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Cola: Cost Of Living Adjustment
New album: A third album of clever, angular, abstract, oddly appealing and also retro indie postpunk by the Montreal trio of former Ought members Tim Darcy (vocals/guitar) and Ben Stidworthy (bass), along with Evan Cartwright (percussion) with a title reflecting their name as an acronym and a call to re-appraise the way the the world should work
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Ana Roxanne: Poem 1
New album: Ambient, minimalist, experimental synth-chamber pop by the American artist with a collection of resonantly beautiful, vulnerable and mournful ballads fuelled by heartbreak
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Olof Dreijer: Loud Bloom
New album: An effervescent colourful, spring-like, flower-themed fusion of electronica, dance music, Chicago techno, cumbia, kuduro, dancehall, African and south American influences in this energetic release by the Stockholm-based Swedish artist and brother and sometime collaborator of Karin Dreijer (aka Fever Ray), in an LP of two different halves
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Lykke Li: The Afterparty
New album: A brief, 24-minute burst of shimmering alternative pop by the Swedish singer-songwriter sees this sixth LP’s concept capturing the experience of fictional bad-boy pop star persona, moving from a messy night out into aftermath, variously mixing mood-shifting jubilation, loneliness and comedown
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Broken Social Scene: Remember The Humans
New album: Driven by a sense of reunion, renewal, collaboration, community and re-finding values lost, a superbly stirring, emotionally uplifting, profound and dynamic return by the Toronto indie rock collective with their first in almost a decade
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Aldous Harding: Train on the Island
New album: The enigmatic New Zealand artist returns with her fifth album, a blend of folk and experimental rock packed with gnomic lyrics and experimental musical blends, her beguiling presence as deliciously strange as ever in another release co-produced with long-time collaborator John Parish
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Lip Critic: Theft World
New album: Following 2024’s acclaimed debut Hex Dealer, a newly challenging but also exciting experimental fusion of post-punk, noise rock, electronica and hip-hop by the New York band in this second LP, inspired by the anxiously oddball situation of frontman Bret Kaser’s identity being stolen by a real-life fan, and making hundreds of purchases in his name, including the band’s catalogue
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Tori Amos: In Times of Dragons
New album: The acclaimed American singer-songwriter and pianist’s 18th album in a 35-year career is a grandiose, powerful 17-track album of odyssey and allegory around politics, power and feminist resistance, fuelled by the current state of her nation, set from the view of fictionalised marriage to a dangerous billionaire and an escape across the country with a narrative twist
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Pigeon: OUTTANATIONAL
New album: Hugely enjoyable, stylish, playfully eclectic debut LP of indie, electronica and Afro-disco and krautrock grooves by the Margate band fronted by the multi-lingual artist Falle Nioke from Guinea Conakry, West Africa, with songs about identity and ancestry, and a sound somewhere between New Order and William Onyeabor
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KNEECAP: FENIAN
New album: Still the scourge of the establishment after 2024’s debut LP Fine Art, a hugely entertaining second LP of punchy, slick, defiant Irish Gaelic rap by Belfast’s Mo Chara and Móglaí Bap, and beatmaker DJ Próvaí, with an expanded sound aided by innovative producer Dan Carey and an appearance by Kae Tempest
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Jesca Hoop: Long Wave Home
New album: Brilliantly inventive, eclectic, poetic, experimental folk and art-pop by the acclaimed Manchester-based Californian singer-songwriter and guitarist in her first self-produced album, variously about the end of relationships, life changes, technology’s social effects, Gaza victims and other contemporary issues with perhaps her finest yet
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Irmin Schmidt
New album: A strangely mesmeric, avant-garde and analogue-ambient, field recording-based experimental release by the last surviving founding member of experimental ‘krautrock’ band CAN, who, approaching the age of 89, has also written over 40 TV and film scores
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Gia Margaret: Singing
New album: Gently profound, and full of wondrous, mesmeric, slow, delicate experimental songs, this simple title has a powerful resonance – it is the Chicago artist’s first vocal album since 2018’s There’s Always Glimmer (there have been two instrumental LPs since), having suffered and recovered from a severe vocal injury, she returns with a delicate, candid, whispery but hauntingly beautiful delivery
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Carla dal Forno: Confession
New album: This lo-fi, darkly minimalist but also oddly candid fourth LP by the Australian, Castlemaine-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist centres on the conflicted, obsessive feelings about “a friendship that became emotionally charged in an unexpected way”, and “an album about closeness that arrives late and unexpectedly. About stability rubbing up against desire.”
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White Denim: 13
New album: This 13th LP in two decades by the Austin, Texas rock band fronted by James Petralli has a particularly mischievous experimentalism, spreading styles far beyond breathlessly paced prog rock, with wrily humorous, surreal, personal and passionate numbers across heavy funk, dub, soul, psyche, country, dirty blues and more, joined by host of outstanding extra musicians
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They Might Be Giants - The World Is To Dig
New album: Four decades since their self-titled debut, Brooklyn alternative rockers John Flansburgh and John Linnell return with their 24th LP, packed with of punchy, pacy, wistful, whimsical, clever wordplay and indie rock-pop, buoyantly satirical and also a little world weary at times, they remain oddball, lively commentators on the ongoing absurdity of life
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Honey Dijon: The Nightlife
New album: The irrepressible, prolific and charismatic London-based Chicago DJ, musician, producer and vinyl lover returns with a flamboyantly fun celebration of club and queer culture through the prism of dance music from disco to house, with a wide variety of guest vocalists
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Tiga - HOTLIFE
New album: Montreal’s acclaimed electronica/techno/dance artist Tiga Sontag returns with his fourth album - inventively packed with head-nodding, toe-tapping, oddly itchy, infectious grooves, cleverly crafted retro sounds recalling Kraftwerk to acid house and electroclash, insistent bold beats and synth riffs, with lyrics of the existential, droll and surreal
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TOMORA: Come Closer
New album: A striking, dynamic collaboration between Norwegian experimental pop sensation Aurora and Tom Rowlands, one of half of Chemical Brothers, with a sensual, otherworldly energetic fusion of mystical, sensual ambience, and block-rocking dance beats
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Juni Habel: Evergreen In Your Mind
New album: Exquisite, delicate, ethereal finger-picking folk by the Norwegian singer-songwriter in this third album, one that poetically and musically inhabits a mysterious half-dream state flitting between two worlds
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