Cute and calm acoustic album. Kinda jazz, very light rock, pop.
kanekoayano – 石の糸 (Threads of Stone)
Dva – Piri Piri
This album catapulted to the top of my listening charts of this year, it just has a ridiculously strong hook. It definitely helps that sun coming out more, trees are bursting in leaves, and this is essentially a soundtrack to summer. Kung Fu and Lococo are hymns for a sunny day on a meadow by a lake while having food on the grill and tossing frisbee.
Indie pop is a great genre for this record: it is absolutely pop with a world music spin, but it’s quite a mile from mainstream radio pop. Some songs have this strong cuteness factor because of the singer’s voice, like how The Asteroids Galaxy Tour took us by storm in 2009 with their debut. It also brings me back to the Radiocafé era of Hungary.
Messa – The Spin
It’s dark like gothic but not black metal or post-punk goth, it’s well-crafted musically but not over the top progressive metal, it’s slow in tempo but not at all doom or sludge. I was a bit confused when they listed things like jazz and dark ambient in their influences, and then, the track The Dress goes into a full-on jazz depart before jumping into a cinematic transition and ending up with a fantastic solo and then the crystal clear vocals arrive… They really have it all. Still, it’s not a mish-mash of things but a perfect amalgamation and genre-bending.
Overall, Messa is just one of those most eclectic dark rock bands that put the sweetest sorrow in my throat. And The Spin is a beautiful album, gives me shivers over and over again. I can easily listen to this on repeat.
Update: I’ve just listened to the previous albums of Messa and now it’s clear why they mention stuff like drone, dark ambient, doom, or stoner as references for their music. There are actual full tracks with these aesthetics on earlier records. However, I think The Spin is a lot more evolved and cleaner version of their sound. It’s not so much all these styles living side-by-side anymore but having a great blend of these sources into one coherent voice.
Decius – Decius Vol. II (Splendour & Obedience)
Easy listening house, bleep techno, and electroclash. Casual electronic lounging and catwalk music.
Marie Davidson – City Of Clowns
It’s this fringe kind of electronic music, with an electro aesthetic, electroclash perhaps. It’s exciting and interesting and has things to say, feels fresh and different. It has become my third big thing that I’ve stumbled upon in 2025 (after Heartworms and Ela Minus).
Modesty Beast – Majesty
Sometimes futurepop can be more cheese than actually good music. This is futurepop, which is actually good music.
The Lewis Express – Doo-Ha!
This reminds me to listen to more jazz. It’s a great album with inspiring and uplifting music.
Ela Minus – Día
This woman has been keeping me mesmerized for about a month now. I stumbled upon Upwards randomly and can’t not listen to this album all the time.
Her music has a strong kinship with electropop classics that have this eerie vocal nature to them, like The Knife. However, her personal character, creativity, and connection to the hardware aspect of electronic music production gives me strong Björk vibes, too. And yet, she’s definitely her own thing: it’s not like I get reminded of these other performers and I get back to listen to those, but I stick with Ela’s album and keep listening this.
Beyond the fantastic music her lyrics are also so smart and interesting and artistic. There’s message to be told, layers of ideas to unfold. I don’t even know when was the last time I was looking up and reading lyrics for an electronic music record to understand properly all it has to say.
I do believe this is an album to mark and remember. I’d love to have it on vinyl and put it on display as one of the milestones of this year.
Suburban Architecture – Dancefloor Heritage Volume 2 (Mixed Version)
Liquid drum and bass, like the good old days. The mixed album gives an awesome continuous ride for 76 minutes.
Dear Omen – The S Tapes
I went to see a science lecture and there was a band playing before, that was Dear Omens. It’s hard to describe the experience when a bunch of science nerds are waiting for a speech about brain functions and what they get is a stage lit with candles, faces painted white, and loud full-on goth rock in their faces.
Besides being extremely surprising, it was also an amazing performance and absolutely impressive music. Listening to the record brings back the memories and it’s a great album, even if a short one. I’m happy that I can remember Fay Ruza’s absolutely commanding stage presence while listening to the songs, that definitely gives the experience an extra edge.