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Showing posts from August, 2026

Song Recommendation: “One Hand” by Hiding Places (2026)

 I love a good slow-burn rocker that feels like it’s being sung through gritted teeth (metaphorically if not literally). And “One Hand” from Hiding Place’s darkly gothic, stripped down yet still powerful The Secret to Good Living released earlier this year, is a gut-wrenching standout. I’ve been struck by a lot of good guitar solos this year and the one that comes at the end of this track really hits that perfect strain of guitar solo: where it’s not about any one kind of pyrotechnic ability or technical deployment but the way a single instrument can convey and then mutate the themes of the song itself. The lyrics are stark in their self reflection. “I want too much. Too many friends to count one hand, or two, or ten. I took too much too quick because I want to win just like they did. They want too much. They want too much.” And as the guitar solo rings out into a gentle set of plucking notes that lull us into a sense of oceanic security, it’s only the fact that right as it fades out we’re returned to the beginning hard-edged ambiguity of the first notes of the song (even cutting off mid-sentence) that shows how skillful that guitar solo was in anticipating the ultimate sisyphean struggle of self-inflicted rejection.

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Song Recommendation: “Dios Es Un Stalker (versión Francotiradora)” by Rosalia (2025)

It kind of went under the radar, but a few months ago Rosalía released to streaming the extended version of her 2025 masterwork LUX (now a Complete Works addendum) so those of us not lucky enough to get the extremely hard to find vinyl version can hear nearly an additional 15 minutes of music. The new tracks are really great but for me, the standout wound up being a longer version of an existing track, the bass-heavy “Dios Es Un Stalker,” which now includes a mid-track set of bars before the key change that really reconfigure the emotional current of the song, showing the dizzyingly crazed logic of the protagonist of the song, alternately bouncing between actual divinity and subject that same divinity’s gaze (apples never fall far from trees in religious stories). She sings: “en tus sueńos, cazadora, una sniper, Francotiradora. La culpable, la que te sube la la adrenalina, doblo contigo todas las esquinas, aunque tu a mi nunca me veras, te vigilo mas que tus vecinas” (“in your dreams, I’m a hunter, a sniper, the one who’s to blame, the one who pumps up your adrenaline, with you I go everywhere even though you never see me, I look over you more than your neighbors”). 


LUX remains one of the best albums of the decade so far and if you haven’t heard it yet, use this opportunity to correct that with the entire experience. It’s as overwhelming as it is rewarding. 
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Song Recommendation: “Concentric Silences” by Camila Pisani (2026)

French artist/writer/musician Camila Pisani’s recent Konstellationen is a remarkable piece of work. Six tracks of intricately detailed, highly hypnotic, intensely propulsive techno that unfurl over a breathtaking sixty minutes. Synths are tuned to the razor's edge so their crystalline spikes sparkle across subterranean beats that only relent when she has the faith in the listener to maintain the rhythm. Case in point, about two-thirds the way through my track recommendation for today she lets the heretofore pretty relentless bass drum drop out entirely as the various synths continue to bounce off each other in chaotic lockstep like electrons in a constant state of near collision. More than two minutes pass like this, feeling suspended in the crackling ozone until you realize, as the beat kicks back in at exactly the point your body expects it to, that you haven’t been suspended, you’ve been launched from a cannon and have been hurtling in zero-g towards your destination.

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Song Recommendation: “Ɵʅ͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡(̸̢̛̼̞̭͋ͅ)̸͚̰͛̔̾̀̿͒͂v̴̢͚͚͎ȯ̶̞̮͖̑̈́)̸̳̥̰̜̥̺̐ͅ)̴͎̜͍̱̋̌͋̓̾̚ ̷̨ ☼⃝◞⊖◟ ʅ͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡(̸̢̛̼̞̭͋ͅ)̸͚̰͛̔̾̀̿͒͂ȯ̶̞̮͖̑̈́)̸̳̥̰̜̥̺̐ͅv̴̢͚͚͎͎̞͒͊̎ȯ̶̞̮͖̑̈́̿)̸̳̥̰̜̥̺̐ͅ)̴͎̜͍̱̋̌͋̓̾̚͜ ̷̨̢̥̅͝ͅ(̸̢̛̼̞̭͋ͅ)̸͚̰͛̔̾̀̿͒͂:̴͓̞̑̌̂̆̊͋̀:̸͎̟̯̂̓̌:̶̢͙͙͕̠̩͆(̷̮͍͚̫͚͂̍̒̋̕)̵̳̗̊̍̽́ ̵͍̪̲̀̍ ̴̤̚ ̴̹̙͙̻̓̉̚͝V̸̘̅̀̒̃̚V̴̠̼̩̘͈̦̥̉͋̐͗͌͠V̵̪̮̅̉̓“ by ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ AKA Wingdings (2026)

I probably don’t appreciate Kieran Hebden enough. Four Tet’s music has always been there for me, on the shelf, so unassuming, ready to buoy my spirits if I only but reach out. And his collaborations over the last three years with William Tyler have been of particular note. And now, with his occasionally deployed ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ (or Wingdings for short) he brings his finely honed senses to bear with some stunning, almost-throwback IDM. I hate to always bring up the late 90’s/early 2000’s Warp Records heyday but I’ll stop when all these musicians stop reminding me of that time! My recommended track here (which I won’t list here since I’ve already messed with your reading comprehension with all that zalgo text) starts with an understated shuffling beat before introducing the main synth melody: a yearning set of icy notes that repeat over and over, never really increasing in actual intensity but the dizzying repetition achieving the same goal nonetheless. Then it does that classic IDM thing of letting it all fade away then building it back up for an airy coda. 
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Song Recommendation: “Esperanza” by Hermanos Gutiérrez (2021)

I have an as-yet private playlist that I call “Is this the best song ever written?!” that, well, is exactly what it says on the tin. Or maybe I still should elaborate because I shouldn’t expect you to peek into the recesses of my addled brain. I get this sense, sometimes, when listening to a song that sinks deeper than feeling. Deeper than what my brain is able to consciously suss forth, one that invokes a sense in me that all matter is energy, all energy is matter and all time is relative. Thus the “?!” part of the name. It’s something that I realize is inherently subjective rather than objective (and I really don’t have time for critical handwringing about the differences between the two or the unrealistic and misguided goal of pursuing the later so I won’t belabor it) but it is a feeling often as frustrating as it is euphoric because of how unquantifiable and often unrepeatable a feeling it is. And music is usually where I most often experience this still relatively rare occurrence. And yes, a song is tied up in this post (I’m getting to the point I promise) but when watching episode seven of last year’s excellent new Vince Gilligan-led TV show Pluribus that I caught that feeling for an episode of TV. I think a lot of the joy in the series as a whole (which, given the nature of this blog, yes, I highly recommend it) is not knowing anything of the premise and discovering the plot alongside the characters so I won’t go into any detail except to state that midway though the episode, a certain character takes a prolonged (nearly) solitary roadtrip with this song, “Esperanza” by guitar masterminds Hermanos Gutiérrez, serving as the elegiac music bed. It plays in full, a rarity in any filmed media, but especially the usually time-economical world of television, allowing for a full contemplation of the downbeat, but propulsive tune. “Is this the best episode of TV I’ve ever seen?” I thought while watching. And maybe not, but during those 5 minutes while this song plays, it really might be. The song predates the show by a fair piece and was originally accompanied by a spectacular piece of understated psychedelic animation.

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