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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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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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Pictish Trail: Life Slime
New album: Mesmeric, slow-build, mid-tempo, woozy, psychedelic-electronica folk of gentle, personal, reflective dark humour, profundity and melancholy by the Isle of Eigg-based Scottish musician Johnny Lynch in his sixth LP, here produced by Mike Lindsay of Tunng and LUMP themed around metaphorical ooze, transformation, exhaustion, hope, guilt, and renewal
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My New Band Believe self-titled debut LP
New album: A superb, rapturous swirl of energy, invention, passionate emotions and originality, this debut album by Cameron Picton, the bassist of the acclaimed British experimentalists Black Midi, features shapeshifting structures with a host of acoustic instruments, all originating from a hotel room fever dream of weird imagery and scrambled text
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Wendy Eisenberg’s self-titled album
New album: An absolutely gorgeous, delicate, subtle, brilliantly inventive LP of folk-rock-country-pop by the Brooklyn-based guitarist, improviser, composer and singer-songwriter, themed around the artist’s newfound queerness and love, all coloured by a sense of personal awe and reinvention
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LuxJury: Giving Up
New album: Catchy, funky, witty, insightful and candid soulful indie-pop debut by the London trio fronted by Nicole ‘Lux’ Fermie, with songs inspired by a formative first queer relationship and subsequent exploration of identity
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LYR: Dark Sky Reservation
New album: Filled with beautiful stillness and vivid, intricate images, gentle wit, lilting profundity and contemplative moments, this gorgeously illuminating third experimental LP by the trio of UK poet laureate Simon Armitage and musicians Richard Walters and Patrick J Pearson begins on the constellatory contradiction that the furthest points of light in our skies can only be seen in the dark
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deary: Birding
New album: A shimmering, sparkling, ethereal dream-pop and shoegaze debut by the London trio with an ornithological theme in the context of human impact, and significant echoes in flight of their key influences Cocteau Twins, Lush, My Bloody Valentine, and Slowdive
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Angine de Poitrine: Vol. II
New album: A weirdly wonky hot sensation on social media, the mysterious Quebec duo are instantly recognisable by their oddball, masked polka dot disguises, but this second release of mostly instrumental prog-rock bendy loops and riffs between guitar and drums remain just as mesmeric in their musical skill and complexity
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MEMORIALS: All Clouds Bring Not Rain
New album: Innovative, eclectic fusion of psychedelia, folk, dub, krautrock, 60s soul, garage rock, prog, pop, electronica and 70s spiritual jazz by the Canterbury experimental duo of Verity Susman and Matthew Simms
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Pitou: P2
New album: Brilliantly quirky, original second LP of experimental folk pop by the Amsterdam artist, who has the free spirited musical adventurousness reminiscent of Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus and Fiona Apple in this clever, playful, stop-start work with oodles of vocal loops and layering, electronica and unusual field recordings across themes of freedom and restlessness
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Avalon Emerson & The Charm: Written Into Changes
New album: A fabulous, bright, catchy and expanded, more live sound by the innovative New York multi-instrumentalist of experimental indie and synth-pop, moving on from the more bedroom feel of her first self-titled & The Charm LP, and here with lyrical themes of personal and relationship evolution
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New album: Wonderfully weird, wonky, woozy, avant-garde, absurdist oddness by the French duo of Laurène Exposito and Théo Delaunay, with their lo-fi, ramshackle, DIY postpunk and retro-electronica, sharing sung and spoken vocals across French, German, English and Spanish
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Yebba: Jean
New album: Following 2021’s Dawn, a second LP by the American singer and songwriter from West Memphis, Arkansas, aka Abigail Smith, moves towards an eclectic mix of gentler, more understated pop, folk, gospel, R&B, and soul, is named after her late grandmother, and has candid, personal themes of mourning and spiritual healing
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Pushing new boundaries with Kim Gordon’s Play Me
New album: Following 2024’s The Collective, the former Sonic Youth frontwoman’s fourth solo LP continues her extraordinary experimental, innovative journey, moving to more melodic beats and shorter tracks with a motorik krautrock-style driven coloured by strange sounds, intense emotions and sharply angled, dark, droll social commentary
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ELIZA: The Darkening Green
New album: The London artist Eliza Caird (formerly under the mainstream pop moniker Eliza Doolittle) returns with more of the cool, slow, sensual, gentle, sophisticated experimental soul-funk style evolving from her 2022 album A Sky Without Stars, here with particularly polished, silky, stripped back grooves and vocals
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waterbaby: Memory Be A Blade
New album: A delicate, experimental, understated soulful chamber pop debut by the pure-voiced Stockholm-born singer-songwriter (aka Kendra Egerbladh) in 25-minute, eight-track release of lo-fi, lyrically semi-improvised numbers about heartbreak and self-renewal in a world of gorgeous musical sensations
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War Child: HELP(2) follows 1995’s first compilation with another impressive range of music and artists
New album: Not only a timely and topical milestone charity record following the first in 1995 to help bring aid and wide variety of support to children in war zones around he world, but an impressive double-LP array of stellar British and international talent and powerful, poignant 23 songs from Arctic Monkeys to Young Fathers
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DEADLETTER: Existence Is Bliss
New album: This second LP by the South Yorkshire/London six-piece expands their post-punk sound palette with a collection of arresting, thrumming songs, often dark and challenging, with richly exploratory lyrics across dystopian and existential questions, yet despite a climate of difficult, shows how gasping for life’s oxygen is essential
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