In My Ears #3 – Hesse Kassel, Alice Coltrane & Deftones

"Shove it shove it shove it"

I don’t want to be one of those cliché Brits moaning about the weather, but please indulge me for a second; the past week has been brutal. The sheer weight of the humidity has been enough to slow life down to a crawl on this silly little island. On Tuesday I traipsed through central London on the way to the office, and it was as if everyone was navigating a bog instead of the sun-baked pavements.

So I am relieved that, as I write this post, a cool breeze is wafting through the office window. The heat has finally broken.

During this sweltering week my earphones have been predominantly blasting out new releases, as I continue to be blown away by the quality of 2025’s output. Not wanting to call it too early, but it could end up pipping last year to the post – which to my mind was perhaps the best since 2016.

For those of you reading In My Ears for the first time, welcome! Every week I chat through the records I’ve been listening to on repeat – some of them new releases, others old classics or underrated gems.

Should you wish to listen along whilst reading, I update the Spotify and Apple Music playlists every week (scroll to the bottom to find the links).

---

---

Hesse Kassel – La Brea (2025)

Don’t say I don’t listen to any of you! This was recommended to me by a few readers off the back of my ‘Best Records of 2025 so far’ piece a few weeks ago, and it’s turned out to be one of the best recommendations I’ve received in a while. La Brea is Hesse Kassel’s debut record, a Chilean group lobbing as many art and post-rock touchstones into their melting pot as possible – from the knotty structures of early Black Midi, Squid, and Black Country, New Road, to heavy, distorted passages that are the signature of Swans and Anna von Hausswolff. As I don’t speak Spanish, there’s little I can say about the lyricism beyond the brilliant intensity of the delivery. But it’s certainly a bold debut, with a lot going on.

Taste test:

🟢 ‘Americana’ – sure to scratch an itch for those lamenting Black Country, New Road’s now-retired sound.

🟢 ‘Yo La Tengo’ – an epic finale making full use of crunchy power chords and vocalist Renatto Olivares’ tortured screams.

---

Bruce Springsteen – Tracks II: The Lost Albums (2025)