JOLT Magazine
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Music news and album reviews, scored 1 to 5. Five stories and five records a day, one verdict each. No hype. Music That Leaves a Mark. joltmagazine.com
Three years of samples and no singer, and it still sounds like nobody else's record. 5/5, on the one flaw: the anniversary edition is a name so far, nothing announced.
DJ Shadow: Endtroducing….. review — JOLT
Thirty years on, still the argument for the sampler. DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing….. scores 5/5 (INSTANT CLASSIC). HIP-HOP · MO
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My Wonderful Boyfriend signed to New West, and their first single for the label is the scraggly Modest Mouse kind. PJ McCormick calls it a love song from a guy drunker than he thinks, and the outro is where he finds out.
My Wonderful Boyfriend sign to New West and drop "Chip City" — JOLT
The Brooklyn indie trio
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The title is a joke she made herself. "Stranger Things" takes its name from her father's line about everything you find and miss being proof there are more brilliant things out there. Win Win is out October 23.
Fenne Lily shares "Stranger Things," last preview of Win Win — JOLT
The final track ahead of her Nettwerk album, out October 23, arrives with a Puget Sound video and a title she has already joked about.
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Two more Swamp Sessions in a month, and neither song is streaming. The second is two minutes in a desert, boom-bap under the voice. Treat it as a sketch toward the debut album, which still has no date.
Doechii drops a two-minute "Catwoman" Swamp Session — JOLT
The clip, co-directed with Carlos Acosta, is a desert-set rap over a tingly boom-bap beat. The song is not on streaming yet.
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Three songs, [[no filler]] — and no summary. BODUR and Coby Sey, BOX OF TRICKS: 3.5/5. Full review: https://joltmagazine.com/reviews/bodur-and-coby-sey-box-of-tricks
Jarboe spends most of Los as a whisper. Antoni Maiovvi's occult electronics project gives his own voice more room than before, seven years and 12 releases in, and each of the three tracks turns at the halfway mark. Out now on Rocket Recordings.
Ye Gods enlist Jarboe for three-track album Los — JOLT
Antoni Maiovvi
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Writing Held In The Dark meant hymns and lullabies on guitar first, the saxophone after. He wrote it while caring for a loved one, with Fergus McCreadie and Ali Watson back alongside him. Three septet shows next month, Cecil Sharp House on 17 November among them.
Matt Carmichael releases fourth album Held In The Dark and takes it out as a septet — JOLT
The Glasgow saxophonist
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Three songs, self-funded, cut fast in London: drums, bass and a voice close to the mic. "AGAIN" is the one worth the return, a ballad about a hand held and let go. 3.5/5
BODUR and Coby Sey: BOX OF TRICKS review — JOLT
A short, sharp hand-off, slightly underdone. BODUR and Coby Sey’s BOX OF TRICKS scores 3.5/5 (GOOD). R&B · INDEPENDENT · OCT 20 2026.
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Late in a long career, Thompson's actual band. Cut mostly live in Weehawken, with accordions and cornets pressing against his guitar. "Pauper's Grave" earns its grief. "Everybody's Stealing" thins into a bumper sticker. 4/5.
Richard Thompson: Hippies, Thugs and Heroes review — JOLT
A hard, live band record from a guitarist still hungry. Richard Thompson’s Hippies, Thugs and Heroes scores 4/5 (STRONG). FOLK · INDEPENDENT · OCT 20 2026.
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Fresh is 16 songs and only two of them are out, so the guests are the story: Future, Young Thug and Rylo Rodriguez share one track, "All My Patnas." It arrives six months after Wham and follows The Leaks.
Lil Baby sets Fresh for November 6 — JOLT
The follow-up to Wham and The Leaks arrives via Quality Control and Motown, with Future, Young Thug and Rylo Rodriguez on the board.
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Ishmael Butler's new Shabazz Palaces album takes its title from a Lese Majesty lyric and closes with a shoegaze ballad. "Tongue in Chic" sounds like Prince covering the Weird Science theme. Out now on vinyl, CD and a shirt.
Shabazz Palaces drop It
Ishmael Butler
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Keening, but make it [[a night out]] Róis, Mo Léan: 4.0/5. Full review: https://joltmagazine.com/reviews/r-is-mo-l-an
Dev Lemons has been a comedian and a DJ who opened for Skrillex longer than she has been a solo artist. Her second album, hunting what we already killed, pairs her with producer Emmett Kai for the first time. Lead single "Eat The Pavement" is out now.
Dev Lemons announces second album, hunting what we already killed — JOLT
The L.A. artist and comedian made it with producer Emmett Kai. Lead single "Eat The Pavement" is out against an October 20 arrival.
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Iqbal wrote "Heaven Can Wait" in a basement studio in the East Village and cut it live with the full band in one room. It is her first Ghostly release. Her 2023 album "DREAMER" was the last one.
Nabihah Iqbal signs to Ghostly International and drops
Her first release on the label, written in an East Village basement and recorded live with the full band. Nabihah Iqbal has released
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Prize Horse moved from New Morality Zine to Closed Casket, a hardcore label, and the first song for their next LP closes with one of the heaviest sections they have written. No album title or date yet. North American tour with Graham Hunt starts tonight in Minneapolis.
Prize Horse sign to Closed Casket and drop "The Big Picture" — JOLT
The Minneapolis shoegaze trio
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Habibi Funk's 35th release digs into 1970s and 80s Beirut, and the credits are a family tree: Force and Games were sister acts, and guitarist Walid Itayim married singer Stephanie Stephanou. Many tracks, cut at Ziad Rahbani's Bypass Studio, are out for the first time.
Habibi Funk collects 1970s and 80s Beirut pop on Beirut City Pop — JOLT
The Berlin label
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Dazy's new song arrives four days before a 24-song compilation, seven of them new. The reason to care is what Goodson does with those: breakbeats and samples folded into the fuzz-pop. The familiar part still works. The shift is the story.
Dazy shares "Unreasonable Person" before 24-song compilation lands — JOLT
James Goodson
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"Momma I hear your call from behind the dungeon wall." Alex Whitelaw says the song is about feeling exhausted, disposable and powerless, and it ends not with escape but with learning to crawl through. Dark Magic follows on 1/29.
Spirit Ghost share "Dungeon Crawler" from Dark Magic — JOLT
The Boston band
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TAGABOW stretch it furthest — [[worth it worth it]] They Are Gutting a Body of Water, KOOL FAITH / LOOSIES II: 3.5/5. Full review: https://joltmagazine.com/reviews/they-are-gutting-a-body-of-water-kool-faith-loosies-ii
Early orders come with a UK and Europe tour pre-sale code, one per person, and the cut-off is 23:59 on Tuesday 20 October. The album is dated January 8, with no tracklist and no lead single out yet. The £44.99 2LP comes with a bonus 7".
Hot Chip open pre-orders for A Long Way From Kansas — JOLT
The new album is up for pre-order in four formats, and buying early gets you a UK and Europe tour pre-sale code. Hot Chip are taking pre-orders for a new…
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They built this one while releasing it, so no song had time to be second-guessed. Fincham took the bleeps out and left the room empty more often than not. The gaps hold. 4/5
Worldpeace DMT: Stick Around For Tea review — JOLT
Less laptop, more room, better songs. Worldpeace DMT’s Stick Around For Tea scores 4/5 (STRONG). POP · INDEPENDENT · OCT 19 2026.
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Orphx and JK Flesh have made a record together before, sort of. Their six-handed set at Berlin Atonal in 2016 is the source for this four-track split: one original and one remix each, out November 13.
JK Flesh and Orphx launch KR3 split-EP series with Death/Rebirth One — JOLT
The four-track EP lands November 13 as KR3.022, pairing one original and one remix from each act, six years after their six-handed Berlin Atonal set.
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The National had not played live in two years before Berlin on Oct. 11. Six days later Stipe came out in Biarritz and sang "No Time for Love Like Now," then "E-Bow the Letter" with Berninger. Aaron Dessner: "We used to beg them to play certain songs."
Michael Stipe joins the National for the Dessners
At AB100 at Atabal, Stipe sang his Aaron Dessner collaboration and an R.E.M. cover with Matt Berninger, a night after the National ended a two-year stage…
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Richter lets the [[flood]] in, then finds a choir Max Richter, While The Flood Rages: 4.0/5. Full review: https://joltmagazine.com/reviews/max-richter-while-the-flood-rages
A new solo song, played live for the first time, and The Coral's "Dreaming Of You" in the same set. The title is borrowed from Flannery O'Connor. Flowers says the Nashville run gave him two records. The second arrives in 2027.
Brandon Flowers debuts "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" in Bristol — JOLT
The Killers frontman played a new solo song and covered The Coral at Bristol Beacon, with a second album due in 2027. Brandon Flowers played a new solo song…
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Harry Styles played "What Is Enough" at Madison Square Garden on the second anniversary of Liam Payne's death, a song he wrote for his friend. No release is planned. The residency's documentary crew was filming.
Harry Styles debuts tribute song for Liam Payne at Madison Square Garden — JOLT
Two years after Payne
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Judd says her job is to entertain, not to take sides, and she names Dolly Parton as the model. She also disputes being called a Trump supporter, telling Tomi Lahren she is an independent.
Wynonna Judd says the stage stays political-free — JOLT
In an interview, Judd said she keeps politics out of her shows and disputed being called a Trump supporter, calling herself an independent.
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Nice As Fuck played their only album front to back in Ojai, ten years after it came out. A reunion tour was announced last month with no dates listed. Ojai is the one confirmed show so far.
Nice As Fuck play first show in a decade — JOLT
Jenny Lewis, Erika Forster and Tennessee Thomas played their only album start to finish at Ojai Deer Lodge. Nice As Fuck played their first show in ten years…
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The best songs are the last two, and they are the only ones past five minutes. Twenty-five years in, The Number Twelve Looks Like You let alt rock choruses into the mathcore and the middle sags before it pays. 3.5/5
The Number Twelve Looks Like You: Howls From The Holographic Heart review — JOLT
Reaching wider than usual, and winning late. The Number Twelve Looks Like You’s Howls From The Holographic Heart scores 3.5/5 (GOOD).
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Charlie says the record is weird, ambient, psychedelic, emo, "some other stuff idk." He also says it is rooted in house, because he started out making shitty deep house. Both are true on Model Tobacco, out now on xenonyms with free download codes.
Daysailer drop Model Tobacco on xenonyms — JOLT
The South Carolina/Barcelona project
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