Release Notes
Label: n5MD
Release: Falter
Date: February 6th, 2026
Mastered By: 37n,122w
Artwork By: Destiny Templeton-Wolfe
Alright, folks. I just spent an entire month celebrating the Best of 2025 music with additional content (and Bandcamp codes for select albums) shared on Headphone Community. I must admit, I am extremely happy with how the platform is turning out, and yes, I will be investing even more of my time and energy into building that special place. As a result, I will likely reduce my presence on this public outlet, where scrapers and AI bots are the predominant source of traffic. I’d rather channel my honest words on honest music towards honest people, and that is where the community shines. This is not a goodbye, but rather an evolution. With that said, I still have plenty to share, to broadcast, and to premiere, and today we are spending sharing our time with New Zealand-based Australian musician and composer Micah Templeton-Wolfe, recording under his alias, Stray Theories, for n5MD. I’ve covered his music a few times on here, most notably his 2018 album, All That Was Lost. Now, returning to the label, Micah shares his fifth full-length release, braiding elements of ambient, neoclassical, and post-rock across eight cinematic tracks. Today, you get to hear one of the tracks ahead of the release, which is scheduled for this Friday, February 6th.
“The Faded” is a perfect teaser for the album, showcasing all of the wonderful elements of composition and style, with its slightly melancholic and introspective themes, carried forth by a slow-moving beat, lingering somewhere in the background, just enough to move us with a sense of passing time. There is no single genre to describe this music, unless you call it emotional electronica from n5MD. After all, this Oakland-based label, run by Mike Cadoo, has been prescribing this type of medicine for more than two decades, since circa 2000. So if you’re familiar with names such as Ex Confusion, Last Days, and Lights Out Asia, then you’re in for a treat. There is optimism, but there is also some heartbreak; there is confidence, but there is also mistrust, with “moments of contemplative solace sitting side by side with streaks of melancholia“. It’s a full-spectrum emotion, one that lands upon your heart and refuses to leave. Perhaps one day it will fade away, just like the music, just like ourselves.
The songs on Falter took shape over several years, all with different starting points, some beginning with a sound, others with a moment. The album explores personal and creative change. A lot of time was spent stepping away from older approaches to writing, experimenting with new ideas, and letting the process unfold naturally, with some songs taking years to reach their final form, a long process of recording and shaping.
— Micah Templeton-Wolfe
Once again, the album is out this Friday, February 6th, via n5MD, available on a gatefold compact disc, a beautiful limited transparent red vinyl (pictured above), and, of course, digital, directly from the label’s Bandcamp.
