Spiral Wave Nomads

As much as the world might need a euphoric injection about now, what it deserves is embryonic despair, and semi-local faves Spiral Wave Nomads have just the soundtrack to the start of 2026. Emerging from the depths with a sense of towering doom, the duo of Eric Hardiman (Rambutan, Sky Furrows) and Michael Kiefer (More Klementines) douse the listener in a sense of dread and disconnection. The record opens with the ember-hot growl of “Materialized,” an ill wind that slashes at the listener with cinder and smoke, before they nurture some numbness on “Interrupted Dream.” As the band eases into the title track the glow from the embers returns, a burning in the marrow that feels like it might burst through the bones. The sea might be weightless, but the world is not, and all the tension and turmoil of 2025 seems to be tied up in the tumble of the track.

The sun shines just a little on “Sleepwalker,” but as the record sinks into its second side, that’s the only reprieve for the listener, and its’ not the kind of hopeful note the band sees fit with with to end their opus. The air grows thinner as “Sleepwalker” dissipates, leaving the tense uncertainty and scarred sneer of the album’s last two tracks to lead the listener out of the record. Like the opener, the band walks in slow to “I Am Here,” a song that blinks to life but bursts out of the exit. The album closes with a gnash of teeth, a gritted gauntlet to steel the listener for what’s to come once the record reverberates into stilled air. Though it was released in the waning months of 2025, the ash and angst of The Weightless Sea are a perfect fit for life among the dying stars in 2026.

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