With a lot of publications having already publishing their end of year lists, as always, we like to refrain from showing our hand too soon.
It’s all about blocking the outside noise and inner voices, but from our perspective, even with the privilege of advanced listens on forthcoming releases, it’s pretty simple: a consists of 12 months, not 11.
While we have always published our favourite albums and EPs later than most, it gives us time to focus on some different things that crop up at the back end of the year, and in 2025 it comes via an additional Weirdo Rippers column.
As it was said during the column’s nineteenth edition, with so many new releases having landed in our orbit, we felt obliged to at least try and raise awareness to a good number of them. Like always, there are several that we just haven’t been able to get to, but that may change in our next edition with the anticipation of January being a little quieter.
While it’s all hands-on deck with our end of year round-ups very much in the works and set to roll prior to Christmas, for now, here’s another swathe of fine releases in the world of experimentation from all across the world in our final Weirdo Rippers dispatch of the year. Enjoy, and stay tuned for more this month.
Ben Brown & Stefan Christoff: In Duet
New Motion
Stefan Christoff is never far away from the new music sphere, and this time the pianist strikes up a beautiful alliance with percussionist, Ben Brown, for the excellent In Duet.
In much the same way Chris Abrahams, Jim White or Mick Turner ply their trades, some artists just have a distinct playing style and sound, and Christoff is one of them. Alongside Brown, the duo conjures up something evocative here. Rich and emotive in all its twists and turns, there’s barely a moment to catch your breath.
In terms of piano-based composition from the underground this year, few have accomplished the heights that Christoff does on In Duet, and alongside Brown’s subtle and fractured percussion, here’s hoping this is just the beginning of a wonderful journey.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
The Bug vs Ghost Dubs: Implosion
Pressure
It had to happen eventually, didn’t it? The artwork (which is one of the year’s finest, by the way) tells you all you need to know about the blitzkrieg of sound that Kevin Martin and Ghost Dubs provide on their full-length showdown, Implosion.
With bass weight akin to an anxiety attack, that said, don the headphones first thing in the morning for the best results. In its earliest stages, there’s something surprisingly calm before, of course, it all unravels in the kind of chaos that Martin has built a career on, and this time he takes Ghost Dubs along for the ride.
It’s everything you’d imagine this collaboration to be. The works of The Bug and Ghost Dubs, entwining for the kind of hybridised post-dub where calm and chaos collide, capturing an accurate snapshot of these fucked up times. It’s beautiful.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Colossal Letdown: Mandragora
Rat Run Records
Charlie Butler is a constant in the DIY tape scene, and the Scotland-based experimental guitarist rounds out his 2025 under the Colossal Letdown banner with Mandragora.
Two long-form pieces that are all static, white noise and drone, these thrumming dreadscapes feel like you’re being swallowed up by the void. If Justin Broadrick smashed the aesthetic of Godlfesh into JK Flesh, then it would sound something like this.
Whichever guise he works under, the thing about Butler’s work is that it’s never a retread. Just how he manages to conjure up different musical languages each time with the primary source of the guitar is one of his greatest accomplishments. And Mandragora is the latest.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Daou: Blue Ghost
Ruptured Records
The artwork of Daou’s latest full-length release, Blue Ghost, gives you an solid indication of what you’re about to embark on.
The Paris-based multidisciplinary artist makes the kind of ambient moodscapes that set the mind free. Through field recordings and tape loops, Daou brings to life the kind of rich escapist composition that echo the earlier works of loscil, almost like a serenade that gently rocks you to sleep.
That’s not to say to say Blue Ghost is dull. In fact, Daou has crafted something that boosts any record collection, with something that poses as a through line from one album to the next.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Departure Street: The Broken World
Shady Ridge Records
Parisian guitarist, AJ Kimmel, returns with his twenty-second studio album as Departure Street with The Broken World.
These compositions match the title’s weight, with more wandering, plinking guitars that rattle and roll. All melody and emotion, you can either listen to these pieces over a spot of dinner or during a lazy wintry morning pottering around the house.
Kimmel doesn’t stray to far from his usual antics on The Broken World, but with his craft so refined and distinctive, there’s no need to. That tone and texture, completely his own, to the point where you know when you hear a Departure Street comoposition.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Dirk & Dirk: For the Soul
LaoBan Records
Dirk Wachtelaer is no stranger in the Weirdo Rippers pantheon, having featuring in our last edition alongside Belgium experimental guitarist, Jef Mertens for their Wonderful Brutalism release.
Wachtelaer resumes his creative endeavours with another Dirk – Johan Sytromberg, who have traded sonic blows for over five years between the United States and Singapore. What the pair create on their fourth release, For the Soul is free-jazz that’s like getting pulled through a haunted house, led by Johan Sytromberg’s bespoke electronic instrument, the Fryprone.
A communication (quite literally) across the high seas, the musical precision on offer during For the Soul unlocks something deep in the mind as Dirk & Dirk take the avant-garde to new places.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Laura Fisher: Celestina
Cruel Nature Records
New Orleans composer / producer, Laura Fisher, is the latest to join the Cruel Nature family, and on Celestina, the artist takes us across a rather interesting spiritual plane.
Having shared the stage with the like of Pile and Thou, Fisher’s shapeshifting qualities shine through on Celestina. A twenty-minute plus long-form composition that jumps around lighting up all corners of the mind.
While influenced by classical music, there’s some playful elements here in what is a nice blend of past and present, as Fisher moves between the two via paths not many others have explored. It’ll be interesting to see where she takes us next.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Guentner + Spieth: Conversion
Affin Records
German producers, Markus Guentner and Joachim Spieth resume their fascinating collaboration with Conversion – the follow-up to 2023’s Overlay.
Conversion sees the pair take quite the hairpin turn, with a series of compositions that excavate through the soil of deep listening. The deep techno sensibilities that have been the foundation to both their works remain here, however there’s more of a cerebral vibe at play here, with darker forces giving these recordings an “upside-down world” kind of feel.
Both have spent years constructing wonderful sounds, and together they merge as one of the most powerful alliances in electronica. And as they continue to move to new places on Conversion, it will only get stronger in the future.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Holy Scum: All We Have Is Never
Rocket Recordings
Like Kling Klang (more of them in a bit), despite what some may think, Holy Scum make the kind dark warped sounds that fit the bill for this feature.
Featuring Peter Taylor (Action Beat), Mike Mare (Dâlek), John Perry, Chris Haslam (both of GNOD) and Al Wilson (Ghold/Shuck), this underground supergroup made their debut with Rocket in the summer with All We Have Is Never – a suffocating form of improv’ noise-rock that tears through the world’s more rugged frontiers.
There’s something darkly hypnotic about the 11 songs which encompass All We Have Is Never. It’s quite difficult to put a finger on, as the band surge through the darkness in their quest to reach the light. And depending how optimistic one is, Holy Scum do find some at the end of the tunnel here.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Andi Jackson & David McLean: Big Gamble
Fr33zehead
Whether it’s waking up and putting one foot in front of the other or participating in the world of esoteric music, it’s all just one big gamble, isn’t it?
Just ask outliers like David McLean who alongside Thraa’s Andi Jackson, exchange ideas on their debut collaboration, Big Gamble. With drones and skronk that rain fresh hell for even those made of the solidest stuff, Big Gamble is like a soundtrack to a crime scene from a Rui Murakami novel.
It’s unsettling, but somehow, you kind of want to keep with it. Jackson and McLean, possessing the power to somehow keep you dangling on the same knife’s edge as said author.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Jessika Kenney: Uranian Void
Kou Records
Kou Records is the new label out of New York co-founded by veteran producer, Randall Dunn, and one of its first releases comes via Los Angels, Jessika Kenney who unveils Uranian Void.
Produced by Dunn, Uranian Void sees Kenney using vibrations of sound as the focal point. Certain frequencies may just fry the mind (Gregel Pelog to Slendro), but it’s these explorations that make this listen an adventurous one across the landscapes of minimalism.
Uranian Void is a slender sounding album with a range of instruments not limited to piano, hydrophone and singing bowl. It’s Kenney’s vocals that transcend all, communicating with each instrument through a parallel universe.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Kling Klang: Half Life
Wrong Speed Records
While some may think this is outside of realms of the Weirdo Rippers remit, I’d argue that it actually doesn’t, given there have no rules or borders to begin with. If there were, Kling Klang would smash them anyway…
The long-awaited return for the Liverpool-formed band is over, and the result is Half Light. A sci-fi-inspired wall of kooky krautrock and gooey, mind-bending psychedelia.
And speaking of, if you ever went to a midday church service having spent the morning on shrooms, then Half Light is probably your jam. A mind-hive of sound that slowly remedies the itch you couldn’t scratch. Yup, Kling Klang are back.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Lola de la Mata: STOPMOTION – an expanded original motion picture soundtrack
Self-released
Following her 2024 debut long-player Oceans on Azimuth, Liverpool-based sound artist, Lola de la Mata, pivots sharply on her return with STOPMOTION – an expanded original motion picture soundtrack.
In collaboration with award-winning director, Robert Morgan (Bobby Yeah, The Cat with Hands), on STOPMOTION de la Mata composed the score in just fourteen days. Forging her own path through the film, these 21 passages were birthed via eight instruments, including prepared violin, zither, cymbals, piano and harpsichord.
It’s unsettling, not purely through sound, but the places where de la Mata travels. In the same fearless ways the likes of Matmos have challenged their listenership, with Xiu Xiu stopping through town early next year as a part of their homage to David Lynch, the night could do a lot worse than to include Lola de la Mata in it.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Low End Activist: Airdrop II
Peak Oil
Bristol’s Low End Activist rounds out another solid year with arguably his best release from it with Airdrop II.
Released the same day as Airdrop III, …II is more a heady mix where ambient music and drum and bass are boiled down to something beautifully hypnotic.
While The Bug & Ghost Dubs’ sound system assault is prevalent in their above-noted release, the bass weight on Airdrop II isn’t to be discounted, either. It rolls through you like an avalanche, and much the same way Actress has expertly picked apart electronica over the years, Low End Activist does some dismantling of his own right here.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Kali Malone + Drew McDowall: Magnetism
Ideologic Organ
Born through a decade-long friendship, Kali Malone and Drew McDowall join forces for their collaborative debut, Magnetism.
Ignited by a single day at McDowall’s Brooklyn home studio, Magnetism took shape through the spirit of a shared vision, which feels like a carefully crafted illusion. A new world at times, while others a new dimension to the current one.
It’s a strange, hypnotic feeling, but it’s the subtleties that make Magnetism a winner. With a dark thread running through these compositions, each actually does possess its own magnetism, and the pull gets strong the deeper one travels into Malone and McDowall’s world.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Ornithomantia: The Trail the Trial to Fail
Self-released
10 years in the making, Hilo, Hawaii’s Ornithomantia returns with the project’s third release, The Trail the Trial to Fail.
Accompanied by John Paul Labno and Julian Sommer, Ornithomantia orchestrates the kind of dead-eyed doom folk that travels through the campfire flames. Think OM rubbing shoulders with Current 93 across untrodden terrains, which is where Ornithomantia thrives. These pieces, earthy, protracted jams that reach all the way down to the core.
During this decade, so many acts have commodified doom like a packaged holiday. Not Ornithomantia who stick to its origins while adding their own flavours, and on The Trail the Trial to Fail, it’s the project’s watershed moment.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Prado, Andrés Prado: DNA
Buh Records
If there’s one album that defines a collision of cultures, it’s DNA – a release that brings together young Peruvian producer, Nicolás Prado and his father, the acclaimed guitarist Andrés Prado.
DNA is mash-up that causes cranial overload. A blurring of the generational lines, as jazz and tropicana melt into every corner of the experimental landscape. Jazz deconstructed by glitch and breakcore that underlines the freedom this new generation has for creation.
All twists, turns and mind fuckery, on DNA the Prados confirm that the only rules that exist are none at all. Father and son, leaving absolutely nothing behind in the most adventurous releases in this latest edition of WR.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Rhubiqs: Spectral Passage
Affin Records
Following last year’s Aegis of Silence, Tom Squires returns under the Affin stable with his finest moment committed to tape in Spectral Passage.
This is something that represents the Affin label at large. Sparkling production and a freedom of movement, from the throbbing drones inspired by Fennesz to expansive dreamscapes with the emotive force of Jon Hopkins, these dynamic compositions are the kind that offer alternative realities.
With everything so meticulously crafted, the turnaround time from Squires’ last full-length release is the biggest surprise here. This record, the kind that many spend years making, such as the emotional weight it carries.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
SANAM Interview: “Everything outside of Lebanese pop music or business techno is DIY”
Saapato: In Alaska
AKP Recordings
New York’s Saapato makes his debut on AKP Recordings on In Alaska, an essential headphones listen that teleports you to beautiful places.
Recorded during a residency with Alaska State Park Service in August of 2023, these are panoramic recordings where Saapato takes environmental-based sound art to new immersive heights. The production here, so pure that you can almost smell the sea water that such locales offer.
It’s like the ultimate ear massage with every sound and sequence lighting up new space in the heart. Alongside Hiram, on the back of In Alaska, while Saapato may be one of the more underrated voices in the environmental-based sound world, it’s this aloofness that enhances the grandeur of his art.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Secret Sorcery: Nine Kingdoms
Fiadh Productions
Following last year’s The Curse of Fenncraag, dungeon-wave act, Secret Sorcery, return to the fold with Nine Kingdoms.
It could be the soundtrack to Game of Thrones in a distorted universe in what is a series of seamless synth-based dungeon-wave that offers new dimensions, breaking through the channel of black metal into a sound world that could potentially attract new ears.
There’s something soothing about Nine Kingdoms. It’s big but not overstated. A subtle aura is hemmed in by the depths that it was conceived in, striking a perfect balance and one tailor-made for our final edition of WR this year.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Visible Light: Songs for Eventide
Self-released
It’s been some year for environmental-based experimentalist, Matthew Hiram, and as the year draws to a close, he teams up with cellist Amy McNally for their collaboration as Visible Light.
Their debut full-length, Songs for Eventide, is billed as “soundtracks for the edge of the day”, and it’s a rather accurate description. These five compositions, led by McNally’s emotive performance, and as Hiram shapes each piece with lush field recordings and drones, it shapes up as something that could have been a score to a Jane Smiley novel.
Songs for Eventide is beautifully crafted, and while McNally and Hiram’s alliance as Visible Light may be one of the more lesser known collaborations this year, it’s all the more reason to be drawn into their world.
Listen / Purchase from Bandcamp
Isobel Waller-Bridge: Objects
Mercury KX
On her latest full-length release, Objects, Isobel Waller-Bridge invites her audience to “listen slowly”.
As its title suggests, Waller-Bridge takes deep-listening to aloof places. Inspired by the ideological framework of Pauline Oliveros and Karlheinz Stockhausen, Objects is like radicalised sound boiled down to something meditative. Beneath the thrum of ambient music, something that has the same calming effect as, say, deep techno.
As times it evokes the same feeling as listening to a Jayve Montgomery piece; at others, like Tortoise mangling their template of post-rock for something more cathartic. And that’s what Objects is: a place where art and peace combine.
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