Pop Spotlight

Iggy Pop’s improbable survival has been part of his act for years—way back in 1996, Trainspotting found the punchline to a joke about the perennially bare-chested rocker in the fact that he was still very much alive. Today, […]

Most Sauce Walka songs adhere to the same basic blueprint, regardless of their themes. The Houston rapper’s voice starts out at conversational levels—well, the type of conversation you have with your loudest friend at a moderately […]

After his last album as Gold Panda, Derwin Dicker thought he might be done with the alias. The UK musician had made three full-lengths under that name, sampling thrift-store vinyl into wistful electronica that caught […]

In the early 20th century, labels like Columbia and Victor courted the millions of European immigrants who had recently arrived on American shores, including many Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews. Seeking new markets for both records […]

By rap standards, Bun B’s aged like merlot. Across a prolific career, he’s worn a number of hats—Gulf Coast underdog, chart-topping ambassador, grieving flagbearer—ultimately assuming the mantle of elder statesman. Now in his fourth decade of recording, he’s […]

“The Grey Cock,” an English folk ballad whose origin lies sometime in the 17th century or earlier, concerns a pair of lovers who reunite late one night after a long time apart. When a crowing […]

When their self-released 2018 debut blew up—at least by ambient standards—the New York City quartet SUSS seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere, seasoned with secret history. Gray-maned and black-jacketed, they looked like the kinds […]

At the same time, he was brimming with fresh musical inspiration, drawn in part from voracious listening. In Herbie Hancock’s memoir, Possibilities, the pianist credits Williams as a constant source of new and challenging sounds during […]

You used to have to work so hard to be a stan: joining fan clubs, tracking down early EPs, downloading suspicious Megaupload links from message-board threads. Rarities were called that for a reason; they weren’t […]

Part and parcel of Beatriz Ferreyra’s compositional practice is the act of surrendering to music. “I do not think of anything,” she’s explained; “the sounds with their colors, their shapes, and their dynamics take me by the hand and […]

Anyhow, the solo debut from BADBADNOTGOOD multi-instrumentalist Leland Whitty, is like sleight of hand or a trick of the light. It’s a record that appears simultaneously small and ambitious, jazz and yet not. One one hand it’s […]

Noémi Büchi’s music seems to exist in the abstract realm of ideas, yet the Swiss sound artist sees her work as eminently tangible. “A musician also works with matter, the air,” she says. “It seems to […]