Nihiloxica - Biiri

8.2

The second EP from the Ugandan ensemble once again defies what "traditional music" actually means by blending Bugandan rhythms with industrial techno, schizophrenic ambient and a perpetuating feeling of danger and disdain.

Highlights

- The music is absorbing and heavy-loaded.

- The musicians are at the peak of their revolutions and moods.

- The record is dark, menacing and relentlessly savage.

Lowlights

- The technique of speeding up the pace in the last minute gets repetitive after the first half.

Standouts

- Baksimba

- Ding Ding

- Digga Dagga

Country: Uganda

Released: February 13, 2019

Length: 19:17

Solange - When I Get Home

8.8

With When I Get Home, Solange reaffirms her unbeatable ability to concoct effortlessly sequenced tracks that seem like a whole long song while still sharing varied layers and moods altogether. Not only that, but she cements herself as an unstoppable force redefining soul and crafting galactic production that plays with ambient and stoic repetition. More of a complement of than a contraposition to her previous magnum opus, the album lulls with the universal and the sensual in a work of art that transcends and awes from beginning to end relentlessly.

Highlights

- The stellar production team, in love with tiny details, delirious moods and constant magic.

- Solange's voice, as deadpan as savvy, offering just as much as it wants to and no more.

- The sequence the songs hold is a feature few other artists can show off.

Lowlights

- The use of repetition does have a purpose, but it gets excessive at certain parts.

- The majority of the tracks seem like interludes or mini-songs. While they find ways to grab power and substance, one is left wanting for even more.

Standouts

- Almeda

- Down With The Clique

- Binz

Country: USA

Released: March 1, 2019

Length: 39:02

Ultramarine - Signals Into Space

7.3

The introverted duo returns with another classy, moody ambientronic record that exhumes breathiness, calm and instrumental creativity. Anna Domino turns out to be the gem element, and the piece that saves the record from falling into sea-level outrun.

Highlights

- Anna's voice gives power, mystery and substance to the tracks where she's involved.

- The tropical percussion and the nocturnal saxophones play a heavy role in developing the pace of the album.

- While long, the men never seem to lose their focus and inter-momentum.

Lowlights

- Some songs are too subdued in ambience that they get run out of strength.

- The record is 5-or-10-minute too long.

Standouts

- Arithmetic

- Breathing

- $10 Heel

Country: UK

Released: January 1, 2019

Length: 57:18

Xiu Xiu - Girl With Basket Of Fruit

8.6

Eleven albums in, Xiu Xiu once again gives proof that's one of the (if not the) most consistently inventive and stretching pop bands in the world. The songs here are as eerily weird as mumblingly touching, razor-blading Jamie Stewart's one-of-a-kind voice with Angela Seo's perplexing production.

Highlights

- All tracks contain schizophrenic instrumentation that nonetheless make perfect sense.

- As previously said: Jamie's voice is cryptic, hauntingly beautiful and disgusting, and Angela's mixing is phenomenal in shape and in space.

- There's violence, nonsensical reverie and debauchery and profound messages in every corner here.

Lowlights

- It would have been great if some tracks contained a bit more of four-on-the-floor rhythms.

- As engrossing as they are, the lyrics are frustratingly difficult to understand.

Standouts

- Pumpkin Attack On Mommy And Daddy

- Normal Love

- Scisssssssors

Country: USA

Released: February 8, 2019

Length: 36:36

Croatian Amor - Isa

6.4

The fifth solo release from the Danish sonic screwdriver not only lacks pace (no matter how abstract that term could get) but also identity, being the vocal guests the ones who bring the only pinches of brain, heart and movement onto the post-industrial sculptures.

Highlights

- Artist Soho Rezanejad might play the most interesting and pulsating role in the record, adding gut and vibrance to the tracks where she's guested.

- The concepts of pop structures are curiously compacted and warped throughout the running time.

Lowlights

- The voiceless tracks lack substance and depth in both meaning and execution.

- There's not a clear reason d'être to the disk and, for that, the experience might get a bit heavy to lift up at times.

Standouts

- In Alarm Light

- Eden 1.1

- Into Salt

Country: Denmark

Released: January 25, 2019

Length: 34:48

Dan Mason - Hypnagogia

6.0

Yes, vaporwave had its breakthrough and I can't blame fans for their upcoming passion onto the genre, but works like this make me rethink the purpose of lousy melancholia and over-candyed nostalgia for the simple sake of it at the end of the day.

Highlights

- It benefits from itself more when it dares to be backed up with singing and timid noise.

- If ambient stretches its primal conceptions, it pretty much does its job.

- It respects its monochromatic approach at the edge of obsequent coherence.

Lowlights

- It's just 9 songs and 39 minutes, but it still bores at times.

- Rapping through cliché-like plastic demagogy feels cringe-worthy.

- The surprises that appear every now and then underline the rest as even more dull.

Standouts

- Fade

- Shade

- Hopefully Forever

Country: USA

Released: January 11, 2019

Length: 39:56