New Music Friday: Stream new projects from Arushi Jain, Chastity Belt, NTS, and more

The excellent new album from the Indian-American electronic artist Arushi Jain seeks constant engagement from the listener, insisting upon itself without a hint of harshness or dissonance. In creating the new record, Jain says she sought “to instill belief in the ever-present nature of delight… assert[ing] the need to actively seek it when not readily found.” It’s a subtly ambitious goal for an experimental album dominated by modular synths and reinterpretations of traditional Hindustani vocals: the concept of “delight” is a far more active one than the “bliss” or “serenity” found in ambient music, and there are no pop tropes to lean on to achieve that sense of instant gratification. Yet Delight wholly succeeds at evoking its primary emotion with a suite of soaring, swirling compositions; listening all the way through feels like watching a timelapse of the clouds in your brain slowly disappearing. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

One of the difficulties of tapping into any forward-thinking global dance music scene is navigating the culture from afar and finding your way when you don’t actually have boots on the ground. For the curious listener outside of Brazil, funk music can be a difficult world to parse, not just because of the language barrier, but because the country’s many vibrant variations of funk music tend to mostly exist as an often-overwhelming flood of loose singles rather than the strict album cycles we’re conditioned to expect in the States. The new NTS compilation funk.BR - S​ã​o Paulo serves as an accessible survey of one of the most forward-thinking and sonically adventurous music scenes anywhere in the world today, summarizing the pulse of SP funk without sacrificing any of its lawless pirate edge. Like Brazil itself, S​ã​o Paulo is many overlapping worlds existing within one, and a variety of styles co-exist here as part of the system ecosystem of funk: DJ Dayeh works her sorceress magic behind the decks with an incantation of taunting bruxaria, while DJ Wizard’s “Balacobaco Hardcore” dabbles in hardstyle rave. Later, DJ Arana’s “Montagem Phonk Brasileiro” flips Memphis rap to riff on the common tendency of gringos to confuse Brazilian funk with the strange European club-rap style that’s become known as “phonk.” — Nadine Smith

Hear it: Bandcamp

Chastity Belt started off as a joke band in Walla Walla, Washington, four friends throwing up a collective middle finger at the frat parties that populated their college town. Early singles “Nip Slip” and “Pussy Weed Beer” were both a celebration and mockery of the early adulthood years they’d suddenly found themselves in, taking an unserious, humorous approach to topics such as femininity and the constraints of gender stereotypes. As they’ve aged, their music has become increasingly introspective and intimate, moving away from the silliness of “Cool Slut” and exploring the kind of melancholy and weariness that naturally comes with getting older, and perhaps lonelier. They haven’t lost their playful touch, though: On their new album, Live Laugh Love, they ask questions about the point of life and the debilitating nature of existence, but their album title is a reminder that it just doesn’t have to be that deep. All you need is a little help from your friends. — Cady Siregar

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Chicano Batman may be primarily known for their dynamic take on tropicália, often infused with elements of jazz, cumbia, and ’70s-style lounge sounds, but their latest album could be considered their most brazen experiment yet. On Notebook Fantasy, the beloved Los Angeles-based trio maintain their spacey, psychedelic swag, but deliver it with the attitude of an ’80s rock anthem. Using neon-colored synths and that ultra-polished recording style associated with maximalist stadium hits, the band deploys these cartoonishly bold production tools on songs like “Fly” and “Parallels” to emphasize their love of a seductive groove and the jam band-esque spontaneity that makes them so special. The end result is a strange and sexy record that’s uninhibited, inventive, and an absolute delight. — Sandra Song

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

The ad hoc experimental supergroup of New York-via-Texas singer and multi-instrumentalist more eaze, Italian producer and OOH Sounds founder Pardo, and French electronic duo Glass is a deeply complex work that can be simply enjoyed. The ambient symbiosis between Glass member Hugo Lamy’s guitar drones and more eaze’s voice and pedal steel — both extensions, in the end, of her prodigious mental instrument — is stunning on its own, especially considering the parts were recorded an ocean apart. But paris paris, texas texas isn’t just an ambient album; it’s full of glistening field recordings, warped processing filters, and disarming overdubs (courtesy of Pardo and Glass’s other half, Etienne Reimund) that complicate the pristine guitars and voice, jumbling them into configurations that verge on noisy and are at times even ominous. The darkening clouds of sound never fully burst, though, leaving the passive listener in a state of slightly spiked bliss, and the active one in a tense, tingling mode of perpetual stimulation. — Raphael Helfand

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Sainté occupies a unique space in the U.K. rap scene. Neither a hard-boiled storyteller nor an experimental alternative artist, he instead has the ability to float between the two factions with his laidback delivery and excellent ear for beats carrying him through with ease. Still Local is the most confident project to date from the rapper, who moved to Britain from Zimbabwe as a child. Appearances from Chow Lee, Lil Silva, and Potter Payper speak to Sainté’s versatility but it’s the solo tracks that shine brightest. “Tea Over Henny” is a hazy celebration of chasing purity with a hard-hitting low end. “Stop Crying,” meanwhile, mixes bank-balance flexing with squeaking bed samples. It’s on “Y2K” that Sainté best sums up his appeal, though. Sprawling over a patient and soulful production, he boils down his essence into one bar: “I’m smooth with it, you can Google it.” It’s a simple line that, like all of the best parts of of Still Local, feels effortless.. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music