No Expectations 134: Koneko
Eclectic and excellent albums from Momoko Gill, Nilza Costa, Feller and more. Plus, Akinola Davies Jr's 'My Father's Shadow' and Annie Ernaux's 'The Years.'
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Headline song: Mei Semones ft. Liana Flores, “Koneko”
Thanks for being here. I spent most of last week battling a cold. Now, I rarely get sick, but for some reason, this was the second time I came down with something so far in 2026. Where I used to joke that being 6’5 made me miss whatever bug is going around because I breathe different air, now I feel as lucky as Samuel L. Jackson in Unbreakable. I had to skip a show on Friday, but I deluded myself into thinking that I was symptom-free enough to go out for Valentine’s Day. By the following morning, I was back to square one, forced to relax and complain on the couch for a couple of days. It happens.
This was necessary and honestly pretty nice. It also worked! I’m not feeling run-down anymore, likely thanks to some combo of Mucinex, frequent water refills, and all the new music I checked out. Because I was mostly out of it, I gravitated towards softer, soothing, and intricate records. I devoured soul, jazz, folk, and ambient releases and largely avoided indie rock. Below, you’ll find just one rock album from a new favorite Chicago band, but the rest occupy a much more cosmic, low-key, and eclectic lane. Even if some LPs are outside your regular comfort zone, I promise you’ll find something worthwhile to dig into.
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4 Albums Worth Your Time This Week
Feller, Sound Colored Penny
Whenever a beloved Chicago band calls it quits, you can count on its members to start their own exciting project. In the case of Cafe Racer, which disbanded in 2023, you can get a perfect sampler of the city’s indie rock scene from what came after. Its former roster now plays in newsletter favorite bands to name just a few, like Ulna (Adam Schubert), Junegrass (Andrew Harper), REZN (Rob McWilliams), Century Sound (Michael Santana), and Waxahatchee/MJ Lenderman (Colin Croom). Add former bassist Pete Willson to this list, as his band Feller has one of the city’s best debut LPs in recent memory. This trio’s been playing gigs since the summer of 2023, and they’re known for their raucous, ripping sets. Their 2024 EP, Universal Miracle Worker, released via the essential Fire Talk imprint Angel Tapes, showcased that ferocity perfectly. Their first proper album, Sound Colored Penny, keeps the frantic energy intact while tightening up the hooks and earworm melodies. No longer content to just shred, these songs are remarkably dynamic. Single “Penny Farthing” is delicate, with aching falsetto and bright arpeggios, while “Marys Perfume” is explosive and unrelenting. For a three-piece, they cover so much indie rock territory and make ample noise within just 25-minutes.
RIYL: Full-lengths under 30 minutes, the Empty Bottle, if the Sea and Cake were a post-punk band
Momoko Gill, Momoko
Momoko Gill has been a fixture of London’s sprawling jazz community, mostly as one of its most in-demand drummers and collaborators. She’s guested with Alabaster DePlume and Tirzah, but in 2025, embarked on her own with the collaborative LP, Clay, which she made with the acclaimed DJ Matthew Herbert. She teams up again with Herbert for Momoko, her proper solo debut. It’s 11 tracks of breezy soul, sinuous jazz, and occasionally, staticky electronics and brooding strings that evoke the cutting-edge Copenhagen left-field pop scene. Gill is a striking singer, with a warm, welcoming, and enveloping croon that dances over these lush arrangements. A descending piano chord progression anchors the melancholic “2close2farr” while a looping cascade of violins gives the haunting “Anyway, I’m Drowning” its propulsive core. On the patient banger “No Others,” a plucky bass line and a ricocheting percussion section give it a rich complexity. She manages to tread an exceptional tightrope here: making songs that are so inviting you could confidently show anyone, but interesting and unpredictable enough to impress the most seasoned listener.
RIYL: Astrid Sonne, Tirzah, NTS Radio
Nilza Costa, Cantigas
Few artists can traverse musical borders as seamlessly as Nilza Costa. Born in Salvador, the capital city of the Brazilian state of Bahia, she comes from a Yoruba family and has lived in Bologna, Italy, since 2006. In her hypnotic and commanding music that draws from jazz, samba, jùjú, and funk, she combines the musical traditions of all her homes into something singular and stunning. Her latest album, Cantigas, finds her singing in Yoruba, Kimbundu, and Brazilian Portuguese. Each song is imbued with a galvanizing spiritual gravitas and a patient, almost prayer-like devotion to repetition and groove. Backed by a crew of Italian backing players, Costa’s voice soars on tracks like the shapeshifting, mesmerizing “Ogum suite,” and the smoldering “Logunede.” But on the lovely “Oxumare,” she glides over a smooth, near-loungey composition. This is a jaw-dropping record that had me transfixed from the first listen.
RIYL: Afro-Brazilian folk traditions, percussion-forward arrangements, patient jazz
Tomeka Reid, dance! skip! hop!
For the past two decades, cellist Tomeka Reid has been a staple of Chicago’s innovative jazz community. She’s the founder of the Chicago Jazz String Summit, a 2022 MacArthur Fellow, a commanding composer, and one of the most thrillingly surprising improvisers working today. I’ve been lucky to see her perform in various contexts over the years at Hungry Brain, Constellation, and Millennium Park. She’s relentlessly prolific and always seems to be on tour, but her latest LP, dance! skip! hop!, is an absolute joy. Enlisting her frequent quartet collaborators, guitarist Mary Halvorson, bassist Jason Roebke, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara, she leads these virtuosos through five rhythmically dense and knotty instrumentals. These songs all pop with nervy energy, settle into mesmerizing grooves, and spread out over six minutes. This band has developed such a lived-in chemistry that every moment of interplay between these stellar musicians feels like magic. It’s a lively, accessible jazz record to lift your spirits.
RIYL: unpredictable grooves, lived-in chemistry, jazz to make you dance
What I listened to:
The No Expectations 134 Playlist: Apple Music // Spotify* // Tidal
1. Resavoir, “Memories of Dreams”
2. Red PK, “Get Down”
3. Kevin Morby, “Javelin”
4. Blueberry Betty, “Little Pilot”
5. Feller, “Penny Farthing”
6. Chet Sounds, “Cut from a Different Cloth”
7. Stereolab, “Cloud Land”
8. Gregory Uhlmann, “Burnt Toast”
9. Mei Semones (feat. Liana Flores), “Koneko”
10. Molina, “Golden Brown Sugar”
11. Momoko Gill, “No Others
12. Nilza Costa, “Ogum suite”
13. Spencer Cullum (feat. Erin Rae), “Look at the Moon”
14. Sam Blasucci, “Delicadeza”
15. Tomeka Reid (feat. Jason Roebke, Mary Halvorson & Tomas Fujiwara), “Silver Spring Fig Tree”
*Tomeka Reid’s dance! skip! hop! is not on Spotify.
What I watched:
My Father’s Shadow (directed by Akinola Davies Jr.)
Over the weekend, the British-Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr.’s debut film My Father’s Shadow hit Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard competition, becoming the first Nigerian film to be chosen for the festival's Official Selection. After watching this gorgeously shot, intimate, and heartwrenching movie, I’m stunned it didn’t earn any Oscar nominations. It’s a loosely autobiographical story that follows two young siblings, Aki and Remi, who take a day trip with their father to Lagos. Set against the backdrop of Nigeria’s pivotal 1993 presidential election, which was illegally annulled by the country’s military dictatorship, Davies Jr. masterfully balances the subtle familial dynamics and tensions with the political tumult surrounding them. There are a few scenes that boast some of the most beautiful cinematography I’ve ever seen, plus a jaw-dropping score from Duval Timothy and CJ Mirra. You’ll likely be reminded of Aftersun here, but I’d argue this is the better and more devastating film.
What I read:
The Years (by Annie Ernaux)
Since the mid ‘70s, the French writer Annie Ernaux has become one of the world’s premier memoirists, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022 thanks to “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory.” 2008’s The Years, which was published in English in 2017, is widely considered her masterwork. For good reason, too. I read it over the weekend and haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Ernaux traces her life from 1941 to 2006, weaving in so much historical, political, and cultural context next to her razor-sharp personal revelations and observations that it works as a collective autobiography. She gives subjective, inward emotions global stakes and writes sentences so lucid and searing that some will likely stick with me for years. It’s my first foray into Ernaux’s writing, but it certainly won’t be my last.
The Weekly Chicago Show Calendar:
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