Pitchfork made a list of 25 new artists "that help us consider the future of music: how it’ll be made, where it’ll come from, what role it’ll play in shaping scenes, and how genre lines may be increasingly dismantled". Some of the promising ones the P staff chose: MIKE for being "a beacon within the modern rap underground", Black Midi for "oddity and unpredictability", 100 Gecs for their "extreme pop music", Moor Mother for her "radical message", Bartees Strange for "his vision of what guitar music can encompass", Yves Tumor for their "restless experimentation", Amaarae for "bending the boundaries of Afro-fusion music", Navy Blue for being the "leader of a new class of introspective rapper-producers", Blood Incantation because they've "elevated old-school death metal into a psychedelic, ever-expanding solar system".

Navy Blue shares smooth jazzy psychedelic hip-hop 'Ritual' from his surprise-released new album; Curtis Harding shares a warm, conscious soul single with a pretty video for 'Hopeful'; Sa-Roc released s deluxe version of her last year's album, featuring new song 'Re-Birth' with MF Doom on the mic; Jade Bird's 'Different Kinds of Light' is just a nice love song; 'Like I Used To' is slightly 1980s-big-ballad song by Sharon Van Etten & Angel Olsen; Yoo Doo Right go enjoyably post-rocky on 'Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose'.

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble 'Soon It Will Be Fire' features Moses Sumney, a nearly sacral piece; UK rapper Berwyn offers a lovely hip-hop ballad 'Rubber Bands'; The Mountain Goats share superbly titled 'The Slow Parts On Death Metal Albums'; Hazel English fulfilled her dream - she moved to California and covered 'California Dreamin'', a way too pretty song and a way to nice a cover not to pick it out; AKAI SOLO and Navy Blue share psychedelic rap 'Ocean Hue Hours'; Resynator is a documentary about "a daughter connecting with her late father through the resurrection of a synthesizer from the 1970s that he invented", featuring The National's Matt Berninger and Ronboy doing 'Only a Broken Heart'; The Pleasure Dome share noisy punk 'Pretty Picture'; Wolf Alice keep on promising - 'No Hard Feelings' comes ahead of their new album, out in June; Shannon Lay goes in the best classic singer-songwriter direction with 'Rare To Wake'.

Remember Sports have hidden a laid-back indie-gem 'Out Loud' on their new album; Dope Purple go beautifully psychedelic on 'Evilness'; Arcade Fire's violinist Sarah Neufeld announces her new album with hypnotic 'The Top'; Royal Blood share straight-rock 'Boilermaker', made with the help of QOTSa's Josh Homme; Girl In Red endures consequences of love on 'You Stupid Bitch'; Brooklyn rappers AKAI SOLO and Navy Blue announced a joint album with 'Incursio Fur', indie-rap New York style.

“A lot of young Black kids don’t have healthy outlets, writing has become mine. It’s beautiful to take tremendous pain and turn it into something powerful” - LA-based rapper and producer Navy Blue says in an extensive Pitchfork interview. He released his first two albums in 2020, and the reaction of his fans is what makes a difference to him: "What really touches me is just how many people are touched by the music. The messages I get talking about 'I felt this too' are priceless to me. That’s when I realized what I’m doing is special because that means more to me than making money off of it. Of course, being able to take care of people and buy nice things is great. But you need to be able to help yourself while also helping other people. Being honest in my music is how I learned to love myself".

Navy Blue released his new song '1491' featuring Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def); Deftones singer Chino Moreno and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez have resurrected ✞✞✞ (Crosses) with a first new track from the project in six years - an 80s synth-pop cover of Cause & Effect’s 'The Beginning of the End'; Eddie Vedder released an EP which includes an acoustic cover of Bruce Springsteen's 'Future Days'.