Gian Slater – Grey Is Ground (Biophilia)

The experienced singer-songwriter Gian Slater just released her new opus: Grey Is Ground. On this album, Gian brings complex and atmospheric synth pop songs that hit a certain balance between complexity, with its odd-time grooves, metric modulations, and harmonic progressions, and relatability, thanks to Gian’s soaring melodies and general sense of composition, which turns emotion into music, which is in turn switched back to emotion in our brain. It’s an elegant and brilliantly written album that will appeal to all avant-garde pop fans.

Yautja – The Lurch (Relapse)

You know Yautja. … Read more

Victory over the Sun – Nowherer

While Victory over the Sun‘s previous album was great—read our review for proof—it wasn’t microtonal. That’s one thing Vivian Tylinska wanted to correct with Nowherer, an avant-garde, hectic, and eclectic black metal masterpiece. All written in 17 notes per octave—a relatively popular xeharmonic system—the album stands proud in all its weird glory. Of course, it reminds me of Agonanist—review here!—who also released a 17-tone black metal album recently, but the similarities stop there. VOTS’s album seems to intentionally forgo conventions and expectations, and it works marvellously to … Read more

Abacaxi – Mainstream Desire (Collectif Coax)

Their previous album was quite something already, and the experimental, noisy, electro-jazz trio Abacaxi is back with a sorter but no less challenging and outstanding release in Mainstream Desire. The band’s creative output is marked by unorthodox rhythms and irregular harmonic and melodic ideas, and the two long-form songs on display have room enough to showcase their weird and original composition skills. So be sure to give this one a go!

秋葉龍 – Swans Dance, Roses Bloom like Mad

Japanese guitarist 秋葉龍 just released his debut album, the seventies-inspired progressive rock masterpiece—yes! masterpiece!—… Read more

Nubiyan Twist – Freedom Fables (Strut)

Nubiyan Twist is a hot fusion big band from London playing with jazz, R&B, soul, pop, hip-hop, and various other genres from around the world with a golden touch. Freedom Fables is their new album, and they’re at peak performance and creativity on it! Their single “Tittle Tattle” really is a paragon of energy and purpose, but the same drive and essence can be found all throughout the near-hourlong release. Freedom Fables is an album you can’t miss.

Guzzlemug – Uncarved

Guzzlemug was a noisy avant-prog trio from Chicago with no release since 2012… … Read more

Senyawa – القصه

Senyawa is an experimental doom band from Indonesia, the members of which create handmade instruments to play on their albums. On top of what they usually do, القصه—hereafter Alkisah—is centred around decentralization. Therefore, while the duo wrote and recorded eight original songs for the record, they are releasing it with the collaboration of multiple (over sixty!) independent labels worldwide, which are given full freedom for the release: artwork, mix, mastering, and even remixes and reinterpretations! This leads to a new and interesting way to think about what an album is, and, ultimately, who owns music, … Read more