
Hallogallo Grows Up: Chicago's Youth Rock Scene in 2026
A compilation, a sophomore album and a fuzz pop debut show how a pandemic-era teen scene in Chicago kept its homemade habits after the label deals arrived.
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Zee Nxumalo Bets Her Big Year on 3-Step
South Africa's most-streamed woman of 2025 could have coasted on amapiano hits. In 2026 she went small, strange and Zulu-inflected with Dlala Thukzin instead.
Craven Faults, Sidings
The anonymous Yorkshire synth builder turns a Victorian railway route into his most patient and most physical double album yet.

Curly Castro Turns Blaxploitation Into Autobiography on Yaphet
The ShrapKnel MC's first solo album in five years pairs comic-book bravado with grief, over a Locust production run that moves from breakbeats to the future.
Shackleton Comes Back to the Floor
Two decades into his career, Sam Shackleton's first album for AD 93 trades the operatic epics for tight, twitching percussion built for a club.
Milwaukee's Lowend Grows Up Without Slowing Down
The city's clap-on-every-beat rap sound spent 2026 moving onto bigger stages, stranger hybrids and longer projects, while the DIY scene underneath kept building.

Papangu Trade Sludge for Sunlight on Celestial
The João Pessoa prog band recorded its third album to tape with no computers, and swapped most of its metal for forró, ciranda and vintage keyboards.

Cola Find the Melody on Cost of Living Adjustment
The Montreal trio's third album trades some of the old deadpan for real tunes, reverb-heavy guitars and a drummer who argues with his own samples.
