Blog & Features
Reviews, recommendations, and the odd rabbit hole — written by the people behind the counter.
Record of the Month: Air — Moon Safari
Ten songs. Forty-three minutes. Air’s Moon Safari turned vintage keyboards, soft-focus strings and imagined space travel into one of electronic music’s most enduring debut albums.
Inside A La Altura: Meet Mexico’s Experimental Music Pioneers
Meet five of the musicians behind A La Altura—from Luis Pérez’s reconstructed pre-Columbian orchestra and Jorge Reyes’s ritual electronics to Ana Ruiz’s radical free jazz.
Featured Record: Isaac Hayes — Hot Buttered Soul
Four songs. Forty-five minutes. One of the most consequential accidents in soul music — and the record that taught hip-hop how to sound patient.
From Dogrel to Dopamine Chamber: Why Fontaines D.C. Mean So Much to Us
From hearing “Too Real” for the first time to hosting our first listening party for Romance: why the constant evolution of Fontaines D.C. has become part of the story of...
Four Records We're Buzzed About
Pre-order season is doing something interesting right now — Bonobo, Westside Cowboy, Ezra Collective and Charli XCX all have new records worth knowing about before they land.
An introduction to... Contemporary Classical
Contemporary classical doesn't come with the baggage people sometimes expect from the word "classical." No dress code, no need to know your Beethoven from your Brahms. It's music written today,...
An introduction to... Spiritual Jazz
Deep, searching, and expansive — an introduction to Spiritual Jazz at 12 Bar.
An introduction to... World Music
Music pulled in from everywhere else — an introduction to the World Music shelf at 12 Bar.