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.

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Guzzlemug – Uncarved

Guzzlemug was a noisy avant-prog trio from Chicago with no release since 2012… and, with no warning, a brand new 2021 album! On Uncarved, the band releases two compositions that are almost a decade old, and which were recorded in 2015. I don’t know what could take so much time after composition and recording, but, hey, it’s better late than never! Thanks to this, we have two brand-old tracks— seventeen and twenty-three minutes long—of pure joy! It’s all we could ever want and its opposite: noisy and clean, droning and everchanging, long yet too short… A true gem in the raw.

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Stefan Petanovski – Eros

Stefan Petanovski is a newcomer into the nu prog game. With champions such as Plini and David Maxim Micić, it’s quite difficult for a new challenger to earn his place, but Stefan achieves it quite adroitly with his sophomore, Eros. It’s not that his 2019 debut, Architect of Reality, didn’t showcase the guitarist and the composer behind the name’s skills, but its production value wasn’t up to par with the competition, and it released with barely any acknowledgement. Even if Eros‘s sortie is rather coy, it ought to become a sleeper hit and an underrated marvel for those who stumble upon it. Be that person!

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Sea Mosquito – Fire, Magic, and Venom

I haven’t written about Sea Mosquito yet, even though I was a fan of their 2019 album Inferences. With their new release, Fire, Magic, and Venom, I have an opportunity for redemption, and to lead you towards this amazing experimental black metal band. The album is, in fact, an EP. In another fact, it’s a single! At twenty-three minutes, the band has ample room to create, explore, twist and turn, return, evolve, and progress their musical ideas. It’s a powerful beast with an ominous atmosphere and vicious riffs. Do not let it escape unheard.