Best New Music
Unsane
"No Chance"
Frankie Rose
"Interstellar"
Lil Durk
"I Get Paid" [ft. King Louie]
Julia Holter
"In the Same Room"
John Talabot
"Destiny" [ft. Pional]
John Talabot
ƒIN
In the past two years, John Talabot has become an exemplar of a new breed of producers working at the intersection of deep house, disco, and indie pop. On his debut, the Spanish producer builds upon his distinctive sound-- bursting with color, nostalgic but never retro, easy-going yet slightly unhinged-- without repeating himself.
Schoolboy Q
Habits & Contradictions
Schoolboy Q is the most promising foot soldier in Kendrick Lamar's Black Hippy crew, a small circle of talented rappers currently reinventing West Coast hip-hop. His dark and moody second LP is a sumptuously produced and deeply enjoyable hour-plus slab of weed-clouded rap, but it's more than that.
Cloud Nothings
Attack on Memory
Now a roaring, technically adept band rather than Dylan Baldi's bedroom solo project, Cloud Nothings undergo a total overhaul on their bracing Steve Albini-recorded second LP.
Sepalcure
Sepalcure
On their full-length debut, the New York duo of Praveen Sharma (Percussion Lab, Braille) and Travis Stewart (Machinedrum) nimbly incorporate current bass music trends and arrive at a sound that's familiar and rich.
Kate Bush
50 Words for Snow
Kate Bush's second album of original material in the last 17 years is haunting and gorgeous. Like so much of her best music, it's filled with deep story-songs that have the effect of putting one in the kind of treasured, child-like space-- not so much innocent as open to imagination-- that never gets old.
Drexciya
Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller I
From 1992 until 2002, the mysterious electro outfit Drexciya created not only some of Detroit's most original, enduring electronic music, but one of techno's greatest myth systems. This compilation-- the first in a planned four-volume anthology-- serves as a crucial introduction.
Oval
OvalDNA
This remarkably consistent, 25-track collection of bits and bytes from assorted past Oval eras flies by in an easygoing blur, rendering sounds in a fluid and volatile technicolor that's missing from even the project's classic records.
Neutral Milk Hotel
Box Set
This lavish vinyl-only box set collects the two proper Neutral Milk Hotel albums along with two 10" EPs and three 7"s. Taken together, it's a rewarding, carefully constructed tribute to Jeff Mangum's distinctive songwriting voice.
This Mortal Coil
HDCD Box Set
4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell's This Mortal Coil-- a band that never toured, that never really was a band at all-- is the subject of this comprehensive box set, one that offers remastered versions of their three LPs along with a fourth disc consisting of non-album tracks.
Throbbing Gristle
Second Annual Report / D.O.A. / 20 Jazz Funk Greats / Heathen Earth / Greatest Hits
Five classic Throbbing Gristle albums have been beautifully remastered and lovingly repackaged in gatefolded 2xCD editions.
Music Videos
Lee Ranaldo: Off the Wall
St. Vincent
Cheerleader
War
Brodermordet
Coasting
Same Old Same Old
Scuba
The Hope
G-Side
Gettin It [ft. Stalley and Joi Tiffany]
Family
News
Wolf Parade's Spencer Krug Announces New Moonface LP
Listen to a new track from Heartbreaking Bravery recorded with the Finnish band Siinai
Listen: ?uestlove's J Dilla Mix
Jay Reatard Documentary Better Than Something Gets First Theatrical Run
- Ty Segall to Release Two New Albums
- Cut Copy's Ben Browning Announces Solo EP
- Dexys Midnight Runners Prep First Album in 27 Years
- Listen: Drake Joins André 3000 and Jay-Z on "I Do"
- Video: Julia Holter: "Für Felix"
- Damon Albarn, Flea, and Tony Allen Share More Details of Rocket Juice and the Moon Album
- Watch Chairlift Cover Beyoncé With Das Racist's Kool A.D.
- Listen to Sharon Van Etten on NPR's World Cafe Live, Watch Her Perform in Paris
- Pitchfork Seeks Advertising Design Assistant, West Coast Account Manager
Tracks
Domo Genesis
Ground Up [ft. Wiz Khalifa]
Rich Kidz
My Life [ft. Waka Flocka Flame]
Earl Sweatshirt
"Home"
- Sheefy McFly: Hilfigger [ft. Boldy James]
- BNT Unsane: "No Chance"
- Dana Buoy: "Call to Be"
- Battles: "White Electric (Shabazz Palaces Remix)"
- Dream Continuum: "B Free"
- Mac DeMarco: "I'm a Man"
- K-Holes: "Rats"
- White Fence: "Swagger Vets and Double Moon"
Reviews
Die Antwoord
Ten$ion
By Andrew Ryce
Not that anyone expected subtlety from Die Antwoord, but the South African trio's second studio album is id rap at its worst, lacking scope or imagination even in its excess.
Fucked Up
Year of the Tiger
By Douglas Wolk
The newest installment in Fucked Up's series of songs for each year of the Chinese Zodiac is a pair of tracks that have been around for a while: a 15-minute song featuring Jim Jarmusch and a 22-minute instrumental paldindrome.
Young Magic
Melt
By Ian Cohen
From their name on down, Young Magic seem very of-the-moment. Their debut album pulls together West African rhythms, twitchy beats, and the requisite layer of reverb.
Terranova
Hotel Amour
By Nick Neyland
Drawing on some fiercely individual vocal collaborators, Paris-dwelling DJ/producer Fetisch and Berlin-based techno-oriented artist &ME's latest LP is caught somewhere between the current and the deep past.
Imbogodom
And They Turned Not When They Went
By Emilie Friedlander
The experimental outfit's latest is equal parts psych-folk songsmithery and musique concrète.
Goldfrapp
The Singles
By Matthew Perpetua
Goldfrapp boils down their catalog to their 12 most successful singles and adds two new tracks, resulting in a tight set of their finest material sequenced like a dynamic, eclectic pop album.
Lindstrøm
Six Cups of Rebel
By Andrew Ryce
Hans-Peter Lindstrøm's second solo album moves away from his taut and sparse early work in favor of something more bombastic but strangely cloistered.
Homeboy Sandman
Subject: Matter
By Jeff Weiss
Unapologetic about his intelligence, Angel Del Villar is the type of rapper beloved by hip-hop traditionalists: proudly old school, technically savage, and lyrically sharp. His debut EP for Stones Throw is his best work yet.
Dr. Dog
Be the Void
By Paul Thompson
After recording their sixth record with Rob Schnapf, the Philadelphia rockers go it alone again on album seven, something of a return to the sunburnt sprawl of their first few LPs.
Shigeto
Lineage
By Larry Fitzmaurice
Zach Saginaw follows 2010's Full Circle with a mini-LP of homespun electronic music that traces his family bloodlines along with electronica's recent past.
Air
Le Voyage Dans la Lune
By Nick Neyland
Air's soundtrack to the restored version of Georges Méliès silent film Le Voyage Dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon) finds the duo trying to bring some artistry back into their music.
Yo Gotti
Live From the Kitchen
By Jordan Sargent
After a decade in the game, the Memphis rapper releases his first major-label album. Guests include Rick Ross, Big K.R.I.T., and 2 Chainz.
Daphne Oram
The Oram Tapes, Vol. 1
By Philip Sherburne
Reinforcing the melancholy aspect of her work, this dark 44-track anthology of work by pioneering British electronic composer Daphne Oram draws from over 400 tapes she left behind after her death in 2003.
Liam the Younger
After the Graveyard / Clear Skies Over Black River
By Paul Thompson
Liam Betson, occasional guitarist with Titus Andronicus, reissues two early home-recorded, self-distributed folk albums in anticipation of his first Liam the Younger studio LP.
Standard Fare
Out of Sight, Out of Town
By Jayson Greene
On this Sheffield indie pop trio's charming sophomore album, Emma Kupa and co. have figured out how to braid together the different corners of their record collection.
John Talabot
ƒIN
By Philip Sherburne
In the past two years, John Talabot has become an exemplar of a new breed of producers working at the intersection of deep house, disco, and indie pop. On his debut, the Spanish producer builds upon his distinctive sound-- bursting with color, nostalgic but never retro, easy-going yet slightly unhinged-- without repeating himself.
Mark Lanegan Band
Blues Funeral
By Ian Cohen
Citing albums by Kraftwerk, Joy Division, and Roxy Music as influences, the Gutter Twins/ex-Screaming Trees vocalist's first solo album since 2004 incorporates drum machines and oozing synths into the mix.
Wire
The Black Session: Paris, 10 May 2011
By Douglas Wolk
This fiery live recording, the first to feature Wire's most recent stage lineup, focuses on the elegantly textured 2011 collection Red Barked Tree.
Mux Mool
Planet High School
By Nate Patrin
The adventurous Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis DJ/producer Brian Lindgren streamlines the touchstones of his 2010 debut on his freewheeling sophomore LP.
Imperial Teen
Feel the Sound
By Jess Harvell
The longtime San Francisco quartet's fifth album showcases a care and craft usually lacking in indie pop's lesser lights.