Mikau release an interesting metal/hyper-pop song, or as they describe it - mallcore 'At The Edge of Fading Consciousness'; Irish singer/rapper Denise Chaila flaunts an impressive flow in 'Anseo'; hardcore band Stick To Your Guns share an acoustic version of their song 'Amber'; Chelsea Wolfe & Emma Ruth Rundle are on the verge of bursting in 'Anhedonia'.
Valerie June has brought her interesting voice from a four-year break with an old-school vibe song 'Call Me a Fool'; we know everything about Japanese post-rockers Mono, but there's just still great in a concert with The Platinum Anniversary Orchestra on 'Meet Us Where the Night Ends'; a sweet story, a sweet song - Charley Hickey shares his Phoebe Bridgers collab 'Ten Feet Tall'; '68 share their punk blues 'The Knife, The Knife, The Knife'; bedroom folk artist Field Medic's 'Chamomile' title says it all; Clark shares ambient/haunting art-pop song 'Small'; Ohtis share 'Schatze', a call and response song and video: fka Twigs shares a pop-rap collab 'Don't Judge Me' with Headie One and Fred Again; Genghis Tron are back after 13 years and a new line-up on psychedelic sludge 'Dream Weapon'; Half Waif shares a rich and dramatic 'Orange Blossoms'.
Rapper Hus Kingpin made a whole album inspired by Portishead, 'Beth Gibbons' is the stand-out track so far; Cassandra Jenkins' 'Hard Drive' is just a smooth-cool-groovey indie rock drive; Kendrick Lamar's hip-hop gets interpreted as jazz in 'How Much A Dollar Cost' by the jazz supergroup R+R=NOW which includes Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Derrick Hodge, Taylor McFerrin, and Justin Tyson; Panopticon share a 12-minute epic black/sludge/post metal 'KnowHope'; Amanda Gorman's powerful Inauguration Day poem 'The Hill We Climb' gets even richer with a piano improv by Rostam; Madlib's 'Dirtknock' is a simple song, barely-there - just some guitar and vocals; Black Sheep Wall share a 13-minute psychedelic sludge/hardcore/post metal 'New Measures Of Failure'; th1rt3en is the new rap-rock group of Pharoahe Monch, Daru Jones, and Marcus Machado - 'Cult 45' promises a lot; Austrian post-blackers Harakiri For The Sky share a furious and melodic 'I'm All About The Dusk'; Matthew E White & Lonnie Holley share jazzy and arythmical 'This Here Jungle Of Moderness/Composition 14'; the Faith No More-Jesus Lizard-Helmet-M. Bungle super-group Tomahawk gets its groove back in 'Business Casual'.
Billie Eilish and Rosalía release their dramatic pop ballad 'Lo Vas a Olvidar'; Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou follow their last year's debut collaboration with a new EP - 'Orphan Limbs' is the stand-out track from it; Forhist of Blut Aus Nord shares a sympho/black-metal song 'II'; Vast Aire of Cannibal Ox bites hard on 'Good Fuel'; NYC rapper Marlon Craft releases a melancholic albeit determined political song 'State of the Union'.
John Grant's 'The Only Baby' is long, angry, and - awesome!; Kikagaku Moyo release a fun psychedelia song 'Elevation Jam' from their new live album; Ghetts gets help from Stormzy for his new groovy track 'Skengman'; rapper Dessa stands against "global powers who stand to profit by stoking our basest vanities and appetites" on 'Rome'; French actress Isabelle Adjani covered Elvis Costello's 'Revolution #49'.
Nice-guys Foo Fighters share a song 'Waiting on a War' which Dave Grohl wrote for his daughter who "deserves a future"; German indie The Notwist announce their first new album in seven years with mighty electronica 'Al Sur' song featuring Argentinian Juana Molina; The Antlers' 'Solstice' is like a soft and warm pillow, a song about change; CARM announced his first album with a nice-y 'Song of Trouble' featuring Sufjan Stevens; Vince Staples and Pusha T shared their 'White Tiger' soundtrack contribution 'Jungle Mantra' which sounds... just what the title suggests; Jane Birkin is dramatic and charming on 'Les jeux interdits'; ASTRYD delves into "humanity reckoning with the outcome of its actions" on 'Blind Summit'.
LNZNDRF share members of Beirut and National, and sound like none - on 'Brace Yourself' they take a turn toward synth-pop; yet another supergroup, SOM, shares members of Caspian, Junius, and Constants, plays post rock-meets-shoegaze on 'Awake // Sedate'; producer Bicep shares India-influenced, ambient and pretty 'Sundial'; singer-songwriter Ian Sweet shares her sweet new song 'Drink the Lake'; Hazing Over changed their lineup, name, and sound - to math-metal, on 'Jock'.
DÆMON combines his intense lyricism with industrial hip-hop production by Endgame, a style the duo describes as “cybernetic warfare melodies”, for their new songs 'Eye Teeth', the Fact reports. The video is equally on that level - director Brandon Tauszik captures both artists in a guerilla trip through a sprawling hardware store.
Mogwai have shared a beautiful, positive new song ‘Ritchie Sacramento’ dedicated to the late Silver Jews'/Purple Mountains' frontman David Berman and all the musician friends that they’ve lost over the years. The band goes from post-rock to pop-rock on this song, and it's one of the rarer to feature vocals. The track’s video was created by director Sam Wiehl, who “created a whole first person multi level computer game for the song, which then formed the animations and narratives for the video” (watch it below). The song will come out on the band's new album ‘As The Love Continues’, recorded during lockdown but, as Mogwai's frontman Stuart Braithwaite explained NME, it's a "positive" and "warm" record.
Rhye shared a video for his latest single, a mellow funk-soul song 'Come In Closer'. Rhye says the song explores how "as relationships deepen and you invite someone into your world, your life, your home, layers of appreciation, vulnerability, and patience reveal themselves”, while the video shows two little girls having outdoor adventures with a couple of kittens. So, just some simple beauty.
Sarah Neufeld of Arcade Fire has released a new song with her Bell Orchestre project - a post-rock-meats-classical music 'V: Movement'; Ivonne Van Cleef shared 'Paracao Street', ambient lo-fi psychedelia; The Weather Station released a melancholic yet uplifting 'Atlantic'; Virgil Abloh has shared a minimal yet grand collaboration with serpentwithfeet 'Delicate Limbs'; Oxymorrons put a new twist on rap-rock with 'Green Vision'; Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman shared an MF Doom tribute song 'Ask Anyone'; Dreamwell shared some hard-hitting screamo with 'Sayaka'.
Madlib is joined by Four Tet on the uplifting track 'Hopprock'; a sad story - after Justin Townes Earle died last year, his father Steve Earle recorded an album of his son's songs, and one of his own, 'Last Words', about their last conversation they had the night the younger Americana singer-songwriter died of an accidental overdose; emo-hardcore band Holy Figures released an EP about drugs, with songs named after women, melodic and powerful 'Lucille' stands out among them; Open Mike Eagle recorded a freestyle after hearing about MF Doom's passing, titled simply 'for DOOM'.
The Black Keys share previously unreleased instrumental song 'Black Mud Part II' from the 'Brothers' era; psychedelic screamo/metal band Portrayal of Guilt share '2020 Will Burn In Hell Forever'; 'i-38' is live funk rap by 38 Spesh; Napalm Death's Shane Embury releases an ambient industrial song 'Omisoka' with his band Dark Sky Burial; R.A.P. Ferreira shares a psychedelic new album with 'Sips of Ripple Wine (No Stemware)' included.
Viagra Boys and Amy Taylor cover John Prine's song 'In Spite of Ourselves' about the fact that there's love for anybody; Foo Fighters released 'No Son of Mine', a song Dave Grohl said was their version of David Bowie’s 'Let’s Dance'; the Stellar band consisted of Yves Tumor, Kelsey Lu, Kelly Moran & Moses Boyd shares an art-pop single 'Let All The Poisons That Lurk In The Mud Seep Out'; Bill Callahan and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy release a cover of Lou Reed’s 'Rooftop Garden' with George Xylouris.
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'.
Burial will release his new album in the spring, and he announced it with a 12-minute song 'Chemz'; Darkside also plan a release of a new album in spring, which will be their first in eight years', and they announced it with 'Liberty Bell'.
BadBadNotGood are back where they left with Ghostface Killah - 'The Chocolate Conquistadors' with MF Doom goes totally into the psychedelic jazz-hip-hop territory; an interesting cover - a senior man named Frank Watkinson made a lovely folk-rock remake of Slipknot's 'Snuff'.
"Years from now, when we look back at this time period... there will also be this album that has recorded the stories and names of all these ordinary women who would have otherwise been entirely forgotten" - Chinese music critic Postman tells BBC about the new album by Chinese singer Tan Weiwei. The highpoint of that album is 'Xiao Juan', a moody, excoriating diatribe against domestic violence, still considered a taboo topic for many.
Space-jazz masters The Comet Is Coming released their hybrid new single 'Imminent' featuring MC Joshua Idehen; Thou & Emma Ruth Rundle released a mighty cover of Cranberries' 'Hollywood'; screamo boys For Your Health released 'Birthday Candles in the Effigy' with a ballerina dancing to it in a sinister video; Burial, Four Tet, and Thom Yorke collaborated on two new moody songs 'Her Revolution' and 'His Rope'.
Switch presents his impressive flow on 'Cleopatra's Nose', with a helping voice from Killah Priest; plenty of Christmas songs, but Julia Jacklin's 'Baby Jesus Is Nobody's Baby Now' deserves a proper listen; similarly, Porridge Radio's 'The Last Time I Saw You (o Christmas)' is for those who don't really like the holidays; Lushlife delivers some spacey jazzy-rap on 'Hessdalen Lights'; Scottish folk singer James Yorkston shares a baroque pop single 'Ella Mary Leather'; Every Time I Die share their first new song in four years, a melodic metal-core 'Desperate Pleasures' with some math-core energy.
Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard, Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock, and Mark Lanegan teamed up to make a very nice cover of the Jimmy Webb country classic 'The Highwayman'. The backing band featured Foo Fighters’ Nate Mendel, members of Death Cab, The Afghan Wigs, The Walking Papers, and guitarist Ian Moore. The collaboration was part of SMooCH 2020, an annual benefit show for the Seattle Children’s Hospital. The hour-long event also featured sets from Angel Olsen, Jason Isbell, Clipping., Kim Gordon, J. Mascis, and Fred Armisen.
Dua Saleh is in-between genres on 'Angel Rock', driven by strings; Lana Del Rey covered 'Summertime', this time George Gershwin's original; Gilles Peterson's Brownswood released electro-jazzy rap 'I Know You See Me' by Kassa Overall; singer-songwriter Postdata shared 'Twin Flames'; Fana Hues presents her great voice on 'Snakes x Elephants'; Dueling Experts deliver hip-hop old school NY-style on 'Revolve Around Sciences'; Kelly Rowland goes for and - gets a pop smash with 'Hitman'; Ash Koosha explores the “hallucination of a machine” on 'Hallucinato' (30 mins).
Speed Stick is a new supergroup featuring members of Polvo, Bat Fangs, and The Love Language, playing blues on 'Knot'; Eels released a funny new video for 'Are We Alright Again' starring Jon Hamm; God Is An Astronaut do their post-rock thing on 'Burial' after so many years, but they're just so good at it; Slowthai shared a new song 'NHS' announcing his new album.
Loyle Carner shared his new Madlib-produced jazzy 'Yesterday'; 'Feel the Thunder' is a funny song - Haim trying to sound like Guns N' Roses, 'Welcome to the Jungle' to be specific; Makaya McCraven made a dubby jazz remix of Nuby Garcia's 'Source'; Your Old Droog features El-P, Black Thought, Mach-Hommy, and Tha God Fahim on 'Pravda'.
Just some great guitar playing by Gwenifer Raymond on 'Hell For Certain'; Hey Colossus euphoric new song 'Medal' found a place on their new double album; Whitney K released an interesting Leonard Cohen-meets-Velvet Underground-sounding song 'Maryland'; Told Slant delivered a new take on indie-rock, with added harp, on 'Family Still'.
Canadian singer-songwriter MorMor released 'Don’t Cry', an industrial pop song; underground rap veteran Mr. Lif and producer Stu Bangas present their collaborative project Vangarde with 'Shelter in Place'; multinational group Seba Kaapstad collaborates with Sudanese/American rapper Oddisee on a strong but gentle song 'I’m Scared'; Post Truth Serum released a simple-but-great video for their song 'This Is The End'.
'Looked Over Your Shoulder' is signed by Busta Rhymes, when maybe it's more a Kendrick Lamar/Michael Jackson song (it heavily samples 'I'll Be There'); 'Happy' is Danny Elfman's first new song in 36 years, accompanied by a spooky video; 'Babylon Exists' by The Late One is an activist reggae ballad with a strong political message; yet another protest song 'New America' sees the underestimated newcomer A$AP Twelvyy getting a helping mic from Conway the Machine; Karen O and Willie Nelson covered the iconic David Bowie and Queen classic 'Under Pressure'; an awesome video of icy soundworld by Dan Holdsworth for a Patten song 'Cerulean'; R-Mean features Method Man in good form on 'Circus'; 'Evans a Gift' by Loud Tides is a smoothy jazzy song; Riz Ahmed is moody, affirming the basics on 'Once Kings'; Patrick Watson drops a soothing piano on 'Lost With You'.
Nothing released a leaned back and mighty 'Famine Asylum'; Aquiles Navarro & Tcheser Holmes dropped a great afro-beat jazzy 'Pueblo'; Chelsea Wolfe released a creepy cover of 'In Heaven' from David Lynch's classic 1977 film 'Eraserhead'; Cass McCombs assembled a powerful front with Angel Olsen, Bob Weir, and Noam Chomsky to send a 'Don’t (Just) Vote' message; Zack de la Rocha remixed Outkast's 'Bombs Over Baghdad', adding a rock-rap riff to it; Portrayal of Guilt melt post hardcore with black metal on 'It's Already Over'.
Good flow and a rolling beat make for a great new Junglepussy song 'No Band Aid'; Young Knives shared a great new puppet video for 'Barbarians'; 'Silver Wings' is a 12-minute hard-rock ripper by Pallbearer; Hot Chip released a funny video for 'Straight to the Morning' about girls going not too crazy (did they get frightened by Jarvis Cocker?!?).
Newcomers Red Fiction mix metal, jazz and Eastern European folk on 'Kerberos'; gospel meets psychedelia on 'Unity (It’s Up To You)' by Badge Époque Ensemble; Nick Cave has shared his unreleased track ‘Euthanasia’, written during the 'Skeleton Tree' period; composer Olafur Arnalds and producer Bonobo team up for atmospheric gem 'Loom'; death metal meets western American music in Wayfarer's 'The Crimson Rider'; a good indie-rock song 'Good Woman' by the Staves; Chamberlain, making their first album in 20 years, released just a straight rock song 'Not Your War'.
