"AJJ have rolled up so many things that are wrong with our society and tackled them head-on without metaphor, in a darkly funny, near-stream-of-consciousness way... It always sounds like smart and incisive commentary, and still functions as enjoyable music even when you’re sick of political commentary" - Brooklyn Vegan says in a review of new album by American folk-punk band AJJ.

Critics really like Bill Fay's new album 'Countless Branches'. They say that "it’s a lot to take in, and fresh corridors reveal themselves with each listen", and a "masterpiece". English folk singer-songwriter used mostly just his voice, piano, and a guitar to record it, but that was enough - "he sounds best at his most intimate".

"Lack of predictability is what's kept them vital" - PopMatters says in a review of 'Nijimusy', new album by the noise-rock-jazz band OOIOO. The Japanese four-some is an "astonishingly talented band that can often be jarring, unsettling, and even occasionally off-putting. But their spirit of innovation and originality is always present. And they are never, ever boring".

In 2015 two musicians and lecturers, Johny Lamb (who records as Thirty Pounds of Bone) and Philip Reeder took a trip on a trawler called the Girl Mary. They brought instruments and recording gear along with them and recorded folk songs about the sea while on the boat. The sounds of the ocean and the gulls are heard throughout, as well as the creaking of the hull, a helicopter (apparently belonging to the coastguard), something that could be a mechanical winch. The result - 25 minutes of beautifully sad fishermen songs on 'Still Every Year They Went', straight from the sea.

"When it comes to doom, I expect gigantic music — not just in sound or sheer weight, though, but in that more indescriptible room-filling, head-invigorating way... Also important is the element of beauty, because what’s more beautiful than tragedy?" - Invisible Oranges wrote in expectation of the new album by UK doom band Garganjua. "This is emotive, almost uplifting music for total devastation".

"They’re one of the rare groups that have no need to push their sound in dramatically new directions; what they make is already so elementally good" - Stereogum says about the new album 'See You Tomorrow' by the indie folk band The Innocence Mission. Their music is "wonderfully organic... spectral and ruminative... breathtakingly intimate and delicate".

Chicago rapper Mick Jenkins has a new project, a short, seven-song, 19-minute EP 'The Circus with "voguish hip-hop tracks ready to distract you from modern strife". He navigates lush, lively jazz-rap as well as futuristic electronic music - "The more you listen to him rap, the more he sounds like nobody else around".

Brooklyn duo Water From Your Eyes "pushes simple concepts towards inventive and imaginative ends" on their new album 'Somebody Else’s Song'. The songs focus "on the push and pull between the comfort of dreams and a hazy reality".

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have released a three-part score for HBO's drama 'Watchmen', a one that plays as "a dispatch from some other weird world, one that feels like Reznor and Ross’s alternately paranoid and plaintive music".

Singer-songwriter Jim Noir published his first new album in six years, a "smooth and soft" record 'A.M. Jazz', a "groovy, synth-heavy bachelor pad prog pop".

"And while Twin Limb seem rooted in a very warm, traditional style of dream-pop... it's not so much the sound of a band at home with an old sound; rather, they're committed to a genre" - PopMatters says in a review of dream-pop's trio new album. Two qualities stand out on this album - "tuneful, […]

'Diatom Ribbons' is the most ambitious project to date by Canadian jazz pianist and composer Kris Davis, but also "her most accessible and inviting". How so? "Incorporating elements of hip-hop, rock, and groove music... with voices, with horns, with electric guitars, with hip-hop techniques, with complex time signatures, and with butt-moving grooves", and with help […]

"There are a lot of different ideas in play, all of them in service to that great high which can only be found on the dancefloor, when the entrancing lights and sweaty bodies give way to actualization" - Stereogum says about their latest choice for Album of the week. On her second album, London musician […]

Full title of new album by the pop-metal band is actually ‘Music to listen to~dance to~blaze to~pray to~feed to~sleep to~talk to~grind to~trip to~breathe to~help to~hurt to~scroll to~roll to~love to~hate to~learn Too~plot to~play to~be to~feel to~breed to~sweat to~dream to~hide to~live to~die to~GO TO’, it lasts equally long 85 minutes (in 8 songs), and it goes further […]

Based in Tel Aviv, El Khat have members from Yemen, Iraq, Poland, and Morocco, playing "international folk fusion music" influenced mostly by traditional Yemeni music. PopMatters says their album 'Saadia Jefferson' is "a heartfelt expression of love for a culture brutally disenfranchised, as well as one of the potential of that same culture to continue […]

"She tears her low, surging voice to shreds, braying like she’s beckoning you from the opposite end of a crowded room. It adds an eerie, intense quality to her music—a desperation behind the calm of her arrangements" - Pitchfork says in a review of debut album by the Australian singer-songwriter. So, seemingly usual songs sang […]

"I'm no longer going to diminish my heritage... we will celebrate light and life... I'm a Jew in America. This is my story. Shalom” - Brooklyn rapper Your Old Droog says in an introduction of his new album 'Jewelry'. YOD describes it as a "Chanukah celebration", if features references to Jewish prayers and songs, a song […]

Brooklyn Vegan first got to know about John Myrtle through 'Lodge 49' soundtrack, thinking he was some obscure 1960s guy. Turns out - he's a young London singer/songwriter. They brought him up because he is "charming, all within the well-dressed jaunty psych pop world... John’s got the perfect warm, slightly reedy voice for this kind […]

Test best new music

"It’s the same winning mix of grime bangers and radio friendly singing as last time, but, crucially, it’s better at making sure they work together on the same project" - Clash Music says in review of grime star Stormzy's new album 'Heavy is the Head'. Alexis Petridis chose it as his latest Album of the week, […]

American space-rock band Duster are "your favorite indie band’s favorite indie band", almost forgotten but profoundly influential band, whose last album came out 20 years ago. This week they're back with their third album 'Duster', the one Stereogum picked out among others released this week because - "heavy and sludgy, and any sense of urgency is […]

Last month Scarypoolparty released his debut album 'Exit Form' where "he blends the moody, bold electro-rock of Nine Inch Nails with powerful and sincere vocals that bring to mind fellow Idol runner-up Adam Lambert", the Guardian says. Shore Fire like the album even more - "showcases Aranda’s musical and emotional range, expertly fusing fast-paced walls of […]

The first name in dubstep, reclusive London artist Burial has compiled his highlights from nine-year stretch into 17 tracks over two discs, resulting in "the most immersive Burial experience to date". Stereogum hears it as the best album this week - "a vast collection of music that proves a tour de force doesn’t have to […]

Dutch artist Lyzza's new EP 'Defiance' is "a call to arms for anyone who has been made to feel shit for being themselves", as the Quietus says. Sonically, she "has taken a step away from the club and embraced the wonkier end of pop, but somehow managed to remain firmly on the dancefloor". DEFIANCE by […]

"There is nothing about any of these songs that screams: dashed off or afterthought. This is the real deal and far superior to any rock music I can think of right now that was slaved over in a $$$$ studio over the course of weeks" - the Quietus says in a great article about the […]

"'Labyrinth' is a site for self discovery: a place to get lost in and emerge with a new understanding of yourself" - Exclaim writes about debut album Doom Kanda, a visual artist who's worked with Björk, Arca and FKA twigs. Wire likes it even more - "gorgeous melodies and electroacoustic layers that skip and skitter between […]

The Quietus has a very interesting review of 'The Outside In', about No Bra’s "queer blurring of intentionally artless delivery and (quote-unquote) ‘arty’ style. No Bra’s music appears artless; and it appears so precisely inasmuch as it’s arty. No Bra sounds roundly, soundly, flagrantly artless, and roundly, soundly, flagrantly arty. This paradox – it’s arty inasmuch as […]

The Quietus is in ecstasy over new album 'Girl' by the North London girl gang - "ride-or-die friendships with other women are the most violently joyful relationships I have experienced in my life. To have this celebrated in music - girl friendship as comradeship; all-hours availability for advice; binning men who try to fuck with the […]

"A brilliant thematic record with exhilarating compositions" - Consequence of Sound writes in a review of the new album 'Death Atlas' by Cattle Decapitation (gave it a straight "A"). "The level of technicality displayed throughout 'Death Atlas' is incredible; with plenty of balance between annihilating beat downs and atmospheric sequences, the record is an excellent representation of […]

Robert Hood began his career with Underground Resistance, a Detroit collective known for its bold, anti-corporate vision of techno. Today, he lives in Alabama and works as an ordained minister. On his second Floorplan album with his daughter Lyric, Pitchfork says, they sharpen their focus on the fusion of house music and gospel - "'Supernatural' […]