A CLOSER LISTEN weekly #101
a surprise regular edition of recs and reviews
Dear Listeners, Joseph again for another regular edition of the ACL newsletter. Normally it’d be an off week, but: 1) I’m still editing my promised interview with Ghost Ensemble, busy as I’ve been with applications, and also with 2) Joni Void’s ongoing Everyday Ago Festival of Time 2026, six concerts between 31 January and 10 February. Expect the full report on that in next week’s newsletter. Until then, here are a bunch of 2025-26 hip hop recommendations, and nine recent reviews from the blog. Happy Listening!
BEATS and/or RHYMES
August Fanon & blackchai ~ OTHERWISE A BLUR: THE MOVIE
excellent 2024 album, now a movie
bbymutha ~ read the room
four new songs from the Chattanooga rapper who delivered some of 2025’s standout features (DJ Haram, Fly Anakin)
blackchai ~ UMIBŌZU
a surprise drop from one of NYC’s most promising rappers, mostly produced by Messiah Musik
ialive ~ Flyetism
more than just a companion album to Quietism, this community showcase brings together demos, originals, and remixes that trace its creative origins
IDK ~ ETDS
mixtape or album, its of the highest quality—including heavyweight features from Black Thought, MF DOOM, and DMX
Kelly Moonstone ~ New Moon
soulful new-school hip-hop debut from the NYC singer-rapper, built on love and loss and closing with a final track featuring Quelle Chris and Cavalier
Merkeba ~ a Metal Snake
tracing intricate personal transitions, Merkeba’s self-produced debut full-length is mythologically rich and lyrically dense
Roc Marciano ~ 656
yet another solid self-produced installment from the don of abstract street rap
Sasco ~ Misophonia I
a compact collection of jungle and drum & bass-inspired tracks
Sirius Blvck + Scott Matelic ~ Daily Rituals of the Wild Heart
I was a year late to this collaborative album from Indianapolis mainstays Sirius Blvck and Scott Matelic, a heartfelt handbook to their city
SLUGGED OUT ~ Maqamat al Mawt
another solid offering from the mysterious Slugged Out Records & Tapes, this now sold-out 7” included production from Q No Rap Name and Sluggwerth
THERAVADA ~ T90 GYRO
Long Island rapper-producer sneaks in an EP to cap off a great 2025
q no rap name ~ MISO
six minimalist beat sketches from a prolific to-watch producer, each track named for an ingredient in the Japanese soup
$ DRUG$ (Instrumentals)
the versatile rapper-singer Teller Bank$’s shines on DRUG$$$, but this instrumental version lets us better appreciate the collaborative production of q no rap name, Killer Kane, Philth Spector, and Ayashi
RECENT REVIEWS
Reviews are at the heart of ACL. Here are selections from a few of my favorite reviews we posted on the blog in the last few weeks.
Ben McElroy ~ Allotment Tapes
New Year’s resolutions are notoriously difficult to keep; most don’t last through Easter. In like manner, many artists have tackled year-long projects over the years, with varying degrees of success. Those who have seen it through include Wixel (an EP a month), Lullatone (a track a week), and the still-unfolding two-year Ceremonial County series from Folklore Tapes. We expect that Ben McElroy will make this hallowed list with Allotment Tapes, as he is already a prolific musician; his self-discipline is a known factor.
Dalot & Sound Awakener ~ Ianos
What does motherhood mean in an age of anxiety and fear? For Maria Papadomanolaki (Dalot), the question became especially salient when she lost her mother and gave birth to her second daughter against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine. A year-long, Crete to Hanoi conversation with Nhung Nguyen (Sound Awakener) led to the formation of Ianos, a fitting reference to the god who looks forward and back and from whom January gets its name.
Jeune Oji ~ Clausura
If Jeune Oji‘s Clausura reminds listeners of early Somni, it’s no coincidence; each artist debuted on the Friends of Friends imprint, whose artists share a sonic aesthetic. The music is smooth yet intricate, decorated with spare vocal samples. While listening, one feels a warm glow, a byproduct of the organic contributions ~ in this case acoustic guitar and ukulele. While the EP arrives in midwinter, Clausura hums like the heart of summer, a promise of warmer days.
Kirill Nikolai ~ Solennelle
The older one gets, the more the passage of time seems a mystery. Ukrainian-American ambient composer Kirill Nikolai has been quiet for a while, but we were stunned to realize that ten years had passed since we reviewed Letting Go Variations, which also made our Best Packaging list in 2016. Fittingly, Nicolai’s return on the Falt label plays with concepts of time through tape loops of what seems like an ancient choir; it’s the sort of music one might unearth on a tape while going through the tattered boxes of a loved one after a memorial service.
Mai Mai Mai ~ Karakoz
The genocide in Gaza continues despite the ceasefire. In January 2024, braving the heart of the horrifying conflict, Mai Mai Mai sojourned to Bethlehem and Ramallah to record with Palestinian musicians and capture the raw emotions of the region. Karakoz is the heart-rending result. The field recordings … reveal an area that is still teeming with life, albeit a life that has been wounded and reduced. “My cheese is very very nice,” states a market vendor, one of the album’s few English phrases. The musical arc, which had risen from ambient to drone to electronic, now dips in the opposite direction to unveil the voices of the people. This humanizing touch graces the music with intense power. Authentic and essential, Karakoz is a document of its times that speaks to all times.
Natalia Tsupryk ~ Are We Alive?
Ukrainian composer Natalia Tsupryk has appeared twice on Top Ten Modern Composition chart, most recently with Neil Cowley. Are We Alive? sees her return to the intertwined subjects that characterize her work: opposition to the invasion of Ukraine and reminders that life under attack is still worth living. Tsupryk writes, “despite all the destruction, there is a lot of love, resilience and kindness … you can still feel at home.” This is not to minimize the impact of the war, but to highlight the reasons for fighting. If all seems bleak, there is only despair; Tsupryk focuses more on the value of her nation and its people.
Rafael Anton Irisarri ~ Points of Inaccessibility
Somewhere between Derrida’s, Deleuze’s and Fisher’s (post-)nostalgic ruminations lies the solace of silence and remoteness as a way of connecting and belonging. Rafael Anton Irissari’s Points of Inaccessibility is a line of flight towards this reconfiguration of reality and an exploration of the way the present is haunted by all the futures that never arrived. Points of Inaccessibility builds upon and expand’s Irisarri’s sound while making it more refined, elaborate and empathetic to the challenges, realities and mysteries of human existence. Yet his work is not nostalgic or existential. Irisarri attempts to listen, feel, reflect, research, respond to and connect with the environments that inspire him while highlighting their underlying key qualities and linking them to universal themes that exist underneath the surface of human and more-than-human experience. As Irisarri writes: The record isn’t nostalgic. It’s about the way the present is haunted by all the futures that never arrived. We live inside systems that promise connection but deliver repetition. Everything loops, nothing resolves.
Rodent ~ Night of Return
Night of Return is a departure of sorts for Ceremony of Seasons and their solstice-themed roster. First, the cassette is scary, less like gently falling snow than the feeling of being snowboard and stir-crazy, wondering if one is hallucinating while branches scrape against windows and cupboards rattle in their grooves. This is the dark side of winter, the winter of eerie folklore, of ghosts and sprites and other malevolent creatures. The crow on the cover is a portent of something dark and dangerous and terribly near.
Yamila ~ Noor
Noor is an Arabic word meaning light or divine light. This light comes into play on Yamila‘s album, as the artist seeks to find connection in all things, informed by her time in an ecologist community. The album has a remarkable fluidity of form; the tracks are a mixture of instrumental and vocal, while the vocal pieces are split between wordless and lyrical. The music and artist are in harmony with nature; in this context, the conditions are created in which divine light might break through.
UPCOMING RELEASES
(complete list with Bandcamp links here)
We’re well into it now ~ the season of ice and snow. At this time of year, our emotions can head in multiple directions. Music is a constant, buoying voice that helps us to navigate the frigid terrain. We love winter, so we’re not rushing the warmer weather; even so, there are days when we’re snowed in, desperate for new music. May you find your next favorite album right here!
Akhiro Santo ~ Fading (ato.archives, 6 February)
Bellbird ~ The Call (Constellation, 6 February)
Brad Rose ~ The Sound Leaves (Room40, 6 February)
Carlos Giffoni ~ Pendulum (Room40, 6 February)
Chicago Gunfire Survivors ~ The Forgotten Parts (6 February)
George Christian ~ Passos Reencontrados de uma Torta Jornada (GC Sound Artifacts, 6 February)
GorpoPap ~ Reach 4 the Stars (6 February)
harikuyamaku ~ AMBIENTAL -Music for Oriental Hotel Okinawa Resort and Spa- (ato.archives, 6 February)
Lueenas ~ Tender Anger (Barkhausen Recordings, 6 February)
Maps & Diagrams ~ Music for Trees (ato.archives, 6 February)
Mariel Roberts Musa ~ Sunder (New Focus, 6 February)
Nick Schofield ~ Blue Hour (Backward Music, 6 February)
1981OCTOBERS ~ Arrows of Time (6 February)
Rachel Beetz ~ Tone Keepers (Outside Time, 6 February)
Rafael Anton Irisarri ~ Points of Inaccessibility (Black Knoll, 6 February)
Rev. LV ~ A Guide to Inner Light (Graphical Recordings, 6 February)
Roudi Vagou and Läuten der Seele ~ Taghelle Nacht (Quindi, 6 February)
Sam Slater ~ Lunng (Mt Brings Death, 6 February)
Stray Theories ~ Falter (n5MD, 6 February)
Thistle Sifter ~ Forever the Optimist (6 February)
Wil Bolton & David Cordero ~ How to Make Sense of Downtime (Home Normal, 6 February)
Yamila ~ Noor (Umor Rex, 6 February)
Countermarch ~ Skin of Perception (7 February)
idiiom ~ Neural Network (Audiobulb, 7 February)
Dronny Darko ~ Dark Shadows Across a Disordered Mind (Cryo Chamber, 10 February)
Ragger ~ Euphonic Sounds (Hausu Mountain, 10 February)
Andrew Greenwald ~ for Distractfold (11 February)
Corima ~ Hunab Ku (Soleil Zeuhl, 12 February)
Missing Music ~ 4.0 (Margate Electronics, 12 February)
Aaron Shaw ~ And So It Is (Leaving, 13 February)
Asher Levitas & Margaret Fielder McGinnis ~ Through These Red Windows (13 February)
aus + the humble bee ~ Chalybeate (flau, 13 February)
CC ~ Shadows and Simulacra (Crooked Acres, 13 February)
Concrete Sun ~ the mundane uncanny (Infrequent Seams, 13 February)
Elizabeth Davis ~ Flowers (South of North, 13 February)
f5point6 ~ In Retrospect (Sea Blue Audio, 13 February)
Força Maior ~ Morte Lilás (Perf, 13 February)
Harry Christelis ~ Preserving Fictions (Clonmell Jazz Social, 13 February)
Jakob Lindhagen, Vargkvint, Boris Rogowski ~ a cottage at the end of the road (piano and coffee, 13 February)
Kabasse ~ About Sitting On Fences (Kapitaen Platte, 13 February)
Magda Drozd ~ Divided by Dusk (Präsens Editionen, 13 February)
Otro ~ Peanut Ballads for a Lone Star (Drowned by Locals, 13 February)
Riebung ~ chrysanthemen (13 February)
Ryan Scott ~ 21st Century Canadian Snare Drum (Collection QB, 13 February)
schntzl ~ Fata Morgana (VIERNULVIER, 13 February)
SITKA ~ Bone Flower (13 February)
Tomeka Reid ~ dance! skip! hop! (Out of Your Head, 13 February)
Toninato & Thiessen ~ Dream of Heat (Ambiances Magnétiques, 13 February)
Trem 77 ~ Aepochs (13 February)
VierNulVier ~ Bezinksel (Award Winning Records, 16 February)
Western Grey ~ After Hours (Room40, 16 February)
Ebauche ~ Nine Times (Supple 9, 19 February)
Andreas Voelk & Scott Monteith ~ And All the Clocks Ran Dry (Room40, 20 February)
Angelo Repetto ~ Between Worlds: Interference (Subject to Restrictions Discs, 20 February)
Antonio Gallucci ~ Hope for Nothingness as Something (Dinzu Artefacts, 20 February)
Arthur Clees ~ All of the Days That Go By (SOWASVON, 20 February)
Autodealer ~ Conclusions (Somewherecold, 20 February)
Bosque Vacio ~ Aves de Nahá (Dinzu Artefacts, 20 February)
Brandon Seabrook ~ Hellbent Daydream (Pyroclastic, 20 February)
David Aimone ~ Eulogy for an American Dream (Passed Recordings, 20 February)
David / David ~ Blame Hero (577 Records, 20 February)
Derek Hunter Wilson ~ Sculptures (Beacon Sound, 20 February)
.foundation & Henrik Meierkord ~ Kings & Queens (Le Mort Analogue, 20 February)
Glen ~ It Was a Bright Cold Day in April (Kapitaen Platte, 20 February)
Hermann Kopp ~ Der Golem (Cold Spring, 20 February)
Isabel Pine ~ Fables (kranky, 20 February)
Marielle V Jakobsons ~ The Patterns Lost to Air (Thrill Jockey, 20 February)
Megan Alice Clune ~ Repetition Study I: imagine being (meakusma, 20 February)
Midori Hirano ~ OTONOMA (Thrill Jockey, 20 February)
MT Gemini ~ Hawk Deh Near (vlek, 20 February)
Nathan Fake ~ Evaporator (InFine, 20 February)
Nicole McCabe ~ Color Theory (20 February)
Phew and Danielle de Picciotto ~ Paper Masks (Mute, 20 February)
The Setting ~ S/T (20 February)
Stephen Parisi Jr. ~ Buddy! (Shifting Paradigm, 20 February)
Werner Durand & John Krausbauer ~ Black Seraphim (Moving Furniture, 20 February)
Weston Olenki ~ Piano Studies (Dinzu Artefacts, 20 February)
This Morn’ Omina ~ Insha (Cyclic Law, 23 February)
Amuleto ~ Becoming Forest (LAAPS, 26 February)
Julia Govor ~ Riders on the Roof (JUJUKA, 26 February)
Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Roe Deers ~ Didysis Čiurlys (Good Skills, 26 February)
Asher Gamedze ~ A Semblance of Return (Northern Spy, 27 February)
BIRTAWIL ~ Dua Min (27 February)
Brice Kartmann ~ Totem flotté (unjenesaisquoi, 27 February)
Caterina Barbieri & Bendik Giske ~ At Source (light-years, 27 February)
David August ~ HYMNS (99CHANTS, 27 February)
The Early ~ I Want to Be Ready (Island House, 27 February)
Francisco Fabris ~ DISPLACES (Bedroom Community, 27 February)
Jack Vickridge ~ Building Instruments (Flaming Pines, 27 February)
Ken Watari ~ subtraction in spiral (Phantom Limb, 27 February)
Matt Orenstein ~ Desiccation (27 February)
Max Kutner ~ Rogue Lash (Orenda, 27 February)
Noémi Büchi ~ Exuvie (~OUS, 27 February)
Perzeptiverdampfkesselqualmtbesinnlich ~ Pussy Disco (Synaptic Cliffs, 27 February)
Pharaoh Chromium ~ Chronicles from the Arab Cold War (Discrepant, 27 February)
Robert Humber ~ into air (Redshift Music, 27 February)
Shane Parish ~ Autechre Guitar (Palilalia, 27 February)
Shape Navigator ~ Journal (Coastal Electronauts, 27 February)
Talpa & Violent Magic Orchestra ~ EXO SWAG KILLA (Transatlantic, 27 February)
Triple Blind ~ Cold Walk (27 February)
MMBTUPM ~ Meditation Music Beyond the Unsleeping Psychopathic Mind (Hidden Harmony, 28 February)
Cleared ~ Lustres (Room40, 1 March)
Stefan Goldmann ~ Automation Studies (Macro, 5 March)
Amalie Dahl’s Dafnie ~ Live at Moldejazz (Sonic Transmissions, 6 March)
Andrew MacKelvie’s Many Worlds ~ Many Worlds (Watch That Ends the Night, 6 March)
Joachim Spieth ~ Vestige (Affin, 6 March)
Last Scene Alive ~ World Class Pep Talk (6 March)
OHYUNG ~ IOWA (6 March)
Quintelium ~ continuums (Somewherecold, 6 March)
Smag På Dig Selv ~ This Is Why We Lost (Stunt, 6 March)
Those Who Walk Away ~ Afterlife Requiem (Constellation, 6 March)
Tomu DJ ~ antagonist (sound as language, 6 March)
Autistici ~ Familiarity Unfolded (Audiobulb, 7 March)
Bradford Reed ~ PETAL TONES (9 March)
Wil Bolton ~ Barbican (Home Normal, 10 March)
Bentley Anderson ~ Valence (Digital Regress, 13 March)
Drum & Lace ~ Terra (Mesh, 13 March)
Mary Ocher ~ Weimar (Underground Institute, 13 March)
Matthieu Mazué Trio ~ Turn of Events (577 Records, 13 March)
Terrence Dixon ~ When Stars Remember (Tresor, 13 March)
Válek Merta Tarnovski ~ Punctum (Flaming Pines, 13 March)
Adam O’Farrill ~ ELEPHANT (Out of Your Head, 20 March)
Ben Glas ~ “music* *?” (Room40, 20 March)
Colleen ~ Libres antes del final (Thrill Jockey, 20 March)
Eva Novoa ~ Solo (I) (577 Records, 20 March)
more eaze ~ sentence structure in the country (Thrill Jockey, 20 March)
Plankton Wat ~ The Vanishing World (Sun Cru, 20 March)
Red Largo ~ Hotel Neuf (Boudoir, 20 March)
Saba Alizadeh ~ Last Rituals (Karlrecords, 20 March)
Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart ~ BODY SOUND (International Anthem, 20 March)
Stine Janvin / Morten Joh ~ Or Gare – funeral procession music from Ryfylke, Norway (Futura Resistenza, 24 March)
Blurstem ~ Fallen Fragments (We All Speak in Poems, 26 March)
Alexander IV ~ Alchemist (Feiertag, 27 March)
bod kin ~ s/t (MFZ, 27 March)
Dobrawa Czocher ~ State of Matter (FatCat/130701, 27 March)
Emil Mark ~ Mellemtid (Tonal Union, 27 March)
Nene H ~ Second Skin (UMAY, 27 March)
Simon Berz ~ Tectonic (Karlrecords, 27 March)
Simon Hanes ~ GARGANTUA (Pyroclastic, 27 March)
Taroug ~ Chott (Denovali, 27 March)
Till Hillbrecht & Zimoun ~ Warp Slow (Room40, 27 March)
Tristan Allen ~ Osni the Flare (RVNG Intl., 27 March)
Tyler Friedman ~ METLASR (27 March)
WaSaBi Trio ~ S/T (577 Records, 27 March)
Bali Gamelan Sound ~ Topeng Semar Pegulingan (29 March)
How to See Know and Fall ~ ECOLOGIES (Adhyâropa, 3 April)
Carl Stone & Asuna ~ Imu Plastos (Room40, 7 April)
El Ten Eleven ~ Nowhere Faster (Joyful Noise, 10 April)
Felicia Atkinson & Christina Vantzou ~ Reflections Vol. 3: Water Poems (RVNG Intl., 10 April)
Flore Laurentienne ~ Volume III (Secret City, 10 April)
Juha Mäki-Patola ~ Momentary Movements of Landscapes (FatCat, 10 April)
Simon Goff ~ Sparks (Grand Chess, 17 April)
Dionée ~ Mille-feuilles (Tour de Bras, 22 April)
OOIOO/Lightning Bolt ~ The Horizon Spirals/The Horizon Viral (Thrill Jockey, 24 April)
Setting ~ S/T (Thrill Jockey, 24 April)