New Releases & Staff Picks - 6/19/26

STAFF PICKS 
DARIO - Diles Que No Me Maten
ASH - Meridian Brothers and Isaiah Rashad
JAKE - 
KIMBER - Meridian Brothers
MARY - Los Orientales and John Coltrane reissue 
ZACH - Diles Que No Me Maten
DREW -
PAT- This Heat, Greg Foat, Artificial Intelligence comp

AFI - Decemberunderground LP [Reissue/2006] (Interscope)
RSD Essential 098 - Celebrating the 20th anniversary of AFI’s seventh album, 'Decemberunderground,' this iconic release returns to vinyl for the first time since 2006. The new RSDE pressing faithfully recreates the original LP in a gatefold jacket and features all 12 tracks, including the hit “Miss Murder.” This LP is pressed on standard-weight Transparent Smoke-colored vinyl. “Decemberunderground is a time and a place. It is where the cold can huddle together in darkness and isolation. It is a community of those detached and disillusioned who flee to love, like winter, in the recesses below the rest of the world."" -Davey Havok”

HALF-HANDED CLOUD - Toothpaste Horse / I Don't Have A Bib LP (Asthmatic Kitty)   John Ringhofer, the man behind Half-Canded Cloud, is as joyful and frugal as his music. An economical thinker, Ringhofer prefers the subway over a taxicab, is a recycler of plastic, a compulsive note-taker, and a habitual optimist. Half-handed Cloud started as a home-recording project in Chattanooga, TN in 1999. Ringhofer was later based in the California Bay area for over a decade (where he worked as a part-time custodian) before moving with his young family to Helsinki, Finland in 2015 for his wife's linguistics research. Half-handed Cloud is able to ensconce complicated theological concepts into catchy and sublime playground songs that refuse to condescend to its subject or its listener.

KEHLANI - Kehlani CD/LP (Atlantic)
2026 release, the fifth album from the R&B artist. Features include Missy Elliott, Usher, T-Pain, Clips, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, Leon Thomas and more.

AIR - Pocket Symphony LP [Reissue/2007] (Rhino)
[Double clear vinyl LP pressing.] Pocket Symphony is the fifth album by French duoAir, originally released in 2007 and produced by longtime collaborator Nigel Godrich. The album features guest vocals from Jarvis Cocker and Neil Hannon, while also marking a more refined and introspective phase in Air's career, with delicate electronics, Japanese instruments, and a sound that feels both intimate and cinematic.

ISAIAH RASHAD - It's Been Awful LP (Warner Records)
It's Been Awful is the third studio album by rapper Isaiah Rashad. Production on the album was handled by numerous record producers, including Julian Sintonia, Kal Banx, Hollywood Cole, and Jansport J, among others.

DILES QUE NO ME MATEN - Escrito En Agua LP (Moonlight Activities)
Diles Que No Me Maten are a Mexico City five-piece whose krautrock-influenced art rock has evolved into something genuinely singular - wiry, poetic, and alive with improvisational instinct. Their fourth album Escrito en Agua (Writ in Water) is their most focused and accessible work yet, recorded in a makeshift studio in Santa María LaRibera with producer Sebastián Rojas. Built around restrained drumming, deliberate silences, and the spiritual weight of Oaxacan funerary music, the record moves with an unhurried confidence that feels hard-won. Thematically, Escrito en Agua is a record about presence, wandering, and resilience - songs that sit with ambiguity rather than resolve it. Lead single ‘Hiriku' sets the tone, pairing frenetic krautrock with lines drawn from José Vicente Anaya's visionary poem Híkuri, while standout track ‘No me transformsa’ mantra of self-assurance into something far more emotionally complex. Dedicated to both the indigenous morning star Tunuwame and Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, the album closes as it opens: quietly transcendent, paying careful attention to the smallest details of what it means to be alive.

GOOSE - Big Modern CD/LP (No Coincidence)
Following the back-to-back releases of Everything Must Go and Chain Yer Dragon in 2025, Goose return with Big Modern!, a vibrant next chapter that expands the band's signature indie rock sound with neon-lit inspired synths, driving rhythms, and soaring anthemic hooks. New tracks like ‘Good2B’ and ‘Good Times // End Times’ arrive alongside fan favorites ‘Big Modern’ and ‘Torero,’ capturing Goose's adventurous spirit while delivering some of their most bold and dynamic studio recordings yet.

FKA TWIGS - Eusexua Afterglow LP (Atlantic)
FKA Twigs' EUSEXUA Afterglow was released on November 14, 2025 via Atlantic Records/Young Recordings. Initially conceived as a deluxe album to Eusexua, Afterglow evolved into a full-fledged body of work that serves as a continuation of her critically acclaimed album Eusexua, which, in addition to it's Grammy win for Best Dance/Electronic Album, was shortlisted for The Mercury Prize 2025 for Album of the Year.

BUDDY GUY - I Was Walking Through The Woods LP [Reissue/1970] (Chess)
I Was Walkin' Through The Woods gathers Buddy Guy's early recordings for Chess Records - all recorded in the early 1960s. This collection spotlights the searing guitar work that demonstrates why Guy was one of the most talented of Chicago's new generation of blues musicians. Key tracks include ‘First Time I Met The Blues’ and ‘I Found A True Love.’ Bring home the sound of America's greatest blues label in high fidelity with the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. 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.

CAL TJADER - Prophet (Verve Vault Series) LP [Reissue/1968] (Verve)
Cal Tjader's The Prophet (recorded in 1968 in New York & Los Angeles and released the same year on Verve) captures the vibraphonist at a moment of artistic expansion, blending his signature Latin jazz with a more orchestrated, textural approach. Arranged/conducted by Don Sebesky and produced by Esmond Edwards, the album features an ensemble including Joao Donato (organ), Red Mitchell (bass), Ed Thigpen (drums), and Hubert Laws (flute). Drawing on a broad palette of jazz, Latin, and blues influences, The Prophet reflects Tjader's growing interest in composition and arrangement, balancing melodic elegance with rhythmic sophistication. Several of the album's compositions were written by Brazilian pianist Joao Donato, adding a harmonic warmth and subtle bossa nova influence to the overall character. The Verve Vault series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

THIS IS LORELEI - Box For Buddy Box For Star - Super Deluxe CD/LP (Double Double Whammy)
In 2024 the prolific New York artist Nate Amos released his label debut Box for Buddy, Box for Star under his solo moniker This Is Lorelei. The record was critically acclaimed and received year end accolades from Rolling Stone, Billboard, GQ, Pitchfork, Stereogum, The FADER, Paste, but the album and Amos' star has continued on an unrelenting rise. The last year saw him release a breakthrough record with his band Water From Your Eyes, a rerecorded collection of This Is Lorelei songs entitled Holo Boy, and share a slew of collaborations and reimaginings of the Box for Buddy songs, repackaged as a quasi-deluxe release that included MJ Lenderman, Snail Mail and Amos' father and sister, Bob & Sarah Amos. The songs on Box for Buddy have continued to resonate, appearing in headlines and grainy live videos as artists like Waxahatchee and Cameron Winter cover them, incorporating Amos' songs into their own setlists. It seemed only logical then that the entirety of Box for Buddy should receive this reimagining, pulling together a constellation of Amos' friends, family and peers to cover and collaborate on the full tracklist. Box for Buddy, Box for Star (Super Deluxe) features fully reimagined versions of every song from Amos' break out LP; a hushed and glitchy take from Hayley Williams and her close collaborator Daniel James, from their new project Power Snatch, a sweeping ballad from SASAMI complete with headturning key changes, and pure guitar euphoria from Momma.

CASI - Casi LP  (Carpark Records)
From a chance meeting in Spanaway to 12 years of relentless collaboration, Eli and Xay are Casi, an electrifying duo fusing hardcore, hip-hop, nu-metal, and emo into something urgent and new. After early DIY EPs and 2025's Everybody's Secret, their self-titled Car Park debut delivers 10 explosive tracks capturing the risks, anxieties, and intensity of growing up Black in America, two old friends with everything to say, shouting it loud.

JOHN COLTRANE - Ascension: Edition I & II LP [Reissue/1966] (Verve)
Released on Impulse! Records in 1966, Ascension stands as one of Coltrane's most radical and influential works. Subtitled Edition I & II to reflect the two complete takes recorded at the session, the piece is a nearly 40-minute large-ensemble performance marking his embrace of the avant-garde. Recorded on June 28, 1965 at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio and produced by Bob Thiele, the session assembled an expanded ensemble of 11 musicians. Alongside Coltrane's tenor sax are trumpeters Freddie Hubbard & Dewey Johnson; saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown, John Tchicai, & Archie Shepp; pianist McCoy Tyner; bassists Art Davis & Jimmy Garrison; and drummer Elvin Jones. Initially controversial for it's intensity, Ascension is now recognized as a landmark of modern jazz and a defining statement of the emerging free-jazz movement. Presented together on 2-LP for the first time, the Verve Vault series is always mastered from analog tapes and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

MILES DAVIS - Miles '56: The Prestige Recordings 3xCD/4xLP (Craft Recordings)
Released to celebrate Miles Davis' centennial, Miles '56 collects together recordings from the year that Davis recorded his most influential work on Prestige. With cuts from Cookin, Relaxin, Workin and Steamin, this collection includes the Quintet of Davis, Coltrane, Garland, Chambers, and Jones. Released on 4-LP and remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY-winning engineer Paul Blakemore. The set is pressed on 180gram vinyl and includes new liner notes by GRAMMY-winners Ashley Kahn and Dan Morgenstern. Limited Edition.

DANCE GAVIN DANCE - Tree City Sessions 3 LP (Rise Records)
Sacramento rock virtuosos Dance Gavin Dance deliver the 3rd release in their Tree City Sessions series. As with previous releases, Tree City Sessions 3 sees the band re-recording new versions of previous Dance Gavin Dance songs, all featuring current vocalist Andrew Michael Wells.

GENRE IS DEATH - Attractive People LP (In The Red Records)
Genre Is Death is an uncompromising noise duo made up of Ty V (guitar, vox) and Tayler Lee (bass, vox). Their sound is abrasive yet melodic, using heavy distortion, dissonant riffs, and reverberating vocals to create a wave of boldly hypnotic noise. The duo have been compared to the likes of Sonic Youth and Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, yet have managed to create a sound that is distinctly their own, avoiding mimicking the zeitgeist of decades before. Beyond the integrity of their music, Tayler's intimidating glare, or Ty's staggering gait, the duo share something truly inimitable- the overwhelming feeling that their music is a byproduct of the high esteem they hold of each other.

GORL - Dark Silver Moon Light LP (Groenland Records)
Behind GÖRL are two pioneers of electronic music: DAF legend Robert Görl and influential DJ and producer Sylvie Marks. Robert Görl founded the legendary post-punk group Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (DAF) in 1978. With radically reduced, iconic sequences, brutalistic drums, and provocative aesthetics, DAF achieved timeless hits such as Der Mussolini. Sylvie Marks, on the other hand, was the first and only female resident DJ at the legendary Frankfurt club Dorian Gray. She later released international club hits as a producer and performed at festivals such as Roskilde. For six years, Robert Görl and Sylvie Marks have been engaged in a sparkling creative partnership that culminated in the release of their first joint album as GÖRL, Dark Silver Moon Light. The album reflects on the aesthetic tradition of DAF while transcending it into the present and future.

VARIOUS ARTISTS - Artificial IntelligenceLP [Reissue/1992] (Warp)
A special recycled vinyl edition of a much-loved classic in the Warp catalogue, a 1992 collection of "electronic home listening" featuring seminal early appearances from Aphex Twin (as The Dice Man), Autechre, Richie Hawtin (as UP!), B12 (as Musicology) and Alex Paterson (The Orb), the latter featuring co-production from Jimmy Cauty (The KLF). Original gatefold sleeve reconstructed by The Designers Republic. Album re-cut by Beau Thomas at Ten Eight Seven Mastering.

GREG FOAT - Blobs LP (Blue Crystal)
Ambient library music for woodwind and synthesizer. A 9 track album inspired by a birthday card Greg Foat's 4 year old son Leo drew for his mum earlier this year. This album is an aural delight of unusual sounds. Kind of like a mix of Satoshi & Makoto, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Hiroki Kikuta, and the Karl Jenkins and Mike Ratledge soundtrack to 80's UK children's television show 'Button Moon'.

KENNY BURRELL - Blue Lights, Volume 1 LP [Reissue/1958] (Blue Note Records)
In 1958, guitarist Kenny Burrell assembled an impressive lineup with Louis Smith, Junior Cook, Tina Brooks, Duke Jordan, Bobby Timmons, Sam Jones, and Art Blakey to record Blue Lights, a high-quality blowing session of blues, ballads and standards that produced two stellar volumes. The cover features an illustration by soon-to-be famed artist Andy Warhol. This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original master tapes, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

BONNER KRAMER / THURSTON MOORE - They Came Like Swallows - Seven Requiems For The Children Of Gaza LP (Silver Current)
Two giants of alternative / experimental music join creative forces for the first time in their storied, nearly fifty-year careers. A startlingly cohesive union that burns through landscapes of primitive outsider rock, avant-garde composition, progressive ambient and further locales boldly and beautifully unnamable. Bonner Kramer (previously known as Kramer) decoded the sounds of Galaxie 500 as producer on all of their records as well as producing Low, Will Oldham and Urge Overkill's hit single "Girl, You'll be a Woman Soon"" for the Pulp Fiction soundtrack, to name just a few of his over three hundred and seventy producer credits listed on Discogs. He is the proprietor of iconic indie label Shimmy-Disc (a one-time home to Daniel Johnston, Ween, Boredoms and John Zorn's Naked City among countless others), and an esteemed recording studio mastermind. Thurston Moore is a founding member of Sonic Youth, and responsible for Chelsea Light Moving and a massive and varied solo career, and remains an era-and genre-defining composer, cultural critic, prime mover of all things cool, and one of the most iconic, singular guitarists in rock music's long tail, the keystone of the explored tension between rock and noise.

DANIEL LANOIS - Belladonna Nocturne LP (Arts Music)
Renowned producer, composer, and songwriter Daniel Lanois returns with Belladonna Nocturne, a mesmerizing 2026 album featuring 14 original tracks.

MERIDIAN BROTHERS / MEXICAN INSTITUTE OF SOUND - Ruido Tovar LP (Kuroneko)
Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS) and Meridian Brothers join forces on Ruido Tovar, a cross-border collaboration that reimagines the tropical traditions linking Mexico and Colombia. Drawing inspiration from icons like Rigo Tovar and the psychedelic Mexican cumbia era, the project blends danzón, son, cha-cha-cha, and experimental electronics into a vibrant new language. MIS's genre-bending electronic tropicalism meets Meridian Brothers' avant-garde eccentricity, resulting in a sound that is both reverent and playfully distorted. Together, Camilo Lara and Eblis Álvarez pay tribute to decades of musical exchange while pushing tropical music into unexpected territory.

LOS ORIENTALES DE PARAMONGA - Los Orientales De Paramonga 1972-1976 LP (Analog Africa)
In the late 1960s, the coastal city of Paramonga in Peru gave rise to a vibrant music scene shaped by surf, rockabilly, and tropical sounds. Among it's protagonists were two musicians, Víctor Ramírez and Maximiliano Chávez, who, with their psychedelic guitars, Fender amplifiers, and wah-wah pedals, defined not only their own sound but also shaped the musical identity of the region.The two guitarists added a few remarkable percussionists to the lineup and formed Los Orientales. Their debut single recorded in 1970, Lobos Al Escape, reached the very top of the Peruvian charts, catapulting the band to national fame and spreading their electrifying cumbia throughout the country. Despite this early success, internal tensions led to a split between Víctor and Maximiliano, resulting in two rival groups with the exact same name. Seeking wider recognition, Los Orientales de Paramonga of Víctor Ramírez - the band featured in this project - traveled to Lima and signed with Sono Radio, the country's leading label. Under the direction of Argentine producer Enrique Lynch, they recorded a series of successful singles before releasing their debut album, Con Sabor Tropical, in 1972. Blending cumbia with guaracha, salsa, and guaguancó, the band gained national acclaim and expanded their audience through relentless touring.Known for their electrifying live performances - often playing multiple venues in a single night - they eventually won over audiences in the capital and aimed to rival top tropical acts of the era. By the mid-1970s, after several releases, Ramírez embraced emerging styles such as chicha and experimented across genres.The selection of 25 songs featured on this compilation, all recorded between 1972 and 1976, offer a complete journey through the sound and spirit of Los Orientales de Paramonga at their peak, who helped shape modern cumbia while never forgetting their roots.

PRIMITIVE RING - Primitive Ring LP (In The Red Records)
Primitive Ring consists of Bert Hoover (bass/vocals), Charles Moothart (guitar/vocals), and Jon Modaff (drums). The Los Angeles power trio formed in September 2024 when Hoover and Moothart came together seeking a new creative outlet. In 2025, the band released four 7"s on four different labels (Greenway, In the Red, Reverberation Appreciation Society, and Fuzz Club UK). They hauled amps and drums into bars to hone the sound of the newfound brotherhood that is Primitive Ring. Rock and roll is in it's essence a primal experience, and the name reflects that. Three individuals collide and egos rattle, shedding layers and growing new limbs. Archetypes flash to the rhythm of a freight train and the crown is passed hand to hand like a good luck charm, symbolic and communal. Rock and roll is for the people and Primitive Ring is for the taking. At least it will be when the band's debut LP is hurled into the future via In the Red Recordings.

THE REDS, PINKS & PURPLES - Acknowledge Kindness LP (Fire Records)   Acknowledge Kindness expands The Reds, Pinks And Purples’ distinctive brand of emotional pop, music built for the quiet hours and the restless mind. Evolving naturally from the heavier, melancholic indie rock of previous releases, the mood here feels more exposed and reflective, blossoming into lush dreamscapes that recall the bittersweet sorrow of The Cure or the tenderly gloomy transcendence of California by American Music Club. Created from a new headspace, the album finds Glenn Donaldson observing both the present and the weight of what came before it. Songs lean into a deeper sense of nostalgia, allowing him to look back with intent and revisit moments that once carried a sting.

SOFT PALMS - In Echo LP (Everloving)
In Echo reflects this time of chaos with reverberating urgency. Julia Kugel (Coathangers) and Scott Montoya (ex-Growlers) weaponize garage rock and reverb on a confrontational album that cuts through the static quo. Songs are like a call to arms, observational and urgent. Written as a response to events of the past five years (2020-2025), the album presents a stark contrast from the first self-titled release.

STATION MODEL VIOLENCE - Station Model Violence LP (Static Shock)
Maximum RocknRoll - “Debut LP from Australian stalwarts by way of Sydney. With some crossover with R.M.F.C. and DEN, this group is stacked with musicians in bands too numerous to name, the talent and detail of which is on gleaming display here. Frontman Daniel Stewart has a long write-up on their Bandcamp page explaining the evolution of the group, and it’s worth a read to learn just how much time, movement, and energy went into this thing, with part of the inspiration coming from a scene out of a BBC Krautrock documentary wherein IGGY POP opens coconuts and expounds on the NEU! sound (don’t act like you’re not intrigued).  All ten tracks are dense, dynamic, and rich—they build and develop emotions that make you want to look into the wind; they fall away, leaving a lonely guitar riff in the corner of your ear. “Heat” is particularly potent in this way, clocking in at over eight minutes, with plenty of space for mood changes.  Part of Stewart’s write-up describes the inspiration of CRISIS, and you can definitely hear that cloud-covered post-punk pulsing throughout the album. Overall, this feels like an epic drama, something big; elegant yet forceful, and completely enthralling. A masterpiece of 2026. I’d take note, get in line, tell your friends—climb the crow’s nest and look for them on the horizon.

THIS HEAT - This Heat LP (Superior Viaduct)
There’s an irony inherent in the term ‘postpunk.’ Many of the groups that define the genre (think Pere Ubu or Cabaret Voltaire) existed for several years before punk. But these outfits had little hope of finding an audience until punk stirred up an appetite for the extreme, while also spawning a new breed of independent labels that could support challenging music. This Heat are a prime example. Formed in early 1976 by drummer Charles Hayward, guitarist Charles Bullen and ‘non-musician’ Gareth Williams, the group were initially unaware of what was brewing elsewhere in London, yet they were driven by similar impulses: to make noise expressive of the era’s turbulence. Instead of punk’s crude reduction of rock ’n’ roll, This Heat took their bearings from expansive inspirations: free jazz, Captain Beefheart, musique concrète, and reggae’s disorienting dub techniques.

COMING NEXT WEEK
FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE - Bitknot CD/LP
PIXIES - Complete B-Sides LP
MUSE - Wow! Signal CD/LP
BETH ORTON - Ground Above CD/LP
CECILE MCLORIN SALVANT - With Ever Breath I Take CD/LP
DEL THE FUNKY HOMOSAPIEN - Future Development CD/LP
POND - Terrestrials CD/LP
SML - Spontaneous Music Live LP
MOBY - Future Quiet LP
AMERICAN AQUARIUM - New Ways To Lose LP
CHANEL BEADS - Your Day Will Come CD/LP
TEMPLES - Bliss LP
TURNOVER - Down On Earth LP
AARON MF OLSON - Songs Album II LP