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Presenting the first vinyl release of Dreamloops, a collection of long-form tracks that form a stunning two-and-a-half-hour suite over four LPs. The box set has been created, mixed, and designed by Dennis Huddleston, who, as 36 (“three-six”), is among the most celebrated electronic musicians operating today. Praised for his ability to imbue songs with strong, relatable undercurrents, Huddleston achieves a new level of subconscious connection with Dreamloops.

First appearing in 2019 as a series of cassettes, Dreamloops was revisited by Huddleston in 2023 to bring newfound clarity, focus, and cohesion. There are eight pieces, each an 18:00 minute standalone self-contained work. In each song, time slows as an ensemble of sounds builds on themes and develops emotional power. Much like epic works such as The Sinking Of The Titanic by Gavin Bryars, LaMonte Young’s Well-Tuned Piano, Daughters Of Darkness by Natural Snow Buildings and Morton Feldman’s String Quartet II, each fragment of Dreamloops culls developing melodies towards hauntological steps forward. Sound spectrums don’t spread wide but instead focus on a precise musical statement, exploring its absolute potential.

That said, Dreamloops does not exist in its own idealized sphere. Deep listening reveals tape hiss, oversaturation, wow and flutter, and similar imperfections. The fingerprints deepen part of these tracks’ emotional impact. Henryk Gorecki’s humanity meets Max Richter’s sense of grandeur meets Deathprod’s absolute sound mining, as Huddleston deftly maneuvers his songs toward momentous epic impact. “Emotions get tied in our mind with specific sounds,” Huddleston says. “The whole point of creating music is to explore and discover those frequencies.” A simmering nostalgia is ever present.

Only 10 measly months has passed sinceAlien Nosejob released their Garage Rock record “The Derivative Sounds of…Or… A Dog Always Returns to its Vomit” (Goner / Anti Fade). Since its release, there’s been two international tours, two interstate tours and a bunch of chillaxing on the beach. ANJ is now back in the office and the next record is fast approaching.

“Turns the Colour of Bad Shit” will be Jake Robertson’s seventh solo record under the extremely vast and evolving umbrella that is Alien Nosejob. On September 20 Anti Fade Records (au), Total Punk (us) & DrunkenSailor (uk) join forces to split the shit pie into three different shades ofBad Shit and feed the 5000 hungry fans across the globe.

Taking musical inspiration from the late 70’s punk sounds of J.T. IV, Elton Motello, X-Ray Spex, ‘Bad Shit' came to life in April 2023 when Jake occupied friends’ Mikey and Raven’s home studio for a weekend and took to the controls on his own.

The album opens with the gut-wrenching terror that is 'Bird Strike’. A song made up of a hypnotic riff, haunting saxophone line (courtesy of Alannah Sawyer) and grotesque lyrical imagery that parallels Revee Bendixen's mutilated album artwork. 'Trapped in Time' lightens the mood with an upbeat tempo and words that poke fun at those stuck living in the past, while 'Annoying Riffs' points the finger at almost all of society (including himself). Jake reminds us that he can most certainly play a guitar solo (In case anyone forgot the Stained Glass record) on 'The Ostrich’ before the blistering 24 minutes wraps up with ‘Medical Treatment’; a 3 minute, minor chord Birdman worship. This record has a little something for everybody.

Clear vinyl. Tiny wear.

“There Is A Sound” is a compilation of blissed-out psych-folk songs by Andersens, a Japanese independent pop group who were led by Tsuby, aka Kiyokazu Onozaki, and were active throughout the 00s. A lovely set of intimate revelations, with some widescreen, bold pop moments, dreamy guitars meeting brass, electronics and sitar, it’s really the first time listeners outside of Japan have had the chance to take in the full spread of Andersens and their gentle pop songs. Released on the heels Morr Music’s Minna Miteru compilation of Japanese indie-pop, “There Is A Sound” is the first in a series of artist compilations that dig deeper into Japan’s musical underground. Co-compiled by Tsuby and Markus Acher (The Notwist, Spirit Fest), the collection sheds much-needed light on a unique songwriter, one part of a vital and energetic scene that is largely unrepresented outside of Japan.

Los Angeles’s prodigal songwriting son Ariel Pink shares his eleventh studio album, Dedicated to Bobby Jameson, September 15.

The album’s title makes a direct and heartfelt reference to a real-life L.A. musician, long presumed dead, who resurfaced online in 2007 after 35 reclusive years to pen his autobiography and tragic life story in a series of blogs and YouTube tirades. “His book and life resonated with me to such a degree,” Pink states, “that I felt a need to dedicate my latest record to him.”

Dedicated to Bobby Jameson begins at the end and ends at the beginning. “We follow the protagonist through a battery of tests and milestones, the first of which sees him reborn into life out of death,” Pink explains, referencing the opening track “Time To Meet Your God.” “From there, he seesaws his way between the innocent love and the rock-solid edifice of childhood-worn trauma that together constitute his lifelong initiation into the realm of artifice and theatrical disposability.”

Cover with slightly bumped corner

Asher White’s third album in two years (and fifteenth overall), Home Constellation Study is less a refinement of last year’s sly, quaint New Excellent Woman, and more an explosion of it. Her meticulous chamber pop has given way to resplendent swells of horns and squeals of noise, throbbing bass and queasy orchestral loops. The cover, painted by White, frames a burst of flowers against a dark blue abyss, mimicking the music: over-frenzied sambas, bleary slacker rock, hushed ambient meditations, and surprisingly slick disco, White mines her personal minutiae for tokens of political decay, alienation, and religious rapture.

The past year has found the prolific Providence-based singer-songwriter ascending through her city’s fertile experimental rock scene alongside the breakout synth-punk act babybaby_explores and her labelmates Or Best Offer. Live, White’s band plays riotous, unpredictable noise rock that nods to their city’s storied DIY scene; on Home Constellation Study, mid-album highlights like “Downstate Prairie” and “Hymn” nod to Providence’s bands of yore with their blistering sheets of feedback and pummeling drums, placing White, improbably, within the lineage of local heroes Les Savy Fav or the broken pop dispatches of Black Pus.

At its core, however, Home Constellation Study is the product of studied, monastic auteurism. Like New Excellent Woman, it was arranged, performed, recorded and mixed by White alone in her basement studio in Providence. “Happy Birthday” is an earnest psalm, a paean of devotion and remorse to God a la Beverly Glenn-Copeland that drifts along with Panda Bear haziness. White’s concept of “toxic femininity” undergoes further investigation on “Good Luck!” and “Runes,” both with Elliott Smith-like chord changes and the barbs of cynical romantics like Aimee Mann. Asher White’s vision has never been so expansive and unpredictable.