Thomas Blake

When Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society get together, a singular kind of magic emerges that epitomises the creative spirit of the Chicago scene but is nevertheless unique. ‘Totality’ is the fullest possible rendering of that magic and an essential piece of work.

All of the tracks on MIIEN feel like journeys, proof that MIEN truly understand the psychedelic assignment. They have the will and the talent to take us into the unknown and do so in unexpected and diverse ways.

Zoé Basha’s impressive debut album, Gamble, contains a wealth of complex emotional layers, but at its heart is the joy of making new and truly exciting music.

It’s over five years since the last Sacred Paws album, but Jump Into Life is well worth the wait. It feels like the most fully realised example of their intriguing vision, tapping into a truly global set of influences to produce something complex and personal.

In the hands of Jonathan Nangle and the Crash Ensemble, something beautiful has emerged from the long gestation of ‘Blue Haze of Deep Time’, which should become a touchstone of the ‘slow music’ movement.

Folklore Tapes deliver one of the strongest and strangest in their Ceremonial County series. The Bohman Brothers provide the perfect primer for creating weird, place-specific atmospheres, while Jennifer Reid represents folk music as a living tradition, as entertaining as it is political.

New Thing, the scarily accomplished debut album from Avery Friedman, inhabits a complex emotional realm where nervousness can coexist with (and inform) ideas of sexiness, sadness, tenderness. Her world is fragile but appears to have arrived fully-formed.

Uhlmann Johnson Wilkes is proof that you don’t have to forsake traditional aesthetic notions of melody to make something experimental…this is music deep and alluring enough to get lost in and sparse enough to find yourself in. 

Macie Stewart’s ‘When the Distance is Blue’ feels even more cerebral than her debut, more improvisational, and more rooted in landscape. But for all the meditativeness and all the improvisation, there is a single-minded artistry at work behind these pieces. 

Delivered with eloquence, fire and an impressive eye for poetic detail, Lonnie Holley’s ‘Tonky’ is a work of multitudes. It follows unlikely trails, expands on themes other artists would pass over, and invites a depth of thought and engagement rarely found in contemporary music.

With lightness and an ear for a concise and cutting phrase, Clara Mann alchemises her experience into a universal emotional reaction on ‘Rift’. In the space of a debut, she has gone from ‘one to watch’ to one of the best songwriters in the country.

On ‘Come Into the Garden’, Natalie Wildgoose conjures a strange world submerged in sweet, subtle sound and rich in the unlearnable language of dream and memory.