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The Aquarium Drunkard Guide to Across the Horizon

What, exactly, is Across the Horizon? It could be accurately described as a podcast, a radio show, an imprint or even a genre; it’s also resulted in a host of compelling collaborations and a series of songs that push at the boundaries of what could be considered ambient music. "It’s like watching a musical community grow in real time," says Bob Holmes. Here’s a look at 10 standout songs from Across the Horizon thus far — music that demonstrates the breadth of the series as a whole . . .

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Dungen :: Vidrig Vår

On the veteran Swedish outfit's most pared down and elegant affair, Vidrig Vår showcases Dungen still operating on a psychedelic wavelength not found elsewhere. Built around bandleader Gustav Ejste's panoramic piano progressions, the ballad-centric record flows with the weightless springtime atmosphere of the band's organically cinematic orbit . . .

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Asher White :: Love Aggregates

Asher White goes maximalist on Love Aggregates, building heavy doses of orchestral power pop from her bedroom. A fragmentary heartbreak album touching on dysphoria, precarious labor, Jerry Garcia, Citi Bikes, and Flatbush in the snow, it transforms intimate falsettos, arpeggiating guitars, and toy piano melodies into a luminous, redemptive vision of love . . .

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Those Were the Days of Miracle and Wonder :: Paul Simon’s Graceland at 40

Paul Simon’s 1986 album Graceland exists in this weird state, an album that eternally evokes 1986, but always sounds so different from other albums of its era. It’s an collection that’s self absorbed, but also so relatable when the listener finds themselves hitting middle age. It brought world music to the forefront, but also presented a misleading picture. It’s a fascinating study in contrast and now, some 40 years later it’s an album we still can’t make up our minds about even as we listen to it for the hundredth time . . .

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The Aquarium Drunkard Show: SIRIUS/XMU (7pm PDT, Channel 35)

Broadcasting from northeast Los Angeles — the Aquarium Drunkard Show on SIRIUS/XMU, channel 35. 7pm California time, Wednesdays.

Subterranean nocturnes dissolve into the horizon. Somewhere between Tokyo, NYC, Caracas and outer space—electric jazz, Japanese fusion, polyrhythms, Rio groove, cosmic funk, library exotica and studio alchemy.

34.1090° N, 118.2334° W . . .

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Love :: Four Sail

For many, Forever Changes is where the Love story ends. Whether viewed as a retooled evolution of the band or simply that of Arthur Lee, Four Sail is an essential part of the Love discography. With a driving edge partly recalling the proto-punk energy of Da Capo with the modern hard rock zeitgeist of 1969, Lee's superb new lineup delivers the intentions behind "combining the east and west coast sounds with the European sounds, plus a few of my own ideas . . .

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Transmissions :: Matt Baldwin

This week on the show, guitarist and psychotherapist Matt Baldwin, who is here to teach you How To Play Guitar. OK, not exactly. But Baldwin is the author of ⁠How To Play Guitar⁠, a series of zines that have been collected into a handsome book edition. If you’re just picking up the instrument, well, Baldwin isn’t writing about how to play a C chord or run scales. These aren’t “how to” guides so much as “why to” prompts, stressing intuition over technique, dismissal of music industry norms, and the imperative to hone a singular, personal philosophy regarding . . .

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Neil Young and the Chrome Hearts :: Second Song

At 80, Neil Young remains gloriously unfinished. Second Song, his latest with the Chrome Hearts, is a weathered, luminous meditation on memory, mortality, love, and the strange passage of time. With shimmering textures, warm harmonies, wandering tempos, and that unmistakably vulnerable voice, Young looks backward without quite letting go of the future. An elegiac, deeply human record from an artist still searching for the song . . .

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Índio da Cuíca :: Zing Zing

At 70, Brazilian percussionist Índio da Cuíca reinvented himself as one of the country’s strangest musical voices. His cuíca—usually a squeaky rhythmic accent—is transformed into a melodic instrument of uncanny virtuosity, set against samba, capoeira, Afro-Brazilian spirituals and warped pop forms. On Zing Zing, that “avant-traditional” vision expands further, as cavaquinho, pandeiro, berimbau and bandolim collide with guitars, synths and samples. Samba music from some parallel universe . . .

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HUG :: HUG

Hug is music for the small hours, when the world comes in and out of focus, a record that drifts through the mind’s open windows, carrying with it the sublime and resonant hush of a world at peace in its own unfolding. As warm and comforting as the name implies, Hug embraces you like an old friend, holding space for the warmth of the past, the uncertainty of the future, and the solace of the blossoming present . . .

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Maddy Prior & June Tabor’s Silly Sisters at 50

Maddy Prior and June Tabor’s Silly Sisters is a magical hinge album, a meeting of two transcendent voices and a jolly band of British folk masters. Recorded in 1976 but somehow outside of time, its ancient songs, close harmonies, and loose, luminous performances summon something older than the British folk revival itself. Fifty years on, it remains a timeless gem hiding in plain sight: raw, sophisticated, mysterious, and still not quite given its due . . .

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Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard :: September 2026

Freeform transmissions from Radio Free Aquarium Drunkard on dublab. Airing every third Sunday of the month, RFAD on dublab features the pairing of Tyler Wilcox’s Doom and Gloom from the Tomb and Chad DePasquale’s New Happy Gathering. This month, Chad kicks it off with a roundup of recent 2026 digs. Tyler follows with an hour of existential daydreams and autumnal instrumentals. Sunday, 4-6pm PT . . .

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Bandcamping :: Autumn 2026

Are things feeling autumnal at long last? Not quite. But maybe this selection of recommended sounds, old and new, can help usher in the cooler, crisper season. Bandcamp Friday only rolls around every couple of months. But remember, you can always add a buck or two to the asking price of any album on the platform and voila — every day is Bandcamp Friday . . .

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Nigeria 80: The Explosive Sound World of 1980s Nigeria

The ’70s didn’t end. They just got more elastic. Strut’s Nigeria 80 catches Nigerian popular music in that beautiful, unruly stretch between Afrobeat’s explosion and whatever came next—juju, funk, highlife, reggae, proto-hip-hop, and plenty of glorious cross-pollination along the way . . .

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The Lagniappe Sessions :: Instrumentals (2016-2026)

Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions have been rolling along at a steady pace since 2011, bringing together a global lineup of artists to offer up cover versions of a few of their favorite tunes. And some of the most imaginative Lagniappes have been those that deliver purely instrumental pleasures, embracing melody, rhythm and texture.

We’ve gathered together a 90-minute sampling of those covers from over the past decade, which range from MPB bliss-outs to Takoma School dreamscapes, from free-funk workouts to orchestral jazz. And beyond . . .

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