Tracks of Note: 6/28/2026
Kloyd, Miki Yamanaka Trio, Dark Chisme
Q2 reports are in the works. Plague Rages should go live closer to the deadline. Given the number of albums I’m working with for the Wolf’s Week edition, I’d be overjoyed if that gets filed in July. Oh, and as previously teased, look for the resurrection of live reports in the form of short highlights at some point, too.
Kloyd - “New Love”
Kloyd, you nailed the title. New Love, the debut mixtape from Londoner Kate Lloyd also nails the feeling of prime Four Tet, Floating Points, and Burial, where fuzzy electronics, dancey rhythms, and deep bass booms are counterintuitively introspective. However, since I am a hound for songs that sound like “Halcyon On and On,” my sniffer must mention that the modern producers above aren’t the only touchstones: There’s also a certain ‘90s-ness running through the eight tracks, including the euphoric rush of Underworld, along with some sublime moments of trip-hopish reflection that’ll scratch the Mezzanine itch. I’m still in the honeymoon phase, but this is one of the best releases I’ve heard this year.
Diary - “Keep Comin’ Up”
Speaking of the ‘90s, Diary, a quintet from Brooklyn, would’ve carved its way through college rock radio playlists like an emboldened rollerblader. “Keep Comin’ Up” mashes together shoegaze, dream pop, and a touch of jangle, while crafting sharp hooks that cut right through the hazy atmospherics. Also, peep those drums: The Bandcamp appraisal wasn’t wrong, because I, too, hear some Madchester in there. Regardless, I don’t think you have to feel particularly nostalgic to spiral down into this banger, since Diary’s songwriting skills will push you along as long as you like poppy rock.
Regulator Watts - “It’s Gonna Happen”
Thanks for coming to the ‘90s reunion, welcome back…everybody? Regulator Watts was the next band up for Alex Dunham after the illustrious Hoover called it quits, pushing the post-hardcore of his former project into slightly more adventurous, although no less rocking, terrain. Nearly 30 years after The Aesthetics of No-Drag, here’s the forthcoming EP kWh, kicking off with a promise: “It’s Gonna Happen.” With Kurt Ballou in the producer’s chair, this is definitely the heaviest the DC trio has sounded, letting its math rock trickiness marinate in mammoth tones.
Body Shop - “Sex Body”
Friends, I have forced so much Cosey Mueller and Schimmel über Berlin upon you that I think it’s up to us to curate a genre-defining compilation that excavates this contemporary tinmine of lofi new-wavey post-punk. Chicago’s Body Shop has got a place in the tracklist thanks to the unabashedly horny “Sex Body,” where the trio pairs flirting-at-peak-hour vocals with throbbing synths. I also love how that Egyptian Lover-style beat locks together with that, like, Waitresses-y bass line, giving the song some real bounce. But, man, it’s all about that griminess and dangerousness that’s lurking in the background.
Miki Yamanaka Trio with Nicole Glover - “Indigo”
New York City pianist Miki Yamanaka is one of my most listened to jazz artists of the last few years thanks to a quality in her playing that reminds me of one of my all-time favorite albums, Hiromasa Suzuki’s Colgen World. Like Suzuki’s trio, Yamanaka’s absolutely shreds, but with a dimensionality that burrows far deeper than mere superficial impressiveness — it shreds, but gently and thoughtfully, often examining the duality between playfulness and sincerity. Saxophonist Nicole Glover hops aboard for this session, and “Indigo” suggests it’ll be some of Yamanaka’s best, as the song is just oozing with feeling and soul. “I would like to mention that two very close people passed away six days apart in September 2025, my hero Akiko Tsuruga and my father Manabu Yamanaka,” Miki writes in the liner notes, later adding, “Hopefully this record captured my weird, quirky side and seriousness towards this music that makes both of them proud.”
Onlooker - “Formula Tofu”
A band from England titling its album Cleveland while sounding like Fugazi: OK, sure. I’m kind of surprised that Fugazi isn’t more of a direct sonic influence on bands these days — when was the last time you said, “Wow, this sounds exactly like Fugazi”? Onlooker isn’t a one-to-one, either, but the spirit is there, and that sort of tough, edgy bounce plays really well in the day and age when a ton of other bands want to use the smeared tones of shoegaze and doomer shades of nu-metal like fingerpaint. Compared to its contemporaries, Cleveland is definitely an Ohio 8, and it’s a blast on a summer day with the windows down.
Orbital Ensemble - “Triha”
Another MPB-influenced band that isn’t strictly working in the MPB idiom, excelling at the Punnett Square results of both. Orbital Ensemble, a septet from Toronto, infuses its psych-tinged jazz fusion with a healthy dose of Brazilian music, which often sounds like Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti1 cooking with a rootsier Mahavishnu Orchestra. The sonic fireworks rock, but Orbital Ensemble doesn’t disappoint at the hooks, either, slathering some real sticky ones in an ear candy that makes its soul cozy up alongside your own. This is a total Lamniformes Cuneiform tractor beam.
Mim Jensen - “Sidekick”
Here’s the other dominant sound of 2026 for me: ‘90s radio rock descended from Velocity Girl and the like. “Sidekick” is a deceptively fun little jam about desperately wanting to escape the friendzone, and New Zealand’s Mim Jensen does well to add a pinch of pathos: “I’ve been feeling like your sidekick lately/ Will you love me anyway?” Girl, you deserve better. Still, what makes “Sidekick” is that heartfelt ache, with Jensen and her band really digging into the pain; tomorrow may bring clearer eyes, but they’re sure blurred by desire today.
The Haters - “Digging Through Time”
Once things calm down, the dream is to buy some gear and get back to making noise, finally executing some ideas that have been banging around my skull for the last 20 years. While I’ve been molding the ins and outs of those compositions in my brain for what feels like an eternity, “Digging Through Time” reminds me that noise doesn’t have to be highly conceptual or labored over to work. Consider: “Performing as The Haters, GX scraped a shovel against a large wooden clock he was holding up, while John Wiese and Crank Sturgeon scratched and sanded their own shovels.” The resulting 17-minute onslaught is as texturally rich and evocative as any good harsh noise, suggesting that I probably should duck into Home Depot once the time comes, too.
Dark Chisme - “La Musica Oscura”
I’ve been eyeing Dark Chisme’s debut LP for well over a year, and every time I get close to pulling the trigger, it sells out. Something about the Seattle duo’s gothy darkwave doesn’t quite land for me, despite checking all the boxes on paper (black construction paper, using glow-in-the-dark paint). However, Dark Chisme is playing out here soon, and I’ve heard that its true home is the stage, so maybe when the synths are enlarged to seismic registers, that will tip the scales? Problem: the show is on a Thursday (ugh) and at The Roxy (blergh), a misbegotten land where evolved aardvark archeologists from a distant future will look back and say, “Where the heck were these chimps supposed to park?” This blurb, then, is a plea: Do I go to this show, and what am I missing? MAKE IT CLICK; teach me how to Chisme.
In Rotation
Cosey Mueller - Embodiment of Denial
My most anticipated LP is in the mail, so here’s the blog acknowledgment that “it’s gonna happen.” I’ll obviously have more on this in a few weeks, but it’s interesting hearing Cosey Mueller working with an increased fidelity that pushes her to focus on the songwriting side.
Desecation - Despoiled Ethereal Purity
New Standard Elite is on a tear right now. Desecation’s Despoiled Ethereal Purity hit my mailbox first, so it has claimed my CD player. This album is a hoot, exercising an impishness while remaining absurdly brutal. Case in point, so many of these musical decisions come down to, like, “Screw it: didgeridoo.”
Vile Desolation - Annihilating the Consciousness
Indonesia, back at it. The country with the most BDM per capita pumps out another heater, and Vile Desolation delights in the kind of mutated chunkiness of its best exports. Evidence: I spy Rama Maulana (Vitrectomy, Depraved Murder, Anthropophagus Depravity) on drums.
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This isn’t that precise of a description, its more Marcos Valle or Tim Maia, but when am I ever going to get Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti into this newsletter?
go see dark chisme. bring your disco pants.
Thanks for the alert, that Kloyd album also sounds up my alley