It’s time for a sonic refill. David Abravanel is here with a full supply of lush arps, washes of sound, rapid-fire grooves — everything Appleblim to Posthuman to Vladislav Delay Quintet, Suzanne Ciani and a bunch more. Your mission: buy some downloads if you can spare the change, and load up some full-album listens in a player of your choice. And maybe turn off the world for a while. -Ed.
David Abravanel:
I wanted to do something to mark some of the great music released so far this year. I’m focusing on music that CDM fam will enjoy (electronic, experimental, y’know), and I’m leaving out the stuff that’s already been well-covered. I promise you, I love the new Boards of Canada as much as you do. I went to a listening event, too. It’s gorgeous!
Lastly – I won’t go into detail here about some of the artists I’ve profiled over the past little while, but they all have new music you should check out, including Gigi Masin, Mei Honeycomb, Rafael Anton Irisarri, and Clark.
Placid Angles – Canada (Oath)
I’m half-Canadian, so understand when I say that Canada just has fewer assholes, I don’t mean disrespect. But you know what I mean – outside of Rob Ford and Wolverine, how many Canadians have terrible attitudes? Perhaps Jon Beltran titled his latest Placid Angles album Canada after the rays of sunshine and cool blue refreshment that permeate this joyous listen.
Brendon Moeller – Soft Collapse of Meaning (Steadfast)
Honestly, I could make an entire one of these for 2026 (and 2025) just covering Brendon Moeller. He’s challenging ASC in the prolific department, and we’re all the better for it. It’s hard to pick a favorite – and Shadow Language (Samurai) is a great set of dark rhythms, while Slacker Logistics (self-released) is some of the finest dub techno not currently on Peak Oil or Short Span. Soft Collapse of Meaning is something extra special. Exploring the influences of acid jazz and trip hop, we get Moeller’s free-flowing melodies and bassy senses locked to a different groove.
Sun Electric – Episodes (De:tuned)
De:tuned has become a real home for fantastically pressed new gems from legends. Alongside the recently-released return of Luke Vibert to his Plug alias, Episodes is the first album from Max Loderbauer and Tom Thiel’s Sun Electric project in 28 years. This one’s a contemplative affair, a six-song suite that reflects the modular excursions and synth rhythms we’ve heard from both Thiel and Loderbauer solo since the SE heyday. The alchemy – the third mind of the two – is still there, but it’s grown a bit.
Tobias. Doltz. – Frontiers of Science (Delsin)
Tobias Freund and Shun Watanabe return for a second round of craftsman-like techno trances. Rapid rhythms of delicate sounds abound, with every chirp and sweep feeling focused and intentional. You know the kind of driving and anchored tunes that make you want to do a bit of a wide-legged dance? Yeah, that!
Posthuman – Gang of 404 (Balkan Vinyl)
Posthuman runs Balkan Vinyl, and member Joshu Doherty regularly posts insights from his day job at a record pressing plant; in other words, they aren’t messing around with wax. Gang of 404 (game recognize game when it comes to puns lads) comes as a sparkly space scene on a heavyweight slab, housing a celebration of electro (slow burners like “Reps” and chuggers like “Facts Not Opinions”) along with the odd Orbital-sounding bit.
Shawescape Renegade – Exoframe (Tresor)
Speaking of electro and going to the geographic source, Detroit’s Jeremiah Shaw unleashes some prime machine funk on his Tresor debut. 808s run industrial (in the cold metallic sense) through spans of eerie atmosphere. Four great tracks, plus an Arpanet remix straight from the particle accelerator lab.
Der Zyklus – … (Clone)
Aaaaaand speaking of Gerald Donald, here’s a new roll from him (Der Zyklus has also included Elena Spirova of Dopplereffekt, but seems to be Donald solo this time). “Formenverwandler” (“Shape-Shifter”) is the standout here, a surprisingly lovely track with hushed singing here and there that wouldn’t have been out of place for Donald’s former partner James Stinson’s The Other People Place alias. For one of those occasional reminders that Donald has a sense of humor, there’s “Mxyzptlk”, featuring a helium-voiced imp and named after the DC Comics trickster.
Appleblim – Liminal Tides (Quiet Details)
At this point, Quiet Details is a buy-on-sight label — each album released challenging a featured artist to interpret the phrase “quiet details”. For his entry, Appleblim casually delivers one of the best downtempo albums I’ve heard in a good while. Think Yosuke Tokunaga’s buried percussion with warm dubby tape melodies, and nod along.
Variant – While the Universe Sleeps (Quiet Details)
It’s something of a surprise that it took this long for Quiet Details to get a release from someone in the Deepchord camp – but it’s worth the wait. Stephen Hitchell assumes his Variant alias to deliver six tracks and two hours of slow, blissfully building atmospheres. The silvery high atmospheres breeze about, while the dubby low-end keeps things hypnotic. Close your eyes.
Actress & Suzanne Ciani – Concrète Waves (Werk Discs)
Painting with a broad brush: Suzanne Ciani is a master of giving electronic sounds the proper space, while Actress excels in pressured squeezes. But in this pair of live performance recordings, the contributions are hardly obvious. From whomst comes the somber pad? The bubbly particles? The widely spaced whooshes? Concrète Waves has me guessing at who might be doing what, the sign of a great meeting of creative minds.
Squarepusher – Kammerkonzert (Warp)
“But what’s this?” you’re asking, “we all know Squarepusher put out a new album!” Yeah, and you’s aren’t appreciating it nearly enough. I get it, your sense of post-irony has rehabilitated New Age from being cornball, but anything that gets close to Frank Zappa reeks of libertarian uncle excess. Well, get the hell over it, because Tom Jenkinson made a(nother) masterpiece here with some fantastic clashes of synthesized jazz, modern classical, and general odd mathy feelings. Ed.: Actually, I think we’re all down with new music from Mr. Jenkinson! David may be thinking of more jaded readers at some other media outlet…
Discovery Zone – Library Copy Do Not Remove (Rvng International)
This album is easily the best experimental electronic music inspired by libraries and hauntology, with voiceover from a seemingly omniscient librarian in 25 years. Full of vaporous memories, this set was originally performed at Berlin’s Zeiss-Großplanetarium, which I can only imagine caused elder millennials in the audience to shift. Look, we miss the liminal space fun centers we took for granted, but also we have back pain, and we didn’t then.
Born at Midnite – Eternal BAM Nation (Arbutus)
My theory of cultural nostalgia is that we tend to think what was happening just before we entered adolescence is a kind of lost golden age. As a millennial, it can feel odd seeing Zoomers go hard on nostalgia for the kind of 90s/00s era of proto-Hyper Pop, Happy Hardcore, and afterschool anime clubs. But nostalgia and ironic lookbacks or no, BAM have a solid slab of pop-memory joy on this one. Now that we’re hopefully past the “older music critics writing insufferable think pieces about how much they love 100 Gecs to show they’re still hip” era, let’s just enjoy the joy?
Berndt / Schmidt – Cloud Machines (Thrill Jockey)
I didn’t realize how much I wanted Nurse With Wound to have commissioned some jazz-funk tracks until I heard this collaboration between High-Zero festival’s John Berndt and Matmos’ M.C. Schmidt. Also, because someone has to say it: M.C. Schmidt is one of the nicest dressed fellows in experimental music. The man can rock a suit not in a “this guy is purposefully trying to be known for it” way, but rather with timeless elegance. If the ad agencies marketing cologne and luxury watches weren’t wusses about it, he’d be in a few campaigns.
The NRG – “Perpetual Infinity” (Surface Reality)
The NRG may have started as a historical fiction prank – the great lost stadium ambient group that never was, think the KLF had they continued releasing instead of literally burning money – but it’s long since demonstrated how pseudo-anonymity and backstories can free artists to avoid the imposter/nostalgia traps. “Perpetual Infinity” is a single track (and it’s PWYW on Bandcamp – no excuse not to click on that link!) with a clear lineage to Manuel Göttsching’s landmark “E2-E4”. Like that piece, it runs an hour and weaves in and out of multiple blissful themes and sequences. You’ll forget that it’s on for a moment as it envelops you, then you’ll miss it dearly when it ends.
What happens when you get halfway through “Perpetual Infinity”
Mr. Fingers – Leev Ur Mynd (Alleviated)
Larry Heard’s background in prog rock and jazz fusion often comes out in the deep melodic excursions that are his trademark as Mr. Fingers (to say nothing of his wildly inventive solo work). The pads of a track like “April Rain” can make you appropriately misty, but the couple tracks that feature Heard’s vocals (this time joined by Brianna Liz Leverett) take things up another level.
Furii – Pyromancy (Nomark)
First off, if you haven’t checked out Amon Tobin’s Nomark label, it’s a great way to get hands on a wealth of music demonstrating his breadth, from breaks to psychedelic jazz to dirty rock to hip-hop. Furii (Adrien Rodes), part of the larger universe around Cardiacs, delivered his debut full-length as the first non-Tobin artist on Nomark. If you love Cardiacs and Sea Nymphs, and love when Tobin blends them into his mind-blowing mixes, then Furii is a wish granted.
Pye Corner Audio – More Songs About The Sun (Sonic Cathedral)
I hadn’t kept up as much with The Head Technician since his excellent Black Mills Tapes series, so color me surprised that More Songs About The Sun is a psychedelic baggy affair, complete with guitar contributions from Ride’s Andy Bell on four of its 12 tracks. The sound washes and warbles have sprouted flowers, and what a gorgeous sky it is. This one’s also for you if you miss Up In Flames-era Caribou, as you should.
Gast – Pond (Ilian Tape)
For an album as focused as Pong, Gast covers a substantial amount of ground – you can hear echoes of Arovane, Basic Channel, Actress, and more in these pieces, anchored by loops and samples and covered in wheezy ephemera. If “Ilian Tape release that could also have come out on 12k or Line” tickles you, then give this one a shot.
The Field – Now You Exist (Studio Barnhus)
After two emotional trilogies (or was it a full hexalogy?) on Kompakt, Axel Willner is back with a new chapter on Studio Barnhus, the label of like-minded Swede Axel Boman. Lush as ever, The Field mk2 takes some different directions with drum programming, with a more pronounced hip-hop influence. With the sample flips, it’s not miles away from The Orb’s collaborations with Teebs, stretched out with pillowy pads.
Vladislav Delay Quintet – vd5 (We Jazz)
Back when Sasu Ripatti introduced the Vladislav Delay Quartet at the same time he was playing in the Moritz von Oswald Trio, I made a joke about awaiting the Mika Vainio Big Band next – and I stand by that corniness. Since then, Ripatti has radically refashioned his work, with a focus on frenetic drum programming and polyrhythms, alongside some great collaborative excursions with Sly and Robbie and Nils Petter Molvær. Revisiting the jazz combo idea again, vd5 isn’t relaxing per se, but the fiery anxiety is toned down for some gloriously bent notes and cavernous sound exploration. More than anything, what I hear is the push and pull between the collaborators – something that threatens to break apart but never does.
Dorothy Moskowitz & The United States of Alchemy – Songs of Compassion (13)
Perhaps best known for her work with the prophetic United States of America (seriously, you wanna hear Portishead from 1968?), Dorothy Moskowitz has had one hell of a second act in the last few years. Working again with Luca Ferrari, an Italian musician with his own extensive experimental bona fides, as The United States of Alchemy, Songs of Compassion is about finding the sublime within the mundane. “Charlottesville” finds Moskowitz satirizing the neo-Nazis of the infamous 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in the mode of a despondent cabaret singer, while “Ship of Fools” takes a more direct role in admonishing “wars for Western conquest” over bitter strings and whispers. Meanwhile “Your Body, My Body” teems with eerie atmospheres (strings, keys, and unidentifiable) in what could be an ode to an absent lover, best friend, or astral projection.
Seefeel – Sol.Hz (Warp)
For their first full-length in 16 years, Seefeel anchor their prettiness in voluminous, voluptuous bass. Mark Clifford’s layers echo away to distort and bloom, Sarah Peacock’s angelic voice pollinates the soundstage, then a thud grounds things back down to earth. In a year with new releases from Boards of Canada, Squarepusher, and Kelela, Sol.Hz snags the highest play count on my decks.
Kevin Richard Martin – Blue Loops (Pressure)
Please enjoy this observation of Kevin Martin’s Pressure label expressed through the medium of a Simpsons meme, then lay down and put on Blue Loops.
Spooky – Lucent (49North)
After a number of great compilations reminding us of the choice moments in 90s ambient trance, it’s only fitting that we see the first Spooky LP in 16 years. This is a journey album, full of expansive and evolving sequences, definitely what 90s Brits would call a “back to mine” listen. And while we’re at it, listen to “Shmoo” again and get happy.
Shed – Rave Echoes (Dekmantel)
I have driven myself to insane loop fatigue trying to get the exact distorted-but-not-to-a-tonally-flattened-square-wave sound that Shed regularly gets from his massive breaks and kicks. It’s all here in full force, another womping set of techno pummels with some proper euphoria.
Function – Aeternum (Existenz) (Tresor)
Though he’s arguably most well-known for crystallizing “Berghain Techno” both as a solo artist and as part of the mighty Sandwell District, Function has always had a way with gorgeous pads that would be at home in early Artificial Intelligence-era tracks. With Aeternum (Existenz), the cap to a trilogy, reverb is a main character, forming a kind of end-of-the-night/afters bliss that has me craving pancakes. “City of Luz” is nearly 13 minutes, yet its gorgeous ambient acid techno has me craving more – the kind of ride you get from classics like Orson Karte’s “Metamorphosis”.
So, what’d we miss here? Let us know what your favorite releases are from 2026 so far!
Previously: