Here are my top 5 Bandcamp album picks of 2025. These are all artist/musicians that I know, have played music with or worked with and/or are friends. Support your musician friends and independent artists !
1. Mark Campbell Quartet – Wet Coast
My friend Mark is an amazing guitarist and a Vancouver legend with whom I have had the pleasure of playing with a number of times over the years, including his jazz/funk band Idle Peasantry. This is his quartet’s debut album on Bandcamp. An instrumental mixture of jazz, groove, reggae, rock and soul with intricate alto and tenor saxophone arrangements and layers of guitars to create a unique wall of sound.
https://markcampbellquartetmc4.bandcamp.com/album/wet-coast
2. Wayne Schmidt – But Wait , There’s More
Wayne is a good friend and former bandmate. He and I, along with my good friend and drummer Mark Fabricius, performed and recorded as progressive rock band Nomadic Sanctuary on and off from 2003- 2014. We shared a small recording studio later on for a few years.
Wayne is a prolific songwriter and a stellar guitarist/multi – instrumentalist.
This album is super diverse from 60’s style pop to prog rock to country swing.
https://wayneschmidt.bandcamp.com/album/but-wait-theres-more
3. Slug Comparison –
A Battle to the End Fought on the Edge of a Knife
My friend Doug Harrison (Slug Comparison) is a prolific songwriter and an amazing rock singer/multi – instrumentalist based in Victoria BC, who I met years ago in Nelson BC while in the Selkirk College music program. I was happy to do a few performances with him and guitarist Sam Levin as a part of an early incarnation of their progressive rock band Fen. Doug’s latest solo album is extremely diverse with both pop sensibilities and progressive elements of rock.
https://slugcomparison.bandcamp.com/album/a-battle-to-the-end-fought-on-the-edge-of-a-knife
4. Kill Mirror Image – Buy Now ! Everything Must Go !
I met the drummer of Kill Mirror Image (Bath UK) Rick Jones during the recording /filming this year for my new 2025 album “Sol Caravan.” Rick was a studio assistant to both Jake Robertson and Steve Evans on the sessions at the Fortress studios in Wiltshire, UK. “Buy Now ! Everything Must Go ! ” has an anti – consumerism message and is energetic, aggressive, post punk– leaning, but unconventional in that guitarist Ben Thomas utilizes a lot of jazzy chords. Intricate arrangements and superlative musicianship by all 3 members of the band.
https://killmirrorimage.bandcamp.com/album/buy-now-everything-must-go
5. Salin – Rammana
Salin is a Montréal based , Thai – born drummer who I have met and played with a few times at jam sessions in Montreal , and have seen her perform with her band a number of times. Her 2025 album is a mix of jazz horns , Afrobeat, funk and Thai Molam music, including incorporating the Khene, a south- east Asian mouth organ (aerophone). Molam is traditional folk/dance music typically from the region of Northeastern Thailand and Southern Laos. This album is diverse with stellar musicianship by all involved in including Salin’s amazingly funky and musical drumming.