Brandon Locher returns with a new album, Rahu Ketu, and a companion EP, The Shadow Planets

21 July 2026

There’s wonderful news from Pennsylvania-based visual artist and musician Brandon Locher, who has announced not one but two new releases: Rahu Ketu, his first full-length album under his own name, and preceding it a companion EP titled The Shadow Planets.

Locher is no stranger to us. Ever since the release of The Meets’ It Happens Outside, which was one of our Album Picks of 2013, we have kept a close eye on his ever-evolving output, from Stage Hands to his first solo recordings. Six years after his last release, The Shadow Planets and Rahu Ketu mark a long-awaited and welcome return.

Recorded during a self-imposed 264-day creative cycle, Rahu Ketu and The Shadow Planets see Locher continuing to refine his rich blend of ambient composition, library music, trip-hop and experimental sound collage. Entirely written, performed and produced by Locher, the music is informed by his Transcendental Meditation practice, resulting in immersive and rhythmic compositions guided as much by intuition as meticulous craftsmanship. The conceptual framework is as intriguing as the music itself, drawing on Vedic astrology. “What fascinated me about Vedic astrology wasn’t prediction so much as the idea of time and cycles,” he explains. “So when I looked at my own birth chart, I realized that the next period I was entering was Rahu Ketu, a 264-day cycle from September 2025 through May 2026.” Locher also created a symbolic tracklisting that deliberately omits the letters spelling Rahu Ketu from the album, with the companion EP including them and completing the alphabet.

We’ll be eagerly counting down the days until the release of The Shadow Planets on July 24th, before Rahu Ketu follows on October 2nd. Ahead of both releases, Locher has let loose ‘I’ from Rahu Ketu and ‘H-T’ from The Shadow Planets, serving as an exhilarating taste of what he’ll be throwing at us. Listen to both tracks below.

Mark Guiliana shares first single, ‘P.LAY’, from upcoming new album BEAT MUSIC 2.0

16 July 2026

Just over a year after surprising us with the beautiful questions (volume one), Mark Guiliana is bringing BEAT MUSIC back. The acclaimed drummer and composer has announced BEAT MUSIC 2.0, the follow-up to his 2019’s Grammy-nominated BEAT MUSIC! BEAT MUSIC! BEAT MUSIC!. Due out on September 25th through Edition Records, BEAT MUSIC 2.0 shifts the focus back to pulsing electronics, infectious grooves and the adventurous rhythmic language that has become his trademark. As the press release describes, the upcoming BEAT MUSIC 2.0 “distills Guiliana’s vision into eight cinematic compositions that fuse retro production with futuristic playing”. The album features contributions from an impressive cast of collaborators, including Nicholas Semrad (Empire of the Sun), Stu Brooks (Nine Inch Nails, Danny Elfman), Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie) and vocalist Gretchen Parlato. Inspired by the aesthetics of early video games, BEAT MUSIC 2.0 is accompanied by an original 8-bit visual universe created by longtime collaborator Steve Wall.

Coinciding with the album announcement, Guiliana has shared the daring and intoxicating ‘P.LAY’, serving as the first thrilling taste of what’s coming. Take a listen now.

Skyjack’s fourth album, Let The Sky Open Under Your Feet, out now

14 July 2026

Photo: Jeremie Luke

We’re a little late catching this one, but Skyjack‘s Let The Sky Open Under Your Feet is simply too good to let slip by and it has now firmly settled into our hearts. Formed in Cape Town in 2013, Skyjack is a five-piece collective spread between South Africa and Switzerland, featuring Kyle Shepherd (piano), Shane Cooper (bass), Jonno Sweetman (drums), Andreas Tschopp (trombone) and Marc Stucki (saxophones). Released earlier this month through Kujua Records, Let The Sky Open Under Your Feet brings together South African jazz traditions, European improvisation, chamber music, deep grooves and an adventurous spirit. “This record is a very articulate representation of our sound, having grown deep roots into the earth with high branches reaching upward and outward”, says bassist Shane Cooper. “My desire is always to create sonic universes that can envelope the listener.”

After exchanging ideas remotely across two continents, the group reunited in Johannesburg, developed the new material on tour across South Africa, and then headed to a secluded studio outside Stellenbosch, where most of the album was recorded live in first takes. Across twelve pieces, the music moves effortlessly between meditative passages, rich orchestration and exhilarating improvisation, inspired by South Africa’s cultural and natural landscapes.

For a taster of what’s on offer here’s two sublime and exhilarating tracks, the title track and ‘Radiate’.


Trá Pháidín announce new album, Cloch ‘s Claí, and share first single ‘An Béal Bocht’

13 July 2026

Photo: Sara Leslie

Trá Pháidín have unveiled details of their forthcoming album, Cloch ‘s Claí (Stone & Wall), due for release on September 25th through World of Echo. Formed in 2019, the ever-shifting collective brings together musicians from across Ireland, who draw from Irish traditional music, and various other influences like jazz, folk and krautrock. Deeply rooted in Gaeilge and the culture of the Gaeltacht, they’ve become one of the most distinctive and adventurous voices to emerge from the contemporary traditional scene.

Marking their first release for World of Echo, Cloch ‘s Claí takes Ireland’s dry-stone walls as both its inspiration and central metaphor, using them as a lens to explore the Gaeltacht, the Irish language and wider social themes. Across ten tracks, the album embraces the improvisational nature of traditional music, with each performance taking on a different shape.

To herald the announcement, Trá Pháidín have shared the first single, ‘An Béal Bocht’, an exuberant and jubilant track inspired by Myles na gCopaleen’s 1941 classic novel An Béal Bocht. The single comes with an accompanying video directed by Peadar Tom Mercier, and you can watch it below.

Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley & Noah Georgeson team up for new project HUG; announce self-titled debut album

13 July 2026

Photo: Christian Stavros

HUG is the new trio bringing together Devendra Banhart, Gyan Riley and Noah Georgeson, a joining of kindred spirits whose musical paths have been intertwining for decades. Riley, the son of minimalist pioneer Terry Riley, and Georgeson grew up together in the artistic community of Nevada City, California, where a shared obsession with classical guitar first brought them together. “Being thirteen and completely obsessed with classical guitar,” he says, “there were few people I could bond with over that… Basically just my teacher and Noah.” Georgeson and Banhart have been close collaborators since the early days of Banhart’s career. Speaking about the project’s beginnings, Banhart recalls: “Everything was sparkling and I felt like a little kid, and so I knew—we must play.”

Those long-standing connections have now yielded their self-titled debut album, arriving on September 11th through Luaka Bop. Although the record was written and recorded in just a few weeks, it draws on years of friendship and creative exchange, with the three musicians moving effortlessly between folk, ambient and experimental sounds.

Leading the album announcement is ‘Cow With Half Moon Parasol’, an utterly beautiful, enchanting and absorbing track that cuts right to the heart. The single is offered with a visualizer and you can watch it below.

Charlotte Greve set to release debut solo album, Waterbodies, in October; shares lead single ‘Membranes’

08 July 2026

Photo: Annika Nagel Photography

Five years on from the release of Sediments We Move, German-born, Brooklyn-based saxophonist, composer and singer Charlotte Greve has announced the release of Waterbodies, arriving on October 2nd through New Amsterdam Records. The record marks the first release under her own name, following nine albums released through various band projects and collaborations.

Produced by Shahzad Ismaily, the album features an impressive group of collaborators including the New York-based vocal ensemble KHORIKOS and the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra. Written while Greve was pregnant with her first child, Waterbodies finds her bringing together the many different sides of her musical life, “shifting from spoken word to a full symphony orchestra, improvised jazz to bizarro synth-pop, power ballads to the serene, arpeggiated album closer”, as the press release describes. Charlotte comments:

“Although this is my 10th release, in many ways it feels like a debut. It captures the full range of what I’ve been drawn to musically. Rather than narrowing things down, I wanted to open them up, placing these disparate influences side by side and trusting their connection would come through because they’re all channeled through me.”

Soon after finding out she was pregnant, a friend encouraged her to record the album before the baby arrived, leading Greve to capture this particular moment in her creative life, resulting in a record that moves through many different landscapes. “This is the most holistic representation of my musical interests,” she says. “I wanted it to feel like a playground — the opposite of an easy-to-sell, career-minded, one-kind-of-thing record. In some ways, it made no sense. I was pregnant and pouring my money into something that was clearly not commercial. But this was a personal wish. Something I felt I had to do.”

She continues:

“With Waterbodies, I hope to invite the audience to experience the music as if walking through a film. Contrasting scenes unfold one after another, yet remain connected by a common thread.”

Coinciding with the album announcement, Greve has shared the first single from the album, ‘Membranes’, a bright and captivating track. The song reflects on the experience of holding different parts of oneself together and allowing them to exist alongside each other. “Membranes is a song about the challenge of carrying several hearts in one breast and wanting to feed them all,” explains Greve. “As a kid, I lived like a chameleon, changing my clothing, language and behavior, depending on who I was spending time with and where. The older I grew, the bigger the wish to combine all the different shapes and forms, both in my character as well as in my music. Let them all live alongside each other – the picture of the semi permeable membrane captured this desirable way of living for me.”

Listen to ‘Membranes’ now.