Something Curated Music Monthly Is Now on Spotify and Tidal

As we saw in the March edition, not everything in music has to be loud to make noise. This month, quiet comebacks, slow-burn masterpieces, and stubbornly independent spaces spoke volumes. From the understated genius of Momus to the return of Tortoise, the sonic worldbuilding of Charif Megarbane and the reawakening of a modern classic by Kali Malone, April offered plenty of reasons to tune in. 

We’re also debuting a new companion playlist on Spotify and Tidal — just a couple of tracks for each pick, curated monthly straight from this column — to keep the listening going.

New Album/1

Momus – Quietism

Momus’ latest LP, Quietism, stands out for its distinctive mix of dark humor, and bittersweet vibes that mirror today’s chaotic energy, while also tracing its origins as a political warning – a cautionary note against the 47th US President with “Orange Pills” urging listeners “don’t swallow them”. The album fuses retro ’80s charm with Brazilian bossa nova and the raw sound of a genuine acoustic guitar, marking a clear break from past pop experiments by Scottish artist like Ballyhoo. Capturing the zeitgeist of our times, it tackles themes of political apathy, the pitfalls of self-care culture, and the tense interplay between quietism and activism (“United is the way you rose, divided you can only lose” he sings in “Orange Pills”). With tracks like “The Actor” – which might even sound like a composition by Ariel Pink), “My Apprentice Devil” and “Imperial Phase” delivering catchy beats, clever cultural nods, and filmic vocabulary, Quietism also wrestles with questions of authenticity versus the synthetic in the AI age.

Listen/Buy on Bandcamp and Darla Records.

New Album/2

Charif Megarbane – Hawalat

Habibi Funk is a Berlin-based label that, for the past ten years, has been doing a wonderful job of researching and spreading North African and Middle Eastern culture through the reissue of Arabic music from the 1960s to the 1980s. In 2023, they began launching productions by contemporary artists, and Cherif Megarbane’s Hawalat is the label’s latest, unmissable release. Megarbane is a prolific Lebanese multi-instrumentalist, who with his debut album Marzipan coined the genre Lebrary – “a vision of Lebanon and the Mediterranean expressed via the prismatic sonics of library music” – crafting instrumental tracks that blend Lebanese and Mediterranean musical tradition with spontaneous funk, electronic and experimental elements.

With Hawalat his music expands outward, shifting its gaze from his home-country to the diaspora, the concept of exile and to the multiple ties between the domestic and the global. The result is a 17-track journey rich with impressions from different places, genres and generations. Its soundscape moves fluidly from symphonic warmth to hip-hop loops, from contemplative to danceable. Featuring prestigious collaborations – from Sven Wunder and the Stockholm Studio Orchestra to the Italian keyboardist Bassolino – this brand new Habibi Funk release is a dense and rewarding work, revealing more with every listen.

Listen/Buy via Bandcamp.

Track

Tortoise – Organesson

In its 2000s incarnation, post-rock – propelled by generational bands like Explosions in the Sky, Sigur Rós, and many others – seemed poised to bring instrumental rock back into the mainstream spotlight. Things didn’t quite unfold that way. But lately, we’ve been witnessing a strong return of some of the genre’s most defining voices: Dirty Three, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai have reminded us with their latest works that alternative rock is far from over. On this note, the unexpected comeback of Tortoise – one of the most influential bands of the past few decades, nine years since their last album – is significant this month. Organesson, their brand-new single accompanied by a video animated by Rob Shaw, teases the upcoming release of new material on International Anthem/Nonesuch. Short and striking, the track is layered, propulsive and instantly recognizable: that signature Tortoise sound wraps the listener up from the very first note. And one that definitely leaves us wanting more.

Listen/Buy via Bandcamp.

Reissue

Kali Malone – The Sacrifical Code 2019-2025

Kali Malone’s The Sacrificial Code is a stunning achievement in experimental composition – an album that draws you in with its slow, meditative organ cycles and holds you there with an almost spiritual intensity. Tuned in historical temperaments like Kirnberger III and meantone, these pieces unfold with a quiet, deliberate grace, revealing rich harmonic textures that feel both ancient and contemporary. Originally released in 2019, the album marked a major moment in Malone’s career, establishing her as a singular voice in contemporary minimalist music.

In April 2025 Malone reissues her work with a fresh arrangement of the title track, recorded in 2023 on a 16th-century meantone organ at Malmö Konstmuseum. It also includes new live material, such as Hagakyrka Bells and Sacrificial Code III, expanding the work’s emotional and sonic reach. As with the original, Malone’s attention to detail is striking – not only in her choice of tunings but in the architecture of each piece, which breathes and evolves with a kind of sacred patience. The reissue doesn’t just revisit a modern classic; it extends it, reaffirming The Sacrificial Code as a cornerstone in Malone’s ever-evolving body of work.

Listen/Buy on Bandcamp.

News

London’s Cafe OTO needs your help

For nearly two decades, Cafe OTO in East London’s Dalston has been one of the most vital places for avant-garde music – not just for Londoners but also for anyone (like us in Milan) who live thousands of miles away. Since opening its doors in 2008, the venue has become much more than a music venue: it’s a platform for radical sonic exploration, from free jazz to electronic experimentation, from underground noise to leftfield counterculture. It sees live performances, artist residencies, workshops, but also runs a record label and even architectural space. Still, 17 years of activity – and even a recent Oscar win – aren’t enough to guarantee the financial stability needed to keep all of this going. Located in one of the most gentrified areas of London, the venue recently introduced a membership model, giving people everywhere the chance to support what is, at its core, a home for art, culture and music.

That’s why – especially now, in the season of Record Store Day, which feels increasingly detached from its original spirit – we want to amplify Cafe Oto’s call:

“The trajectory of venues like ours can feel inevitable and we can all think of important spaces that the city has eventually swallowed up. We see this happen time and time again, not just in London but globally. As this process continues and venues become scarcer, our work feels more vital than ever. We become small pockets of resistance to a broader process of cultural homogenisation that squeezes out independent art and thought.

“Now more than ever we need spaces for communities to gather and make work that challenges dominant cultural norms and can nurture art outside of the world of commercial and institutional production. For us to be able to celebrate our 20th birthday and beyond we need your help”.

For more info and to support Cafe OTO, click here.

Listen to the Something Curated music monthly playlist on Spotify or Tidal.

1. Panda Bear, Cindy Lee – Defense
2. Panda Bear – Ferry Lady
3. Yo La Tengo – Leaving Home
4. Lucrecia Dalt, David Sylvian – cosa rara
5. Mabe Fratti, Lucrecia Dalt – cosa rara – en la playa
6. Roy Ayers Ubiquity – Everybody Loves The Sunshine
7. Bill Fay – The Healing Day
8. Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge, Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Hey Lover
9. Charif Megarbane – Hanadi
10. Charif Megarbane, Sven Wunder – Helia
11. Tortoise – Oganesson
12. Kali Malone – Sacrificial Code

Camillo Vegezzi is a freelance music writer based in Milan. He has collaborated with various music magazines and is a contributor to the cultural section of Il Manifesto. Read more of Camillo’s writing on Something Curated here.

Lorenzo Villa is a writer and editor based in Milan. He writes about lifestyle for Harper’s Bazaar Italia and collaborates with the literary magazine Galápagos. Read more of Lorenzo’s writing on Something Curated here.