Contemporary Sounds from around the world…

It’s a new year and of course Now Sounds continue to be a major focus for us here at In Sheep’s Clothing… Each week the global listening community gets bombarded with new releases, reissues and restocks. As music freaks who read these missives and are attuned to the bounty regularly arriving, we love sharing great sounds. Below are some particularly crucial new arrivals, including two L.A. wildfire relief benefit compilations that we highly encourage you to check out and support!

Voice Actor & Squu – Lust (1)

Voice Actor, aka Noa Kurzweil, follows up their 2022 critically lauded debut Sent From My Telephone with Lust (1), a collaboration with Wales-based producer Squu. The album builds on Kurzweil’s dreamlike spoken word collages with more structured, dubwise downtempo beats. Drenched in spring reverb and delay, Kurzweil’s voice now appears through a haze of textures, sometimes chopped and obscured. Intimacy remains at the heart of Voice Actor’s work, though this time it’s sensuality and lust explored within the murky, swirling grooves. Based on the liner notes, harvesting and farming are at play here too? “Harvesting, too, can be a sensual affair, as one plucks ripe fruits and vegetables from the earth, feeling their warmth and succulence. Beyond the physical aspects, farming can also foster emotional intimacy.” — Phil

TYSON – Chaos

Every once in a while, I like to check the new arrivals of Harajuku’s legendary Big Love Records to see what they’re currently hyped on. I love how the shop’s selection is far-reaching in both a mainstream and obscure way (there’s currently a limited press Wah Wah Wino 12-inch on the same page as the new FKA Twigs album), and I’m often turned onto some great pop-leaning sounds that I might’ve otherwise missed. I discovered Chaos, the new EP from London-born singer-songwriter TYSON, in this way. The daughter of Neneh Cherry and producer Cameron McVey, TYSON comes from a family of musicians tracing back to Don Cherry and steps into her own world of R&B and downtempo beats. “300kHz (Low Frequency)” and “Glide” are the standouts here, with production from Oscar Scheller (Lady Gaga, PinkPantheress, Shygirl). If you’re into this, we also recommend checking out TYSON’s features on Dean Blunt’s 2023 album PRESSED. — Phil

Davis Galvin – Music To Watch Seeds Grow By 002

Davis Galvin’s latest work for Music to Watch Seeds Grow By centers on the Delphinium Elatum, a tall, striking perennial. Known for exploring the fringes of electronic music, the Pittsburgh-based artist crafts an ambient piece that mirrors the slow, deliberate process of a plant’s growth. Prism moves in gentle waves, its drones and textures unfolding gradually. Galvin’s deep-listening approach draws from the crackling dub of Pole, the looping minimalism of Jan Jelinek, and the glacial flow of Consumed-era Plastikman. Delphinium petals, they note, were key to shaping the piece. A prolific producer with releases on Is / Was and Fixed Rhythms, Galvin fluidly moves between techno, ambient, and improvisation. “If Prism has a purpose beyond sound, it’s still revealing itself,” they note in the release. At the right volume, its textures shift and multiply, revealing new details with each listen. — Randall

Pavel Milyakov & Lucas Dupuy – HEAL

Pavel Milyakov, known in the electronic music scene as Buttechno, is a Russian producer known for his minimal techno and ambient experimental tracks. His music blends ambient infusions, industrial echoes, and bottom-end dub. In collaboration with London-based visual artist Lucas Dupuy, whose work intersects language and form, drawing significant influence from 20th-century Brutalist architecture, they created HEAL, an electroacoustic ambient record influenced by 1990s–2000s era new age music, incorporating field recordings taken in Japan. The album is available as a limited edition hand-finished CD.​ — Randall

Ali Omar – Hashish Hits

Efficient Space’s latest archival release heads into the dubwise zone with a collection of tracks from Sydney underground icon Ali Omar (one-half of Atone with Andy Fitzgerald). Hashish Hits traces the blunted downtempo sound of Omar’s unique musical heritage: his father’s Arabic roots, early days clubbing in Manchester’s halcyon era, and years working as an MC in Sydney’s house, dub, jungle, and bass scene. The whole record is great, but be sure to check “Hashish” and “Suicide Bomber” for some amazingly wobbly dub grooves. — Phil

Various Artists – Staying: Leaving Records Aid to Artists Impacted by the Los Angeles Wildfires

In addition to being a love-fueled collection to benefit musicians affected by the wildfires, this new comp from Northeast LA label Leaving is a remarkable snapshot of Los Angeles music in the here-and-now. Ninety-eight tracks as a digital download, a triple cassette or a double LP, Staying features too much brilliance to list, but includes work by artists including label founder Matthewdavid, Total Blue, John Carroll Kirby, Julia Holter, Nite Jewel, Sam Wilkes, Nate Mercereau, Andre 3000 and dozens more. — Randall

bambinodj – Silent Dispatch

Ian Kim Judd (Fifth World on NTS, Nina Protocol)’s OST imprint reaches into post-club euphoria with the debut album of SoundCloud-famous producer bambinodj, aka Berlin-based Henry Aleksis. Silent Dispatch features gentle, floating dancehall, Amapiano, and contemporary club beats alongside masterfully crafted trance-infused melodies and chopped vocal samples. It’s a gorgeously produced virtual world that imagines the type of border-defying utopias reached on the world’s best dance floors. Even better, “Jus’ Pull Up” sounds a bit like a contemporary update of the Donkey Kong Country’s iconic “Aquatic Ambience” track, and I love that! — Phil

MK Velsorf & Aase Nielsen – Opening Night

Recorded live at the opening gala of the somewhat recently established New Theater Hollywood, Danish musicians MK Velsorf & Aase Nielsen were given the task of sonically setting the tone at various points throughout the night, using only an electric guitar, a keyboard, and minimal backing tracks. The recorded result is a collection of circular instrumental pieces tinged with an ’80s LA noir feel. The opening track “Prelude” blossoms out of an off-kilter looped string sample, with organ and guitar gently following, delightfully accenting the strings. “Santa Monica” and “Vine” could soundtrack an early ’90s downtrodden LA cop action drama. The last track, “Opening Night,” shifts in that the tone doesn’t change, but a field recording of the event is included, making it feel as though the end credits are rolling. The casual vibe and vagueness greatly contribute to why this one feels so effortlessly wondrous. — John

U.e. – Hometown Girl

U.e. (Ulla Strauss) dives deeper into the instrumental world with Hometown Girl, a quietly delicate affair featuring plenty of room sounds, upright piano, woodwinds, strings, voice, and live drums. Much like 2024’s Jazz Plates, a collaboration with sound artist Perila, Ulla takes a “people making music in the same room” approach on a number of the tracks, giving the recordings a familiar chamber quality. Room microphones (or is it iPhone?) capture all the intricacies of live performance, with the creaking of guitar strings and other silent sounds adding layers of color. Cute, looping electronic vignettes—the Ulla signature—are sprinkled throughout the record as well. Beautiful as always. — Phil

goldenstar – goldenstar EP

With the ever-expanding algorithmic slowcore revival occurring, one would assume newer bands that share any motif with the genre may be having a hard time finding their footing. Bands of this ilk truly shine by establishing a defined sonic tone above all else. Though a brief release, Goldenstar do just that on their debut self-titled EP. Opener “Sevenscore” saunters to a down-strummed guitar as two slightly panned vocals tug at one another before descending into a loose countdown accompanied by guitar textures that shimmer on the exterior. Instrumental “Torn Atwain” drifts in, anchored by a simple drum beat and a reversed-sounding guitar loop before being pulled down by a brief power chord riff, making for a tiny headbang moment. More samples, field recordings, and keys cleverly find their way into the track as it progresses. The considered mix and sound design matched with the succinct writing makes for a rewarding listen. — John

Various Artists – ESP Institute XV

Lovefingers’ legendary ESP Institute celebrates 15 years with a 90-track compilation dedicated to LA wildfire relief efforts. A native Angeleno, Lovefingers was directly impacted by the Palisades fires, which permanently damaged his home and the label’s headquarters (“the grounds incinerated and fire/smoke damage right up and onto its walls”). Proceeds from the compilation will be distributed bi-weekly to nonprofits including CalFund, MusiCares, GiveDirectly, Global Empowerment Mission, and Canine Rescue Club. The compilation encapsulates the magnitude of ESP’s release schedule—over 125 releases—with gems dating back to 2010 (Cos/Mes – Chaosexotica). One highlight is Chee Shimizu’s Tanzania chant world groover “Zeze,” a previously unreleased track from the Obscure Sound writer and Organic Music founder that has been in the works for over 15 years (supposedly originally meant to be ESP002). Let’s keep the benefit efforts going… Buy this release! — Phil

x or size – All Avail

Josiah Wolfson returns to Good Morning Tapes for their third release on the label, using the playful moniker X or Size. All Avail starts with a 10-minute mid-tempo shuffled beat drenched in wobbly melodic keys and delayed samples. “Anonymous AD” reclines further into a post-Donuts psychedelic beat style à la early Low End Theory. The record is constructed out of repurposed sounds and compressed textures that umbrella over stilted yet steady rhythms. It finally lands softly with the 11-minute-long title track, filtering through a celestial drone that gradually descends into silence. All Avail is murky and playful, embracing seemingly neglected methods of production to carve out new zones. — John

Marshall Allen – New Dawn

Space is still the place… Avant-garde jazz saxophone player Marshall Allen has been with the Sun Ra Arkestra since 1958 and the bandleader of the astral ensemble since Sun Ra’s passing in 1993. After celebrating his hundredth birthday, Allen was far from done “traveling the sonic spaceways,” and embarked on a journey to create his debut solo album New Dawn. Now at 100 years and 265 days old, Allen is certified as the oldest person to release a debut album. Rather than bookending an era, New Dawn presents itself as a new chapter for Allen — a love letter to spacetime that channels a century of musical transience and transcendence into seven outer dimensional tracks.

Ichiko Aoba – Luminescent Creatures

Ichiko Aoba’s Luminescent Creatures doesn’t introduce a new world so much as trace the outlines of what remains after one fades. A kinda-sorta sequel to 2020’s Windswept Adan, an album that imagined a girl exiled to an island where music and nature commingled, this new work lingers in the afterimage. “What would be left?,” Aoba asks in release notes accompanying the album. The answer unfolds gradually — through drifting melodies, arrangements that shimmer and dissolve, and a sound that feels untethered from time. With longtime collaborator Taro Umebayashi, Aoba constructs Luminescent Creatures with a balance of restraint and expansiveness. Her classical guitar remains central, but it now floats within a wide-ranging palette: orchestral strings, harp, flickering synths and chimes that hover at the edges of the sound. – Randall

Kelela – In The Blue Light

It’s been over a decade since LA-based singer Kelela released her foundational debut EP Cut 4 Me on Night Slugs affiliated label Fade to Mind. I remember attending an early show in 2013 at the iconic Roxy Theater in Hollywood where the singer opened for brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged aka inc. no world with support from Total Freedom (who now goes by Bobby Beethoven). The futuristic R&B presented that night, equally inspired by soul and the left-field club sounds explored at Mustache Mondays and Fade to Mind undergrounds, would come to define Los Angeles for much of the ’10s and even crossover into the mainstream pop and R&B worlds (see FKA twigs x inc, Frank Ocean, etc.)

Fast forward to 2025 – the sounds of Kelela and inc. continue to reverberate in Los Angeles and around the world. This past week, Kelela released a surprise live album on Warp Records titled In The Blue Light. Recorded over two nights at the Blue Note Jazz Club in NYC, the album features “unplugged” style renditions of tracks from across the singer’s decade-plus discography. Co-produced by inc. no world’s Daniel Aged, the performance is in many ways an expansion of the harp and piano-led live configuration that the singer showcased on her beloved Tiny Desk Concert last year. – Phil

Anadol & Marie Klock – La grande accumulation

This one’s from 2024, but we’re late on it! Beautifully unhinged chanson, oddball neo-folk, experimental chamber music, or whatever this is… The first collaboration between Turkish sound artist Anadol and French vocalist Marie Klock seemed destined to happen. The two met at a festival in England where a festival in England “crowded with violent seagulls and outsider musicians. Klock being prone to barking on stage and Anadol not laughing at jokes she doesn’t find funny, they straight away had the intuition that they would meet again.” We’ve been big fans of Anadol’s psychedelic, improvisational, lo-fi approach since her debut Uzun Havalar in 2019, and the addition of Klock’s whispers, chants, and spoken word adds a new layer of whimsical chaotic joy – or is it sadness? Hard to tell (we don’t speak French), but either way it’s a hell of a ride and loads of fun.