reckonslepoisson

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Gore, Deftones (2016)

Hated by many fans (but not so many critics) upon release, Gore was dismissed as ‘light’ yet, really, it just brought more of the sounds that long influenced Deftones to the fore. Alternative rock, dream pop, new wave, blended with even greater dynamism than Saturday Night Wrist, and all while retaining the soar, the thunk.

Pick: ‘Prayers / Triangles’

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YHWH Nailgun (2022), No Midwife and I Wingflap (2022), YHWH Nailgun

YHWH Nailgun’s directness is their greatest asset; minimal but menacing rock music, all throbbing bass and sparse, muscular guitar and pained, tender vocals but crucially not an ounce of waste. Given the norms of rock music, such bareness can feel like the band is ever-threatening to unleash – but it’s the fact that they don’t, that tension, that truly thrills. 

Pick(s): ‘Black Braid’, ‘Too Bright to See’

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Mallet Guitars Two / Music for Moai Hava (2012), Large Electric Ensemble (2014), Twenty-Two Strings (2016), Norther (2024), Ex-Easter Island Head

Ex-Easter Island Head, always a dextrous and graceful band-slash-ensemble (with a great name to-boot). From founding to this day the project retains a fondness for post-kraut loops, but that cyclicality has never felt indulgent, it has always – across releases varying widely in style, approach, instrumental set-up and complexity – been ever-shifting and exhibited a fundamental sense of exploration. 

Pick(s): ‘Mallet Guitars Two – Second Movement’, ‘Large Electric Ensemble Movement 4’, ‘Twenty-Two Strings’, ‘Six Sticks’, ‘Norther’

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All Living Things, Park Jiha (2025)

Park Jiha makes ambient-y, orchestrally-descended chamber music that is luscious and pretty but feels entirely conventional. It has all been heard before. 

Pick: ‘Grounding’

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Under ~ Between, Dialect (2021)

After 2015’s new age odysseys, two records laying out gorgeous alt-realities, Dialect ventured further into his own whims on 2021’s Under ~ Between with arty-farty spoken word, blissful ambient, diverse field recordings, throbbing post-industrial electronics, synthesiser-made bird noises, spiritual jazz, Tim Hecker-y Big Ambient. For me,  it attempts to do too much and, beyond the middle stretch of ambient jazz, doesn’t quite all come together. 

Pick: ‘Stacks’

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Salvation, Rebecca Black (2025)

One’s art can improve and yet still not actually be of note. I’d like to think that my writing, over the years, has improved even slightly – does that make it worthy of praise? Don’t be silly. And that’s sort of how I feel about Rebecca Black’s Salvation. Not just better than ‘Friday’ but also vastly superior to Black’s 2023 album Let Her Burn, Salvation is more adventurous and generally better written but still not well-written, with far too many things that, if you pause to reflect on them, aren’t particularly good.

Pick: ‘Salvation’

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Tears of Injustice, Mdou Moctar (2025)

For a few years now I have followed Mdou Moctar for the blistering psych, the band’s (and guitarist’s), spangling, rumbling, unimpedable rock. The stripped-down Tears of Injustice therefore isn’t quite so exciting, but it has value as a document of Mdou Moctar’s songwriting.

Pick: ‘Takoba’

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Mudai 8, downy (2025)

Gotta hand it to downy, nearly two whole decades on and the band delivers within a very well defined set of expectations. A Japanese Thom Yorke over slightly squiffy time signatures and lush post rock atmospheres – if it’s your thing, it’s your thing. 

Pick: ‘Nisshoku’

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City of Clowns, Marie Davidson (2025)

No one ever went to Marie Davidson for nuance, and on City of Clowns she’s as say-it-to-yer-face as ever (case in point, song titled ‘Push Me Fuckhead’) – only this time, fittingly, the instrumentals are wall-to-wall just as boisterous. While some aspects of Davidson’s music stray into my most hated genres (aye, spoken word), the rest captures so many of my favourites, Kraftwerk, EBM, ‘90s hacker-film digi-techno.

Pick: ‘Fun Times’

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SAYA, Saya Gray (2025)

Some very good songwriting, and an impressive number of experiments; dollops of folk and country, rock, electro-pop and -onica, all well subsumed within the whole. SAYA isn’t the complete project Gray may have the potential for, but it’s more than merely a start.

Pick: ‘Puddle (Of Me)’

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Koi no Yokan, Deftones (2012)

Koi no Yokan is renowned as Deftones’ most dynamic and progressive release, bold experiments and monumental sounds pulled together by some of the band’s best songwriting ever. But one hears comparatively little praise of Koi no Yokan’s heaviness; the crunchy, atlassian noise here – made more impactful by the songwriting, certainly – reverberates long after the record ceases to play. In all, the best Deftones album so far (I haven’t given up hope, not yet). 

Pick: ‘Tempest’

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Lucre, Dean Blunt & Elias Rønnefelt (2025)

There is a deliciousness to both artists, the plush, aloof indie guitar of Blunt, the drunken, reckless drawl of Rønnefelt; Lucre’s tracks are on the shorter side and Rønnefelt relies on the abstract, yet the details, hooks and general sound keep the piece on my mind.

Pick: ‘1’

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Ghostholding, Venturing (2025)

Jane Remover clearly isn’t able to let go of the guitar-driven sound, at least not yet. Ghostholding, under a different moniker, is very much a continuation of the style of Census Designated, though it is also, by my book, the superior work. Its textures are better defined, one can revel in a sound revealed at times punky and post-punky (and post-post-punky, very Mk.gee), soaring and droning, screeching and glittering. 

Pick: ‘Believe’

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#mia, Skaiwater (2025)

More of the iridescent, beaming colour of last year’s #Gigi – and in brighter, even higher definition – though not packed with quite so many ideas. 

Pick: ‘pop’

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Shards, Tim Hecker (2025)

I like ‘big ambient’ as a term, it implies not just sonic scale but a bit of evil. Big Pharma, Big Tech etcetera. Tim Hecker fits into both the former and, feasibly, latter ‘big ambient’ definition, the all-conquering and slightly sinister (-sounding) musician he is. As for Shards? To be expected of a series of outtakes, a bit excellent, a bit dull. Workings-out aren’t always interesting, even for the biggest of big ambient titans. 

Pick: ‘Heaven Will Come’

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Seeds, TV on the Radio (2014)

As of February 2025 Seeds is TV on the Radio’s most recent full-length album, and one can hear it as a sort of last stand. The group had to push through the grief of Gerard Smith’s death, had to break the (comparative) stagnation of Nine Types of Light – two acts that could understandably exhaust a band creatively. 

How did TVOTR move forward and – perhaps, in a studio capacity – end? Pop. Seeds is the project’s most straightforward release, heavy on hooks and loud with familiar chords. But it’s also colourful, more detailed and complex instrumentally than it needed to be, an admirable achievement.

Pick: ‘Quartz’

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12, Westside Gunn (2025)

Westside Gunn continues to operate within a well-defined set of boundaries; 12 could have been released at any point in the past decade, for better and worse.

Pick: ‘055’