“I told them I’m a genius” is succinct and grand as an opening salvo, and Burna Boy is nothing if not grand. This is the lyric that introduces I Told Them…, the Nigerian superstar’s fifth […]
Ruth Garbus: Alive People
The Japanese concept of mono no aware, roughly translated as “the pathos of things,” has gone on a curious journey through the music underground. Invoked almost two decades ago by William Basinski to describe a […]
DJ Muggs: Soul Assassins 3: Death Valley
After landing a series of crossover hits, Cypress Hill turned to Indiana Jones for inspiration. Where their early records pulsed with blunted humor and buzzed paranoia, 1995’s Cypress Hill III: Temples of Boom was slower […]
Earl Sweatshirt / The Alchemist: VOIR DIRE
Earl Sweatshirt, rap’s professor emeritus of dread, has inspired a whole subgenre of rusted, wavy, micro rap songs best absorbed on headphones with a hoodie pulled over. That Earl would become one of the many […]
Diego Raposo: YO NO ERA ASÍ PERO DE AHORA EN ADELANTE, SÍ
Dominican multi-instrumentalist Diego Raposo plays with contrast on YO NO ERA ASÍ PERO DE AHORA EN ADELANTE, SÍ. Melding jungle breakbeats, fuzzed-out electric guitar, and frantic bass with melancholy downtempo production, Raposo’s new LP, which […]
Osees: Intercepted Message
It’s always a toss-up which style of guitar music John Dwyer and his rotating cast of Osees collaborators will lean into with each new album. Last time it was hardcore, but sometimes it’s prog or […]
jaimie branch: Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war))
Midway through “burning grey,” from her riotous third and final album Fly or Die Fly or Die Fly or Die ((world war)), jaimie branch issues an exhortation that could serve as her artistic mission statement: […]
A Giant Dog: Bite
A Giant Dog’s Bite, the Austin, Texas, group’s first batch of new material since 2017’s Toy, bills itself as a concept album, but Avalonia (the invented realm in which the action takes place) bears little difference […]
ovrkast.: RESET! EP
Oakland rapper-producer ovrkast. thrives on elegant beats that split the difference between hazy, traditionalist boom-bap and the wavy, loop-based production that’s taken the rap underground by storm since Madlib’s Quasimoto days. After years of Bandcamp […]
Drab Majesty: An Object in Motion
Drab Majesty have always reached for other worlds. The title of their 2012 debut EP, Unarian Dances, was a reference to a cult of UFO obsessives who broadcast bizarre films on public access TV in […]
Victoria Monét: Jaguar II
The jaguar sneaks up on you. Victoria Monét can relate. One day you could audition for a Darkchild-sponsored girl group that never got off the ground, and nine years later, you could be a celebrated […]
The Armed: Perfect Saviors
Oh, the irony of transforming into action figures only to get scooped by Barbie. For all the promotional and physical muscle the Armed have flexed during the rollout of their own summer blockbuster, none of […]