Josaleigh Pollett grounds her single “The Witness” in a spare guitar line and her warmly intimate vocals but all of it is awash in streaming drones and hazy atmospheres that seem to be in a headlong rush over a steady beat. The layered sound suits a song that seems to navigate social dynamics in the modern era of overstimulation, casual digital overexposure and endless demands on our time and our very psyches. The song’s lyrics express the desire for being present and being seen and truly seeing others when we can break free of distractions and actually connect without the leech on our energy and attention trying to fit expectations of mediated existence and the psychology that feeds it. The song’s sounds spiral upward and outward without losing an emotional core and an intuitive essence of self that anchors where the song lands with the realization that too many things are artificial and a template we may impose on ourselves that doesn’t really suit us even if it may be functional in some ways in our lives. Its a modern take on embracing one’s true self and authentic experiences. To sonically augment this mood the songwriting and soundscaping blurs the line between experimental indie pop and shoegaze. Fans of Japanese Breakfast and the more psychedelic end of Cat Power will appreciate the single and the forthcoming album If I Let It Quiet out 7/24/2026 on vinyl, digital download and streaming via Audio Antihero. Listen to “The Witness” on Bandcamp and follow Josaleigh Pollett at the links below. Josaleigh Pollett is on tour starting July 28.
For the new single “A Game of Wait and See,” Seattle’s Jupe Jupe give us a video where it looks like the band has infiltrated an office building after hours to film in the backrooms (reference intended) where the industrial infrastructure of the building is maintained out of sight. At the beginning of the video the four members of the band check their phones before getting to it. Which is fitting for the subject matter of the song which seems to be a commentary on the attention economy seemingly mandatory for anyone trying to make more of their art or even of their own lives than simply sharing it with their immediate circle of friends. But for bands in the current era it’s not like anyone is trying to promote what you do unless you’ve already made it big outside of simply playing small venues or house shows. Which is fine enough in reality but there is a pressure to be on the grind to get attention for your efforts and how that can warp how you present yourself and think about what you’re doing in a way that prioritizes platforms and methods regardless of whether it actually resonates with people beyond a surface level.
The song itself is a moody and introspective with pulsing synth rhythms, spidery guitar, expressive saxophone and vocals that provide the emotional hook that questions the dynamic many of us in the modern world find ourselves drawn into as a matter of engaging with each other when we’re not connected by proximity. It addresses the whole issue of waiting to see if anyone has in fact engaged with your “content” and yearning for that low level affirmation and wondering if you’ve been buried by the algorithm or deemed not worthy of the moment it takes to acknowledge what you’re putting out there. And yet the song reminiscent of the more New Wave end of Giorgio Moroder and the pop side of The Sound feels like the hold of social media as pervasive as it is can also be elusive and unsatisfying and possibly something that loses its grip on one’s psyche. One can hope. Watch the video for “A Game of Wait and See” on YouTube and follow Jupe Jupe at the links provided.
The expanded edition of the reissue of Dustin O’Halloran’s 2011 album Lumière will be released June 12, 2026 via Splinter Records. With that fifteenth anniversary expanded presentation there are three previously unheard tracks of that era including “Fragile N.1.” The latter features O’Halloran’s gift for compositions that combine organic sounds in a modern classical mode with electronic tones and production methods. The song is both quietly majestic and filled with a sense of wonder with a touch of melancholic tone. But the whole run time one feels a sense of hopefulness, the kind expressed in the title, and one worth preserving and taking into one’s psyche. The minimal piano, textural string sounds and warm synth melody combine to great cinematic effect, fitting for a piece whose ideas were explored while O’Halloran was working on the score to Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film Marie Antoinette. It may seem counter-intuitive to say the song has a palpable gentleness but that is the salient quality of song throughout. Listen to “Fragile N.1” on YouTube and follow Dustin O’Halloran at the links below.
“7/9/25” is a collaborative composition between Spices Peculiar and Sunswept. The processed flute flows and perfectly swirl with the layers of synth, field recordings and textural samples to produce a singular aesthetic that evolves across the track’s twenty-five minutes. Shaken bells haunt the background, white noise wind, electronic bird sounds in the night, it feels like music designed to represent different parts of a single day, perhaps as the title suggests, a cool night in summer. Sounds echo and seem to tumble gently in the near distance and a low drone serves as a backdrop toward mid-song as the synth drifts into an eerie quality and shimmering noises resonate from an unknown source like a new type of bird resounding in the moonlit landscape. Breezes stir the surroundings and toward the fourteen minute mark we become aware of the flute back in the mix as a recognizable quantity like a signal of a more diurnal sound palette coming into aural frame and what feels like a string of shells and sparkling synth threads streak by and fade replaced by another stream of each. Clearly the product of careful production and sensitive improv the whole piece is experienced as an organic journey across time expressed in under half an hour but more fully than many days feel when you’re at the grind of a regular job and this song is much more soothing and worthy of one’s attention as an extended song that wouldn’t be out of place on a program like Hearts of Space but focused on pastoral sounds. The track is part of the Spices Pecular Ambulant that released May 1, 2026. Listen to “7/9/25” on Bandcamp and follow Spices Peculiar at the links provided.
The new Twin Court EP Ithakarta was released on May 15, 2026 and for this outing the group melds its pastoral folk post-rock style with Javanese gamelan sounds and sensibilities. For the track “Wildfires” we hear the Suling (Javanese flute) flowing through and helping in establishing a unique flavor of musical melancholy with visceral, textural elements that ground what might be perceived as ethereal and drifting into direct sensory experience. The various percussive bell tones work as a chorus of sounds through Suling twirls and winds joining the rhythm in its urgency as the song concludes suggesting a need for action and to be in the moment focused on events at hand as interconnected with the forces that shape them. Listen to “Wildfires” on Spotify and follow Twin Court on Instagram.
Wheelchair Sports Camp began as a solo project for rapper/producer Kalyn Heffernan who started releasing music under that moniker around 2009. The project has always benefited from Heffernan’s creative and energetic wordplay honed from growing up as a vocalist and imitating her favorite artists of that time. Since 2009 Wheelchair Sports Camp has become a fixture in Denver underground music but a project that has a footprint well beyond Denver due to fortunate tour and opening slot opportunities and some national press support. After all Heffernan isn’t just a rapper and producer, she’s an activist for disabled communities and really anyone experiencing persecution and prejudice. Her participating in the occupation of then Colorado Cory Gardener in 2017 garnered her pieces in various publications including a feature on Democracy Now! including an interview with legendary investigative journalist Amy Goodman. Which is part of the point of the art, to draw attention to everyday people’s struggles as a means of addressing injustice.
Listen to any Wheelchair Sports Camp track and you will hear a richness and variety of sonics that set the band apart from many other hip-hop projects. Longtime collaborator Jerod Sarlo aka Qknox brings a deep underground electronic dance sensibility informed by classic hip-hop production to various recordings. Other members of the live and recording band include or have included Gregg Ziemba on drums, Joshua Trinidad on trumpet, Wesley Watkins on synth, Tom Hagerman and Jeanie Schroder of DeVotchKa on accordion/strings and tuba respectively, experimental hip-hop luminaries RAREBYRD$, Abi McGaha Miller on sax and vocals and more recently Jello Biafra, Mark Bliesner aka Radio Pete, Michelle Rocquet and Kimya Dawson. A debut album was released in 2016 called No Big Deal and that era of the band was very avant-garde jazz forward in the sounds but it also showcased Heffernan’s development as a lyrics offering deep personal lyrics and incisive social commentary. Between then and now the COVID-19 pandemic happened and Wheelchair Sports Camp did a soundtrack to a theatre production of Alice in Wonderland in 2021 as well as music for an installation at Meow Wolf (Wheelchair Space Kitchen, 2025) and various singles.
In 2026 the second full length oh imperfecta was released via Alternative Tentacles. The imprint is more known for punk but anyone familiar with the label’s roster knows it’s the home of weird punks in general and other artists outside the mainstream. The new Wheelchair Sports Camp album feels somehow both stripped down and maximal in impact. The songwriting feels incredibly focused and not just for this band. The songs address the instability and peril of the world we’re living through at the moment and understandable emotional reactions to all of that when your own life could use with some maintenance to put in motion to where you want it to be but still having to find the daily strength to get through to those better moments. The song “Dead” is a delightfully pointed song about how aspects of our warped culture deems certain people disposable as a drag on society and how that designation can be applied to anyone when the powerful want it to. It’s a hip-hop album with that sensibility and production guiding its style and sound but its spirit is rebellious and very punk in attitude.
Listen to our interview with Kalyn Heffernan and Gregg Ziemba on Bandcamp and follow Wheelchair Sports Camp at the links below.
NYC-based saxophonist Alden Hellmuth is set to release her new album Tether on June 26, 2026 via Nils Frahm’s LEITER imprint. The song “Face the Wall” includes percussion from Justin Brown who some may know from playing with Thundercat. The song has a syncopated rhythm that sometimes also feels like it could go off the edge in any moment. Hellmuth accents the percussion line at first and then plays over while the bass maintains a tonal presence before it seems to come apart in time for Hellmuth to come back in with more insistent saxophone tracing a scale with extended technique. All the instruments indulge in passages that in another piece of music might be a solo but here they all contribute to a sense of heading into musical entropy yet reeling it in for something coherent if building toward a conclusion that maximizes the intensity of pace. The net effect is punk energy channeled into what often sounds like hard bob free jazz expert technical chops allowed to roam freer than musicians with such skillsets often do. Listen to “Face the Wall” on YouTube and follow Alden Hellmuth at the links below.
Jennie Gillespie Mason weaves together an entrancing tapestry of sounds on her single “Rungs of Love.” The track from her forthcoming new album Safety of the Light (out 6/12/26 via Native Cat Recordings) has as its root a kind of folk vocals and guitars sound in the classic mode but more inspired by more experimental leaning practitioners of the art like Bert Jansch and Vashti Bunyan. Mason also puts electronic sounds into the song and orchestral strings so that it feels like you’re listening in on entire other world. Blips shimmer and spark off like a lightning bug into the night or a shooting star suddenly bursting overhead and fading out. The song is about love as a path to higher consciousness and one to be savored in the moment. As gentle and romantic a spirit as one hears in the song it also dares to veer off into psychedelic sounds without losing sight of its core emotional resonance and that itself serves well the song’s message of being grounded in human experience while in pursuit of personal transformation. Listen to “Rungs of Love” on Spotify at follow Jenny Gillespie Mason on Instagram.
Maybe titling he song “Rainbows” The Wheel Workers are giving away that the tender sentiments of the love song is one also about LGBTQ+ identity and self-acceptance. It is also a completely apt name for the song. Its gentle melodies in a sort of psychedelic pop mode are also reminiscent of the exquisite melodies of early 80s Ultravox and the earnestness of The Alarm’s more anthemic songs. The lead guitar melody paired with the vocal harmonies feels like a collective collective uplift like the band has written a song that goes beyond expressing deep affection and a sense of liberation and resistance to oppression for one person but a statement for everyone that has felt the boot of a conservative cultural orientation that denies many people their basic humanity and the ability to be who they are without judgment. Watch the live performance video for “Rainbow” on YouTube and follow The Wheel Workers at the links provided.
Mock Media’s title track to its new album Rat Bastard (out now via Mac’s Record Label) sounds like the band is tapping into a combination of early 80s power pop and a bit of The Clash with the anthemic choruses. The clear melodies and crisp rhythms help the song’s story of low self esteem and issues of class getting in the way of love and genuine connection and how one’s life narratives can blind you to possibilities and chances to get out of a situation you resent and so you act out those frustrations on the people who might be good for you and work against your own potential joy. It’s a complicated dynamic in real life and it’s been the subject of rock and roll songs going back decades but here Mock Media brings clarity to a messy reality that many people know with a simple song that honors the conflicted feelings. Listen to “Rat Bastard” on YouTube and follow Mock Media at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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