Just a few months have passed since I interviewed the brilliant Yazz Ahmed – for those of you new to deep cuts, her 2025 record A Paradise In The Hold was my album of the year by a significant margin. An immersive jazz record, Yazz transported listeners to a land of pearl divers and mermaid myths – and it is truly one of a kind.
Now, the British trumpeter and flugelhornist is preparing for another return with Shirin-Yoku. A four-track EP, she has described it as “music celebrating the healing power of the natural world.”
“The world is hurting,
Forever wars.
Feelings of hopelessness.
Abandoned,
I weep for humanity.”
Lead single ‘Dawn Patrol’ echoes the mournful yearning of those words with a throbbing electronic bassline and restless drums, carving space for Yazz to entrance listeners with her horn performance. The track morphs into a beatless ambient interlude at the halfway point, with textures that hark back to the watery depths of A Paradise In The Hold.
In case it wasn’t clear, a fantastic track that has me very excited for this EP. Take a listen and let me know what you think in the comments.
Nine Inch Noize has proven to me, without a shadow of a doubt, that there is still a lot of life in the old dog yet.
Despite not releasing a full-length Nine Inch Nails record since 2013’s Hesitation Marks, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have spent the resulting 13 years experimenting with the format of the NIN brand: a rather elegant continuation of the Ghosts ambient project, a collection of EPs which represent some of the most sonically creative moments in the entire discography, and even the recent Tron: Ares soundtrack (we’ll ignore the trash Jared Leto vehicle itself).
The Nine Inch Noize collaboration with the German-Iraqi musician Alexander Ridha – known as Boys Noize – was teased during the band’s 2025 Peel It Back world tour, and had gig-goers fawning over the EDM-enhanced remixes performed on a second stage in the middle of the setlist.
The collab was given its largest public outing a few weeks ago at Coachella, where it was transformed into a fully fledged theatrical spectacle. Complete with gyrating dancers and vocals from Trent’s partner Mariqueen Maandig, the sheer force of the set made it the single essential moment of this year’s California festival.
It’s this remarkable energy which drives Nine Inch Noize, which for all intents and purposes feels like a way of immortalising the Coachella set for those who couldn’t make it to the desert. Crowd noises frame the studio versions of tracks which take great pleasure in updating classic NIN songs with the vigour of Ridha’s house and techno stylings: tracks like the brilliant ‘Vessel’ and ‘Closer’ get subtle updates, whereas Twin Peaks: The Return song ‘She’s Gone Away’ is almost unrecognisable until that lumbering chorus.
All in all, a shot in the arm for Trent’s enduring project – and reportedly, he’s already heading back into the studio to work on new NIN music.
Taste test:
🟢 ‘She’s Gone Away’ – Despite sounding a world away from the version performed in The Roadhouse, the electronic pulse still takes me back to the moment just before Bob’s nuclear birth (iykyk).
🟢 ‘Came Back Haunted’ – Featuring one of the crispest drum breaks of the record, it’s not difficult to see how this would get thousands of people in the desert moving their bodies.
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