by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

As we continue to navigate through this dead period when nothing is happeing on our stages, here are a couple things in my earbuds…

Immersion is the electronic duo of Colin Newman from Wire and Malka Sigel from Minimal Compact. They’ve teamed with ambient trio SUSS for a forthcoming album called Nanocluster Vol. 3, which drops on Valentine’s Day via Swim~ . 

Immersion has been around for awhile (the couple first met in 1985, and released their debut album, Oscillating, in ’94), and count ambient, techno and Krautrock among their influences. It’s an off-again/on-again project as Newman balances his time as Wire’s frontman. 

There’s nothing challenging here, just really great ambient music. If you dig these tracks, check out Nanocluster, Vol. 2, EP2,  Immersion’s collaboration with Cubzoa that came out last year. 

Immersion starts their U.S. tour March 14 at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin. Their closest pass to Omaha is March 22 at Chicago’s Constellation. 

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Portland’s Mary Eliza’s style is self-admittedly a product of listening to Big Thief, Mitski, Maki Valesquez and Wilco, which she had on while writing her self-released debut album, Spider, which dropped last Friday.

Produced by Preston Cochran (Lucy Dacus, Illuminati Hotties) with Jake Finch (who’s worked with boygenius and Suki Waterhouse), the album captures the trials of living with her “mysterious chronic illness” recently diagnosed as a heart disorder called POTS, along with a number of other afflictions. 

She says, “It has ended many relationships in my life and I’m sure it will continue to weed out fake friends. My anger and processing around this illness and the medical system as a whole has come out a lot in the making of this record, and it has felt like such a cathartic experience being able to create the soul scratching feeling that I experience in sound.”

Good stuff definitely worth checking out. Eliza’s only current tour stops are in Oregon and Washington. 

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Read Tim McMahan’s blog daily at Lazy-i.com — an online music magazine that includes feature interviews, reviews and news. The focus is on the national indie music scene with a special emphasis on the best original bands in the Omaha area. Copyright © 2025 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.