Contributor Potluck: February 2025
February music recommendations from the indieAnthro team.
It's potluck time! Each month, indieAnthro contributors get together to share what they've been listening to lately. Enjoy!
Ember
"A Proper Exit" - Living Nostalgia
I got really into the rash punk sound of Living Nostalgia back in 2019 when I saw them on Soundcloud. While my favourite album of theirs is not here, seeing this (likely) final single pop up in my email was a wonderful send-off for the project.
"A Proper Exit" is available now on Bandcamp.
"Black Door" - Eris Soundworks
Normally I'm not the biggest fan of progressive dance music, but the upbeat and fun melodies on this album made an impression on me! Exceptional studying/vibe-improving music, kept me in the zone and made me feel energized. Highly recommend this January 2025 release from Eris Soundworks!
"Black Door" is available now on Bandcamp.
"antler crimes" - bit depth **
You may have already heard last year's herdbound by bit depth, but you might not have known that this year the entire album got remastered! The mixes are so much more powerful this time around. I'll still have a fondness for the hard-to-parse washiness of the original, but it's such a huge general improvement that I can't not recommend you check it out a second time.
"antler crimes" is available now on Bandcamp.
Teague
"Scoot" - Final Messenger
Final Messenger crosses bittersweet bedroom songwriting with glossy sounds on "Scoot Inn", a highlight from January's Ideation, released on Friend's House Records. Jo's subdued vocals and pessimistic lyrics temper the track's shiny synths, a contrasting combination that honors 80's cassettes, with New Order as a clear reference point. "Scoot Inn" trudges along the new wave with its hands in its pockets, capturing the energy of a night out that feels more lonely than anything.
“Scoot” is available on Bandcamp and streaming services.
"You Ungrateful Losers" - Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack
It says quite a lot about Six Tenants Killing One Homeowner Six Times Over that the seasick-churning, landlord-psychoanalyzing, alternate-universe power ballad "You Ungrateful Losers" is one of the album's more accessible tracks. The new record from Montreal-based musician Tim de Reuse, a.k.a. Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack, may bombard the senses, but it's made from a measured kind of cacophony. "You Ungrateful Losers" captures WGWGSA's ability to couple raw sounds with an uneasy sense of vulnerability. As much as the song is a fiery condemnation of landlordism, it doesn't shy away from observing the ways the landed gentry are shaped and twisted by the system, too.
“You Ungrateful Losers” is available on Bandcamp.
Melissa
"Shut-in" - Heaven's Emperor
In my perusal of this artist's body of work (or at least, what remains of it), Shut-in is perhaps the weirdest. It's an oddly bare synthwave number that extends for ten minutes before suddenly erupting into this abrasive and noisy house loop with a very bittersweet melody. I rarely see the mechanisms of 2010s EDM used to such a dark and emotive extent and I keep coming back to 'study' it, whatever that actually entails.
"Shut-in" is available on Bandcamp.
"Fog" - Lilithpad
As with the other two songs on this EP, the repetition of Fog lends itself to trance. The bassline is two notes, there's maybe one chord change, and the percussive elements barely change. It is the epitome of a techno track, given life through its heavy use of reverb. As close to 'perfect' as you can make something in this genre.
"WICKEDTRACK" - Patricia Taxxon
Scratches the itch of "dubstep so abrasive it feels dangerous to listen to" which I always appreciate.
Clementine
"Short Circuit" - Hi, I’m Chris & roughpatch (prod. roughpatch)
The representation of where Chris is from is top tier in this track. His pure love for his hometown and knowledge on it’s history & the sounds it originated adds so much credibility to his artistry as a whole and roughpatch as a producer. It recontextualizes and is the perfect introduction to Hi, I’m Chris’ catalog for those who are unaware of his origins. The jersey club sound has had its hay day online, but no one knows what jersey club is. Chris and patch are basically just teaching geographical culture in what feels like a response to the over saturation of the sound by unknowing minds.
"Short Circuit" is out now everywhere.
"stomachache" - robin’s ghost & coldpizza (prod. bea4realz)
"stomachache" is the self produced horn heavy sample loop that sees robin’s ghost and coldpizza being real barring out about their respective skills, place in their scene, and their day to day. Bea and coldpizza reflect on their mental state and relationship with the artistic process, advocating for the ousting of bad actors in hip-hop. "stomachache" shouts limewire exclusive’s name wherever it can, hinting at a heavy 2025 for the collective.
"stomachache" is out now everywhere.
"Las Vegas" - FearDorian & quinn (prod. FearDorian)
FearDorian has left home with the help of his brilliant foundation of artists lifting him up alongside them, with quinn accompanying him on this self-produced pluggnb track. FearDorian bursts out the gate with aggression with a subtle note of retrospection about the work it took to get him here and those he left behind towards the end of the verse that passes off perfectly to quinn for a verse of queer storytelling about her battle against adversity— both of them flowing over the beat, just as the high-hats and cowbells ask of them.
"Las Vegas" is track 7 of Leaving Home by FearDorian. Out now everywhere.
Vomen
"Ideal" - Stick Crickets
Stick Crickets brings you a fuzzed-out wall of noisy guitar bliss
"Eden" - Baths
Baths is back with his first record in 8 years and it just may be his best. A pulsing house beat, beautiful vocal layering, and some positively steamy lyrics, Eden is a certified jam.
Will
"Minnesota" - Everender
My favorite track from Everender's long-awaited Trauma Bond EP. I really adore Kez's more stripped back acoustic sound which pairs perfectly with their heartfelt lyrics. This one really hits for me <3
"Minnesota" is available now on Bandcamp.
"our hearts will break in due time, and the pieces will fall to the floor like shattered glass from my apartment window (feat. carter c)" - lost cats
I AM SO SAD I MISSED OUT ON THE TAPE. Anyway, please do yourself a favor and listen to this release.
"our hearts will break in due time, and the pieces will fall to the floor like shattered glass from my apartment window (feat. carter c)" is available now on Bandcamp.
** - This artist is part of the trickyStoop roster, the label side of our blog.