Like the music of L’Rain or Ryley Walker, it’s as close to jazz as rock: virtuosity not as a means of showing off, but approaching the sublime. Dreams, the Taiwanese trio’s third album, is their most impressive and varied yet, with synths and wind instruments, a chill neo-soul collab and a prog-funk rendition of a Macbeth soliloquy. No matter how knotty the time signature, their dazzling interplay of guitar, bass, and drums conveys a sense of wonder. Listen: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal Elephant Gym: DreamsĮlephant Gym’s math rock has the same spellbinding qualities as fractals or quantum mechanics.

The duo move through romance (“Summer 06”), autobiography (“Dunk Contest”), and straight shit-talk (“Shuriken”) with frightening ease. For All Debts Private and Public pairs his writerly eye with the supreme rhythms of Chicago producer Boathouse, whose beats flip early-2000s underground grit into expansive and rich sounds. The details in his writing-the hastily applied Sean John cologne before a date, the baby bottle he’s brushing in the sink-bring a sense of place to his otherwise rock-solid rapping. Striker Life/Closed Sessions Defcee / Boathouse: For All Debts Private and PublicĬhicago rapper Defcee is an evocative storyteller. It’s their warmest and most hopeful album yet. Their latest album Precipice is no exception: Between the gnarled trudge of “The Harbingers” and the humid swing of “Good,” the songs are bound by a sense of catharsis in an increasingly dangerous world. Their dedication to delivering a muddy mix of industrial, shoegaze, and ambient in a hip-hop package has kept them at the vanguard of the genre for almost 25 years. New Jersey experimental rap group dälek walked so generations of left-field rappers and producers could run. Listen: Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify | Tidal dälek: Precipice Her tracks sparkle with new-telescope fidelity, and whether you’re venturing into space or just a foggy dancefloor, the wobbly basslines of “Red Comet” and laser-guided groove of standout “DRM” unfold with an irresistible sense of adventure. On Simmer, black hole bass hits and light-footed rhythms combine into pummeling techno with a bleary acid bath halo. As a child, Seoul producer Closet Yi was first drawn to the electronic music she heard in the background of her older sister’s video games as an adult, she cites influences including Avalon Emerson, DJ Koze, and Baltimore club.

Real wild child lyrics