Rambling Fox

May 2026 music round-up

Art by Sancoon

Hello May, how the hell are we here already? In any case, this is a slightly lighter update; most of the music events happened either really early or really late into the month, and I didn't actually get to spend as much time with tunes during that big middle period. But we make do what we have.

New Music Immediate Impressions

May didn't actually have all that much new music. Or it did, but I just somewhat lost touch of it a bit. So this month's impressions list is going to be rather short.

Boards of Canada - Inferno

But at least I've spent time with the hottest drop of the month. It's wild how BoC have become such a genuinely gigantic thing and the album's release date felt like a genuine pop culture Event - not bad for an ambient act. Inferno, I think, is worth the long waiting period - it's a really striking, beautiful piece of work. Each BoC album has a very specific mood to it and the angle they've chosen for Inferno is something close to distressing and apocalyptic at times. It's a hefty, heavy piece of work - between the traditional walls of ambient sound, the extensive use of vocal samples (and in one song cutting and splicing them to form a pseudo-rap) and the return of more marked live instruments and samples thereof, there's a whole lot going on in the soundworld. The mood is forlorn, worn-out and sad, like we're listening to a requiem for a lost something. And still, it manages to find something calm in that storm, to lend a comforting hand as it needs to. It's a great album, and it's only going to get better with more time I reckon.

And then there's the other stuff...

I do want to give a quick shout-out to some of the other new releases of the month which I've not spent enough time with to really list here - I'll catch up properly later this year, I swear, life's just been busy. But as a rapid fire summary... The new Broken Social Scene album is pretty good, feels almost cosy in its how positively familiar it feels, reminiscent of a particular point in time with its sound. Car Seat Headrest's reimagined version of Teens of Denial is... strange, and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it other than wonder why exactly they've done this, but I'll get it checked out properly when the physical version drops later this year. And the reboot debut from Horse Club (FKA Bałtyk) sounds to be a strong continuation of where he left off with his last project, but I just haven't had the time to dig into it any deeper; looking forward to getting the chance though.

Hoard Updates

Ah, here we go again.

CD

Digital

Most of the CDs this month came from a record fair I attended with a friend, and which I left with a whole bunch of electronic music albums and CD singles in my tote bag. It was a lovely morning's shop, and a little treat for myself perhaps.

There are two key purchases this month among the discs. One is that ME REX album - a band I discovered a few months back but haven't really started properly listening until May. I became obsessed with Giant Elk and basically spent the first half of the month rinsing it endlessly. It's a really inspired slice of classic millennial-style British-twanged maximalist indie - a lot of descriptive checkboxes I love ticking - but still with their own sound. They're still a young group so I'm super excited to see where they go, I think a new album is coming up later this year? The other purchase I'm particularly chuffed to have is the original soundtrack for Around the World With Willy Fog and Dogtanian & the Three Muskehounds, in Español as that was the original language (img). Willy Fog was a formative experience for me and I love it music, and I had no idea it had been issued on CD just a few years back. An immediate purchase the moment I discovered it. The liner notes are great as well and all in English, indicating this is very much for the fans of the show from all over the globe even if it only represents the original Spanish tracks. Really giddy to have this in my shelf, even if these aren't the versions I'm most fond of.

The digital purchases this month were for Bandcamp Friday - mainly just buying more of Conelrad's back catalogue after that fantastic album from earlier this year.

Music reviews

May was mostly a catch-up month, filling up some already completed pages with new acquisitions or releases from their respective artists. But the month started with another notch on the Sonic OST review list, and ended with the first review of the next long discography project as I took on Red Hot Chili Peppers' debut.

Most played song of the month according to Last.FM

The ME REX album has basically taken over my top scrobbles for May, so let's pick my favourite song from the album to feature here. This has been non-stop in my head for weeks.

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