[What follows is one of the many merry articles in the Mercury's Winter Guide 2025. Find a print copy here, subscribe to get a copy mailed to you here, and if you're feeling generous this holiday season, support us here.—eds.]
Since starting at the Portland Mercury in February, I’ve spoken with dozens of people in various Portland music scenes, all of whom echo the opinion that it feels as though Portland is having a bit of a renaissance at the moment. Everyone is leaning more deeply into their artistic practices, starting bands, and excavating old projects no one ever thought would put music out again. New venues are opening (some are sadly closing), we got Dame back (who is a rapper as well as a nine-time NBA All-Star), and established artists from elsewhere are relocating to Portland—I see you, elijah jamal asani, Gouge Away, Duster, and Algernon Cadwallader.
Case in point, a massive amount of truly stellar records have been released by Portland artists thus far in 2025. We’ve got it all in our fair city: the hardest of hardcore, the slowest of slowcore, transcendent ambient and jazz, hip-hop and hoedown, toe-curling post-punk, and lip-biting rave music. Every single genre of music imaginable is forged on the banks of the mighty Willamette. All-femme sacred choral music? Yup. Indigenous indie? Sure thing. A clutch trans music scene? You bet!
The below 10 albums are my favorites of the year thus far for so many different reasons. Some dropped at the perfect time to resonate with where I was/am personally (The Barbaras, C Powers), some came on like a breath of air after a deep plunge I didn’t know I was taking (The Cosmic Tones Research Trio, Boltcutter), while others are gems by true Portland legends (Michael Hurley, Soul Assembly 1). All of the albums—every single one—are worth digging into, even if they’re not your cup of tea. Unbelievable amounts of creative energy, time, and resources went into the creation of these works of art. Check them out, see the artists live, give them flowers in person while you can.
All albums are listed in alphabetical order.
The Barbaras - RollercoastersFor fans of The Judds, Patsy Cline, Dougie Poole
Since dropping in late September, Rollercoasters hasn’t left my turntable for more than a couple days at a time. It finds the perfect tension between trying to love yourself, trying to love the world around you, and trying to find the one(s) to love. The blood harmonies sung by sisters Sallie and Weezy Ford are hauntingly catchy, country earworms you’ll be humming to yourself for months. All the grand country music tropes are present: love, heartbreak, cheating, lust, forgiveness, past mistakes, and on and on. But with that 2025 twist, baby! Let the Ford sisters croon you into sweet oblivion with a wink and a flash of their boobs. Since their packed release party at The Showdown Saloon, I’ve been super keen to learn how to two-step and square dance. Who’s in?
Related: Read our full Rollercoasters album review.
Boltcutter - Still BrokeFor fans of Peeling Flesh, These Fucking Hands, whatsdysmorphia
Irresponsibly heavy, Eugene’s Boltcutter ain’t here to make friends or fans, they’re here to blast shit out of their fucking path. Guttural pig squeals ooze forth—blurring, burning, and burying any other possibility of sonic comprehension. Blaxploitation and hip-hop samples serve as reminders that slam and hardcore music have always had roots in Black and Brown culture, unbreakable bonds real slammers continue forging in basements and pits around the PNW. Most of Still Broke’s tracks have a feature: Fellow heavy-hitters Human Decomposition, Dredge, Chain Gang, and Load Tha Nine show up, along with New York trapper RXKNephew. Pick up a copy of Still Broke and see Boltcutter live, it’ll change you.
C Powers - Unlawful AssemblyFor fans of AK Sports, Lotic, Aja Ireland
Constructed using heavily distorted samples of field recordings C Powers collected during the protests after the murder of George Floyd and since, Unlawful Assembly is at once a stark reminder of where we are as a society, and where we can get to if we finally decide to take radical action. The “radical” action Powers seeks is community, on and off the dance floor. Album favorite “I WIll Not Live In A Fascist State” uses a chanted protest call-and-return (the track’s namesake) over a driving beat reminiscent of the early rave music of the ’80s and ’90s, a scene built by people of color and queers. If you dream of a free Palestine, the abolition of the prison industrial complex, and Indigenous and trans liberation, pop this one into your headphones immediately and get your dancing/marching shoes on.
Casual Hex - Zig Zag Lady Illusion IIPortland-Seattle-Tacoma band Casual Hex deliver scathing critiques of where we find ourselves in 2025: Relentless depersonalization via propaganda fed to us from the day we’re born that it’s our lot in life—or worse yet, our duty—to endlessly feed the insatiable beasts of capitalism. Angular guitars pulse, fractured from a lifetime of trauma and alienation, over a steady low-end bass that either incites a riot or a moshpit; choose your own adventure. The dizzying precision of the band is reflective of the industrial caste system hellscape of the now, and on the album’s lead single, “The System,” the band asks “Can you tell us why it’s all a disguise?” When they find the answer, we’ll share it out.
Related: Read our full Zig Zag Lady Illusion II album review.
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - S/TFor fans of Alice Coltrane, Sun Ra, Onyx Collective
Led by prolific Illinois transplant Roman Norfleet—also of Be Present Art Group and the newly formed Merkaba Brotherhood—The Cosmic Tones Research Trio incite visions of Black ancestors past and future. Meditative to the extent you are willing to let go, the Trio can take you all the way; all they ask is that you check your ego at the door. The group’s other two members, Harlan Silverman and Kennedy Verrett, manifest themselves in the project with healing cello, flute, Rhodes, duduk, and more. This being the Trio’s second album, the sound is warmer, asking less and giving more. This is Afrofuturism for the here and now.
Herr God / House of Warmth - Dawn Summers is DeadFor fans of Nourished By Time, Glixen, Chlorine (NZ)
The split EP Dawn Summers is Dead contains within its four songs a multiverse of texture and color. The first two tracks are Herr God’s, a three-piece calling their music “slowgaze,” fronted by Chloe Gallardo. Their first track opens with the refrain “Someone buy me a gun / I’m a man on the run / Can’t get out / I won’t hurt anyone,” setting the timbre of the EP to deep lavender, slate grey, and a shimmering black, until now reserved only for shoegaze femme icons of the late ’80s and early ’90s. The second two songs come from House of Warmth, a band leaning more into the liminal space between noisy shoegaze and (good) nu metal. Both bands are at the vanguard of underground music in Portland and beyond—tune in.
Manslaughter 777 - God’s WorldFor fans of Carl Crack, Rave Racers, LU2K
Maximalism is the name of the game on Manslaughter 777’s new one, God’s World. It’s a workout not only on the dancefloor, but also of genre sampling. The minds behind the gauntlet may surprise: Lee Buford of The Body, Everyone Asked About You, et al., and Zac Jones of MSC and Nothing—though there were signs. Whiplashing from soundsystem dub to four-to-the-floor rave, ambient soundscapes to fragmented industrial beats, the album is unrelenting start to finish. The samples here are also unbelievably nuanced, giving the album an unclockable timestamp, though it’s 100 percent 2025 music. I’d bet money a Manslaughter 777 live show would break some backs if ever they were to play out.
Michael Hurley - Broken Homes and GardensFor fans of Larry Peace-Love Yes, The Holy Modal Rounders, Connie Converse
Portland lost one of its guiding lights this year: Michael Hurley passed away at the age of 83, leaving in his wake a massive discography of outsider folk. Broken Homes and Gardens—the first of what is sure to be many posthumous releases—is the last album Hurley was directly involved in producing, setting the track order just days before his April 1 passing. Hurley’s music is playful, sexual, snarky, devastating, and full of life and love, just like the man himself. On his new record, you can tell we’re hearing directly from the source, drinking straight from the spring. Yes, Bad Mr. Mike sounds weathered, but that’s the point, he lived a full life ’til the day he died. His sharing his stories with us is a privilege, not a right. Soak it in knowing he’s somewhere up there having a beer, dancing a jig.
Related: Read our full Broken Homes & Gardens album review.
Various Artists - Powerhouse vol. 1For fans of Bijoux Cone, Dustbunny, IX of Swords (these are just who I hope are on vol. 2)
The first in what I deeply hope is many more to come, the inaugural Powerhouse compilation is a vignette of Portland’s underground indie music scenes in 2025. The compilation—compiled by the band Femme Cell—pulls together nine new or previously unreleased tracks by largely femme and/or queer-fronted bands. Album standouts include the stoned dreamings of Emerlinda’s “If I Could;” the wildly relatable first lines of “Lay And Wait” by How Strange It Is: “Look up to yourself / You are the fucking future, you / Me? / I’m just a cocksucker;” and of course, the ripper new track “I’m Not Pretty” by Nonbinary Girlfriend, in which bandleader James shares insight into their past, repeating the lines “I’m not pretty / I am fucking scary / I’m not pretty / You are fucking scared of me.” If this isn’t a sign of good things to come, I don’t know what is.
Various Artists - Soul Assembly 1: Archive RemixesFor fans of Madlib, J Dilla, MF DOOM
Portland has an intensely vibrant Black music history that informs the city’s music today and will continue to influence the music of the future. Doing some of the most powerful work preserving Portland’s Black music history are the folks at Albina Music Trust, a non-profit dedicated to the amplification of Black music in and around Portland’s historically Black Albina District. Soul Assembly 1: Archive Remixes is the first in a remix series in which contemporary Portland DJs, producers, and beatmakers take funky tracks from the AMT vaults, putting their personal spin on them. The whole album slides and grooves through its 14 tracks with an easy cool only real heads know how to produce. This is as close to a perfect album we will see this year: historically very important to Portland, A-1 quality production, and an immediate turntable classic.
19 More That’re Also Very Worth It…Aminé - 13 Months of Sunshine
Charlie Hilton - River of Valentines
Conspire - Turn a Blind Eye EP
Crystal Quartez - Erospace
Dreckig - Eclipse EP
elijah jamal asani - ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,
Forty Feet Tall - Clean the Cage
Holland Andrews - Aromatherapy: Vol. 1
Kitten Tools - Kitten Music
Larry Peace-Love Yes - Everyone On This Planet Is Family
The Modern Folk - Modern Folk Electronic Ensemble / Holayela / Mf
Mortiis - Live at Enchanted Forest / Live at Star Theater
Piggy Bank - Pattern Recognition
Ural Thomas - Nat-Ural
Various Artists - Emerald: New Sounds from Moon Glyph Records
Top 2025 Albums from Our Portland Music Pals!There’s so much music coming out of Portland right now, there’s no way one person can listen to and appreciate it all. With that in mind, we asked a handful of Portland music pals to weigh in on what’s good. The following are those special selections—dig in.
C Powers:DJ, Producer
Carissa Illy - “Kitty Kat-R3mix”
DJ Dissolve - “teknodisko”
othrwrld - skin and sky
Silversound - “Rage”
Various Artists - 254 Science and Research: Renegade Science
xoFleur - “Lick of the Week”
Eric Isaacson: Mississippi Records founderThe Cosmic Tones Research Trio - S/T
Cruise Control - Time Is An Angel
Dreckig - Eclipse EP
Hailey Holden - Laments, Rockers, and Howls
Pinky Tex - Singing Angel From Devil Rock Canyon
Giulia Fiaoni:Senior Producer, City Cast Portland
Glorybower - Story Hour EP
Holy Catholic Social Club - The Oh-K Motel
Just Clark - Dead End St
The Neon Prairie Dogs - All Downhill From Here
Pain Soda - Welcome to the Potluck EP
Larry Peace-Love Yes:Folk artist and musician
Barry Walker Jr. - At the 13th Moon Gravity Well
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - S/T
Michael Hurley - Broken Homes and Gardens
Neil Morgans - PAW
Lindsay Costello:Culture Writer, Portland Mercury
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - S/T
elijah jamal asani - ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,
Larry Peace-Love Yes - Everyone On This Planet Is Family
Patricia Wolf - Hrafnamynd
Sister Irene O'Connor - Fire of God’s Love
Papi Fimbres:Musician, Homie Fest founder
Caicedo - Pasará
Julimar ft. El Cucuy - “Machucalo”
Karma Rivera - Priceless
Perimeters - Set The Tripwire EP
Reyna Tropical - Malegría en la Oscuridad EP
Patricia Wolf:Musician, DJ, birder
The Cosmic Tones Research Trio - S/T
elijah jamal asani - ,,, as long as i long to memorise your sky ,,,
Graintable - Music to Watch Seeds Grow By 003: Graintable (Blue Flax)
Strategy - A Cooler World
wndfrm - WVLT
Sallie Ford:Musician, designer
Cruise Control - Time Is An Angel
Emily Love - Heart of a Fool
Jenny Don’t & The Spurs - Live at the Jenny
The Lowtimers - Cracks
William Surly & The Barroom Gospel Band - Hello Sorrow
