Wooden Shjips - V.

Score: 7.4 

The newest release from the Portland-based psychedelic rock band is another solid statement of their formula: slow-burned songs that build up to emotive scales with their use of heavy layers of guitar passages, synthesizers and vocal overloads. It's an interesting tour through the members' minds; nothing spectacular, just seven well-created and mildly-executed tracks that'll appeal fans and dreamers alike.

Tracks I like the most: Eclipse, Staring At The Sun

Tracks I like the least: Golden Flower

Artist: Wooden Shjips

Country: United States

Album: V.

Released: 25/05/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Synth-Rock, Space Rock

Length: 42:19

Judas Priest - Firepower

Score: 8.8 

The eighteenth album from heavy metal legends Judas Priest is a wonderful collection of excellenty-executed tracks that bring power, euphoria, hope and companion to the listeners. The lyrics and the boiling instrumentation are crystal clear but bearing tremendous existential meanings, greatly connected into one another to form a unified piece that's more than the sum of its parts. After almost 50 years together, the band has rarely sounded this connected, this inspired and this provocative. It's a prolific testament and an invaluable addition to the metal archives.

Tracks I like the most: Firepower, Lightning Strike, Necromancer, Rising From Ruins, Flame Thrower, Traitors Gate, Sea Of Red

Tracks I like the least: Lone Wolf

Artist: Judas Priest

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Firepower

Released: 09/03/2018

Genres: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock

Length: 58:10

Rival Consoles - Persona

Score: 7.9 

The amazingly personal approach that English electronic producer Rival Consoles takes on ambient tech-house is moving and worth-(re)visiting for its enormous sense of detail, passion and humanity. For the majority of the tracks being positioned above 120 bpm, Persona keeps you sedated in its webs and lulled in its tender obscurantism for almost an hour. It's a great addition to the artist's already admirable catalogue, as well as an interesting one for the definition of what it means to breathe in electronic music.

Tracks I like the most: Dreamer's Wake, Hidden, Unfolding

Tracks I like the least: Phantom Grip, Untravel

Artist: Rival Consoles

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Persona

Released: 13/04/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Microhouse, IDM, Ambient Techno, Tech House

Length: 58:46

Panchasila - Panchasila

Score: 8.1 

The Argentinian duo Panchasila submerges into wild, unknown territories and brings back a mixture between South Asian, South American, Andine and jungly soundscapes to create a piece of extensively, holly-sampled, inducing and heavy dub clouds. It's a wondrous record that, for all the darkness and invisibility it tends to offer, feels as primal as moving and (why not?) charming.

Tracks I like the most: Patpong, Dalang, Sembiyan

Tracks I like the least: Runapayka

Artist: Panchasila

Country: Argentina

Album: Panchasila

Released: 24/08/2018

Genres: Electronic, Dub, Experimental, Ambient, Tribal, Cumbia, Andine Music

Length: 38:21

Jean Grae x Quelle Chris - Everything's Fine

Score: 8.5 

The collaborative album between engaged rappers Jean Grae and Quelle Chris is a cinematic, adventurous and quirky experience that delves into dark humour, satire and double-entendres to capitalize the demise and bittersweetness of our everyday's psyches as human beings living in Post-Modernism. The duo has an undeniable chemistry that is palpable in the flow, verses and robotic beats that form and shape the fifteen tracks on the record. Lots of guests appear, too, and help to make us understand that Everything's Fine knows we're doomed, but also that it's much better when we cope with life in communion, with wit and with perspicacity.

Tracks I like the most: Doing Better Than Ever, The Smoking Man, River, My Contribution To This Scam

Tracks I like the least: Breakfast Of Champions

Artist: Jean Grae x Quelle Chris

Country: United States

Album: Everything's Fine

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Experimental Hip Hop, Abstract Hip Hop, Conscious Hip Hop, Rap, Jazz Rap

Length: 55:22

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Score: 7.9 

The fourth release from genre-bending blackgaze band Deafheaven finds them in an almost buddhist-like self-reflection, with cathartic and sharp lyrics, ephemeral-yet-grand passages and inscrutably voidy instrumentation that mixes black metal with post-rock, shoegaze and epic chants. Far from sounding uninspired, the guys dare to delve into unexplored territories; may the results not being as gargantuan as with their previous records, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love still maintains the euphoria, the desperation and the quality all around.

Tracks I like the most: Honeycomb, Canary Yellow, Night People

Tracks I like the least: Near

Artist: Deafheaven

Country: United States

Album: Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

Released: 13/07/2018

Genres: Blackgaze, Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Experimental

Length: 61:36

Kamasi Washington - Heaven And Earth

Score: 7.6 

The newest album from American saxophonist Kamasi Washington is another incredible extension of his masterful skills as an instrumentalist, lyricst, composer and curator. But on Heaven And Earth, he seems to abandon the euphoria and schizophrenia that characterized and popularized him on his previous magnum opus The Epic for a more mature, stationary and mellow side. There's a constant sense of control all throughout, every piece in self-assuring position and every emotion stilthily calculated.

Tracks I like the most: Fists Of Fury, Can You Hear Him, Hub-Tones, Testify

Tracks I like the least: The Invincible Youth, Song For The Fallen

Artist: Kamasi Washington

Country: United States

Album: Heaven And Earth

Released: 22/06/2018

Genres: Contemporary Jazz, Afrobeat

Length: 144:32

Young Thug & Young Stoner Life Records - Slime Language

Score: 5.2 

The compilation album by rapper Young Thug and his label Young Stoner Life Records is an underwhelming collection of over-repetitive songs about luxury and bombastic lifestyles. Except for a few tracks (curiously, the ones where there's prominent female roles), Slime Language proves to be an example of how generic, unambitious hip hop can sometimes sound like.

Tracks I like the most: U Ain't Slime Enough, Expensive, Gain Clout, Oh Yeah

Tracks I like the least: January 1st, Chains Choking Me

Artist: Young Thug & Young Stoner Life Records

Country: United States

Album: Slime Language

Released: 17/08/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 50:43

Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

Score: 7.8 

The sixth record from indie folk band Wye Oak is their most maximalist, ambitious and diverse of them all. Packed up with jarring guitar passages, tuneful pop, airily suffocated folk and even glossy electronics, The Louder... feels like a meditation on life and its ephemerality, both at somber and lighty perspectives. It's a mature record that feels as a culmination of years of quietness, solitude, reflection and experimentation. 

Tracks I like the most: The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs, Lifer, The Instrument, Join

Tracks I like the least: Say Hello

Artist: Wye Oak

Country: United States

Album: The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs

Released: 06/04/2018

Genres: Indie Folk, Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Electronic

Length: 38:28

Czarface & MF DOOM - Czarface Meets Metal Face

Score: 8.1 

The collaborative album by hip hop supergroup Czarface and rapper MF Doom is a fantastic impersonation of blending old-school underground rap and the absurdly theatrical in form of sixteen songs that feel more like sketches fueled by distorted samples, eerie beats and thrilling verses. The fusion between the members of the record is palpable, and the flow and energy make us believe this is one of those records that were meant to be, with every single piece of it in its right position, and every bit of it in whimsically propelling potential.

Tracks I like the most: Phantoms, Meddle With Metal, Forever People, Stun Gun

Tracks I like the least: Captain Crunch, Astral Travelling

Artist: Czarface & MF Doom

Country: United States/United Kingdom

Album: Czarface Meets Metal Face

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Abstract Hip Hop, Experimental Hip Hop, Rap

Length: 43:37