Daily Drops · Vol.121每日唱片 · Vol.121

A veteran of China's harshest noise scene put the noise down and gave an hour to a room of gongs. 英國一支團沉寂十年後回來，兩個女聲，一個負責旋律，一個負責尖叫。

Saturday, August 01, 2026 2026年8月01日星期六

01 Pick of the Day 今日精選

徐程 Xu Cheng — Chimes Within

Genre類型: Experimental / Drone / Gong
Label廠牌: 自主發行（bluescreen1）
Format介質: Streaming / Bandcamp（約 60 分鐘長篇）
Released發行: 2026-07-26（一手：Bandcamp `released July 26, 2026`，bluescreen1.bandcamp.com）

Xu Cheng came up through Torturing Nurse, one of the most unforgiving harsh-noise outfits China has produced, which is what makes the restraint here feel like a small scandal. He has apparently been playing gongs for years without letting many people hear them, for the least romantic of reasons: the instruments are heavy, and hauling them out the door is a nuisance, so the ritual stayed indoors. Chimes Within is an hour of that private practice, the bronze laid down in slow, overlapping washes that drift between the acoustics of a temple and those of an unattended sound check. You are never quite sure whether he is performing or waiting. People who spend their youth making noise often understand silence better than those who were quiet all along. 徐程的來歷是 Torturing Nurse，中國最不留情面的 harsh noise 團之一。所以這張碟第一件反常的事，是它幾乎不吵。他說自己常年玩鑼，卻很少讓人聽見，理由樸素得好笑——鑼太重，搬出門是件麻煩事，於是這套私人儀式在家裡放了很多年。一小時裡，鑼聲一層層疊上去，有時像走進一座廟，有時又像一場沒有觀眾的實驗現場，你分不清他是在演奏還是在等待。做慣了噪音的人來寫安靜，往往比一輩子安靜的人更懂得留白。這是我這週聽得最久的一張。

Cairiss — Wilderness

Genre類型: Blackgaze / Post-Black Metal / Shoegaze
Label廠牌: 自主發行
Format介質: CD / Digital / Streaming
Released發行: 2026-07-31（一手：Bandcamp `released 31 July 2026`；Apple 1873853074 同日）

The organizing tension in Cairiss is two women's voices set side by side, one carrying an airy, almost weightless melody and the other tearing into a black-metal shriek, with neither willing to yield the floor. Wilderness is the band's first full-length, arriving a full decade after a lone 2016 EP and a disappearance so complete it looked permanent. Six tracks, most past the eight-minute mark, "The Guide" nearly nine. Read the titles in sequence, from "Nervosa" through "Dissociate" and "Retrace" to "Integrate," and a recovery arc quietly assembles itself. This is not background music; it asks for an uninterrupted stretch and repays the patience in its back half. 2016 年，Cairiss 出過一張 EP，然後從人間蒸發，一消失就是十年。《Wilderness》是他們遲到十年的首張全長。編制的核心是兩位女聲：一個負責空靈的旋律，一個負責黑金屬那種撕開喉嚨的嘶吼，兩條線並排走，誰也不讓誰。六首曲子多半超過八分鐘，〈The Guide〉將近九分。把曲名連起來看——Nervosa、Dissociate、Retrace、Integrate、Wildfire——像一段從崩潰走向重整的路。這種碟不適合當背景，得騰出整段時間，讓它把你帶完。

Nora Stanley — Glass

Genre類型: Jazz / Solo Saxophone / Art-Pop
Label廠牌: Worm Records
Format介質: Digital / Vinyl
Released發行: 2026-07-31（一手：Bandcamp `released 31 July 2026`；Apple 1895090972 同日）

A saxophonist releasing a solo debut is hardly news; the interesting part of Glass is what Stanley chooses to demote. She pushes improvisation to the back and puts her own songwriting up front, so the record grows around melodies rather than chord changes, an art-pop instinct wearing a jazz coat. The opener, "Bonsai," runs past five minutes and earns its name, trimmed and quiet and unhurried. Nate Mendelsohn shares the production, and Bandcamp Daily handed it a lead feature. Contemporary jazz has been talking about the personal turn for a while now, and this is one of the few records to actually finish the sentence. 薩克斯手出獨奏首作，本來不算新聞。特別的是取捨：她這次把即興往後放，把自己寫的歌往前擺，整張碟是圍著旋律長出來的，而不是圍著和聲跑。開場的〈Bonsai〉五分多鐘，剋制、乾淨，像它的名字一樣被修剪過。與 Nate Mendelsohn 一起製作，Bandcamp Daily 給了頭條專訪。當代爵士這幾年常把「個人化」掛在嘴邊，這張是少數真把話說清楚的。

If These Trees Could Talk — The Hidden Hand

Genre類型: Instrumental Post-Rock
Label廠牌: Metal Blade
Format介質: CD / Vinyl / Digital
Released發行: 2026-07-10（一手：Apple 1884392861 / Spotify / 廠牌新聞稿一致）

The fourth full-length from these Akron instrumentalists holds nine tracks and not a single word of vocal, which makes its home on Metal Blade, a label built on metal, mildly funny. "Moon Machine" stretches close to eight minutes and works as the album's spine, while the two-part "Silence Between Mountains" behaves like an inhale followed by an exhale. The genre's standing hazard is turning grandeur into a formula, and they mostly sidestep it by refusing to rush, letting a passage grow to full size before shoving it over the crest. If you want a big wordless swell, this hands you one. 俄亥俄 Akron 的器樂後搖老將，第四張，九首，整張沒有一個字的人聲。Metal Blade 這種以金屬立身的廠牌出後搖，本身少見。〈Moon Machine〉將近八分鐘，是全碟的脊椎；兩段式的〈Silence Between Mountains〉像一次呼與一次吸。這類音樂最大的風險，是把「壯闊」做成公式，他們大致躲過了——靠的是不急，捨得把段落養夠再往上推。想要無人聲的大浪，這張夠。

Michigander — Over Before You Know It

Genre類型: Indie Rock / Heartland Rock / Power-Pop
Label廠牌: Totally Normal Records / Thirty Tigers
Format介質: CD / Vinyl（Indie Exclusive Sunny Lawn Splatter）/ Cassette / Streaming
Released發行: 2026-07-31（一手：Apple 1894067897；upcomingvinyl / Thirty Tigers 一致）

Jason Singer wears his lineage on his sleeve: Springsteen circa Born in the U.S.A., stadium-sized in the manner of the Killers, with the occasional flash of late-nineties Britpop. The second Michigander album opens with a track literally called "Starting A Band," and the absence of coyness is most of the appeal. Nobody is asking you to study this. The reward is the three seconds when the chorus lands and your fist goes up on its own. Jason Singer 的第二張，血統寫在臉上：《Born in the U.S.A.》那個時期的 Springsteen，加上 The Killers 的球場尺寸，偶爾閃過九〇年代末 Britpop 的亮光。開場曲直接叫〈Starting A Band〉，姿態毫不遮掩。這類音樂不耐細品，它也沒打算讓你細品——要的就是副歌一起、拳頭舉起來的那三秒。誠實地做大，比假裝深刻要好。

Aaron Lee Tasjan — Get Over It, Underdog

Genre類型: Americana / Singer-Songwriter / Power-Pop
Label廠牌: Blue Élan Records
Format介質: CD / Vinyl / Streaming
Released發行: 2026-07-17（一手：Bandcamp `released 17 July 2026`；Apple 1886493695）

Eleven songs, every one of them circling the underdog as an archetype: the overlooked, the underestimated, the ones still gritting it out. Tasjan, a queer songwriter working out of Nashville, spends the record among these figures without condescending to them, and "Ballad of an East Canton Lowlife" drags a little of his Ohio hometown dust into the frame. The chassis is Americana, the coating is power-pop, and the bitterness gets rationed to the lyrics, where it belongs. It is the sound of a writer who trusts a small arrangement to carry a large feeling. Tasjan 說，是 Todd Snider 勸他「往後退才能往前」，於是他把編制退回到一個人與幾把吉他，重新從寫歌開始。十一首歌都繞著「弱者」這個原型打轉——失意的、被看輕的、還在硬撐的。〈Ballad of an East Canton Lowlife〉把俄亥俄老家的塵土寫了進去。底子是 Americana，糖衣是 power-pop，苦味全留給了歌詞。

The Mira Ensemble / Nick Salwey / Tom Edney — Howells: Partsongs

Genre類型: Classical / Choral / British 20th-Century
Label廠牌: SOMM Recordings
Format介質: CD / Hi-Res
Released發行: 2026-07-24（一手：Presto New Release Round-Up 24 July 2026 列為當週新發行；Apple 數字版先行 6/19，收錄以 Presto 英國發行日為準，raw 記錄數字先行日）

Say Herbert Howells and most listeners reach first for the Requiem, for the heavy grief of the church loft. This record goes the other way, gathering the light partsongs he wrote for the seaside and for children. The 1935 cycle "Sea Urchins" runs to eleven movements, the shortest of them, "The Sea-Side Landlady," clocking a mere seventy-three seconds, each one a postcard flipped over by the wind. The Mira Ensemble, an upper-voice group founded only in 2025, makes its recorded debut here, and every track on the disc is a world premiere. Slight, yes, but never trivial, and not one movement is filler. 提到 Herbert Howells，多數人先想到那首《Requiem》，想到教堂裡沉甸甸的哀悼。這張碟偏偏反著來：全是輕盈的合唱小品，寫給海邊，寫給孩子。1935 年的套曲〈Sea Urchins〉有十一段，最短的〈The Sea-Side Landlady〉只有七十三秒，像一張張被海風吹翻的明信片。演唱的 Mira Ensemble 是 2025 年才成立的高聲部新團，這是他們的第一張碟，整張都是世界首錄。輕，卻不輕浮；短，卻沒有一段是湊數。

邱淑蟬 Chiu Shu-chan — 無爭

Genre類型: Hakka Folk / Singer-Songwriter
Label廠牌: 自主發行
Format介質: Streaming
Released發行: 2026-07-28（一手：Apple `2026年7月28日`，music.apple.com/tw id 6793459309；Blow 吹音樂 7/24 預告）

Hakka remains one of the least-covered languages in Chinese independent music, which is reason enough to stop here. Chiu's previous album, 繭的形狀, swept both the Golden Melody Award for Best Hakka Album and the Golden Indie prize for Best Folk record, and this three-track EP keeps her working with the award-winning producer Hsiao Ho-shuo, with Elephant Gym's Tu Chia-chin sitting in on bass. Three songs is a slim offering, yet each one holds its ground. The title, roughly "without contention," reads as a stance: in an era that argues about everything, she simply turns the volume down. 客語，是華語獨立裡最少被寫到的語系之一。邱淑蟬上一張《繭的形狀》一口氣拿下金曲最佳客語專輯與金音最佳民謠專輯，這張三曲 EP 續與金獎製作人蕭賀碩合作，還請來大象體操的塗嘉欽彈貝斯。三首而已，卻每一首都站得住。〈無爭〉這題目就有態度：在什麼都要爭的年代，她把音量調低。