he songs on Touch, the first new Tortoise music in nine years, are dramas without words. They’re elaborately appointed and carefully mixed to enhance a familiar feeling — a distinctly cinematic uneasiness. Close your eyes and you might see cars swerving around unlit rural roads, or cityscapes at night with bells clanging in the distance, or some abandoned warehouse where spies chase each other between towering stacks of boxes. The making of Touch is an entirely different kind of film — a heartwarming story of musicians adapting to life circumstances. Tortoise operates as a collective; the five multi-instrumentalists make records by committee, seeking input on creative decisions large and small. All ideas are considered, and for most of the band’s influential three-decade run, the process has been straightforward: Each musician brings in songs or sketches, and as the group absorbs them, the players exchange ideas about the structure, instrumentation, different grooves or (more frequently, because they’re Tortoise) odd metric divisions that might stretch the initial conception of the song.

“Krok” means “step” in Belarusian - and for Alex Chumak and his band this word comes with a lot of meaning. It’s the title and theme that run throughout СОЮЗ (SOYUZ)'s fourth album, reflecting the journeys the band has navigated in recent years, having moved to Warsaw due to political unrest in their homeland of Belarus and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. Embracing the uncertainty became both the inspiration and main lyrical theme for Alex Chumak, SOYUZ’ composer and arranger, who also decided to go a step further and change the language in which he writes songs from Russian, which is used as lingua franca in many post-Soviet countries, to his native Belarusian. The result is nine songs about dreams and outer space, ordinary miracles, things very close and very distant at the same time.

The subtle arc of suspense on the new Them concept album, ‘Psychedelic Enigma’, brings to mind legendary horror movie classics: The power metal recording kicks off with extremely tough, brutal and fast-paced numbers, spinning an enigmatic storyline around its mysterious protagonist and only revealing his secret – similar to the blockbusters ‘The Others’ (featuring Nicole Kidman) or ‘The Sixth Sense’ (featuring Bruce Willis) – at the very end, in an epic-progressive grand finale.

Horse Jumper of Love thrive on patient and pummeling songs. Since 2013, the Boston trio of singer-guitarist Dimitri Giannopoulos, bassist John Margaris, and drummer James Doran have slowly stretched the fringes of indie rock across five full-length LPs. Their music unwinds with gutting emotional intensity thanks to Giannopoulos’ impressionistic lyrics and how the arrangements violently lurch from delicate to bludgeoning. Disaster Trick - the band’s latest album released initially last year - is their most direct and uncompromising LP yet. Its 11 songs tackle self-destructiveness and healing with jolting lucidity. Now, Disaster Trick's Deluxe Edition CD expands on the world of the album with an array of additional songs, b-sides and updated versions of songs from the initial release.

Most bands need an entire lifetime to finish their first album. For Flycatcher, it took two full-lengths, one buzzy EP and seven years of retooling to arrive at what’s now their official debut.

Originally released back in 1980, at a time when traditional country artists seemed to be struggling to understand where their sound would fit in with the newly polished production of the time, his eight-song collection The Real Thang was only released on vinyl and met with mixed reviews when it came out. Listening to it now, it's odd to think that the album's blend of White's signature swamp rock sound and smooth late 70s disco was so cruelly overlooked, because it feels totally in step with a lot of other things that were happening in country in the early 1980s.

Three years after their debut with "Five Dance," The Blend, led by Yoshio Suzuki (b), aka "Chin-san," is back with their first studio album! The appeal of this band, which is made up of mid-career to veteran musicians including Atsusuke Mine (sax), Keisuke Nakamura (tp), Hakuei Kim (p), and Tamaya Honda (ds), is the beautiful and catchy original songs written by Suzuki and the improvisations in which their personalities collide over a matured groove.

PRISM, Vol. 3 continues saxophonist Jess Gillam’s acclaimed series with the Jess Gillam Ensemble, showcasing her trademark blend of radiant energy, expressive depth, and genre-defying curiosity. Released on Decca Music Group Ltd., the album weaves together works spanning classical, minimalism, and contemporary soundscapes — from pulse-driven rhythmic explorations to moments of lyrical stillness. Gillam’s bold artistry and the ensemble’s dynamic interplay illuminate each piece with warmth and vitality, creating a seamless arc that celebrates connection and emotion through sound. PRISM, Vol. 3 is both a reflection and a revelation — an exhilarating close to a trilogy that redefines what modern chamber music can be.

Ancestral marks a profound metamorphosis for master saxophonist John O’Gallagher. He cast off his old skin, fundamentally altering his studies, homeland, and life, thereby charting a new future. Recorded at Sound on Sound Studios in Montclair, New Jersey, in January 2024, Ancestral was influenced, in part, by O’Gallagher’s PhD studies into the music of John Coltrane, and reunites the versatile reeds player with guitarist Ben Monder while, notably, featuring the first-ever recorded collaboration between master drummers Andrew Cyrille and Billy Hart.

“Should [imaginative art] not come from the heart as well as the brain?” Samuel Coleridge‐Taylor, 1911. This poignant question—posed by Coleridge‐Taylor just months before his death— encapsulates the emotional core of Sabi Ensemble’s debut album, From The Heart. The SABI ENSEMBLE, founded in 2024 by historical bassist Carina Cosgrave, is committed to reviving works by composers whose work has been unjustly forgotten and placing this music from the margins centre stage.

Some albums announce themselves slowly, like clouds taking shape before your eyes. Skyways is one of them, a record that drifts in gently, unfolds at its own pace, and leaves behind the quiet wonder of hearing something beautiful form and fade in real time.

Distance has an uncanny ability to clarify feelings. It can offer an invigorating reset, reaffirming your capacity for love and renewing your sense of self. But if you surrender to its wisdom, you may not always like what it reveals. For Joyer, the east coast indie rock duo of brothers Nick and Shane Sullivan, distance has been a strange throughline as of late—distance from home, distance from each other, distance from a stable routine. Their latest LP, On the Other End of the Line…, ruminates on how stints in far-reaching places have affected them, uncovering anxieties and a burning desire for connection. But ultimately, it’s a hopeful reflection of two distinct perspectives on fluctuating backdrops and the pressures of creativity, filtered through hook-y earnestness and crunchy six-string bluster.

When we launched Spring Revisited in March, an incredible collaboration between Acid Jazz, Ace Records and Cosmos Music, we could only dream of the reaction it would receive. We started off with Dmitri From Paris’ mix of Millie Jackson’s ‘We Got To Hit It Off’, gaining universal acclaim from DJs, a Number 1 in the UK 12” singles chart, and the ‘Record of 2025’ at ‘We Out There’ festival: a veritable summer anthem. It sold out on both 12” and 7” vinyl, so it is only right that it opens up the Spring Revisited album. But the series is so much more than that. The mixes that followed from the likes of Kenny Dope, Dave Lee, Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, Joaquin ‘Joe’ Claussell, DJ Spinna, Opolopo, show how much the music of Spring means to such this dancefloor royalty. Claussell’s reworking of The Fatback Band’s ‘Snake’ gave us another 12” Number 1, and all in the week that the group played a triumphant show at London’s KOKO.

Frank Zappa’s Spooktacular Annual Holiday Tradition Lives On With ‘Halloween 78’ Box Set, Now Unmasked In A Devilishly Cool New Super Deluxe Edition.Zappa’s Forever Favorite Holiday Tradition In The Big Apple Gets Comprehensive Full-Bite Treatment It Has Long Deserved Expanded Super Deluxe Costume Box Set Edition Contains 62 Tracks On Five CDs With Pop-Out Mask Of Zappa As The Devil, Pitchfork With UV Light That Reveals Ornate Artwork, And Grimoire Book With Rare Photos And Memorabilia Includes Complete Show From 10-31-78 Newly Mixed And Mastered From The Original 24-Track Masters, Plus A Bonus Performance From The Opening 10-27-78 Show Of The Run

Oslo Kammerakademi returns with a compelling new recording, Symphonies for Harmoniemusik – Mozart · Haydn · Beethoven, offering a fresh perspective on three iconic symphonic works through the lens of historical wind ensemble arrangements. This album explores the rich tradition of Harmoniemusik, where orchestral masterpieces were transcribed for wind octet, contrabass, and timpani, making them accessible to smaller ensembles and intimate settings.