Albums Quarterly #17

Generally, the early months of a new year are designed to take stock. To backtrack and light a match and guide it towards the dusty corners of your record collection that may have been neglected in past years.

It’s a nice reminder. Good nostalgia – particularly on the back of end of year features – and, in many ways, a place to seek refuge. It’s also a place to connect the dots with various reference points that lead to much of what adorns these pages. 

While there has been a bit of that, the first couple of months of 2025 have been noticeably busier in comparison with the last few years. Have artists and labels cottoned on to the fact that January and February are actually really good months to release new music rather than being a number in the bottle neck that is March and April?

It doesn’t happen often (2020, the closest in recent times), but it works. Those once barren lands, now filled with more than enough new releases to fuss about. The guilty parties? FACS, Califone, Sophia Djebel Rose, Richard Dawson and Edith Frost, all releasing wonderful new records so far, and in just the last week there have been more (stay tuned).

For now, though, the below releases are what have tickled our fancy and helped pull us through these morbid months, with more of those undoubtedly ahead. We hope they do the same for you.

Sun 13’s Top 50 Albums of 2024

Camille Cabbabe: K2
Ruptured Records

On her debut LP, K2, Lebanese filmmaker and musician, Camille Cabbabe, spins some absolute gold dust.

18 tracks at 38 minutes K2 sees Cabbabe embark on an untethered journey that exposes life through sound. There’s a lot of moving parts which is often hard to place, but that’s the intriguing aspect of K2. Whatever one calls it, though, these tracks are presented through a grainy, cinematic lens that makes the mind drift off to far out places.

An emotive work said to reflect on grief, memory, and family, K2 is the sort of record that opens a pathway to new possibilities. And good ones too, in what is a very strong debut outing from Cabbabe.

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Chaos Emeralds: Passed Away
Cruel Nature Records

Passed Away sees Charlie Butler reignite the Chaos Emeralds’ project by drafting in vocalist, Sean Hewson (Monster Movie, This, Head Drop).

It’s an inspired move, for Passed Away takes on new elements that essentially push this project forward. The sludge-y shoegaze aesthetic reminiscent of later Jesu is welcoming of course, and now adding Hewson’s vocal to the mix, it’s positively off-kilter; his voice sounding more like someone from a spoken-word recital than the marshlands of experimentalism. It makes for compelling results.

Hewson’s involvement also echoes early emo and dream pop, and alongside Butler’s scuzzed-out blissscapes, Passed Away is a welcome addition to the guitarist’s body of work.

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The Delines: Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom
Decor Records

Amy Boone and Willy Vlautin return with their latest chapter of filled with downtrodden heroes on The Delines’ fourth LP, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom.

Following 2022’s The Sea Drift, Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom is littered with voices that sound more like your Facebook friends than lead protagonists in songs. That’s what The Delines have always done, though: given voice to the voiceless. Backwater ghosts that have been swallowed up by the system, left to scrap for peas off the floor.

It’s no different on Mr. Luck & Ms. Doom. Just by poring over the song titles, you get a snapshot of what The Delines have created here, in what is arguably their most direct set of songs so far, shining a light on those who have spent an existence in life’s darkest corners.

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Sun 13’s Top 25 EPs of 2024

Geologist & D.S.: A Shaw Deal
Drag City

Brian Weitz and Doug Shaw have been pals for a long time now, and on A Shaw Deal, the Animal Collective’s secret weapon and Shaw commence a communication that travels between strange orbits.

There’s a plethora of ideas on A Shaw Deal, starting with Route 9 Falls – a piece likened to a play on Ex-Easter Island Head’s Norther, which shapes the prepared guitar effect through tape loops via a swathe of left-of-centre gadgets. From here, the album unravels like pop-infused psych-folk twisted and mangled into an acid-inspired dreamscape.

For those who never quite got the fuss surrounding the Animal Collective, in many ways A Shaw Deal feels like a response to those grumbling few. A technicoloured portal that actually lines up in the mind, no matter which you’re in.

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Tim Hecker: Shards
kranky

It must be hard for Tim Hecker. Having covered so much ground in the world of ‘ambient’ composition over the past 20 plus years, the last decade has seen the Canadian touchstone explore further afield. The results have often been mixed, however on Shards, the follow-up to 2023’s equally underrated No Highs, Hecker manages to cross-pollinate the old and new into something subtly hypnotic.

With Ravendeath, 1972 and Dropped Pianos, Hecker moved the needle for classical composition, and Shards sees him revisit that landmark period, approaching these composition by stripping back layers for a deeper approach to minimalism.

It’s the inner grains of sound explored on Shards that slowly manages to seep into the pores, and just when you think he’s covered it all, once again Hecker finds ways to unveil new dimensions.

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The Illness: Macrodosed
Sea Records

Not many have shape-shifted in independent music circles quite like The Illness, scouring the world and inviting guests to add flavours to their collage-rock type stew (the band’s 2020 EP featuring Steve West and Bob Nastanovich).

And the guests keep coming on their latest release, Macrodosed and very close to home in this parish’s case; The Illness extending their M62 domination from York to Merseyside (yup, Lucy Johnson of Puzzle and Laura J Martin feature here). Elsewhere, and David Pajo steals the show on the wonderful Speedway Star – the kind of song that will undoubtedly end of up on a Best of 2025 compilation.

Macrodosed is an all-star cast kind of album that sweeps up the vestiges of indie-rock and what it should still sound and feel like. While those days are almost gone, it’s nice to be reminded of the glory years, and The Illness provide it in spates.

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Thomas Ragsdale Interview: “I love the idea of albums having an anti-concept”

Irkya: Mind Fog
Wormhole World

Following Goodbye Wudaokou’s 2024 LP, Mirror Skies, under the Irkya moniker, Manchester’s Mat Mills shifts the needle on the project’s debut LP, Mind Fog.

The Irkya vessel sees Mill trawling through new waters, exploring ambient and electronica via the primary use of hardware and software synths and guitar pedals, creating the kind of lush backdrops that feel like all the season rolled into one.

Ultimately, Mind Fog has its own microclimate, weaving in and out of different sound worlds, and while albums like this are featured more regularly in our Weirdo Rippers column, under the Irkya guise, Mills tackles experimentation through the more conventional methods, and to satisfying effect.

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Immersion / SUSS: Nanocluster Vol. 3
swim ~

One of the first great collaborations of 2025,Immersion (consisting of Wire’s Colin Newman and Minimal Compact’s Malka Spigel) join forces with ambient post-country heavyweights, SUSS, for Nanocluster Vol.3.

Under the Nanocluster series, Newman and Spigel have spent the decade collaborating with the Cubzoa, Thor Harris, Scanner, Ulrich Schnauss, Laetitia Sadier and Tarwater. And alongside SUSS, Immersion explore great new frontiers during a series of what are essentially borderless compositions.

It’s something born for cinema, and as both projects haven’t put a foot wrong over the years, in unison they don’t start to either with Nanocluster Vol. 3. An album that gets stronger with time and space.

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Leaves of the Sibyl: Leaves of the Sibyl
Self-released

A release that dropped at the back end of 2024, Leaves of the Sibyl is the project of Rongorongo guitarist, Phil Howells.

On his self-titled mini-LP, the Liverpool shape-shifter goes beyond the glam-laden post-rock endeavours of Rongorongo, amalgamating the essence of early ’90s dream-pop with kind of folk-inspired psychedelia of the ’70s that is completely rich in sound.

Rongoronogo are the city’s quintessential outliers, and while Leaves of the Sibyl could be considered a similar beast, Howells strays off the path into untrodden recesses here. It’s something that comes on stronger with each listen, revealing more and more each time, to the point where you can’t wait for what comes next.

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Four Five: An Interview with Sweet Williams

Mogwai: The Bad Fire
Rock Action / Temporary Residence

How an instrumental band can continue to churn out the hits for so many years is a testament to the Mogwai machine and their ceaseless cause to move forward. On The Bad Fire “Scotland’s Pride” find yet more inventive ways to keep relevant rather than to retread over past glories.

No, it’s never been diminishing returns for one of post-rock’s favourite sons, and The Bad Fire continues to see Mogwai as indie rock’s answer to a comfortable pair of jeans. Have they ever opened with a song containing vocals, though? They do here with God Gets You Back.

The fresh nuance continues, too, with Pale Vegan Hip Pain (a title inspired by a drunken night out, it’s probably their best ever), while 18 Volcanos is vintage Mogwai that would end up on any Best of compilation. Normal service doesn’t resume with The Bad Fire, it just continues.

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numün: Opening
Centripetal Force

Formed in 2019 by former NASA Engineer, Joel Mellin, alongside Christopher Romero (Gamelan Dharma Swara) and ambient country titan Bob Holmes (SUSS, Rubber Rodeo), numün return with their third album, Opening.

The trio blend a range of sounds that roll like a fog to the ends of the earth. With bass flutes, violins, guitars, synths and twang courtesy of the cumbuz (a fretless, Turkish 12-string bajo), numün stretch beyond the borders of what post-country actually is.

Opening is something that doesn’t hit instantly. It hovers, requiring a certain time and headspace for things to completely align. But when they do, numün guide you through a portal of bliss that keeps on changing all the time.

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Anna Ran: Out of Silence
Puya Raimondii Records

Following her debut album, Desert Flower, Swedish songwriter, Anna Ran, returns with her sophomore release, Out of Silence.

Flirting with the dark frontiers of gothic folk, there’s something more tender and ethereal at play here. Brimming with luscious arrangements, Ran is backed by an army of guests, including Jonathan Albrektson Aaberg, Manuela Ferrão, Liv Fridén, Elias Hällqvist, Filip Leyman, Emelie Molander, Maja Molander, Alma Möller, Ellen Pettersson and William Soovik. Together they combine for something likened to a lingering spirit returning to wrap its arms around you.

Out of Silence resonates with beautiful echoes that start to emerge with the kind of bright colours that swallow up all your fears and anxieties. Those who fell in love with Haruspex Palace’s self-titled 2024 release can draw a straight line to Anna Ran’s Out of Silence.

Out March 7 – pre-order here

Hasco Enjoyments: Wow!

Steven R. Smith: Triecade
Worstward Recordings

Under his own name, Los Angeles experimental guitarist, Steven R. Smith, returned in the first few days of 2025 with Triecade. Another release brimming with the kind of magical moments Smith has spent a career conjuring up.

Smith has a deft proficiency for tone and melody, orchestrating the kind of guitar lines they feel like you’re taking a road trip through the winding mountains. Songs where colour and imagery outweigh sound, it’s quite difficult to untangle and put into words. Is that the essence of psychedelia? Perhaps so.

Smith rarely faulters and Triecade is another beautiful moment from an artist who has produced many over his creative tenure, mirroring the majesty from one of his finest recordings, 2022’s Spring.

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Nour Sokhon & Stefan Christoff: Beyond All Borderlines
Ruptured Records

We last heard from Stefan Christoff early last year where his collaboration alongside Aidan Baker, Januar, featured in our Top 50 Albums of 2024.

The Montreal-based media maker returns, this time alongside Lebanese artist Nour Sokhon, for Beyond All Borderlines, creating the kind of avant-garde sound collages that move to the earth’s darker corners. Combining field recordings, improvisational sonic sketches and piano melodies (some of the latter also featuring on Januar), ultimately, Sokhon and Christoff explore existentialism through sound.

Beyond All Borderlines is an exploration of life’s complexities. From conflict and the aftermath of it, these sound collages, whilst tempered by Christoff’s piano, paint a rather accurate picture of the modern world as we know it.

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Label Watch: Longform Editions

Emmaleen Tangleweed: Songs From The Unseen, the Unsaid and the Unborn / The Sun Will Still Shine When You Die
Cruel Nature Records

Perhaps it’s not a place to choose favourites. Or perhaps it is? In any case the recordings of Namibia-born South African-based songwriter, Emmaleen Tangleweed, probably take the prize in this latest edition of AQ.

Tangleweed’s albums, Songs From The Unseen, the Unsaid and the Unborn (2022) and The Sun Will Still Shine When You Die (2023), have been placed under one roof by Cruel Nature Records who have helped bring the voice of Tangleweed into the homes of the devoted few. Her baritone voice, cutting through the atmosphere like a hot knife to butter, and backed by the homely twang banjo, acoustic and classical guitars, Tangleweed’s stories sweep you up into her world.

“Does anyone have the key, Does anyone know the way … Being Born is being blind” she sings on Being Born. It’s one of the many vignettes that etch to the mind throughout these two releases, and after listening to both, you wonder how the majesty of Emmaleen Tangleweed has remained in the realms of the DIY underground for so long.

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Lina Tullgren: Decide Which Way the Eyes Are Looking
Post Present Medium

Los Angeles songwriter, Lina Tullgren, returns with the follow-up album to 2002 Unfamiliar Ceilings, Decide Which Way the Eyes Are Looking.

Backed by cast of fellow Los Angeles cosmic drifters, Tullgren crafts a series of cracked chamber folk-inspired numbers that are like the soundtrack to a later afternoon winter walk. There’s something whimsical, slightly wary and jaded to these songs, as Tullgren looks through the lens of a world that continues to darken every day.

Decide Which Way the Eyes Are Looking isn’t something to be played on a loop. Subtly bohemian, Tullgren’s off-kilter methods having that ability to draw you in without you even knowing it.

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Wrekmeister Harmonies: Flowers in the Spring
Thrill Jockey

It’s hard to believe that Wrekmeister Harmonies’ excellent We Love to Look at the Carnage is five years old. Listening to it for the first time only feels like yesterday, such as the weight and impact it had.

The duo of JR Robinson and Esther Shaw return with Flowers in the Spring, a dusty four-track instrumental-based affair of bourgeoning pastoral drones and ominous gloomscapes. Said to be born from the depths of listening as much as creating, Flowers in the Spring sees Robinson and Shaw explore the more meditative side of drone-based music.

Having collaborated with so many artists from different corners of the esoteric sound world over the years, Flowers in the Spring feels like a result of these diverse collaborations. Those attuned to the latest Lawrence English release, Even the Horizon Knows Its Bounds, will find that Flowers in the Spring dovetails beautifully with it.

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Yellow Belly: Ghostwriter
Cruel Nature Records

Yellow Belly is the brainchild of Cardiff-based artist, Dominique Finnegan, who makes her Cruel Nature debut with long-player, Ghostwriter.

Exploring the darker edges of dream-pop, Finnegan also injects these songs with traces of trip-hop. There’s a subtle contrast in motion, as Finnegan cross-pollinates the past with the present, and moving from the landscapes of folk music to the bright lights shining off the warehouse dancefloor, it makes for interesting results.

On Ghostwriter, there’s everything from sun drenched festival euphoria to the rolling mist that envelopes DIY basements. While it may sound straightforward at first, there’s a lot to unpack on Ghostwriter, and most will have fun doing so.

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Previous AQs:

AQ #16
AQ #15
AQ #14
AQ #13
AQ #12
AQ #11
AQ #10
AQ #9
AQ #8
AQ #7
AQ #6
AQ #5
AQ #4
AQ #3
AQ #2
AQ #1