Marvin Tate teams up with LeRoy Bach for collaborative album, Controlled Burn

25 July 2026

Photo: Lucy E. Mueller

Chicago poet, performer and multidisciplinary artist Marvin Tate has a new collaborative album on the way with longtime creative partner LeRoy Bach. A singular presence in Chicago’s creative community for more than three decades, Tate has long blurred the boundaries between poetry, music and performance, weaving together spoken word, improvisation, humour and personal storytelling into works that defy easy categorization. Entitled Controlled Burn, the forthcoming record finds Tate embracing a more intimate setting built from a series of improvised studio sessions and live performances with Bach. This marks a change for Tate, whose recent work has often embraced the energy of larger ensemble performances. Other than Bach, who occasionally expanded the arrangements through overdubs, Controlled Burn also features contributions from drummer Quin Kirchner and a cameo from Ben LaMar Gay, but as Tate put it, the record remains connected to “the days when the sound of my feet hitting the pavement is my only accompaniment.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Tate has unveiled two singles, ‘First You Hear’, and more recently ‘Hold Me’, both serving as an exciting taste of what’s to come. Take a listen below.


iiisa to release debut solo full length tanto te he querido

24 July 2026

Photo: Leslie Mok

isabel crespo pardo is a Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary artist whose practice moves across sound, performance, text and visual art. Now, under the new moniker iiisa, they are ready to release their solo electroacoustic debut album. Entitled tanto te he querido, which translates as “so much i’ve loved you”, the album arrives on October 2nd through Leaving Records and brings together field recordings, poemsongs and familial voices from their home in Costa Rica. Across its ten tracks, iiisa revisits fragments of past compositions and recordings collected over the last decade, reshaping them into an intimate meditation on memory, mortality, intergenerational trauma and hope. The album was created through an ongoing process of recomposition, with crespo pardo recording and producing it during a residency at Pioneer Works, while on tour and in the homes of loved ones. Speaking about their relationship with archival material, iiisa writes:

“Engaging in an ongoing dialogue with archival material has taught me so much.”

They continue:

“I wanted to offer my voice in the way I hear it when I’m alone. I wanted to bring people into the cave of my mind.”

Alongside the announcement, iiisa have also shared the album’s lead single, ‘aún siento la sombra’, a stirring track that confronts the painful conformity that, as they explain, “keeps us powerless”. Listen to it below.

Tyondai Braxton shares fourth single, ‘Vali’, from forthcoming new album, Splayed Werks

24 July 2026

Photo: Ebru Yıldız

Tyondai Braxton continues to build anticipation for his forthcoming album Splayed Werks with the release of another excellent new single. The prodigious composer and producer has unveiled ‘Vali’, the fourth track to be lifted from the record, ahead of its release through Erased Tapes on August 21st. Speaking about the new single, Braxton says:

“‘Vali’ is a simple piece made out of odd ends of samples. It’s another digital and hardware hybrid like a lot of these other pieces on the album.”

Listen to ‘Vali’ below.

megiapa joins International Anthem; announces her debut full-length Intentions

22 July 2026

When there’s a new release on International Anthem, it’s always worth paying attention. Their latest signing is megiapa, and she is set to make her debut full-length with Intentions, arriving on September 25th. Born in Ohio and now based in Los Angeles, megiapa is a producer, vocalist, visual artist and linguist whose music has grown out of years immersed in Chicago’s underground beat scene before finding a new creative home in LA. Blending soulful vocals with adventurous production, Intentions brings together electronic textures, live instrumentation and collaborations with musicians from across both cities. Speaking about the album, megiapa says:

“Fear is a hindrance to our dreams and our goals and the beauty of life. Please dream with me. Please take a moment to reflect. And please be okay with things being uncertain.”

Alongside the album announcement, megiapa has shared the opening track, ‘Open Your Eyes’, a sun-drenched and seductive introduction to the record. “Everything we need is within us,” she says of the track’s message. “We all reflect each other.” The single comes with an accompanying self-directed video and you can watch it below.

Brandon Locher returns with a new album, Rahu Ketu, and a companion EP, The Shadow Planets

21 July 2026

There’s wonderful news from Pennsylvania-based visual artist and musician Brandon Locher, who has announced not one but two new releases: Rahu Ketu, his first full-length album under his own name, and preceding it a companion EP titled The Shadow Planets.

Locher is no stranger to us. Ever since the release of The Meets’ It Happens Outside, which was one of our Album Picks of 2013, we have kept a close eye on his ever-evolving output, from Stage Hands to his first solo recordings. Six years after his last release, The Shadow Planets and Rahu Ketu mark a long-awaited and welcome return.

Recorded during a self-imposed 264-day creative cycle, Rahu Ketu and The Shadow Planets see Locher continuing to refine his rich blend of ambient composition, library music, trip-hop and experimental sound collage. Entirely written, performed and produced by Locher, the music is informed by his Transcendental Meditation practice, resulting in immersive and rhythmic compositions guided as much by intuition as meticulous craftsmanship. The conceptual framework is as intriguing as the music itself, drawing on Vedic astrology. “What fascinated me about Vedic astrology wasn’t prediction so much as the idea of time and cycles,” he explains. “So when I looked at my own birth chart, I realized that the next period I was entering was Rahu Ketu, a 264-day cycle from September 2025 through May 2026.” Locher also created a symbolic tracklisting that deliberately omits the letters spelling Rahu Ketu from the album, with the companion EP including them and completing the alphabet.

We’ll be eagerly counting down the days until the release of The Shadow Planets on July 24th, before Rahu Ketu follows on October 2nd. Ahead of both releases, Locher has let loose ‘I’ from Rahu Ketu and ‘H-T’ from The Shadow Planets, serving as an exhilarating taste of what he’ll be throwing at us. Listen to both tracks below.

Mark Guiliana shares first single, ‘P.LAY’, from upcoming new album BEAT MUSIC 2.0

16 July 2026

Just over a year after surprising us with the beautiful questions (volume one), Mark Guiliana is bringing BEAT MUSIC back. The acclaimed drummer and composer has announced BEAT MUSIC 2.0, the follow-up to his 2019’s Grammy-nominated BEAT MUSIC! BEAT MUSIC! BEAT MUSIC!. Due out on September 25th through Edition Records, BEAT MUSIC 2.0 shifts the focus back to pulsing electronics, infectious grooves and the adventurous rhythmic language that has become his trademark. As the press release describes, the upcoming BEAT MUSIC 2.0 “distills Guiliana’s vision into eight cinematic compositions that fuse retro production with futuristic playing”. The album features contributions from an impressive cast of collaborators, including Nicholas Semrad (Empire of the Sun), Stu Brooks (Nine Inch Nails, Danny Elfman), Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie) and vocalist Gretchen Parlato. Inspired by the aesthetics of early video games, BEAT MUSIC 2.0 is accompanied by an original 8-bit visual universe created by longtime collaborator Steve Wall.

Coinciding with the album announcement, Guiliana has shared the daring and intoxicating ‘P.LAY’, serving as the first thrilling taste of what’s coming. Take a listen now.