Swimming Abroad: International Music Roundup
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To quote Frank Reynolds, “you have to be a real low-life piece of shit to get involved in politics.” I think the same thing applies to being overly patriotic, especially now, as the United States Government proudly rolls out our very own concentration camp and revokes healthcare for millions upon millions of its own citizens. Shit’s fucked in every direction, so Independence Day doesn’t feel like a whole lot to celebrate.
To me, the Fourth of July begins and ends with barbequing hot dogs, drinking some beers, and jumping in the pool, and guess what? I did all that shit yesterday. While last year we had a fun BBQ music roundup on the Fourth, this year we thought the holiday might be a fun excuse to highlight some of our favorite music projects from other countries.
Please enjoy the music, please celebrate responsibly, and please consider the role we all play in this.
baan – neumann
Self-released
The universality of music is one of the most beautiful things about humanity. A sound can be shaped in Philadelphia, and years later, a band from Namibia has made it their entire style. When it comes to heavy music, some of the most incredible records made often lie outside of American audiences’ line of sight; however, within the internet era, we are seeing a globalization of art that rocks at unprecedented levels in human history. Enter baan from Busan, South Korea—a band as heavy and thunderous as they are deft and talented. neumann is a journey–nine tracks with entire realms existing within them. In an era where playlists and short-form songs are championed across the music industry, an album that offers depth AND patience can feel very rare, especially when it can actually alter your perception of time. There were more than a few times where a song on neumann felt like a meditative 15 minutes when it really was less than that, or conversely, felt over in moments for tracks that ran over six minutes. An album that, whether it likes it or not, is as thoroughly about the act of listening as it is about the haunting abstraction of being alive in modern times, baan’s first release is dense, heady, and a prime example of how musicians outside of the states are just as worthy of our curiosity and attention as any here at home.
– Elias Amini
Sport – In Waves
La Tête d’Ampoule
The “Midwest” part of “Midwest Emo Revival” really has nothing to do with geography. It’s a holdover from the second wave of emo, known simply as “Midwest Emo,” which happened mostly in the 90s. Back then, a lot of popular acts really were from the heartland (also a lot weren’t, but hey, the name stuck). In the late 2000s and throughout the 2010s, that sound was revived by bands from all over, including those outside the US. Between 2011 and 2016, Sport cooked up three emo albums from Lyon, France. Even an ocean away, they brought every bit the same energy, talent, and quintessential sound as bands like Algernon Cadwallader and Glocca Morra—and after nine years, they’re back with another.
In Waves is aptly named. Each song swells, crests, crashes, and regathers itself in troughs of lingering reminiscence. Their sound is full-bodied, with gang vocals punching through walls of angular riffs, twinkling arpeggiations, and dynamic percussion. Though they skew towards math rock, Sport is unmistakably emo. Between the poetic verses and impressive wordplay, you can hear the mourning of days gone by and anxiety for the future. At the same time, you hear catharsis, conviction, and a passion for life.
Sport’s 4th album is for every emo enjoyer; it expands on themes from previous albums and breathes new life into their discography. In a recent interview, Sport says they picked their name because it’s the same in most languages. This global mindset has paid off, rekindling the flame of Midwest Emo abroad and exemplifying the benefits of seeking inspiration beyond your own borders.
– Braden Allmond
Whispers – Yom-Ma-Lok
Flatspot Records
I personally and bravely believe that the best way to experience hardcore punk music is to see it live. I don’t think anyone has discoursed about this yet, but I’ll give it time. My point is that while I had heard about the release of Yom-Ma-Lok at the buzzer of 2024 (and read a Stereogum comment summarizing it as a “yuletide ass kicking”) nothing could have prepared me for the swaggering way Whispers took the stage at Black Cat a couple months ago. At the first cymbal crash, the whole room was suddenly engulfed in the sound, drenched in their self-described “Bangkok Evilcore,” like when the air gets sucked out right before there’s an explosion. Every molecule of oxygen in the room was reverberating with their metallic sprawl and pounding with crushing blast beats.
Whispers, a very kickass crew from Thailand, released their latest EP, Yom-Ma-Lok, in December, a relatively long project with features from members of Kickback, Demonstration of Power, and hardcore’s it boys, Speed. There’s a certain magnitude to it, an ascension, as the band oscillates between brawling beatdowns and sweaty anthems. The EP relentlessly pummels the listener, but when I saw it live, the listeners pummeled each other back.
I would also be remiss not to mention that, as of today, my favorite Mancunian lads are back. That’s right, unless the Gallaghers have called it quits between the editing and publishing of this piece, Oasis should be taking the stage in a couple of hours. I’m feelin’ Supersonic mates.
– Caro Alt
racecarbed – bozo
AboutTime Records
In an effort to continually prove myself to be the most esoteric woman at any gathering, I will spend untold time going on musical deep dives online. Call it pretentious, but that’s showbiz, baby! That’s music journalism! That’s my RIGHT! Thus, in the spirit of my deep love for underground music, I would like to bring bozo by racecarbed to everyone’s immediate attention. I may be pretentious, but I’m not a gatekeeper. racecarbed is an artist and producer based in Ireland, creating incredibly delightful music across the pond that has made its way to my ears. If you enjoy hyperpop, noise, emo, digicore, and random sampling, boy, are you in for a treat. If you don’t enjoy any of those things, why are you here? Why are you reading this? Why are you looking at me like that? Go listen to racecarbed anyway! One of my favorite tracks from bozo, “Family Guy Funny Moments” is a painfully honest song, uncomfortably juxtaposed against - you guessed it - a sample of Family Guy. A beautiful and rather heart-wrenching synth melody immediately follows, causing emotional whiplash that is jarring in all the right ways. The shift from Peter Griffin to an evocative riff is, as it turns out, a bit of a shock. While the hyperpop genre often runs the risk of becoming overwhelming and too noisy, racecarbed exercises just enough restraint in his writing to create skillfully balanced digital masterpieces. Anyways, it’s time for you to leave me alone - I’m at the function reading Infinite Jest.
– Britta Joseph
Subsonic Eye – Singapore Dreaming
Topshelf Records
The title for Subsonic Eye’s fifth album, Singapore Dreaming, telegraphs pretty clearly exactly what you’re going to get. Press play on the opening track “Aku Cemas,” and you’re in for 30 minutes of dreamy, overly-saturated rock music straight from Singapore. It’s a consistently pretty album; colorful and well-constructed is the default baseline, even when the band is singing in Malay. By the time the band launches into the riff one track later on “Why Am I Here,” you’re already firmly situated in indie rock heaven. As the purple, yellow, and red from the cover bleed together, everything shifts into focus, then back out. Listening to an album like this feels like eating a good hearty meal; you walk away with every need met.
– Taylor Grimes
Crayon Cats – Songs About You! #2
Self-released
There is nothing I love more in the world than an earnestly cute jangly pop-punk band, and no one is doing it better than Crayon Cats on Songs About You! #2. The band, who hail from Jakarta, Indonesia, nailed this sound on the first entry of this EP series back in September 2024, but on #2, Crayon Cats have even sharper songs and starker dynamics. The ramshackle pop-punk laments of “October Girlfriend” are juxtaposed with the hazier, dreamier side of indie pop on “Hospital Hopper.” The latter track is competing with “Not The Best Day” from their EP for the title of my favorite Crayon Cats song, in large part because of how brilliantly the band lets the song comedown. After two minutes of exemplifying the fear that builds while accompanying a loved one to the hospital in an emergency, the guitars crack into a vacuum cleaner whir until it all crashes down and ebbs out. In that comedown of fading distortion and reverb, the band captures what it’s like to sit in the hallway waiting for the results. After two sets of Songs About You!, I will continue to listen to any other songs Crayon Cats have to about you.
– Lillian Weber
Mantar – Post Apocalyptic Depression
Metal Blade
When I discovered German metal duo Mantar this year, there were two things I found completely unfathomable: first, that they weren’t an obscure ‘70s occult rock group based on their simple yet fantastic logo, and second, that I hadn’t discovered them until this year. The band feels like they were concocted in a lab just for me, scratching my deep itches of other two-piece sludge metal bands like Big Business or Eagle Twin, albeit with a more direct psychedelic lean. Post Apocalyptic Depression could be the best album title of 2025, if it didn’t feel like our collective depression was more mid-apocalyptic, but it’s at least refreshing that the songs therein are nothing short of badass stoner punk’n’roll, well-suited for fans of other underground European metal acts like Kvelertak or Barren Womb. Lead single and album closer “Cosmic Abortion” (again, these guys really know how to make a great title), its lo-fi, space-trip music video, and chorus lyrics, “KILL, DESTROY, FUCK SHIT UP” made Mantar an instant sell for me, with Post Apocalyptic Depression becoming one of my earliest favorite albums of 2025.
– Logan Archer Mounts
Spirit Desire – Pets
Maraming Records
With a decade of indie emo tunes under their belt, Spirit Desire have little to prove to anyone anymore. Pets is the band’s first release in a few years, a ten-minute offering comprised of three absolutely knockout songs and one instrumental interlude. While the opener, “Dead Pets,” is a great introduction that dives directly into the title at hand, it’s the propulsive “IDFC” that reveals itself as the true standout. The Toronto group offers a complimentary and affirmative palate cleanser with “It Is What It Is,” sending listeners off with some well-wishes until our paths converge again. The whole release is tender, open-hearted, catchy, energetic, and earnest; pound-for-pound, one of the best things I’ve heard all year, with not a second wasted. For as many ideas and riffs and harmonies as Spirit Desire have been able to pack in these ten minutes, I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a better EP in the rock music sphere.
– Taylor Grimes
The Tubs – Cotton Crown
Trouble In Mind Records
I am once again asking for your listening support of UK’s jangle pop quartet all-stars, The Tubs. I recently saw their show live and in color in Chicago, which has further solidified my aspirations to be treasurer of their soon-to-be-created fan club. Cotton Crown is packed to the brim with energetic, uptempo guitar strokes to circumvent the melancholy, glum lyrics of vocalist Owen Williams. Throughout The Tubs’ sophomore album, Williams’ deep, love-scorned voice is a soothing siren that comforts you while he spills his guts out about lost relationships and the tragic, untimely death of his mother. Each song is a fascinating case study in successfully masking the deeply personal lyrics of Williams, which often venture into darkness with a bright, sunny disposition of music. “Chain Reaction” and “Illusion” surf on nonstop tidal waves of jangle pop guitar strings. Cotton Crown doesn’t have a dull moment in its brief twenty-nine-minute runtime. The Tubs have the energy of an early 2000s Four Loko with the passion of a grief-stricken poet, making this an instant favorite of mine.
– David Williams
