…a number of things lately! As always, my primary listening time has been during my writing sessions, and considering my current project is a space opera with an ensemble cast, I need a lot of mood music to keep me going. To wit…

Bob Moses’ latest album BLINK is excellent, but pretty much anything they do is something that fits perfectly with my work on writing science fiction. Moody, groovy and full of atmosphere.

The self-titled album by Packaging came to my attention via KEXP (as most things do these days), but I’m intrigued that this was a band that actually decided to describe itself as motorik — that almost-forgotten German electronic style of single-chord groove that feels like high speed driving (see bands like NEU! for the genre’s history, you won’t be let down). “Running Through the Airport” is not only perfect mood music, it’s surprisingly catchy.

I’ll admit that I thought Unbelievable Truth was a Bernard Sumner side project, as I thought it was him singing the track “You’ve Got It”, but it didn’t sound like New Order or Electronic. Come to find out, it’s actually the brother of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, which makes a lot more sense as the music definitely has that King of Limbs tension.

Crushed is an interesting band in that they’re like Curve but not as heavy; they’re Phantogram but not as noisy; they’re shoegazey but not as…reverb-y. The album no scope has grown on me over the last month and I find myself returning to it quite often.

Then there’s Nation of Language, which I’ve been a fan of for quite a few years now. They’ve fully embraced that indietronica sound that is more about sitting back and listening instead of dancing. Another album I find myself returning to.

…and an album that just dropped in physical format that I’m looking forward to listening to: Touch by Tortoise. It’s their first new album in nine years, and I had no idea it existed until I was looking at the new release list last Friday! [Yes, that still happens to me, and I love it every time.] They’re one of those interesting experimental rock bands from the late 90s and early 00s, with their style heavily inspired by jazz.