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Nitin Sawhney: Identity
New album: The acclaimed British-Asian musician returns with a powerful LP themed very much as titled, and spurred by burning issues over how immigrants are portrayed, presents 17 tracks on different sides of heritage, sense of self, belonging and multiculturalism, with an impressive set of guest singers and rappers
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Rolling Stones rock of ages: the diamond geezers return with polished retrospective of their career
New album: A rock dinosaurs’ indulgent dirge? Far from it. This first LP of new material by the veterans for 18 years, and perhaps their final one, goes with a bang – echoing some of their 70s rock, blues, and country infused pomp
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Reflective: Jamila Woods’s new LP Water Made Us
New album: The Chicago singer and poet moves from 2019’s socio-historical Legacy! Legacy! LP, to a more experimental, soulful album of self-analysis, examining the life cycles of relationships across 17 tracks, in which love evolves and develops like a living cell
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Flamingods: Head of Pomegranate
New album: The eclectic London band of abundant upbringings and influences from Bahrain to Dubai, Albania, Italy and Saudi Arabia return with a heady, upbeat mix of Afro-electro synth pop, krautrock, funk, disco and alt-rock psychedelia
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Ren Gill
New album: An outstanding new LP by the remarkably talented Welsh, Brighton singer-songwriter rapper and guitarist Ren Gill, influenced by years of bed-ridden mental and physical illness, expressing caustic, self-torn schizophrenia, his songs are packed with wordplay, wit, catchy tunes, gut-wrenching emotion and invention
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No hiding places: CMAT re-enters with her second album
New album: Following her acclaimed 2022 debut, Dublin’s Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson returns with luxuriant, catchy country-pop decorated with her biting, candid, self-deprecatory wit on relationship fragility, packed with highly specific pop culture or British references
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The Streets: The Darker the Shadow the Brighter the Light
New album: After 12 years since the last LP, British rapper Mike Skinner returns with familiar style of his debut Original Pirate Material (2002), of interweaving stories of candid spoken word, this time with a self-funded accompanying film based on the life of a DJ
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Goat: Medicine
New album: Another wonderfully indulgent dosage of meaty psychedelic folk rock from the mysterious, masked Swedish collective from Norrbotten County, with nods to Black Sabbath and other forbears, and certain fungal mitochondria
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Creation Rebel: Hostile Environment
New album: After recent late-career records by Horace Andy and African Head Charge, another great release on the On-U Sound label, a first by the reggae collective for 40 years, responding to the ongoing unjust Tory UK immigration policy, first introduced by former home secretary and then PM Theresa May
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Hania Rani: Ghosts
New album: The Berlin-based Polish singer, pianist and composer returns with her bewitching voice, elevating, ethereal, minimalistic, ambient electronica and classical, with guests Patrick Watson, Ólafur Arnalds and Duncan Bellamy of Portico Quartet
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Vanishing Twin: Afternoon X
New album: Mesmeric, meditative, mercurial – an experimental, dream-like release by the London trio of singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, drummer Valentina Magaletti and bassist Susumu Mukai with folky electronica, minimalism, cosmic post-punk and psychedelic pop
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Unschooling: New World Artifacts
New album: A striking post-punk debut of lo-fi, spiky guitar sounds and abstract, strangely alluring disharmony by the French, Rouen-based quintet fronted by guitarist and vocalist Vincent Fevrier
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Blonde Redhead: Sit Down For Dinner
New album: The New York trio of Kazu Makino and twin brothers Simone and Amedeo Pace return with their 10th but first album together for nine years, one about the inescapable struggles of adulthood: communication breakdown in enduring relationships and trying to hold onto your dreams
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Stornoway: Dig The Mountain!
New album: After splitting in 2016 the Oxfordshire indie folk band of Brian Briggs and co return with a very fine fourth LP of clear-voiced, catchy, vivid songs themed on the fragile relationship between humans and the environment
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Sufjan Stevens: Javelin
New album: After a series of collaborative and more experimental projects, the American artist’s first full singer-songwriter solo LP since 2015’s remarkable Carrie & Lowell is just as exquisite, delicate, tender, and beautifully heartbreaking
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Meatraffle: Base and Superstructure
New album: Biting class social satire from the silly to searing and hilarious are all delivered in this catchy, fun third album of electro-pop with added trumpet by the south London band, packed with toe-tapping melodies and caustic, killer lines
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Jorja Smith: Falling Or Flying
New album: Classy, polished, melancholy soulful R&B with the return of the highly successful singer-songwriter from Walsall, who after the bright lights of London scene, has returned to live near her homeland roots with a running lyrical theme of uneasiness with fame
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Oneohtrix Point Never’s new album, Again
New album: Pioneering avant-garde electronic musician and producer Daniel Lopatin returns with another mind-boggling mix of synths, samples, chamber music, prog, pop and more, playfully entwined with AI-induced effects
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Armand Hammer: We Buy Diabetic Test Trips
New album: A mesmerically smart, articulate, experimental hip-hop LP packed with ideas, samples and slick delivery by the New York rapper aka Billy Woods and guests, interweaving endlessly inventive, dreamlike hazy maze of voices, stories and sounds
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Molly Burch: Daydreamer
New album: Inspired by a rediscovery of her diaries when 13 and under, this fourth LP by the LA and Austin, Texas singer-songwriter is a deep dive into inner emotions, awash with soft focus, beautiful, swooning, lush melodies and her strong, sensual voice
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