Nikola Tamindzic
@nikolatamindzic.com
Brokeback fountain, very demure
http://nikolatamindzic.com
http://nikolatamindzic.com
Dream song 5, third stanza
October 2, 2025 at 10:30 PM
Dream song 5, third stanza
One book finished, another begun, and in between, International, a goodbye
to friends of 35 years.
English suburbia at its best.
to friends of 35 years.
English suburbia at its best.
September 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
One book finished, another begun, and in between, International, a goodbye
to friends of 35 years.
English suburbia at its best.
to friends of 35 years.
English suburbia at its best.
Melvyn Bragg, respect ✊🏻
September 4, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Melvyn Bragg, respect ✊🏻
1 SAINT ETIENNE, The Night
This is pop disintegrating into ambient, William Basinski in English suburbia, part Spirit of Eden, part Chill Out. Penultimate chapter of a 35-year love letter to pop, the people we used to be, the ones we might still become: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
This is pop disintegrating into ambient, William Basinski in English suburbia, part Spirit of Eden, part Chill Out. Penultimate chapter of a 35-year love letter to pop, the people we used to be, the ones we might still become: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 9, 2025 at 11:31 PM
1 SAINT ETIENNE, The Night
This is pop disintegrating into ambient, William Basinski in English suburbia, part Spirit of Eden, part Chill Out. Penultimate chapter of a 35-year love letter to pop, the people we used to be, the ones we might still become: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
This is pop disintegrating into ambient, William Basinski in English suburbia, part Spirit of Eden, part Chill Out. Penultimate chapter of a 35-year love letter to pop, the people we used to be, the ones we might still become: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
All roads lead here. Every detour, every surprise, every “wait, how is this not higher?” moment has been building to the #1 record. And here it is: the top of my 20 Albums I Loved This Year (So Far). The crown jewel. The slow burn. The annoying choice: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
All roads lead here. Every detour, every surprise, every “wait, how is this not higher?” moment has been building to the #1 record. And here it is: the top of my 20 Albums I Loved This Year (So Far). The crown jewel. The slow burn. The annoying choice: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
2 ELI KESZLER, Eli Keszler
Everyone keeps calling it “Lynchian.” I will too, if it gets you to listen. I still don’t understand what Keszler does to his drums, or how, or why. I just know that neither you nor I have ever heard anything like it: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Everyone keeps calling it “Lynchian.” I will too, if it gets you to listen. I still don’t understand what Keszler does to his drums, or how, or why. I just know that neither you nor I have ever heard anything like it: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 7, 2025 at 9:35 PM
2 ELI KESZLER, Eli Keszler
Everyone keeps calling it “Lynchian.” I will too, if it gets you to listen. I still don’t understand what Keszler does to his drums, or how, or why. I just know that neither you nor I have ever heard anything like it: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Everyone keeps calling it “Lynchian.” I will too, if it gets you to listen. I still don’t understand what Keszler does to his drums, or how, or why. I just know that neither you nor I have ever heard anything like it: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
3 ROCÍO MÁRQUEZ, Himno vertical
She pushes the limits of voice to do what flamenco demands: dislocate comfort, seduce w/o smoothing. The Bride in Kill Bill: years of training, deadly elegance, every cut intentional. You’re laid bare & still thank her: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
She pushes the limits of voice to do what flamenco demands: dislocate comfort, seduce w/o smoothing. The Bride in Kill Bill: years of training, deadly elegance, every cut intentional. You’re laid bare & still thank her: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 7, 2025 at 9:27 PM
3 ROCÍO MÁRQUEZ, Himno vertical
She pushes the limits of voice to do what flamenco demands: dislocate comfort, seduce w/o smoothing. The Bride in Kill Bill: years of training, deadly elegance, every cut intentional. You’re laid bare & still thank her: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
She pushes the limits of voice to do what flamenco demands: dislocate comfort, seduce w/o smoothing. The Bride in Kill Bill: years of training, deadly elegance, every cut intentional. You’re laid bare & still thank her: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
4 STEREOLAB, Instant Holograms on Metal Film
If you think this is nostalgia, then step aside. This thing will run you over and leave nothing but a snide smirk smeared across the asphalt. Instant Holograms is huge. Cinematic. Furious. Fleshy. Alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
If you think this is nostalgia, then step aside. This thing will run you over and leave nothing but a snide smirk smeared across the asphalt. Instant Holograms is huge. Cinematic. Furious. Fleshy. Alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
4 STEREOLAB, Instant Holograms on Metal Film
If you think this is nostalgia, then step aside. This thing will run you over and leave nothing but a snide smirk smeared across the asphalt. Instant Holograms is huge. Cinematic. Furious. Fleshy. Alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
If you think this is nostalgia, then step aside. This thing will run you over and leave nothing but a snide smirk smeared across the asphalt. Instant Holograms is huge. Cinematic. Furious. Fleshy. Alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
5 DJRUM, Under Tangled Science
...Djrum is rethinking what electronic music can be. He could’ve made club tools, or pretty piano studies. Instead, this: a record too restless for genre, too emotional for minimalism, too precise for chaos: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
...Djrum is rethinking what electronic music can be. He could’ve made club tools, or pretty piano studies. Instead, this: a record too restless for genre, too emotional for minimalism, too precise for chaos: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 7, 2025 at 8:56 PM
5 DJRUM, Under Tangled Science
...Djrum is rethinking what electronic music can be. He could’ve made club tools, or pretty piano studies. Instead, this: a record too restless for genre, too emotional for minimalism, too precise for chaos: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
...Djrum is rethinking what electronic music can be. He could’ve made club tools, or pretty piano studies. Instead, this: a record too restless for genre, too emotional for minimalism, too precise for chaos: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
6 NICK LEÓN, A Tropical Entropy
León’s masterpiece: dembow drums like rattling rebar, synths like dying air conditioners, the sound of a city sweating through its denial. Miami may sink, memory may blur, but el qlo keeps on keeping time. Eppur si muove: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
León’s masterpiece: dembow drums like rattling rebar, synths like dying air conditioners, the sound of a city sweating through its denial. Miami may sink, memory may blur, but el qlo keeps on keeping time. Eppur si muove: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 1, 2025 at 4:53 PM
6 NICK LEÓN, A Tropical Entropy
León’s masterpiece: dembow drums like rattling rebar, synths like dying air conditioners, the sound of a city sweating through its denial. Miami may sink, memory may blur, but el qlo keeps on keeping time. Eppur si muove: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
León’s masterpiece: dembow drums like rattling rebar, synths like dying air conditioners, the sound of a city sweating through its denial. Miami may sink, memory may blur, but el qlo keeps on keeping time. Eppur si muove: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
7 THESE NEW PURITANS, Crooked Wing
Organ-and-drum art rock for the post-faith generation.
Caroline Polachek haunts Industrial Love Song, a duet between two cranes who’ll never touch. Grand, strange, not built for easy playbacks. But the ambition sticks: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Organ-and-drum art rock for the post-faith generation.
Caroline Polachek haunts Industrial Love Song, a duet between two cranes who’ll never touch. Grand, strange, not built for easy playbacks. But the ambition sticks: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 1, 2025 at 4:31 PM
7 THESE NEW PURITANS, Crooked Wing
Organ-and-drum art rock for the post-faith generation.
Caroline Polachek haunts Industrial Love Song, a duet between two cranes who’ll never touch. Grand, strange, not built for easy playbacks. But the ambition sticks: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Organ-and-drum art rock for the post-faith generation.
Caroline Polachek haunts Industrial Love Song, a duet between two cranes who’ll never touch. Grand, strange, not built for easy playbacks. But the ambition sticks: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
"In fact, I haven’t felt this hopeful about pop since 2008, back when the economy collapsed and Katy Perry set her t**s on fire. We survived that. We’ll survive this. With better songs, too."
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Twenty Albums I Loved In 2025 (So Far), vol. 3: #6-10
Into the deep end we go: pop confessions, dirty money, drums, faith, and sinking cities.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com
August 1, 2025 at 3:51 PM
"In fact, I haven’t felt this hopeful about pop since 2008, back when the economy collapsed and Katy Perry set her t**s on fire. We survived that. We’ll survive this. With better songs, too."
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
8 AMORE, Top Hits, Ballads, etc...
The chaos isn’t just a vibe: it’s the form, the method, the only honest response to a life this strange. Music held together by the unteachable glue of voice & vision. Pop unshackled, freakish, hilarious, sad, alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
The chaos isn’t just a vibe: it’s the form, the method, the only honest response to a life this strange. Music held together by the unteachable glue of voice & vision. Pop unshackled, freakish, hilarious, sad, alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 1, 2025 at 3:44 PM
8 AMORE, Top Hits, Ballads, etc...
The chaos isn’t just a vibe: it’s the form, the method, the only honest response to a life this strange. Music held together by the unteachable glue of voice & vision. Pop unshackled, freakish, hilarious, sad, alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
The chaos isn’t just a vibe: it’s the form, the method, the only honest response to a life this strange. Music held together by the unteachable glue of voice & vision. Pop unshackled, freakish, hilarious, sad, alive: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
9 MARK ERNESTUS’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE, Khadim
The rhythm is the engine, the language, the ground. Sabar drums land like verdicts. Four tracks, four prayers, four vessels of resistance. Basic Channel’s Ernestus adds subtraction, the band delivers gravity: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
The rhythm is the engine, the language, the ground. Sabar drums land like verdicts. Four tracks, four prayers, four vessels of resistance. Basic Channel’s Ernestus adds subtraction, the band delivers gravity: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
August 1, 2025 at 1:19 PM
9 MARK ERNESTUS’ NDAGGA RHYTHM FORCE, Khadim
The rhythm is the engine, the language, the ground. Sabar drums land like verdicts. Four tracks, four prayers, four vessels of resistance. Basic Channel’s Ernestus adds subtraction, the band delivers gravity: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
The rhythm is the engine, the language, the ground. Sabar drums land like verdicts. Four tracks, four prayers, four vessels of resistance. Basic Channel’s Ernestus adds subtraction, the band delivers gravity: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
11 THE MARS VOLTA, Lucro sucio
They used to come at you like a firehose of acid and prog. Now they sneak in sideways. Not maximalist, just maximal, Latin, abstract & unbothered by you.“Filthiest profit lies in the unknown,” Cedric sings. Step right in: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
They used to come at you like a firehose of acid and prog. Now they sneak in sideways. Not maximalist, just maximal, Latin, abstract & unbothered by you.“Filthiest profit lies in the unknown,” Cedric sings. Step right in: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 31, 2025 at 6:41 PM
11 THE MARS VOLTA, Lucro sucio
They used to come at you like a firehose of acid and prog. Now they sneak in sideways. Not maximalist, just maximal, Latin, abstract & unbothered by you.“Filthiest profit lies in the unknown,” Cedric sings. Step right in: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
They used to come at you like a firehose of acid and prog. Now they sneak in sideways. Not maximalist, just maximal, Latin, abstract & unbothered by you.“Filthiest profit lies in the unknown,” Cedric sings. Step right in: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
11 DEMDIKE STARE & KRISTEN PILON, To Cut and Shoot
A fever-drenched cut-up of film score, musique concrète & sleep paralysis. Don't mistake this for comfort, background or vibes music. This is fractured & frayed, like Francis Bacon scoring Inland Empire: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
A fever-drenched cut-up of film score, musique concrète & sleep paralysis. Don't mistake this for comfort, background or vibes music. This is fractured & frayed, like Francis Bacon scoring Inland Empire: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 29, 2025 at 8:09 PM
11 DEMDIKE STARE & KRISTEN PILON, To Cut and Shoot
A fever-drenched cut-up of film score, musique concrète & sleep paralysis. Don't mistake this for comfort, background or vibes music. This is fractured & frayed, like Francis Bacon scoring Inland Empire: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
A fever-drenched cut-up of film score, musique concrète & sleep paralysis. Don't mistake this for comfort, background or vibes music. This is fractured & frayed, like Francis Bacon scoring Inland Empire: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
12 SQUID, Cowards
Cowards is a brutal concept album about complicity, cannibalism, murder, silence: evil not as spectacle, but a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But damn, it’s a beautiful album too, lush & narcotic. A finger pressed firmly to your forehead, pressure steady:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Cowards is a brutal concept album about complicity, cannibalism, murder, silence: evil not as spectacle, but a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But damn, it’s a beautiful album too, lush & narcotic. A finger pressed firmly to your forehead, pressure steady:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 29, 2025 at 7:59 PM
12 SQUID, Cowards
Cowards is a brutal concept album about complicity, cannibalism, murder, silence: evil not as spectacle, but a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But damn, it’s a beautiful album too, lush & narcotic. A finger pressed firmly to your forehead, pressure steady:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Cowards is a brutal concept album about complicity, cannibalism, murder, silence: evil not as spectacle, but a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. But damn, it’s a beautiful album too, lush & narcotic. A finger pressed firmly to your forehead, pressure steady:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
13 SALLY SHAPIRO, Ready to Live a Lie
Breathless Italo-pop that glides like a perfume ad? Pass. And yet: Ready to Live a Lie is flawless. Came in sneering, came out shattered. Now I’m yelling about it like it’s the last good thing in a world going dark:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Breathless Italo-pop that glides like a perfume ad? Pass. And yet: Ready to Live a Lie is flawless. Came in sneering, came out shattered. Now I’m yelling about it like it’s the last good thing in a world going dark:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 29, 2025 at 7:51 PM
13 SALLY SHAPIRO, Ready to Live a Lie
Breathless Italo-pop that glides like a perfume ad? Pass. And yet: Ready to Live a Lie is flawless. Came in sneering, came out shattered. Now I’m yelling about it like it’s the last good thing in a world going dark:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Breathless Italo-pop that glides like a perfume ad? Pass. And yet: Ready to Live a Lie is flawless. Came in sneering, came out shattered. Now I’m yelling about it like it’s the last good thing in a world going dark:
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
14 NAZAR, Demilitarize
Nazar turns the war inward. Demilitarize swaps the battlefield for the sickbed, stitching kuduro rhythms into a fever dream of illness, desire, and recovery. Eliot's Waste Land with a beat, a war record where surrender is victory.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Nazar turns the war inward. Demilitarize swaps the battlefield for the sickbed, stitching kuduro rhythms into a fever dream of illness, desire, and recovery. Eliot's Waste Land with a beat, a war record where surrender is victory.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 29, 2025 at 7:42 PM
14 NAZAR, Demilitarize
Nazar turns the war inward. Demilitarize swaps the battlefield for the sickbed, stitching kuduro rhythms into a fever dream of illness, desire, and recovery. Eliot's Waste Land with a beat, a war record where surrender is victory.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Nazar turns the war inward. Demilitarize swaps the battlefield for the sickbed, stitching kuduro rhythms into a fever dream of illness, desire, and recovery. Eliot's Waste Land with a beat, a war record where surrender is victory.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
15 PULP, More
A middle-aged disco dirge from the gutter. Jarvis still dances, still lusts, only now the clock’s louder. Their most French album since Different Class, therefore their best in decades.
Full review: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
A middle-aged disco dirge from the gutter. Jarvis still dances, still lusts, only now the clock’s louder. Their most French album since Different Class, therefore their best in decades.
Full review: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 29, 2025 at 7:35 PM
15 PULP, More
A middle-aged disco dirge from the gutter. Jarvis still dances, still lusts, only now the clock’s louder. Their most French album since Different Class, therefore their best in decades.
Full review: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
A middle-aged disco dirge from the gutter. Jarvis still dances, still lusts, only now the clock’s louder. Their most French album since Different Class, therefore their best in decades.
Full review: nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
16 SWANS, Birthing
Swans aren’t done, but this incarnation is. Birthing is a 2-hour exhale, ritualistic, radiant, full of beauty. The climax is still there, but something’s shifted: less grind, more awe. A monument to excess, sun-drunk & unforgettable.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Swans aren’t done, but this incarnation is. Birthing is a 2-hour exhale, ritualistic, radiant, full of beauty. The climax is still there, but something’s shifted: less grind, more awe. A monument to excess, sun-drunk & unforgettable.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
16 SWANS, Birthing
Swans aren’t done, but this incarnation is. Birthing is a 2-hour exhale, ritualistic, radiant, full of beauty. The climax is still there, but something’s shifted: less grind, more awe. A monument to excess, sun-drunk & unforgettable.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Swans aren’t done, but this incarnation is. Birthing is a 2-hour exhale, ritualistic, radiant, full of beauty. The climax is still there, but something’s shifted: less grind, more awe. A monument to excess, sun-drunk & unforgettable.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
17 ABUL MOGARD, Quiet Places
Granular hiss, tectonic drones, slow, physical, shimmering like heat haze. Supposedly stitched together from unreleased fragments and his uncle’s 78s. Classic Mogard mythmaking. Doesn’t matter. This one’s got blood in it.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Granular hiss, tectonic drones, slow, physical, shimmering like heat haze. Supposedly stitched together from unreleased fragments and his uncle’s 78s. Classic Mogard mythmaking. Doesn’t matter. This one’s got blood in it.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 28, 2025 at 7:48 PM
17 ABUL MOGARD, Quiet Places
Granular hiss, tectonic drones, slow, physical, shimmering like heat haze. Supposedly stitched together from unreleased fragments and his uncle’s 78s. Classic Mogard mythmaking. Doesn’t matter. This one’s got blood in it.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Granular hiss, tectonic drones, slow, physical, shimmering like heat haze. Supposedly stitched together from unreleased fragments and his uncle’s 78s. Classic Mogard mythmaking. Doesn’t matter. This one’s got blood in it.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
18 DERADOORIAN, Ready for Heaven
Psychedelia for the sleep-deprived: Broadcast on benediction, ESG at 3 a.m., bass that could raise the dead, vocals that leave the body behind. Heaven’s not a place but a direction, and we’re all along for the ride.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Psychedelia for the sleep-deprived: Broadcast on benediction, ESG at 3 a.m., bass that could raise the dead, vocals that leave the body behind. Heaven’s not a place but a direction, and we’re all along for the ride.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 28, 2025 at 7:36 PM
18 DERADOORIAN, Ready for Heaven
Psychedelia for the sleep-deprived: Broadcast on benediction, ESG at 3 a.m., bass that could raise the dead, vocals that leave the body behind. Heaven’s not a place but a direction, and we’re all along for the ride.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
Psychedelia for the sleep-deprived: Broadcast on benediction, ESG at 3 a.m., bass that could raise the dead, vocals that leave the body behind. Heaven’s not a place but a direction, and we’re all along for the ride.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
19 HAYDEN PEDIGO, I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away
The funniest guy in town made the most haunting guitar record of the year. Just space, shimmer, and a wave goodbye that cuts deeper than it should. Ambient Americana, if that gets you to press play.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
The funniest guy in town made the most haunting guitar record of the year. Just space, shimmer, and a wave goodbye that cuts deeper than it should. Ambient Americana, if that gets you to press play.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
July 28, 2025 at 7:27 PM
19 HAYDEN PEDIGO, I’ll Be Waving as You Drive Away
The funniest guy in town made the most haunting guitar record of the year. Just space, shimmer, and a wave goodbye that cuts deeper than it should. Ambient Americana, if that gets you to press play.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...
The funniest guy in town made the most haunting guitar record of the year. Just space, shimmer, and a wave goodbye that cuts deeper than it should. Ambient Americana, if that gets you to press play.
nikolatamindzic.substack.com/p/twenty-alb...