02-08-2026
Intro, by Rosvita (2003)
[links to be posted shortly]
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All I could say/think after listening to this for the first time was "holy shit," especially given the relatively unassuming appearance at first as it builds up towards this all-encompassing climax. I was immediately prompted to make the time to listen to the whole album, which proved more than worthwhile. This record reaches an intoxicating immensity I can only compare to that of Jessamine's The Long Arm Of Coincidence LP (which I discussed back on 01-22-2026). Incredibly powerful stuff here, punching well above its weight.
02-07-2026
Dark Blue, by Blue (1996)
[links to be posted shortly]
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Give this one a minute to settle in; it grows so monumentally funky in such a nasty, nasty way. It feels odd to call this song a headbanger in the same respect that I would heavy metal, but it absolutely has that effect. I just love how it pulls you into the undertow so suddenly and immersively. The drop on this thing is so thick.
02-06-2026
Narrow Road, by Ukiyo-e (2001)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Getting to the point where none of the songs in my "queue" to talk about here feel fitting for where my taste is right now. That said, I often get quite lucky in these moments and my need to discover something new and exciting rarely ever ends up unsatisfied. Music remains this beautifully endless frontier where you don't need to know what you're looking for to find it. I immediately dug the jungle-esque drums over the charming melody pulsing through this track, and it really endeared itself to me with these more introspective, slowed-down refrains peppered throughout to let the percussion breathe. Ecstatic to have stumbled across this today.
02-05-2026
All Together, by Zomes (2008)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Always my go-to when I'm feeling disregulated and need something to bring me back to equilibrium. I have a very single-track, easily-distracted mind, and Zomes' self-titled record is the only thing that has ever worked as true background music for me. It's to the point where I'll use it like some people use crystals and such for their "healing properties", which I admit is silly, but even just knowing that it's playing calms me down. It's a real treasure to me.
02-04-2026
Grateful Aren't We?, by Magnétophone (2000)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Similar sentiment to yesterday, just with a more electrical impulse. I particularly like listening to this one at the tail end of a run or whenever I really need a second wind. Provides a good shock to the system.
02-03-2026
Sandpatch, by Chessie (1999)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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When I'm running on empty, I've got a handful of songs that I can fall back on as my proverbial fuel reserve. Most (if not all) are machine-like in nature, much like this one, and have this sort of perpetual impetus behind them that keeps me chugging along. Chessie is better known from his future line of work as the eventual CEO of Amtrak from 2022-2025. Funnily enough, he cited trains as the primary inspiration behind this record. Very full circle.
02-02-2026
November, by Scoutmaster (2019)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Certain descriptors/qualities of music supersede any sort of categorization by genre (for me, at least). For instance, I think songs of every genre have the capacity to really break your heart. It's rare, though. Yet another one of those things that you find yourself seeking as you explore new music but can never reliably find. This track really pulls it off, which I'm glad to say considering that most music released in the past decade seems to carry noticeably less emotional depth. Not only in a lyrical sense -- voices also strike me as much less genuine (or maybe they're just over-produced, I don't know). Vocals that come across as shameless, desperate yearning always bring me to my knees. The closer a song brings me to crying, the better. November is kind of Grouper-esque in that way. I also just found out that this vocalist is Karly Hartzman from Wednesday, which perhaps nullifies the whole obscurity thing... but I'm very glad to see that she found some commercial success after this.
02-01-2026
Colossus, by Lanterna (1995)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Another nice consequence of expanding your listening profile is that you get somewhat of a broader toolset for changing your mood or outlook on something. Colossus is a perfect example of this; it washes over you entirely and carries your thoughts away in the tidal pattern that persists beneath the noise. It's almost like being calmed down by force, which is a really unique feeling to evoke. I love the ability that certain songs have to meet a hyper-specific emotional niche. And it's a joy to hunt for that sort of thing in particular, especially since you're not limiting yourself by genre or anything else (though much of it ends up being ambient-adjacent).
01-31-2026
Mad At The Man, by The Warmers (1996)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Yesterday's footnote track shifted my mood towards songs that are effectively just angry tirades over some equally rambunctious guitars and percussion. Broadening the horizons of what you listen to is rewarding for many reasons, but chiefly for always giving you somewhere to land when your current taste begins to grow a little stale. The Warmers are fronted by Alec MacKaye, younger brother of Fugazi frontman Ian MacKaye. While the latter has a more complex and developed sound, I often prefer to listen to the former's style of unfiltered, rebellious thrashing. Mad At The Man is infectious in its unrestrained pissed-off-ness, which is always welcome after something like a shitty day at work.
01-30-2026
Breaking The Ice, by Liquorice (1995)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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I was obsessed with this one for quite a long time. It made me desperately look for more vocal performances from Dan Littleton, only to find that he almost always takes a back seat vocally -- save for maybe one song on every other project he contributes to (The Hated's catalog notwithstanding). He's not a faultless vocalist, but his voice scratches that perfectly-imperfect itch where it feels unapologetically human yet still manages to sound sublime. The slow build-up of twee-ish angst pays off beautifully about three-and-a-half minutes in, when Dan proceeds to belt out these last few bars with a raw, palpable vulnerability that I find really special. As a whole, I prefer his work with Ida in this alt-rocky/slowcore genre, but Breaking The Ice easily takes the cake as my favorite individual track. I can't finish writing this without at least mentioning Words Come Back[1] as another one of my absolute favorites too, despite being a dynamically different type of song. This guy has a deeply underrated body of work with some real gems across various collaborations.
[1]Words Come Back, by The Hated — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-29-2026
Let The Blood Wash Over, by Bestamo (2016)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Since I'm still hyperfixated on it, here's a more modern example of what I've been talking about for the past two days. Once again, I consider the word "mundane" to represent a feeling infinitely more powerful than "boring" or "unremarkable". I continue to assert that mundaneity can be enthralling, and going back to my earlier discussion on minimalism, it's much deeper than the mere absence of something. Rather, when implemented effectively, it strikes a chord with the things in our lives that are familiar and/or ordinary, and it colors them a more vibrant hue. No matter where I am, this track always gives new life to the world around me.
01-28-2026
On The Green, by Doldrums (1997)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Forgive me for allowing yesterday's discussion to bleed over into today; I'm a little transfixed on mundaneity and how brilliantly the feeling is represented in some of the music from this era. This track isn't mundane in the sense that it's uneventful or quiet in any way, but it manages to posit even its most hardcore moments as natural parts of the intense, brooding atmosphere that Doldrums managed to cultivate here. Very brutalist, very industrial, but with a more nuanced sense of foreboding that just feels ominously immersive. The ability to evoke such a visceral sensation always astounds me, and it's something that very few songs are able to achieve. I feel similarly about Funkadelic's Maggot Brain[1], for example.
[1]Maggot Brain, by Funkadelic — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-27-2026
Lleno, by Dogon (1996)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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The style of ambient minimalism that defines this track is kind of a lost art now. It's hard for me to picture anything contemporarily minimalist that isn't devoid of all personality whatsoever, which makes Lleno a refreshing reminder. I've come to appreciate these sounds that haven't been successfully revived in any sort of meaningful way (yet), because they have a special ability to bring me back to the past. The distinctly unique Y2K brand of futurism is present in every facet here, blissfully unclouded by anything else. I think modern attempts at recreating this style fail to capture or understand the more mundane aspects which, in retrospect, were very clearly thought through and demonstrated real care/consideration for the design philosophy. Those elements are perfectly developed on this song to immerse you deeply within that urban minimalist utopia aesthetic, making the 8-minute runtime breeze right by. It's almost like something you'd find on a particularly stellar soundtrack for an old PlayStation game.
01-26-2026
Luftsang, by Bows (2001)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Getting into trip-hop was likely the genesis of my taste expanding towards a less streamlined type of sound (and eventually into the ultra-obscure), but I haven't been able to capture/find the same magic that Portishead's Dummy gave me all those years ago. Luftsang comes close. This whole album does, really. It embodies the best of that full-bodied pang you'd get from the likes of Overcome, by Tricky[1], or Lusty, by Lamb[2], without overdoing it. The accompanying airiness feels like a fresh take against the harsher elements of the genre as well. Those elements are certainly still present here, just in tasteful moderation. That unprocessed, boom-bap-ish harshness in a lot of trip-hop wears a little thin on me now, so the nuance exercised here makes a really welcome difference.
[1]Overcome, by Tricky — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
[2]Lusty, by Lamb — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-25-2026
Soliliquy, by Cling. (1996)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Fun fact: this band is fronted by Phoebe Augustine, better known as the actress who played Ronette Pulaski in Twin Peaks. You tend to find a lot of interesting characters in obscure short-lived acts of this era. Really solid dreampop here that's perfectly emblematic of its time, definitely a little cliché in retrospect but in a way that I really enjoy listening to now. It makes me want an old beater car to drive around the Midwestern countryside in. I miss having a built-in CD player.
01-24-2026
Foreign Satellites, by Dorothy's (2024)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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This duo hasn't released anything beyond a four-song EP (as far as I can tell), but I'm not sure that they have plans for any further output. I hope that the underwhelming streaming numbers to-date haven't deterred them. Foreign Satellites in particular is a really wonderful homage to the dreamy shoegaze/pop of the aughts and late '90s. That style of music is in a big revival right now, but rarely have I heard it executed as well as this. Another good, less-obscure example is Days Incomplete, by Fine[1]. Selfishly, I'd like to see Dorothy's try to take on a sound as monumental as Milk, by Sweet Trip[2]. I think their brief catalog shows they have the chops to pull that off.
[1]Days Incomplete, by Fine — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
[2]Milk, by Sweet Trip — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-23-2026
Le Dialogue Des Joueurs De Cartes, by Sebastian Gandera (1994)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Hard for me not to choose one of the more eccentric tracks from this project (because it does get rather bizarre at times), but this one is just too beautiful. Le Dialogue Des Joueurs De Cartes absolutely crushes me, despite not usually being the type of listener to be so moved by a piano-only piece. Don't let this turn you off from the record at-large if that doesn't appeal to you; most songs on the Le Raccourci collection showcase much more complex and eclectic production, all of which serve to make this sonata such an incredible reprieve. For a retrospective compilation of an artist who doesn't appear to have released a full-length project, this 2018 anthology is stunningly cohesive.
01-22-2026
You May Have Forgotten, by Jessamine (1996)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Been waiting for the right time to talk about this one. Another of my absolute all-time favorites, both as an individual track and as a complete record. My partner and I inadvertently followed the footsteps of Jessamine in our migration from Ohio to Seattle, which I'll gladly embrace as a sentimental reason to love them even more. This song nails my personal sweet spot between dissonant wonkiness and moments teasing at melodic resolution, topped off by my love for Dawn Smithson's style of vocals amidst the ensemble of quirked-up instruments/sounds that are deployed throughout this 10-minute heater. Blaring this in oversized headphones makes me feel like my brain is being peeled apart like string cheese. Separately, the lead-up and transition between the first[1] and second[2] tracks on this album may genuinely be my favorite moment in all of music. Basslines later on in You May Have Forgotten refer back to this transition beautifully, so I suggest listening to the record in full to appreciate the greater context. This thing is fucking electric.
[1]Say What You Can, by Jessamine — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
[2]...Or What You Mean, by Jessamine — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-21-2026
Reflecting Tides, by The Concaves (2003)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Somewhat surprisingly, this record as a whole has become one of the most formative contributions to what my taste is today. Ever since I first came across it, I've really begun to adore the presence of surf in any song. As someone who is very far from being any sort of music expert/critic whatsoever, it's also been rather educative on how elements of surf ended up in metal and other styles that seem completely unrelated on the surface. I think it's my favorite CD in my fledgling physical media collection (as of posting this). Just incredibly smooth all the way through. It may be a fairly basic surf sound to more seasoned ears; I don't know enough to make that sort of judgment. But it's a very special and novel sound to me. I had a tough time choosing between this track and The Green Flash[1], both being really great cuts.
[1]The Green Flash, by The Concaves — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-20-2026
One Hand One Noise, by Trash of Dreams (2005)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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The isolation of the guitar on this track is so piercingly sweet as the track builds itself around it, slowly adding these progressively more abrasive elements but never drowning out the emotional central melody. It's the kind of song I wish was a 25-minute-long slow burn. Really fell in love with this last year and could not stop playing it for a good couple of weeks.
01-19-2026
Matinées, by Spring (1995)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Heard this one for the first time only yesterday and it immediately shot to the front my queue for posting here. The angelic French/English vocals over the dinstinctly cinematic riff make for a really enthralling sound. Similar to a lot of Piero Umiliani's work in its ability to surround you and make you feel more present in the world, in a deeply romantic and captivating way.
01-18-2026
Bring The Leeches, by Nuzzle (1995)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Another one where the name fits perfectly and elevates a song that's already fantastic on its own merits. A trait equally matched by the lead track from the same LP (remastered in 2025 for its 30th anniversary) as well, titled The Sorting That Evens Things Out[1]. Both of these are absolute neckbreakers. I just found out that Nuzzle is playing a single show in San Francisco this March while I'll be on the opposite coast for a work trip. Easily my biggest heartbreak of 2026 so far.
[1]The Sorting That Evens Things Out, by Nuzzle — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-17-2026
Follow, by Edith Frost (1997)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Edith Frost's Calling Over Time LP is the gem of my deep dive into the late Steve Albini's illustrious resumé a few years back, and definitely somewhat of a departure from the projects he's most associated with. I'm very fond of Edith not only for her music (which she's still releasing!), but also her personal YouTube channel, which itself is a relic of a bygone era. It has these impromptu home studio recordings interspersed with general snippets from her life that all just feel so cozy and sincere. I chose Follow to break my recent pattern of posting more palatable/predictable songs; if you're unmoved, still give some of her other stuff a listen. This record as a whole is worth sitting with regardless, I promise. While Edith's artful melancholy is most present on this track in particular, it remains a consistent and compelling theme throughout. Very lovely (albeit somber) and very dear to me.
01-16-2026
Grand Central, by Hydroplane (1999)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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There's a subtleness to the immensity here until the bubbling instrumentation underscoring the track severely overstays its welcome beyond cessation of all other parts of the song. A minute and a half of this doesn't sound like an eternity, but it will bore violently into your skull and repeat itself ad infinitum. None of this is a criticism whatsoever; Grand Central is unquestionably metal for what is otherwise a simple, jangle-poppy song on the surface. It feels almost sinister.
01-15-2026
Workhorse, by Friendship (2017)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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My work often takes me into banks, so my partner rather enjoys that the first words of this song are "I went to the bank," given the very literal application to my life (only in that one line, mind you). Silly as it may be, I always think of her and smile when Workhorse comes on. I had already adored this track to begin with and I'm glad it found reason to be a little more special to me in that way. It's a clever, catchy tune attached to some quintessential Midwestern self-deprecating lyrics that make me miss Ohio. A really good working-class indie anthem circa 2017.
01-14-2026
Roomservice, by The Living Room (1994)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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It's like elevator music, but the elevator in question is fucking sick. Made entirely of chrome, maybe. This track is a reliable mood lifter for me no matter how I'm feeling. Album art reminds me of Roots by Ian Carr's Nucleus, and both of these projects just ooze funk.
01-13-2026
El desayuno, by Abeja (2021 2005?[1])
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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I've now proven myself a liar several times over per my comment on 01-10-2026 about not posting new(er) songs. Forgive me for thinking it wise to set any rules in the first place. I went hunting for pop music a couple days ago and ended up with a handful of great tracks, both old and new. El desayuno was the clear highlight and it's been the bug in my ear since. While there's nothing particularly novel or ambitious about this very classic twee sound, it feels more in lockstep with the essence of that era than a lot of the homages I hear today. I'm probably talking out of my ass, but I'll sit here and enjoy the nostalgia all the same. It's okay if your reason for liking something is made up, as long as you still like it. Don't think too hard.
[1]EDIT: Turns out this song is 20 years old. While I'm glad this vindicates my thoughts on it, I'm now second-guessing all the information I've put on this site so far. There's even a music video (not that it isn't obscured by time, at least). The music video, however, is utterly delightful, so the song has endeared itself to me even more. As far as I can tell, it never really reached an english-speaking audience, so I'm counting it. Maybe I'll do more research next time. Probably not.
01-12-2026
Logo, by Diabologum (1993)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Today begs for something more introspective that I hope might spark my creative fervor. In my opinion, this is where obscure music really shines; the experimentality in the fringes offers for endless possibilities. Logo is highlighted by two instances of a woman simply saying "John?" (or more likely Jean/Jeanne), first in a subtly panicked tone, and then a minute later, in a way where that panic has fully set in and the speaker is resigned to whatever fate awaits her. I've got no idea if it's a sample or the artist themselves, but it's one of the most memorable vocal performances in any song I've listened to, despite not having many lyrics to speak of at all. The nuance in how just one pronunciation changes as the song progresses evokes this deep, haunting fearfulness, heightened further by the heartbeat-esque drum pattern and dreary persistence of the guitar.
01-11-2026
Som En Sol, by Toxe (2024)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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A rare pop entry -- I do love pop music, but I struggle to find much that meets my asinine requirements for obscurity. A language barrier helps in that respect, but Toxe being Swedish does not detract whatsoever from the joy of listening and dancing along to her music as a non-speaker. She first crossed my radar thanks to a playlist made by Operelly, a fantastic newer artist in her own right (with incredible taste, to boot). This track in particular is just so infectious. The little video loop that plays for Som En Sol on Spotify is a point-of-view shot of getting punched square in the face, which is a nice touch.
01-10-2026
Biti Six, by Bamba Pana (2018)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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This will likely be the only track I post about from an album that I listened to on release, given that my prerogative is almost exclusively to discover music from artists whose moments have largely passed. It's long enough ago that I don't remember how exactly Bamba Pana came across my radar, but I'm grateful that he did. His Poaa LP introduced me to Tanzanian singeli, touted as one of the fastest music styles in the world, which kept me awake in grad school before I realized I was decades overdue for needing an Adderall prescription. His Boiler Room set is pretty special, too. Check out Duke and Sisso for more like this. I've found some other gems by perusing the Nyege Nyege Tapes backcatalog as well.
01-09-2026
Low Dexterity Points, by Pot Valiant (1994)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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It took a long time and some very intentional curation, but my Spotify algorithm has become surprisingly prescient in knowing what albums I might like. The success rate of these recommendations is probably only something like 2%, but with the amount of music I consume, that's a pretty successful return. Pot Valiant's Transaudio LP is memorable as one of my first examples of an in-app recommendation hitting it out of the park. Even now, it's unlikely that I'll acknowledge Spotify recommendations in favor of the many other ways out there to find new/old music, but I was a complete sucker for the gorgeous album art on this record. The conversational, chant-like flow on Low Dexterity Points gives shades of Slint and sets the track a touch apart from the rest of the album, especially as it ramps up after each verse. That said, it's a stellar project all the way through. It skirts my personal definition of obscure (which is needlessly strict, I admit), so I'll let this be an exercise in being less anal about that sort of thing. Great music is great music, which is more or less the whole point.
01-08-2026
Souvenir, by Polska (2010)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Souvenir evokes an emotion that I've never heard another electronic song quite be able to capture. It's reminiscent of Vatican Shadow's harsh, industrial, war-like soundscapes (see Kneel Before Religious Icons), with a little more unpredictability and irregularity. When it picks up speed about a minute in after setting this fearful, foreboding tone, oof. I feel like I can run straight through a brick wall.
01-07-2026
Sniper at the Gates of Dawn, by Panel Donor (1994)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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I like songs that spend most of their runtime leading up to some brief vocal outburst at/near the end. Sniper at the Gates of Dawn does that flawlessly with about a minute and some change to go. You get four bars of pure, pent-up anger alongside the crying drawl of a guitar straying painfully from its original pattern, before the track settles back into its initial progression and fades. The song is aptly named, too. I remember it sounding exactly like I was hoping it would when I played it for the first time a few years ago, given the imposingness of the title and album art. I judge a song/album by its name or cover much more often than I probably should, but it's a useful filter when there's too much music to sort through (even if it's a little superficial).
01-06-2026
Eleusis, by Waterwheel (1996)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Nothing informs my music taste at any given moment more than anxiety. It manifests in many ways, whether that's needing something peaceful to act as a counterbalance, needing something intense to mirror an elevated heart rate, or any number of other things. Eleusis makes me feel like I'm drowning. It mimics the liminality of being in something like a cathedral with its eerie atmosphere and stillness, but simultaneously maintains this steadfast assurance of calm. It's a good song for when my world feels a little too narrow or suffocating and I need to step back for a minute. It plays in my head when I read or think of the poem Image, by Louise Glück.
01-05-2026
Chemia, by Dark Arts (1991)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Here's a beloved one from my darling Columbus, Ohio. It's an adventurous exercise in adding a thick layer of funk on top of this already-eclectic, gothic record, which I would never have expected to hit quite as hard as it does. The track is accentuated by these gnarly flute runs and an intermittent tickling of two notes on a sheepish guitar, both of which add this intoxicating element unlike anything else I've listened to before. It's such a unique song that it's usually a jarring change of pace from whatever else I'm listening to, but it's just so much fun to sit with that I rarely ever skip past it. Having some funky ethereal goth rock in my repertoire makes life feel a little less boring.
01-04-2026
A Painting, by Growing (2003)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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Admittedly, this track is a much harder sell than the ones I've posted about so far, but it's without a doubt one of my favorite songs ever made. It's daunting and exhausting at over a 17-minute runtime, and honestly, I only listen to it in earnest a few times a year. You've got this beautiful introductory sequence that leads into an unrelenting assault of cymbals swelling to a fever pitch, then settling into this slow, droning hum for nearly ten minutes. All ten minutes are necessary for the listener to recover before a shrieking electric guitar pierces through and sets up this sweet, calm melodic riffing that plays as the track trails off. I rarely feel like I have the bandwidth to take this on in its entirety, but when the conditions are right for me to fully surrender to it, it's always an intense and powerful experience. It makes the breeze feel a little more crisp and painful on my face in a way that just feels very alive. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but I think this song is a real masterpiece.
01-03-2026
Pacifier, by Circus Lupus (1992)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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When I get a late start to the day, I tend to need something much more abrasive to shake me out of my lethargy and get me moving. The more raw and pure the abrasiveness is to my senses, the better. It follows then that I'd be a big fan of screaming in music, but it's rare that it satisfies the level of dry-throated rawness that I'm seeking in those moments. To be honest, what I want is the closest thing to being punched in the mouth, spitting out blood, and throwing a punch back. That's what really does it for me, with the supporting instrumentation adding to that effect. Pacifier has long been a track that I've used as an audial cocaine, especially if I've got some feelings of anger or frustration stewing in my back pocket. I get a good kick out of how the word "subtle" is ironically pronounced later in the song, too. While I've got plenty of tracks I like to sing along to, there's very few I like to scream along to. This is certainly one of those.
01-02-2026
Where She Lives Everyday, by Bexar Bexar (2003)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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About a decade ago, I spent a summer working 14 hour shifts at a bread factory in my hometown. It was sweltering and loud, and I spent every shift standing at these old conveyor belts sorting hot dog buns for hours on end against this maddening backdrop of machines grating and whirring. I was really only able to get through it with my mind still intact by falling into a sort of trance, where my only active brain function was to repeat some small fragment of a song in my head over and over and over again. The core melodic element of today's song is a good example of what kind of musical progressions I would default to. Often times these song fragments will perpetually linger in my thoughts until they intersect with something new in my life, after which they'll latch on to that moment and become irrevocably tied to its memory. I really enjoy when that happens. If you're interested in some further related listening, I find that this song transitions incredibly well into Salt Flats, by Dermaptera[1], a similarly obscure and pleasant track from 2007.
[1]Salt Flats, by Dermaptera — YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
01-01-2026
And Never Pull, by Difference Engine (1994)
YouTube / Spotify / Apple Music
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The lead-in for this track gives me a visceral feeling of being shocked to life and immediately just hitting the ground running, which is perhaps fitting given the timing and motivations of starting this blog project. The tentative methodology here is to browse through my ever-growing catalog of obscure songs first thing every morning, queue up whatever seems like it may set or match the tone for the day, and listen for whichever one resonates the most while I jog around the neighborhood. That said, this is really just a thinly-veiled excuse to hold myself to account for some things I've decided to commit to in the new year: (1) meaningfully exercising every morning; (2) learning some basic skills in CSS and HTML; and (3) allocating time every day towards something I'm passionate about. More than anything, that passion is the appreciation of how much music we have at our fingertips that's either been lost to time or never received much attention to begin with. And Never Pull is the third track off of Difference Engine's debut album from 1994, Breadmaker, a record I was really blown away by after stumbling across it early last year. Front-to-back, I find that playing it aloud fills the space with a force that manages to really energize my spirit. It's a force that I want to make a concerted effort to harness in support of the endeavors I'm pursuing this year, so this song naturally strikes me as one that's symbolic of new beginnings and starting out on the right foot.