This week’s guide is by CF Smith and contributors Words By Shoaib, and Irfan Ayaan.
Hey all, it’s Friday, the day we share a new Between The Cracks. Six fresh curiosities to close out the week, each one a little world of its own, with quality releases from Modha, Alexander IV, Adam O’Farrill, and Ben Wendel weaving their way onto the site. It’s a small window into the corners of the music landscape we love exploring, the off-centre, the esoteric and the quietly brilliant. As always, enjoy the tunes and support the artists and labels who keep the world interesting. Check out our latest picks below.
Albums
Modha – At Your Pace
On At Your Pace, Berlin duo Modha move with calm confidence. They blend jazz, hip-hop, soul, and experimental R&B into a warm and emotionally honest sound. Move at Your Own Pace opens as a mission statement. It offers a rhythm-forward instrumental that invites you to settle into your own tempo. Good News with Allysha Joy brings a looser, late-night glow. Her vocal rides a laid-back groove that feels quietly hopeful. River with Àbáse and Fanni Zahár adds rippling keys and flowing vocal lines. It feels like a song about memory moving through the body. Bullet with Wakai tightens the energy with a sharper beat and more direct lyrical presence. Day by Day (Interlude) slows everything down again and holds space for reflection. Deeper cuts like The Bee by the Pool, Breeze, and Find Me (Underneath the Sun) push the project into more cinematic, sunlit territory. Throughout, Modha returns to themes of mental health, resilience, and self-trust. The album really does move at their pace and invites you to do the same. – IA
Alexander IV (Feiertag) – Alchemist
On Alchemist, Dutch producer and multi-instrumentalist Joris Feiertag returns to his Alexander IV alias and treats the studio like a lab. His sound stays electronic and warm with syncopated rhythms and small instrumental details that feel carefully placed. Across thirteen tracks, he stirs beat-making, live percussion, and melodic fragments into something both detailed and easy to live with. Drums often sit slightly behind the grid. This gives the grooves a human tilt, even when the sound palette leans toward the synthetic. Harp and kalimba motifs appear like bright particles and float over deep bass and atmospheric pads. Some pieces lean closer to club tempo and focus on forward motion. Others feel like sketchbook vignettes in which he tests harmonies, textures, or new rhythmic ideas. The alchemist’s idea makes sense. Nothing here feels raw or unfinished. Each track sounds like an experiment refined until it clicks into a patient and quietly uplifting flow. – IA
Adam O’Farrill – ELEPHANT
Adam O’Farrill doesn’t ease into his record; he drops you straight into a living, breathing sound system. ELEPHANT feels less like a collection of tracks and more like a shifting environment, where structure is fluid but intention is razor sharp. The quartet thrives on tension: groove versus abstraction, density versus space. What this really means is you’re constantly being pulled between grounding rhythms and moments that feel like they might dissolve mid-air. ‘Eleanor’s Dance‘ is one of the clearest entry points. It locks into a steady pulse, almost deceptively simple, before subtle electronic textures and phrasing twists start bending that stability into something more elastic. Then there’s ‘Herkimer Diamond‘, a standout for good reason; it builds patiently, layering fragile motifs until the whole thing opens up into something luminous and slightly unpredictable. Across the album, the three-part Sea Triptych anchors the emotional core, but it’s the interplay that is tight, reactive, and never overplayed. That keeps everything alive. O’Farrill isn’t just showcasing skill here; he’s shaping a sound world that feels both intimate and expansive. – WBS
Ben Wendel – BaRcoDe
Ben Wendel has always leaned toward reinvention, but BaRcoDe feels like a deliberate reset. Stripping things down to saxophone and a rotating cast of mallet percussionists, he builds a sound world that’s at once strangely weightless and precise. There’s no traditional rhythm section to fall back on, so every note carries structural responsibility. The result is music that breathes in patterns, interlocking, dissolving, then re-forming in new shapes. ‘Clouds‘ sets the tone early. It’s all suspended motion, with vibraphone lines flickering around Wendel’s sax like shifting light. Nothing rushes, but nothing stands still either. On the other end, ‘Repeat After Me‘ feels more coded and mechanical, looping motifs that almost resemble signals being transmitted rather than melodies being played. What stands out is how human this all feels despite the electroacoustic framing. The interactions aren’t stiff or overly cerebral; they’re responsive and conversational. Across the album, Wendel treats sound like architecture without ever losing the emotional thread. It’s intricate, yes, but also quietly absorbing. – WBS
Guido Spannocchi – Kammermusik
Drawing on a childhood in Vienna surrounded by classical music and a professional life rooted in London’s cosmopolitan energy, Guido Spannocchi shapes a modern sound informed by global touring and wide‑ranging influences. On Kammermusik, Spannocchi turns his saxophone toward the world of chamber music. He treats strings and percussion as equal partners rather than a backdrop. The opening track, Echoes of Your Formal Education, sets the tone. The ensemble lands on a held note that slowly evolves, folding jazz inflexion into classical poise. Throughout the album, cellist Danny Keane, bassist Andrea Di Biase, and percussionist James Larter create a soft-focus frame of vibraphone, tubular bells, and bowed lines. Pieces like Imaginary Capetown and Seven Dials Triptychon feel like mini-suites. They move between lyrical themes and more abstract passages without ever losing clarity. Full Moon on the Bosporus dips into a gently exotic sway, while Retrospect closes with a reflective, almost hymn-like calm. There are no drums here, yet the music still grooves quietly. Kammermusik feels daring and serene at the same time, offering real solace in a hectic world. – IA
EPs
Giorgi Koberidze – Forests (epilogue)
I sometimes wonder why I love the more experimental end of music. I guess I love the sense of discovery. And although I don’t mind formulaic structures in music, I do tend to gravitate toward sounds that keep me guessing. I have no interest in music that is simply mass-produced and follows traditional melodies or rhythms. Speaking of experimental music, here’s an artists who push himself into new shapes. ‘Forest (Epilogue)’ is the follow-up EP to Georgian composer Giorgi Koberidze‘s wonderful. ‘Forests, Tales, Cities, Forests’ an album released on London’s Kit Records. Recorded during the same sessions and inspiring a series of graphic scores by UK artist Josie Storer, these tracks showcase Koberidze’s unique blend of traditional Caucasian instruments, Western classical arrangements, and avant-garde electronics. The opening track, Epilogue i, is the most upbeat, complex, and layered song, melding traditional chuniri with synths. Epilogue ii, the longest track on the EP, is all contrabass, pizzicato string work and skittering percussion. It’s weird and wonderful, and i love it! The jittery, high-energy pulse of the final track concludes the overarching ‘Forests’ narrative, bringing the story to a euphoric end with polyrhythmic percussion and glitchy avant-garde electronics. If you love slightly off‑centre sounds and are unafraid of strangeness, give this a go.– CFS
