The Drift: the best in weird and experimental music
Cal Cashin rounds up the month’s best in strange and avant-garde sounds from around the world, this time celebrating the possibilities of stringed instruments
Summer is in full force, and, perhaps predictably, my listening habits have returned to old, familiar patterns. Everyone has their own particular flavour of ‘Summer Music’; my drug of choice is a cocktail of the vernal melancholia of Rocksteady, the scorching thwomp of P-Funk, and the ebb and flow of ‘90s Post-Rock. Others are, of course, available.
But whilst I have spent the long summer days in the company of Alton Ellis, George Clinton and Talk Talk, the warm summer nights have been spent delving into a plethora of new and intoxicating music. 2025’s weird, experimental offerings just keep coming, and combing through the fringes of jazz, rock and ambient music has left me fulfilled on my quest to mainline you the very best weird, avant-garde and experimental music of June.
In the fifth edition of The Drift, we will be celebrating the myriad possibilities of stringed instruments. Be that the furious guitar virtuosity of Cyrus Pireh or the frenetic bass of Norberto Lobo, the unholy sounds emanating from Hildur Guðnadóttir’s halldorophone or Sary Moussa’s versatile saz, these five albums will demonstrate the limitless potential at the end of the fretboard.