Our favourite vinyl releases of the week

Essential weekend listening.

This week’s rundown is by Kelly Doherty and VF contributors Emily Hill and James Hammond.

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Hiroshi Yoshimura

Flora

(Temporal Drift)

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Hiroshi Yoshimura’s Flora landed in 1987 as a follow-up to Green and Surround, two albums of environmental music that have only grown in stature in recent years owing to the YouTube algorithms and timely reissues. As such, a first edition on vinyl for the much sought-after Flora was a given, and here it finally is in all its smooth-edged serenity. Perhaps on the saccharine side of ambient music to some ears, Yoshimura’s idiosyncratic channelling of walks in his local Edo-era park has a certain buoyancy to them that’s certainly easy to sink back into. – JH

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Japanese Breakfast

For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)

(Dead Oceans)

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Michelle Zauner aka Japanese Breakfast returns for her fourth album via Dead Oceans. Zauner’s first record since 2021’s breakout Jubilee, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) is a wistful, stripped-back offering. Centring Zauner’s sharp lyricism against a backdrop of steel guitars, gentle acoustic strums and generally dreamy textures, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) lives up to its title.a Melancholic sounds for sitting alone in bars to. – KD

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Good Block

Window

(Good Block)

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Good Block release their debut album Window – a beautiful labour of love and musical intrigue crafted between 2017 and 2024 and released via the Good Block imprint. The album takes on different genres worldwide but leans particularly into the deeper pools of electro, ambient and acid. Window balances musical experimentation and mythical themes through floating pads and hazy synth keys, transporting you to unexplored realms. A truly pleasurable listen and journey through sound, limited to a special 300-unit press. – EH

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Judith Hamann

Aunes

(Shelter Press)

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Oft associated with the cello, the breadth of Judith Hamann’s work comes across with this latest solo LP, Aunes. As open in outlook to song form as it is to the placement of microphones, there’s an embedded yet wandering sense of place and voice within Aunes that works a spell over its more conventional instrumentation. Unhurried, breathy collages that intertwine synths and pipe organs with incidental textural interplay, knocking the whole off into the kind of liminal zones associated with artist and label alike. – JH

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Various Artists

Midwest Rhythms Vol. 3

(Disctechno)

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Mark Grusane presents his third edition of Midwest Rhythms for Discotechno. A stunning mini compilation with five tracks of off-kilter house with touches of acid and some tech-y house moments. All tracks fit nicely between 120 and 130 BPM and feature producers from the Midwest, Detroit and Chicago – showcasing sounds from the contemporary underground. Each track is explicitly designed for the dancefloor with heavy beatdown bass and sexy synth workouts ready to get you moving. – EH