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NIIKA Makes a Striking, Multifaceted Full-Length Debut with 'Close But Not Too Close'

The Uzbekistan-born, Chicago-raised NIIKA combines art-pop and exotic jazz stylings to create a deeply rewarding listening experience on Close But Not Too Close.

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Music

U.S. Girls Reckons With Being a Breakout Indie Star on 'Heavy Light'

Meghan Remy's experimental pop project U.S. Girls ventures into more mainstream territory to mixed results on Heavy Light.

Music

Dan Deacon - "Fell Into the Ocean" (Singles Going Steady)

On "Fell Into the Ocean", Baltimore electropop producer Dan Deacon teaches us that you can make anything a fortune cookie if you try hard enough.

Music

Dan Deacon Creates Shimmering, Welcoming Electropop on 'Mystic Familiar'

Mystic Familiar keeps Dan Deacon's signature musical appeal while utilizing a few new tools. The album delivers on the camaraderie and musicianship you expect from the Baltimore producer.

Music

Poppy Expands Her Musicality and Challenges Genre Conventions on 'I Disagree'

Poppy lays bare a necessary reminder to reject conformity and encircle empowerment. Whereas I Disagree explores what is confining and liberating - the latter is the album's unequivocal focal point.

Music

At 60 Years Distance, Joe Meek's 'I Hear a New World' Still Sounds Unique

Joe Meek's vision of life on a different planet is placed in a fresh context by Cherry Red Records' three disc box-set treatment.

Music

Jenny Hval's 'The Practice of Love' Is Brainy, Conceptual, and Hugely Entertaining

Jenny Hval's The Practice of Love is a playful, conceptual pop record that makes sorting through its heady themes as fun as listening to it.

Music

Slayyyter's Love For 'Blackout' Era Britney Spears Informs Her Debut Mixtape

Slayyyter's debut mixtape suggests not only nostalgia for, but an intrinsic value in, a long-dead version of celebrity in which artists needn't make statements to achieve icon status.

Music

Hanne Hukkelberg's Ongoing Pop Evolution Continues with "The Young and Bold I" (premiere)

Ahead of the release of Birthmark, art pop virtuoso Hanne Hukkelberg shares her newest single, "The Young and Bold I".

Music

Stereolab's Recent Re-Isssues Are Re-Imagined, and Re-Contextualized to Stunning Effect

Reissues of two early albums are a startling reminder of Stereolab's power and influence. Their music not only re-invents itself, but it refreshes and renews its listeners as well.

Music

Vanishing Twin Travel the Spaceways on 'The Age of Immunology'

Vanishing Twin's second album, The Age of Immunology, challenges borders physical, cultural, and beyond in a remarkable musical odyssey.

Music

Budokan Boys Create a Strange, Unsettling Musical Landscape on 'DAD IS BAD'

With their second album, DAD IS BAD, the experimental electronic duo Budokan Boys continue to build a soundtrack for a broken world.

Music

How Avey Tare Made a Whole Album Out of Necessity

The songs on Avey Tare's Cows on Hourglass Pond emerged from a need for material for a live show, but you wouldn't assume that when sucked in by their soothing, intricate surrealism. Tare speaks about his creative process, the technical forces driving the record, and where he's at lyrically.

Music

Paco Sala Modernize Synthpop on 'Our Love Is the Gold' (album stream) (premiere)

Paco Sala's experimental synthpop blossoms on their third album, Our Love Is the Gold, wherein they produce entrancing, thinking person's pop music.

Music

Lambchop Surveys the Senses on 'This (is what I wanted to tell you)'

Lambchop's new album is the musical equivalent of that final "walk" monologue from Synecdoche, New York. It's a heavy listen, but potentially a rapturous one as well, for anyone who has ever experienced a reverie of aging and all it entails.

Music

Pom Poko Defy Conventions and Classifications with 'Birthday'

Norwegian quartet Pom Poko's debut Birthday is a stunning, mind-blowing mix of monster riffs and sweet melodies.

Music

Angel-Ho's 'Death Becomes Her' Introduces Her Voice and Amorphous Trans Identity

On her debut full-length Death Becomes Her, Cape Town artist Angel-Ho introduces her voice and amorphous trans identity, dismantling the colonial imaginary and its supposed binaries.

Music

Helado Negro and the Gentle Urgency of 'This Is How You Smile'

With his seventh full-length album, This Is How You Smile, Helado Negro offers a soothing, personal musical journey.

Events

Panda Bear's Last Night at the Regency

Panda Bear's show is truly a vocal performance backed by pulsating electronica with his latest, Buoys, as the primary source for much of the set.

Music

SPELLLING's 'Mazy Fly' Revels in a Celestial Imagination, a Consciousness in Accordance with Afrofuturism and Wake Work

SPELLLING's second full-length Mazy Fly escapes present genres and ages, from witching primeval ballads, sultry alternative R&B, to intergalactic disco. Simply, it's celestial, Afrofuturist, and wake work.

Music

Elena Setién's 'Another Kind of Revolution' Is a Stirring Signal to Defy Gender Conventions

Elena Setién's Another Kind of Revolution conceptualizes transformation as rooted in empowerment. The album is a recognition of women and their ability to act as catalysts for a popular and personal insurgency.

Music

Buke and Gase Continue their Genre-Defying Education on 'Scholars'

Scholars finds New York duo Buke and Gase once again pushing categorical boundaries within their unique experimental pop identity.

Jordan Blum
Music

Leverage Models' Experimental Pop Blossoms Into Glorious Synthpop on "Senators" (premiere)

Leverage Models bring electronic textures, jazz inflections, and global rhythms to their infectious indie pop, all the while addressing potent cultural and political issues both personal and public.

Music

Christine and the Queens' 'Chris' Is Unmistakeably Moving, Emotionally and Physically

As new album Chris proves, Christine and the Queens only need to touch a simple beat to transform it into their own.

Music

Animal Collective Dives Into the Sea with 'Tangerine Reef'

Baltimore's resident oddball experimental quartet Animal Collective add a new dimension to their sound - for a good cause - on Tangerine Reef.

Music

The Caribbean Rides the "Vitamin Ship" into Enlightenment (premiere)

Experimental pop ensemble the Caribbean continue their long-standing streak of crafting audiovisual experiences that aim to truly innovate with "Vitamin Ship"—a song partially inspired by sun-sleeping cats.

Music

Tirzah Sound Like They're Drifting Apart on 'Devotion'

Devotion lacks the clarity and urgency of Tirzah's earlier work.

Music

Hilary Woods' 'Colt' Captures a Palpable Sense of Aloneness

Hilary Woods evokes open spaces, creeping darkness, contemplation at dusk. Given time, the melodies will gently wrap around the listener like ribbons.

Music

Let's Eat Grandma Makes Synthpop with Variety on 'I'm All Ears'

I'm All Ears, the second album from British duo Let's Eat Grandma, is an entertaining and engaging synthpop record.

Music

Bernice's 'Puff LP' Finds Form in the Amorphous

Tethered to no style or genre, Bernice's Puff LP exists as its own tiny universe of sound, unassuming and intriguing, a treasure waiting to be uncovered.

Music

Always Strange No Matter Where We Are: An Interview with Gang Gang Dance

Gang Gang Dance multi-instrumentalist Brian DeGraw discusses the process behind the experimental band's first record (and arguably most accessible) in seven years, Kazuashita.

Music

The Mountain Carol Will Take You on an Eclectic Journey with 'Starkiller and the Banshees' (album stream)

The Mountain Carol's Starkiller and the Banshees is filled with inventive mixtures that make it easy to recommend for fans of acts like Future Islands and Talking Heads.

Jordan Blum
Music

John Maus' Gleefully Absurd 'Addendum'

Synthpop auteur John Maus follows 2017's Screen Memories with a collection of songs that are unique and occasionally maddening in their uncharacteristic silliness.

Music

Fave Five: Kwes

UK electronic producer Kwes can write his own future, but outside of pushing his sound in directions, looks back fondly on the records that inspired and taught him.

Evan Sawdey
Music

Christina Schneider's Locate S,1 Issues Of Montreal-Aided Debut, 'Healing Contest' (album stream)

Locate S,1's Healing Contest is strange, mysterious, and maybe your new favorite experimental pop album of 2018.

Jedd Beaudoin
Music

Of Montreal Brings the Groove to 'White Is Relic / Irrealis Mood'

Kevin Barnes is back to experimenting. But this time around he drapes the weirdness in a layer of danceable grooves.

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