Wonderful Moment
Indie Rock, Power Pop, Ambient Techno, Hip Hop, Technical Thrash Metal, Downtempo and more!
Hello y’all!
Another jam-packed stack of capsule reviews for you, so I will keep the intro short with some bullet-point updates:
Chilled in a park the other day and snapped this bird hangin’ under a bridge:
Similarly, I’m trying to read more of my paperback collection and went to a “Silent Book Club” (in a different park) where a few people joined to hang out and read together. Body doubling! I’m still working through it, but I’m almost done John Saul’s Suffer the Children (1977).
Hosted a movie night with some friends, testing out an idea where we vote (sight unseen) on Made for TV movies and then watch ‘em with all commercial breaks intact. The first edition’s movie was a cat-and-dog murder mystery, heh.
Otherwise, here’s some music reviews. Hope you enjoy ‘em!
Emoji legend:
⛏️ denotes picks of the week, my favs.
🌱 seedling denotes albums like a lot and expect could grow on me over the year.
✨ albums I would recommend to fans of the genre (i.e. it might not convert new listeners, but you should check it out.)
✂ denotes favourite tracks from a given record.
As always, feel free to reach out over on BlueSky or join the Rosy Overdrive Discord server where I can be found now and again.
You can also find me in the corners of Rate Your Music scrounging for obscure emo, hardcore, indie rock and pop punk.
Don’t forget: if you’re reading this in your email it will be cut off.
Read on the web for the full list of reviews!
⛏️ Weak Hands - We Can’t! (2026)
Genres: Power Pop, Indie Rock
Weak Hands have been performing around Toronto in varying line-up configurations since 2017, but only now are they gearing up to release their debut full-length (out on August 7th.) Despite having seen Natalia’s previous band The Cheap Speakers about a million times, the Weak Hands live show eluded me over the years before I jumped ship on Toronto. But if you asked me about Weak Hands? I’d tell you “Great band!” because why wouldn’t they be? They’re the latest band with Nat from The Cheap Speakers!
Unsurprisingly, Weak Hands finds Nat and Co. mining for sugary pop hooks and emotional catharsis in equal measures. Their single “Massey Sign” is a strong, lightly jangly tune (I’m also happy to see new album without 5+ singles, phew!) but their deeper cuts may be even better. Their self-described “pop punk adjacent” vibes show up on fizzy tunes like the versus of “Sisyphus” or “12 Easy Steps”, and the mid-tempo churn of “Spit Shine” supports some of their strongest melodies.
Brevity is also a strength, as even their subdued tunes don’t last much longer than three minutes and leave you with some hooks and lyrics rattling around in your head. Some of the sparser moments are supported by a really nice bass performance, like on “I Miss the Dress That I Wore the First Time You Took Me Dancing” where it glides agilely, supporting the song and resisting obvious “oh the bass is a little post-punk-y here” type categorizations.
It was a long road to their debut album, and I’m not suggesting that they don’t take some time to celebrate its release, but it also got me really excited to hear where they go next. Like any great power pop band, they know when to get out and leave you wanting more.
RIYL: The Beths, the Angus Soundtrack, Nanny, Beach Bunny, Attic Salt
⛏️ Rick White & Julie Doiron - Together (2026)
Genres: Indie Rock, Indie Folk, Psychedelic Rock
Rick White and Julie Doiron have a long and storied career, from dating as teenagers, to break-up fueled records recorded as Eric’s Trip, through to working together for some of Julie’s solo albums (Woke Myself Up, I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day). Rick has been away from music for 7-ish years, and returns here with Julie for a co-headlining collaboration that recalls pretty much all of their work together and apart. You’ve got Eric’s Trip-esque noisy pop and indie rock (“Together”, “Turn This All Around”), psychedelic rock (“Would You Explain”) and dusty, folky country tunes with driving backbeats (“The Question”, “Uncovered”). Even as they jump between these textures, the album remains energetic and lively. Only complaint would be the back end is stacked with a lot of jangly mid-tempo numbers (9, 10, 11) when my preferred mode for them to be in is a noisy one.
Still, it’d be easy for this album to sound like some greatest hits victory lap, but for anyone who has followed their work over the years it’s more like some old friends revisiting their creative past through new work. A nice surprise, as I had no idea this was coming out until it landed in front of me.
⛏️ Rico Nasty - RX (2026)
Genres: Hardcore Hip Hop, Trap, Rage, Jerk, Pop Rap, Digicore
I really enjoyed Anger Management but haven’t followed Rico’s releases closely since, so another full collaboration with Kenny Beats made me wanna check back in. This has a good amount of diversity to the production, in particular balancing the rage from their debut EP with newer elements of digicore and even some industrial textures (“CDG Foams”). The foundation is still quick, entertaining and furious rap but with some pop elements and lots of glittery synths. It’s kind of like they’ve run Anger Management‘s energy through a diamond and let it fracture into every direction while still maintaining that album’s groundwork.
⛏️ Picture - Uuuuuuuu (2026)
Genres: Minimal Techno, Dub Techno, Ambient Techno
I called Eeeeeeee “Euphoric minimal techno with a heavy emphasis on tactile, organic textures” and this is another 46 minutes of similar stuff, thankfully. Maybe loses a bit of impact following something that sounds so similar, but all of this is of a similarly high quality and is exactly the kind of thing that helps me completely disconnect and scrub my brain clean.
⛏️ Brian Ennals & Blockhead - Boatshoes (2026)
Genres: Hip Hop, Conscious Hip Hop, Hardcore Hip Hop, Political Hip Hop
Blockhead has been a pretty consistent through-line for me ever since I heard Float, and though it has been tough to keep up with everything they release, The Aux was a real late-career highlight. So of course I'm checking out their latest release as producer with a new-to-me rapper. geoffwoodwood says it better than I can with “self-effacing and depressing and angry and funny” in their review. There's a lot of interesting variety thrown into this, even some stuff that seems to be stretching beyond Blockhead's usual type of beats. Ennals is fantastic too. My only real complaint here is the mid-section and later-album cuts feel a little scattered in focus, but that could tighten up with some re-listens. Very good stuff!
🌱 Sweet Teeth - The Void That Eats the Heart (2026)
Genres: Power Pop, Indie Rock
Self-described “Hüskerrock” out of Sweden. Everyone is always name-dropping Bob Mould's bands when a band sounds like this, but Sweet Tooth really do sound like they sit somewhere between the hook-forward Sugar and the punk-ish buzzy-brevity of early Hüsker Dü. They land a bit further on the side of power pop indebted hooks—and in particular bring mostly to mind any number of 90s alternative rock acts that worshipped at the altar of Bob—but they sit alongside Hedge or Visual Learner as newer bands taking this sound and making it just enough their own to avoid being too repetitive or forgettable. As usual, I have a high floor for this type of stuff so your mileage may vary.
🌱 Ellen Allien - New Life (2026)
Genres: Minimal Techno
Well rounded minimal and acid techno, with some ambient and very dark/industrial textures blended in for good measure. Berlinette and Orchestra of Bubbles were my introduction to Ellen Allien, but it has been hard to keep up with them over the years. This is nice stuff and scratched my itch for active techno with just the right amount of repetitiveness and atmospherics without becoming annoying or too snoozy. Further investigation required for how this holds up to other stuff released this year, but I like it a lot.
🌱 Attic Salt - Stay in the Midwest (2026)
Genres: Power Pop, Indie Rock, Pop Punk
Very cromulent power-pop with some indie/alternative rock and slight poppy punk undercurrents (“Impossible Task”). Maybe a smidge of new wavey homage here and there too (“(Only You Can Prevent) Forest Fires”, “Middle Tennessee”). Some of this has those churning melodies and dueling vocals that will surely bring bands like Lemuria to mind. It breezes by in 24 minutes, and none of these songs are reaching for anything beyond sunny, poppy guitar rock. They get so close to some slam-dunk melodies (“Crawl Space”) that it just makes me wish they dialed them in a biiiiiiiiiiit more. This is so close to being the kind of album that I cannot put down all summer that it ends up being a pinch frustrating. Definitely worth a peek if this is the type of thing you cannot get enough of though.
🌱 Inscribed - Upon the Twisted Throne (2026)
Genres: Technical Thrash Metal, Technical Death Metal
Scrappy, riff salad technical thrash (and death) metal from kids just barely old enough to drink; they've got the energy and the attitude down pat, and any sloppiness that pops up in their transitions feel more charming than anything else. Big time Atheist vibes on the bass performance as well.
Production is just right for me, sounds like a big step above demo or jam-room room recordings but without losing the aforementioned scrappiness. This is definitely the sound of a band smashing their influences together like building blocks, so there's some pacing and songwriting stumbles, but I enjoy this type of stuff.
In some ways, this is kind of like Nedgravd for people who listen to Atheist, Hellwitch, early Cynic or Sadus.
🌱 Ripper - Towards Rebirth (2026)
Genres: Thrash Metal, Death Metal
Chilean thrash-forward death metal. Was worried with a name like “Ripper” and a logo like that, but this does in fact rip pretty well. You gotta be on board for this kind of thing because it’s really thrash-forward as I mentioned. A lot of barreling through sweeping riffs and steadily blasted tempos but not a lot of stylistic detours. If you like that 90s era of death-thrash that came mostly from thrash metal speeds being cranked higher and higher alongside flashy “look at meeee!” solos, this should be pretty enjoyable but I can imagine people coming here for capital D death metal are going to be disappointed.
Pretty sure I’m the first person to ever say this but y’all ever notice how Paolo Girardi likes circles? /s
RIYL: Early Sepultura, Pestilence, Sadus etc.
🌱 Batu & Donato Dozzy - Exhale (2026)
Genres: Minimal Techno, UK Funky, Hardgroove Techno
Really enjoyed Magda, which had a more prominent progressive electronic aspect to it, but this is quite good too. As far as collaborations go, this sounds really well measured between the two parties' sounds. Digestible as far as minimal techno goes, but also floats through my brain a bit too easily. Repeat listens will likely be needed before I can decide if this is something I loved, or just admired.
✨ Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics (2026)
Genres: Post-Hardcore, Alternative Rock, Alternative Metal
Of course I'm a big Walter Schreifels fan, though my introduction to their work was maybe a bit scattered compared to most people. After hearing Gorilla Biscuits in my days of exploring seminal hardcore work, Rival Schools coming out when I was in high school was actually my second interaction with their music. I went back and filled in the gaps and loved those first two Quicksand albums.
Their reunion stuff though, has failed to grab me. I like a handful of songs scattered between Distant Populations and Interiors, but as albums I'm not finding myself listening to them from top-to-bottom. This new record feels like more of the same, even if that "same" is consistently pretty all over the map stylistically. They haven't sat still and written the exact same kind of song across all three reunion albums, in fact I'd say each of them have enough different about them to be interesting, but the level of quality never seems to break through some kind of invisible ceiling to me.
This is perfectly acceptable guitar rock from Quicksand, but not much more, and honestly if they are going to keep releasing music like this I'd rather they just crank the melody knob up to 11 and do it as Rival Schools? At least throw some aggressively catchy hooks in here, and in fact on some of their other albums they've gotten close to sounding exactly like that (“Lightning Field”) in a satisfying way. In some ways, this is having me want to re-visit Distant Populations to see if this is actually more of a step-down in comparison.
✨ Iron Slaught - Metallic Torments (2026)
Genres: Speed Metal, Heavy Metal
When I see new music released with this kind of name and album art, in Speed or Heavy Metal genres I never know what to expect. There's a lot of that “we like to dress up in funny costumes and pretend to be a caricature of 80s metal” bands that just don't do anything for me.
Something about this caught my ear though in the new release bin so I decided to prioritize it. Based on my expectations this actually surprised me. In foundation this is cheesy, basement-headbanging speed metal stuff (“Condamné pour l'éternité”) but they sprinkle in a lot of honest-to-goodness heavy thrash riffs and evil moments that stop this from being merely a deep dish cheese pizza. There's some sustenance here!
Do they get a little greedy? Sure, maybe we don't need the atmospheric plucky little outro on "The Executioner" but hey, I appreciate the diversity and they build a nice little carousel of sounds on the album as a result. When they go full-on anthemic (“Soldier of Fortune”) or power ballad (“Charme funeste”) mode, I could take it or leave it... but I suppose I understand the appeal.
If they switched up the measurements here and had a heavier hand on the sub-sub-ingredients (blackened thrash, death) over the cheesier stuff, they'd really have something going on. For now, I didn't mind picking through the plate for the stuff that I liked… but have to admit it is a bit of a mess.
✨ No Pressure - NP Style (2026)
Genres: Pop Punk, Skate Punk
Sure, I can appreciate when a modern pop punk band’s version of “maturing” is just “now we sound a pinch more like Sum 41 sometimes” (”Caught Up”, “Good Enough”).
That said, I’m on the fence about No Pressure; their music scratches a particular itch of mine but I find them unable to push their melodies into “cannot stop singing/humming them” territory, which is really where this stuff needs to be. Songs like “Say What You Mean” nail where the instrumentals need to be for sure, but the hooks just aren’t quite there.
Over time with the No Pressure LP I went from “This is incredibly overrated” to “This is pretty good I guess” so maybe these 21 minutes will grow on me too, but for now they seem really stuck somewhere between being able to ape their influences incredibly well and lacking the laser-focused hooks to tie it all up with a bow. Also, they still have that drummer who by all accounts was a major creep?? Yikes.
⛏️ Voices From the Lake - Voices From the Lake (2012)
Genres: Ambient Techno, Minimal Techno, Dub Techno, Ambient Dub
Do I need an album like this to be 1h 44 minutes (at least, the version on streaming is)? No, but I listened to this throughout the morning while working and it was beautifully hypnotic. A wonderful mix of ambient techno with some light dub touches. I also really appreciated the tasteful use of nature sounds on the opening of “Iyo”. Just great stuff through and through, if you're tuned into this type of thing.
✨ It's a King Thing - Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo (2010)
Genres: Indie Rock, Power Pop
I'm often surprised that this has so few ratings on RYM, because it's connected to revival emo in a couple ways. First, Steve Poponi (RIP) of Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start played drums for them. Secondly, Evan Thomas Weiss (also of Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start but as well: The Progress, Pet Symmetry, Their / They're / There, and of course Into It. Over It.) is here too. Finally, the band was mostly the brainchild of Brian Mietz (who would go on to play in Cabana Wear and went on to have a solo career).
Maybe it's not so surprising that an independently released record from a band full of members from a cult emo act who would all go on to bigger, more publicized things didn't light the internet afire, but still with the names attached I always assume this record is a known quantity ever since I discovered the band via a pre-record label Sound As Language.
You might expect this to fit more snugly into the members' ouvre as a twinkly emo record, but it's more nice guy indie power pop with a big time weenie vibe. Lots of strummed acoustic guitars, nasally vocal hooks, and embarrassing behind the scenes goofing around or shouting between songs. It gets pretty close to “adorkable” twee indie rock with banjos and such (“Kira”) too. You could slot some of these songs between Oh No Oh My tracks as well as you could guitar-forward indie rock bands.
A lot of this will live or die by your patience for aw shucks power pop and geek rock type stuff. This is hooky, melodramatic and emotional jangly power pop for guys who think Weezer invented emo. Something about this landed at just the right time for me in 2010, despite really being able to take or leave most geek rock. It's not strong top-to-bottom, but the songs that work here really work imo.
✂ Old Hobbies, Mush Mouth, Baby Tantrum, Wine and Ponies, Tammy Faye
✨ The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound (2008)
Genres: Heartland Rock, Punk Rock, Jersey Shore Sound, Alternative Rock
When this album came out, I had a big chip on my shoulder about it. Growing up and being into varying types of melodic punk music, pop punk, etc. and catching nothing but shit for it from my indie rock friends, there were a few years there in the early- to mid-2000s where I turned my back on the music I grew up loving. 2008 was around when I started writing about music semi-regularly and eventually I would reconcile my feelings about poppy punk music and re-embrace the music of my youth. But when publications were talking about this record like it was the biggest thing since sliced bread, all I could think was "Oh, now that they've put some slapback on the singer's voice, some reverb on the riffs, and call the girls they're singing about “kittens” you all love pop punk????". The octave chords hadn't changed, but they had a new coat of paint, and I was really mad about it.
But then, I listened to the album, and yeah these songs were bangers pretty much top-to-bottom. Whenever I revisit this one, there's always a few points where I think the album is about to dip in quality, but then they push through. "Oh, here comes the boring slow songs"... (“Film Noir”, “Here's Looking at you, Kid”)... nope they're good ones. Oh, here's their shuffle tune... (“Casanova, Baby!”)... oops it has a great chorus.
It's funny that an album I had such an initially visceral reaction to would so quickly become something I listened into the ground. Do I think some of the Americana stuff is incredibly corny? Absolutely. Do these songs resonate deeply and emotionally for me? Not really aside from a few moments, but they're good songs and they have great hooks and that's mostly all that matters to me. That they're built from mostly used parts and well worn imagery that allows listeners to map themselves directly on top is the point.
✨ Fila Brazillia - Maim That Tune (1995)
Genres: Downtempo, Trip Hop, Ambient, Nu Jazz, Acid Jazz
This was something of a mid-2000s era go-to for me personally, so I wanted to revisit it. Fila Brazillia were a bit of an outlier in the downtempo and surrounding genres as they didn't slot cleanly into any-one sub-section of the movement. (just check the sub-genre tags). This doesn't buck the allegations of corniness from the era but when it's bopping along in a jazzy way or getting a little sly with its tone, it's a good time. The techno-forward 10+ minute “Slacker” is a highlight, but some songs on the A-side drag on a bit past their due dates (“A Zed and Two L's”).
The Tank - There Is No “I” in Band (1999)
Genres: Pop Punk, Skate Punk
This sounds a LOT like Gameface, so I was very much not surprised to see their name listed in the directly related artists. That said, I really expected to see their singer Jeff Caudill listed here, because the vocalist is a dead ringer for that kind of alternative style influence on 90s pop punk singers. This totally fits into the Dr. Strange Records type pop punk, for better and for worse. This just sounds way too much like Gameface for me to have any of it to stick to my brain (I already have a hard time getting into Gameface proper!) Maybe worth looking into if you’re dying for more stuff that sounds like early Gameface?
That’s it, that’s all. Be excellent to one other.