This diverse collection offers a wide-ranging sonic journey that spans several decades, seamlessly blending underground indie-rock, avant-garde experimentation, jazz fusion, and minimalist contemporary composition. The playlist moves fluidly from the driving energy of post-punk, noise rock, and garage-pop to the more introspective, atmospheric realms of slowcore, ambient textures, and acoustic reimagining. By pairing established legends like Miles Davis and Peter Hammill with a broad spectrum of modern independent artists, the selection highlights a shared dedication to creative restlessness and distinct, non-conformist song-writing. Ultimately, the mix serves as a compelling exploration of mood and genre, where raw, guitar-driven dissonance finds balance alongside moments of profound, quiet reflection.
AUDIO
PLAYLIST
Sun Atoms - Narco Polo (RemiX JunN) - Narco Polo Remixes
Soft Science - Spinning - Spinning
Bikini Test Failure - You’re Dead To Me Now
Cor De Lux - The Cringe - Year Of The Horse
Crow - Skyline - Hold Sway
Hard-Ons - Suck And Swallow - Korean Language Mini-Album
Heir To The Squandered Millions - Here They Come Again
Evening Sky - Wanskuckin - Meeting Of The Four
Flooding - object 1 - object 1
Fuses - Garden of Ashes - Sawdust In The Transmission
Kevin Coleman - Terrapin - K..C. Blues
Robert Honstein, Mivos Quartet - Arctic 1. Midnight Sun - Horizon Line
Jocelyn Morlock - Artemis Sleeps - Artemis Sleeps
Helen Svoboda - Blur - Headwater
Cate Kennan - Rain - Shadows
The Go-Betweens - Old Mexico (acoustic demo) - G Stands For Go-Betweens: The Go-Betweens Anthology - Volume 3
Danny Short - Run From You - HALT!
Moff Skellington - Unster Greel - Dawn Ablutions
Fancy Weapon - All Roads - Fancy Weapon
Smoked Salmon - Everybody’s Out of Town - Totally Sick!!
The Junta - Covfefe - Euphoria
Occult Character - Every Song In My Head - Nauseas
Neon Crabs - Vicious Debasement - This Puppy Can See A Frog
The Dream Syndicate - That’s What You Always Say - Live, Through The Past Darkly
Sick Gazelle - Maybe You Were Right - Veld
Peter Hammill - Mr X - Been Alone So Long (The Naked Songs Tour, Bremen, 1985)
Miles Davis - Orange Lady - The Complete Bitches Brew Sessions
Salem Trials - Whatever happened to the spacepeople - Fingerprint on a Blind Eye
NOTES
The Portland psych-gaze innovators are gearing up for a major summer with the announcement that they’ll be joining Modest Mouse on select tour dates. To mark the occasion, the band has unveiled ‘Narco Polo Remixes’, a two-track release that reimagines their ‘Narco Polo’ collaboration with Modest Mouse frontman Isacc Brock through the lens of two distinctive remixers: The Dandy Warhols’ Peter R G. Holstrom and Sun Atoms’ own June Kang. Released via Little Cloud Records on June 26, “Narco Polo Remixes” transforms the original into a pair of immersive electronic excursions, the ‘Narco Polo (JunN RemiX)’.driven by a slower, sub-heavy trippy pulse and Holmström’s sleek, hypnotic ‘Marco Polo (NRC RMX)’ accompanied by a striking new visual from rising artist Brady Tucson. The release highlights Sun Atoms’ adventurous approach to sound while setting the stage for their West Coast tour and a return to the studio for a new full-length album later this year.
These dreampop favourites are back and sounding more expansive, urgent, and intoxicating than ever. The Sacramento-based sextet unveil ‘Spinning’ - a shimmering, emotionally charged first taste of their coming album ‘Sand’, out September 4 via Shelflife Records (North America) and Spinout Nuggets (UK). Blending radiant shoegaze textures, soaring melodies, and irresistible momentum, ‘Spinning’ captures the exhilarating rush of getting caught in an emotional whirlwind while showcasing the band’s immersive sound. Featuring the longtime lineup of Katie Haley (vocals, percussion), Matt Levine (lead guitar), Ross Levine (guitar), Tony Cale (drums), Becky Cale (bass) and Hans Munz (electronics), Soft Science continues to refine the lush sonic universe that has earned them acclaim from alternative pop and indie-rock audiences worldwide.
From the West Coast to something closer to home - Jodrell Bank in sunny Cheshire - James is back with a sparkling new pop tune - the meta data implies this might be a precursor to a long awaited third album. Rather than being a traditional multi-member band, Bikini Test Failure (often abbreviated as BTF) is a solo effort where Hill serves as the songwriter, performer, producer, and designer. He adopts a “control-freak” approach to his music, drawing stylistic comparisons to various British alternative rock acts but somehow managing to deliver a singular and unique sound.
Cor de Lux, the unorthodox alt-rock foursome from North Carolina’s outerbanks, who recently announced their signing to Ipecac Recordings, release their label debut, the J. Robbins-produced Year of the Horse , on 18th September. A preview of the nine-song album arrives with “The Cringe” and its accompanying video. The snarling single charges forward at full blast before veering into an atmospheric passage where the intertwined guitars of Dawn Moraga and Tim Lusk drift into haunting territory.
Following the passing on May 14 of founding member Peter Archer, esteemed Sydney band Crow have announced the release date for their first album in over 15 years, Hold Sway. The announcement has been accompanied by the release the album’s second single and video, “Skyline”, which was written and sung by Archer.
Australian band The Hard-Ons pay tribute to founding member bass player Ray’s racial heritage by releasing a Korean language 12” EP. Korean-born bass player Ray handles the lead vocal duties to four re-recorded Hard-Ons classics, digging deep to reacquaint himself with his mother tongue.
The new single by Melbourne’s newest “compact, tight” power pop band, the new project for Ross McLennan, formerly of ‘90s Australian power-pop outfit and Triple J faves Snout. The new single follows first single “Thin Aspiration”, and like its predecessor, it is taken from the band’s soon to be announced debut album.
There are bands that fit neatly into a genre, and then there is Evening Sky. The Rhode Island quartet’s new album arrived on June 26, weaving together pedal steel, soul-jazz, reggae grooves, and cinematic storytelling. Meeting of the Four follows instinct rather than convention, drawing from the deep well of American roots music while allowing jazz improvisation to lead the way. The result is an expansive instrumental record. At the heart of the group are four musicians whose individual voices converge into something greater than the sum of its parts. Guitarist and composer Gino Rosati, pedal steel guitarist Chris Brooks, bassist Joe Potenza, and drummer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Eric Hastings have spent years refining a musical language rooted in curiosity, spontaneity, and a shared love of American music in all its forms.
Released in July 2025, Object 1 is a four-track EP by the Lawrence, Kansas-based trio Flooding that further refines their signature sound—a compelling fusion of slowcore, noise rock, and post-punk. Led by Rose Brown, the band masterfully balances soft, ethereal vocal delivery with sudden, dissonant outbursts and heavy, distorted instrumentation. With standout tracks like "depictions of the female body," the project has been critically lauded for its raw, confessional lyrical depth and the group's ability to seamlessly blend pop-adjacent sensibilities with a challenging, high-intensity sonic aesthetic.
The debut album from Sweden/New York-based transatlantic duo Fuses, came out June 26 on Having Fun Records (the rock imprint of We Are Busy Bodies). Blending 60s folk rock jangle and classic country warmth, it’s a lush, harmony-driven record for fans of The Byrds, Fairport Convention, Gram Parsons, and Jason Molina. The album is accompanied by a grainy Super 8-style video for “Garden of Ashes.”
Nashville-based songwriter and guitarist Kevin Coleman returns with KC Blues, the follow up to his 2024 album Imaginary Conversations. Recorded over the course of two years, the album blends country blues, Appalachian influences, improvisation, and experimental folk into a collection shaped as much by collaboration and circumstance as by careful composition. Released as a collaboration between Centripetal Force (USA) and Ramble Records (Australia), KC Blues is being issued in a 200 copy vinyl pressing, as well as digitally.
Horizon Line, an album of music by Robert Honstein, features three compositions exploring landscapes and the pastoral - in nature, visual art, and urban space. The “horizon line” orients perspective and by implication, how we situate ourselves and derive meaning from the world around us. Featuring three works that span a decade of the composer’s career, the instrumental throughline of the album could be the String Quartet itself, representing a culmination of Honstein’s long engagement with the genre. Arctic was recorded in 2013 by Mivos Quartet, longtime collaborators of the composer, while Continuous Interior features the youthful Bergamot Quartet with percussionist Abby Fisher. The Great Marsh features New England artists who performed the work in the iconic coastal-adjacent Rockport Music-Shalin Liu Performance Center.
The premature passing of acclaimed Vancouver composer Jocelyn Morlock in 2023 was an event that left the Canadian contemporary music community reeling. Morlock was one of the countries most active and visible artists. Mark Takeshi McGregor was among her closest associates, sharing a close friendship, creative exchange and even at one point an apartment. As such, he makes an ideal instigator for the series of forthcoming posthumous albums that pay tribute to Morlock’s refined ear for colour, melodic imagination, impish sense of humour, and expansive evocative capacity. Morlock had a strong affinity for the flute and Artemis Sleeps offers a glimpse into her chamber works that feature the instrument including everything from delicate solo pieces to a vividly coloured flute octet, and from a wind quintet—one of her final compositions—to trios and duos featuring harp, guitar, and voice. In addition to covering a variety of different ensembles, the material here also traverses more than 20 years of her career and yet amidst the album’s many contrasts, Morlock’s irrepressible compositional spirit shines through, offering a language that is accessible and steeped in the tradition yet fiercely individualistic and deeply eccentric.
Headwater is a stream of fragmentation, individuality and wholeness, shaped by disparate and complementary aspects of Helen Svoboda’s solo practice. Sixteen threads or ‘earworms’ run throughout the record to form an abstracted picture of self, rooted in a devolved songform. It can be experienced as a tapestry that blurs the edges of identity; strange, beautiful, evaporative, and fluid, like memory itself.
The distinctive sonic world for Headwater is built around two double basses, two voices, and electronics; heard as singular and combinatory bodies of material. The ensemble features Helen Svoboda (double bass, voice, composition) with close collaborators Jacques Emery (double bass), Finnish vocalist Selma Savolainen (voice), and Tilman Robinson (electronics, production).
Los Angeles musician Cate Kennan’s self-produced second full-length unfolds with the poetry and immateriality of its title: Shadows. 10 vignettes of keys, strings, reverb, and voice, the songs sway and lope between dream and lullaby, rose-colored but remote. The album was inspired by the dislocation Kennan felt upon returning, after several years away, to the rustic neighbourhood northwest of L.A. where she’d grown up: “Wandering through a place where my life once existed but where everything had quietly shifted with time.”
Featured box set - tracks marked as featured are from releases covered on previous shows - if you search for them you can find details.
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Their second LP, Veld, is released via Vampire Blues. Comprised of saxophonist/vocalist Bruce Lamont (Yakuza), guitarist Eric Block (Veloce), bassist Douglas McCombs (Tortoise) and drummer Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), the band delivers a five-track collection that exists somewhere between free-rock confusion and deep-space tranquility, conjuring an uncommon collision of layered saxophone, processed vocalizations, submerged textures and heavy guitar zones, with eternally outstretched drums steering the band’s improvised pieces. Expanded from a trio to a quartet with the addition of McCombs following its 2019 debut, Odum, the quartet finds added clarity and structure on Veld without ever losing the spark of the jam.
Featured album….“Mr. X” is one of Peter Hammill’s most iconic and haunting compositions, originally appearing on his 1980 album A Black Box. A masterpiece of atmospheric tension, the song is built upon a brooding, repetitive electronic pulse that creates a cold, cinematic backdrop for Hammill’s intense and introspective vocal delivery. Lyrically, the track delves into themes of isolation, alienation, and the fragmentation of identity, as the narrator contemplates a world where they have become a detached, ghostly observer—a “Mr. X” stripped of human connection. The song’s stark, minimalist arrangement perfectly underscores its themes, cementing its status as a quintessential example of Hammill’s ability to blend avant-garde sensibilities with deeply vulnerable songwriting.
“Orange Lady,” composed by Joe Zawinul and recorded by Miles Davis in November 1969, stands as one of the most evocative and atmospheric compositions from the prolific Bitches Brew sessions. Though omitted from the original 1970 landmark album, it later became a centerpiece of the 1974 collection Big Fun. The piece showcases the revolutionary fusion aesthetic of the era, featuring a dreamlike, impressionistic arrangement that highlights Davis’s nuanced trumpet work alongside Wayne Shorter’s soprano saxophone and the shimmering textures of multiple electric pianos. Its haunting, space-oriented soundscape remains a quintessential example of the experimental, genre-defying direction Davis pursued during his transition into jazz-rock fusion.
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Bob, thanks so much from Shameless Promotion PR for including Sun Atoms with Modest Mouse's Isaac Brock, as well as Soft Science, on Different Noises (both your radio show and your Substack site).