There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Wednesday, July 1, 2026.
Imogen Heap and Jon Hopkins – ‘Reckoning’
Having been friends for more than 30 years – Jon Hopkins was part of Imogen Heap’s first live band – the two artists realized it was about time they wrote a song together. That collaboration, an ethereal, pulsating track called ‘Reckoning’, is out today. “I’d been writing almost like a diary, but also writing words that sounded nice with each other, things with a nice stanza,” Heap explained. “Something pretty devastating had happened that day and I was upstairs, unable to go downstairs and I had it on my headphones. I immediately felt so positive and grateful that I had this outlet, and that these words were magically feeling really nice with what Jon had done.”
Hopkins added: “Neither of us arrived at the vocal session with a plan. I mean I never do. But we spent a couple of days following what seemed exciting, and somewhere in that process the song gradually revealed itself, through a mixture of improv and me editing bits together. It evolved super organically.”
Vanishing Twin – ‘Avalanches’ and ‘Bring Me the Axe’
The title of Vanishing Twin’s fifth album, Archives, is meant to represent their musical approach: “gathering material together, riffing with it, turning it around on itself, trying to put the pieces together and create a story with it,” according to the band’s Cathy Lucas. The experimental trio’s latest LP arrives October 2, via Fire, and is previewed today by the discombobulating title track and ‘Bring Me the Axe’. The latter is “loosely based on the story of Lizzy Borden, famous for the 1892 Fall River Murders,” Lucas explained. “It’s about extremes. Extreme acts, extreme heat, and sonic extremes, the folkloric and the industrial.”
Margaret Glaspy – ‘That Rose’
Margaret Glaspy’s songwriting is at its most fervent and dreamy on ‘That Rose’, the latest offering from the upcoming album I Am Both. “Songwriting feels like running down a mountain for me,” she explained. “There are lots of snap decisions to be made so that you don’t break your legs. This song felt like that to make. Once I started it just kept picking up pace and I had to bob and weave so as not to fuck it up. It had a life and a mind of its own.”
Tycho and Sea Lemon – ‘Anotherworld’
Tycho and Sea Lemon both make different kinds of otherworldly music – the first an electronic mainstay, the latter a shoegaze newcomer and Artist Spotlight alum – and they come together on the new single ‘Anotherworld’. “I was driving late one night on a road trip through the California Central Valley when I first heard Sea Lemon’s music,” Tycho’s Scott Hansen recalled. “Eraser came on and immediately clicked; I think I listened to Close Up about four times in a row. I started imagining Natalie’s vocals on this new song I had been working on; the lush textures felt like a perfect match for the sound.”
He continued: “So at the next stop, I reached out and sent some demos. I was really happy when she picked the particular song I had in mind; that’s usually a good sign. We started bouncing ideas back and forth, and pretty soon thereafter, Natalie tracked the vocals at her place. The track was originally a sparse, synth-driven piece, but once I got the vocals in place, I realised something was missing from the overall composition. So Zac came over and tracked some guitars, and it all came into focus quickly. This was one of those songs where I never really had to fight anything; it all just flowed, and those are the most fulfilling projects to work on. It was really an honour to work with such a talented artist as Natalie, and I’m very proud of what we created together.”
Moses Boyd – ‘Say Yeah’
Moses Boyd is back with ‘Say Yeah’, a gospel-infused track that marks the British jazz musician’s first release in five years. “Lyrically, I wanted to create a repetitive mantra that is universal, so I wanted the hook of ‘Say Yeah’ to be so simple it’s not limited by language or cultural differences,” Boyd commented. “This is without a doubt the brightest song I’ve ever made, so I really wanted to lean into the joy of it all.”
Emily Bjorke – ‘Skeletons in Toronto’
Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Emily Bjorke – formerly of the Minneapolis-based surf punk outfit Last Import – has unveiled a sparkly, reflective song called ‘Skeletons in Toronto’. It’s the latest single off an upcoming record that has yet to be announced.
Mandrake Handshake – ‘En Vol’
Neo-psych collective Mandrake Handshake have dropped ‘En Vol’, their first new music since their 2025 debut album Earth-Sized Worlds. “‘En Vol’ is the moment the Mandrake first leaves the earth behind,” the band explained. “It is the sound of a first take-off; a horizon widening beneath outstretched wings, and the beautiful, precarious conviction that the sky was waiting all along. Inspired by the velvet atmospheres of 90s trip-hop and, in particular, a transcendent live performance by AIR, the song drifts and glides through clouds of analogue warmth before unfurling into something brighter and more reckless. Here, the Mandrake becomes an aviator of her own mythology: all nerve, elegance and aspiration; like Icarus before the sun has compromised his intentions, she is untouched by consequence and intoxicated by possibility.”
Allah-Las – ‘Pt. Conception’
Alla-Las have announced their sixth LP, Sirenas, out August 28 via Mexican Summer in partnership with the band’s own boutique independent record label Calico Discos. Accompanying the news is the groovy, spindly new track ‘Pt. Conception’, which follows earlier cut ‘Ultramarine’.
Midori Hirano – ‘Take Me With You’ and ‘Spell On You’
Japanese composer Midori Hirano has announced a reimagined score to Björk’s on-screen debut The Juniper Tree. Drawing from her own memories of touring Iceland, the record was commissioned last year by Belgian arts center Viernulvier as part of their Videodroom series pairiing contemporary composers with classic arthouse cinema; we’ve previously covered claire rousay’s The Bloody Lady and Félicia Atkinson’s Sans Visage. Today, Hirano has shared two tracks from the score, describing ‘Take Me With You’ as “a piece played in the scene where Margit is searching for her mother on the shore. A simple ambient synth tone repeats at regular intervals, slowly changing in timbre, reflecting Margit’s quiet calls for her mother.” ‘Spell On You’, in her words, is “a simple piano piece, evoking a sense of both eeriness and sacredness. This appears multiple times throughout the film whenever Margit’s sister Katla casts a spell.”
REZN – ‘Aerial Birth’
‘Aerial Birth’ is the title of the latest single by the Chicago doom band REZN, and also an apt description for its sound. It’s the latest cut off of their new album, Cycles in the Infinite Dream, out July 24 via Sargent House.
Tokyo Tea Room – ‘All Night’
Margate, UK’s Tokyo Tea Room have announce their second album, Feel Forever, due September 18 via Nice Guys. It’s led by the extremely breezy new single ‘All Night’. “I have a fascination with the impermanent nature of human emotion, moments of feeling that can be powerful and inconsequential at the same time,” songwriter Dan Elliott reflected.. “Feel Forever is a response to these natural hits of dopamine, a window to all these things that live on in my mind beyond their expiry date. It’s a mix of the good, the bad and the strange, which I think reflects the outside chaos.”
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