The first DJ Dragonfly’s Favorites for 2026 is here. It’s time to see if anything’s changed from last year to this year.
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DJ Dragonfly’s January Favorites
Category: Blog
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Jazz Charts 2/3/26
Jazz Charts
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | NOAH HAIDU | Standards III | Infinite Distances |
| 2 | ISAIAH J THOMPSON | The Book Of Isaiah: Modern Jazz Ministry | Mack Avenue |
| 3 | BRAD MEHLDAU | Ride Into The Sun | Nonesuch |
| 4 | WEB WEB | Plexus Plexus | Compost |
| 5 | WAITIKI 7, THE | Exotica Reborn: In Studio And Live At House Without A Key | Waitiki International |
| 6 | OLYMPIANS, THE | “Strawberry Kiwi” [Single] | Daptone |
| 7 | LAUREN HENDERSON | Sonidos | Brontosaurus |
| 8 | LAKECIA BENJAMIN | Phoenix | Whirlwind |
| 9 | PAUL CORNISH | You’re Exaggerating! | Blue Note |
| 10 | LANCE FERGUSON | Rare Groove Spectrum, Vol. 3 | Tru Thoughts |
Top Adds
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | SHABAKA | “A Future Untold” b/w “Marwa The Mountain” [Single] | Shabaka |
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Top Charts 2/3/26
Top Charts
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | DOUBLE WISH | Double Wish | Hit The North |
| 2 | LIGHTHEADED | Thinking, Dreaming, Scheming! | Slumberland |
| 3 | PHOEBE RINGS | Aseurai | Carpark |
| 4 | APRIL MARCH | “Surfing Castafiore” [Single] | Bong Load |
| 5 | CROOKED FINGERS | “Cold Waves” [Single] | Merge |
| 6 | FEEBLE LITTLE HORSE | “This Is Real” [Single] | Saddle Creek |
| 7 | HEMLOCK | Orange Streak Glow [EP] | Self-Released |
| 8 | HOMEOSTASIS | “Golden Eyes” [Single] | Self-Released |
| 9 | PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE | Taurus | Topshelf |
| 10 | SHARP PINS | Balloon Balloon Balloon | K/Perennial |
| 11 | STEREOLAB | Instant Holograms On Metal Film | Warp/Duophonic |
| 12 | ABIGAIL DOWD | Saints & Warriors | Self-Released |
| 13 | ACOPIA | Blush Response | Scenic Route |
| 14 | AMENRA | De Toorn & With Fang And Claw [EP] | Relapse |
| 15 | CHANEL BEADS | “The Coward Forgets His Nightmare” [Single] | Jagjaguwar |
| 16 | CHARLOTTE DAY WILSON | “High Road” [Single] | Stone Woman/XL |
| 17 | CHAT PILE | Cool World | The Flenser |
| 18 | DAFFO | Where The Earth Bends | Concord |
| 19 | DEFEATED SANITY | Chronicles of Lunacy | Season of Mist |
| 20 | DESTRATA | A Healthy Fear [EP] | !K7 |
| 21 | DJ BEETLEBITCH | Acidtape2024 [EP] | Dirtbag |
| 22 | FILLERHOOK | Apricity | Self-Released |
| 23 | FIND MY FRIENDS | Find My Friends [EP] | Bloody Knuckles |
| 24 | FOXWARREN | 2 (Two) | Anti- |
| 25 | GANSER | Animal Hospital | felte |
| 26 | HATCHIE | Liquorice | Secretly Canadian |
| 27 | JOYER | On The Other End Of The Line… | Julia’s War |
| 28 | KARDASHEV | Alunea | Metal Blade |
| 29 | KILL THE BUDDHA | Kill the Buddha | Moths Recording Company |
| 30 | LILITHPAD | The Sky Is Falling… [EP] | Self-Released |
Top Adds
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | TRUE BLUE | Star Witness | True Nature |
| 2 | TRIPLES | Every Good Story [EP] | Bleak Enterprise |
| 3 | TREMBLER | Total Sorry [EP] | Rite Field |
| 4 | SNAIL MAIL | “Dead End” [Single] | Matador |
| 5 | GUV | Warmer Than Gold | Run For |
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Learning about Noise
I love music that pushes the envelope on what can be considered music. Two metal pipes banging against each other in my headphones might just be a prototype of the instruments of the future. The worst part is I am only half joking. If someone can make it sound good, or scratch that if someone can make it sound, who’s to say it isn’t music? Music is just noise, so any noise or combination of noises could be music. That line of thinking is what gets you the noise music genre. This genre features things like music made using hair dryers, cut up and split together cassette tapes, factory ambience, half-unplugged amps doing an infinite feedback loop with themselves and more that almost fails to be describable.
Photos by Lachlan Vester.
The Front Bottoms kicked off their Back On Top: Ten Years Tour at the Ritz in Raleigh on the twelfth of December 2025. Before getting any further into this post I must confide in the reader that I am a huge fan of The Front Bottoms and have seen them several times. Despite this, I will do my best to keep an unbiased view of this show.
The show kicked off with NOBRO, an all-female outfit of hard rockers who had the crowd eating out of the palm of their hands for their whole set. NOBRO absolutely killed their set and set the bar high for the rest of the night.
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DJ Dragonfly’s December Favorites
It might be a new year, but some old things keep carrying on. A prime example would be the next edition of “DJ Dragonfly’s Favorites.”
I know this post comes a little late but these were my picks for December, I promise.
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Chainsaw Charts 1/27/26
Chainsaw Charts
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | BAAN | Neumann | Self-Released |
| 2 | HOODED MENACE | Lachrymose Monuments Of Obscuration | Season of Mist |
| 3 | EMMA GOLDMAN | All You Are Is We | Zegema Beach |
| 4 | SIEGE COLUMN | Sulphur Omega | Self-Released |
| 5 | IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT | Goldstar | Century Media |
| 6 | DRAWN AND QUARTERED | Lord Of Two Horns | Nuclear Winter |
| 7 | YELLOW EYES | Confusion Gate | Sibir |
| 8 | HAVUKRUUNU | Tavastland | Svart |
| 9 | DEADGUY | Near-Death Travel Services | Relapse |
| 10 | LYCHGATE | Precipice | Debemur Morti |
Chainsaw Adds
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | CONVERGE | “We Were Never The Same” [Single] | Epitaph |
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Afterhours Charts 1/27/26
Afterhours Charts
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | SHUGOREI | Memories of Magic—魔法の記憶—Mahō no Kioku | 4000 |
| 2 | FKA TWIGS | EUSEXUA Afterglow | Young/Atlantic |
| 3 | GIRL BRUTAL | “Asteroids” [Single] | Self-Released |
| 4 | RAMONPANG | “Mystery Dungeon” [Single] | Tabula Rasa |
| 5 | HELADO NEGRO | The Last Sound On Earth [EP] | Big Dada |
| 6 | GORPOPAP | “Grainy Screams” [Single] | Self-Released |
| 7 | HARVEY SUTHERLAND | Debt | Clarity/The Orchard |
| 8 | HAAI | Humanise | Mute |
| 9 | ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER | Tranquilizer | Warp |
| 10 | POLYANA | Pollyanna | Self-Released |
Afterhours Adds
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | GIRL BRUTAL | “Asteroids” [Single] | Self-Released |
| 2 | RAMONPANG | “Mystery Dungeon” [Single] | Tabula Rasa |
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Underground Charts 1/27/26
Underground Charts
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | DANNY BROWN | Stardust | Warp |
| 2 | DEMAE | Deep Dive [EP] | FAMM |
| 3 | VENNA | MALIK | Cashmere Thoughts |
| 4 | OLIVER NIGHT | Between The Lines | Tru Thoughts |
| 5 | MADISON MCFERRIN | SCORPIO | MadMcFerrin |
| 6 | MCKINLEY DIXON | Magic, Alive! | City Slang |
| 7 | STACY EPPS | Flowheart | RE:Source Collab |
| 8 | MANWOLVES, CRASHPREZ, CRASHWOLVES | it all comes for me [EP] | Manwolves |
| 9 | KELLY MOONSTONE | New Moon | Self-Released |
| 10 | 7XVETHEGENIUS | Self 7xve 3 | Broadband Sound |
Underground Adds
| Artist | Record | Label | |
| 1 | SAMM HENSHAW | It Could Be Worse | Dorm Seven/AWAL |
| 2 | DUMAMA | “No Abiding City” [Single] | Soundway |
| 3 | ANA TIJIOUX | Vida | Altafonte |
Many of my regular readers know that I am a woman and that I play in a band here in Raleigh. If you are someone who regularly attends shows, small or large, you know that there is a distinct shortage of women. I have decided to call upon some of the women in the community to help me describe what it’s like on the other side of the microphone for us.