Roy Of The Ravers - Who Are Ya??

Score: 8.4 

The newest release from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne dj and electronic producer working under the name Roy Of The Ravers is a continuation of his masterful approach to alien, hyperkinetic and frenetic acid house. In an hour-long record and throughout ten songs, he's able to portray insanely savage tunes as well as otherworldly ambient tracks, all concocted with a severe need to experiment and play with structures and rhythms. It's music as architecture that'll please hardcore fans as well as wild-music lovers.

Tracks I like the most: Supremacy Royale, All Aboard!!!, PTP9

Tracks I like the least: Who Are Ya??

Artist: Roy Of The Ravers

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Who Are Ya??

Released: 05/09/2018

Genres: Acid House, Techno, Ambient, Experimental

Length: 59:18

Hermit And The Recluse - Orpheus vs. The Sirens

Score: 8.0 

Hermit and the Recluse is a collaborative project between producer Animoss and retired underground rap legend Ka, and it surely stands on its own in the plethora of contemporary hip hop. The ten short tracks that build it are based on Greek mythology euphemisms and metaphors, all sleepily retold by the rapper's amazing sense of flow and narrative and carved up with relentlessly lo-fi and low-key beats, arrangements and samples. Orpheus vs. The Sirens is an admirable rap construction, as well as a hidden gem in today's music.

Tracks I like the most: Argo, Golden Fleece, Oedipus

Tracks I like the least: Orpheus

Artist: Hermit And The Recluse

Country: United States

Album: Orpheus vs. The Sirens

Released: 18/08/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Experimental, Lo-Fi, Abstract Hip Hop

Length: 32:49

Matt Dorrien - In The Key Of Grey

Score: 6.8 

The newest album from singer-songwriter Matt Dorrien is an attempt at mixing indie pop with ragtime. While the songs flow cohesively, all tighted up by strong instrumental performances and a swaggy rhythm, the lyrics and the vocal artistry on the whole record may rely too much on the influences up on its sleeve. In The Key Of Grey is enjoyable on its sorrow and melancholy, but it cannot escape falling as pastiche.

Tracks I like the most: Baby I'm So Lost, The Discontented Rag

Tracks I like the least: Maybe This Time

Artist: Matt Dorrien

Country: United States

Album: In The Key Of Grey

Released: 18/05/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Indie Pop, Ragtime, Singer-Songwriter

Length: 32:53

Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour

Score: 8.2 

The fourth album from country singer-songwriter Kacey Musgraves is her least americana-oriented record she's put out so far; instead, she indulges into pop and even electronic nuances to carry on her messages. It's a great one, that dares to try new things and mostly succeeds primarily because of the artist's warm and powerful voice and her sharp-eyed lyricism. There's hope on Golden Hour, and a lot of ideals, but the best part of it is that it never leaves the grounds of reality.

Tracks I like the most: Oh, What A World, Happy & Sad, Velvet Elvis, High Horse, Rainbow

Tracks I like the least: Butterflies

Artist: Kacey Musgraves

Country: United States

Album: Golden Hour

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Country Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Soft Rock, Dream Pop, Electronic

Length: 45:44

Courtney Marie Andrews - May Your Kindness Remain

Score: 8.5 

The latest release from singer-songwriter Courtney Marie Andrews is a group of fantastic expeditions through the tribulations and reflections of road life as well as city life. There's a huge sense of nostalgia, but the hope and tenderness that the hard-headed lyrics and the instrumentals offer add up to create a much more colourful palette. May Your Kindness Remain contains several micro-hits and is exemplary on the "less-is-more" theory.

Tracks I like the most: Kindness Of Strangers, May Your Kindness Remain, Rough Around The Edges, This House, Long Road Back To You

Tracks I like the least: Took You Up

Artist: Courtney Marie Andrews

Country: United States

Album: May Your Kindness Remain

Released: 23/03/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Country, Americana, Rock Folk

Length: 43:03

Faustina Masigat - Faustina Masigat

Score: 7.6 

The debut full-length album by singer-songwriter and producer Faustina Masigat is everything you could wish for in an indie folk  record: a couple of profound, tranquil songs about love, life and its complications and shines. Her voice manifests as a meandering force that melts into the gorgeous string arrangements and the relentlessly acoustic pace. Sweet but nostalgic, Faustina Masigat indulges you into a looped lullaby.

Tracks I like the most: Done Thinking About It, Different Ways

Tracks I like the least: Intervention, Poverty

Artist: Faustina Masigat

Country: United States

Album: Faustina Masigat

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Acoustic, Chamber Pop, Americana

Length: 41:02

Mac Miller - Swimming

Score: 7.5 

The fifth album from star rapper Mac Miller is his gloomiest and most introspective yet. It is the more fueled by the jazzy, smoothy instrumentation and great team production, and it's even bettered by beat switchs, lyrical cryptics and a tender sense of self-realization. Though somber and fuzzy, the record still breaths optimism and a bit of sunshine all throughout. It's an interesting, if not inoffensive, cloud rap record that exists in the myriad of the sky and usually dares to fall back home.

Tracks I like the most: What's The Use?, Hurt Feelings, Self Care, Dunno

Tracks I like the least: Perfecto

Artist: Mac Miller

Country: United States

Album: Swimming

Released: 03/08/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Jazz Rap, Cloud Rap, Neo Soul, R&B

Length: 57:29

Nathy Peluso - La Sandunguera

Score: 7.8 

After an excellent short album, the Argentinian unclassifiable artist residing in Spain called Nathy Peluso returns with her first EP, La Sandunguera. When you listen to some of her interviews, she stands it clear that hip hop is not merely a quarter of what she wants and expects to cover as an artist, and this gets even clearer when you listen to these six tracks that mumble across epoques, genres, paces, rhythms and moods, all tangled by her acrobatic and impressive vocals. The production doesn't risk as much as with her previous effort, but it's still the catchiest and better-produced one that an artist from her original country is daring to put in and develop. The EP is by any means the realization of Nathy as the artist she (and we) know she is, but it's at least a good starting point.

Tracks I like the most: La Sandunguera, Hot Butter

Tracks I like the least: Gimme Some Pizza

Artist: Nathy Peluso

Country: Argentina/Spain

Album: La Sandunguera

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Hip Hop, Rap, Latin Trap, Neo Soul, R&B, World, Mambo

Length: 20:57

Jon Hopkins - Singularity

Score: 8.4 

The latest full-length album from English dj and electronic producer Jon Hopkins takes off where his previous record Immunity landed, fusing elements of house, techno, experimentalism and ambient recordings to concoct a truly special stance that runs for an hour and for many moods and energies. It's a space odyssey that only artist with this knack for the surreal and the frantic are able to manage and excel at.

Tracks I like the most: Singularity, Emerald Rush, Neon Pattern Drum, C O S M

Tracks I like the least: Recovery

Artist: Jon Hopkins

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Singularity

Released: 04/05/2018

Genres: Electronic, House, Techno, Ambient, Experimental

Length: 62:10

Haley Heynderickx - I Need To Start A Garden

Score: 8.7 

The debut full-length studio album from Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter Haley Heynderickx and her crew is a vast, minimal but ambitious and rich record about the crudest and softest corners of life and death. It seems that every single detail has been masterfully thought-out and printed to create an atmosphere that grows and morphs in enormous dichotomies; all tighted up by the singer's infectiously fantastic voice. I Need To Start A Garden stands as one of the most introspectively powerful folk records of the year, and one of the most alluring statements in the music industry.

Tracks I like the most: Worth It, The Bug Collector, Jo, Oom Sha La La

Tracks I like the least: Untitled God Song

Artist: Haley Heynderickx

Country: United States

Album: I Need To Start A Garden

Released: 02/03/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Americana, Country

Length: 30:55