Da Cruz – Som Sistema (Boom Jah)
The music that Bern-based outfit Da Cruz has been making for the last couple of decades or so has always been rooted in the upbringing of frontwoman Mariana Da Cruz. Born near São Paulo, Mariana leads the group–producer Ane H., guitarist Oliver Husmann, and percussionist Pit Lee–in performances that draw on Brazilian styles with African roots. Som Sistema is the group’s seventh full-length release, and it hits as hard as anything they’ve put out in the last 20 years, if not harder. It feels like a pinnacle for the group in terms of both contemporary dance sounds and political statements, and while Da Cruz have never been short on either of these things before, they truly pull no punches here.
Da Cruz have always made good music, but Som Sistema resonates with particular aplomb. The combination of African, South American, and Caribbean pop styles, timely themes, and impeccable club vibes makes this an album worth listening to and relistening to. Mariana Da Cruz remains a formidable frontwoman, and everything she has to say here is worth your attention. – Adriane Pontecorvo
Daphni – Butterfly (Jiaolong)
Whatever mood you are in, there’s a Dan Snaith track. From his breakthrough album as Caribou, Swim, to the Grammy-nominated Our Love, and through to the soul-stirring, deeply personal Suddenly Canadian, electronic artist Dan Snaith has made some of the most incredible electronic albums of the last 20 years. However, Snaith has also forged a no less thrilling parallel career under the name Daphni.
While Caribou is the more song-oriented, musically diverse project, Daphni is the easily definable club-ready counterpoint. It’s the moniker he uses if he wants to cut loose and shake the dancefloor. That was certainly the case on the previous album, Cherry, which felt like Snaith freeing himself to indulge after the meticulously crafted Caribou album, Suddenly. However, even on that record, there were sure signs that the line between the two projects had begun to blur. – Paul Carr
DJ Seinfeld – If This Is It (Ninja Tune)
There is always more to do: places to see, people to meet. This relentless pressure to keep moving forms the basis of DJ Seinfeld’s new album, If This Is It. At the heart of the record lies an inherent tension. As he admits, he has struggled to stay in the present. This restlessness has meant he has found contentment elusive despite his increasing success and popularity as one of Europe’s most exciting DJs and producers. While a constant drive to see what’s next has guided his career to date, he has only recently chosen to focus on the here and now.
DJ Seinfeld‘s latest work was born of an agreement with himself to live in the moment and be mindful of the present. Started in the same week that 2021’s Mirrors was released to the world, If This is It has proven to be a profound musical journey for him. Taking the pressure off and working on songs at his own pace meant he could focus on the present and address his tendency to romanticise the past. This release serves as his attempt to anchor himself to the moment, translating into a more acute understanding of his musical identity that feels hugely personal and unerringly authentic. – Paul Carr
Wendy Eisenberg – Wendy Eisenberg (Joyful Noise)
It takes a skilled singer-songwriter to turn everyday scenes and moods into enchantment. To do that work while neither romanticizing nor vilifying—to let the mundane be mundane and to appreciate it for that—takes an expert. On their new self-titled release, Brooklyn-based Wendy Eisenberg is that expert. They strike a perfect balance: each track is a wonder, and yet is grounded; Eisenberg has a poignant grasp of their poetics, yet writes and sings without a hint of pretence. With pastoral folk leanings and personal themes with contemporary resonance, Wendy Eisenberg is unassumingly luminous and irreproachable in its sincerity.
Authenticity is a slippery discursive trope, especially in discussions about art. It’s hard to explain exactly what makes Wendy Eisenberg’s music feel real, how it grips so firmly, but it does. Eisenberg knows not only the art but the craft of songwriting, and on Wendy Eisenberg, they bring their truest self, never compromising, never pushing, always being. The results are absolutely stunning. – Adriane Pontecorvo
Fcukers – Ö (Ninja Tune)
It’s fair to say that anticipation for the debut album from New York duo, Fcukers, is pretty spectacularly high. Since the New York-meets-Berlin house of “Bon Bon” and the cheeky, Beck-sampling “Homie Don’t Shake”, the pair have chosen their path wisely. Popping up at Glastonbury and Coachella, they have steadily turned from quirky electronic duo to the buzz band of the moment. The question is: have they turned that initial excitement into a long-player worthy of the hoopla?
Hype has crippled many a band before they’ve barely begun, and Fcukers seem all too aware of that fact. After labouring over ideas for the album, the pair flew to California for a change of scene. They ended up having coffee with producer Kenneth Blume (aka the legend-in-the-making Kenny Beats). Immediately taken by one of their demos, the trio spent the day jamming, revelling in the simple joy of creation. Sensing these sessions could lead to something more, the three of them essentially blasted out the album in a fortnight. The result is a spontaneous ball of energy that doesn’t need you to think; it needs you to move. – Paul Carr
Frog – Frog for Sale (Audio Antihero)
Frog have been on a roll these past couple of years. Following something of a comeback with 2023’s Grog, brothers Daniel and Steve Bateman released two albums last year (1000 Variations on the Same Song and The Count) and continue their streak with the somewhat more streamlined but still highly effective and enjoyable Frog for Sale, underscoring their love of traditional pop melodies wrapped in an idiosyncratic, lo-fi package.
Like the aforementioned Ween and They Might Be Giants, Frog couch their aesthetic with humor and what may initially appear to be an insistent lack of seriousness. There’s no denying that the songwriting here is typically rich and varied, made by people who genuinely appreciate well-structured pop. – Chris Ingalls
Kim Gordon – Play Me (Matador)
Indie icon Kim Gordon’s last album, The Collective, was a triumph, blending her inimitable voice and provocative, humorous commentary with trunk-rattling trap beats and blasts of abrasive noise. Play Me blends Gordon‘s inimitable delivery with a fuller range of sounds for another stellar collection, this time incorporating more industrial-leaning noise and classic hip-hop, as if the swagger and satire of her former band’s classic “Kool Thing” were the jumping-off point, but de-emphasising the guitar focus.
At just under 30 minutes, PLAY ME has the spontaneity and rawness of a surprise-release mixtape, but the fully realised sound of an artist operating at the peak of her powers. On paper, it sounds implausible, having Gordon flow over dense beats, but in practice, it is one of the most exciting reinventions in recent memory. Gordon and Raisen have crafted the perfect next chapter for her across these three albums, overlaying the most compelling aspects of her vocals and iconography over a contemporary sound that is just so right. – Brian Stout
Gorillaz – The Mountain (KONG)
Gorillaz‘s latest collection, The Mountain, muses on the “shadowy light” death casts on life’s impermanence, and the pitfalls encountered during a spiritual quest. Ringing in with sitar strokes and elegant flutters of the bansuri, the opener and title track envelops one immediately in a hallowed wonder.
As The Mountain progresses in a shower of sitars and sarod, marked by bold, global influences and unmistakable Gorillaz pop flourish, it asserts the virtual band’s capacity for theatricality without caricature. Here are two men well into their 50s still revelling in the childlike exhilaration of discovery, crossing cultures and offering goodwill through the lens of life’s heaviest burdens. Authoring an album of this calibre, especially in an age sensitive to cultural misinterpretation, is no easy feat. Gorillaz render the cinema of life, with its frankness and earnest-heartedness, as naturally as anything they’ve created. – Alyssa Charpentier
Danny L Harle – Cerulean (XL)
After announcing himself on 2021’s immersive harlecore project, British producer Danny L Harle is back with his most definitive artistic statement to date. Having made a name for himself collaborating with the likes of Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, Oklou, FKA twigs, Florence and the Machine, Shygirl, Dua Lipa, and co-executive producing Caroline Polachek’s acclaimed Pang album, his debut record, Cerulean, is the culmination of years of refining his craft.
Resuscitating the sound and feel of 2000s trance and viewing them through a fresh, contemporary lens, Danny L Harle finds new ways to express his ideas through bright, euphoric Europop synths and thumping beats. All done with a sense of melancholy that courses through the album as a raft of collaborators give it its heart and soul. Cerulean is an uplifting and adventurous record from an artist who understands pop music. – Paul Carr
Jenny on Holiday – Quicksand Heart (Transgressive)
Miraculously, Jenny on Holiday’s Jenny Hollingworth captures all the aspects of love on Quicksand Heart, an intimate, confessional record wrapped in a glossy, pretty synthpop package. Despite being written from the perspective of the one left behind, the album transforms her sour grapes into champagne, casting her lovelorn, heartbroken ballads of emptiness and brokenness over soaring, glamorous 1980s pop the size of Alpha Centauri.
In the glorious album opener “Good Intentions”, Hollingworth sends her self-effacing lyrics about refilling her heart after being hollowed out by takers into the stratosphere, setting an ecstatic, euphoric climax over glittery Cyndi Lauper synths and sturdy teen pop beats that’s one of the most chillingly beautiful pop moments of the 2020s. For anyone who’d wished that M83 hadn’t covered the hearts on their sleeves with so much varnish or that Grimes hadn’t ditched the experimentation, you’re going to get a lot of spins out of Jenny on Holiday’s Quicksand Heart in 2026. – J. Simpson