New Releases & Staff Picks - 5/22/26

STAFF PICKS
 DARIO - Marisa Anderson and Hammock
ASH - Fight The Fire comp
 JAKE - Underscores
KIMBER - Whirr and Diiv reissues
MARY -
ZACH - Suss, Why? and Arthur Russell reissue
DREW - Why? Reissue
PAT- Visible Cloaks and Arthur Russell reissue  

FUTURE ISLANDS - From A Hole In The Floor To A Fountain Of Youth CD/LP (4AD)
Future Islands are an emotionally charged synth pop group, known for their dexterous melodic touch, stately momentum and impassioned delivery. Over the past twenty years they have travelled a rare arc, from promising newcomers to best-kept secret, from cult favourites to heroes of the genre. As they reach this remarkable milestone, they resist the obvious move. Instead of a 'best-of' compilation victory lap, Future Islands present From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth - an immediate and accessible collection - half of which have never appeared on streaming services - comprising alternate hits, rarities, and fan favourites that showcases the band's palette and bringing further colour to their uniquely universal appeal. Twenty songs for twenty years, four members of the band, four sides of vinyl.

UNDERSCORES - U CD/LP (Mom & Pop Music)  
Underscores announces her third album U, via Mom+Pop Music. A self titled album of sorts and the culmination of all her work to date, U draws from the many eras of underscores' creative trajectory, from dubstep and future bass to jazz chords and guitar driven maximalist pop, forming her most focused, emotionally charged and sharply defined statement yet. Featuring the singles Music, Do It, and Tell Me (U Want It), U further expands the intricate, high impact world she continues to build.

BLEACHERS - Everyone For Ten Minutes CD/LP (Dirty Hit)  
Bleachers' new album everyone for ten minutes will be released on 22 May 2026. Described by The New York Times as anthemic, life-affirming pop rock, Bleachers are fronted by eleven-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, musician, and producer Jack Antonoff. Over the past decade, Bleachers have built a massive, devoted following, renowned for their impressive live show and infectious camaraderie. Bleachers' self-titled fourth studio took the band to new heights including a sold-out Madison Square Garden & the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

DESLONDES - Don't Let It Die: Vol. 1 CD/LP (New West Records)  
The Deslondes are a five-piece group from New Orleans, Louisiana. The band splits up songwriting and lead vocal duties among it's five members, continuing it's democratic ethos and musical versatility. Now, with their latest record, Don't Let It Die: Vol.1 the band continues to build on their inventive take on New Orleans country and R&B by covering some of their favorite songs that have inspired their sound and love of music. Don't Let It Die: Vol.1 finds the band covering select songs from artist such as Swamp Dogg, Johnny Cash, Pat Reedy and Hurricane Smith. Don't Let It Die: Vol.1 is the sound of a band that understands the history of American music, while embracing their own contemporary approach.

THEE MARLOES - Di Hotel Malibu CD/LP/CASS (Big Crown)
Big Crown is proud to present Thee Marloes' sophomore album, Di Hotel Malibu. It arrives as a widening of the frame - a confident step away from the lines that once neatly held their sound, and toward something more porous, conversational, and deeply Indonesian. It's been two years since Perak, the Surabaya trio's debut for Big Crown Records, introduced their unique sound. This new record doesn't abandon that lineage so much as stretch it, showing how much they have grown as a band since the release of their debut and all the experiences that came with it.

AMYL & THE SNIFFERS - Giddy Up / Big Attraction CD/LP (Amyl & The Sniffers)  
Ten years ago, in a sharehouse on Chapel Street, four 20-year-olds with zero expectations wrote and recorded an EP in a single afternoon. Those six blistering minutes of music became Giddy Up. An hour later, Amyl and The Sniffers had a name, a Bandcamp upload, and the beginnings of a legacy. Following a year of backyard gigs, playing for friends and partying across Melbourne's sticky carpet music scene, the band released their iconic second EP Big Attraction in 2017. Now, to celebrate a decade of raw power and reckless spirit, Giddy Up/Big Attraction returns in a definitive 10th anniversary 12-inch vinyl edition - fully remastered for maximum punch.

TANK & THE BANGAS - Last Balloon CD/LP (Verve Forecast)  
A vibrant blend of R&B, soul, and hip hop, Tank and the Bangas' new album, The Last Balloon, is built to make you move - a joyful, rhythm-driven celebration that invites listeners to dance and let go. Fresh off their first Grammy win for The Heart, The Mind, The Soul (Best Spoken Word Album), Tarriona Tank Ball leads the band into the final chapter of the balloon trilogy with bold energy and creative freedom. Executive-produced by Austin Brown, The Last Balloon offers up a suite of songs designed to thrive in Tank and the Bangas' rapturous live set. Tarriona explains, There's lots of gang vocals, handclaps, all these intentional moments to let everyone know, 'This is my part, but your part's coming up next - so get ready.’

DIIV - Oshin LP [Reissue/2012] (Captured Tracks)  
DIIV's seminal debut record Oshin returns to shelves with newly reimagined album art! The first offering from DIIV chemically fuses the reminiscent with the half-remembered, building a musical world out of old-air and new breeze. These are songs that remind us of love in all it's earthly perfections and perversions. A lot of DIIV's magnetism was birthed in the process Zachary Cole Smith went through to discover these initial compositions in the thick of summer, holed up in an AC-less, window-facing corner of a painter's studio in Bushwick. He surrounded himself with cassettes and LP's, the likes of Lucinda Williams, Arthur Russell, Faust, Nirvana, and Jandek; writings of N. Scott Momaday, James Welsh, Hart Crane, Marianne Moore, and James Baldwin; and dreams of aliens, affection, spirits, and the distant natural world (as he imagined it from his window facing the Morgan L train).

WHY? - Elephant Eyelash CD/LP [Reissue/2005] (Waterlines)
Elephant Eyelash is the second studio album from WHY?. Originally released by anticon. in 2005, this reissue is in celebration of it's 20th anniversary. Pressed on 2xLP custom lavendar and light blue vinyl, this release also contains the Sanddollars EP, Rubber Traits EP, and a special bonus dictaphone recording from the time period. This special edition pressing is limited to 1200.

ALBUM LEAF - One Day I'll Be On Time LP [Reissue/2001] (Numero)  
Ambient post-rock from San Diego's millennial post-hardcore retreat. Tracked between Tristeza tours, The Album Leaf 's sophomore album weaves delicate guitar noodling, tinkling piano, reflective synth, eerie field recordings, and driving percussion into a meditation on the passage of time. This remastered 25th anniversary edition replicates the original, with fresh notes from author Adam Gnade and previously unpublished photos. A devastating hour of aural photosynthesis.

BASEMENT JAXX - Where's Your Head At? (Steve Angello Remix) 12" (XL Recordings)   Swedish House Mafia's Steve Angello has given this classic tune a fresh coat of paint, turning it into the perfect floor filler for 2026. Contains Basement Jaxx's original 12 version on the b-side.

J. COLE - The Fall-Off CD/LP (Interscope Records)  
The Fall-Off is J Cole's 7th studio album, presented as a 24-track, 2-CD set. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, his 7th chart-topping release. Featuring appearances from Burna Boy, Erykah Badu, Future, Morray, Petey Pablo, PJ, and Tems.

RILO KILEY - Rkives CD/LP  (Little Record Co)  
Rkives is considered Rilo Kiley's Lost Album. Apart from being a trove of exclusive tracks, rarities, and b sides... side A starts with 6 tracks never released elsewhere, and plays like a powerful new record of beloved songs by the band that nearly made it on to earlier releases.

JACK JOHNSON - Surfilmusic O.S.T. LP (Brushfire Records) Surfilmusic is an intimate look into Jack's evolution from surfer to filmmaker to world-renowned musician. The documentary traces how his early years making surf films with close friends became a foundation for a much broader creative life, capturing moments in and out of the water that later surfaced in his songwriting. Blending rare footage from those formative surf films and Jack's personal and family archives with present-day reflections, the film weaves together how lived experience, friendship, and exploration shaped the sound and stories behind the music.

ARTHUR RUSSELL - Love Is Overtaking Me (Redux) LP [Reissue/2007]  (Audika Records)  
On May 21, on what would have been Arthur Russell's 75th birthday, Audika Records presents a remastered/redux double vinyl re release of the much-beloved compilation Love Is Overtaking Me of Arthur's folk, pop, and country songs. Originally released in 2007 the redux edition includes new masters from a recently found pristine tape reel and was remastered by Timothy Stollenwerk at Stereophonic Mastering in Portland, OR. Revised artwork by Molly Smith with extensive liner notes from Arthur's partner Tom Lee. Over twenty years ago, Audika Records began compiling and releasing the exceptionally varied, long sought-after music of Arthur Russell, and in the process has succeeded at helping the beloved, late artist find the broader audience he always believed he would reach.

SUSS - Counting Sunsets CD/LP (Northern Spy)  
Counting Sunsets is a quietly expansive continuation of SUSS's slow-motion Americana, tracing new lines through the terrain they've been mapping across their run of albums for Northern Spy. As with earlier releases, the band leans into wide-open desert horizons, kosmische drift, and noir-ish pedal-steel laments, but this time an end-of-day stillness permeates. Counting Sunsets feels episodic and reflective: a sequence of small, neon-glowing moments that pass like light changing at dusk. Each piece arrives with the calm assurance of a band attuned to negative space, tone, decay, atmosphere, and melody. A quiet preoccupation with memory and the slow erosion of time. Light fades and the air carries sound.

6LACK - Love Is The New Gangsta CD/LP (LVRN Records)  
After a period of reflection and transformation, 6Lack returns with Love is the New Gangsta, his most personal era yet. Rooted in self-exploration, healing, and radical honesty, the album finds the GRAMMY-nominated, multi-platinum artist examining love, identity, and growth as a man, father, and partner. Blending soulful melodies with atmospheric production, 6Lack reframes love as the ultimate flex - choosing compassion, vulnerability, and connection over ego.

VARIOUS - Soul Jazz Records Presents: The Best Of Black Jazz Record CD/LP (Soul Jazz)   This album brings together some of the finest music ever released on Black Jazz Records which in it's short four-year history, between 1971 and 1975, released over 20 superlative albums which all successfully blending spiritual jazz, funk and soul jazz of the highest calibre. Similar to other independent jazz labels at the time, including Strata-East Records and Tribe Records, Black Jazz focussed on a number of key artists, most of whom first established their career during this period, and all of whom are featured here. Featuring The Awakening, Doug Carn, Walter Bishop, Chester Thompson, Kellee Patterson and more. This album brings together some of the finest music released by the label in it's short four-year history, closing it's doors finally in 1975.

MARISA ANDERSON - Anthology Of Unamerican Folk Music CD/LP (Thrill Jockey)   Marisa Anderson's music transcends borders. The topography of her work interrogates the intersections of artistry and expression with form and tradition. Anderson crafts pieces bursting with equal parts reverence and curiosity, contouring familiar shapes into work that is wholly her own. Anderson has spent decades mining the veins of the complicated, interconnected American folk traditions she was steeped in from a young age, stretching beyond those traditions and incorporating the vocabulary and techniques of vernacular folk music from around the world into her work.

MAGIC TUBER STRINGBAND - Heavy Water LP (Thrill Jockey)  
Magic Tuber Stringband act in communion with the natural world around them. Highly skilled players and writers, the trio are leaders within the burgeoning Avant-Folk world. Growing up in Appalachia studying the folk traditions of the region in tandem scientific and observational work in nature, their music appears to weave in and out of the fabric of the landscape. The ensemble continues to stretch the parameters of acoustic instrumental expression with masterful flourishes of dense, textural arrangements, subtle minimalist gestures and deft improvisation.

TIM KASHER - Sponges Of Experience LP (Born Losers)  
“This album was written over the 4-day weekend of Memorial Day, 2025. It was a challenge to myself: when I was a wee teenager I heard Elvis Costello mention on some talk show (I’ve long forgotten which) that he could write an album over a weekend. It was on off-hand remark, a throw away line as he was promoting something or other. A budding songwriter myself, I was curious if I could pull off something of the sort. Fast forward to 35 odd years later, I decided to give it a shot. I offered myself FOUR days rather than just the two, and perhaps that’s a cheat, but since it was Memorial Day weekend I decided to allow it. As it turned out, I absolutely needed those extra two days. The other rules were simple: I just needed to write a complete composition and completed lyrics for enough songs to fill an album. At least… eight songs, though I would’ve been disappointed with just eight. I kept pushing myself to write as much as possible, as I wanted to have enough songs to be able to weed out one or two of the crappier contributions. All of the additional arrangements you hear were written and recorded after the fact, casually over the remaining year, no rush nor rules on those parameters.

WHIRR - Around CD/LP [Reissue/2013] (Free Whirl)
WHIRR - Distressor CD/LP [Reissue/2010] (Free Whirl)
WHIRR - Pipe Dreams Redux CD/LP [Reissue/2012] (Free Whirl)
WHIRR - Raw Blue CD/LP [Reissue/2024] (Free Whirl)
WHIRR - Sway CD/LP [Reissue/2014]  (Free Whirl)
Colored vinyl and CD reissues from the Modesto-based shoegaze band.

LILY ALLEN - It's Not Me It's You LP [Reissue/2006]  (WB)
LILY ALLEN - No Shame LP [Reissue/2018]  (WB)
LILY ALLEN - Sheezus LP [Reissue/2014] (WB)  
Limited clear vinyl reissues.

DAVID BAZAN - Strange Negotiations LP [Reissue/2011] (Barsuk)  
With this limited color vinyl pressing, Barsuk marks the 15th anniversary of David Bazan's masterful Strange Negotiations - the prophetic 2011 meditation on what he was already seeing as a developing crisis of American and global social fragmentation. Bazan built his dedicated following as the songwriter and driving force behind the acclaimed indie band Pedro the Lion. During his time releasing music under his own name via Barsuk, his extraordinary melodic sense and erudite, theologically-themed songs began to focus overtly on his own crisis of faith after having been raised in the evangelical Christian movement, and Strange Negotiations comes across like an angry, great rock band playing songs they're beyond intimate with. In addition to the stellar title track, it includes the indie-hit ‘Wolves at the Door.'

DOUG CARN - The Best Of Doug Carn LP (Soul Jazz)  
This album brings together key tracks from Doug Carn, recorded for Black Jazz Records in the 1970s. Doug Carn is one of the most important (and least recognised) forces in the creation of the canon of 'deep and spiritual jazz music' - full of powerfully emotive intensity, consciously-uplifting lyricism and addictively beautiful melodies. All of his LPs during this period have since achieved cult classic status, including 'Infant Eyes', 'Adam's Apple', 'Spirit of the New Land' and 'Revelation'. Aside from his songwriting and keyboard skills, many of the tracks here feature the stunning and powerful 5-octave range vocals of Jean Carn (later Carne), his wife at the time.

DUTCH INTERIOR - Blinded By Fame LP  (Acrophase Records)   Blinded by Fame, Dutch Interior's second studio album, is a fan favorite. Never before pressed to vinyl. The Long Beach based 6 piece have been in each other's lives for the better part of two decades. Jack Nugent, Conner Reeves, Shane & Hayden Barton, Davis Stewart, and Noah Kurtz were all childhood friends, and the band is a product of a creative union brought on by already-established trust and familiar insularity.

NOFX - The Decline LP [Reissue/1999] (Fat Wreck Chords)  
Originally released in 1999, The Decline, marked a huge turning point for NOFX. Widely regarded as their magnum opus, the song is an 18-minute punk rock spectacle that showcases the showmanship, lyrical wit, and musicality of the best punk rock band of all time. Satirizing the state of America and skewering the indifferent masses & politicians alike, the song is eerily relevant in 2026 and continues to critique the powers that be in a way few artists have the courage to do. Combined with the Punk In Drublic B-Side, ‘Clams Have Feelings Too,’ the 12” is an essential release for any NOFX fan. NOFX has retired; their legacy lives forever.

MCCOY TYNER - Inception LP [Reissue/1962]  (Impulse Records)  
Recorded on January 10 and 11, 1962 at Rudy Van Gelder's studio, Inception marked McCoy Tyner's debut as a leader for Impulse! Records, introducing a cohesive new trio with bassist Art Davis and drummer Elvin Jones, both colleagues from the Coltrane ensemble, whose familiarity lends the session it's focused clarity. Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes remastered on 180g vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

MUDDY WATERS - Real Folk Blues LP Reissue (Chess)  
In the mid-1960s, Chess Records released a series of The Real Folk Blues albums that compiled singles from the careers of some of it's greatest artists. Howlin' Wolf's The Real Folk Blues combined singles recorded between 1956 and 1965 and is considered one of the best compilations of the Chess series. The music on this record paints a daring portrait of Howlin' Wolf, presenting exceptional music that had not been presented in album format before. These audiophile reissues of classic albums and compilations from the Chess discography are remastered from the original analog tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl at Quality Record Pressings (QRP). Each disc is packaged in tip-on gatefold sleeves printed on high-grade board.

DR K.GYASI & HIS NOBLE KINGS - Sikyi Highlife LP [Reissue/1974] (Strut)  
First re-issue of landmark classic 1974 Ghanian album Sikyi Highlife. For fans of: Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, C.K. Mann, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Santrofi, Koo Nimo, Fela Kuti, E.T. Mensah, Jembaa Groove, Dele Sosimi, A.B. Crentsil, Osibisa, K.O.G., Rob”

LOWERTOWN - Ugly Duckling Union CD/LP (Summer Shade) 
If you haven't yet been introduced to Lowertown - the enigmatic band comprised of Olivia Osby and Avsha Weinberg - now's the perfect time. It's taken a few years for the New York-based duo to catch their breath: after teetering on the brink of collapse for years due to label disputes, creative frustrations, and an unhealthy attachment to their artistic partnership, the band was due for a reset. Ugly Duckling Union is a concept album based on the band's own experiences of forging a community through their music. Duckling protagonist Dale and his companions band together to defeat LBH, a tyrannical media corporation set on separating and isolating in their pursuit of control. The album's physical packaging includes a handbook filled with lore and illustrated comics by Doctor Nowhere (Silias Orion).

HAMMOCK - Second Coming Was A Moonrise LP (Hammock Music) 
Now over twenty years together as a working duo, Hammock continue their remarkable string of sonic explorations with The Second Coming Was A Moonrise. The title captures a time of exploration, when in his late teens, Byrd and a friend, under the influence of psychedelics, mistook the moonrise for the second coming of Christ. Byrd and Thompson, both primarily guitarists, have found their musical bonds becoming ever stronger as their shared work grows even more dramatic and richer over the years, pursuing a feeling of sweeping, shimmering sonic awe that can never simply be summed up as anything other than itself. The Second Coming Was A Moonrise continues those sensations of exploration, feeling at once like one of their most intimate releases while exploring the rich sense of majesty that they can create in turn.

VISIBLE CLOAKS - Paradessence LP (Rvng Int'l)  
Paradessence, Visible Cloaks' third full length, is a work of emergence and illusion. The album's fourteen songs shift, heave, and shimmer against a faintly luminous backdrop of night, a cavernous space shaped by sparse hyperreal representations of the natural world. The arrangements are simultaneously grandiose and fragile, both an inversion and culmination of what came before and as adventurous as anything they've produced so far. Since transforming from Cloaks to Visible Cloaks in 2014, Spencer Doran and Ryan Carlile have mapped a complex matrix of oppositional concepts: organic and artificial, chance and deliberate, authentic and replicated.

ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO - People In Sorrow LP [Reissue/1969] (Play Loud Prod)  
Finally back in print! Originally released by EMI’s Pathé Marconi imprint in 1969, People in Sorrow — a 40-minute work by the four-piece lineup of Roscoe Mitchell, Joseph Jarman, Lester Bowie, and Malachi Favors — has long been unavailable on vinyl and CD, and then only in hard-to-find European and Japanese issues. It is arguably the finest and most ambitious of the 14 studio albums recorded by the Art Ensemble during their 23-month sojourn in France, which launched the American group internationally.

AJA MONET - Color Of Rain LP (Drink Sum Wtr)  
Aja Monet is a Surrealist Blues Poet in the business of goosebumps and heart-gut-telling truths. Her poems are harmolodic, vulnerable, and insurgent. As the youngest recipient of the Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry title, she first cut her teeth in New York City's Lower East Side poetry clubs and bars, honing her voice and craft on the storied stages of a burgeoning grassroots poetry movement. She follows in the long legacy and tradition of poets organizing in social movements for change. Her collaborative spirit has seen her shape and shift culture alongside internationally renowned artists, scholars, activists, and organizers.

VARIOUS  - Fight The Fire: Digital Reggae, Conscious Roots And Dub In Nigeria 1986-91 LP (Soundways)  
A collection of fourteen digital reggae, deep roots and dub rarities from the Nigerian underground, spotlighting a time when Jamaican reggae entwined with Nigerian styles, politics and consciousness, creating a bridge between Lagos and Kingston. Fight the Fire is a companion piece to Soundway's seminal “Doing it in Lagos” and “Nigeria Special” compilations, celebrating the innovation and musical experimentation of Nigeria in the 80s.”

VARIOUS - Xkatedral Anthology Series I LP (Ideologic Organ)
VARIOUS - Xkatedral Anthology Series II LP (Ideologic Organ) 
VARIOUS - Xkatedral Anthology Series III LP (Ideologic Organ)    
XKatedral Anthology is a series of archival releases dedicated to presenting music by XKatedral affiliated composers working within the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral music.

COMING NEXT WEEK
BOARDS OF CANADA - Inferno CD/LP
KURT VILE - Philadelphias Been Good To Me CD/LP
ICEAGE - For Love Of Grace & The Hereafter CD/LP
MANCHESTER ORCHESTRA - Union Chapel CD/LP
BUG CLUB - Every Single Muscle CD/LP
JOEY QUINONES - Inna Soul Steady Situation CD/LP
SIMON JOYNER - Tough Love CD/LP
CAMPER VAN BEETHOVEN - II & III LP Reissue
SOUL JAZZ - London Jazz Classics LP
FLOATING POINTS - Elaenia LP Reissue
DUCKS LTD - Modern Fiction CD/LP
ALL THEM WITCHES - House Or Mirrors CD/LP
PAUL MCCARTNEY - Boys Of Dungeon Lane CD/LP
DOGSTAR - All In Now CD/LP
SPARTA - Cut A Silhouette CD/LP