New Music Friday: Pond’s Terrestrials, Hard-Fi’s Long Return & More

Janus Rasmussen – Inert

Janus Rasmussen, one half of Kiasmos, steps further into solo territory with Inert on Embassy One. The ten-track album runs a concise thirty-two minutes and positions itself as club music with room for emotional narrative. Rasmussen has already moved beyond the duo’s shadow with solo work built on organic textures and dark sound design. Titles like “Drain,” “Murk” and “Spiraling” suggest a slightly shadowy mood, yet the record stays flexible between headphones and late-night floors. In a week heavy on guitar projects, Inert stands out as a compact electronic statement from a producer who understands how to let rhythm carry feeling.

Pond – Terrestrials

Australian psych veterans Pond arrive at their eleventh studio album on their own Mangovision label, in partnership with Secretly Distribution. After more than a decade of touring, Terrestrials trades some earlier cosmic sprawl for tighter songcraft and a leaner, post-punk edged sound. The shift shows in singles like the title track and “Two Hands,” which carry a “goths at the pub” energy. Lyrically the band address existential anxieties around technology, environment and power, yet the music stays luminous and direct. It feels like a psych record made for big rooms rather than pure escapism. The weight here comes from the precision of that balance.

Hard-Fi – Sweating Someone Else’s Fever

Fifteen years after their last album, Hard-Fi return with Sweating Someone Else’s Fever on V2. Written and recorded at their Cherry Lips studio, the record reconnects with the social-realist spirit of Stars of CCTV while pushing into bolder, dance-leaning arrangements. The title draws from an idea of refusing to fight battles powered by someone else’s ego. Lead single “They Ain’t Your Friends” twists old swagger into neon paranoia about hollow loyalty and industry hangers-on. The band still speak for overworked listeners, now against a backdrop of manipulated opinion and constant online noise. The album keeps the sing-along choruses but lets the present shape the edges.

Dellafuente – Brigado

Granada artist Dellafuente returns after a two-year gap with Brigado. The twelve-track album marks a deliberate turn inward, trading earlier urban hybrid energy for deeper engagement with traditional Latin and Spanish forms. Rumba, bolero and salsa move from reference to core colour. It feels like an artist using his platform to step away from the race for hits and instead build a dense personal world. Folk, urbano and devotional elements bleed into each other. The result carries the clarity of someone who knows exactly what he wants to say next.

Lost in Kyiv – We’re All Going To Be Fine

Parisian quartet Lost in Kyiv return with We’re All Going To Be Fine on Pelagic Records, their name now carrying extra resonance. The seven-track album intensifies their blend of post-rock cinematics, post-metal heft and electronic detail into something heavier and more direct. It turns inward to themes of mental health, self-perception and the tension between hope and doom. Colossal atmospheres move between ferocious riffs and synth-infused ambience, with spoken-word samples adding human scale. The record understands scale as a way to hold complex feeling rather than overwhelm it.

Office Dog – Prime Corner

Auckland-via-Dunedin trio Office Dog follow their 2024 debut with Prime Corner on Flying Nun. The record keeps them in the lineage of noisy, jangly New Zealand guitar music while pushing dynamic range further. Written largely during frontman Kane Strang’s house-sitting period, it folds themes of instability and the pull of normal life into sharp hooks and tangled rhythms. It feels like a band still operating in small rooms yet writing as if their songs are meant to travel. The weight sits in that tension between intimacy and reach.

Swim Deep – Hum

Birmingham band Swim Deep return with their fifth album Hum on Submarine Cat Records. Written after extensive touring in Asia and some lineup shifts, the record sees the group regaining focus with longtime collaborator Bill Ryder-Jones. Hum consolidates their melodic instincts into something dreamy and enveloping. It keeps the day-glo textures of earlier work but tunes them to adult questions of purpose, work and staying true to a small-band identity. What stands out is the confidence to let atmosphere carry the weight without forcing resolution.

Daniel Lanois – Belladonna Nocturne

Daniel Lanois extends the dreamlike language of his 2005 instrumental album Belladonna with Belladonna Nocturne, his ninth solo set. The fourteen-track record runs around thirty-six minutes and functions as a self-contained sonic environment. Lanois builds layered textures with pedal steel, piano and guitar, inviting listeners into exotic, nocturnal thoughts. Contributions from Emmylou Harris and drummer Brian Blade tie the atmospheric drift back to his more song-based work without breaking the spell. In a week of high-density releases, this stands as the quiet outlier that rewards full-album listening.

The Through Line

What connects these eight albums is a shared refusal to treat music as something to be scrolled past. Each one arrives with a clear sense of its own world and the time it asks from the listener. Pond tighten their sound without losing its heat. Hard-Fi return with purpose rather than nostalgia. Dellafuente chooses depth over visibility. Janus Rasmussen keeps the club close but lets emotion lead. Lost in Kyiv build immersive scale with care. Office Dog translate everyday unease into restless hooks. Swim Deep trust atmosphere to do the work. Daniel Lanois offers a space that invites you to stay. In different ways, they all remind that presence is earned through intention, not volume.