GutterPutter

Sam Cooper – Town and Country (11 September 2025)

Sam Cooper was originally from the US state of Texas whose works date as far back as in 2015 when he dabbled in electronica. His more psychedelic form of EDM first experienced a switch in 2020 when he gave noisy shoegaze a try and while he continued to revisit the former, he grew more audacious with each bid at doing rock music for a change. Town and Country is his fourth full-length album but the general quality and relative cohesion gives off the impression that it marks his first serious attempt as a music artist. It is most certainly something that would come from the cheerier half of the Of Montreal-inspired movement. The ecstatic everyperson singing, the wholehearted quirkiness from the layered harmonies, and the psychedelic production that adds some depth to the music make up for a fun ride! It might be lacking in the certain x-factor which leads to it blending in with other psych-pop kind of music at first. Give it its due and you might well be in it for a treat. 3.6/5

Highlight Pick: ‘We Fear the Same as You’

flatroom !! – You Will Only Get Older (8 March 2025)

flatroom !! (sic, that’s the name) is a Michigan-based musical project whose style makes them a clear part of the hyperpop genre. The problem of course with their beginning is that the movement is starting to buckle down in popularity as many of its headlining acts sought to either fully embrace the more conventional electro-pop route or turn their heads toward alternating genres. You Will Only Get Older is the project’s debut and its title clearly signals a bittersweet feeling of growing up as a young adult when you are about to leave everything behind for a new start. Or is it the other way around? Much of the album consists either of overly abrasive production that exemplifies the stereotype of hyperpop as unlistenable, dancey bangers that are only a tier below underscores and 100 gecs in terms of fun, or sentimental acoustic ballads. The abrupt swing between the styles and quality will catch you off guard for sure and it’s one that would be much more thoroughly enjoyed as an EP… which is to say that there is one bitpop gem in ‘KILL YOUR COMPETITOR’. 2.5/5

Highlight Pick: ‘KILL YOUR COMPETITOR’

Midlake – A Bridge To Far (7 November 2025)

Midlake is a folk rock band from Denton, Texas. No, they don’t have dreams of being the best death metal band there, but they do owe their creative flair to Radiohead, Bjork, and Grandaddy. They’ve been playing since 1999 with their biggest success being The Trials of Van Occupanther in 2006 which contained a soft rock classic in ‘Roscoe’ with its stream-of-conscious lyrics and a cathartic last third within it. A Bridge Too Far marks their sixth studio album with a focus more specifically on bringing back that energy in what is described by their promo as their “most emotionally resonant work to date”. It’s not exactly something that I would agree with as respectfully as I could say it. There’s a certain kind of overproduction in the vocals and the instrumentals, while they’re most certainly serviceable, are rather uninspired. Needless to say, the album doesn’t have as much of a kick as you would’ve wanted to prove the staying power of your artistic creativity and the stinger is that it doesn’t even land as hard as Rose City Band’s Sol y Sombra. Yikes. 1.7/5

A Bridge To Far by Midlake

Highlight Pick: ‘Make Haste’

Jim Ghedi – Wasteland (21 February 2025)

Jim Ghedi is a British folk musician from the outskirts of Sheffield who had already garnered acclaim for his music. His potent fingerplaying and more mediaeval impression from his tunes would have been befitting for his most recent album which sought to portray the dismal state of Britain. Wasteland feels as if it should fit with the anxiety that calls to mind the first half of the post-apocalyptic classic Threads; many of the lyrics and fiddles should predicate the beginning of the country’s second dark age (or rather, the first). However, the writing itself doesn’t have as much impact as you would have liked. Metaphors for instance don’t pack as much a punch as even the Weather Station’s most abstract phrasings. The mentioned medieval textures feel more gimmicky at times than it does poignant as it obstructs what should’ve been the feeling of urgency that permeates the whole record. In other words, it is more commendable for its statement than it is recommendable for its execution. 2.1/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Wasteland’

Nas and DJ Premier – Light-Years (12 December 2025)

With many thanks to his more fortunate collaborations with Hit-Boy over this decade, Nas reunites with his friend and go-to producer Christopher ‘DJ Premier’ Martin for his next work. Their bond goes as far back as in Illmatic where Preemo was among one of several producers Nas turned to to add flavour to his depiction of NYC and Queensbridge. Light-Years stand as the first ever record for Nas where DJ Premier produces all of the beats for him and it’s a part of record label Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It series with other veterans. As hyped as the prospect might be, the execution is too wanting for its own good. Nas’s rapping proficiency sounds sharp in terms with the flow and rhymes, but it doesn’t carry the same level of poignancy as in King’s Diseases II or III. You’d hope in a way that a return of fan-favourite featured rapper Anthony ‘AZ’ Cruz would save one of the tracks with his underground talents, but it’s just lame-o braggadocio. As for the beats? As slick as milk, as punchy as arrhythmia, as silky as piss – not as good as the DJ’s finest for sure.

Highlight Pick: ‘3rd Childhood’

Flatshop – toast recipe (2 October 2025)

Flatshop is a South Korean hip hop group who are relatively recent in their founding in 2021. They only have their EP in Khundi Panda VS DAMYE VS Viann VS Noogi as a kickstarter. toast recipe is their debut album and as much as it hurts to say this, it sounds like a budget Tyler, the Creator act. It feels less inspired than even DON’T TAP THE GLASS which is an achievement given that Tyler barely puts any effort into the record and made it more or less as a simple fanservice treat. The hooks seldom latch with the catchiest being the most banally questionable (“Fuck you very much!”), the production is a fool’s gold in lushness, and the most driven segments in some of the tracks hark back to the faux-pureeteeness of One Direction. It is all shine and no substance at its most clearest and you’d wish that they go into the inspiration gold mine to strike any slither of potential whatever it might be. 1.2/5

Highlight Picks: ‘DON’T PUSH MY BUTTON’

Ichiko Aoba – Luminescent Creatures (28 February 2025)

For the uninitiated, Ichiko Aoba is essentially a critical darling from Japan whose pure quality checking of her folk songs and poetic lyricism is virtually second to none. Her breakthrough in 2013’s 0 is among the strongest for its soothing nature and once you get used to it, you wouldn’t ask for anything more for certain. For those who do, Luminescent Creatures is the antidote to that itch. It is more orchestral in its bone marrow, more gentle in the singing, even the fingerplaying on the guitar feels “more” fantastical in its roots. The tranquility is so apparent that it at times could come off as one-dimensional with regards to the mood it brings to the listening experience, but sometimes that’s all you could want out of it. It’d be tempting to compare this to Vashti Bunyan or Joanna Newsom, but a more appropriate name to bring in mind as a compliment would be Masakatsu Takagi’s Kagayaki from 2014. It’s certainly food for the soul. 4.1/5

Highlight Pick: ‘FLAG’

kinoue64 – Daily Life Vanishes (9 March 2025)

kinoue64 is an anonymous artist from Japan who is a part of the Vocaloid fandom, a devout followings of the vocal synthesizer software which took the online world by storm over the past 20 years. They have been releasing music since 2020 with a focus on shoegaze. However, it’s with Daily Life Vanishes when the fruits of their labour begins to blossom. It’s a more melancholic kind of album that touches a lot on loneliness to which the intensity of such is often multiplied by the combination of both the guitar feedback and the twinkly electronic keyboard notes. Much as it sought to make you feel isolated, the more digitalised textures of the record doesn’t latch as hard as it could have outside of the first track which risks the prospect of many songs afterward coming off as being samey. Fans of the old Parannoul are likely going to enjoy this piece for sure. 3.5/5

Highlight Pick: ‘被害者’

Norman – Let Down by the World (31 March 2025)

Norman is a South Korean artist who currently works with Poclanos in publishing his music. That’s mostly it for him as I tried to look up a bit more about him specifically, but the leads appear to be blank when you try and search him up in English. Let Down by the World is his first EP although with a total of 9 tracks alongside a relatively longer 26 minutes in total runtime, it’s in a similar spot as with Ethel Cain’s Perverts where the specific audio medium might be applied leniently. Outside of that, all I can say is that while the music itself sounds pureetee and shiny at times, it feels like a disheveled mess in conclusion. Bassed-out snares combined with echoing vocals in the background gives off clear overproduction impression with random segues into drill-and-bass drumroll. The textures at times can feel like a rough demo of Dijon’s beats and that does come off as an offensive surprise knowing that Baby was released months after Let Down by the World. It is a project of someone who is wholly overreaching his mark without having any baseline to stand on to make for a solid structure in the first place. 1.5/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Abah Hee’

Gingerbee – Apiary

Gingerbee is an American band with a notable quirk in that it’s one that is almost entirely founded and played together online. Every member lives separately in a different state or country which leads to a more elaborate kind of self-production when they make music together where they each record their own performance, then compile them all into one project file. Apiary is the culmination of their artistic labour and while it’s an emo record at heart, it is more specifically one that offers a similar kind of maximalist experimentation as glass beach. Folks, chamber pop, bitpop, the varying musical experiences between the members due to their residence is well and truly flourishing before the screaming vocals kick in. Does it overbear at times? Does it blare out too much at times? Yes to both, at times a plenty. However, the distinctly internet-driven recording allows the band to be bolder and aspire to new highs that prove stunning above all else. 3.9/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Feeling Like Children’

Alkoy – Valle Chakal Ki (10 March 2025)

Alkoy is an Argentinean hip hop artist who is building a rapport starting in 2020. He first began with a handful of singles and EPs before finally coming out with a debut album this year. That is Valle Chakal Ki and while Spanish isn’t my strong suit in language, the album is a notable example for how rapping alone can be an invaluable instrument. You can tell how sharp the flows are and the rhymes can keep on stacking up to the point where it acts more like the metronome than the literal drum machine beat itself. Speaking of the beats, there’s a certain variety in each production that signifies the  Even better in some respect, getting to know the lyrics will treat you to epic tales and grand visions. One that at times verges on irrepressible pretensions. Even going back to the productions, there’s a clear diversity within the beats that without the usual handful of characteristics to keep them cohesive, it can come off as disorganised. There is a clear ambition within the record that allows the rapper to hit the highs, but it is also one where the groundwork is fragile in its appeal. 3.3/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Rio toro jazz’

De La Soul – Cabin in the Sky (21 November 2025)

De La Soul are one of the OG trios in alternative hip hop. In 1989, they pioneered the funner side of the rap game with their debut album 3 Feet High and Rising thanks to its more psychedelic production. Fast forward to now and while many of their follow-ups failed to strike gold aside from their sophomore effort in De La Soul Is Dead, they are able to come back from their 9-year hiatus. The result is Cabin in the Sky and it’s actually the first record where there’s only two. Their member David ‘Trugoy the Dove’ Jolicoeur had passed away sadly two years ago and the most recent record thus serves to pay tribute to his contributions both to the group and to hip hop as a whole. It’s not quite on the same level of freshness in its production as A Tribe Called Quest’s We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service and its features might not add as much depth as you would have hoped for in the best-case scenario. However, this is certainly one which shows that it’s the thought that counts and as part of Mass Appeal’s Legend Has It series, it does stand as one of the better ones. 3.1/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Run It Back!! (feat. Nas)’

betcover!! – Yuki (11 June 2025)

betcover!! are one of those bands that you can’t help but truly get the hype surrounding how electric they can get. Hailing from Japan, their 2021 record Jikan pushes them through to online recognition for their jazzy way of playing rock music and they’ve been riding on that hype since then. Yuki is out to remind you why such a notion is very well deserved on their behalf as while it’s the style that they have been doing in forever, it tiptoes like a master in the borderline between being becoming dated and retaining the vibrancy. Snappy guitar riffs align with bebop trumpets and a very vaudeville kind of singing which might prove reminiscent of black midi and Geordie Greep. The fact that this is their sixth consecutive record for six years straight might fire up alarm bells that the band has little room to truly try out a left-field influence, but it’s astonishing that they are able to keep the chaos feeling this fun in a while. 3.7/5

Highlight Pick: ‘A woman who forgets’

Gelli Haha – Switcheroo (27 June 2025)

Gelli Haha didn’t always work as a music artist nor is her name the one she immediately went for upon giving it a go as a career. She previously worked as a performing arts group’s program director and had done some teaching and communications as her day job under her birth name of Angel Abaya. Switcheroo is her sophomore album (her first being 2023’s The Bubble published under her birth name) and it’s dedicated to a more retro-disco form of dance pop. It isn’t one that I would say is the best frankly because its production is certainly old-fashioned but it’s one that leans more towards being gimmicky since it obfuscates the quirky sense of humour in the lyrics. Even with that, the lyrics specifically aren’t as funny as they should have been as they feel more like shock value shtick than they do riotous grossouts. Check this one out if mostly because you want a light-hearted kind of alt-pop. 2.5/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Piss Artist’

Richard Dawson – End of the Middle (14 February 2025)

Richard Dawson is a British singer-songwriter specifically from Newcastle upon Tyne who specialises in a more progressive kind of folk music with wide-sweeping concept albums. You can think of him as being similar to the Mountain Goats although in this instance, he’s much more comfortable with experimenting than keeping in touch with the ordinary. End of the Middle is functionally a tale of one family whose generational similarities tug the album title along. The concept in and of itself sounds more interesting than how it works in practice as most of the time, the instrumentals themselves do at times get a bit full of itself. Its surprising simplicity might have done little to show the significance of how our parents’ experiences (and their parents’ experiences and so on) shape our own. It’s too meek to keep what is a largely humane pattern that we all can relate to in one way or the other. 3.6/5

Highlight Pick: ‘The question’

acloudyskye – This Won’t Be The Last Time (14 February 2025)

Every now and then, you would think about one of those dope artists who initially got their start out of playing in a garage with like-minded teenagers and young adults. acloudyskye is among one of those cool kids as he’s been around since 2019 as an aspiring electronica artist. Longtime fans are more likely going to remember him for his fursona mascot which makes for a whiplash from critics when the music itself does start to come in. This Won’t Be The Last Time, the latest album, has the appropriate enough title to keep you company. It’s no masterpiece by all means, but there’s a clear emotive resonance in its energy and its eclecticness as he flips between post-rock crescendo, indietronic comfiness, and post-punk revival jaggedness. Combine that with a vocal performance that is similar to Bastille’s Dan Smith or Imagine Dragons’ Dan Reynolds and you get yourself what is most certainly a certified alt-rock chopper. 4.1/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Home’

drug bug – a seasons end. (10 March 2025)

Hopelessly queer, constantly lean might be the description that befits drug bug (also known by their first name Alex) who is a Canadian artist from Alberta. They have some past experience performing in bands with an underground following shadowing them soon after with the most successful being Willy Rodriguez with the beloved 2023 cult favourite Wetdream. They sought out to mark their solo debut now with a seasons end. which is described by the Bandcamp account as being a part of 5th wave emo and “bedroom punk”. It is a very home-grown kind of record with low-fidelity vocals that remind fans of Car Seat Headrest’s older projects and a whole load of whimsicality in its instrumentation. The drumming proves itself to be vibrant as does the strumming of the mandolin and the melody of the electric guitar. Some might decry the faux-Morrissey singing itself, but the wart rests more on the hit-and-miss dissonance between the fun music itself and the desire for physical contact in the lyrics. It can feel like a novelty with the mood swing, but the emotional impact can hit like a truck if it finally kicks in. 3.8/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Home’

Cloud Nine Music – Nostalgia Hard Drive

Cloud Nine Music is a very obscure name and I won’t blame you at all for not having heard of them at all. I stumbled upon Nostalgia Hard Drive on YouTube by happenstance and the fact that they’re completely unknown makes this review hard to write. The album itself is a compilation of past tracks that are otherwise shelved and are thus “works in progress” as the channel description puts it on its publication. All I can say as a negative (and it is going to be a big deduction) is that it’s a kind of production that is cripplingly similar in and of itself. That being said, I would like to bring up compliments as the tunes do at least sound pleasant on the first listen. The synths do provide a bout of liveliness, the tremolo adds a nice bit of layer towards the danceability, and the bitpop influence especially can stick out like an amethyst that’s waiting to be mined. If they ever do get serious about their hobby in the future, I think they could learn a thing or two from names be it more recognisable names like the Postal Service, 100 gecs, Porter Robinson, even a bit of Kate Bush in understanding the versatility of the synth. Or, for a unique twist in identity, Born Gold or $quib for the kind of boundary-pushing that is only makes it the coolest thing on the planet. It is in the similar kind of boat with Tom Wilson after all. 1.7/5

Highlight Pick: ‘summer of ’22 ‘

Spellling – Portrait of My Heart

Spellling comes back from her well-deserved big break with The Turning Wheel with Portrait of My Heart. Her explosive rise was streamlined with what could be best described as a re-recording album called SPELLLING and the Mystery School which garnered relatively modest praises from both fans and critics. There is a particular turn towards more rock-oriented instrumentation which only gets amplified up in Portrait of the Heart where the production carries onward its shine, but the rest of the details haven’t latched on as hard as what one would have wanted. The vocals that are usually a perfect fit for ambitious progressive pop lacks the grit to compliment the power pop inflections all the while the pristine production itself lends little room for tinkering around the equalisation of the music. The result therefore is an impactful AOR-like record which is limited simply by the trademark characteristics from the artist. It’s not necessarily her fault, but it’s one that will more likely keep her longtime fans company at the least while not winning over new ones. 3.3/5

Highlight Pick: ‘Destiny Arrives’