Amongst the new releases for March of 2025 were Night Life, the first new full-length album from The Horrors since 2017, as well as clipping.’s new latest album, Dead Channel Sky, both of which were previously covered here. Plus, earlier this month, Agender dropped Berserk, an album I liked so much that I interviewed singer Romy Hoffman for Beatique.
Click to read “Agender: ‘Some Songs Need to Be Fast and Furious’”
But, wait, there’s more. This month also brought new albums from CocoRosie, girlpuppy and Takuro Okada, plus a smashing debut album from Texas’ Night Ritualz, as well as reissues of worthwhile albums from electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack and ambient composer Hiroshi Yoshimura. Check out the reviews below and get yourself some new music.
CocoRosie
Little Death Wishes
To be totally honest, I’ve never really sat down and listened to CocoRosie. I’ve heard a couple of their songs here and there over the past 20 years, but I can’t even recall what those songs were. That said, I don’t have the frame of reference to compare Little Death Wishes to the duo’s previous seven albums. Maybe that’s good thing. Maybe that’s a bad thing. IDK. Anyhow, Little Death Wishes is a very interesting album. It’s heavy, with lyrics that address issues like sexual violence and addiction. Even the album’s most uplifting song, “Least I Have You,” has a lot of sadness to it. The album has a vintage-meets-contemporary vibe, where vocals that sound like they were sampled off a dusty record and pitched up play against very 21st century beats. Combined with the lyrical content, there’s a sense that the stories within Little Death Wishes could have happened 100 years or 100 days ago, which is a strong statement to make considering that the kinds of feminist issues addressed here are just as relevant now as they always have been.
Get Little Death Wishes by CocoRosie
Girlpuppy
Sweetness
Sweetness, the latest album from girlpuppy, lives up to its name. Sort of. It’s an album that sounds very sweet in its country-tinged indie rock. The lyrics can be pretty scathing. The best example of this juxtaposition is “I Was Her Too,” which is the sort of song that makes you want to say, “get that fool out of your life.” If you’re into girlpuppy, mark your calendar for Thursday, May 8, which is when she plays Moroccan Lounge.
Bruce Haack
This Old Man
Originally released in 1975, This Old Man was made primarily with a polyphonic music computer that musician Bruce Haack built himself with surplus parts and no plans. Haack was a musician and an inventor whose early experiments in electronic music ranged from children’s music to hip-hop. This Old Man, reissued this month via Shimmy-Disc, shows of Haack’s sense of humor has he riffs on nursery rhymes and various music genres while exploring what kind of music computers can make. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of electronic music or just likes strange tunes that defy categorization.
Get This Old Man by Bruce Haack
Night Ritualz
S/T
The self-titled debut from Night Ritualz is all over the place in the best way possible. It opens with the post-punk “Make Me Feel” and then immediately moves towards an ‘80s electro/proto-techno vibe with “Take Me 2 the Crib” and then veers to “Cross My Heart,” which I can only describe as minimal synth At the Drive-In. And those are just the first three songs of a 12-track album that’s captivating from start to finish. If your curiosity is piqued, go listen to Night Ritualz and then check back here soon because there will be an interview with the Texas-based solo artist this week.
Takuro Okada
The Near End, The Dark Night, The County Line
The Near End, The Dark Night, The County Line is Takuro Okada’s first album to be released outside of Japan. The guitarist, who played the band Mori Wa Ikiteiru before going solo in the mid-‘10s, melds ambient jazz and global influences in this soothing, yet, experimental collection of works that, at various points, recalls everything from Middle Eastern psych to spaghetti western scores.
Get The Near End, The Dark Night, The County Line by Takuro Okada
Hiroshi Yoshimura
Flora
Composer and musician Hiroshi Yoshimura died in 2003, but his ambient music has experienced a resurgence in popularity over the past decade thanks to YouTube. Flora was made in 1987 and released on CD nearly 20 years after that. This is the first official reissue of the album, remastered from the original sources and released on all formats. It’s a lovely album that brings together Yoshimura’s classical music and environmental influences, most notably on the closing track “Satie on the Grass.”
Get Flora by Hiroshi Yoshimura
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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