"How precisely should we actually digest sounds such as this?" - the Quietus asks in their review of the new album by experimental duo Witch 'n' Monk (previously, they were named Bitch 'n' Monk). What's so hard about it? - "scrapes and squeaks... phonetic radio play... cosmic jam", and also "thrashy guitar riffs... Amazonian panpipe melodies... Bollywood strings... ecstatic samba". Guardian tagged it "best contemporary music" because they liked "stream-of-consciousness music", and some "manic musical collages". The general advice is - don't try this with your headphones on.

"'Laurel Canyon' is a nearly four-hour exercise in bliss, throwing us back to a fleeting time when musical warmth and formal excellence went hand in hand and made the whole world want to go “California Dreamin’". With apologies to Joni Mitchell, this, not Woodstock, is the garden you’ll be left wanting to get back to" - Variety writes in a review of a new documentary by Alison Ellwood (first episode aired on Epix on Sunday). The Los Angeles neighborhood has in the ‘60s and ‘70 housed rising artists including Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Frank Zappa, James Taylor, Jackson Browne and members of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Doors, the Mamas & the Papas, the Monkees, Love, the Eagles and dozens of other soon-to-be-famous artists. Hollywood Reporter says "the director has a sure feel for the essence of the period and its players, and for the social and emotional impact of their songs".

"These songs are about taking action - using experience as a teacher and a guide" which makes for Medhane's "most present and clear-eyed project", as Pitchfork says in review (tagged it Best new music, grade 8,4). His raps got better - "there is even more force and focus behind his bars", as well as production - "the beats are gorgeously gritty, warped yet whole; he remolds jazz and soul samples as if from particles of sand, which brings the clarity of the raps into sharper relief".

Renowned 82-year-old jazz saxophonist Archie Shepp, producer/DJ Damu the Fudgemunk, and MC Raw Poetic (Shepp's nephew) officially collaborated for the first time last year during one marathon session. The result is 'Ocean Bridges', a "fully improvised album on which Moore, Shepp and Damu the Fudgemunk tap into both of those genres’ more experimental sides and ultimately find a sound that isn’t fully aligned with either one" - Washington Post writes about the interesting collaboration. PopMatters says the album is "proof that genre crossovers can sound organic, and that the term 'crossover' doesn't have to come loaded with gimmicky connotations. Maybe we're headed for a world in which genres are so fluid that the term is dropped altogether from the cultural lexicon".

"Such mellow American folk-rock plays uneasily in these staggeringly anxious times. Yet the set’s charms - slinking choruses, hushed lead vocals -suit this disarmingly unassuming band" - New Yorker wrote about the New York band's new album, a meditation on dreams. PopMatters says that "Woods had established an instantly recognizable aesthetic without ever sounding trapped by it", adding that the album "despite the impending doom, sounds euphoric". Brooklyn Vegan calls it a "terrific album... full of sunny music, beaming with hope". Treblezine likes the atmosphere of it - "a warm, healing album of feelgood rock".

Perfume Genius' new album is "three-dimensional, dust-blown world that is cinematic in its grandeur and intimate in its inspection of the human form", Pitchfork states in its review (grade 9.0). The P is impressed by the style of the album - "the songs expand and contract, one minute blasting open with the melodrama of a Roy Orbison ballad, the next zooming in with surgical detail as Hadreas describes ribs that fold like fabric, a tear-streaked face, an instance of post-coital petty theft".

"'Beneath' pulls from chaotic screamo, shimmering post-rock, some more melodic post-hardcore/emo type stuff, and some absolutely vicious metallic stuff too" - Brooklyn Vegan says in praise of Infant Island's new album. They're innovating, and they've also "upped their musicianship game (the drumming on this album is the not-so-secret-weapon) and the production blows away that of their debut".

"With 'Reunions', Isbell unites the disparate aspects of his craft — soothing acoustic and fiercely electric; Hemingway's word economy dashed with Oscar Wilde-worthy asides, relatable details and otherworldly allusions" - Exclaim says in a review of alt-country singer-songwriter's new album. Glide Magazine says Isbell's reputation as “one of the best” and “the best singer-songwriter of his generation” today is well-earned. Paste Mag praises his inner strength - "he knows a little something about putting up a fight, even if it’s against his own worst impulses. His best impulses he keeps channeling into his music". PopMatters puts it simple: "an excellent album... It's already a candidate for one of 2020's best".

"His songs don’t settle into familiar shapes or patterns. He sings in a scratchy falsetto that seems to fray at the edges" - Stereogum argues in favor of Moses Sumney's 'Grae' (part two is out this week, part one came out in February). Sumney recruited dozens of collaborators for the album - Adult Jazz, Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart, James Blake, Jill Scott, Yvette, bass virtuoso Thundercat, Son Lux drummer Ian Chang, Oneohtrix Point Never’s Daniel Lopatin - in "a time-honored method for creative visionaries seeking to tease out different sides of themselves". Treblezine says it's "the perfect culmination of its transcendent first half", and Guardian rounds it up - "places the Ghanaian-American’s vast emotional range and unfurling musicality front and centre".

"He’s a delinquent teenage alcoholic who gets sober, but becomes gripped by addictions once again, with his raging alcoholism assuaged by the short-lived peace of heroin. Lanegan’s prodigious drug habit turns him into less of a musician and more of a dealer" - Guardian says in its recommended read, 'Sing Backwards and Weep' memoir by Mark Lanegan. "It might be a spoiler to reveal how Lanegan’s salvation eventually comes and who, unexpectedly, foots the bill for his rehab. This is a narrative packed with surprises, most not of the good kind".

"There is a cathartic religiosity to the music of Sex Swing. During this era of sorrow and anxiety, Sex Swing remind us of the restorative powers of rock" - the Quietus says in a review of new album by the psych-rock band. "The guitars erupt, the rhythms sputter out, the volume is maximised... It’s an uplifting record that taps into the mysticism at the core of much experimental musics" - the Q adds. The band - a supergroup of sorts, with members living in different parts of the world - explains in an interview how they function.

'Mutable Set' by the Californian guitarist and singer Blake Mills is "a hushed, finely tuned album" that "splits the difference between Mills’ two sides—the unassuming singer and the ambient wanderer", Pitchfork says in their review (tagged it "Best new music", grade 8.3). The P says it's not "just another singer-songwriter record. Its arrangements are slippery, and it’s often hard to tell if what you’re hearing is a keyboard, a guitar, a saxophone, or something else entirely. It’s never clear exactly where this album will go next, but there’s no doubt an expert hand is guiding the way".

"I Break Horses have always made music that lights up the mysteries inside us with giant, emotive soundscapes, music that you could sink deep into or use as transport to some imagined far away place" - Stereogum argues in favor of I Break Horses' new album. 'Warnings', S-Gum writes, "provides a perfect sound for those in-between spaces, nebulous and vibrant but not escapist. While mostly unfailingly beautiful, it has a hint of distortion haunting the edges... 'Warnings' might be more appropriate now than ever, not reacting to the noise of the world but giving us a place to sit and sift through what we’ve known".

Experimental composer Drew Daniel gathered his friends and family, including his Matmos bandmate M.C. Schmidt, Horse Lords saxophonist Andrew Bernstein, percussionist Sarah Hennies, "and a world-class trio of vocalists: Angel Deradoorian, Colin Self, and Lower Dens singer Jana Hunter" to create "a cathartic, emotional windfall" with his project The Soft Pink Truth. The resulting album 'Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase?', Pitchfork says, "carries itself with the strength of a soft prayer, masterfully fusing jazz, deep house, and minimalism into an enormous, featherlight shield".

Bandcamp is waiving its fees on all sales through the website today (May 1), so the Quietus shared a buyer's guide to some of their favourite music from the last month that you can buy - Shabazz Palaces, Menzi, Oranssi Pazuzu, Aisha Orazbayeva, among others. Brooklyn Vegan recommends 10 new metal albums - Barishi, Ulcerate, Fluisteraars - as well as 10 lesser known classics.

"Is there a way that a real-life music festival can be replicated in the virtual world?" - Guardian asks, and answers affirmatively, in case of Sea Change festival, at least. "Decision not to postpone or cancel but instead reincarnate the festival online, sooner and for free, was bold but also canny", the G argues. Many of the sets (including Jon Savage, Cool Greenhouse, the Orielles, Douglas Dare, Manu Delgado, Qasim Naqvi) proved brief affairs, but "the key to the weekend’s success was that by moving across platforms — from video streaming to Soundcloud, Twitter to Spotify to Instagram live – and providing links to explore works further (or purchase online), it managed to create both texture and a sense of companionability. Not once did it feel a flat or lonely endeavour; rather it found a great swell of congregation".

Saharan desert rock quintet Tamikrest is "advocating for both unity and diversity in wonderfully dulcet tones" on their newest album 'Tamotaït', PopMatters argues. "Their music here has sonic overtones of hope, resilience, and reflection", PM adds, while withholding "the substance and soul, the meaning, the skill, the familiarity of rock and roll meshed with the distinct vocal timbres and melodic lines that have since become iconic of Kel Tamasheq life".

"Performing a curious blend of stoner rock, psych, and extreme metal, Elephant Tree focus treacle-thick riffs and dense sludge grooves into chilled odysseys. In doing so they retain the focus and drive of metal whilst embracing the floaty warmth of psych" - The Quietus writes in review of London band's new album. "Elephant Tree feel like a total refresh, smart and savvy, delivering a charmingly wonky version of the tropes that make the [stoner rock] genre so likeable".

"'Pray for Paris' is one of the best albums to come out of the Griselda camp so far, good enough to help you forgive the obnoxiousness and make you understand why the crew now have a cultural cachet that rap legends are dying to be attached to" - Pitchfork says in a review of Westside Gunn's new album 'Pray For Paris'. Westside explained in the GQ interview what's the connection this album has with fashion and Kanye West.

Fiona Apple‘s highly anticipated new album 'Fetch the Bolt Cutters' came out at midnight, and Pitchfork gave it a rare perfect 10, their first since Kanye West’s 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' ten years ago. Why? - it's "unbound, a wild symphony of the everyday" - it features handclaps, chants, echoes, whispers, screams, breathing, jokes, and at least five dogs - "an unyielding masterpiece. No music has ever sounded quite like it". Guardian, similarly, gave it five of five stars (not so rare in their case) - call it "astonishing; as if she has returned to reinvent sound... a sudden glorious eruption". Independent, five of five stars also - "the melodies are wonderful. The lyrics, too – conversational yet precise". Consequence of Sound (an "A", this is becoming a pattern) - says it's "prescient, mordant, and unyielding judgement day for the wicked world around us and a wild birth of urgent, unconventional sound all wrapped into one".

"'Negro' is a collision course of Black punk experimentation, intersecting between jazz and rap. It's a gripping listen: The album revolves around Black anguish, as Siifu raps about police corruption and community rage" - MTV says about Pink Siifu's new album. "Black frustration needs to be heard. It’s OK to be angry. There’s a lot of stuff going on. This album is controlled chaos” - Pink Siifu himself explained. Pitchfork goes further in defining it - "the album siphons the repressed ire of Black America... It is a bracing record that is at once crushing and liberating", but, "the point is not the wrath but the bond shared by those expressing it".

"The most uniquely stirring pop music in recent memory" - Stereogum writes in a review of Colombian-Canadian singer Lido Pimienta's new album, which also mixes folk genres with modern and orchestral production. Songs at 'Miss Colombia' "brilliantly deconstruct and reimagine the country’s signature sounds" with "powerfully original music, refracting the cultures that formed her through the prism of her own inspiration". Pimienta described the album as "a cynical love letter to Colombia", a stand taken after a mishap at the 2015 Miss Universe when the name of Miss Colombia was read as the winner when actually it was Miss Philipines who won.

"The mutant jazz six-piece’s new record is the album of tomorrow, a real cold bath of a disc... One of the most fun and instantly gratifying albums of the year" - the Quietus writes in a review of Melt Yourself Down's new album '100% Yes'. Plenty of it in there: "swaggering and sweltering pop tunes", "virtuistic sax", "beefy drums", "highly danceable", "purest of escapist experiences ", "the most joyful"...

"Gentle and intelligent, humble and wholly kind-hearted" - NME writes in a review of English folk singer's new album, written to her imaginary daughter. Alexis Petridis chose it for his Album of the week describing it as "alternately intimate, sneering and sad, and lavished with gorgeous melodies". It's Stereogum's Album of the week as well, they love the atmosphere of it - "sounds like she’s sitting just a few feet away from you in a room, playing her guitar and seeing where her mind will wander next. It sounds like a giant exhalation".

he Quietus made a selection of the best psychedelic and noise rock for the month of April, and two albums stand out from the already good bunch. The first one is Human Impact's self-titled debut, an industrial noise record made by the members of Unsane, Swans and Cop Shoot Cop. Apart from the name of the month award, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs win the doom-stoner-psych-rock album of the month award.

Experimental electronic producer Yves Tumor turned, slightly, into "bold, loud art rock" on his newest album, but, Brooklyn Vegan argues, it stays "an experimental record even during its poppiest moments... it never relies on obvious, cheap tricks and it always earns the 'art' or 'avant-' prefix". The Quietus writes highly of it as well: "On 'Heaven To A Tortured Mind', Tumor harnesses his relentless curiosity to test the boundaries of rock and noise – and reinvents what we expect from both in the process". Stereogum hears "kaleidoscopic rock and soul anthems" on "his most approachable work by far, a move to the middle that never sounds like a compromise". Exclaim says it is "the sound of all of pop history", Alexis Petridis likes the unpredictability of it, and The Skinny emphasizes the message "that there's always calmness to be found amid chaos".

"In my punk crew, in which we wore out outsider status proudly, I had to admit to myself: I didn't actually want to be an outsider anymore... I wanted to feel like a valued member of my school and my town, even as I rejected my town and my school (punk rock, you're so confusing)" - Phuc Tran writes in his new book 'Sigh, gone', about growing up in small-town America as "the Asian guy" in school. Punk rock offered consolation, but not answers - "the most punk thing for me to do was to be who I was without pretension or preamble or grandiose posturing. I had read it in Nietzsche but didn't know what it really meant: become who you are". Now, besides writing, Phuc inks tattoos and rides motorcycles. PopMatters describes the book as a "smart, tough memoir" that entices reading.

"Incredibly rich, offering something different on every listen... It reminds us that sometimes things must fall apart for better things to emerge - Atwood Magazine says in a review of Sea Wolf's new album. Alex Brown Church has made a full album, but saw the songs as disjointed, so he discarded them, and made a new one - 'Through a Dark Wood' - "masterful illustrations of vulnerability and adversity affirm grief as a step towards growth", PopMatters says in its review. Listen to the album at Bandcamp.

Oliver Craske, "a biographer who understands the intricacies of classical Indian music and the labyrinths of a culture that believes there’s no enterprise that can’t be improved by being made more complicated", published 'The Life and Music of Ravi Shankar' about the great Indian sitar player. The exhaustive book, Guardian says, portrays the "restless workaholic, often melancholic genius... unassailable maestro and guardian of his country’s music". Craske handles the niceties of Shankar’s personal life with diplomacy - he married his teacher's daughter Annapurna Devi, which was an arranged and problematic marriage, had an affair with US concert promoter Sue Jones – with whom he had a daughter, the future star Norah Jones, and had another affair with an old friend Sukanya Rajan, whom he would later marry, and had a daughter Anoushka, who also grew into musical stardom.

"'Clockdust' is anchored by the singer-songwriter's cracked, idiosyncratic, and quintessentially English vocal tones – somewhere between the windswept warble of Robert Wyatt and weathered late-period David Bowie" - PopMatters says in a review of "hauntological, cultish strain of psychedelic folk pastoral" album. "It's catchy, carefully crafted, and tastefully arranged", PM adds.