EarthBall, Computer, Puppet Wipes, and Diamond Day
EarthBall - Outside Over There
Regular readers may recall this album made my Favourite Albums of 2025 list but it never got a review from Cups N Cakes so I’m sneaking it into this week’s edition of our “Quick Picks”.
“A Phantasmagoria of Improvised Psychosis”
Someone within the EarthBall camp came up with this descriptor for their latest album, Outside Over There, and it’s more fitting than anything I’ve been able to come up with for this review. The record is a wake-up call that slaps you in the jaw and leaves you mind-numb. After the introductary track “100%”, the band launches into a viscous assault on the senses. The rhythm section rips forward with a fervent tenacity while guitar dissonance stabs you in the ear. Saxophone squeals and skronks slash through the cacophony while the two singers speak-sing into the abyss. What is this which I have wrought upon thyself? Am I dying or am I simply losing my ability to decipher my consciousness? Is it down? or is it up? What the fuck is happening? This album is the dystopian journey that we’re all taking together right now. It’s the soundtrack to our confusion. It’s a prelude to potential disaster.
Computer - Station On The Hill
One of 2025s break though acts was Vancouver’s Computer. Similar to EarthBall, they made our list of the “Best Albums of 2025” without a proper review. Truth be told, it didn’t make my personal list but that doesn’t mean I don’t love this record. Station On The Hill is right up my alley with post-punk aesthetics, noise-rock interludes and a band with a compositional ability that tells us these aren’t just a bunch of kids that picked up instruments a few years ago. There’s a cohesiveness to this album that makes it sound like they’ve been perfecting it for years. When diving in deep to listen, I can’t help but draw comparisons to my favourite non-Canadian album of 2021, Black Country, New Road’s For The First Time. Maybe it’s just because the lead singer in Computer has a very similar voice to BCNR’s former vocalist but listen harder and you’ll find other similarities. In an alternate reality, if BCNR wanted a more raw, punk-leaning sound they could have made Station On The Hill the follow-up to For The First Time.
Puppet Wipes - Live Inside
Four years removed from their critically acclaimed debut on Slitbreeze Records, Calgary’s Puppet Wipes came scuffling back into our hearts at the end of 2025 with Live Inside. The record is their first studio recording since Janitor Scum's Jay Wong joined the duo of Arielle McCuaig and Kayla MacNeil. The release carries all the lo-fi experimental meanderings of their debut but there’s a bit more refinement to the melodies making some tracks sound more pop and garage adjacent. Now all my weirdos out there… please don’t freak out. If you’re a fan of their demented experimental noise clattering, this record is still that. It’s just… perhaps a tad more refined and in my opinion their strongest work to date.
Diamond Day - Oubliette
Montreal’s Diamond Day came onto my radar in 2024 with an impressive debut album called Connect the Dots. At the end of October last year, they followed up that release with an incredible EP called Oubliette. The duo have crafted this release to play beautifully from start to finish. It’s cinematic and luscious moving from electronic dream-pop with ethereal vocals to sound-designed movements that could score the most emotionally moving moments in your favourite art-films. If I knew this EP existed before last week, I have a feeling my list of my Favourite EPs of 2025 may have differed.
