Travelmarx Fall 2026 Playlist - Each Day

A composite image of 36 albums used in this playlist.

Ah, the anticipation of Fall crispness and the end of a scorching summer. Cool mornings and sharper light. And, the anticipation of what may unfold for the better or for the worse as we round the bend of this year.  (I've always seen the year as a shape with bends. That's for another post.) Anticipation itself can be paralyzing and feel like a weight. We remind ourselves to take each day as they come, preparing the best we can but not forgetting to live in the present. Phew, end of sermon. Spotify link

Lau Ro - album "Cabana", track "Each Day"
sweet93 - single "Stars Above"
Sterling Grove, Ellyn Woods - single "White Sails"
KATZROAR - album "UNDERWORLD", track "Heart (Give a Little)"
The Durutti Column - album "Renascent", track "Sargasso Sea"
Lord Echo - album "Rarities 2010 - 2020: Japanese Tour Singles", track "In Your Life - Lisa Tomlins Version"

The Karminsky Experience Inc - album "Snapshot", track "The Sea"
Steve Hensby Band - album "Astronomers Aren't Morning People", track "Jupiter"
José Junior - album "Spanish Leather", track "Projections"
Dele Sosimi, The Estuary 21 - EP "The Confluence EP", track "Mo Ṣe B'​ọ​́​lá T​á​n"
The Deadbeats - album "Lounging", track "Funky For You"
Tim Love Lee - album "Just Call Me 'Lone' Lee", track "Twilight Reservation"

Antena - album "Versions Speciales - Camino Del Sol", track "Bye Bye Papaye (Lexx Mix)"
Air - album "The Remixes, Vol. 1", track "Casanova 70 - The Secret of Cool"
Freak Heat Waves - album "Mondo Tempo", track "Off My Mind"
Project Gemini - album "Colours & Light", track "Colours & Light"
Nicolas Godin - album "Concrete and Glass", track "The Border"
Pete Josef - album "Lifeline", track "Utopia"

Alex Kassian - EP "Body Singer", track "Trippy Gas"
Scrimshire - album "Listeners", track "Theme for Us"
Officer John - single "You"
Alex Kassian, Spooky - EP "Orange Coloured Liquid", track "Orange Coloured Liquid - Part II"
TORCH SONG, William Orbit - album "Toward the Unknown Region", track "Blue Night - 2022 Remaster"
Space Dimension Controller - album "Love Beyond the Intersect", track "Love Beyond the Intersect"

Hoover - album "The Lost Outlaw Album", track "Take My Hand"
The Confederate Dead - album "It Was Meant to Happen", track "Where Flowers Grow"
Assaf Spector - album "All The Changes", track "Five O'clock Mirage"
Assaf Spector, Brian J Gitkin, Carol C - EP "Peony Dreams", track "Peony Dreams"
Solju - album "Ođđa Áigodat = New Times", track "Ealloravddas"
Various Artists - album "Xen Cuts", track "Down & To The Left" (Amon Tobin)

Lauer - album "Know You", track "You Know"
Damien Jurado - album "All Are Welcome In: A Return to Maraqopa (Redux)", track "Plains to Crash"
Common Saints - EP "Equinox", track "Equinox"
Marcoca - album "Soliloquy", track "Stranger on the Loose"
Israel Nash - album "Israel Nash's Rain Plans", track "Who in Time"
Locust - album "Truth is Born of Arguments", track "I Become Overwhelmed"

Travelmarx Summer 2026 Playlist – Never Be the Same

A composite image of 36 albums used in this playlist.

For our summer playlist, we chose the title "Never Be the Same." It feels right for this moment because the pace of change can seem too quick, and it’s easy to look at a place, situation, or people and think that’s it; it’ll never be the same. Either in a good or a bad way. This playlist doesn't propose anything other than acknowledging this feeling.  Spotify link. 

We picked the title just because we liked the song of the same name by Yana Pavlova & Pavel Milyakov from the album "Thrill". Later after including it in our playlist, we learned (here, here) that Pavlova passed away in February 2025.

18 Rays – EP"18 Rays", track "I Feel Rain"
Steve Gunn – EP "Shape of a Wave", track "Shape of a Wave"
Samantha Crain – single "Belly"
Landhouse – single "Long Dark Tunnel"
RICEWINE – single "Uncut"
Mac DeMarco – album "Salad Days", track "Salad Days"

exmagician – album "Sit Tight", track "Storyline"
Astral Bakers – album "Vertical Life", track "No Rain On Internet"
Sterling Grove, Ellyn Woods – single "Sound of Home"
Lilly Miller, Damien Jurado – single "It Will Come Back"
Golden Ivy – album "Kammarn", track "Vandringslåt"
fastmusic – album "I Want to Love, and I Love", track "Wow"

Sunrom – single "Glory"
Fink – single "Wishing For Blue Sky"
Alela Diane – single "In My Own Time"
Elder Island – EP "Seeds in Sand", track "Black Fur"
JAGUARE AFFAIR – single "Comment lui dire"
bby – album "1", track "In Spite Of My Head"

Little Joy – album "Little Joy", track "Brand New Start"
The Holydrug Couple – album "Sesión En Vivo Estudio Novena CDMX (Live)", track "Concorde (Sesión En Vivo Estudio Novena CDMX)"
Yana Pavlova & Pavel Milyakov – album "Thrill", track "never be the same"
Vicky Sometani – single "Keep Coming Back To You"
Gem Club – album "Emerald Press", track "Sea So White"
Aufgang – album "Broad Ways", track "Épopée, pt. 1"

Darkstar – album "Civic Jams", track "Blurred"
Jitwam – album "selftitled", track "later..."
Williams & Chaz Bundick – EP "Trance Zen Dental Spa", track "Luxury Vinyl"
Common Saints – EP "Starchild", track "Starchild"
Autograf & WYNNE – single "Nobody Knows"
Kimi Hird & Yukimi Nagano – album "Moving On", track "Keep You"

Assaf Spector – single "New Wave"
Rozi Plain & Alabaster DePlume – album "Prize", track "Spot Thirteen"
Gizmo Varillas – album "The World in Colour", track "Follow the Sun"
Hanakiv – album "Goodbyes", track "Goodbye"
Tash Sultana – album "Notion", track "Jungle"
Tatanka – single "Alfaiate"

Music Album Covers with Televisions on Them

36 albums covers featuring TVs on them.

Ah, the good old television. TV, tube, boob tube, telly, idiot box. A piece of furniture, a glowing shrine, background noise, babysitter, cultural glue, and eventually just another rectangle in our lives competing for attention.

The word “television” itself was introduced by Russian engineer Konstantin Perskyi at the 1900 Paris Exposition during the International Congress of Electricity. He combined Greek and Latin roots into a neat term meaning, roughly, “seeing at a distance,” replacing clunkier technical descriptions floating around at the time. It was the perfect debut venue: a world fair dedicated to showing off the future through electricity, machinery, and spectacle.

In this album cover mosaic, we collected examples of televisions appearing on album covers in all their forms: glowing consoles, portable sets, static-filled screens, rabbit ears, surveillance monitors, and late-night blue light. TVs on album covers can signal comfort, alienation, mass culture, boredom, nostalgia, or just the simple fact that for decades the television sat at the center of domestic life.

As usual with these mosaics, we’re not trying to be exhaustive. There are plenty of examples we missed, forgot, or perhaps once saw at 1 a.m. illuminated by the flicker of a CRT screen.

01 Foretaste – "Terrorist TV" (2008)
02 Lichen – "The End is Near" (2018)
03 Graham Parker – "Imaginary Television" (2010)
04 Cocksure – "T.V.M.A.L.S.V." (2014)
05 Dramarama – "Color TV" (2020)
06 Frank Zappa – "A Token Of His Extreme Soundtrack" (2013)

07 Kacy & Clayton, Marlon Williams – "Plastic Bouquet" (2020)
08 Kiyotaka Sugiyama – "Kona Weather" (1987)
09 Roger Waters – "Amused to Death" (1992)
10 The Bees – "TV Mentality" (1979)
11 DelicTrips. – "Motivated Abstract" (2017)
12 The Cars – "Moving in Stereo The Best of The Cars" (2016)

13 Sweet – "Waters Edge" (1980)
14 Berlin – "Pleasure Victim" (1982)
15 Family – "Bandstand" (1972)
16 Benny Golson – "Tune In, Turn On The Hippest Commercials Of The Sixties" (1999)
17 Lizzy Borden – "Visual Lies" (1987)
18 Tai Verdes – "TV" (2021)

19 A Flock of Seagulls – "A Flock of Seagulls" (1982)
20 Elton John – "The Fox" (1981)
21 George Harrison – "Brainwashed" (2002)
22 Joni Mitchell – "Wild Things Run Fast" (1982)
23 Proctor and Bergman – "TV Or Not TV A Video Vaudeville In Two Acts" (1973)
24 Various Artists – "100 Greatest TV Themes" (2011)

25 AC-DC – "Blow Up Your Video" (1988)
26 The Tubes – "Remote Control" (1979)
27 Holger Czukay – "Movies" (1979)
28 Monty Python – "Monty Pythons Flying Circus" (1970)
29 Rebel Kicks – "A Portrait of Man, Pt 1" (2020)
30 Lou Reed – "New Sensations" (1984)

31 Rush – "Power Windows" (1985)
32 Harry Nilsson – "That's The Way It Is" (1976)
33 Fish – "Vigil in a Wilderness of Mirrors" (1990)
34 World Party – "Private Revolution" (1986)
35 Tom Jones – "Reload" (1999)
36 Randy Newman – "12 Songs" (1970)

Travelmarx Spring 2026 Playlist – Powerless

A composite image of 36 albums used in this playlist.

Our spring playlist's title is Powerless, from the first song in the list by Balthazar. Theodor W. Adorno (1903 – 1969) said in 1951 “The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us.” Happy listening. Spotify link.

Balthazar – album “Sand”, track “Powerless”
Matt Berninger – album "Serpentine Prison", track "Silver Springs"
Aim – album “Cold Water Music”, track “Cold Water Music”
Fabienne Debarre – album “Welcome to the Age of Broken Minds”, track “Welcome to the Age of Broken Minds”
Shana Cleveland – album “Manzanita”, track “Faces in the Firelight”
Wallners – album “Ships”, track “Ships”

Doc Rhombus – album “Distant Generation”, track “Never Thought”
Black Sea Dahu – album “Ants on the Wall”, track “One Day Will Be All I Have”
Honahlei – album “Nosara Tapes”, track “Gone Away”
Fellini Félin – album “Oddy”, track “Charlie”
Eola – album “Dang”, track “And I Know”
Heartless Bastards – album “A Beautiful Life”, track “A Beautiful Life”

RHODES – track “Sleep is a Rose”
Bertrand Belin – album “Watt”, track “Watt”
Jode – album “Jode”, track “Tomorrow is Gone”
Blanco White – track “So Certain (Something Reminds Me)”
Ocie Elliot – album “In That Room”, track “Forest Floor”
Al Nicol – album “Only Hoping”, track “Marylebone”

Sabine McCalla – album “Don’t Call Me Baby”, track “Sunshine Kisses”
Nick Hakim – track “Waiting”
Midori Hirano – track “Illuminance”
La Luz – album “News of the Universe”, track “I’ll Go With You”
Thomas Dybdahl – single “Hard Liquor”
Anna von Hausswolff – album “The Miraculous”, track “Stranger”

These New Puritans – album “Field of Reeds”, track “Organ Eternal”
Little Element – album “Fire”, track “Tel Aviv”
Timmy Thomas – album “What Can’t We Live Together”, track “Why Can’t We Live Together”
John Martyn – album “Grace & Danger”, track “Some People Are Crazy”
Nicolas Michaux – album “Les Chutes”, track “Amusement Park”
Pedro Mizuntani, Skinshape – album “Mostrando Os Dentes”, track “Sozin”

Robot Koch – album “Hypermoment”, track “Dreams”
Common Saints – album “Cinema 3000”, track “Sweet Release”
David Bowie – album “Young Americans”, track “Win”
Lapcat – album “She’s Bad”, track “Lavender”
Duke Garwood – album “Garden of Ashes”, track “Blue”
The Bamboos – album “Medicine Man”, track “The Wilhelm Scream”

Late Transmissions

Late Transmissions: How AI (and good software engineering) surprised and delighted me.

Catalyst

The catalyst was an innocuous New Year's message we received from a friend. It was a short, fantastical AI-generated video that was uncanny and oddly charming. Watching it, we started wondering about the soundtrack. Was the music AI-generated too? Or was it stock audio stitched in afterward? We never quite answered the question, but it started us down the research path where we discovered tools that can be used for song generation.

We already knew that AI tools for music existed. A family member had even created a full album of country songs using them. We found it impressive, it didn’t spark any urgency in us to try it ourselves. That changed when we realized that some of these tools weren’t just about generating music from scratch. They allowed you to upload your own audio.

That’s when a light bulb went on. Somewhere in cloud storage sat a folder I rarely opened, filled with forgotten work: rough recordings with and without vocals, incomplete takes, old .wav files paired with scanned lyric sheets. Songs that had been written quickly, recorded imperfectly, and then set aside. The digital artifacts were from 30 years ago and suddenly had more currency.

The question wasn’t whether AI could write new songs. It was simpler and more personal: what would happen if I fed these old original-composition songs back into a new system? Would anything recognizable come back? Would it be interesting? Or would it flatten everything into something generic?

Experiment

After a bit of fiddling around, I tried my first test using Suno AI. The results were immediately pleasing and brought a smile to our faces. The tool didn’t feel like it was replacing the songs so much as re-voicing them in interesting ways. (In fact, in Suno it’s called a cover.) With some guidance in prompts and settings, the output came back remarkably close to what I remember wanting to do thirty years ago but couldn’t quite execute at the time. It was thrilling not because it was perfect, but because it felt like I was completing something left unfinished.

I think of these new versions as drafts that are an order of magnitude better than the originals. They’re not finished songs, and perhaps I don’t really want them to be. They aren’t finished because the AI process can introduce noise and artifacts into the final output. These can be removed in remastering Suno output (stems). We didn't go that far for our first attempt because we didn’t know how. And even with the noise and artifacts in our final songs, we were happy.

My preference for these songs is for real people to perform them someday. Or is that idea anachronistic? At least now these drafts can properly communicate the idea, the mood, the structure I had in mind. That, to me, is magic: not automation, but translation.

Expression

During the rediscovery and reimagining of these songs, I came around to the idea that songs function for me much like blog posts. They are audio blog posts. (Yeah, I know that much of the world has moved on from longer-form writing like blogs, but I haven’t.) Blog posts—and now songs—are formats in which I can express my thoughts or feelings.

Some of the messages from thirty years ago survived surprisingly well. Others needed a small amount of tuning, though I resisted changing the lyrics more than necessary for this first try. I wanted to hear what that earlier voice was actually saying, not rewrite it from the comfort of hindsight.

I was surprised at how many of the themes addressed in the songs are still relevant to me today: my voice, my sense of freedom, and ability to deal with modern life. In short, timeless themes.

In that sense, reinterpreting of these songs isn’t about reviving the past so much as finishing a sentence or blog post.

Release

Using AI in the process wasn’t about polishing or correcting the past, but about filtering it. It acted like a lens, separating signal from static, letting certain ideas come through more clearly than they ever had before. The result isn’t a set of finished songs so much as clearer drafts, and that feels right for now. Releasing them now isn’t a performance or a bid for attention; it’s simply a form of publication. It’s much easier to send a link than a batch of files. Publishing lets these transmissions complete their journey so I can move on to the next phase.

This post—and the album that shares its name—are both called Late Transmissions (Spotify, Apple, YouTube). The title felt unavoidable. These songs were written long ago, partially broadcast, and then abandoned mid-signal. They’re late not because they were delayed on purpose, but because they took a long route to their current form. 

Travelmarx Winter 2025 Playlist – Black Sheep Boy

A composite image of 36 albums used in this playlist.

“I’m the family’s unowned boy”...We like that phrase from Okkervil River song "Back Sheep Boy" and decided on that for the secondary title for this season’s playlist. Being a “black sheep” is a badge of honor. A badge that means independence, creativity, or in the least, the courage to defy expectations. We don’t need our wool dyed so black is fine. The playlist is here on Spotify.

Beirut – album “Gallipoli”, track “Corfu”
Nev Cottee – album “Broken Flowers”, track “Open Eyes”
Okkervil River – album “Black Sheep Boy", track “Black Sheep Boy”
Hannah Miette, Rozi Plain – album “Hanna Miette”, track “Let Me Know”
Habe – album “Far From Everywhere”, track “Not Anywhere”
Grayson Hamm – single “Whiskey River”

Jonathan Jeremiah – album “We Come Alive”, track “How Can I Shake You Out of My Mind?”
John Stammers – album “Waiting Around”, track “Waiting Around”
Fink – album “Sort of a Revolution”, track “Walkin’ in the Sun”
The Saxophones – album “No Time of Poetry”, track “Wayward Men – feat. Indigo Street”
FC Atlaska – album “Rhythms from the Schelde Valley”, track “Two Moons Away”
Later. - album “The Daydream (EP)”, track “All the Time”

Toro y Moi – album “What For?”, track “Lilly”
Steve Gunn – album “Daylight Daylight”, track “A Walk”
MEZERG – album “Extended Play”, track “Sitting on a Log”
Clara Rockmore – album “Music In and On the Air”, track “The Swan”
Luce – album “Blue Star Soft Eyes”, track “Shadows and Shells”
Pharaoh – album “The Heat Warps”, track “Pharoah”

Alan Sparhawk, Trampled by Turtles – album “Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles”, track “Get Still”
Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – album “Gush”, track “Gush”
Velvet Meadow – album “Saturday Morning Meadowlies”, track “The Velvet Showdown”
Flavor Crystals – album “The Shive of the Flavor Crystals”, track “Antenna House”
Aunt Cynthia’s Cabin – album “Misty Woman”, track “Misty Woman”
Bahamas – album “Pink Strat”, track “Whole, Wide, World”

Marty O’Reilly & The Old Soul Orchestra – album “Pray for Rain”, track “Cinnamon Tree”
Ask Carol – album “AC II: Desert Sky”, track “Cold July”
Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp – album “We’re OK. But We’re Lost Anyway”, track “Blabber”
Monde UFO – album “7171”, track “Lowered Shelf”
Saya Gray – single “ANNIE, PICK A FLOWER..(MY HOUSE)”
Chinless Wonder – album “Moon Phaser”, track “Ynda”

Alex Maas – album “Luca”, track “Shines Like the Sun (Madeline’s Melody)”
CCFX – album “CCFX”, track “The One to Wait”
Jerkclub – album “Night Fishing On a Calm Lake”, track “Night Fishing On a Calm Lake”
Vinnie Who – single “Blue Blue Sky”, track “Velvet Sleep”
Kyle Scott Wilson – album “Journey to the Center of the Egress’ dream”, track “Traveling High”
NIGHTIES – single “saying hi”

Music Album Covers with Turntables, Record Players, or Gramophones on Them

20 music album covers that feature a turntable, record player or gramophone on them.

Here are 20 album covers featuring turntables, record players, or gramophones. We initially thought we’d easily find many more album covers to make our composite image, but that wasn't the case. Some definitions:

• A turntable is typically a standalone device that spins vinyl records, picks up the playback signal, and sends it to an attached amplification or speaker system.
• A record player integrates a turntable, amplifier, and speakers into an all-in-one system.
• A gramophone (phonograph), the precursor to record players, relies on mechanical energy and acoustic amplification. It was widely used from the 1890s into the early 1900s.

01 Dafuniks - Enter the Slideshow Groove
02 The Delgados - Universal Audio
03 Hugo Kant - Another Point of Mix I
04 Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed

05 Junior Jack - Trust It
06 Status Quo - If You Can't Stand the Heat
07 Thievery Corporation - Sounds from the Thievery Corporation HiFi
08 Big Sandy and His Fly-Rite Boy - Turntable Matinee

09 Les Baxter - Young Pops
10 The Blazers - College Drinking Songs
11 Barney Kessel - Music to Listen to Barney Kessel By
12 Erasure - Other People's Songs

13 Sweet - Off the Record
14 The Spinners - The Best of the Spinners
15 Various Artists - Turntable Essence
16 Verve Remixed

17 Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
18 Vetiver - Thing of the Past
19 Dirty Vegas Sound System - A Night at the Tables
20 Southern Avenue - Be the Love You Want