After a few hectic weeks of hosting listening parties, radio shows, writing, and going out to shows, a feeling of calm is beginning to emerge at my end again (maybe). So today, during the quietude, I decided to throw on some music and jot down my thoughts. Here's a short rundown of four singles and albums I've been bumping lately from Now Always Fades, Duplokit, Clear Path Ensemble, and Faktta. I hope you all have a great week.

After 2025's excellent "Into The Doldrums" LP, Melbourne-based Australian singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and producer Now Always Fades returns with another lush downtempo single, 'Coalesce'. This time around, NAF teams up with the Los Angeles-based musician, graphic designer, DJ, model and multimedia artist Olive Kimoto, who seems to understand his dubby dream-pop sensibilities perfectly. This one is going straight into the sunset DJ set folder.

How about some breakbeat-oriented dance music composed using a set of lathe-cut locked-groove loops and a quad-arm customised turntable? If that sounds like your kind of thing, I'd suggest checking out "Warpdrive" by Duplokit, the studio/live project of New Zealand producer/DJ James Meharry aka JAMES IN REAL LIFE and his A/V collaborator Mike Hodgson aka Misled Convoy. Over 13 tracks, the record moves through a range of future-focused techno, breakbeat and jungle shapes.

Cory Champion is a New Zealand drummer, producer and DJ who makes dubby techno and electro as Borrowed CS and ambient jazz as Clear Path Ensemble. Sometimes Clear Path is a band. Sometimes it's more of a solo project. He also drums for Fat Freddy's Drop. Cory is a busy boy. "Ascending" is his fourth album as Clear Path Ensemble. Opening in the spirit of late '70s to early ‘80s minimalism and new age, the songs blend lush chords and rolling percussion into reflective soundscapes. "Ascending" is a gift that keeps on giving.

"Intro/Have Some Yakitori" is the first single from Faktta, an emerging producer and DJ based in Bali, Indonesia. Raised in Jakarta, she'd been quietly building a reputation for weaving broken beat, melancholic melodies and gamelan-influenced polyrhythms into emotive DJ sets. Faktta's wide-ranging sound has seen her DJ alongside Vegyn, Tame Impala and Austin Millz. Percussive, bouncy and bumpy, "Intro/Have Some Yakitori" is a moody dancefloor banger for the weirder, later hours when the evening becomes the morning.