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Lord Jah-Monte Ogbon

As of Now - Album

LEX Records

Release Date: 30th January

The Charlotte rapper's latest album is the height of his ability. The vignettes of heartbreak and hustling come with absurdist wit and an outstanding selection of beats. - Dash Lewis for Pitchfork "Best New Music"

James Massiah & DJ GAWAD

Contact High - EP

Drowned By Locals
Release Date: 10th February

Two worlds collide with precision and swagger. Contact High pairs James Massiah's unmistakable vocal presence with DJ GAWAD's sharp, club-ready productions. Drawing from jerk, trap and dancehall, the EP moves effortlessly between dance floor heat and everyday soundtrack. A bold, left-of-centre rap release shaped by contemporary club culture.

Mackeeper

Rock Candy - EP

In Real Life
Release Date: 17th February

The music is built the same way it was when they were young, just with a "sharper pencil and a stranger story to tell." Mackeeper's music is made for people who had a bad day at work and need a release, for kids who ditch class - driven by a belief that "more people than ever are struggling, but no one makes struggle music." - Thomas Schreckinger for Pigeons & Planes

GENA

The Pleasure is Yours - Album

Lex Records
Release Date: 27th February

The list of memorable moments across this tracklist goes on. It really does feel like each song, while culminating into a pretty cohesive vibe, they each have their own specific character or angle to them that makes each track special, which prevents this album from blending together into this super bland, forgettable, one dimensional experience. And yet still, this record manages to pull off a consistently chill vibe. – Anthony Fantano for The Needle Drop

Ciel & Mathis Ruffing

Hot Squid - EP

Punctuality

Release Date: 27th February

Following a spontaneous studio session back in May 2022, the pair continued to collaborate, the results of which are 'Hot Squid' - five cuts of sleek but weighty Detroit-rooted tech house. The title track is a heady slice of coiling metallic percussion and pressurised synths, while Roza Terenzi's remix hardens the bass and strips the body down to a lean tek skeleton. Little Voice' slips Ciel's hazy vocals into a hypnotic loop and 'Late Summer' is a meandering exercise in kinetic melodies. An elastic listen skewed as much for peak times antics as sunrise closers. – Olivia Cheves for DJ Mag

kiss facility

KHAZNA -Album

Ambient Tweets
Release Date: 27th February

"In many ways, the duo's first full-length offering is a rebellion against purity, against the idea that an Arabic singer must sing in one dialect or one tone, or that "alternative" Arabic music should sound like one thing. Call it Arabic shoegaze if you must. But on KHAZNA, Alkhateri and Navarrete sound like genre saboteurs, blurring the lines until all that's left is a haunting, strangely luminous sensation - and the result is marvelous. - Hadi Afif for DAZED MENA

thredd

Funny Girl (REWORKS) - EP

Scenic Route Records

Release Date: 10th April

thredd is a cold pop supergroup comprised of: Imogen Williams, Max Winter & Will Lister. 'It's Lovely Come On In' album sleeper, 'Funny Girl', reworked by originator Imogen & The Knife + fellow collaborators from 2024 Laylow residency, Canty and Nourished by Time.

james K

Friend Remixes - Album

AD 93

Release Date: 24th April

Friend Remixes continue to be bound by one captivating ingredient: Krasner's voice. While comparing her to other key trip-hop vocalists such as Beth Gibbons and Tracey Thorn in their review of Friend last year, Sasha Geffen described her tone as "magnetic without being the main event." That rings true. On Friend Remixes, it shape-shifts into ever more thrilling possibilities, providing the perfect foil for her friends and collaborators. - Christian Eede for Resident Advisor

Jump Source

Fold - Album

NAFF

Release Date: 30th April

Every other year, club culture is allotted one perfect track that punctures the underground-commercial barrier; one god-tier banger uniting both the 6 a.m. -arriving Nowadays member and the casual Friday-night goer-outer. In 2024, it was Nick León and Erika de Casier's "Bikini." Before that, the now platinum-certified (in four countries) "B.O.T.A." This year, Jump Source, the duo composed of two of Montreal's finest producers, Francis Latreille (aka Priori) and Patrick Holland (aka Project Pablo), are vying for the crown with their stellar debut album, Fold. - Reid BG for Pitchfork

Daniel Avery

Tremor (Deluxe Edition) - Album
Domino Recording Co.

Release Date: 1st May

Tremor is unquestionably the best thing Daniel Avery's made to date. (Gareth O'Malley for When The Horn Blows). Speaking on the Deluxe edition, Daniel Avery explains: "The walls keep expanding. Four new songs from inside the world of Tremor, all part of my love story with this place. This Deluxe Edition also features remixes from future superstars X Club plus luminaries IMOGEN and DJ Stingray who both recently joined me at my Phonox residency in London. It's time to check into the world of Tremor all over again."

Parris

Drippin' - EP

Can You Feel The Sun

Release Date: 15th May

Continuing the themes explored on 2024's Passionfruit EP, Parris embarks further down his unparalleled sound path on Drippin'. His latest solo outing draws inspiration from vivid memories of yesteryear, particularly experiences at Watching Trees Festival and various trips to Amsterdam, and subsequently constructed with friends in mind to play out. The resulting four tracks encompasses some of his most intimate material to date.

Smerz

Easy - EP

Escho

Release Date: 15th May

Smerz’ beguiling new EP, Easy, uses the track of the same name as a jumping-off point to explore snapshots of life at the precipice of womanhood. Stoltenberg and bandmate Henriette Motzfeldt bill the EP as a "tangent" building off "Easy," which doesn't appear on the tracklist but hangs in the air across these six songs. Here, they forgo plot for feeling in its most archaic form-placeless, shapeless, and sometimes too big to name-continuing to hone what Smerz does best: channel the oxymoronic sensation of wishing an instant would last forever. - Hattie Lindert for Pitchfork

Blood Orange

Essex Honey.mp3 - Single

RCA Records

Release Date: 29th May

Blood Orange's new single' "Essex_Honey.mp3" is a woozy meditation set to a fired-up old-school rave beat. The song sounds like it's trapped in hazy memory, and it's deeply rooted in the history of the Blood Orange project. It prominently samples Sky Ferreira's 2013 single "Everything Is Embarrassing." Dev Hynes co-wrote that song, and it's one of the tracks that first brought attention to the Blood Orange project. - Tom Breihan for Stereogum

YHWH Nailgun

Magazine - Album

4AD

Release Date: 11th June

It's official: The 11 minutes of music that YHWH Nailgun debuted in a whirlwind set at C2C Festival NYC last month comprise a complete album, Magazine, that will be the band's 4AD debut. Out June 11, the 10-track LP follows last year's AD 93 album 45 Pounds and is again produced by the band's own Saguiv Rosenstock. – Jazz Monroe for Pitchfork

Words / Compiled by: Molly Boniface (BOTW)