Category Archives: Blog

Pino Palladino & Blake Mills’ new album, That Wasn’t A Dream, out next month

24 July 2025

Four years on from the release of Notes With Attachments, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills are back with a new chapter in their ongoing collaboration. The pair have announced the release of That Wasn’t A Dream, a new album challenging the boundaries of what to expect from two of the most inventive minds in contemporary music. Palladino, a Grammy-winning bassist renowned for his work with everyone from D’Angelo and Nine Inch Nails to Erykah Badu and John Mayer, and Mills, the Grammy-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist who has worked with the likes of Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan, and Perfume Genius, continue to explore their unique chemistry on this new record. The upcoming That Wasn’t A Dream finds its groove through restraint, as Palladino explains, “It came to light, really, that if we could make something work with the least possible ingredients, space could become the centerpiece.”

The album was recorded over a two-month stretch at Sound City Studios, with contributions from frequent collaborator Sam Gendel. The new instrument experimentation, in particular the fretless baritone sustainer guitar that Mills helped design, also adds a layer of sonic complexity. “The fretless sustainer can sound almost like a cross between a woodwind, brass, and bowed string instrument,” Mills explained. “It’s a tough instrument to control or define.”

Ahead of the album’s release on August 22nd through New Deal / Impulse! Records, Palladino and Mills have shared the lead single ‘Taka’. A kaleidoscopic and funky track featuring Chris Dave on drums, it comes with an accompanying video directed by Justin Daashuur Hopkins, and you can watch it below.

Mansur Brown unleashes third single, ‘Love Is Mine’, from impending new album Rihla

23 July 2025

We are getting excitingly close to the release of Mansur Brown‘s much anticipated new album, Rihla, and the prodigious guitarist, producer, and composer had already let loose two phenomenal singles, ‘Faded’ and ‘Alone’. With just over a week to go until release day, Brown is raising the bar of excitement with a third track from the album, ‘Love Is Mine’. As with the previous cuts, the new single also comes with an accompanying video made by Greg Barnes. Watch it below and grab Rihla when it’s out on August 1st through AMAI.

Grandbrothers unveil video for new single ‘Fable’

23 July 2025

Photo: Dan Medhurst

September 26th will see the release of Elsewhere, the upcoming new album from German-Swiss duo Grandbrothers, and they had already teased it with the first single ‘We Collide’. Now they have unveiled a new cut from the album, ‘Fable’, offered with an accompanying video directed by longtime collaborator Manfred Borsch, who had this to say about it:

“I wanted to create a space without fixed direction, where the intricate layers of sound unravel through imagery, both abstract and rhythmic. A fleeting seven second focus stretches across the full length of the music, thus forming the foundation for this sense of vulnerability.”

Speaking of their appearance in the video, pianist Erol Sarp commented:

“We’ve rarely appeared in our own music videos – it’s usually something we stay out of. But with Manfred and his ideas, it felt right. There’s a deep trust in his vision, and when he suggested we step into the frame this time, it was easy to say yes.”

Watch the video for ‘Fable’ below.

Elsewhere is out on September 26th through __and__others.

Sarathy Korwar set to release new album, There Is Beauty, There Already, in November

22 July 2025

Photo: Keerthana Kunnath

A new Sarathy Korwar album is always exciting news. The incredibly talented percussionist, producer, and composer has announced the release of There Is Beauty, There Already, following KALAK, which was one of our Album Picks of 2022, and its companion album, KAL (Real World), which dropped in 2023. With his upcoming album, Korwar has shifted his focus back to the drums, creating a 40-minute, percussion-led suite that captures the full melodic and emotive potential of the rhythm. “The album is me finding my voice as a composer again and going back to the thing I know best, which is the drums,” Korwar explains. “It’s me falling back in love with percussion and expressing just how melodic and emotive it can be. Unlike my other albums that have often engaged with weighty themes like migration, identity and futurism, this is a raw act of placing myself front and centre – letting the drums speak instead.”

Recorded over four days at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, with collaborators Photay, Magnus Mehta, and Joost Hendrickx, There Is Beauty, There Already draws on Indian folk rhythms, jazz, and minimalist classical influences. With absolute freedom, and an array of percussion instruments from drum kit to tabla, marimba, balafon, udu and ghatam, the group embraced a trance-like flow, letting the rhythm evolve naturally. “By day three, we realised that we kept coming back to this single, repeated 40-minute pattern, which was locking us in and making us hypnotised by its rhythm,” Korwar shares, describing the powerful grip the loop had on them. “I decided to do multiple takes of that idea to build a structure – and that’s what you ultimately hear on the record.”

There Is Beauty, There Already is described as Korwar’s most personal and vulnerable work to date, with an album cover featuring a grid of self-portraits taken at his local Co-Op over the past five years, “a ritual story of my life in images,” as he described it. Coupled with a self-written poem, the new album marks a new chapter for Korwar both musically and personally. It’s also the inaugural release on his own label, Otherland. “It’s a home for my own future music and music from others that doesn’t tick many boxes – that doesn’t have a motherland or fatherland of its own,” he explains. “It’s about embracing this music as it is, finding the beauty in it and recognising it, just as the album title says.”

We’ll have to wait until November 7th for the album to be out but we can already hear the mesmerizing and pulsing first single,’We Take Things For Granted’, and it leaves us eagerly awaiting the full album release.

Donny McCaslin teases upcoming new album, Lullaby for the Lost, with lead single ‘Celestial’

18 July 2025

Photo: Dave Stapleton

We love ingenious artist, saxophonist, and composer Donny McCaslin, whose adventurous and ferocious album I Want More was one of our Album Picks of 2023. So we’re thrilled to know he’s ready to follow it up with Lullaby for the Lost, his new record arriving on September 26th through Edition Records.

Lullaby for the Lost delves into raw emotion and sonic exploration across nine explosive tracks, as McCaslin explains, “The balance of expressing passion, anger, and the wonder of beauty, while striving for oneness with the band has led to this moment”. Drawing influences from Neil Young’s energy, the industrial grit of Nine Inch Nails, and the rebellious force of Rage Against the Machine, the result is a fresh and fearless mix of rock intensity and jazz freedom, all while keeping his signature improvisational spirit.

Collaborating once again with his longtime bandmates, Jason Lindner on keyboards, Tim Lefebvre on bass, Jonathan Maron on bass, Ben Monder on guitar, and Zach Danziger and Nate Wood on drums, McCaslin captures that spontaneous and creative chemistry that drives the record. As he puts it, “So much of the vibe and the feel of this record came from us bouncing ideas, just following that connection wherever it led.”

Weaving themes of transformation, the album title speaks to McCaslin’s exploration of personal and collective trauma, while also embodying the resilience that emerges from those experiences. “It’s about hope… that inner light not being extinguished, but instead transformed,” he comments. “It’s learning to channel pain into something meaningful, even beautiful”. He calls the upcoming Lullaby for the Lost his most satisfying record yet. “I don’t think I’ve ever been happier with how a record turned out than this one,” he says. “It’s meaningful, it’s urgent, and it’s me.”

Alongside the album announcement, McCaslin has shared the striking lead single, ‘Celestial’, a track born spontaneously during a soundcheck in Fano, Italy. Give it a listen now.

Saul Williams and Carlos Niño announce first collaborative album, Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople

17 July 2025

Photo: Todd Weaver

Wonderful news from two radiant forces, Saul Williams and Carlos Niño, who have come together for a special release arriving later this summer. Entitled Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople, this marks the first collaborative album between poet, musician, and visionary Saul Williams and prolific percussionist, producer, and cosmic connector Carlos Niño, whose friendship traces back to the late ’90s. The album was recorded live in December 2024, beneath black oak and walnut trees in Coldwater Canyon Park, on the grounds of TreePeople, a longstanding conservationist hub in Los Angeles. Niño assembled a stellar ensemble of close collaborators for the performance, including Kamasi Washington, Nate Mercereau, Maia, Aaron Shaw, Francesca Heart, Andres Renteria, and even a special appearance by poet aja monet. Together, they built a richly textured electro-acoustic world around Saul’s grounding and galvanizing poetics. An album of invocation, memory, resistance, and release, it bridges generations, disciplines, and intentions.

Saul Williams meets Carlos Niño & Friends at TreePeople is out on August 28th through International Anthem and they have now unveiled the album’s lead single, ‘Sound then Words’, an affective, immersive and meditative track clocking in at sixteen minutes. Here it is.