for both games, was left with a number of songs with no home. She put them all together into a remarkably cohesive concept album instead, and the result is a touching, dramatic instrumental work that makes me both endlessly curious about the game that could have been and satisfied with the work we have. It also is a wonderful way to be introduced to Raine’s work as someone who hasn’t actually played Celeste (I know, I know, I’ll hand in my trans card later) and I hope there’s lots of other work in the future for her, because I love this.
INDIEPOP AND ECLECTIC – OR – NICK AND NORAH ARE BACK, BABY
Whether or not ‘pop’ is, in and of itself, a genre is a much more confusing topic than I thought it was going to be. I’m a child of the hipster era, where hating pop was a personality trait; I’ve been challenging myself on that, only to find that pop really is defined…extremely loosely. It’s popular music, but also used to refer to recorded music (as opposed to classical music which is recorded via score, or folk music which is passed down orally), but also distinct from rock, metal, rap, etc… except for when it isn’t. It uses a pop structure, except for when it doesn’t. All of which is to say, ‘indiepop’ is a bit of a catch-all for stuff that takes the bones of different eras of pop music – disco, the dance era of the 90s, 2000s R&B, singer-songwriter — and does weird stuff with it. That’s why the term ‘eclectic’ is also in here; it’s to help cover the bizarre realms of prog-pop, baroque pop, etc. which aren’t really pop genres at all when you break them down. Or maybe they are. I’m starting to think this is all made up.
“Gelli Haha exists somewhere between Studio 54 and Area 51…” How can I beat that? It’s a great description too — Gelli Haha’s music has the synth-bounce of Kajagoogoo and Boney M, the infectious hooks of Chappell Roan and a freedom to it that you only find in this arena of music (that is, music that has no interest in getting radio play. If it gets it, hurray! It’s not aiming for it, though.) She’s here to be silly and have a good time, and it shows. Favourite track: “Pluto is not a planet it’s a restaurant”, partially for the title alone.
Seriously though, please post lyrics.
This is one of those songs that will drive you crazy if you’re not the audience for it. It would have fit in perfectly in the first two or three seasons of Grey’s Anatomy, and whether you consider that a burn or a compliment will pretty much determine whether or not this is your kind of music. For me, it depends on the day — but opera-pop is a fascinating genre and difficult to get right, which Elizaveta does. Imagine Regina Spektor in longform, and you’ll be halfway there.
46. Deerhoof – Noble and Godlike In Ruin
It says something about my general bar for ‘well known’ that I had a serious moment of ‘wait, is Deerhoof too well known for this?’. In my defense, my high school was… Odd. Relevantly, though, I haven’t actually listened to a massive amount of Deerhoof before this — I mostly knew ‘Panda Panda’ and a few others. So this album is a hell of an introduction. Surrealist, uncategorizable and bizarre, NAGIR hops between crunchy guitar riffs, jangly synth chimes and jazzy drum fills in songs that aren’t quite coherent, but are doing so entirely on purpose. Dadaism in fine form.
47. Hapebon EDBPUhi – God & Golem
This is the one I’m least convinced counts as pop; I’m just not sure what else it is either. It’s certainly electronic music, but it’s taking enough notes from pop in terms of sound; albeit more of a Regina Spektor, Imogen Heap sound than anything more popular. Hapebon is based out of Japan, which has a pop industry all its own, which probably contributes to some of the clash in terms here, but to be honest, this doesn’t sound much like J-Pop either. It is, however, a fantastic merging of lyrical storytelling and cybernetic soundscape — not going too far off into the realm of industrial beeps and grinds to make it inaccessible for the casual listener, but still experimental in form and structure.
Spacey, electronic, introspective and slow-paced, Ela Minus’s second album has a confidence to it that would suggest a much more advanced career. Colombian by heritage but based in New York, Minus’s debut acts of rebellion was five years ago, which means this album took time to grow — and it shows. The opening track Abrir Monte (To Open a Mountain, if my clumsy Spanish serves, although I have a feeling there’s something being lost there) has the sounds of falling stone, echoing synth, and a slow, steady drone pulling other noises into it; it’s followed by the pounding, soaring single ‘Broken’ where Minus’s vocals sound like they’re echoing off of cathedral vaults and over the accompanying synth beats. Broken is unquestionably my favourite, but the dark smoulder of IDK and the grunge-house throb of Onwards are fantastic samples of the mood of the album.
49. Fotoform – Grief is a Garden (Forever in Bloom)
What do you get when you mix Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, and The Naked and Famous? I never really thought about it before, but apparently Fotoform has; this shoegaze/dreampop outfit is drenched in sweet melancholy, voices of mourning weaving in and out of minor-key synth among floaty layers of cloud. This is one of the entries that’s actually made its way into my regular listening — titular song Grief Is A Garden has somehow snuck onto several of my writing playlists — and if you’re a lover of any of the above bands or just shoegaze and/or dreampop in general, I think you’ll probably end up the same way. (And…ugh of course they’re from Seattle. Why MUST Seattle be an American city? You’re so Canadian-coded. Let us kidnap you.)
50. Chances – And Now You Become A Seeker
First of all – THANK YOU, Chances, for avoiding *all* of my bugbears. Chances has their lyrics posted, their album artwork credited (Original album artwork by Laura Weiler at Cut & Placed @cutandplaced , Photography by Frédérique Bérubé, Graphic design by Léonie Clermont), and their entire lineup listed and credited properly. It’s not so damn hard! Take notes!
Genre-wise, I was once again a little stumped about where to put this. On one hand, this is pretty folksy. On the other hand, they’re using a lot of synth along with their marimbas and accordions, and a lot of indiepop takes notes from chamber-folk arrangements. Plus, the experimental nature of a lot of this brings it closer to Deerhoof and Elizaveta — so it lands here. It’s gorgeous, gorgeous work, and although I can’t put my finger on what exactly makes it so Canadian, it is very, very much so. They’re from Montreal specifically, and I feel like I could have guessed that somehow. Maybe it’s that folk music is different here, a little closer to the surface and a little more left-wing. There’s also a playfulness with melody and influence here, though; Diamond Doves has an almost sea-shanty rhythm to it, albeit a fevered version that brings Fiery Furnaces to mind, and Move You has notes of Rumors-era Fleetwood Mac, a note of Stevie Nicks in the vocal delivery.
DEATH, DOOM, BLACK AND GOTHIC METAL — OR — SCARY MONSTERS AND SYMPHONIC SPRITES
Settle down, metalheads. This is actually where I’m putting all the metal — ow! Stop throwing things at me! Jeez. Anyway, if you’re one of the people who doesn’t know the distinction between these four genres… Don’t worry about it, actually. If you care, you’ll find out, if you don’t, then you don’t need to. Besides, a lot of these bands are occupying the spaces between genres as it is. At least one of these is ‘psychedelic space witch metal’; others tag both death and doom which is really not supposed to be how that works, but genre is fake anyway. The important part is that this is where we get the spooky vibes, and the big guitars. Big chord go boom. I’m a real music writer (no I’m not).
51. Primrose Path – Ruminations
I couldn’t talk about the witch metal and not start off with it. Technically the “psychedelic space-witch metal” comes from a review; the actual tags are… prog and grunge. Neither of which is very accurate — sorry, Primrose Path. I don’t mean to genre-splain at you, although the prog-metal label is definitely applicable. It’s just that, I haven’t heard something so gothic metal in years that wasn’t using the label. Although realistically, part of what’s so impressive about Ruminations is how cleanly it combines metal elements from all over the spectrum. It’s technically brilliant and detailed, it’s fast-paced in its guitar playing, but it’s going for a very moody, gloomy atmosphere. (There are metalheads who are much better at me at discerning all the different types, and someone is definitely going to come up and tell me that, actually, this fits all the hallmarks of djent or whatever, but that’s not the point.) It all wouldn’t come together nearly as perfectly without Lindsey Rose’s incredible vocal talents. I grew up on Within Temptation, Delain, Evanescence, Nightwish and the Gathering, so when I say that Lindsey Rose is one to watch — I fucking mean it.
This is — you might have guessed – Blood Abscission’s second album, and it’s a strong one. Largely instrumental, with vocal screams offered more as sonic texturing, this is melodic black metal filling a room and creating a wall of sound for you to make your way through. The numbered songs don’t give much food for the imagination, so you’re left to decipher the sounds you’re given on your own, and it’s definitely an experience. It’s hard for me to choose a favourite — this is one of the albums I actually bought this year, so I’m doing my best to leave my personal love for instrumental metal out of the picture 😛 – but the third track (II – III) is the one with the grandest build into its sounds, in my opinion.
Faetooth is one of those bands occupying the odd-at-first-sight intersection of sludge/doom metal and… shoegaze? Is that right? But when you listen to them, especially Labyrinthine, it clicks into place surprisingly well. With grunge-style vocals instead of the near-operatic ones usually used with symphonic metal or the growled/screamed ones from death and doom, Faetooth’s lyrical style already stands out. Paired with dense sound, chugging guitars and slow but intense songs, it’s a fascinating cross-section of genre, especially with the fae influence in the lyrics themselves.
54. Matalobos – Phantasmagoria: Hexed Lands
I don’t think I’ve been able to go off about how much I love bilingual lyrics lately. They’re more prominent in places like J-Pop and K-Pop, where I… don’t go, and where they’re a bit more about gratuitous English than bilingual lyrics (aka, they don’t always mean what they’re meant to mean). Matalobos, however, is a Mexican doom/death metal band, singing about Mexican folklore, and with passages in Spanish woven into the English-language lyrics. AHHHH. THIS IS SO MY SHIIIT.
I also have to shout out the cover art here. Designed by Manolo González Zavala, it’s giving 80s schlock horror, it’s giving 70s rock albums, it’s giving Bela Lugosi — It’s so good.
I don’t understand a word of this album; the lyrics also haven’t been supplied so the only word I do know is the album title — Yeshua, or Jesus. I also have no other clues to go off of, as the songs are untitled, only marked out with numerals. There’s also very little about the band on the page, except that they’re based in Kazakhstan. All of this adds to the atmosphere of the album, which is gorgeous, atmospheric, intense black metal that goes between melody and distortion as it crafts its story, including samples in (presumably) Kazakhstani. Maybe if I knew the lyrics I wouldn’t like the story as much! Who’s to say? But some mysteries just add to the experience.
56. The Lucidia Project – The Twilight Affliction
These guys approached me on Bsky a while ago prior to the release of this album, so I’ve been seeing them around for a while! It did take me a while to sit down and listen to the whole thing, though (I do apologize — that said, look at this list!) and I wish I’d done it sooner. Hovering on the edge of hard rock and symphonic metal, TLP use majority-clean vocals in lieu of the growls occupying a lot of this list, which shows how (rightfully) confident they are in their vocal skills; they use growls as emphasis and punctuation, creating the unusual version of beauty-and-the-beast where both vocal sets are male. (I’d say both vocalists, but impressively, the only vocalist listed is Chase Baldwin, who also does pianos, strings, and drum programming. Daniel Williams and Garrett Carroll are both on guitar duty, and Benjamin Jacobs is on bass.) Also of note is the excellent production value for an indie group — Chase Baldwin is also the audio engineer/producer, so this man has many, many hats. It’s an excellent debut, and I’m excited to see more from them in the next few years!
57. Order of the Wolf – Wolven Daughter x Order of the Wolf
It’s hard to know how exactly to list this one since the album itself doesn’t have a name other than the name of its two co-creators; this is a split release between two bands, the only one of its kind on the list. (Or, to be honest, that I think I’ve personally seen?) Wolven Daughter is “DIY queer black metal” from Kentucky, which seems to come down to one person — someone only going by E. who does drums, bass, guitar, vox and production. Order of the Wolf is similarly a one-person project, an antifascist/anarchist black metal/blackened crust project from Scotland. No wonder the two of them decided to work together, although I have to wonder how they met! (Although the internet means they haven’t necessarily met in person.) I’m going to give Wolven Daughter a little bit of flak here, where Order of the Wolf posted lyrics but they didn’t! Come on, people. But it’s a gentle bit of joshing, and as you can see, I’m giving everybody trouble about it. It’s basically my job (<– it is not his job. He is a pain in the ass on a volunteer basis.) Anyway, these two projects do go together very well, to the point where I’d love to see them actively collaborate on a track, not just an album; I’m actually surprised they didn’t, on a project like this, but presumably there’s more to that than the non-musician assumes. (There is definitely more to it.)
58. Bind by Root, Bind by Branch
This is another unusual album, in that it’s the only compilation on the list. Usually, compilations of any kind wouldn’t be worth a list like this. But the size and mission of this one makes it worth including. Bind By Root, Bind By Branch is a collection of 44 bands over roughly 11 genres and 3.5 hours, being sold to raise money for The Trevor Project and Trans Lifeline. I don’t know how many of the bands are trans-fronted, but the list of genres — “black metal, doom, blackened crust, animistic folk, dark ambient, harsh noise, avant garde, dungeon synth, ritual, drone jazz, and spoken word” — would suggest, statistically, a lot of transfem musicians in particular. (I’m only being half silly! There are a lot!) It also means that this is an excellent sampler of trans-positive, underground bands, and a great introduction to the breathsunboneblood label’s work.
Absolutely gorgeous gothic metal with yet another absolutely killer female vocalist, this time by the name of Sara Bianchin. This was another of my purchases this year, because — well, you’re sussing out my tastes pretty well. Messa is one of the long-haulers on this list among a lot of younger artists; they’ve been around since 2014, which I keep having to mentally remind myself was ten….eleven… twelve years ago. Oh god. Anyway, this album is a masterpiece. From the captivating beginning of “Void Meridian” to the opening drones of “Thicker Blood”, every track feels like a siren song, and the whole album clocks in at under 45 minutes — so a perfect length for an album, in my opinion. My favourite is definitely “Void Meridian”, but the whole album has gotten several listen-throughs from me.
Another band that actually credits their graphic designer, THANK you. This is an incredible melodic/atmospheric black/death metal album that builds from a very contemplative instrumental opening up to the feverish, symphonic opening of the Viking-esque ‘The Hull’ (“Heed the call, line the maw/Gnashing teeth to tear the throat of god/Heed the call, glory bound with blood to draw/To quell the fear of the fate that you have bought”). Honestly, every lyric in this album is exquisitely Lovecraftian in how it leans into the horror of the images it’s crafting. There’s no self-consciousness here, and a love for what they’re creating that comes through incredibly well. It doesn’t hurt that this is basically exactly my kind of music, but if you’re not scared off by growled vocals, definitely give it a listen. On top of that, I said Viking-esque, but I’m actually pretty sure that this is about the attempted founding and subsequent abandonment of Vinland, but that might be regional bias coming in.
61. Agriculture – The Spiritual Sound
I’ve never heard the term ‘ecstatic black metal’ before and apparently for good reason – it’s a term that Agriculture coined for themselves to describe their particular brand of optimistic-through-adversity black metal. The juxtaposition between the screamed vocals/harsh guitars and the Buddhist-inspired lyrics alone is a beautiful example of what exactly they mean. “no death could be worth escaping/the timbre of this pain./i’ve been born of many fathers and i’ll be born again.” There’s something very disquietingly real about this kind of religious mantra being screamed in desperation rather than over peaceful hums; especially in (i keep saying this, but it keeps being true) hard times. Then on Side B, starting with the instrumental track 6, the tone shifts into a pure devotional, vocals dipping into softer realms. This wouldn’t work nearly as well without the contrast of the first half – especially because Dan Meyer’s vocals are absolutely gorgeous and will bring a tear to your eye, especially in “Dan’s Love Song”. There’s also the epic “Bodhidharma”, which uses a subversion of beauty-and-the-beast vocals to tremendous effect — I’m definitely missing some of the context for it since I’m not sure which ‘Hulke’ is being referenced in the lyrics, but even as is, it’s an amazing track — and my god, the guitar stands out in this one, although it’s excellent through the whole album.
62. Adam AG – At A Loss For Words
Okay, so, funny story about this particular artist. Two-ish (three?) years ago, the Artists for Palestine list got really big – a bunch of musicians signed it in support of Palestine, and a few got in trouble. Remember that? I ended up going through it and getting a bunch of excellent new listens out of it, because — good for them — a ton of them were tiny, tiny artists who stood to lose everything. Well, Adam AG ALSO happened to have a new release this year, and it’s a banger. Adam AG is based out of Qatar (that’s a first for my posts, I think, damn) and creates instrumental progressive metal, crafting narratives through what is apparently solely synthesizer! (Dang!)
63. Transgressive – Remember Us To Death
I hate that this came out in March and there are still more names to add to the spoken word part in the beginning. This is a fantastic release — it’s just hard for me to be normal about it. Being trans in 2026 is a particularly brutal experience, and the title track of Remember Us To Death is a nearly-nine-minute epic dedicated to our lost loved ones. It’s a gorgeous back-and-forth between death-metal growls and calls out to a crowd — and like all the best death metal songs it feels like a primal scream.
“1933 they burned our books and slaughtered our progress
Forgotten history, left aside, by the Imperialist west
Don’t you see it’s all tied up? The mission’s always been the same
Tyrant’s hands reaching out, to slaughter amber waves of grain”
It’s followed up with a much shorter song, a cover of an Aus-Rotten song called “Fuck Nazi Sympathy” which I think speaks for itself! But the blistering guitars and vocals are on excellent display here, too. Transgressive also released Never Go Quiet this year, with a song based on Malazan: Book of the Fallen, and Not Like This.
PUNK, POST-PUNK & POP-PUNK — OR — YELL ABOUT THE TROUBLE, MAKE MORE IN THE MORNING
To…nobody’s surprise, this is the longest section. I have my faves when it comes to genre, and punk anything is one of them. Plus, well — for obvious reasons, punk is big on Bandcamp, and it’s big right now. This is also probably one of the most varied sections, including new wave, shoegaze, pop-punk, crustpunk…. basically everything short of hardcore, which I’ve put separately basically just cause I felt like it.
Absolutely gorgeous atmospheric shoegaze, with enough guitar and hard edges for me to justify putting them here (and also, really, where do you put shoegaze?) — I ran into ‘Blue Light’ from these folks earlier this year and it’s been on one of my regular writing playlists ever since. So that one’s absolutely my favourite. But the entire EP is such a specific, satisfying sound. It rests on the soaring vocals from both singers, but doesn’t only showcase them, either; and the lyrics have a cryptic, symbolism-laden minimalism to them that suggests more than they’ll ever show. “things seem to be/out of place/and I don’t remember/how I got in this maze/taste the air/unaware/just you lay there.”
65. Frankie and the Witch-Fingers – Trash Classic
There is so much going on in every song of this album. On the wrong day, this is sonic overload (/negative). On the right day, it’s sonic overload (/positive) and getting me up on my feet. Even just the opening track, instrumental and short though it is, is such an excellent preview for the high energy and electronic-punk clash following it. It’s just so refreshing to hear punk music being played fast again — it’s not that punk bands aren’t fast, but this is like Ramones-style riffing, with analog synth keeping up (barely) in the background. I’m also entertained at its secondary label being prog rock. It certainly fits, but I’m just remembering the days when prog-rock and punk were thought of as natural enemies. Fuck genre, we ball.
Slowing things down… a tiny bit, we’ve got some more classic pop-punk with Delivery’s second full-length LP Force Majeure. Somewhere between Blink-182 and McFly, Delivery doesn’t have the goth trappings of the emo crowd, instead opting for a surf-rock vibe with big drums and big presence. (Selling footy shorts with their album really just adds to this — it’s such a funny move.) They’re, of course, from Melbourne — and what is Australia adding to the water? It seems like half of the Anglosphere’s best bands are coming from there these days, or maybe it’s just me noticing when I’ll never be able to see them (sobs). The best track from this, by far, is “The New Alphabet” — although they’re all pretty damn great. I just really love “The New Alphabet”.
There hasn’t been enough about Cop City explicitly in… anything, lately, although I can’t fault people. There are so many causes, how can you possibly talk about them all? But it still means I’m very glad to see this. I wish the lyrics were supplied (people!!!) but between the zine-style album cover, the short and to-the-point songs (none of them reach three minutes) and the tragically-now-sold-out limited edition cassettes, the entire conceit of this is drenched in DIY punk/anarchist culture and I love it. All of it would be for naught, too, if the music sucked — but it’s fucking great. Fave: “Primitive World”, just for some of the vocal styling used on it.
…so you know that thing when the first track on an album is so good you get kind of antsy about listening to the rest cause you just wanna listen to the first track over and over? No? Just me? Just me and the other autistics? Okay, well, I got hit by this real bad with this album. “Follow the Sun” is just SO FUCKING GOOD. It scratches some specific part of my brain. Something about the galloping rhythm it starts with and the low bass of the vocals keeps me There. I did eventually get past it, and the rest of the album is also fucking fantastic — but I had to be honest that the first track just has its claws in me, man.
Professional hat on: This is such a beautifully moody album. The industrial and new-wave influences blend extremely well (or are blended well, I should say) with notes from rave culture and 90s/2000s punk. I’m also genuinely impressed with the instrumental hooks — hearing ones that draw me in with a genuine feeling of never having heard this before is… rare, actually! (Again, look at how long this list is. I listen to a lot of music.) So, very well done. Now to go listen to “Follow The Sun” again–
First of all — LOOK AT THAT COVER! Look at that! Where are your shirts? Gimme!
Second of all — Canucks! I’m always so happy whenever I’m putting a Canadian on here. Even if you’re from British Columbia so it barely counts. (Rich to say after wanting to claim Seattle, I know.) Anyway, this album is fucking awesome. I’m still going to wear out my keyboard again telling you to upload your FUCKING LYRICS, but the atmosphere of your songs is so good that I’ll just death-glare you a little bit. I’m loving the bass focus and unpredictable melodies, and very sad that the vinyls are sold out — that said, every single time I see those Sold Out icons I remind myself that it’s a sign of a band’s success! Selling out, in these cases, is good– (yanked off stage with a cane)
Joy Division and Echo & The Bunnymen welcome another into the fold — Lathe of Heaven is new-wave/darkwave punk writ large and beautiful and what do you mean this is their second album. Sophomore slump who?? There are so many killer second albums on this list that I think that’s just made up. But seriously, this is such a well-crafted album. My favourite track is far and away the titular “Aurora”, especially with the synth hooks, but Gage Allison’s vocals have me by the neck regardless. I also adore the scifi influence all over this — the name of the band, for example, comes from a LeGuin novel. The lyrics are gorgeous and personal, but echo post-apocalyptic and science fiction landscapes from cyberpunk and anti-colonialist futures. “Portrait of a Scorched Earth” includes these lyrics, “Does it really help to look away?/Is the cost of happiness to rob yourself of reality?/Can you go on living in these dreams?/What comforts have you found in this realm of stolen things?” which is — one, gorgeous, and two, so bloody pertinent.
71. Harsh Symmetry – On-Screen Death
…Okay there’s a lot of new-wave/post-punk on this list. Don’t judge me. I am who I am. But also there’s just a lot of really good new-wave/post-punk on Bandcamp! Harsh Symmetry uses a stronger drum-line than Lathe of Heaven, lending them more of a slowed-down Tears-for-Fears feel, but I don’t think that’s a downside for anybody with taste. (I might be being biased again.) The juxtaposition of melancholy with funk is also very Depeche Mode, and I know these are all very old, but that’s part of what strikes me about Harsh Symmetry in particular; they’re channeling older influences with new technology in a way many of these bands are doing, but taking particular care with it. Favourite is probably “Virtual Killer” for opening alone, but “Stained Glass” is a close second.
72. Lady and the Clowns – Mar Viola
For this band, I’m breaking a rule I’ve stuck to for the whole list, for reasons I’ll explain quickly. The link in the header is to Spotify, which I normally don’t use in these columns anymore. But the band does have a Bandcamp — over here. It’s just that… for some reason, despite releasing the singles on Bandcamp, Lady and the Clowns have not released their album Mar Viola on Bandcamp where we can support them directly. This is particularly agonizing for me since the song I love most from them is not one of the singles; it’s the ballad “Blue”, which displays the lead singer’s vocals (Sarah Bassetti) so, so well.
But backing up. I first discovered Lady and the Clowns while doing my monthly roundups last year. Their (fantastic) cover of Madonna’s “Hung Up” caught my interest, and I ended up following them. They’re a fun dynamic trio, based in Italy and mixing punk, rock and disco vibes — definitely check them out. And please, Lady, Clowns, all three of you — PUT MAR VIOLA ON BANDCAMP. Let us GIVE YOU MONEY. I will slap you with my WALLET.
73. Vienna Vienna – God Save The Queens
Normally radio play is the last thing I, or most of the people on this list, care about. But sometimes you hear a track and you’re just like — Now why the FUCK isn’t this on the radio? Vienna Vienna’s God Save The Queens is like that. It’s so catchy, so eminently singable, and such a snarky, wonderful response to the moment while still being positive that it makes me grin. The writing is witty, fun, and actually told from our perspective for once. “He starts to ask me a question, he said do you know Christ?/I said maybe I do/does she work the nights?” I don’t know if I get to claim things for the dolls — I don’t think I even count as a Ken doll — but it’s very, very well done.
But that’s not all. If it was just the track, that would be one thing. But then there’s the video. Yes, this is one of those indie tracks that has a music video — I can’t imagine what that must have been like to fund, but go VV. Anyway, we’re introduced to an obvious Bible-thumper, religious house, enough that the glimpse of the conversion therapy camp flyer doesn’t seem too out of place. And when he starts to jerk off to a picture of drag queens and trans folks, well, typical hypocrite — But right at the end of the video, he flips it over, and written on the back in lipstick, it says “We’ll wait for you”. There’s a sadness to it, of course; but it’s the sadness that we all live with anyway. And to treat conversion therapy as survivable, as a hell that we can make it through, that we can come back from, is something I really respect VV for — especially doing it in such an explicitly sex positive context.
74. Skunk Anansie – An Artist Is An Artist
I mentioned that I love when artists keep their accents, and Skunk Anansie has got to be one of the most iconic examples. One of the few Black-fem-fronted punk bands to gain prominence, Skunk Anansie also calls themselves ‘clit-rock’ which I just think is great. “An Artist Is An Artist” is an anthem against focus-groups and dumbass critics, which I love (wonder why…) — especially the little snipe at Americanisms. There’s also reggae influences on the other tracks, such as on “This Is Not Your Life”, which starts one way before taking a turn into frenetic electropunk, and both “Shame” and “Meltdown” let Skin use her voice in a sweeter, ballad context, demonstrating her range.
A technical thing I should note — The new album, for some reason, isn’t released via their existent official Bandcamp but a different one. Why this might be, I don’t know, and I suspect label shenanigans; but it’s worth bringing up.
75. McLusky – the world is still here and so are we
You’ve got hard guitars, shouted lyrics, and song titles like “autofocus on the prime directive”. What else could you possibly want from a punk record? This is McLusky’s first album in twenty years, making them – by age – one of the oldest bands on the list. (They’re beat out by Skunk Anansie and Deerhoof.) On the note of musicians keeping their accents, McLusky are from Bristol and I did not need to look at the bio to know that. They’re so proudly Brizzles. This is another punk band going for short and heavy tracks, and you don’t even notice because they pack a lot of lyrics into those two-and-change minutes.
I love me a well-toned guitar. Just taking a moment to appreciate the guitar on DIY GOD again (Crispin Swank), plus Kaitlin Pelkey’s vocals; plus, the lyrics of DIY GOD are so relatable as someone who exists in the anarchist-DIY scene of a city that doesn’t like that kind of thing. “I swear to god, there’s WikiHows on everything” it’s true!!!
I bounced off some of the other tracks a bit, but “Quit Your Job” is fucking great. “Quit your job/Do it now/Cause it’s nice outside/And I’ve got a towel for us to sit on/At the park down the street/A tall boy with your name on it/And cherries to eat” Anything that spreads the antiwork message is A++ from me.
77. Goodwill Suck Machine – Trophy Wife
Goodwill Suck Machine’s musical style owes a lot to specifically the early-2000s and I am fascinated by it; I can’t even name some of the bands GSM is riffing off of (it’s more than just Blink-182, they’re just the only name coming to mind) – it’s just a profound sense of deja vu. Not in the bad way, just a feeling that I should know the name for this genre beyond pop-punk. But really, it’s pop-punk from a specific place and time.
Trophy Wife is a collection of GSM’s three first releases, period; and while I can hear the roughness at the edges, this is a hell of a way to burst onto the scene. (Also, hey! Toronto!) The best is absolutely “Landmine” — “Trophy Wife” itself is a little too indebted to pop-punk, but “Landmine” is excellent even before its lyrics elevate it further. “do i come off condescending/just a little cruel or overwhelming/would it kill you to be understanding/just a simple compliment/instead you keep your stupid self assuring promises unsaid/you need a good friend/just someone” I also have a soft spot for songs about toxic friendships that delve into the complexity of it, especially when they manage to be spare with their words at the same time. So “Landmine” is one I’m keeping around.
78. Powerplant – Crashing Cars
The titular song of this two-song release reminds me of The Smiths’ There is a Light (That Never Goes Out) but recorded with all the desperation the lyrics imply; instead of the melancholy pacing of The Smiths’, you can almost hear the brakes struggling to engage and heaven howling in anticipation. I actually prefer this take.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that that’s an intentional take, but the brutal interpretation, at least, is backed by the album art. “Never Smile” is just as cynical — and here even more than the first track, the vocalist reminds of Robert Smith, albeit, again, a little wilder, a little more desperate. “You never smile/It’s not your style/Hey keep it down for another mile/Until you die”. Powerplant also released the EP Heat this year, and contributed to a charity release of ambient/instrumental themes called Save Room Themes.
HARDCORE/POST-HARDCORE – OR – SPEAK LOUDLY AND CARRY A BIG STICK
What, exactly, is the defining line between hardcore/post-hardcore and the rest of punk? Mostly the amount of screaming. I wasn’t initially planning on separating this out until I realized how much new wave I had on my list and realized that these folks…stood out. There’s equal difficulty in separating post-hardcore from certain genres of metal. That I put pretty much on what a band tags itself and my own personal taste; but really, those lines get pretty dang fuzzy.
79. Girlcock – Hot Trans Summer
I absolutely adore so much about this album. I’m not a huge pornogrind person, so musically I wouldn’t say it’s so much my thing — although there are definitely days I’m in the mood for it — but also, the reason I’m not into goregrind and pornogrind is because I’ve never really been the audience for their over-the-top, oversexualized, self-parodying lyrical content. Girlcock, on the other hand, is making fun of every ridiculous, fetishistic hate fantasy that TERFs have about trans women and turning it into pornogrind, and I am living for it. There’s also an excellent juxtaposition between the girl on the cover and the fact that trans girls are expected to live up to an even more impossible standard of femininity, and the pitch-shifted vocals and violent guitars used on the tracks themselves. Very, very, very good.
One last note — I was talking earlier about how ambient tracks being up to half an hour was normal for the genre. Now we’re in hardcore and it needs saying that these tracks being between 40 seconds to 2 minutes is also normal… for this genre.
The rhythm of this album is so good. There’s a talent to screamed vocals that people don’t always appreciate, and [] is a stand-out; he’s nailing rhythm and delivery in ways I wouldn’t even have thought about, especially on my favourite track “Scared of Everything and Nothing”. But then there’s the absolutely top-notch guitar work, and the drumming that feels so natural– But the vocals are stand-out for a second reason as well: even though they, like so many others, have not posted their lyrics, I almost didn’t need them. That’s right. I, the deaf guy, almost felt like I could understand the lyrics (key word: almost) despite them being screamed lyrics that most people need lyrics for. The amount of clarity in delivery necessary for that to be true is ridiculous — I’ve never felt like that with a screamo song before.
Drain have been on the hardcore scene for about ten years now, and this is their third album, marking an excellent streak. I do wish there was more interest in physical albums/merch; there’s a distinct lack of anything save the album in digital form on their page, which leaves me without extra ways to support them once I buy the album itself.
I am a SUCKER for good fusion, especially unexpected combinations — and Bloodywood absolutely deliver. Post-hardcore meets… Indian folk music? Of course, it’s not that weird. Folk metal’s been around for a long time; it’s just been dominated by, well, white people. Bloodywood’s been making a name for themselves for a few years now, but this album steps things up, especially with the singles “Nu Delhi” and the multilingual collaboration “Bekhauf” which features BABYMETAL. Adding Indian folk instruments into the standard mix of loud guitars and growling vocals adds a whole new level of aural interest, and that’s before the fact that these are just damn good songs anyway.
PROG ROCK, POST-ROCK, ROCK – GUITAR HEROES 2020 EDITION
…Man, imagine playing post-rock on rock band? Someone make this happey. I’ll pay you. (In Monopoly money. A bitch is broke.) We all know what rock and roll is, sort of. The guitar is the main character, and punk evolved from this; but prog rock and post-rock are almost classically-inspired evolutions of rock in the opposite directly from punk. Where punk is short and sweet, prog-rock and post-rock go for longer compositions; punk loves its vocals, but many of these bands are instrumental. Essentially, we’re talking about people who are playing, musically speaking, rock and roll — we’re not using high distortion or metal/punk conventions — but their lyrics, formats, etc. are sometimes much more avant-garde.
82. We Lost The Sea – A Single Flower
My most recent purchase, We Lost The Sea are a unique case of a band who went instrumental after the death of their frontman and singer. It’s an unusual and touching sign of respect, and one that can’t help but color my perspective as I listen to this album (on repeat… I really like it). So often singers are replaced, or their death means the end of a band/project. But it’s hard for me, as a new listener, to imagine this band any other way, which seems like a rather potent metaphor for how grief changes you.
Nor is this completely off topic. A Single Flower, their third instrumental album, is very much an album about grief and death regardless — something which is conveyed rather brilliantly through music that pushes and pulls, crescendos and blooms, and elicits powerful emotion without ever so much as saying a word. My favourite track is absolutely “A Dance with Death” but the whole thing feels like a composition in and of itself, which can’t be said about every — or even a majority of — modern instrumental post-rock albums.
83. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Phantom Island
Sometimes I’m not sure about the term psychedelic rock and then I hear something that reminds me why the term exists. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, famous for both their incredible output and their ability to sound completely different on every album, are fully 70s rockers on this album, with a morbidly cheerful take on a plane crash (“Deadstick”) as the (personal) standout and riffs keeping the energy going right up until the final track. This is my first exposure to KGatLW and it’s — dang. I also haven’t even had the chance to dig into their lyrics (Since. Once again. THEY ARE NOT ON THE BANDCAMP) but I can feel the narrative taunting me and telling me to come closer. I’m sensing some Scooby-Doo shit though.
Also bonus points for a specific kind of falsetto that really nails the 70s vibe.
Somewhere between King Crimson and Styx, with a bit of Detroit blues-rock thrown in, Motorpsycho is probably the most direct descendant of the 70s prog-rockers on this list. Between their elaborate lyrics, harmonized vocals and song length, it’s hard not to be reminded of Genesis when they do their bluesy solos — but at the same time, they’re firmly their own, occupying an arena that’s been empty for a while in this day and age. Plus, my god, imagine if Court of the Crimson King had this level of recording quality?
Picking a favourite song is hard, especially since my dad was a freak for Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and Marillion (I don’t even like Script for a Jester’s Tear and it’s playing in my head. Begone, Fish!) but opening epic ‘Lucifer, Bringer of Light’ and ‘Balthazaar’ are competing for top spot. What can I say? I like them big. (Please put down the rotten fruit. I’ll be good.)
85. Vulture Feather – It Will Be Like Now
Vulture Feather is another new band for me, but from the very opening notes of It Will Be Like Now, they’re delivering the grungy, introspective, Springsteen-meets-Stone-Temple-Pilots prog rock I live for. It surprised me at first to find out that this is only their second album, but as it turns out, they’ve been making music together for 25+ years; just under different names. These are old hats at the rock business, and it shows. If anything, my Springsteen references aside, they remind me of Jack White’s various projects the most — not in sound, but in the confidence they’re bringing to their music.
It’s impossible for me to pick a favourite here. The entire album works so well together as a single entity — from the rock-ballad intensity of “Blood Knot” to the chiming opening of “Sweetest Friend”, to the final duo of “Only/Holy Names” and “Let it Through”, it’s all one story. This is definitely on my purchase list for 2026, and I just wish I could justify snapping up one of those last remaining vinyls…
86. newspaperflyhunting – Timeless
Oh, god, I love good harmonics. The atmosphere of this release, the timing, the melody — auuuugh. Based in Poland, newspaperflyhunting have been making music since 2014, and define their music as “acroamatic stonegaze” which… I don’t know what that means. Nature-based shoegaze? I don’t know but it’s pretty. There’s a hymnal quality to the way they approach their sound, though, which fits in very well with the post-rock/shoegaze– sorry, stonegaze? — approach. Favourite track: “a moment” because it makes me feel like I’m standing in an abandoned church. Gorgeous.
87. Kat Robichaud – Siren Song
I used to love the Dresden Dolls, but while I believe in separating the art from the artist in theory, it’s hard to do especially with someone as… well. Much. As Amanda Palmer. As a result, for the last few years, I’ve been aching for music that brings that same kind of gothic-cabaret style; Dirt Poor Robins are definitely close, but Kat Robichaud on this track has once and forever replaced Dresden Dolls in my heart. Some of it is the flair of the deftly-spoken, tongue-twisting lyrics; some of it is the deep alto of her voice; a lot of it is the almost Broadway-esque monologuing quality of it, as the siren tells you exactly how you’re dying.
Kat Robichaud also released Psycho Hysterical, Ouija Board, This Christmas, Vampire Love — okay, a bunch of stuff this year! I believe these are all singles, at least, but still. Good work.
If you told me that someone was mixing prog-rock and jazz — well, first of all, I might assume you just meant Pink Floyd. But Mad Vantage is mixing prog metal and jazz, which means high speed, a touch of djent for flavour, technical brilliance, and the overwhelming feeling that someone fed you Amanita for breakfast. (The mushroom, not Freema Agyeman.) A project by acclaimed composer Solune, this album is recorded — Sorry, what? Did I read that right?
Okay, so either I’m developing dyslexia in real time or this album was recorded live instead of being layered in the studio. Which, once you listen to this, you will understand what an absolutely insane proposition that is. This is the first Mad Vantage album, although Solune has many credits of her own in collaboration with others, and I am very excited to see what comes next. Favourite tracks: “Matriarch” and “Terranea”.
89. Motherhood – Thunder Perfect Mind
One day, when walking on his merry way, an unsuspecting pedestrian is snatched up by a ‘formless cloud’; no, it’s not Nope (good news for our main character) or an unreleased Genesis album, it’s a concept album from Fredericton-based art rockers Motherhood. With notes from Styx, Mother Mother, Arcade Fire and many others, Motherhood are nevertheless very much their own. There’s a joke on the Bandcamp page about this somehow still being their most accessible album, and I love that in a band. (I grew up listening to Nursery Cryme. Not my fault.) It’s a profoundly silly record, ranging into disco-styled rhythms at times and including a song all about “grow high/formless black cloud/Cover up the whole sky/Never set me back down”, and with a wickedly dark sense of humour at other times — it’s still got lots to say, but it’s not taking itself too seriously, either.
Favourite track: “Grow Higher”, our death metal interlude which is all of 49 seconds. It’s fantastic on its own, even better in context.
90. Anna von Hausswolff – Iconoclasts
I will take an interesting vocal over a “pretty” vocal any day, and Anna von Hausswolff seems to agree. Not because she doesn’t have a good voice; quite the opposite. But Hausswolff takes the interesting option on a lot of these songs over the classically “pretty” option and it makes the album so much stronger. Take title track “The Iconoclast”, where there’s something dissonant about the high tone she’s using — ethereal, odd, but so fitting. It takes a supreme amount of confidence to pull off some of the moves Hausswolff executes on this album, including featuring both Iggy Pop and Ethel Cain on separate tracks — but it pays off. Meet the modern Kate Bush, friends. I’m surprised there isn’t a cover of ‘This Woman’s Work’ on here, because Hausswolf wouldn’t just kill it, she’d skin it and wear it as a jacket.
HIP-HOP/RAP/SPOKEN WORD – OR – MAYBE THE NEXT ELECTION SHOULD BE A RAP BATTLE INSTEAD
I’ve only recently started getting into hip-hop and rap properly, and a lot of what I listen to is a) old and b) ends up more accurately slotting into other genres; so this section’s still small, but I’m always on the lookout to make it grow. (Hint: that means send me your stuff. Do it. DO IT.) The rest speaks for itself, but it does seem relevant to mention that I don’t know jack shit except “this makes my brain happy”. Ask me about punk and I’ll say something that sounds smart. Ask me about hip-hop and I’m liable to say some dumb shit like “was Tupac from New York?”*
*Please do not send me corrections. I am joking.
91. Jana H-S – Blood On The Lens, Part 1 and Part 2
Jana H-S is an artist unlike any other on this list, which is pretty much why this isn’t just a hip-hop/rap section. Recorded spoken word is a genre unto itself, and one that — done badly — can get profoundly silly. It’s incorporated into other genres increasingly often, such as with Ada Rook above or the works of La Dispute, but Jana is the first artist I’ve run into so far (other than, ironically, myself) to make the spoken-word the focus without it taking on the attributes of rap. The line between the two genres is paper-thin, but it is there!
I’m actually linking to two albums here — it’s highly unusual for a two-part album like this to actually have both parts released in the same year! The release schedule for indies is so much shorter, and it feels like a shame not to present them as two parts of a whole. The poetry here is raw and confessional, with a sardonic edge at times, spoken with a distorted voice (the lyrics, thank you Jana, are provided so you can get the full depth of the poetry without H-S compromising on the intended sonic effect) over unsettling ambiance — and it fits extremely well with the gore that spills out at unexpected moments. “your mouth opens into a scream/your guts open onto the floor/I’ve seen this one a couple times now/that doesn’t make it any easier.” (from “Mirror Shot/No Keylight” on Part 2).
92. Trauma Bond – Catch Me If You Can
Goddddd. As per usual the lyrics haven’t been posted, but the production value of this song is so clear that I can pick up more than usual – and it is so FIRE. It is SO good. It’s catchy, it’s on point, it’s real, and — damn just listen for yourself. This is a single, with both a ‘dirty’ and a radio version, and even a (self-filmed) video.
There are three people starring on this track total; Trauma Bond is made up of Empuls and Kain King, and the track features Jeck Da General. On top of that, though, this is released by the Calm Bomb Collective, who are — I’ll cite directly from the sidebar — “a nonprofit 501 (c)(3) providing resources and safe spaces for creatives who are Disabled, Autistic, and Neurodivergent”. What exactly that means for funding breakdown re: how much money goes to artists vs the collective, I don’t know, but it sounds pretty dang cool.
A second compilation! This one is for a more unusual but extra-noteworthy cause. As…perhaps not as many of you as I’d hope may know, Canada is facing an economic crisis and has been for a while. This compilation, featuring various Canadian hip-hop and underground rap artists (although some of the songs end up in all sorts of genres), is intended to fund a national food drive, with the profits going to food banks in various cities across Canada. There are fifty-six tracks on here, all by different bands, and — to my extreme sadness — not a lot of supporters. (I’m hoping this is distributed on other sites too, though.) So definitely check this out if you like underground rap and/or want to support a food drive!
I haven’t been able to listen to the whole thing — because, fifty-six songs — but two standouts already are “3 STACK (Ft. twitchy tantrum)” by Listo & A Pistol (track 46) and the delightfully odd “Isaac and the Holy Guitar” by Landlords (track 31).
I’d be lying if I didn’t say part of why I included this was the album name. Sorry but that’s awesome. On top of it, this is the first of our three non-English rap/hip-hop features. I’m always so fucking impressed with non-English rap, not because it’s inherently harder (although sometimes it is; I can’t even begin to wrap my head around the intricacies of rapping in a tonal language like Mandarin and YET! people do it!) but because it manages to sound cool as shit even when I can’t understand the words. It’s because so much of rap is in showing off how smoothly you can deliver your lines. Dop isn’t just rapping in Hungarian but fully based in the country — he’s charging in Hungarian currency — which also makes him I think the…second? artist from Hungary I’ve featured. (The first was years ago, though — and a folk artist.)
Without the lyrics provided, I unfortunately have no idea what he’s rapping about. The only clue is through song names, which translate to things like “What is the value of life?” (Mit ér az élet) and “I’m Fine” (Jól vagyok). I’m very interested in the lyrical content as a result — between this and the melody of some of these, I’m suspecting there’s a lot of introspective content. But I could be entirely wrong.
Another non-English rapper, this time from Belgium! Arsenic Juice is rapping in French (luckily one of the languages I know when I hear it, since again no lyrics are supplied) and these songs mix in industrial, hardcore, and punk influences with a solid hip-hop core. This is probably the most obvious on “Senua”, but it’s omnipresent throughout, making this album extremely sonically coherent while having very distinct songs. I’m also very impressed with how fast Arsenic Juice is rapping on some of these; the benefit of speaking a little bit of French is knowing how some of these phrases sound normally.
Also, holy shit that cover art. It isn’t mentioned on the page itself, but I asked Arsenic himself and it’s his own design — as it turns out, he’s a tattoo artist, so if you’re in Belgium, definitely reach out. Arsenic Juice also released Dépressionniste in July, Zombie Bizarre in May and Rap & Destruction in April – making 2025 a packed debut year for them. Yes, I said debut! Apparently Rap & Destruction was their first one!
Do you like rap? How about rap in Catalàn? That’s right — HcB, Barcelona rap group, wrote this entire album not in Spanish proper but in one of Spain’s less well-known official languages. Catalàn is the language of the Catalonia region, including Barcelona, as well as th small country of Andorra. The differences between it and Castilian Spanish are minor, at least to the untrained ear, but significant enough to mark it as a distinct language; this choice by HcB, then, is marked by linguistic, sociocultural and musical meaning.
Sadly, I’m not the right person to delve into all of those. I just think this shit is fire. And it really is! Like this is SICK. My exposure isn’t what it could be to rap, so anything I say about flow or anything like that will be entirely pulled out of my ass, but I genuinely enjoy the rhythms being used here and the diversity of them. The title track, of course, is awesome (if you fuck up your title track that’s like tripping underwater) but “Obvi amb Irene Reig” also has some excellent melodic back and forth.
I also applaud HcB for supplying their lyrics, which means that unlike a lot of non-English artists, I have some idea what they’re singing about. Of course, I don’t trust Google Translate with something like Catalan, but it’s decent for a rough estimate, and “Obvi amb Irene Reig” includes “Alarm companies finance morning TV, and you end up applauding a bunch of Nazis” (Empreses d’alarmes financien la tele al matí/i acabes aplaudint a una colla de nazis). Which is FIRE. I’d never ask non-English musicians to supply translations — that’s so much extra work to put on indies — but I am endlessly curious for accurate translations of what are clearly amazing lyrics, so perhaps something for fans to consider?
BLUES, REGGAE AND JAZZ – KICKIN IT OLD SCHOOL
Funnily enough this is actually one of the genres I know the best… offline. Recorded blues/jazz/etc., I’m less at home with, but I enjoy it. I had to make some tough choices about what to include (hence why this doesn’t include any country or folk) but basically, any of the roots genres — things you’d expect to hear as live music in a bar or back at home at the Get Together — go in here. (And it doesn’t matter where your home is. We’ve got some reggae here, and if I’d run into any soca, that’d be here too.)
This jazz trio from Lebanon blends surf rock and Mediterranean guitar music to create catchy, room-filling melodies that are named, for probably their own amusement, after types of fish. Why not? More seriously, this entire album is dedicated to the Lebanese coastline. All three musicians of Prefaces are long-timemembers of the Beirut indie scene — Charif Megarbane (guitars, bass, keyboard), Salim Naffah (guitar and piano), and Pascal Semerdjian (drums and other percussion). This is their second album together, but it sounds like they’ve been playing together for years — the real hallmark of seasoned musicians, honestly.
98. Feelocopher – Vice City Night
In a stroke of tragedy, Feelocopher did have an Instagram page — one that can still be previewed on Google, even — but it’s recently been removed. So I’m confident that this is a real band, but I can’t tell you anything about them other than that there seems to be some Greek influence (there’s Greek in their bio). They’re otherwise based in Los Angeles, which is probably the ‘Vice City’ of the title.
Still, this catchy, long-form jazz/electronic song speaks for itself. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect to hear in a film set in the 20s — maybe a touch out of place chronologically, but setting the scene beautifully. It’s moody but stylish, with a touch of melancholy on top of the party vibes.
99. Ash Soan and Ariel Posen – Self Titled
Yes, it’s literally called Self Titled, that’s not me being cute. This is a collection of deeply earworm-y, funky, crunchy blues riffs and drum fills from musicians Ariel Posen (Canadian guitarist from the band Bros) and experienced session drummre Ash Soan (Snow Patrol, Tori Amos, Seal, Van Morrison, Bryan Adams, Sinéad O’Connor, Marianne Faithfull, Squeeze, Belinda Carlisle, Tate McRae, Alicia Keys, Dua Lipa, Cher, Robbie Williams, Billy Idol, Adele — what the fuck, man). This album is a fantastic listen, not just for enjoying riffy blues-rock, but for both appreciating Ariel Posen’s talent and recognizing what a truly skilled drummer does. Drummers have a tendency to fade into the background if you don’t know what you’re listening for — jokes about Ringo Starr abound — but someone like Ash Soan pulls a whole session together, otherwise he wouldn’t have the career he does.
100. Mystik Irieen – Vibe of My Own
I’m ending this list with an absolutely stellar neo-reggae album from the gorgeous and vocally blessed Mystik Irieen. It’s wild to think of this as a debut because her voice is so strong — and the production frames her beautifully, letting her fill the recording instead of flattening her voice. As someone who’s mostly listened to classic reggae and soca, it’s wild going directly from the old classics to this. (I’m currently working on broadening my horizons; much like with my notes on hip-hop, algorithms are decidedly unhelpful on this front.) It also surprises me — in a good way — that she’s another Aussie; but from the exposure I do have to Aussie folk and indigenous music she’s taking influence from there as well as from traditional reggae.
Favourite track is probably the title track “Vibe of My Own”, but these are all incredibly captivating — “Whispers in the Smoke” has some incredible lyricism on display (“Whispers in the smoke, I hear your lies…/You burn bridges, I touch skies./Built from pain, but now I float…/No more drowning in your smoke.) almost effortlessly matched by the very next song “Well of Light” (From the Well of Light, I pulled my soul/From echoes carved in blackest coal/No, I don’t beg, I breathe, I burn/I rise in ways they’ll never learn”) — the streak lasts all the way to the end of the album, where the last song with lyrics starts with “rise up, my people, rise up…We are the seed and the sun…Roots of gold, we carry them home.” (This is the most lyrics I’ve shared, but also, look at them.)
And with that, holy shit, this column is DONE. This is the longest thing I’ve ever posted to this website, I’m pretty sure. To round things off, here are my top ten songs from here — this is just a personal set of faves as a little bonus, in no particular order:
- Blood Knot – Vulture Feather
- A Dance With Death – We Lost The Sea
- Irrelevance – Primrose Path
- God Save The Queens – Vienna Vienna
- Antifascista – Blinky Blinky Computerband
- Aurora – Lathe of Heaven
- Vibe of My Own – Mystik Irieen
- Blue Light – Moonwards
- Grief is a Garden – Fotoform
- Void Meridian – Messa
That’s all for now folks! If you appreciate the work I’ve put into this, please consider supporting me on SubscribeStar, or subscribing to this blog. Bookmark this page if you don’t wanna lose track of it, and remember — listening to music is great. Buying it is even better. And telling your friends to buy it is great. Easily half of the bands on this list offer vinyl, cassette and/or CD — support them, and keep the music world alive.
Elliott Dunstan 