With much of the year behind us, many end-of-year lists are starting to be released. It's of no surprise that many artists who were part of Rewire 2025 and others who will be part of Rewire 2026 are appearing on these lists. From the glistening nostalgia-tinted future-pop of Oklou to the utterly vibrant and undeniably colourful music of Los Thuthanaka, 2025 was a special year for explorative and adventurous music. We've gathered together some selected releases from these lists for you to dive into and discover the kinds of sounds one can expect at Rewire festival.
Nine years after their last release, Tortoise returned with Touch, their debut album for International Anthem and Nonesuch Records. The record continues the band’s genre-defying Chicago sound, echoing the jazz-forward explorations of guitarist Jeff Parker. This release was recognised among The Wire’s albums of the year list.
Written between painting sessions and everyday life, Blurrr pairs Joanne Robertson’s intimate songwriting with Oliver Coates’s expressive cello. Pitchfork’s Emma Madden described it as a “mood record of immense solitude, beauty, and free expression.” Released on AD 93, the album earned end-of-year recognition from The Wire, Pitchfork, Crack Magazine, Clash Magazine, Stereogum, Time, and Resident Advisor (RA).
Watch Joanne Roberstson & Oliver Coates Always Were video clip
Watch "Joanne Robertson & Oliver Coates - Always Were" by "AD 93" on https://www.youtube.com/
Los Thuthanaka, the self-titled album by Los Thuthanaka, takes you into a crowd of sounds, where swirling snare drums, bombos, DJ tags, cheers, and whistles engulf you as the bass drums guide your feet forward. Referencing what they call ayni (or "reciprocity" in the Aymara language) to their community for giving them the gift of music, their huayño and caporal rhythms and melodies are emaciated by crusty noise and buried beneath layers and layers of all-consuming sound – creating a bit-crushed collage of hopeful mayhem and joy that draws on ancestral wisdom and traditional sounds while sounding completely new. Released in 2025, it earned widespread acclaim, appearing on end-of-year lists from The Wire, The Quietus, Pitchfork, Crack Magazine, and RA, with the latter describing it as “the closest you'll get to seeing sound.”
Goodness (2025), feeo’s debut, experiments with drone, ambient, electronics, improvisation, and minimalist dance music, tied together by themes of connection and isolation. Pitchfork called it one of the year’s best, observing that she “gives free rein to her darker instincts, mulling over minimalist electronics and unleashing the occasional barrage of blackened noise.”
Watch feeo's The Hammer Strikes The Bell video clip
Watch "feeo - ‘The Hammer Strikes The Bell’ (Music Video)" by "feeo" on https://www.youtube.com/
Hayden Pedigo’s I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away (2025), the third record in his “Motor Trilogy” on Mexican Summer, showcases his delicate fingerstyle guitar, blending warmth, joy, and melancholy. Pitchfork highlighted how he “embraces simplicity,” letting pauses and subtle gestures carry the weight of the music. The album was named one of the year’s best by Pitchfork, No Ripcord, Paste, and AllMusic.
Watch Hayden Pedigo's Long Pond Lily video clip
Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O’Rourke’s collaborative album Pareidolia (2025), built from reworked live performances with glitchy electronics, orchestral textures, and warm fuzz, received praise from Pitchfork, hailing it as one of the best electronic albums of the year and noted how synths and flute “collide and crumble with electroacoustic abandon, exploding into vast clouds of drone and sending tracers scurrying along new pathways.”
Watch Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O'Rourke Pareidolia video clip
"Everything flickers, fades or folds back on itself with hypnotic intention," writes The Quietus of Smerz’s melancholic (and non-bucolic) 2025 album Big City Life. The duo's release gathers a vivid collection of minimal SoundFont rock and R&B, weaving a story of romance and recklessness in rain-drenched city streets where puddles glisten with neon and swim with half-smoked cigarettes. Big City Life received widespread acclaim, appearing on end-of-year lists from The Wire, The Quietus, Pitchfork, Crack Magazine, Stereogum, and many more.
Watch Smerz's You got time and I got money video clip
Watch "Smerz - You got time and I got money" by "Smerz" on https://www.youtube.com/
Blawan’s new live album SickElixir (2025) should come with a corrosive materials warning — but like all mysterious elixirs, half the fun comes from the risk of consuming it. Channeling the raw intensity of his club performances into hypnotic, machine-driven sound, the album received widespread acclaim, appearing on end-of-year lists from The Quietus, Pitchfork, Crack Magazine, RA, and others!
Milkweed’s Remscéla (2025) is a partial reimagining of Irish poet Thomas Kinsella’s translation of the pagan epic Táin Bó Cúailnge. The album offers a curious and enchanting introduction to their live shows, blending wispy song, mischievous experimentation, and a heartfelt continuation of oral storytelling traditions. Crack Magazine praised the duo, writing that they “get weirder still, conjuring warped Appalachian soundscapes from the bones of Irish mythology’s Táin Bó Cúailnge.” Both Crack Magazine and The Quietus included Remscéla on their end-of-year lists as one of 2025’s standout releases.
Oneohtrix Point Never’s Tranquillizer (2025) blends delicate synth atmospheres with dense, chaotic eruptions, showcasing Lopatin’s signature sensitivity and bold experimentation. As Daniel Bromfield of Pitchfork writes, the album examines “…a poignant theme on the heels of the MySpace and DatPiff apocalypses, in a time when it’s easier than ever to release music but also easier than ever to lose it,” a quality that helped Tranquillizer appear on Pitchfork’s end-of-year list as one of 2025’s standout releases, alongside other critical acclaims from Vulture, The New Yorker, Gorilla vs. Bear, Beats Per Music, and AllMusic.
Watch Oneohtrix Point Never's D.I.S video clip
james K’s, third solo album, Friend (2025) on AD93, is the outcome of her serial experiments in dream pop and beyond, offering a personal, emotive space that is both welcoming and challenging. Downtempo and meditative, her soft shoegazy pop and undulating trip-hop float atop expansive ambience and broad bass. Her remarkable work hasn’t gone unnoticed, as Friends appeared on end-of-year lists from The Quietus, Pitchfork, Crack Magazine, and RA, among others.
Watch james K's Play video clip
Watch "james K - Play (Official M/V)" by "𝒿𝒶𝓂𝑒𝓈 ★ 𝒦 " on https://www.youtube.com/
Ganavya’s album Nilam (2025) blends spiritual jazz, South Asian devotional music, and folk instruments into a meditative, contemplative journey. Described by Crack Magazine as “an antidote to the rootlessness that followed endless touring – a prayer-like ode to stillness, grounded in tradition,” Nilam earned a spot on their list of 2025’s best albums.
Watch Ganavya's Pasaydan video clip
Watch "ganavya - Pasayadan (Official Video)" by "LEITER" on https://www.youtube.com/
Tommy Paslaski (Concave Reflection), Ben Paulson (kindtree), and Akeem Asani (Millia) form Purelink, a trio whose work blends ambient, electro-acoustic, and textural sounds into immersive, intimate compositions. Their album, Faith (2025), continues this trajectory, offering bright, organic, and unpredictable sonic landscapes. “Sterility – a term often wielded by those looking to diminish the creative value of ambient music – isn’t something that can be applied to Purelink,” writes Crack Magazine, praising the album’s warmth and textured depth. Faith earned a place on Crack Magazine and Stereogum’s list of 2025’s best releases.
ex_libris is the latest project from former The Hague local Dave Huismans. His 2025 releases, 001 & 002, explore deep, textural leftfield house, blending ambient pads, gritty textures, and club-ready low frequencies. Resident Advisor notes: “Every time Dave Huismans returns, it's cause for celebration… this headphone-friendly double drop sums the qualities of his best-known projects… in a teeming soundscape with an almost hydraulic sense of progression.” His works earned a place on Resident Advisor’s list of 2025’s best releases. At Rewire 2026, Huismans presents the world premiere live performance of ex_libris alongside visual artist Bernie van Vlijmen.
Many of the artists who will appear at Rewire 2026 have made a strong impression throughout 2025, but we also want to recognise the artists of Rewire 2025, whose music and performances continue to resonate.
The Line of Best Fit, No Ripcord, The Atlantic, Drowned in Sound, Northern Transmissions, Loud and Quiet, Paste, Beats Per Minute, Rough Trade, The Quietus, AllMusic.
The Quietus, The Wire, Turn, Paste, Crack Magazine, Pitchfork, Stereogum, Clash, The Forty-Five, Slant Magazine, DJ Mag.
Pitchfork, The FADER.
Watch "Forever [Full Album]" by "Bassvictim" on https://www.youtube.com/
The Wire, The Quietus, Uncut.
Gorilla vs Bear, The FADER, Clash, Pitchfork, Slant Magazine, Northern Transmissions, Consequence, NME, Dork.
The Wire.
The Quietus.
Crack Magazine, Time Out, Gorilla vs. Bear, The Atlantic, Dazed, Rough Trade, Les Inrocks, TURN, The Skinny, Stereogum, Pitchfork, Paste, NME, The Wire, The Line of Best Fit, OOR, The Forty-Five, Loud and Quiet, The New York Times, Slant Magazine, EARMILK, The Sunday Times, Exclaim!, The FADER, Mondo Sonoro, FLOOD, Northern Transmissions, Clash, Billboard, Dork, Rolling Stone, British GQ, DJ Mag.
The Quietus.
Far out Magazine, Grilla vs. Bear, Beats Per Minute, The Skinny, The Ringer, Paste, MOJO, The Wire, Pitchfork, Billboard, Uncut, AllMusic.
TURN, The New York Times, Far Out Magazine, Slant Magazine, DIY, Loud and Quiet, Beats Per Minute, Northern Transmissionsm Crack Magazine, NME, Consequence, Pitchfork, The Quietus, Alternative Press.
feeo, Hayden Pedigo, Eiko Ishibashi & Jim O’Rourke, Smerz, Blawan, Milkweed, Oneohtrix Point Never, james K, ganavya, Purelink (with Mika Oki), and ex_libris will be performing at Rewire 2026. Book tickets at rewirefestival.nl/tickets.