Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich: Wednesday

In their quest to record an album for each day of the week multi-instrumentalists Mike Keneally and Marcelo Radulovich choose Wednesday to become an avant-garde concept album of sorts, easing in the listener with the dreamy AM to wake up too and putting the listener to bed with PM as night has fallen. In between those two lengthy soundscapes the pair find themselves messing around a bit with a child's toy (Paper Airplane) and having a friendly encounter with a fabled former Can vocalist (Damo Suzuki On a Bicycle).

A bit more subdued than its predecessor Tuesday, Kennealy and Radulovich set out to tell a story without words, safe for the free-flowing conversations in Spanish that have found their way into some of the tracks. It is an album about a day that never actually happened, more likely the summation of various daydreams that deserved to be captured in ambient post-rock musings.

Baby Condor: Silver Stereo

Dutch brothers Nolle and Beinte Groen wrote a song about the Luxman L-4 stereo amplifier, which was owned by their dad and planted the seeds for the music they would make with their Baby Condor duo: carefully 70s pop with a bit of jazz and rock on top.

Silver Stereo features Menno Nijen Es on Wurlitzwer, piano and Hammond organ, Isaac McCluskey on trombone, Joël Botma on trumpet and Nick Feenstra on alto saxophone. It is a definitely old school approach to music and therefore timeless as well.

Words about music (814): Napoleon Murphy Brock

When I improvise, I play or sing what I live and feel. To me, it's a statement about the truth. The truth is absolute. And by living it through what and how you speak when you sing and play, it is felt and recognized by the listener.

Napoleon Murphy Brock

Champ: Born In The Wild End

photo: Lily Henderson

English rock band Champ are not afraid to show their dreams and disappointments on their debut EP Born In The Wild End. Their lyrics are rooted in kitchen sink drama, wrapped in anthemic post-punk, about smalltown people dreaming about the big city where everything is supposed to happen, only to find out that's not true.

Take equal parts of Echo and the Bunnymen and Bruce Springsteen, add some spices from The Police, and presto: four tracks that tell a story that does not end well, safe for the confidence that they are on the right track to gain wider recognition.

Ronan Conroy & Niall Conroy: The Christmas Card

Ronan Conroy and his brother Niall Conroy started working on The Christmas Card on Christmas Eve in 2023, with their mum watching the proceedings from her couch. They recorded a demo that was not worked upon further until November this year, when Ronan decided that it was time to finish the song properly.

Doing his vocals and guitar in New York, with Charlie Nieland providing bass, autoharp, synth, keyboards, and drum programming, and Niall playing piano in Galway, Ireland, the track came alive, sharing memories about the good times they had.