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The 20 Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2018

This is no scene or collective. These artists have reached their limit in all directions, back into traditions and forward into uncertain futures. 2018 presented challenges for all of us, and our artists presented challenges right back.

Music

Mark Stewart & The Maffia Celebrate Reissue of Seminal LP Via "Liberty City" (premiere)

Ex-Pop Group man Mark Stewart returns with a reissue of his 1983 debut album with a wealth of bonus cuts and a reminder that the avant-garde never sleeps.

Music

The Most Unlikely Concert in Musical History Is Now Available for Mass Consumption

Slovenian avant-garde radicals Laibach go to North Korea, and perform The Sound of Music soundtrack. More proof that this actually happened.

Music

Jarboe Meditates on Compassion With "Karuna" (premiere)

Jarboe's new song "Karuna" is culled from ex-Swans member's new album, Cut of the Warrior, due 14 December via Translation Loss.

Jedd Beaudoin

Music

Dead Can Dance Draw on Nietzsche, Pagan Gods, and High Tech to Celebrate Humanity's Relationship with Nature

Dead Can Dance's Dionysus is a unique concept album for the celebrated musical duo, putting all of their ideas into two songs that stretch the course of an entire album.

Music

Out of the Shadows: The Ever Growing Music of Iku Sakan

Iku Sakan's background has led to a crystalline sound that is one-part club-ready beat and two-parts inflammable trance: circular rhythms twisting into luminous knots.

Music

Julia Holter Produces Her Most Ambitious Work Yet with 'Aviary'

With her new record, Aviary, Julia Holter expands her scope to include elements of free improvisation, neo-classical leanings, and folk-induced hallucinations, thereby producing a substantial work of art.

Music

Art Is a Recycling Across Generations: In Conversation with Julia Holter

As an artist who boldly blurs the line between avant-garde aesthetics and pop accessibility, Julia Holter's new album comes at us as a statement, and one that speaks to the power of her artistic journey.

Music

Star Rover Proves That Not All Who Wander Are Lost Via Debut, 'I May Be Lost But I'm Laughing' (album stream)

With a CV that features turns with Okkervil River, Landlady, Rubblebucket, Albert Hammond Jr., Star Rover creates a safe passage between the avant-garde and the well-guarded.

Music

Whose Hat Is This? Returns With Taste of Second LP, "chomp-chomp-chomp-Love" (premiere)

Tedeschi Trucks Band members step out as Whose Hat Is This? for their sophomore release, Everything's OK, and explore brotherhood, playfulness, and the outer reaches of the avant-garde.

Music

On the Frontline with Yoko Ono's 'Warzone'

Yoko Ono has re-recorded sociopolitical songs from her past for new album Warzone, in which the questions it asks need to be asked.

Music

Sarah Davachi's 'Gave in Rest' Sounds Like Music That's Been Floating Around for Eons Waiting to Be Bottled

One of ambient's most austere artists, Sarah Davachi, expands her sound, but her music is more mysterious than ever on Gave in Rest.

Music

Once Hollowed, Now Bodied: An Interview with Innovative Electronic Producer Ital Tek

Brighton-based electronic artist Ital Tek has astounded listeners with his unique and innovative sounds, and he tells PopMatters about his new album Bodied as well as what it took to make his break-through album, Hollowed.

Music

Toby Driver Unveils 'They Are the Shield' (album stream)

Toby Driver follows 2017's ballads experiment, Madonnawhore, with a deeper dive into the form on They Are the Shield.

Jedd Beaudoin

Music

Distortions of the Past: An Interview with Gazelle Twin

Producing one of the most bizarre and intriguing records of the year, Elizabeth Bernholz aka Gazelle Twin, discusses the ethos of her work and sheds light on the essence of her new record Pastoral.

Music

'Pastoral' Sees Gazelle Twin Perform a Sardonic Reconfiguration of Avant-pop

With Pastoral, Gazelle Twin's Elizabeth Bernholz steps away from the urban influences of Unflesh and re-interprets electronic music through an early music/folk lens with Pastoral.

Music

Pop Ten

The 60 Best Songs of 2018

The 70 Best Albums of 2018

The 20 Best Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2018

The 20 Best Americana Albums of 2018

The 20 Best Folk Albums of 2018

Short Stories: The 12 Best Collections of 2018

The Best World Music of 2018

The Best Metal of 2018

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