Summer listening from trusted recommendations, Hudson Valley Sounds, and musical reading
Tune in the Half Year in Sound. 2025 lists galore and more.
John Hodgman recently wrote, “Everything is miserable. The massacres abroad, the ICE kidnappings at home, and the general shrugging off of these crimes by editors and politicians who think the real story is interest rates. And on top of it, now there’s the gutting of NPR/PBS, plus the non-constitutional surrender of congressional power to the executive that gutting represents, PLUS the cancellation of Colbert just days after he mocked Paramount for kneeling before Zod…”
He’s not wrong. The despair is strong these days, and must be fought with whatever means. Perhaps a new song will cheer change your frame of mind? Music can be a helpful distraction or a soothing relief. But what to choose? Sometimes, you can troll through critics year-end — and in this case half-year-end — lists and find some information relevant to you. This critic likes X and Y, so you might like Z. You might not agree with everything in someone’s list, but you might get one or two ideas. Here are some Substack-centric 2025 Half-Year in Review lists, with links to the full versions, the Bandcamp pages, the YouTube videos, and more.
Below that, a deep catalog of music released so far this year from Hudson Valley-based musicians.
And, finally, some summer beach reading on the subject of music.
Tune in!
Turn On The News Top 10 For 2025 So Far
Matthew Shipp’s latest album, and this radio-centric song, both live up to their titles as otherworldly trips using a language both familiar and entirely new. Tune in “The Cosmic Piano” and these “Radio Signals from Jazz Keys.
Natural Information Society and Bitchin Bajas "Clock no Clock"
Florist, “Jellywish”
Irreversible Entanglements, “Fireworks”
Matmos, “Metallic Life Review”
BASIC “Dream City”
Lia Kohl, “(850) 457-4142
Tortoise, “Oganesson”
Lucricia Dalt, “Divina” single from forthcoming “A Danger to Ourselves” album.
10. The “I Lied to You” scene in “Sinners” is the best movie experience of the year so far, and a great song.
TOP 2025 LISTS FROM OTHERS
Zen Sounds
1. Eliana Glass – E (Shelter Press)
2. Bad Bunny – Debí Tirar Más Fotos (Rimas)
3. Mark Ernestus’ Ndagga Rhythm Force – Khadim (Ndagga)
4. Whatever The Weather – Whatever The Weather II (Ghostly)
5. PremRock – Did You Enjoy Your Time Here? (backwoodz)
6. Duval Timothy – wishful thinking (Carrying Colour)
7. Lippard Arkbro Lindwall – How do I know if my cat likes me? (Blank Editions)
8. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – Gift Songs (Mexican Summer)
9. Macie Stewart – When The Distance Is Blue (International Anthem)
10. billy woods – GOLLIWOG (backwoodz)
FULL 2025 TOP 20 HERE.
Burning Ambulance
Yazz Ahmed, A Paradise In The Hold.
Ancient Death, Ego Dissolution.
Benediction, Ravage Of Empires.
Bombardement, Dans La Fournaise.
Peter Brötzmann, The Quartet.
Chaos Magick, Through The Looking Glass.
Chris Cheek, Keepers Of The Eastern Door.
Isaiah Collier/William Parker/William Hooker, The Ancients.
Ensemble Nist-Nah, Spilla.
Sullivan Fortner, Southern Nights.
FULL TOP 50 OF 2025 HERE.
AnEarful
Florist, Jellywish
Car Seat Headrest, The Scholars.
The Beverage Station, Little Grey Cells.
Melissa Mary Ahern, Kerosene.
Hamilton Leithauser, This Side Of The Island
Bakudi Scream, Prey
Richard Aufrichtig, Everybody On The Breeze.
Stephen Vitiello with Brendan Candy and Hahn Rowe, Second.
Horsegirl, Phonetics On And On.
Daughter Of Swords, Alex.
FULL TOP 25 ALBUMS OF 2025 HERE.
Lamniformes Cuneiform
Fusilier, Ambush
Mei Semones, Animaru
Phoebe Rings, Aseurai
Aesop Rock, Black Hole Superette
caroline, caroline
Stander, Collapsing
Weeping Sores, The Convalescence Agonies
Squid, Cowards
Bad Bunny, Debí Tirar Más Fotos
Previous Industries, Evergreen Plaza
FULL 2025 TOP 30 ALBUMS HERE.
New Bands For Old Heads
1. BRKN LOVE - The Program
2. The Convenience - Like Cartoon Vampires
3. Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart
4. McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!
5. Low Healer - hold music (EP)
6. Pastel - Souls in Motion
7. Ribbon Skirt - Bite Down
8. SHAGGO - Chores
9. Smerz - Big city life
10. Teen Mortgage - Devil Ultrasonic Dream
FULL 2025 TOP 10 HERE.
Good Everything Forever
1. Lorde, Virgin
2. Momma, Welcome to My Blue Sky
3. Oklou, choke enough
4. Sleigh Bells, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy
5. FKA twigs, EUSEXUA
6. Bad Bunny, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS
7. Spiritbox, Tsunami Sea
8. Blondshell, If You Asked For A Picture
9. billy woods, GOLLIWOG
10. Addison Rae, Addison
FULL 2025 TOP 10 HERE.
No Expectations
Ale Hop and Titi Bakorta, Mapambazuko
Ben Hackett, Songs for Sleeping Dogs
Brown Horse, All The Right Weaknesses
Cash Langdon, Dogs
Colin Miller, Losin’
The Convenience, Like Cartoon Vampires
cutouts, Snakeskin
Dead Gowns, It's Summer, I Love You, and I'm Surrounded by Snow
Dutch Interior, Moneyball
Echolalia, Echolalia
FULL 2025 TOP 40 HERE.
Matt Mannino's Substack
1. Jane Remover - Revengeseekerz
2. McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!
3. Caroline - Caroline 2
4. Annahstasia - Tether
5. Deafheaven - Lonely People with Power
6. Billy Woods - GOLLIWOG
7. Swans - Birthing
8. DjRUM - Under Tangled Silence
9. Honningbarna - Soft Spot
10. Backxwash - Only Dust Remains
FULL TOP 25 TOP 10 LIST HERE.
The Music Week
Oklou - choke enough
Hesse Kassel - La Brea
Rebecca Black - SALVATION
Jane Remover - revengeseekerz
Saya Gray - SAYA
Japanese Breakfast - For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)
Marina Sena - Coisas Naturais
FULL SEVEN UNDERRATED ALBUMS OF 2025 HERE.
Sounds, songs, and stories from 2025 from Hudson Valley musicians.
Catskill-based Gary’s Dream released their full debut album “Pretty Blue” (above) on Feb. 27 via miserymother with a performance at Colony Woodstock. They write about the collection of songs: “Gary’s Dream has spent the past few years tending to the earth on a farm in Catskill, NY, while quietly writing their sparkling and hypnotic debut record, “Pretty Blue.” Founded by Vive Tilson and Ryan Surrano, and joined by Wesley Harper and Shelby Surrano, they consider the album to be a ‘draining of the wound.’”
There are several bands from the Northeast represented on this compilation with proceeds going to the Gaza Soup Kitchen. Mountain Movers (from New Haven), Parishi (from Albany), and Pat Murano (No-Neck Blues Band, Decimus) and Wednesday Knudsen (of Austerlitz-based Pigeons), are among the localish acts here.
In January, Columbia County-based percussionist Bobby Previte released this collection with Knox Chandler on electronic guitar, and upright and electric bass. They explain this album: “Previte employs an expanded conception of the modern drum set, a circularity that suggests rather than shows, using the powerful orchestrational might of the drum set to create form and meaning. Chandler uses his guitar as a tone generator (there are no synthesizers) to create ‘Sound Ribbons’ - sonic fabrics made in real time that create a way of deconstructing and then enveloping and weaving together any series of individual pieces of music or film.”
Kendra McKinley has been releasing all sorts of new material lately including this, from Feb. 17. “I wrote this song (above) as a pep talk performed live at The Bunker Recordings (Catskill, NY), recorded by Mike Dwyer.” She has released two other videos this year, below. The Kendra McKinley Soul Trio performs Thu., Feb. 27 at the Race Brook Lodge in Western Mass.
Hudson Valley-based bassist Michael Bisio and reedist Joe McPhee with pianist Eunhye Jeong and drummer Jay Rosen on a March ESP release.
Bisio has another new album, out since Feb. 14, called “NuMBq” (below) with Melanie Dyer on viola, Marianne Osiel on English horn, and Jay Rosen on percussion.
McPhee, 85 and from Poughkeepsie, also released this delightful album, “I’m Just Say’m,” performing with his voice and poetry and Mats Gustafsson, who takes on baritone and bass sax, flutes, piano mate, piano harp, organ, Fender Rhodes, and live electronics.
March 7 split 2xCD from Capitol Region-ish noise acts Parashi (Mike Griffin) and Rambutan (Eric Hardiman, also of Sky Furrows), this release “finds the two pushing and pulling apart their own sonic templates with different methods and instrumentation. Parashi's disc veers from noisily evolving synth pieces to sprawling "songs" rooted in Griffin's improvised guitar and 6-string bass/tapes jams. Rambutan's offering finds Hardiman utilizing synth, guitar, and turntables among other devices to construct a series of towering designs.”
Released March 1, “'SOVT' is an album containing one 55-minute piece, written for piano by Sarah Hennies in 2017. SOVT stands for Semi-Occluded Vocal Tract which refers to vocal exercises that strengthens the voice by helping the vocal cords vibrate more efficiently. One may practice SOVT exercises by singing with a straw in the mouth which regulates air pressure and reduces strain on the vocal folds. Hennies encountered these exercises in a class on so-called ‘voice feminization’ for transgender women which also inspired her other works ‘Falsetto” and “Contralto.’ Almost all the strings of the piano in this piece are muted with Blu-Tack poster putty and this along with the rhythmic language of the piece results in a sound that is a hybrid piano/percussion-like sound. By connecting all the strings with putty, a dramatically rich sympathetic vibration occurs throughout the piano similar to the way in which one feels increased vibration in the mouth and throat by singing through a straw. SOVT was originally commissioned by R. Andrew Lee and for this recording was performed by richard valitutto, who recorded the work at the Bard College studio in the spring of 2024 with Hennies engineering.”
Kingston-based band Lodo have a record release show March 18 at Tubby’s with Kim Anderson. Below, is the single the band put out last year.
Anderson released this album last year:
Catskill-based band Of the Atlas released their album “The Spirits of Water Street” last week on most of the streaming platforms, with “Teleputer” single out at the beginning of the year. The band is Jay Woodruff on vocals, guitar, and bass, and Kenny Rowe on drums.
This is Hudson Valley-based guitarist/keyboardist Sal Cataldi’s offshoot of his long-running, ‘Spaghetti Eastern Music,’ released March 7.
A March 28 release from the New York-based, “Hannah Cohen’s fourth full-length album ‘Earthstar Mountain,’ is a keepsake of Cohen's time in the Catskills, built over the course of 2020-2024, as blurred, shimmering memories come into focus to produce a collage of echoes and sonic souvenirs. Featuring contributions from Sufjan Stevens, Clairo, Sean Mullins, Liam Kazar, Oliver Hill and more, ‘Earthstar Mountain’ is a love letter to the Catskills and in the interconnectedness of all things.”
Hashishen is a Palestinian American Saxophonist/Music Producer born and raised in New York, and now based in Poughkeepsie. “Hashishen” is a historical religious sect known as the “Order of Assassins.” Sometimes he will DJ aka DJ Akbar https://soundcloud.com/Hashishen
Florist, based in Greene County up the mountains, have another delightful new collection of quiet, forceful sounds. Try the title song first if you are new to them, and then enjoy the entire record.
Composer and percussionist Sarah Hennies and composer and bassist Tristan Kasten-Krause collaborate on this May 2 release. Hennies also teaches at Bard College. There is an album release show at Issue Project Room in Brooklyn on April 30.
Photay used to live in Woodstock (see interview below), and just released another excellent electronic experiment.
Saapato is the music project of upstate-New York based sound artist Brendan Principato. His work focuses on the intersection of ecology and music, with manipulated field recordings and electronics. Here, he collaborates with Nailah Hunter, Early Fern, Green-House, Patricia Wolf, and Diatom Deli, among others.
Locals Allie Young was just interviewed on Radio Kingston. Below, she recently posted a “snippet of a new song I’m working on that I’ll be performing on Tuesday April 22.”
This Schuylerville-based garage-rock band releases “frequencies” April 24 at No Fun in Troy with Catskill’s Of The Atlas also on the bill. The Shortwave RadioBand has already put out this video for “Crash Site.”
The imminent arrival of a new album from Troy-based Jason “Wolfman” Martin is the biggest news in Hudson Valley music this month. Martin specializes in snappy, weird pop songs, makes entrancing low-fi experimental analog videos, and often wears hybrid wolf-human costumes in his “Power Animal System” project. So far, all we have is a social media-shared track list of the forthcoming album.
RAMBUTAN
This one from Albany’s Eric Hardiman (Sky Furrows, Tape Drift label) was recorded live during brunch at the Low Beat in Albany, NY. on Sept. 18, 2016.
CAMP SAINT HELENE
Three new songs from Camp Saint Helene with Elizabeth Ibarra singing; Dylan Nowik on vocals, electric guitar, percussion, and saw; Wesley Harper playing acoustic guitars, organ, and effects; and Alex Wernquest on drums.
The Catskill-based band also released an accompanying film, directed by Silken Weinberg, and debuting May 11.
NEW ORTHODOX
Stereogum writes: “Nobody else sounds like Scott Walker, and if someone tells you about something that sounds like Scott Walker, that person should be laughed out of the room. But the Coxsackie, New York musician Nicholas Merz sounds way more like Scott Walker than you might expect anyone to get.” Merz is the only member of New Orthodox, releasing its debut album ‘Bull Market On Corn’ this month, one of the final projects that Steve Albini recorded and mixed before he passed away last year. Merz writes, “The band's ethos leans heavily into minimalist repetition, sonic experimentation, and lyrical insights that give way to live performances and recordings that utilize space and silence to imitate the human experience.”
Buke & Gase
The movie about Hudson-based band Buke & Gase debuted on Apple TV and iTunes on Tuesday, May 9.
LUAH
Luah is a Kingston-based project fronted by Brendan P. Sullivan.
CHRIS PELLNAT
Columbia County-based guitarist releases single with Moroccan singer Catalus.
WILL STRATTON
Beacon-based Will Stratton recorded just about all of this record there, except for a few guest contributions.
Jaded Azurites — Columbia County-based poet Karen Schoemer on voice and Mike Watt from the Minutemen on bass — release their sixth album on June 27. Below, “Inshallah,” is out now, written by schoemer/watt, produced by watt, with train footage by Schoemer, and Gaza footage by Shorouk Mohamed Abu Deeb for the video edited by Schoemer.
MICHAEL BISIO
Hudson Valley-based bassist Michael Bisio on this just reissued 1983 recording with Richard Mandyck on saxes, Ron Soderstrom on trumpet, Beth Chandler on violin, Bob Nell on piano, and John Bishop playing drums.
WORLDSUCKS
This partially-local band is righteous, donating a portion of proceeds to each tour to a different cause. This month’s Worldsucks tour one ends up in Troy.
WILL STRATTON
Beacon-based Will Stratton is off to Europe in July.
G. Lucas Crane
The Hudson Valley-based G. Lucas Crane’s latest is “The Suddering Years” on Artsy Records.
P.G. Six
Copake-based P.G. Six has a massive reissue out in August. “Amish Records is happy to announce an expanded, gatefold 2XLP version of P.G. Six's second album, 'The Well of Memory,’ originally released in 2004. This 2025 expanded edition has beautiful new artwork, reimagined by Meredyth Sparks and comes with a bonus LP titled 'Lost and Live." The LP includes six previously unreleased songs from 'The Well of Memory' sessions and a handful of live versions of songs from the album.”
JADED AZURITES
New Jaded Azurites video featuring, for the first time, the members of Jaded Azurites (Columbia County-based poet Karen Schoemer, and bassist Mike Watt).
SAAPATO
Upstate New York’s Brendan Principato releases another “ambient” album.
Golden Pillbug
Catskill’s Rodney Alan Greenblat has a new project, Golden Pillbug, released on July 4.
Hudson Palace
Hudson Palace is Paula Lucas and Tony Fletcher (local author with a great Substack), with a new song recorded in Hurley with Joe Magistro of Mercury Rev on percussion.
FOGGY OTIS
Catskill’s Foggy Otis just released an off-Spotify album “When life hand you lemons, play the ukulele,” with all songs written by Otis and Tom Gioia, and Dana Newman adding melodica on one track.
SUMMER READING
Click on each story to read.