August 2026 (part one)

You've heard of the Song of the Summer, sure, but twelve songs FROM the summer? Most of them but not all of them new releases? That's something you can only get from the Horse Combinations website. Let's take a look at the first half of our August 2026 playlist, now streaming exclusively on Tidal.

Helen - “Dead shark II”
I was so excited to hear that Liz Harris’ dream pop side project Helen has a new record coming out. Their 2015 debut The Original Faces is one of my all-time favorite records and a go-to recommendation when talking to ambientheads and experimental music lovers who might not know the lady from Grouper is in a band that sounds like Black Tambourine.

 


Space Afrika ft. Tony Njoku - “MLN”
This Space Afrika song is exactly the sort of downtempo, trip hop adjacent thing I’ve been loving lately. Tony Njoku, Space Afrika's fellow traveller in the world of genre agnostic electronic/ambient/whatever producers, checks in with a subtly fucked up vocal performance, enhancing the track’s already uncanny atmosphere.

July 2026 (part two)

We're here with the long-awaited followup to our last post: I've gone and blurbed eight more tracks I heard this summer and enjoyed. Let's get into it!

Cole Berliner - “The Black Door”
This new Cole Berliner record has been some extremely pleasant late summer listening, the sort of record that makes you want to invest in a rocking chair and a porch upon which to sit and watch the world go by.

Wishy - “All The Rage”
Another killer single from Wishy’s forthcoming LP Nature’s Pill, "All The Rage" is the band at their most cranked up, a hyperactive, harmony-laden fuzz pop nugget. I will continue writing about Wishy for as long as they keep being this good at making indie rock.

July 2026 (part one)

The flow of cool new songs doesn't stop and neither do the blog posts. Here are eight songs, mostly new ones but also one very old one, that I listened to in July and thought were good.

Trinity Ace - “Martyr”
I really like this track from Trinity Ace’s incredibly titled LP Learning to Be a Cowboy on the Horse That Broke My Arm, it reminds of 20 years ago when everything was “chamber pop” with “lush instrumentation.”

 


Windy & Carl with Optigan Conservatory - “Alvin Loving”
The first look at Windy & Carl’s new collaboration with electroacoustic duo Optigan Conservatory is nine minutes of smoky, slow moving ambience that has me intrigued to hear more.

June 2026 (part two)

It's time to again share some thoughts about some cool songs I listened to recently. Below is the followup to the first part of our overview of our June 2026 playlist, featuring nine blurbs about nine cool songs, new and old. 

Jonny Nash & Tomo Katsurada - “Sunshower Rite”
I’ve really been enjoying At The Emerald Pool, a collaborative album between frequent Horse Combinations appearer Jonny Nash and former Kikagaku Moyo frontperson Tomo Katsurada. Warm, dusky instrumentals share space with more vocal forward tracks, like the meditative single “Sunshower Rite.”

John Galm - “bonfire”
This new John Galm record, peace in the valley, is a fascinating, beautiful piece of work that foregrounds the ambient textures that occasionally punctuated his excellent last record, River of Blood. I’m told that most, if not all of these sounds were created by an acoustic guitar, which is an incredible thing to behold.

June 2026 (part one)

I'm back and never more behind schedule, but the grind continues and the cool songs don't stop. Here are some thoughts on ten cool songs I heard in June.

Hell Trash - “I Know You’re Wrong”
Friends of the blog Hell Trash return, channelling the spirit of We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes-era Death Cab For Cutie to meditate on personal and global despair and then play an awesome guitar solo.

Anysia Kym & Tony Seltzer - “To Death (Remix) (ft. 454)”
I’m absolutely loving the collection of reworks of Anysia Kym’s 2025 LP Purity. One of my favorite tracks on there is a remix of album opener “To Death,” which adds a killer guest verse from weirdo rapper 454.