Anchorage-based indie electro pop duo dreamcat -- couple Em Glaves and Colton Ciufo -- can trace a portion of their origins back to when they were children: Glaves and Ciufo grew up in the same small town, and for them music has always been their escape. The Alaskan duo specialize in homemade, heartfelt, positive indie synth pop that draws from M83, Chromeo and others. Last year, the pair gained recognition regionally by playing at two of Alaska's biggest music festivals -- Sundown Festival and Girdwood Forest Fair. Over the past 12-18 months, the duo have built upon a growing profile across Alaska, with at the release of a handful of standalone singles and their debut EP joie de vivre earlier this year. Glaves and Ciufro close out 2025 with "Heaven," a breezy bit of synth pop that seemingly channels BRIJEAN, M83 and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT while showcasing the duo's ability to craft a remarkably catchy hook. But underneath the track's breezy hookiness, the song, as the duo explain is about addiction.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Chris Robinson's 59th birthday.

Winter sunset, Forest Park, Queens.

With the release of their debut album, 2021's Traumatismo Nacional and 2024's NADA/CERO/INFINITO EP, Sunset Images, led by Mexico City-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind Samuel Osorio has firmly established a layered soundscape of dissonance, cathartic release and emotional depth that draws from krautrock, shoegaze and punk. Thematically Traumatismo Nacional was a scathing indictment on violence, racism and misogyny while NADA/CERO/INFINITO explored loneliness, anger and desperation, laying bare the emotional devastation of modern life. The project has built a reputation for intense live performances while sharing stages with the likes of Mogwai, Godflesh, Boris, The Raveonettes, Acid Mothers Temple, Gnod, HIDE, RAKTA, Vinnum Sabbathi and more. Eventually, they caught the attention of Dedstrange Records, who signed the Mexican project and will be releasing their highly anticipated sophomore album Oscilador on January 23, 2026. Reportedly, the album sonically is a reflection of the perpetual cycles that rules our world -- birth, decay, chaos and resolution, fueled by the collision of fractured synths, pulsating vocals, primitive drum beats and feedback-drenched guitars. The result is a soundscape that's hypnotic, disorientating and irresistible. Oscilador's second and latest single "El Tiempo Oscila y Muere Al Incio (Tommy)" is a sprawling motorik dirge with a cinematic quality that's one-part krautrock, one-part shoegaze, one-part noise featuring a throbbing, distortion pedaled bass line, bursts of swirling feedback-drenched guitar guitars, a relentless backbeat paired with Osorio's hauntingly spectral vocal. The result is a song that's intense yet with an almost fanatical attention to precision. Sonically reminding me a bit of the likes of Yoo Doo Right JJUUJJUU and others, the song as Osorio explains explores "humanity's self-destruction," "conjuring visions of a world ravaged by toxic masculinity and patriarchy. This is a song about the abyss that awaits, how we cannot escape the passage of time & how it will ultimately consume us."

Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8. Since then, the the duo have been busy, releasing a single or so a month over the course of the year, including the previously released “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead,” “Staying Alive,” “Born The Wrong Time,” and "Sneaky Feelings."   The Swedish JOVM mainstays' latest single "Daydreams" continues a remarkable run of breezy, hook-driven and nostalgia-inducing material anchored around Komstedt's ethereal and yearning vocal, expressive and shimmering bursts of guitars and a motorik groove. The song evokes a pleasant reverie -- but with the bittersweet realization that it like all things won't last forever.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of the birth Earth Wind & FIre's Maurice White.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 110th anniversary of the birth of Edith Piaf.

Earlier this year, Lancaster, UK-based noise rock trio TV FACE -- Steve "sTeVe" McWade, (vocals, guitar), Brigit McWade (bass, vocals) and Dave "Steeny" Steen (drums) -- released their sophomore album Wolf Rents Bark through Crackedankles Records. The trio close out 2025 with Wolf Rents Bark landing at #7 on Louder Than War's Top 100 Albums of 2025 list -- and with the album's latest single "Happy New Year." Unlike the holiday season standard "Auld Lang Syne," which is can often be a mix of bittersweet and hopeful, "Happy New Year" is a furious and noisy ripper that expresses a sense of hope that becomes the disillusionment and frustration of someone who suspects that the new year will be more bullshit, more chaos, more delayed hopes and dreams and so on. “Live, this track has been landing hard. ‘Happy New Year’ charts innocence slipping into disillusionment, with lyrics written under a self-imposed rule of just three syllables per line,” TV FACE explains. "It inspired Wolf Rents Bark, our album title for an age where politician-CEOs cosplay as ‘the guy next door,’ while extracting wealth at a pace. The band are releasing this festive protest song instead of creating more landfill Christmas-themed shit.” Directed and edited by the band's Steve McWade, the accompanying video for "Happy New Year" was filmed by the band and Punk Rock Greeny, and features three wolf-heading wearing humans, who correspond to the each of the band's members at a New Year's Eve party. On the TV, TV FACE performing the song. The band intended to do something simple, but then they didn't.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates Keith Richards' 82nd birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 55th anniversary of the birth of DMX.

Los Angeles-based GUMDROP is a collaborative project featuring acclaimed producer Shmu, who has worked with Zorch, Botany and Vinyl Williams and singer/songwriter Buttons. The project sees Buttons, whose vocals oscillate between rage-driven screaming and distorted bubblegum pop paired with Shmu's R&B-inspired vocal stylings and kaleidoscopic production. The duo's self-titled full-length debut is slated for a December 25, 2025 release through Grind Select. The album sees the pair swimming between the shallow and the deep with the material thematically touching upon heartache and entanglement, social unrest and the effects of late-stage capitalism warping our sense of self identity and more. Sonically, the pair intentionally confound and subvert musical norms with verve, aggression and saccharine-fueled wonder. The soon-to-be released album's latest single "EYE CANDY" is a woozy, hook-driven blend of 80s R&B bass synths, shimmering and angular New Wave-like guitars and bubblegum pop that's anchored around a pointed commentary on beauty standards in our late-stage capitalist hellscape. The song captures a narrator, whose sense of self is a bit warped -- by social media influencers, memes and pop culture. Fittingly, the video is an all pink, fever-dream that emphasizes the song's unique mix of cute, sultriness and menace.

Coldtrace is a mysterious and emerging Italian post punk band, who released their debut EP, Shadows last month. Shadows EP's latest single "Reasons 1" is a brooding bit of post punk, featuring angular and propulsive bass line, relentless four-on-the-floor, shimmering, bursts of reverb-soaked guitars paired with a dramatic baritone vocal. While showcasing the band's ability to pair chilly atmospherics with razor sharp hooks, "Reasons 1" seemingly channels the likes of Cocteau Twins, Molchat Doma and others.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates the 86th anniversary of the birth of The Temptations co-founder Eddie Kendricks.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates R.E.M. co-founder Mike Mills' 67th birthday.

Acclaimed San Francisco-based singer/songwriter, musician, producer and Monophonics frontman Kelly Finnigan has proven himself to be rather prolific over the past couple of years. Last year, Finnigan released his sophomore solo album, A Lover Was Born, which featured album singles "Be Your Own Shelter," and "Love (Your Pain Goes Deep)." This year, Finnigan followed up with two standalone singles: A cover of Buffalo-based duo Samson & Delilah‘s 1967 song “Keep Me In Mind," which saw him teaming up with Chicago‘s Renaldo Domino and an All-Star cast of some of the contemporary soul scene's best players on a take that rekindled memories of Sam and Dave and the like. "Say It Again," a breezy and soulful tune with with acclaimed Wichita-born, London-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and Young Gun Silver Fox co-founder Shawn Lee that seemingly channelled 1970s Isley Brothers — in particular, think of “Summer Breeze Pts. 1 & 2,” “That Lady,” and the like. Finnigan closes out the year with two new, self-penned Christmas tunes -- "I Can't Wait (For Christmas Time)"/"Snowy Night In Ohio." "I Can't Wait (For Christmas Time)" is a straightforward pop/soul arrangement that features labelmate Kendra Morris and her band on backing vocals. "I the Can't Wait (For Christmas Time)" channels some of Finnigan's previously released work, while reminding the listener that the holidays are about the excitement, anticipation and longing for reunions with loved ones. "Snowy Night In Ohio" is a meditative tune that sounds as though it could have been previously unreleased track from the A Joyful Sound sessions that evokes the nostalgia and comfort of being with your dearest ones and looking out the window to see the snow gently fall outside. "I Can't Wait (For Christmas Time)"/"Snowy Night In Ohio" are out now as 7" 45RPM single and on digital platforms through Colemine Records.

Storied Arts announce inaugural Soundscape NW Festival in Portland, OR.

Organ trio Parlor Greens features a collection of grizzled veterans and incredibly accomplished musicians: Tim Carman (drums): Arguably best known for his lengthy stint in acclaimed, Boston-based blues outfit GA-20, Carman showcases his ability to start steady, heavy and downright funky pockets for his bandmates. Jimmy James (guitar): Through his work with The True Loves and the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, James has firmly established a signature and readily recognizable funky approach that has won him fans across the world. Adam Scone (organ):

JOVM's William Ruben Helms celebrates ZZ Top co-founder and frontman Billy Gibbons' 76th birthday.

JOVM's William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Yasiin Bey's 52nd birthday.