Here we go again then, more albums, more cherry picking through the mountain of albums that land here, more picking of the cherries, picking off the cherries, the never ending pile of demanding cherries that find their way here on a daily basis. You surely know the policy by now? We do, on the whole, only feature the albums and things we feel positive about. We really don’t have time to clutter up these already overloaded pages with negative coverage of things that do nothing for us, there isn’t the time or space, there isn’t any need, although some times there probably is. Here’s another three or so as we aready feel the pile that have landed in 2026 building up….
Big Shipping – Nobody Asked For This – “Progressive post-punk fuelled by off-kilter post-hardcore from Exeter, Devon” is how they call it themselves and that does pretty much sum up what’s going on here. Well not quite, they have something extra in here, a bit of extra colour, a touch of something that grabs your attention and holds it, a desire to be something a little more than just another one. Door left ajar, a band who need to stand on their own two feet, they deserve your attention, put on your attention head and go find out what their secrets are… – Bandcamp / Instagram
And still they flow, here’s something new from The Andretti, the last album that came from Andretti land figured rather highly on that end of year list that so many hats are hung on – Our best 43 albums of another very musically busy 2024. Who did we rate? The Flying Luttenbachers, Extra life, Earth Ball, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Gazelle Twin, English Teacher, Slift, Uniform…
The Andretti – Toxic Nostalgia – “I was hoping you guys might like to get a listen to the new Andretti EP. Thank you for the very positive press you gave my last record two years ago. this is a departure from the big band arrangements I had been doing . I hope you will enjoy it, Joe Ferrara” – Is it that much of a departure? Or for that matter is it an EP? It sounds like a big album from here, that’s a big twenty-five or so minutes and yes okay, maybe not quite the expansive big arrangements and the full on progness of last time, still the same ambition though, sill the expansive colour and dare we say, in the most positive of ways, sounding rather Faith No More-ish in those big building layers and the sound of it all (you know we care a lot about Faith No More). Yeap, this time around The Andretti are sounding like the killing jokes of Faith No More with those big keyboards and that epic forward movement that more than invites you to go with it. You have to love the continued ambition of The Andretti. Wonder what the Class of 92 is about? Culture? Red issues? The bands of that year? Or something completely different? World War three? The war with wisdom? They may have come up with something rather different to their previous (rather excellent) album, but things are as amorphous as ever, as good as ever, amorphous in the best of ways, there is always a defined shape or form, you just never quite know what that shape or form is going to be, another fine release from The Andretti… Bandcamp
Winged Wheel – Desert So Green (12XU) – The third studio album from Winged Wheel, an “experimental super-band” so we’re told, a band comprised of Whitney Johnson (Matchess, Circuit des Yeux), Cory Plump (Spray Paint, co-owner of Kingston dream venue Tubby’s), Matthew J. Rolin (solo guitar wizard and half of the Powers/Rolin Duo), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), Lonnie Slack (Water Damage), and Fred Thomas (Idle Ray, Tyvek); “each member of the creatively and geographically scattered collective lives in a different city and brings their own distinct element to the group’s interpersonal alchemy. A project which began through long-distance file trading between members has evolved into a solidified line-up that has completed multiple tours, become a taper’s dream with live sets that drift through structure and improvisation, and ridden the momentum to places unforeseen across three albums in four years”.
Desert So Green was recorded in spring 2025 at Rec Room Studios just outside of Chicago following a Midwest tour. The nine-track collection is, so we’re told, “defined by a newfound restraint while still delivering an intensity that never lets up”. I must confess this is the first I’ve heard from them so I really can’t offer any kind of comparison with previous recordings, I can tell you this one is kind of mellow, that it does sound restrained in a rather positive way. The experimentation is subtle, not overbearing, it is very much an album of songs, dare Isay experimental Americana? Americana flavoured with “Can-esque rhythms, scrapes of viola, and Throbbing Gristle–level decay” as the press release has it. Yes all that is in there, in a retained way, a mellow Can in there with bits of steel guitar and hints of of Silver Apples style psychedelia that never is quite as straightforward as it might have you think at first. Oh that’s a nice bit there, there’s lots of nice bits that constantly catch an ear rather like a small area in the paint on a big abstract canvas does…
The idea of a song as a canvas – several pieces here are called Canvas and are given numbers – is an intriguing clue in terms of the process and the result (or at least the intent). The result, or indeed the results are rather different here in terms of the feelings, the textures, the atmospheres of the songs, and they are very much songs, experimental pieces of music that always feel somewhere near conventional, if rather refined, rather mellow, rather restrained rock songs, at times delicious songs. This, more than anything is just a really enjoyable album that really does invite you in and encourages you to stick around for a long as you want to. Never too dense even though there are at times layers of synths and bits of noise and different coloured things layered on top of yet more things. Most of all this is just a really really enjoyable album that I suspect is going to retain that feeling of delight I have had for it over the last couple of weeks for quite some time. Rather recommended…
Previously…
And here’s Winged Wheel in a record shop in Green Bay late last year….
THE ORGAN 