10 Parallel Thought – “Tabula Rasa”
This duo billed as a “hip-hop” team on Bandcamp, though they don’t seem to do much rapping, weave here a weird, undulating ride of atonal, physical sound informing an IDM album that pledges allegiance to breakbeat and dubstep.
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9 Alfred Banks & Luther Vandals – “Window”
New Orleans’ Alfred Banks comes across kind of Neo-Drake nice guy, with nothing to do but get on the mic and spit these sorts of diary entries that seem just genuine and heartbreak-laden to truly bump over some ambient, Automator-hearkening beats from Sac-town’s Luther Vandals.
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8 Sha Ray & DJ Haram feat. Nappy Nina & JWords – “Hey Queen”
An unabashed lesbian anthem with attitude to spare, “Hey Queen” does a nice job of anchoring Critical Thot, a rude, raunchy trap-soul-pop ride to bang in dance clubs or on lonely drives to In-n-out Burger, in equal force.
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7 Auscultation – “Dysania”
The austere, regal album title of “IV” seems to correctly correspond to the artistic territory that Portland DJ Auscultation is currently occupying — this is stylistically and rhythmically undeniable stuff, IDM that sounds like it was created by aliens, full of grooves and bridges that sound like the work of someone straight off of DJ boot camp.
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6 Non Plus Temps – “Desire Trails”
Oakland lo-fi outfit Non Plus Temps seem to follow no rubric but their own, as on “Desire Trails”; which kind of sounds like Annie Lennox singing for Sebadoh, with some delicious piano in tow. It doesn’t make you crave the encumbrance of the corporate dollar. I’ll tell you that much.
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5 GiGi FM – “Here and Now”
Tight, crisp, energetic and refreshing, the new EP from Berlin DJ GiGi FM seems built on an honor code of consistency and variety, with “Here and Now” anchoring the projects a la some reflective, tranquil but rich vocals, and a a busy dubstep beat that hypnotizes as it invigorates.
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4 Awon & the Other Guys “Lots of Pockets” feat. DJ Everyday
With a beat combining the hypnotic groove of Hi-Tek and the enlivening string bombast of RZA, this team lays down hip-hop music that sounds refreshingly epochal of the Golden Era, with unpretentious rhetoric from Awon that explores enough unusual, off-the-beaten-path topics to successfully avoid phoniness.
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3 The Strokes – “Lonely in the Future”
On the strange, sprawling and gorgeous new Strokes album Reality Awaits, “Lonely in the Future” comes the closest to assimilating to the material from the band’s initial ascent to popularity, with, mind you, more than enough sonic modulation and experimental goofiness to ingratiate it to the 2020s.
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2 Mickey Diamond & Big Ghost Ltd. – “Wormwood”
Mickey Diamond is about as Detroit gutter as it gets, here waxing poetic on politics and religion and walking it down the track like a poodle. The beat from Big Ghost is spooky and spare but emphatic, creating the perfect, surreal backdrop from Diamond’s gruesome, existential street rhymes.
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1 2K88, Lauren Duffus, Rainy Miller & Bianca Stout – “Salto”
On their new, elegant masterpiece, Everything Always Changes, for We’re Truly Here, this IDM team creates electronic music that’s got the character and intimacy of Steve Earle or Lucinda Williams. This project just feels like the apex of music derived on a computer taking on living, aching and vitalizing depth.