August 2025 (Part 1)

It's been a pretty nice August so far! I hope you can say the same. We caught a couple of really great shows (Orchestra Resavoir at Millennium Park, Death Cab For Cutie's Plans anniversary show at the Chicago Theatre) and just got back from a trip to London. The most Horse Combinations-adjacent part of the trip was an incredible meal at "mu", a jazz club/Japanese restaurant, which featured a solo piano set from Noel Art and some really fantastic food.

 

Anyways here's some thoughts on ten songs I heard this month and loved. These tracks and more can be found on the Horse Combinations August 2025 playlist, now streaming exclusively on Tidal.

Natural Information Society - “Sideways Fall”
I’ve been a casual fan of Natural Information Society for years, throwing on their long form, loping jams every few months while reading or making dinner. I'm always happy to see them pop up as an opening act at shows here in Chicago; their set before Angel Olsen at Thalia Hall back in 2023 was 45 minutes of driving, interlocking grooves that set the tone nicely for Olsen's mystic longing. This summer, NIS is releasing releasing a trio of career-spanning compilations/mixtapes, Meditation, Momentum, and the forthcoming Manifestation. “Sideways Fall” is one of my favorite songs from Momentum, a collection of propulsive tracks that best captures the vibe of their performance that night in 2023.

Michael Beach - “Sick Century”
This new Michael Beach record is awesome. I wasn’t familiar with the guy at all prior to this, but his fifth LP reminds me of a grittier, more authentic version of The War On Drugs’ spiritual take on classic rock or like if Mark Hollis and Crazy Horse made a record together. This is one for the real heads.

Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, Macie Stewart - “Stone Piece I”
The debut collaboration from a trio of Chicago experimental/ambient/classical vets, “Stone Piece I” is the A side of a tape that acts as a preview of a full length LP coming from Johnson/Kohl/Stewart next year. Overlapping, subtly manipulated tape loops drawn from a series of improvised recording sessions, the track is a smoky, swirling mass of strings and voice.

Maps and Diagrams - “x = left-right"
I made a Bluesky account for Horse Combinations mostly because I was too self-conscious to make an Instagram account for my blog and will obviously not be getting back on Twitter for any reason but wanted an additional place to promote the site beyond my locked personal Instagram account. I followed a bunch of music writers, bands, and record labels on there and have been finding out about a ton of stuff I would have otherwise missed, like this Maps and Diagrams record released on boutique record label Handstitched*.

Anysia Kym & Tony Seltzer - “Speedrun”
10k recording artist Anysia Kym’s 2024 record Truest deserved way more attention than it got, a collection of miniaturized R&B bangers and song sketches that sounded like a tour of your most talented friend’s voice memo app. The first single from her upcoming collaborative album with Tony Seltzer, the producer behind Horse Combinations favorite MIKE’s Pinball and its sequel, is a level up for Kym, an irresistible, perversely short jam that seems engineered to be looped endlessly until the album drops in September.

Luke Schneider - “For Dancing In Quiet Light”
I’ve been a fan of pedal steel guru, frequent William Tyler collaborator, and artisanal incense maker Luke Schneider since reading about his debut solo LP Altar of Harmony on Aquarium Drunkard back in 2020. After a pair of albums on Third Man, he’s linked up with titans of 21st century new age Leaving Records for a new EP inspired by Lou Reed’s 2007 meditation soundtrack Hudson River Wind Meditations. On the title track Schneider layers and processes his pedal steel into gleaming, unrecognizable forms to accompany listeners on a journey inwards.

 

Big Dumb Baby - “Stupid Baby”
Noah from Hell Trash sent me this Big Dumb Baby track and I think it’s really good. This is the latest instance I’ve encountered of up-and-coming indie rock bands drawing from the sort of twee, kitchen sink production and wide-eyed, earnest vocals of Saddle Creek and Asthmatic Kitty type bands from the early to mid 2000s. The children yearn for Architecture in Helsinki and I think that’s great. 

 

Greg Foat & Art Themen - “Apres Ski”

I threw on this Greg Foat & Art Themen record when packing for a trip to London earlier this month, a collection of instrumental, library music jams from a pair of UK jazz icons. Please ignore that it’s August and I’m trying to set a vibe with a record ostensibly designed to soundtrack an alpine skiing trip somewhere in Northern Europe.

The Durutti Column - “Otis”
The house we rented in London came equipped with a little Alexa device in each room. I was reading in bed one morning, waiting for my wife to finish up her shower, when I remembered I could yell a demand for music at the machine sitting on the desk nearby. I thought it’d be funny to say out loud to no one “Alexa, play The Durutti Column” and it was. This song rules.

Talk Talk - “Ascension Day”
I rarely end up in record stores when visiting another city, in my experience most shops with any sort of personality or POV have been priced out of their neighborhoods or otherwise forced to surrender. I was so thrilled to check out London’s World of Echo, a record store for weirdos full of rarities, used obscurities, and new LPs from esoteric European indies and American underground institutions. Any LPs I picked up would probably not make it through a transatlantic flight without at least a few bent corners so I made my way to their modest cassette section, which is where I found a copy of Talk Talk’s Laughing Stock, one of the best albums ever made. Sure it’s sort of hilarious to own a tape of a masterpiece designed to be heard in the highest fidelity possible, but as a totem to remind me of our nice trip to London for a friend’s wedding, it’s perfect.

We'll be back soon with more songs and more blurbs, for now check out August 2025's work in progress embedded below!