A Closer Listen
The last of our genre lists brings the guitars, the energy, the aggression, but also the sweetness, as some of these albums include moments of surprising tenderness. Their dynamic contrast highlights their emotional impact. Catharsis is a word often used to describe post-rock, and one will encounter that here; but our list also encompasses Welsh Primitive, jazz and the blues. As in other lists published this week, one will notice the outside world seeping in. One album addresses racism, another the invasion of Ukraine, another the dictator’s boot. Rather than being overwhelmed by horror, these artists channel their anger into art, providing points of access to the forgotten, the marginalized and the oppressed, while challenging those in power to change.
BRUIT ≤ ~ The Age of Ephemerality (Pelagic)
When considering this album, one must begin with the closing track. “The Intoxication of Power” may be the defining post-rock track of 2025, and is even more immediate in its live rendition. A miasma of brass, strings guitars and drums suggests chaos without ever toppling over. At the end of the 13:13 piece, George Orwell’s words sound a solemn warning. The resistance did not start here, but continues and coalesces, gathering the energy needed for the fight. (Richard Allen)
Original Review
Grails ~ Mirage Music (Temporary Residence Ltd.)
Surprisingly, this time around Grails are not making music as cinematically-inclined as their recent productions, opting instead to dig further into the eclectic edge that has made their work ever-so-interesting. This means jazzier arrangements executed with the intensity of a large post-rock band, dissonant sections with obscure themes accompanied by crystal-clear melodic reflections, and a tendency to dwell. All the noir tropes and the eastern musical ideas that have informed their work come to the fore in Miracle Music, detached from the film soundtrack quality, easily making the album into one of their most adventurous, and therefore, one of their best. (David Murrieta Flores)
Original Review
Gwenifer Raymond ~ Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark (We Are Busy Bodies)
A magical 42-minute journey from a polymath, Gwenifer Raymond’s third album is a captivating work of Welsh Primitive guitar playing – a fresh take on an older genre. Touching on everything from the Mississippi blues to pulpy science fiction novels, Last Night I Heard The Dog Star Bark is a world of wonder framed in miniature. These instrumental pieces tell stories, disappear to unexpected places and remain a little rough around the edges. The result is earthy, raw and captivating. (Jeremy Bye)
Original Review
Human Pyramids ~ Thank You (Ricco/Three Mile Town)
There’s a lot of joy to be found in Human Pyramids records, and Thank You is no exception. Released back in January, it was an album we needed then, and definitely still need today. A colourful riot of miniature anthems, this is gleeful, ebullient music, which doesn’t go full-bore all the time but allows for moments of calm and reflection. But we’re soon rattling back up to the moments of unbridled happiness when you want to hug your mates, and shout defiantly at the dying of the light. (Jeremy Bye)
Original Review
Hyphen Dash ~ Basement 626
Basement 626 was born in a makeshift studio in frontline Kramatorsk—an act of creation shaped by proximity to war. With no prepared material, Myshko Birchenko and Yevhen Puhachov captured one-take improvisations steeped in the city’s charged atmosphere. The result is a jazz record that feels both intimate and volatile, reflecting the tension, humanity, and strange beauty of life just 15 kilometres from the front. Its moods carry the surreal beauty of sunrise over spoil heaps in Donna’s and the raw energy of a place under constant threat. With rail links to Kramatorsk now severed amid intensified attacks, the album’s existence is its own form of testimony—proof that creativity can still rise in the middle of rupture, listening and responding to the noise of war. (Gianmarco Del Re)
Ukrainian Field Notes XLVIII
Ludwig Göransson ~ Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score) (Sony)
There is a lot of music in Sinners – enough to fill up two albums. Our focus is Ludwig Göransson’s score, an evocative journey from African griot to blues, folk and beyond. The traditional sounds have subtle contemporary updates, giving a sense of uncertainty to the viewer (who is unaware of it at the time). Sequenced to the narrative flow of the movie, Sinners ratchets up the tension, with a full orchestra, choir and even Lars Ulrich of Metallica in the mix by the end. Expect this to be competing with One Battle After Another come award season. (Jeremy Bye)
Original Review
Patrick Shiroishi ~ Forgetting Is Violent (American Dreams)
Patrick Shiroishi’s Forgetting is Violent is a monumental double-suite of righteous fury and collective grief. Expanding his palette with formidable guests, he frames his saxophone’s journey from meditative drone to incendiary wail with cutting guitar and even his own vocals. The first suite confronts historical racism through harrowing noise and poignant spoken testimony, while the second builds a personal memorial to a cathartic, noise-drenched climax. Driven by a profound communal urgency, where shared vulnerability transforms into a hopeful roar. (Joseph Sannicandro)
Original Review
Solkyri ~ Cranebrook (A Cheery Wave Records/Dunk! Records)
If there’s someone still pushing the 2000s guitar-classic post-rock sound, it’s Solkyri. In the same way that, at the time, bands like Do Make Say Think or Rachel’s expanded the limits of the genre to include aural constellations from folk, classical, or ambient, so does the Australian group dive, with every new release, into different sound-worlds. Cranebook’s short length does not prevent it from actualizing the genre, making it richer, more interesting, a living movement of the present. (David Murrieta Flores)
Original Review
Tortoise ~ Touch (International Anthem)
Touch marks Tortoise’s first album in nine years, a testament to adaptability as the quintet recorded across three cities instead of their native Chicago. This geographically fragmented process yielded their most accessible work in decades, balancing hazy, cinematic grooves with moments of motorik drive and their signature vibraphone-laced cool. The album thrives on their collective chemistry, transforming skeletal ideas into intricately layered instrumentals where every texture and rhythmic shift feels deliberate. It’s a welcome return that reaffirms their status as post-rock architects, proving their meticulous, wordless narratives remain as compelling as ever. (Joseph Sannicandro)
Original Review
Ujif_notfound ~ Postulate (I Shall Sing Until My Land Is Free)
Postulate soundtracks a shattered life, mixed and strewn beneath your feet. The album vibrates with menace, as if every track were cut from the same glass that explodes outward in the poem accompanying it. Ujif_notfound transforms this fear into a sonic condition, a landscape where transparency is a lie and safety is an illusion. The record refuses mediation or softening; it is angry, unfiltered, and unapologetic, and it has earned the right to be so. Every sound is a shard, thin and piercing, singing with terrible clarity. The cover art’s infinite splinters find their echo in the music itself: glass not just breaking but crying out, as though each fragment were born of a scream with no mouth. (Gianmarco Del Re)
Ukrainian Field Notes XLVI
Thu Dec 18 00:01:49 GMT 2025