What We’re Listening to This Week (3.11.26)

Light Chasers Vol.3: Live at Hardware 005 by Production Unit Xero

“It’s After the End of the World, Don’t You Know That Yet?” What a great way to start an album. Another banger from Production Unit Xero in the form of a live recording from a Hardware Show at Process PDX. PUX does not fuck around and after listening to this set, I was upset at myself for not seeing it live. Light Chasers Vol. 3 captures Production Unit Xero doing what PUX does best – running a live system at full speed in front of a room that’s ready for it.

Noctunes by Willis Earl Beal

Ever prayed without knowing it? Have you ever been in that peculiar state where exhaustion strips the mind down to its most essential thoughts and whatever fragments of memory remain begin to surface? I feel like this is what Willis Earl Beal is asking me with their grainy and reflective voice. It’s folk, it’s soul, it’s ambient, it’s minimal and, above all else, it’s good. It’s thoughtful work and well worth a listen.

boi by sqip

boi by suqip is restless, but oh so comfortable. But only on certain days. I feel like this album would be a very uneasy listen during “productive” days working for the overlords. The record moves quickly between ideas – synthetic textures, playful rhythmic fragments, and melodies that feel slightly off-center in a way that keeps the whole thing feeling like what it is: a pivoting spirit.

The Great Bailout (Deluxe) by Moor Mother

The Great Bailout is one of the best albums I’ve heard in the last five years. It unsettles me. It’s a dense and confrontational piece of art that audits economic and political systems tied to colonial expansion going line by line in a spiritual ledger of an empire built on murder and the destruction of culture. The final track, “LIVERPOLL WINS (MOVEMENT 3)” is somber and hauntingly beautiful. Absolutely adore this album.

Healing Through Shadow and Light  by Tree Skeleton

Tree Skeleton’s (aka Wet Mango) Healing Through Shadow and Light is not at all what I was expecting. Knowing them only from their Wet Mango project, I was expecting more like the Impending Booty of Doom. Instead what I get is a highly personal rhythmic conversation with the stars. The most important aspect, besides ambient passages, soft melodic structures, and industrial-adjacent textures is the fucking honesty. The sound of one’s voice can never tell a lie. The delivery carries an unmistakable sincerity that anchors the entire record. And you can hear the emotional turmoil – but it’s not taking it out on anyone (or maybe not anyone specific), it’s just unfurling like a gigantic flower with plant’y tendrils reflecting the inner light in the deepest, darkest places you can imagine. Great record.