In the Mix: New Music Highlights July 2026 Vol 2

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Airing today at 4pm NZ Time

July 2026 has turned out to be a genuinely rich month for new music, and Jim Bricker has put together a selection that sweeps across post-punk, Afro-Cuban jazz, neo-soul, New Zealand rock and contemporary jazz — proof that the most interesting listening right now refuses to stay in one lane.

Leeds band Yard Act kick things off with the title track from their third album You’re Gonna Need a Little Music, released on Island Records on July 17th. Written and recorded in their own studio for the first time — the band jamming together in a room rather than building songs remotely on laptops — the album finds frontman James Smith in expansive, experimental mode, reaching for Beck, Blur and Serge Gainsbourg in the same breath. Produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, it’s a louder, more confrontational record than its predecessors, but with the sharp wit and open storytelling that Yard Act fans love very much intact.

Also dropping on July 17th was América!, the fourth studio album from Havana-founded big band Orquesta Akokán. Recorded live to tape by Daptone’s Gabriel Roth, the record expands on their celebrated take on the golden era of Cuban mambo, rhumba and Latin soul, this time introducing new vocalist Miriam Elhajli alongside the band’s usual cast. Jim’s pick, “Girassol,” is one of its most distinctive moments: composed by Kiko Ruiz and arranged by Michael Eckroth, it blends Brazilian jazz with strutting mambo, with swirling brass and reeds, a killer flute break and lyrics that take on upheaval and the immigrant experience. Irresistible stuff.

Baby Rose’s third album Yearnalism, released July 10th on Secretly Canadian, arrives fresh off her Grammy win for Best R&B Album and makes a strong case that she’s one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary soul. “Is This Love,” featuring British-Sudanese singer Elmiene, is one of its quieter highlights — a softly glimmering duet in which the two artists search for an answer together, with mutual empathy and real emotional restraint. Elmiene, who placed fifth in the BBC Sound of 2024 poll and earned a Brit Award for Rising Star nomination in 2025, is a perfect foil for Rose’s deep contralto.

Kiwis will need no introduction to Gin Wigmore, but Beautiful Mess — her fifth album and first release since 2018, and our Album of the Week — is a genuine event. Six New Zealand Music Awards, over 630 million streams, and almost two decades of a career built on her own terms: and this is the record she came back with after eight years away. “Here Come the Girls” closes the album out, and Wigmore describes it as a call to action — a celebration of sisterhood and the bonds between women. It’s the heaviest track on the record, the boldest sequencing choice, and ends things triumphantly and frenetically.

Rounding out some of the highlights in Jim’s selection is “Aversion” from Indonesian jazz prodigy Joey Alexander’s eighth studio album Celestial Keeper (Mack Avenue Records). Written as a confrontation with his own self-doubt as an artist — “my aversion to doubt and the feeling of insecurity regarding the music I am about to share,” as Alexander puts it — the track features Philadelphia saxophonist Jaleel Shaw on alto, making it one of the album’s most unpredictable and restless compositions. At just 22 years old, Alexander has already spent more than a decade establishing himself as one of jazz’s most celebrated young voices — and Celestial Keeper confirms that status emphatically.

This is a playlist that rewards full attention. Thanks to Jim for curating such a wide-ranging and musically generous selection — tune in and enjoy the ride.

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