Altogether, it’s a bit like the Santa Ana winds that he namechecks on the closing track, “More Bad News”—there’s something warm and almost supernatural in the balance he’s found here between a rosy kind of innocence and an impressively mature musicality. ►

Sam Wilkes is definitely onto something. He may be familiar to some as an accomplished bassist delivering head-spinning lines in the fusion combo Knower, but on his latest—simply entitled WILKES—he becomes an intrepid bandleader and multi-instrumental alchemist, pushing further into the jazz-driven dream world introduced on his recent collaboration with Sam Gendel, Music for Saxofone and Bass Guitar. ►

Thought I was gonna get 80s Roky, but the sound here is 80s Iggy with an adrenalin shot of 45 Grave, too. Death rock and Detroit rock—of course Death Valley Girls knew those should go together! ►

The indietronica duo (Wyatt Ininns and Viktor Pakpour) has pursued this drowsy, atmospheric sound since establishing itself in Los Angeles three years ago, and though their synthesized music shimmers with a pop phosphorescence clearly distinct from Debussy or Chopin’s classical nocturnes, it conjures moonlit imagery just the same. ►

Looking for an anodyne listen? This isn’t it—this is all open wounds and existential dread. The best kind of listen. ►

Jack Drag was never dead. He was just laying low for a while. And it’s good to have him back. ►