Our TOP Picks For Your Favorite Listens of July 2026

**Adam Maness** (0:19)
I'm Adam Maness.

**Caleb Kirby** (0:19)
I'm Caleb Kirby.

**Adam Maness** (0:20)
Welcome to another edition of Freshman Friday. It's the show where we review the new releases from the previous month. This month's previous releases are the month of June, 2026 A reminder, this show is brought to you by Open Studio. Go to openstudiojazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs. That's openstudiojazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs.

**Caleb Kirby** (0:37)
Oh, yes.

**Adam Maness** (0:38)
Caleb, we're starting off with not even a jazz adjacent album. This is Boards of Canada's new album, highly anticipated new album, Inferno.

**Caleb Kirby** (0:48)
Yes, 10 years.

**Adam Maness** (0:49)
10 years since Boards of Canada's last album. While they're not exactly a jazz group, they are beloved by most jazz musicians I know, and musicians in general.

**Caleb Kirby** (0:59)
For sure. It's like a personality trait to like Boards of Canada. If you're a jazz musician, same thing as Squarepusher, Apex 20, that kind of stuff I feel like is inspirational.

**Adam Maness** (1:09)
Yeah. Let's check out the track that we have lined up here. This is the second track on the album. This is called Prophecy at 1420 megahertz.

**Caleb Kirby** (1:17)
We're dropping in right in the middle here. Check this out.

**Adam Maness** (2:06)
Yeah, one of the things that I love about Boards of Canada, they're always playing with textures, they're always playing with form. You know what I mean?
They're truly capturing something unique with every single album. And Inferno is no different, man. This really has lived up to the hype.

**Caleb Kirby** (2:20)
Honestly, I was thinking that this album is a lot more cinematic than the last ones. I love Boards of Canada, but the last few albums have been a lot of analog textures, a lot of like, you know, you can almost hear machines. But this one feels like, yeah, I'm like watching a movie.

**Adam Maness** (2:34)
Yeah. And a great listen front to back. Like, so listen to the whole album from the start to the beginning. It's an incredible experience.

**Caleb Kirby** (2:42)
Yeah.

**Adam Maness** (2:43)
Next up, we've got a new release from Cecile McLaurin-Salavon, one of our favorites around here at Freshman Friday and Open Studio. And this is Cecile teaming up with the Metropool Orkest, the incredible Chamber Pop Orchestra. And this was recorded in the Netherlands. It features Jules Buckley conducting the Metropool Orkest, Sullivan Fortner on the piano, David Wong on the bass, and Kush Abhidhi on the drums. And it's called With Every Breath I Take. And we're going to listen to the title track, With Every Breath I Take.

**Caleb Kirby** (3:10)
Here we go.
Also, right now we're showing you the official music video, and it's shot so beautifully, I... yeah. It's... it's an accoutrement to an already amazing album.

**Adam Maness** (4:22)
Sullivan Fortner on the piano, David Wong on the bass, Kush Avadie on the drums. The Metropole Orchest is one of the most innovative and collaborative pops orchestras on the planet. Always working with interesting people. So glad to see Cecile with them again.

**Caleb Kirby** (4:37)
Absolutely. You've got to check that out this month. That's incredible.

**Adam Maness** (4:40)
Haunting.

**Caleb Kirby** (4:41)
Up next is SML, one of my favorite new groups of the last couple of years. This album is incredible because it's actually just a live take at the Zebulon in LA. So we're going to watch the video from when they recorded this, but you can get the track now. It's two tracks, A side and B side. They're both all improvised music and it's really cool. This is brought to you by International Anthem Records based out of Chicago.
It's like an album that just kind of gets you going.

**Adam Maness** (6:16)
It's SML, the album's spontaneous music live. You must check it out. It's pretty incredible.
SML is Anna Buntress on the bass, Jeremiah Chu on the modular synthesizers and electronics, Josh Johnson on saxophone and electronics, Booker Stardrum on drums percussion, and Gregory Ullman on guitar.

**Caleb Kirby** (6:35)
Yeah, incredible stuff. And they all have their own projects, so please dive in on that. It's really cool.

**Adam Maness** (6:40)
Next up, we've got new music from the incredible LaKeisha Benjamin. This is so great to see. It's been wonderful to watch LaKeisha's star rise and keep rising over the last several years.
I've known her since college. We went to school together at the new school.

**Caleb Kirby** (6:55)
She played with a few famous people in her time.

**Adam Maness** (6:57)
She was killing all the way back then and she's killing now. This new album is called We Dream, and it features an amazing cast of musicians, Oscar Perez on the piano, Mickey Hayama on the piano, Elias Bailey on the bass, Jonathan Barber on the drums, Terrence Blanchard on the trumpet, Sean Jones on the trumpet and flugelhorn, Chief Zion, Atunde Ajua on the trumpet, Chris Potter on the saxophone, Jeff Tainwatts, Haromi Bilal, Tank Ball, Casa Overall. It's just-