I've been a music fan since my parents gave me a record player for Christmas when I was still in grade school. The first record I remember owning was "Sesame Street Disco." I've been a professional writer since 2004, but writing long before that. My first published work was in a middle school literary magazine and was a story about a zoo in which the animals could talk.
Located at 42 Rue des Écoles (across from the Collège de France), Crocodisc takes up two store fronts and both are jammed full of records and discs.
“Don’t be afraid to ask what you’re looking for!” – Good advice. There’s a lot to dig through here.
That’s just one wall. One of the storefronts is mostly rock and electronica. It has sections for stuff from the U.S., the U.K., and, of course, Europe.
The other storefront is full of cool jazz, soul, reggae, afrobeat, and funk records from all over the globe.
All of that in just one corner of the store.
I was lucky to walk out of this place with only a few electro CDs (Portishead, St. Germain) and not spend all the euros in my pocket here.
Make sure to not have any pending appointments if you go there. You’ll be digging through bins for an hour at least.
Found in an upscale shopping center at 2200 East Williams Field Road, Grace Records is a nifty place with a good mix of vinyl, CDs, shirts, and other oddities to peruse in the Phoenix suburb. It’s a simple layout, yet full of stuff to search.
Video games, mystery boxes, claw games, vinyl, CDs, and a “bloody Ric Flair” shirt all in one place.
They had a good collection of import stuff as well. This back wall is covered in good i import stuff ranging from anime soundtracks to punk rock.
One of my favorite parts of checking out all these record stores is seeing the fun, weird mixes of stuff on display, such as…
Want to do some crate digging? Then dive into bins like these…
They have some fun oddities, too, like this box set that I didn’t know existed…and didn’t purchase.
I instead walked out with a used five-discCD box set of an eight-hour DJ set by John Digweed at a Brooklyn show for a mere twenty bucks. I was stunned at the bargain.
Also, the Mexican place at the other end of the block is pretty good.
Located at 300 East Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas, Nevada, Record City appears on the outside to be a simple brick building near some prime real estate but is like a TARDIS once you open the door.
The amount of stuff in the store is amazing. I don’t know if there are more vinyl records or DVDs in the place. There was a good amount of CDs, too.
I knew I was in a fun place when I looked left upon entering and saw these crates.
A Cramps import version of Songs The Lord Taught Us next to that cool Siouxside and The Banshees record? Come on! Their new wave section was also impressive.
The variety in the place is excellent. Check out this mix of records for example.
L-R: Can, Ian Dury, Sheena Easton, Frankie and The Knockouts
Another highlight of the place is their collection of neat soundtracks and movie scores on vinyl on display above their massive DVD collection.
“Toy Story” next to “Phantasm”That “Judgment Night” soundtrack alone is worth the purchase price.
It’s a fun place, full of bins and dusty boxes to explore. One box I found on the floor had vintage Escape from the Planet of the Apes loose trading cards in it among various picture of Elvis Presley. I almost bought them, but opted for CDs from Cypress Hill, A Tribe Called Quest, and Satan’sPilgrims instead.
New-York based band A Place To Bury Strangers announce their new rarities album, Rare And Deadly, out April 3rd via Dedstrange, and release the lead single, “Everyone’s The Same.” Following 2024’s Synthesizer, Rare and Deadly cracks open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos from A Place To Bury Strangers. Spanning 2015–2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments, and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered—caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. Pulled from Oliver Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes, and half-finished sessions, these tracks pulse with the unruly energy that has always defined APTBS, but here the interference is closer, the electricity more dangerous, the edges left jagged on purpose.
What makes Rare and Deadly truly unprecedented is that every format tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl, and digital editions each feature their own unique tracklisting, a fractured release strategy that is almost unheard of. No single version contains the “complete” album. Instead, each format becomes its own window into the archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links, and parallel versions of the band’s inner life. It’s a deliberately unstable document: the album shifts depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation.
Across these recordings, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restless mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends—ideas too volatile, too strange, or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. But together they form a secret history of the band, a parallel world of possibilities that existed just outside the spotlight. The tracks contain riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by walls of feedback until only their ghosts remain, as on today’s single, “Everyone’s The Same.”
Reflecting on the track, Ackerman says: “I had a dream where a man led me to a brook, peaceful and calm. When he turned his head slightly, I saw the most evil smile imaginable. But when I looked directly at him, it was just the back of his head again. Beauty and horror coexisting in the same space. It felt like hell leaking into something serene. Maybe that’s reality sometimes. And maybe pretending otherwise is a kind of survival.”
Rare and Deadly is less a compilation and more a documentary—an aural snapshot of how sound takes shape before it hardens into something finished. You hear the room, the accidents, the restless experimentation, the immediacy of a moment being captured before it disappears. It’s a reminder that A Place To Bury Strangers has always thrived in this in-between space: the tension between control and collapse, melody and noise, beauty and distortion.
A Place To Bury Strangers Tour Dates: Tue. April 7 – Hamburg, DE @ MS Stubnitz Wed. April 8 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz Thu. April 9 – Praha, CZ @ Futurum Music Bar Fri. April 10 – Brno-město, CZ @ Kabinet múz Sat. April 11 – Bratislava, SK @ PINK WHALE BAR Sun. April 12 – Budapest, HU @ A38 Mon. April 13 – Belgrade, RS @ Karmakoma Tue. April 14 – Sofia, BG @ Mixtape 5 Wed. April 15 – București, RO @ Control Club Fri. April 17 – Thessaloniki, GR @ Eightball Club Sat. April 18 – Athina, GR @ Gazarte Mon. April 20 – Rome, IT @ Monk Club Tue. April 21 – Florence, IT @ Ex Fila Wed. April 22 – Bologna, IT @ Social Center TPO Thu. April 23 – Milan, IT @ Santeria Fri. April 24 – Zurich, CH @ Bogen F Sun. April 26 – Brussels, BE @ Magasin 4 Mon. April 27 – Cologne, DE @ Gebäude 9 Wed. April 29 – Utrecht, NL @ De Helling Thu. April 30 – Deventer, NL @ Burgerweeshuis Fri. May 1 – Eindhoven, NL @ Fuzz Club Festival 2026
Stuck—the Chicago based trio of Greg Obis (vocals, guitar), David Algrim (bass), and Tim Green (drums)—release “Deadlift,” the second single/video from their forthcoming album, Optimizer, out March 27th via Exploding in Sound. Arriving on the heels of the “tightly-wound” (Brooklyn Vegan) lead single, “Instakill,” “Deadlift” is slower and sadder, delivering an unsparing look at the loneliness of workout culture; on the song’s chorus, Obis sings: “I know, I know, // you’ve heard it before // I never feel so alone // when the weight hits the floor.”
“I have become somewhat of a gym rat over the last several years,” Obis reflects. “Lifting weights has been indispensable for my physical and mental health. And yet, when I’m in a dark place, the gym can sometimes underscore feelings of loneliness and futility. ‘Deadlift’ uses the gym as a way to look at how atomized we have become; fixating on ourselves in public, locked into our fitness routines with our headphones, barely acknowledging the other people in the room, optimizing our wellness while racing to a red light.”
The song’s video was directed, produced, and edited by Austin Vesely and stars performer, actor and comedian Alex Grelle. “Austin Vessely’s video takes on these ideas from the opposite direction,” says Obis. “Working with him and Alex Grelle on this was a real treat. Alex is an incredible performer and improviser, and I still laugh when I watch him go all out in the video. We gave Austin very little to work with here in terms of a concept, and we’re super stoked with what he came up with.”
Optimizer, the third album from Stuck reports live from the front lines of a society on the decline, where every attempt toward self-improvement only locks you into a more efficient downward spiral. The album is their most ambitious and eclectic collection of songs yet, without losing the nervy, quirked-up approach to post-punk that they’d established on their first two full-lengths.
To record Optimizer, Stuck reached out to engineer and producer Andrew Oswald (Marble Eyed, Powerplant, and Smirk). Oswald suggested that they track at Electrical Audio, the legendary Chicago recording studio once run by the late Steve Albini. With Albini’s passing still fresh, the opportunity to record at Electrical took on a personal significance for Obis; recording at Electrical would simultaneously help a local institution fill out their calendar in a moment of tragic instability and affirm Stuck’s place in a lineage of fiercely independent Chicago rock bands. Stuck are proud, in the humble way that any good Midwestern folks are proud, of embodying that archetype. Not only did Obis take over Chicago Mastering Service from Shellac’s Bob Weston when the latter decamped abroad, but Stuck’s choice of album title subconsciously mirrored Big Black’s classic Atomizer.
Optimizer continues their incorporation of synthesizers and also brings along more backing vocals, bigger choruses, and even blast beats. Oswald made his name recording extreme metal bands like Mortiferum and Caustic Wound. Though it is by no means a metal record, Oswald brought that genre’s level of tactile closed mic detail to Optimizer, resulting in the most high-definition and physically propulsive Stuck record yet. Previous Stuck albums needled you, using fast twitch guitars to keep you on edge. Optimizer goes straight for the emotional haymaker.
Belgian stoner metal trio MOTSUS have returned from the galaxy next door with a new record, Atlas, that continues their exploration of heavy riffs and cosmic themes. “Atlas” can refer to the character of Greek myth who held the world upon his back, never succumbing to its heavy weight, or the comet discovered by the Atlas telescope in Chile in July 2025. The album’s cover seems to be a drawing of a futuristic science research outpost / doomsday shelter, possibly built from storage containers, and, knowing MOTSUS’ prior output, is probably on another planet or even floating in space.
“Driver” is suitable for playing while in orbit or for terraforming a distant planet with its rumbling drums and chugging guitars. “Duna” downshifts into trippy, melty psych-rock and lets you drift for over eight minutes along some gravity well that is either holding up or pulling down the planet, depending on your perspective.
The heavy sounds of “Exploder, Pt. II” are great. You’ll find yourself slowly head-banging as it rolls around your head and the room and the air around you. It fills every space for almost ten minutes until “Short Notice” gives you a two-minute rest before “Turboslak” shows up to pull you into an asteroid field in deep space, and you’re not sure if you’ll come out of it with one hundred percent hull integrity. The guitars and drums hammer like rocks of various sizes bouncing off the ship while you start landing procedures on one that looks like a good place to build the structure on the album’s cover.
Atlas is another good one from MOTSUS. Put it on, fire the ignition, and take off with it.
It’s difficult to describe 88Kasyo Junrei (“Pilgrimage to 88 Places”). They tend to keep a lot of stuff about the band secret, only release their albums through their own label (PPR – Psychedelic Progressive Revolution), rarely translate their lyrics into any other language in print (and even leave them cryptic in Japanese, preferring fans interpret their songs however they’d like), and have only played outside Japan once (in France in 2019). I found out about them by stumbling upon one of their music videos (“Saramato” – a 2023 song about a utopian city that exists either in their minds, in another dimension, or in the future) on YouTube while going down a rabbit hole of Japanese metal bands like Ningen Isu and Bo Ningen.
Their newest album (the ninth in fourteen years), Hachi Tasu Kyu (“8 Plus 9”), is a massive wallop (two discs) of prog-rock, psychedelic trips, and metal shredding mantras. Most of the songs on the album, and their catalog as a whole, have prominent Buddhist and Shinto themes (as also reflected in the band’s name).
Opener “Nōsōkyoku” (“Brain Damage”, a single released in 2024) tosses you head-first into their wild world with stunning guitar work from Katzuya Shimizu. “Yaoyoroz” has grand sweeps of heavy riffs mixed with shoegaze drone…and drummer Kenzo never lets up the whole time, sounding like he must be a cyborg by how relentless and exact his drumming is. “Fukyōon” (“Dischord”) is the first single off the album, and it’s a great choice as it showcases each of the member’s talents. Bassist and vocalist Margarette Hiroi is on fire throughout it with his tension-building and releasing vocals and insane riffs, while Shimizu continues burning the place down with his shredding and Kenzo plays so hard and fast it sounds like he’s trying to drill to the Earth’s core with his kit.
The groove and funk of “Chikagoro Dō Shiteru?” (“What Have You Been Up To?”) and “Yukō” is slick. Both are fun tracks showing that 88Kasyo Junrei could be a prog-funk band anytime they want. After the brief “Insuon 1” (“Instrumental 1”), we get the frantic, rocking “Ale.!!”
“Zekkyō NOW!” (“Shout NOW!”) starts out with ripping thrash metal guitar from Shimizu and then Hiroi and Kenzo are off to the races, putting down a jaw-dropping groove that never lets up for a moment. The album’s “Unlucky Side” ends with “Furafura” (“Nirvana”) – a ballad-like track with Kenzo’s big drum fill flourishes, Hiroi’s bass a skipping stone across still water, and Shimizu’s guitar ranging from shoegaze to psych-jazz tones.
On the second disc (the “Lucky Side”), we have several singles that 88Kasyo Junrei have released since 2021 that haven’t been collected on an album until now. “Naraku Subuūfā” (“Hell’s Bells” – first released in 2022) is the first, sounding like it’s being played through an old radio at first, and then it bursts into a fast rocker (with vocals) after about a minute. Then comes “Insuon 2” (“Instrumental 2”), which shows off even more of their prog-chops. “Kichiku” (“Brute / “The Dark Side of the Moon” – also from 2022) brings forth more of the band’s love of grunge-metal, as some of it sounds like it was heavily influenced by Alice in Chains.
Hiroi’s bass groove on “Deishun” (“Muddy Springtime” / “Dusty Springfield”) will leave you speechless. Speaking of being gobsmacked, wait until you hear “Saramato” (“Paradise City”). I don’t know how Kenzo plays it without collapsing from exhaustion. If this song doesn’t make you a fan, I don’t know what will. “Garakuta no Sabaku” (“Desert Moon” / “Desert of Impurity and Rubbish”) has a cool, strolling groove throughout it, complete with a short drum solo from Kenzo. “Maka-maka-maka” (“A Love Supreme”) is bonkers. You’re not sure which member is playing faster.
“HOTOTOGISU” (“Silly Love Songs” / “Lesser Cuckoo”) is, unfortunately, not a cover of the Wings song (which would be amazing), but it’s just as quirky and fun. “Maen” (“Desire” / “Demon Flame”) reminds me of early 2000s alternative metal before it became overrun with “bro-rock” and “nu-metal” and was still experimental and not just cookie-cutter rock. It blends into the short and chaotic “8989” to wrap up the journey
It’s a stunning record, one that makes you want to dig up everything they have and then fly to Japan to catch them live even once.
Orbital‘s second album doesn’t really have a title (like their first). It’s commonly known as “Orbital 2” or “The Brown Album” (Because, you know, the cover is brown…and their first album is sometimes called “The Yellow Album” because, you know, the cover is yellow.).
Regardless of what you call it, it’s a techno classic starting with the Lt. Worf-narrated “Time Becomes” that lets you know time will loop, curve, and rebound on itself across the span of the record. The looped sample of “Even a stopped clock can give the right time twice a day.” on “Planet of the Shapes” further explores this theme of stretched, repeated, and warped time. Once the drums kick in, you’re dancing for almost nine straight minutes.
The next four tracks become one long, beautiful techno suite. Starting with “Lust 3-1,” and then drifting / floating / bumping / bouncing through “Lush 3-2,” “Impact (The Earth Is Burning),” and “Remind.” The first of the quartet has become a primer on what early to mid-1990s electronic music was at the time: Bright synths, big beats, and transcendental grooves. “Lush 3-2” flows right out of it and, somehow, becomes even better for dancing. The layered beats on it keep driving you forward, getting your heart rate up and your joints lubed for the third part of the suite. “Impact” is over ten minutes long, so I hope your cardio is good. By the time you get to “Remind,” you’re pretty much in an industrial club.
The repeating synth groove of “Walk Now…” is top-notch, bringing in sizzling house riffs on top of rave beats. “Monday” is almost an ambient track, amd “Halcyon + On + On” has become a rave classic by this point, having been remixed by probably hundreds of DJs across the years. It uses sampled female vocal sounds to lovely effect and the beats on it are crisp. It will throw you back into the early Nineties right away if you were anywhere near rave culture then.
The whole album will do this, even the weird “Input Out” ending with its strange, repeating sample that becomes almost hypnotic by the end. “The Brown Album” (not to be confused with the Primus album of the same name) still holds up today as prime rave music.
As a graduate of the esteemed Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Melodi Ghazal is intrinsic to Copenhagen’s storied indie scene. Her full-length debut, Idol Melodies, is out March 6, 2026 via Anyines, blending ’80s pop and Iranian folk traditions. Today, Ghazal shares the second single, “Higher.” Moody riffs and jagged verses culminate in a slow jam chorus. Touching on dissolution of the self, “Higher” imbues nostalgia with complexity.
On the single, Ghazal shares:“This is a song I personally needed, perhaps as a form of manifestation. I sing about the dissolution of the self. About those moments where you can suddenly shift perspective – and really feel the shift – from the shutting-down, everyday trip, to the big, opening image of love and connection. It sounds a bit New Age in such a short description, but that is nevertheless the theme of the song. I sampled my friend Peter’s guitar recording and chopped it up, perhaps with indirect inspiration from the chopped, country-sounding guitar in Madonna’s ‘Tell Me,’ which I think is a fantastic track. The form was meant to be simple and repetitive, because I wanted it to feel like the repeated caress of warm skin. And I also think that at times I noticed myself having the Spice Girls’ ‘Viva Forever’ as a reference somewhere in my head during the process. Maybe it’s because of the comforting effect of nostalgia, that I have some clear references when listening to this song and remembering how it came to life – because this song I just wanted to be comforting to me.”
Melodi Ghazal’s output is reflective. The Copenhagen native was raised by Iranian parents, and an interest in music was nurtured at cultural gatherings. As a child, she delved into pre-revolutionary Iranian hits and the Los Angeles pop that emerged in the 1980s and ‘90s. Later, she discovered hitmakers including Dido and Celine Dion on VH1 and MTV. At her mother’s encouragement, she took up piano lessons.
Ghazal fell into stasis for almost a decade. “I stopped quite abruptly with the occurrence of my self-consciousness, especially about otherness in a very white context,” she remembers. “I felt a need to be anonymous.” She enrolled in university, but grew depressed working a day job. During one down swing, she felt the desire to write songs again and started an adult education program. Two years later, she was accepted at the groundbreaking Rhythmic Music Conservatory — a school that counts ML Buch, Astrid Sonne, and Clarissa Connelly as alumni.
Ghazal’s full-length debut, Idol Melodies, is titled in reference to spiritual symbolism and a yearning to dissolve oneself. The album materialized gradually, with initial daf frame drum ideas sparking as part of her thesis at RMC. Allowing intuition to guide, tracks began with elements ranging from riffs to synthesizer presets. On a trip to London, she collaborated with Anyines label founder Villads Klint (Minais B) and NTS resident Coby Sey. Peter Bruhn Rasmussen contributed electric guitar, while Albert Hertz played acoustic. Rising Danish songwriter Fine Glindvad was a consultant in the final stages. “In the process of writing songs, I am always navigating a feeling of longing that appears when the melody is right,” she says. The end result is spry and mercurial, echoing keyboards and downtempo grooves cloaked in fuzz.
Idol Melodies is catchy and eclectic, inspired by Sufi dervishes, Madonna’s conversion to Kabbalah, and Googoosh’s displacement. “I have paraphrased Hafez in several places throughout the album and worked with circular movements in the productions,” Ghazal shares. On “Destinies and Melodies,” she sings of surrendering to inexplicable forces that yield creativity. Atop the silvery strums of “Numb,” she decompresses from a challenging period in which loved ones were hurt. “In My Room” is the tenderest moment, using adolescent introversion to probe a relationship with newly immigrated parents. The whole record is sonically direct, yet emotionally textured.
Weaving Middle Eastern percussion and English-Persian vocals, Ghazal cultivates protectivity. Associative streams impact a journey of self-dissolution and connection. “Something had been simmering in me, and it came out in the underlying melancholy and searching,” she muses. A current of change steers Idol Melodies, which ruminates on a breakup, personal crisis, and ensuing transformation. Flowering between stretches of malaise, Idol Melodies shrouds storminess in magic.
Unfolding from a place of quiet familiarity into widescreen cinematic scope, established composer and producer, Rebelski unveils his latest emotive single, “Roads.” A richly layered and immersive track that stands among the most expansive in his catalogue, the long-standing collaborator with artists including Doves, Peter Hook and The Light and Echo and The Bunnymen releases the single, rooted in cinematic, jet-age nostalgia, as he moves closer to the release of his latest album, Algorithms, on March 13, 2026.
Opening in recognizable Rebelski territory, “Roads” begins with a gently unfolding piano motif, intimate and reflective in tone before passing into territory built upon by a lineage of electronic and cinematic greats. Playing into stated late-20thCentury influences, Rebelski hints at David Axelrod’s orchestral soul, Boards of Canada’s hazy electronica and John Carpenter’s deeply affecting, narrative soundtracks in pushing forward Algorithms’ own, structured story.
Having previously light—touch released the first of the album’s singles, “Today,” in late 2025 (subsequently supported with attention from BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 3) and followed-up with the motorik “Momentum” at the turn of the year, Rebelski detailed Algorithms as the final album in a considered trilogy. Recorded in studios and outdoor spaces across Manchester, Barcelona, and Shropshire, the album follows 2023’s Simplicity and 2024’s Monochrome to form a document of artistic preoccupation, musical experimentation and human connection to vibration, tone and timing.
In releasing “Roads,” Rebelski’s music reads like the soundtrack to an unseen film, playing along to journeys spooling through memory, landscapes seen and moments remembered. Working towards a body of work that challenges the narrative of inevitable technological takeover and leaves untied edges where robotized perfection could attain ‘perfection,’ human-first recording techniques ensure organic detail sits at the heart of each composition.
Rebelski says: “The music on Algorithms tries to occupy the spaces in between motion and stillness and action and pause, taking up its own territory with quiet but definite, assertive confidence. Various influences, from film soundtracks to groundbreaking synth composition have been woven into a framework that’s relevant to the present, trying to balance out feelings of retro warmth and the need to document human presence in the music with recognition of contemporary recording practices.”
Pursuing personal solo endeavors in between meeting the uncompromising demands of international touring, Algorithms was completed in stolen periods off the road while absorbing the influence of each country Rebelski counts himself lucky to pass through.
