Category Archives: Blog

Blue Earth Sound shares final single, ‘On the Court’, from upcoming debut LP Cicero Nights

27 August 2025

We’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Cicero Nights, the debut album from  multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer James Weir. Releasing under his new moniker Blue Earth Sound, Cicero Nights was recorded at the International Anthem studio space in Chicago with in-house engineer Dave Vettraino, with stellar contributions from drummer Patch Romanowski, Resavoir’s Will Miller on trumpet, flautist Eamonn Pritzy, and longtime collaborator Michael Wells, amongst others.

Following previous singles ‘Mariposa‘ and ‘Lover’s Rock’, and ahead of the album’s release on September 12th through Root Records, Blue Earth Sound slipped in a new preview with ‘On the Court’, a track inspired by the soundtrack to the 1994 basketball documentary ‘Hoop Dreams’. Groovy and irresistibly catchy, ‘On the Court’ taps in to hip hop influences, and you can listen to it below. You’ll be playing it again the second it ends.

Listen to Tom Skinner’s new single ‘Margaret Anne’

26 August 2025

Photo: Jason Evans

Last month, Tom Skinner announced the release of his second solo album, Kaleidoscopic Visions, and enticed us then with the beautiful, swirling and cinematic title track. With just a month to go until the album drops on September 26th through Brownswood and International Anthem, the ingenious drummer, producer and composer has unveiled ‘Margaret Anne’, an exhilarating and sublime track named after his mother Anne Shasby, the former concert-piano prodigy. Speaking about the single, Skinner comments:

“In the early 80s, shortly after I was born, my mother stepped away from the concert stage — not out of a loss of ability or passion, but out of frustration with the entrenched misogyny of the classical world, and to focus on raising our family. No small thing, as I have come to understand. She never stopped playing, though; the sound of her piano has been a constant presence throughout my life, and still is to this day. In no small part shaping my musical sensibility and laying the foundation for my own musical path. The Max Roach inspired rhythm and taut energy of this piece speaks to her courage, strength and resilience in following her heart.”

Listen to ‘Margaret Anne’ below.

Glass Museum share new single, ‘VAN GLAS’ ft. JAZZ BRAK

23 August 2025

Glass Museum are gearing up to release their highly anticipated new album, 4N4LOG CITY, on September 19th through Sdban Ultra. This will be the band’s first record as a trio, following the recent addition of bassist Issam Labbene alongside keyboardist Antoine Flipo and drummer Martin Grégoire. The album also features guest appearances from artists like vocalist JDS, Swiss drummer Arthur Hnatek, and rapper JAZZ BRAK, who is a member of the Brussels-based hip-hop collective STIKSTOF and features on the band’s latest single, ‘VAN GLAS’. Built around the phrase “Al wat van glas is breekt” (“everything made of glass breaks”), the song delves into themes of “personal doubts, social expectations, and the search for clarity”, as the press release describes. ‘VAN GLAS’ comes with an accompanying video, shot in 16mm film and directed by Thomas De Hemptinne, and visually complements this narrative, following a bicycle courier on a late-night journey through an empty city. Watch it below.

Makaya McCraven announces four new EPs and shares lead tracks

19 August 2025

Photo: Shannon Marks

Makaya McCraven is back with a new body of work, and it’s as ambitious and exploratory as we’ve come to expect from the Chicago-based drummer, composer, producer, and all-around sonic visionary. This time he brings not just one, but four new EPs: Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out! and Popup Shop. All four are set to land on October 31st, with a double LP/CD compilation titled Off the Record arriving earlier on October 10th through International Anthem, Nonesuch, and XL Recordings.

These are McCraven’s first new recordings since 2022’s In These Times, and they take him back into the live-to-studio process that has long defined his sound. Like In The Moment or Universal Beings, these new EPs are built from live improvisations, later sculpted in the studio with his trademark layering, sampling, and production wizardry.

The material across the four EPs spans nearly a decade of performances, from his 2015 debut in Los Angeles to a session earlier this year in Berlin, and each EP draws from a different cast of incredible collaborators. Techno Logic brings together Ben LaMar Gay and Theon Cross, weaving together years of performances from London, Berlin and New York, tracing the evolution of their shared musical language. The People’s Mixtape finds McCraven marking ten years since In The Moment with a celebratory session at Public Records in Brooklyn, alongside longtime collaborators Junius Paul, Marquis Hill and Joel Ross, with synthesist Jeremiah Chiu joining the group for the first time. Hidden Out! revisits McCraven’s 2017 residency at Chicago’s Hideout, where he played weekly with a rotating lineup including Jeff Parker, Josh Johnson, and Junius Paul. And Popup Shop comes from recordings of McCraven’s Los Angeles debut in 2015 at Del Monte Speakeasy, as part of RAWS:LA, an event produced by King Hippo and Grown Kids Radio, where he improvised with guitarist Jeff Parker, vibraphonist Justefan, and bassist Benjamin J. Shepherd.

The result isn’t just a collection of performances, but something that reflects the beautiful, messy and human side of making music in real time. Speaking about the project, McCraven says:

“In a time where we’re increasingly connected through phones, in a virtual world where you can’t really tell what’s real or what’s fake, there’s something special where we come together and share space, there is something special where we are sharing music, art. I want to create an energy that amplifies the magic in the underground moments where we come together and we experience something wild, different, off the cuff, human. What I’m trying to present is a dreamlike alteration of that energy, which only exists in the recorded realm. But to actually have been there, in real life, is the special thing.”

Lucky for us we can already hear four fresh tracks to get excited before the full release as McCraven has unveiled a lead track from each EP, ‘Technology’, ‘Choo Choo’, ‘Away’ and ‘Imafan’. Take a listen to all four tracks below.




Chicago Underground Duo’s new LP Hyperglyph out today; listen to title track

15 August 2025

Photo: Dave Vettraino

After more than a decade of silence, Chicago Underground Duo return in full force today with the release of Hyperglyph. It marks a monumental comeback for the long-running project of composer and multi-instrumentalist Rob Mazurek and composer and percussionist Chad Taylor, a duo whose influence across jazz, electronic, and improvised music has resonated far beyond their Chicago roots since the late 90s.

Building on the ecstatic energy of last month’s lead single ‘Click Song‘, today also brings the album’s title track, a high-voltage transmission of marching rhythms, blown-out trumpet, and cosmic textures. Like much of Hyperglyph, the piece is grounded in rhythmic traditions from across the African continent, but also spirals toward something future-facing and unclassifiable. Take a listen below.

Hyperglyph is out today through International Anthem.

Mulatu Astatke breathes new life into new single ‘Kulun’

14 August 2025

Photo: Karston Tannis

Following the lead single ‘Netsanet’, Mulatu Astatke has shared a new single, ‘Kulun’, ahead of his upcoming album Mulatu Plays Mulatu. A reworking of a traditional Ethiopian wedding song, the track is built around the anchi-hoye scale, central to the country’s musical identity. Recorded between London and Addis Ababa with his long-time UK band, ‘Kulun’ revisits the sounds that helped redefine Ethiopian music in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The ensemble, shaped through years of live performance and sessions at Addis’s Jazz Village, brings fresh energy and depth to the arrangement.

Mulatu Plays Mulatu arrives on September 26 through Strut. Now listen to ‘Kulun’.