New Music Friday: Stream Projects from Shabazz Palaces, Wild Nothing, Sofia Kourtesis, and more

Hold is the first Wild Nothing album in five years but Jack Tatum's razor-sharp indie-pop skills haven't blunted through lack of use. The dream-pop and light shoegaze aesthetic of previous albums remains in part, but Hold is buoyed by a newfound looseness and sense of rhythm. This is most notable on the Haçienda-centric "Headlights On," as well as recent single "Suburban Solutions," which takes anxiety about moving out of the city and turns it into a burst of synth-pop adrenaline. Lyrically, Tatum's concerns lie in maintaining old relationships as well as building new ones, particularly being a new father. It's a record that required time and maturity to come to fruition with Tatum ultimately opting to escape the fear and disquiet of life by shaking it all out through his limbs. — David Renshaw

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Shabazz Palaces return with Ishmael Butler's second album under the moniker since the departure of Tendai Maraire prior to 2020's The Don of Diamond Dreams. Like that album, Robed In Rareness hews closer to the murky emo rap of son Lil Tracy, who appears on "Woke Up In A Dream." Shabazz's bars trudge through the treacly instrumental of "Scarface Mace" and shimmy over the muted groove of "Gel Bait." The hollow throb of "Cinnamon Bun" sounds as if Shabazz's vocals were beamed in from across the galaxy, instead of his native Seattle. As days grow short and gloomy, the doleful lilt of Robed In Rareness makes for an ideally extrastellar soundtrack to seasonal ennui. — Vivian Medithi

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House music is defined by momentum. Even when it just meditates on a few repeated bars of glowing melody and one of the disco-indebted beats that have been passed down for decades, house urges us to move forward, whether in our bodies or our minds. Madres, the debut album from Peruvian DJ and producer Sofia Kourtesis, treats momentum with considerably more curiosity. Title track and album opener "Madres" beckons you in with the enticing disposition of an Ibiza rave beyond the pearly gates — with the exception of one song, the haunting and drumless spoken word track "Moving Houses," Madres always foregrounds Balearic joy, even when things take a turn towards steely techno. As technically masterful as it is brimming with mad, unwieldy awe, Madres rejects saccharine emotions in favor of complex, deeply human vibrance — Jordan Darville

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While working on her fourth studio LP, Catalan composer-producer Marina Hernández López (better known as Marina Herlop) visualized the project — and her creative ethos at large — as a garden she needed to nourish back to health. It’s a more traditionally structured album than her previous one, Pripyat, even outwardly poppy in some places. Still, Herlop’s garden remains wild and overgrown, far from the manicured lawn a less adventurous artist might create with the same goal in mind.

Nekujja’s first two tracks, “Busa” and “Cosset,” are gnarled and unwieldy, full of nervous percussion and jump–scare synths. Songs like these help balance the album’s later, less complex moments of catharsis, thoroughly earning the (almost) club-ready production on its satisfying closer, “Navi.” — Raphael Helfand

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In his first fully instrumental album since Endtroducing….., DJ Shadow delivers a cinematic and dynamic exploration of beats. Don't expect something too similar to the producer's seminal debut, though. He's considered one of music's greatest innovators for a reason, and this record proves it with its unique blend of footwork, synthwave, and of course, hip-hop. Standout tracks for me include "All My," "Forever Changed," and "She's Evolving." — Arielle Lana LeJarde

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To admit that your favorite bands are getting older is to admit that you, too, are getting older. There’s always a certain kind of bittersweet sentimentality that comes with musicians returning with new music after a long stint away, but for The Gaslight Anthem with History Books, their first album in a decade, they embrace both their own longevity and aging nature, accepting that inevitable passage of time. History Books is full of the heartland Americana they’ve been so known for (and even recruiting Mr. America himself, Bruce Springsteen, on the titular track) along with a tender reflectiveness and gratitude that only comes as the years start to pass. — Cady Siregar

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music