Life is horribly dark right now. And yet, it is not unfunny. That’s the sentiment that animates Water From Your Eyes on their new album, and first for Matador, ‘Everyone’s Crushed,’ out May 26. On the follow-up to the Brooklyn duo’s 2021 breakthrough, ‘Structure,’Rachel Brown (they/them) and Nate Amos (he/him) find silliness and fatalism dancing in a frantic lockstep, using heart palpitating rhythms and absurdist, deadpan lyrics to convey stories of personal and societal unease. Described by Brown as Water From Your Eyes’ most collaborative record ever, it’s a swollen contusion of an album: experimental pop music that’s pretty and violent, raw and indelible.

End of Everything is the intrepid seventh album from Mega Bog, a nightmarish experimental pop ensemble led by Erin Elizabeth Birgy. In 2020, Birgy was surrounded by seemingly endless turmoil: mass death, a burning planet, and a personal reckoning when past traumas met fresh ones. Living in Los Angeles, against the backdrop of brilliantly horrifying forest fires, she questioned what perspective to use moving forward in such dumbfounded awe. Deciding to seize something tangible, she produced a record that spoke of surrender, of mourning, and support in the face of tumultuous self-reflection.

With fan worship more intense than ever, and worldwide interest and intrigue growing at runaway speed, Sleep Token are set to reach bold new heights with studio album No. 3, Take Me Back To Eden, set for release on May 19.

Westerman — the London-born, Athens-based pop maverick — returns with his new album, An Inbuilt Fault.

The body count on alt-J’s fourth album is high. At least three songs portray a death, another (“Losing My Mind”) explores the psyche of a serial killer, and “Get Better” is an intensely moving depiction of grief. That said, The Dream also delights in the pleasures of drinking Coke (“Bane”), instant attraction (“Powders”), and getting wasted at festivals (“U&ME”). “If you want to move people, it’s with storytelling,” singer/guitarist Joe Newman tells Apple Music. “You want to tell the best story, and that is by giving people both sides of the coin.”

Over the past decade, Braids have devoted themselves to exploring their art, together, making for one of the more daring and fluid catalogs in contemporary experimental pop. JUNO Award winners and twice-shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, Braids see their story as a series of actions and reactions, a collective expression that swings like a pendulum between process-driven precision and open-hearted freeness.

Okumu released his first solo record Knopperz in 2021; an instrumental concept album based on pianist Duval Timothy’s 2017 album Sen AmIt was friend and mentor Lexxx who sparked the soul searching that kicked off his next record after he told Okumu that he was trying to explain who Okumu was but struggled to summarise his vast catalogue.

The album Ysla by Yumi Ito has become a true tidal current of personal stories, impressive improvisations, and the unique voice of the SwissPolish-Japanese singer, composer, and improviser.

Ghostly Kisses is the work of French-Canadian singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Margaux Sauvé. Playing the violin since the age of 5, it was almost 20 years later that she began to write and sing her first songs. Now working with Louis-Étienne Santais - composer, producer, and pianist - together they create Ghostly Kisses’ haunting yet ultimately soothing sound; beautiful compositions wrapped around Margaux’s delicate vocal.

This Spring Brisa releases Hero Palo, an intimate electro pop addiction with an indie urban nod, a record kept secret for some time, made between London and Paris with young Brit producer Second Date.

Immersed in the communal, ceremonial and healing qualities of music, this record is the next epoch from the South Africa-based multidisciplinary artist and follows his acclaimed solo eponymous debut. Recorded live with an ensemble of thirteen musicians, On the Romance of Being consists of eight movements that sonically sprawl across post-gospel, spiritual jazz, black classical and the ancient music of the Nguni and Ndau peoples and elicits a sincere conversation between the erotic and spiritual.

It’s been seven strange years since The Veils’ last studio album Total Depravity, and Finn Andrews has a new double LP to show for it. …And Out Of The Void Came Love is the result of this tumultuous period of injury, isolation and new life…

London-based artist Lucinda Chua releases her debut solo album YIAN via 4AD.

Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 is a compilation combining original recordings and select DJ tracks from the vaults of Blacklips Performance Cult, a collective of underground performers, artists and drag queens who took to NYC’s Pyramid Club stage every Monday night at 1 am to perform original plays. The broad spectrum of emotional expression, ferocity, humor and transgression evident in these collected recordings are a further indication of the group’s oeuvre.

A heavenly record projects marks the 20-year collaboration between the contemporary classical trio Alpaca Ensemble and jazz saxophonist and composer Eirik Hegdal. «The Sky Opens Twice» is a pop, experimental, contemporary.. Ah forget it. Just listen! And heads up (and ears tuned in) for singer and lyricist Thea Ellingsen Grant!