Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia

Obongjayer - Some Nights I Dream of Doors

Jens Lekman - The Linden Trees Are Still In Blossom

Lambchop - The Bible

Horse Lords - Comradely Objects

Selected Bandcamp reviews:
The Jealous Cactus - "Horse Lords keep delivering. You can tell they drink from the fountains of Can and free jazz, but they are so refreshingly unique like few bands are nowadays.

UniqueUserName - "Is there any currently active rock band that is more exciting, more experimental, and yet also unqualifiedly joyful to listen to than Horse Lords? Not that I've heard!"

BenPujara - "A jangled euphoric jam like shaking an etch-a-sketch and making Matisse. Masterful."

Zola Jesus - Arkhon

There is a way a voice can cut through the fascia of reality, cleaving through habit into the raw nerve of experience. Nika Roza Danilova, who since 2009 has released music as Zola Jesus, wields a voice that does that. When you hear it, it is like you are being summoned -- not to somewhere new, but to a place that's already wrapped inside you, somewhere previously obscured from conscious experience.

Gilla Band – Most Normal

For their first album as Gilla Band, (formerly Girl Band) the foursome has redrawn their own paradigm. Most Normal is like little you’ve heard before, a kaleidoscopic spectrum of noise put in service of broken pop songs, FX-strafed Avant-punk rollercoaster rides and passages of futurist dancefloor nihilism.

Armand Hammer - WHT LBL

DOMi & JD Beck - NOT TiGHT

Maria BC - Hyaline

Hyaline was recorded in the rooms of an untreated Brooklyn apartment; shaped by the confines of life in New York City, the album melds bleary samples recorded in Prospect Park with stripped-back guitar playing and gauzy vocal arrangements. The end result sounds calls to mind Grouper, Sibylle Baier, and Lomelda.

The word “hyaline” means transparent, and while the tracks on Maria BC’s first full length are often more overcast than azure, they are tied together by an ethereal, heavenly quality.

Samora Pinderhughes - GRIEF

Samora Pinderhughes is a composer, pianist, vocalist, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist known for striking intimacy and carefully crafted, radically honest lyrics alongside high-level musicianship. He uses his music to examine sociopolitical issues and fight for change and works in the tradition of the black surrealists, those who bend word, sound, and image towards the causes of revolution. Essential listening for fans of Moses Sumney, SAULT, Makaya McCraven, and really for any jazz fans.

‍

Show Me the Body - Trouble the Water

Shivering with tension, Trouble the Water is an exciting and urgent call to come together and kick off – at once a reflection of, and a cathartic release from, volatile times. The New York hardcore band populates a swamp of chugs with weird creatures of electronica and sudden clearings of melodic, galloping punk.

Perfume Genius - Ugly Season

The expansive spirit of Mike Hadreas’ terrific new album conjures and reimagines a mode of experimental pop music that is ecstatic, healing, modern, and queer. The album is one of the most challenging and rewarding releases Perfume Genius has ever attempted .... The compositional risks and oblique poetry from Hadreas never waver throughout the album’s methodical pacing, with his voice bringing urgency to every subtle change as the songs progress.

Courting - Guitar Music

Alvvays - Blue Rev

The Toronto band’s third album is a triumph of power pop, a densely layered, witty, and beautiful record that sets a new benchmark for their vein of jangly, dreamy rock music.

Širom - The Liquified Throne of Simplicity

Combining surreal humor with a globalized sound palette, Slovenian "imaginary folk" trio Širom fashion maximalist avant-garde soundscapes from antique acoustic instruments like the balafon and hurdy gurdy. Often powered by handmade instruments, these expansive compositions echo the borderless, collective spirit of groups like Don Cherry's Organic Music Society and Art Ensemble of Chicago. "Episodic, dreamlike voyages" - The Guardian

Momma - Household Name

A joyous selection that melds together its alt-rock influences to locate a distinctive voice, pitting intricate instrumentation against killer pop hooks.

Horsegirl - Versions of Modern Performance

Horsegirl expertly play with texture, shape, and shade across the record, showcasing their fondness for improvisation and experimentation. Opener “Anti-glory” is elastic and bright post-punk (and one of the best rock songs of the year), while the guitars in instrumental interlude “Bog Bog 1” smear across the song’s canvas like watercolors

Brainwaltzera - ITSAME

Anonymous artist Brainwaltzera balances futuristic technical vision with emotive melodies across sixteen spiraling tracks. ITSAME skirts all genre boundaries opening with jittery breaks before settling into emotional idm ,some post-rock, foreboding electronica, and even fingerpicked acoustic guitar interludes.

Honningbarna - Animorphs

Norway's very own Honningbarna are an electrifying indie punk outlet who bring their very best to the table on Animorphs. This sun-kissed brand of punk rock is truly highlighting the band's chemistry, making them feel like the well-oiled machine they ought to be by now. This could very well end up being what European punk fans consume for the summer.

Richard Dawson - The Ruby Cord

Pop in your earpiece, close your eyes and embrace the wonders (and horrors) of augmented reality and prepare to travel 500 years into the future as Richard Dawson returns with…The Ruby Cord. These seven tracks plunge us into an unreal, fantastical and at times sinister future where social mores have mutated, ethical and physical boundaries have evaporated; a place where you no longer need to engage with anyone but yourself and your own imagination. It’s a leap into a future that is well within reach, in some cases already here.

Moor Mother - Jazz Codes

Called “the poet laureate of the apocalypse” by Pitchfork, Moor Mother's Jazz Codes uses poetry as a starting point, but the collection moves toward more melody, more singing voices, more choruses and more complexity. In its warm, densely layered course through jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop, ’Jazz Codes’ sets the ear blissfully adrift and unhitches the mind from habit.

barun432 - "its pointless to genre define a genteel album like this, it's a sonic experience which is to be felt, folks will come back to this as more time passes by."

Hyd - Clearing

The debut full length album by former PC Music enigma 'QT' under this new alias. The Clearing is an elemental journey through relationships and identity where every emotion feels like a tectonic shift. Texture-rich sound design and really beautiful lyrics accompanied by an fascinating concept that ties it all together. The album features contributions from the late Sophie, as well as A. G. Cook, Jónsi, and Caroline Polachek, among others.

Julia Jacklin - PRE PLEASURE

Pre Pleasure is a delight to listen to. It is Julia Jacklin at her best: raw yet intricate characteristically exquisite indie rock.
The album presents Jacklin as an uncompromising and masterful lyricist, always willing to mine the depths of her own life experience, and singular in translating it into deeply personal, timeless songs.

Just Mustard - Heart Under

At every turn, this remarkable record reconfigures and stretches the ideas and ambition of a rock band, and turns a year of lockdown and personal struggles into a breathtaking artistic statement. Heart Under serves as the next stage of this development, with every instrument brilliantly pushed to its limit and every boundary of the band stretched.

Rachika Nayer - Heaven Come Crashing

Brooklyn-based composer Rachika Nayer injects the serene ambience of her past work with flashes of the club music’s emotionality - amen breaks, M1 piano stabs, warehouse rave synthesizers and more make for an experience that is utterly euphoric and incredibly emotive without a single word.

Pendant - Harp

A lush, surprising new body of work from the producer and songwriter, Harp connects 90s house and rave music with hip-hop, shoegaze, and pop, and which serves as a culmination of years of painful emotional work for Adams brought on by the death of his Father over 10 years prior. Harp recalls the precise but emotionally rich landscapes of Arca or Oneohtrix Point Never, rendered in the watercolors of My Bloody Valentine.

Michael J. Blood - AS IS

At long  last, the debut album proper from Manchester enigma Michael J. Blood arrives. Inside, you’ll find over an hour of the deadliest, trackiest productions this side of Chicago, with a loose-limbed, next-level understanding of the form that we genuinely can’t fully get our heads round. Absolutely essential gear, especially so if you’re into Anthony ’Shake’ Shakir, Actress, Theo Parrish or Omar-S. Spawned from long sessions immured in the studio, ‘As Is’ slices the tape on a 14 track mix of sizzling productions and proper, locked-in sequencer joyrides that juice the groove for all it’s worth. [Boomkat]

Osheyack - Intimate Publics

Intimate Publics, Osheyack’s second album, is an homage to Shanghai, the city he has called home since 2012. The album expresses a commitment to mining the utopian potential of club music and forging new worlds but is also charged with an unexpected emotional candor and vulnerability, unveiling a personal side Osheyack is only beginning to explore.

FKA twigs - CAPRISONGS

The new mixtape from U.K. avant-pop star, FKA Twigs, unfurls to reveal the richest and catchiest melodies she’s written so far with plenty of sonic weirdness in the corners.

Wet Leg - Wet Leg

Wet Leg’s infectious debut record is a dazzling romp through the chaos of your mid-twenties we’re sure to revisit for long to come. 

BaBii - SCREAMER

Bass has sifted the pockets of its sub-genres for decades, perpetually in search of a fresh direction. SCREAMER’ plugs spirited pop melodies and a scorched, glitchy coating to the UK Bass cannon. The production is akin to a Grimes record; it could, in fact, be the more dangerous twin sister of ‘Vision’. This is a wondrous and invigorating release that encapsulates the most lucid of club moments while airing a conflict that asks undemanding questions. - https://100words.uk/

MIKE - Beware of the Monkey

A late addition to this list coming on December 22nd (the winter solstice) instead of the summer solstice as many of his previous projects. The depth of MIKE’s material is like that of an elder statesman, he raps about pain and perseverance like he’s lived a hundred lifetimes already despite being not even 25 years old.

Whatever the Weather - Whatever the Weather

Lorraine James trades her usual, off-kilter club kicks and snares for beatless, dreamy melodies with the debut of her new project and alias ‘Whatever the Weather’.