The A.M.

The world may be going mad, but at least we can share in some good tunes along the way. The AM is your sonic sanctuary (BBC News aside, but a dose of reality is important, too), featuring a throwback to Calgary/Montreal project Chairs, and everything from live Dead to modular synths to Bad Brains' HR working with New Age Doom.

Hope you enjoy it, and have a wonderful week.

Playlist:

• Shabaka - A Future Untold
• C. Diab - Anamnesiac
• Craven Faults - Yard Loup
• Isaac Sherman - Metonym
• Various Artists, featuring Pacific Coliseum - Last Light
• Amp Sessions - Deep Breathing
• Shane Parish - Avril 14th
• Gustaf Ljunggren, Skúli Sverrisson - Stevelen
• Elyot - What's the Matter Ryan?/Masterpiece
• Juliana Barwick, Mary Lattimore - Stardust
• Drum & Lace - Terra (Right Here Do This)
• Ora Cogan - Honey
• The Grateful Dead - St. Stephen - Live at Barton Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 5/8/77
• Leonard Cohen - The Partisan - Live in Dublin, 2013
• The Notwist - How the Story Ends
• Chairs - Three in the Morning /Breathe Underwater
• Chairs - Wooden Fish
• Chris Reimer - Waving Goodbye From a Tree
• N NAO - Vice-Versa
• Amor de Días - In the Winter Sun
• SAULT - Good Things Will Come After the Pressure
• Cochemea - Procession of Spirits
• Geologist - Government Job
• Melin Melyn, featuring Rozi Plain - Fantastic Food - Re-Milled
• Summer Bruises - Dead End
• Breakfast in Fur - Look
• A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Sometimes I Think About You
• Andy Boay - One & One
• New Age Doom, H.R. - Amaseganalo Pt. 2
• Holger Czukay, featuring Tarwater, Immersion - Gvoon - Version 9 (Beautiful in Here)
• Efrim Manuel Menuck - Our Lady of Parc Extension and Her Munificent Sorrow

Not quite two weeks in, and 2026 has already been a long year. Here's three hours of musical sanctuary to start your week, with a throwback to David Bowie's final transmission, songs from overlooked albums from 2025, and upcoming releases for some pleasant anticipation.

Hope you enjoy it.

Playlist:

• Ryan J Raffa, Sam Prekop - Pitchshifter
• Charbonneau/Amato - Lendemain
• wihtikow - iiiiiii
• Kogane - You're Alive, So Act Like It
• World Standard - Someone is Singing
• Dylan Henner - We Walked all the Way to the Lake and The Water Was So Still We Jumped in Naked
• Angelo Cruzman, Jacoby - Wonder
• Thool - Helpful Realm
• Pullman - Kabul
• AVI - The Belly of The Beast
• Hollie Kenniff - Of Quiet Beauty
• Fabiano do Nascimento, Vittor Santos Orchestra - Spring Theme
• Andrew Wasylyk - First Moonbeams of Adulthood
• HALFBY, featuring Cornelius - Sleep Machine
• Raleigh - End of Days
• David Bowie - Dollar Days
• David Bowie - I Can't Give Everything Away
• Momoko Gill - No Others
• River Tiber - Spirals
• Cate Le Bon, featuring St. Vincent - Always the Same
• Hélène Barbier - Plastique Couch
• The Pinc Lincolns - I Want to Have a Good Time
• Various Artists, featuring Mikey Coltun of Mdou Moctar - Pacific Theme
• gerry - Grimpy
• YouYourself&i - Snowflakes on the Sidewalks
• Memorials - Cut Glass Hammer
• Dry Cleaning - The Cute Things
• Legal Vertigo - Tragic Future Film Star
• Exek - Visiting Dust Bunnies
• Ivan the Tolerable - Inchworm
• Winged Wheel - Canvas 11

AM Gold 2025, part two: 30 or so songs that made the last year more liveable. Hope you enjoy it and that your year starts with a steady pulse and a hopeful melody.

Next week, we're back to new releases, old favourites, and discoveries from other folks' year-end lists. Happy 2026.

Playlist:

• Buildings & Food - Bear Bells
• Memory Pearl, featuring Sam Prekop - Music Travel III
• Shrunken Elvis - K-House
• Rival Consoles - Catherine
• M. Sage - Witch Grass
• Jilk - ...At Curved Highway
• Blue Lake - Cut Paper
• Ethan Levy, Alex Stevens - Great Wave
• Ben Morales Frost, Violeta Vicci - Forest Bathing
• Black Taffy - The Space Left Behind
• Jairus Sharif - Mawu
• Felbm - Summer II
• Gustaf Ljunggren, Emil de Waal - Bolde
• Immersion, SUSS - State of Motion
• Cerys Hafana - Helynt Ryfeddol
• Rachel Kitchlew - Leopard Slug
• Orbital Ensemble - Deusas (Live)
• Sessa - Nome de Deus
• Thanya Iyer - I am a mountain (make sure you don't move)
• Laurie Torres - Feux fuyants
• Eiyn Sof - Two Mares
• T. Gowdy - Strewn
• Pneumatic Tubes - Motion Kontrol
• Black Market Karma - Soft & Heavy
• Loaded Honey - In Your Arms
• Persica 3 - Hold On
• Foxwarren - Wings
• Fortunato Durutti Marinetti - Do You Ever Think
• Mess Esque - Light Showroom
• SANAM - Sayl Damei
• Population II - Haut-fond

AM Gold 2025 Part One: A selection from some favourite albums of the past 12 months, from ambient jazz and Ethiopian-inspired electronics to bossa nova, post-punk to pagan folk.

Enjoy the last few days of the first quarter of the 21st century, and tune in for Part Two in 2026.

Playlist:

• C.R. Gillespie - Idioglossia
• Mount Maxwell - For You
• Bitchin Bajas - Skylarking
• Apta - Dive
• Light-Space Modulator - Burning Within
• Kibrom Birhane - Utopian
• POSTNAMERS - The Withdrawing
• Sulk Rooms - Innellea
• JB Dunckel, Jonathan Fitoussi - Atlantica
• Joni Void - Event Flow - A Sequence
• Teen Daze - Don't Think About It
• Heal Mura - More Pillows Than Heads
• Juana Molina - siestas ahi
• Proxima Psychoacoustics - Kublai Khan
• Bryan Ferry, Amelia Barratt - Holiday
• Stereolab - Transmuted Matter
• Project Gemini, Wendy Martinez - Ce qui est intact
• Pedro Mizutani, Skinshape - Sozin
• Nyron Higor - Maravilhamento
• The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - Sankofa
• The Circling Sun - Mizu
• Damon Locks - Isn't It Beautiful
• Badge Epoch - Tom Henry's Dream
• Jonathan Personne - Nuage Noir
• Full Moon Bummer - Great Big Bang!
• Ora Cogan - The North
• Junk Drawer - Brown Sunshine
• Immersion - How to Be
• Ivan the Tolerable, Hawksmoor - Un Esprit Confus
• Mansur Brown - Love is Mine
• Men I Trust - Another Stone
• The Laughing Chimes - He Never Finished the Thought
• The New Eves - Highway Man
• Hermitess - In That Country

It's The AM's midwinter special—partly inspired by the winter solstice, partly by Christmas. A quiet one even by AM standards, but hopefully it introduces a few new seasonal favourites.

Next week, we'll get into the annual AM Gold album-of-the-year roundup. In the meantime, season's greetings and happy holidays to you!

Playlist:

• Mice Parade - Dasher, Prancer, Donner & Blitzen
• Morgan Greenwood - Snowing Slow
• Various Artists, featuring Human Music - Ice Palace
• Temporal Waves - Warmth of the Winter Sun
• Omni Gardens - Somewhere In My Memory
• Ryan Lottermoser - Under the Veil of Night
• TRBLMKR - Morning Moon
• Yabra - Moonrise
• Libra Rising - Birds in Winter
• Vic Mars - Pen Y Fan Solstice Mix
• Brown Spirits - Winter Solstice
• Löwenzahnhonig - Winter Solstice
• Bent Spoon Duo - Walking in the Air
• Hermitess - Winter Cometh
• Bobby Lee - The Holly Bears the Crown
• Andrew Bird - Festivus
• Ethan Levy - Winter Waltz
• Clinton St. John - Patterns in the Snow
• Animal Collective - Bleak Midwinter
• Sam Wilson - The Moon Song
• Sharron Kraus - Candlemas Moon
• Björk Guðmundsdóttir - Jólakötturinn
• Blur - The Wassailing Song
• Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
• Samara Lubelski - Snowy Meadows II
• Yoko Ono - Listen, the Snow is Falling
• The Orioles - (It's Gonna Be A) Lonely Christmas
• Isaac Hayes - The Mistletoe and Me
• The Ramsey Lewis Trio - Plum Puddin’
• The Beach Boys - Morning Christmas
• Chris Mastheim - Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
• Chang Loo - Donde Esta Santa Claus
• Sinistrio - The Grinch
• The Second Hand Orchestra - Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
• Low - Just Like Christmas
• The Raveonettes - Snowstorm
• Beach House - I Do Not Care for the Winter Sun
• Kim Gray - Santa Knows (I've Been Bad)
• Various Artists , featuring Black on White Affair - Auld Lang Syne

A low-key AM, with a throwback to a cult Jean-Claude Vannier soundtrack, and a mix of new sounds, missed 2025 releases, and a handful of classics to get you through your Monday morning.

Fair warning: Next week's AM will be a festive one.

Playlist:

• AVI - The Belly of the Beast
• Dalton Dodginghorse - Dome of the Sea
• Yu Su - Bonita
• rRoxymore - Moodified
• Full Moon Bummer - Solar Flare
• Clark - Janus Modal
• Drummachinemike - Screen Time
• tstewart - isle of the blest
• Kindly Spoken Thieves - Rheostat
• M83 - Artificial Infinity
• Andy Boay - If I Ever Come Off
• Modern Nature - Shasta
• Andy Bell, featuring Dot Allison, Michael Rother - I'm in love...
• Raleigh - Syd
• Sharp Pins - Popafangout
• Jean-Claude Vannier - Generique debut
• Jean-Claude Vannier - Katmandou 8
• The Dears - Autonomy
• Exek - Sidestepping
• Memorials - In the Weeds
• The Radiation Flowers - Follow the Sun
• Hélène Barbier - Water
• Tom Verlaine - Without a Word
• Magic Fig - Goblin
• Mega Bog - Station to Station
• Laura Groves - Yes
• Men I Trust - Worn Down
• Bodywash - Massif Central - Desert Lake Session
• Slowdive - Kisses - Daniel Avery remix
• The Haiduks - You're Not Around
• Blume - New Dawn Rise
• Ultra Vivid Scene - Mercy Seat (12" Version)

This week's AM puts its own spin on The Scene's recent "25 records for 25 years" article with 25 more Calgary classics that didn't appear on their list. Is it definitive? No. Is it nostalgic? Definitely. But hopefully it's also a reminder of how much is worth celebrating in Calgary's musical scene.

Hope you enjoy it.

Playlist:

• Kibrom Birhane - Addis Zemen Lአዲስ ዘመን
• Equipment Pointed Ankh - A Spectral Math
• Laurie Torres - Intérieurs - Jeremiah Chiu Remix
• Floating Points - Corner of My Eye
• Steve Hauschildt - Pyramidal
• These New Puritans - The Other Side
• Disiniblud - It's Change - Daedelus 'the only constant' mix
• Rural Tapes - Hypermnesia
• Haiku Salut - Sounds Like There's a Pacman Crunching Away At Your Heart
• Mark Mothersbaugh - Drosera Rotundifolia
• Various Artists, featuring Laura Palmer - The Protagonist
• Vailhalen - Moodkiller
• The Cape May - Old and Early Numbers
• Azeda Booth - Kensington
• Jane Vain & The Dark Matter - Don't Mind Us
• Extra Happy Ghost!!! - Mash-Up: Neither Being Nor Nothingness
• L.T. Leif - Fine Dust Rising
• Kris Ellestad - November Steppes
• Monroeville Music Center - En Route (ou Enfin! Le Défilé Capsule de Temps va au Centre de Contrôle)
• Jay Crocker - Brain Freeze
• Holgans - Betcha Sunrise
• Jung People - We Marched Feral and Free
• Hana Vave - The Expedition
• Beach Season - Good Boy
• Oaka - Midnight
• Milk Toast - Shabby Chic
• Untrained Animals - I Got Rocks
• Stilz - Future World
• Aleem Khan - Cameo
• Crystal Eyes - Already Gone
• wasmarkhere - Tetrahedron
• Jairus Sharif - Pre-Afterlife
• Cylindricon - Numbers & Letters
• Postnamers - Little Baby Flutter (Birdy, Bye Bye)
• Sanctums - Radiant Silver

The first AM of the last month of 2025 hopefully sounds a bit less wintry than the world outside. Tune in for a throwback to Talk Talk's final album, new music from AM favourites like Chad VanGaalen, The Notwist, and Teen Daze, and a mix of genres from the ambient and experimental to the groovy and garage-y.

Here's hoping it helps you ease into December.

Playlist:

• Mount Maxwell - Water Babies
• C.R. Gillespie - The Garden
• Loula Yorke - Fontana
• Teen Daze - Don't Think About It
• Charles Webster & The South African Connection, featuring Emamkay, Bokang Ramatlapeng - Rain
• Various Artists, featuring Charles A.D. - Snow lover
• Simon Pyke - The Unstoppable
• The Central Office Of Information - Animal Furniture
• Various Artists, featuring Greg Licher - Zen and the Art of Long Distance Driving
• Peter Gagliardi - Haunted
• Cosmique Hypnotique - Fuschre
• King Khan, Wolf Clan Jo - Morning Song
• Cris Derksen - Treaties
• Fabiano do Nascimento, E Ruscha V - Nascer
• Hilary Woods - Faults
• Vanbur - My Own
• Talk Talk - New Grass
• Full Moon Bummer - Moon Eats the Sun
• Ulrika Spacek - Square Root of None
• The Radiation Flowers - Sunshine on the Heavens
• The Notwist - X-Ray
• Pocket Dimension - Mind
• Tony Molina - Violets of Dawn
• Lab Coast - Back to Your Future
• Sharp Pins - Queen of Globes and Mirrors
• Octoduck - Crying Shame
• Orbital Ensemble - Daydreams
• Magic Fig - Sensation Seeker
• Heems, featuring Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Loveseat
• Hélène Barbier - Kindness in a Cup
• Bernardo Devlin - 5:45
• Gruff Rhys - Dos Amdani
• Frankie Cosmos - Joyride

The snow doesn't keep Katelyn away from filling in for Peter this morning. Katelyn talks about things from her teenhood she nolgastic for and her love for snowy music, while playing some great tracks.

Playlist:

• The Mountain Goats - Armies of the lord
• Lincoln - Smokey eyes
• Smokey AB - Ready to die
• Perm - to earth will tell me when we land
• Bethany Home and Laughing Matter - I fell apart(in your apartment)
• The Rural Alberta Advantage - Falling Apart
• Lizzy McAlpine - Pushing it down and praying(Live)
• Hey, Nothing - Like a brother
• Rufus Wainwright - Gay Messiah
• Kevin Atwater - Jacob killed a cat
• Odie leigh - Crop Circles
• Lavender Country - I can't shake the stranger out of you
• Foxwarren - To be
• Colter Wall - Saskatchewan in 1881
• Super Pyramid - Victoria, P.E.I
• New Gaze - Dystopian Days
• Medium Build - Last Time
• Texas Gentlemen - Pain
• St lenox - Kroger Twilight
• Jeffrey Lewis - Cult Boyfriend
• The human hearts - Professionals in Cancun
• Sport Murphy - The late days of summer
• Big Thief - Paul
• The Tiny - Closer
• Folk Options - There goes the idiot
• Sales & Co - Pass the porn
• Drink me - Ines
• Hangman Pencil co. - The Pavement's always grey
• Sunvale - You're so pretty I could throw up in a five guys
• I, the mountain - Are you alright?
• Tele & the ghost of our lord - The old man keeps yellin' at the clouds
• Julie Doiron - Where the road goes from two lanes down to one
• Andy Shauf - Wasted on you
• Sam Tudor - Everybody's keeping their word
• Nico Paulo - Now or Never
• Choir Practice - Failsafe
• Ladyhawk - My old Jackknife
• Dead Pioneers - Bad Indian

No Summary