New album: Classy, supercool and stylish, the revered German-born American bassist and vocalist returns with an album of distinctive and varied fusion of funk, jazz, Afrobeat, electronica and hip hop with a variety of distinctive guests
Read moreUrsa Major Moving Group: Ursa Major Moving Group
New album: A stellar, innovative and absorbing debut LP project by London multi-instrumentalist, composer and writer Ursula Russell fusing folk, chamber pop and gentle post-punk
Read moreSigur Rós: ÁTTA
New album: With climate change ever on on the horizon, a beautiful, moving, melancholy, ethereal and dynamic LP by the elemental Icelandic experimental band, their first for a decade, with Kjartan Sveinsson rejoining since he left 2012, to complete the trio with frontman Jónsi and bassist Georg Holm
Read moreSquid: O Monolith
New album: The second album by the Brighton-formed experimental post-punks after 2021’s Bright Green Field sees them push into abstract prog, folk, jazz and other musical territory of light and shade, loud to intimate and intricate, all with sharp sense of life’s tragedy, comedy and absurdity
Read moreChristine and the Queens: Paranoïa, Angels, True Love
New album: French artist Héloïse Letissier aka Chris, now using the he/his pronoun, returns with a passionate, epic, sensual, existential synth-pop triple LP odyssey, fuelled by the grief over mother’s death, and expressed through concepts of inner angel voices, including a guest appearance by Madonna
Read moreHak Baker: Worlds End FM
New album: Vibrant, witty, energetic debut by the east London rapper and musician, presented like a pirate radio station the mixes hip hop and storytelling with echoes of The Streets’ Mike Skinner and Ian Dury, as well more conventional, yet pointed indie about troubled Britain
Read moreThis Is The Kit: Careful Of Your Keepers
New album: Another peach of an LP from Kate Stables and band, whose voice especially with her acoustic alternative folk, effortlessly caresses the microphone with clarity, beauty, profundity and minimalism, and is produced by Gruff Rhys
Read moreBaxter Dury: I Thought I Was Better Than You
New album: Droll, dark, crisply phrased, downbeat, self-deprecating, sleazy and funky? It can only be the West London artist, in a candid, unflinching sixth solo album that draws on his strange childhood as son of famous Ian, echoing his brilliantly funny and painful 2022 memoir Chaise Longue
Read moreProtomartyr: Formal Growth In The Desert
New album: Stormy, dark, passionate, punchy, with biting lyrics, this powerful sixth album by the Detroit-formed post-punk quartet is inspired by the metaphorical desolation of the titular landscape and getting on with life even when it feels impossibly hard
Read moreLanterns on the Lake: Versions of Us
New album: Sumptuous sounds, passionate lyrics and dynamic musicianship by guitarist Paul Gregory and co in the indie Newcastle-upon-Tyne band fronted by superb singer-songwriter Hazel Wilde with an album about self-definition, identity and “existential meditations examining life’s possibilities” in a troubled world
Read moreMcKinley Dixon: Beloved! Paradise! Jazz!?
New album: A short but poetically vivid and emotionally stirring fourth album by the articulate, flowing Richmond, Virginia rapper and musician, a title inspired by Toni Morrison’s book trilogy, and filled with city-inspired jazz soundscapes and great guest vocalists
Read moreWater From Your Eyes: Everyone's Crushed
New album: Uncategorisably ear-catching, experimental indie-pop by the Brooklyn duo Rachel Brown and Nate Amos, in a fifth LP filled with oddball, interweaving sounds, textures and landscapes, electronica to distorted guitar rock, absurdist clever lyrics and melodies
Read moreClark - Sus Dog
New album: Themed around ideas of trust, enthralling, intelligent experimental electronica alt-pop by the British artist Christopher Clark in a work that has occasional echoes Radiohead, flavoured by guest vocalist Thom Yorke who is also executive producer
Read moreSparks: The Girl Is Crying In Her Latte
New album: Sparky, humorous electro-art-pop joy throughout as the pioneering veteran Mael brothers Ron and Russell return with a classic 27th studio album, packed with catchy droll, silly, zeitgeisty wit and cinematographic scenes and characters
Read moreHannah Jadagu: Aperture
Debut album: A hugely promising and mature debut LP by the 20-year-old Texas-born, New York-based singer-songwriter, mixing intimate soul and R&B with dream-pop, low-key indie and gentle touches of psychedelia
Read moreKesha: Gag Order
New album: Filled with rage, simmering visceral self-hatred and raw emotional examination, but also many beautiful harmonies and dynamics, the fifth album by Kesha Rose Sebert (formerly Ke$ha), is fuelled by the fallout of a music industry lawsuit, but also her restless creativity
Read moreMadison McFerrin: I Hope You Can Forgive Me
New album: Smooth, dreamy, ethereally beautiful soul, trip-hop, R&B low-key gospel and electro-pop in this entrancing debut LP by Brooklyn singer and the daughter of Bobby (Don’t Worry, Be Happy) McFerrin, whose style is very different to her jazz vocalist father
Read moreRahill: Flowers At Your Feet
New album: Cool, stylishly original trip-hop, jazz, alt-rock and pop by the New York Iranian-American singer-songwriter Rahill Jamalifard on a deeply personal release which also includes guests Beck and Jasper Marsalis
Read moreJames Howard: Peek-a-Boo
New album: Like a slow caress of wry beauty, a deliciously paced alt-folk-Americana debut by the English producer and multi-instrumentalist with a collection aptly described as 'twinkling like a glitterball in an abandoned dancehall’
Read moreCloth: Secret Measure
New album: Gently spun, delicately understated and cleverly crafted, dreamy, angular guitar pop-rock with a light touch of synths from the Glasgow twins Rachael and Paul Swinton
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