Like all SPACE 101.1 volunteers and DJs, Ian is always on the lookout for exciting new releases from bands he’s been following for years and new discoveries. Ian shares a few of his favorite releases of early 2025, and a classic from 35 years ago.

 

MIKE: “Showbiz!”
Brooklyn-based rapper MIKE’s new album Showbiz!, released in January, is 24 tracks over 47 minutes. The album prominently features a variety of chopped up & pitch shifted disco, funk, and R&B samples that are regularly mixed at the same level as MIKE’s vocals. This can make for a listen that can sometimes feel lo-fi & hazy, but a good amount of the songs channel the original upbeat feeling of the samples used.

Squid: “Cowards”
Released in early February, Squid’s new album Cowards hosts 9 tracks spanning 45 minutes. Continuing their somewhat thematically based album concepts, Cowards has been marketed as an album about various forms of evil, and thus is a bit of a tonally heavier album compared to their previous records in terms of subject matter as well as instrumentation.

Deafheaven: “Lonely People With Power”
The new album from Deafheaven, released at the end of March, finds the band continuing to challenge themselves with new sounds within established subgenres of metal and beyond. Clocking in at a little over an hour, the album includes a good amount of shorter and tighter songs than previous albums, with lead single Magnolia being a good entry point.

 

35 years of Fugazi’s “Repeater”
Fugazi’s debut album Repeater was recorded during the late summer of 1989 and released to the public on March 20, 1990. The highly influential post-hardcore band is firing on all cylinders on this record with some very clear lyrical messaging from Ian MacKaye & Guy Picciotto.  The album is definitely a grower, and still holds up more than 35 years after its initial release. Featuring tracks such as Turnover, Repeater, Merchandise, Blueprint, and Styrofoam.

 

What new releases are you grooving to? Send us a few of your current favs and we will make sure to consider them for airplay. Email our music director: hello@space101fm.org