10 Albums to Check Out This Week

Autumn is settling in in earnest here in the Pacific Northwest. The days are turning overcast, soft rains are coming. It’s the perfect setting for some thoughtful, artful subtle listening.

Many of this week’s albums we’re highlighting have a gentle, introspective quality that suits the changing leaves and soft breezes quite nicely. Kara-Lis Coverdale’s second album of 2025 is a thoughtful, searching exploration falling somewhere between midcentury modern classical music and tender millennial neoclassical from the likes of Nils Frahm. Oren Ambarchi’s live soundtrack for a lost Czech avant-garde forsakes the Australian composers’ noisier tendencies in favor of sensitive electroacoustic improv. Lawrence English’s Antarctic field recordings are cloistered and hypnotic even by English’s droney standards.

It’s not all catatonic reverie this week, though. UK post-punk legends The Chameleons have never sounded as catchy as they do on their first album in nearly a quarter-century. Abdullah Miniawy’s art pop offers a warm, humanist update on late-period Scott Walker. Finally, avant-beatsmith Rian Treanor’s new one for Planet Mu can’t sit still for as long as a four-year old.

Oren Ambarchi & Fredrik Ratsen – Dragon’s Return

Australian sound artist Oren Ambarchi continues his red hot streak of superb subtle ambient/drone recordings with a live score for a lost Czech film.

Kara-Lis Coverdale – A Series of Actions in a Sphere of Forever

Kara-Lis Coverdale returns with her second album of 2025, delivering an album of introspective minimal piano sketches for Smalltown Supersound.

The Chameleons – Arctic Moon

British post-punk legends The Chameleons return with their first album in 24 years! Arctic Moon trades in The Chameleons traditional arty, chilly psychedelic reserve and inject it with big melodies, bright production, and rich arrangements. The Chameleons have never sounded this accessible, while still retaining the arty reserve that forged their reputation.

The Black Dog – My Brutal Life: Ambient Mixes Box Set

UK DJ/producer-duo The Black Dog continue their My Brutal Life series with nearly three-and-a-half hours of weightless, ambient progressive electronics for brutalist spaces. Like Stanley Kubrick directing a documentary about the Pruitt-Igoe estates.

Corps Citoyen – Barrani

Folk music, field recordings, spoken word, and futuristic sound design for the North Arab diaspora. Music for non-places.

Lawrence English – WhiteOut

Introspective, hypnotic drones made from frozen field recordings by Lawrence English from his time in Antarctica.

Abdullah Miniawy – Peacock Dreams

Warm, lavish, lush art pop/modern classical from Paris-based Egyptian artist Abdullah Miniawy. For fans of latterday Scott Walker or Sunn O)))’s collaborations with Julian Priester.

Modeselektor – DJ-Kicks

Modeselektor takes over the DJ-Kicks series with over 40 tracks of genre-agnostic beat music from all over the world, flawlessly curated, meticulously mixed and sequenced.

Sijya – Leather & Brass EP

Six tracks of ghostly, glacial alt r&b. For fans of Fever Ray or James Blake.

Rian Treanor & Cara Tolmie – Body Lapse

Avant beatsmith Rian Treanor turns in an album of frantic sonic subterfuge, beat mutations, and frenetic hyperpop for the relentlessly questing Planet Mu.