The Ophelias - Almost

Score: 8.2 

Cincinnati band The Ophelias return with their sophomore album and display a knack for variety, sweet details and cocky ideas on it. It's clear their intentions are somber, no matter how hard they try to hide them behind layers of sugary indie pop fused with classical arrangements. There's nothing spectacular or breath-taking on Almost, but who said that that is mandatory for an album to be great?

Tracks I like the most: Generical Electric, Night Signs, Lunar Rover, House

Tracks I like the least: O Command

Artist: The Ophelias

Country: United States

Album: Almost

Released: 13/07/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Classical Crossover

Length: 29:47

Forest Swords - DJ-Kicks

Score: 8.7 

The latest release from the unclassifiable electronic producer Matthew Barnes comes in the shape of a curation for record label !K7's classic edition of DJ-Kicks. It's a fantastic journey that lets us dive deep into the artist's mindset, personal likes and possible influences when it comes to music as a manifesto. Twenty-seven tracks roll and blend into each other for an hour to create something as raw, wild and cacophonous as liberatingly wide, coherent and elegant. Going through eras, genres, moods and messages, this compilation of tracks can easily define Forest Swords' own music: timeless, rooted into the ancient past but fixed onto the unknown and otherworldly organic future.

Tracks I like the most: Best Friend (Mixed), With The Day Comes The Dawn (Mixed), Blank Project (Mixed), Crow, Gyal A Devil (Mixed), Mnemosyne (Mixed), Here Before (Mixed)

Tracks I like the least: Three Sisters Theme

Artist: Forest Swords

Country: United Kingdom

Album: DJ-Kicks

Released: 18/05/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Dub, Techno, IDM, Ambient, Reggae, Psychedelic, Folk, Sound Collage
Length: 64:36

Laurel Halo - Raw Silk Uncut Wood

Score: 7.9 

The latest release from experimental electronic artist Laurel Halo departs itself from her usual catalogue of cerebral, twisted and gummy spaces to contort into ambient and maximalism. The results feel utterly fresh, as if each of the six pieces interacting on the project know their function in their universe - as unsettling and otherworldly as urgent and tranquil. Another proof that the composer can reach out to the galaxies whenever she wants to.

Artist: Laurel Halo

Country: United States

Album: Raw Silk Uncut Wood

Released: 13/07/2018

Genres: Ambient, Experimental, Electronica, Sound Collage

Length: 32:29

Dirty Projectors - Lamp Lit Prose

Score: 7.2 

The eighth album from the mutant experimental band Dirty Projectors comes after a year of its gloomiest and most visceral album yet. While the immaculate vocals, production and mixing are still there, ever-present and ever-growing as always, the guest artists are mostly squandered and some of the ideas protrayed in the project are redundant to the point of exhaustion and elevated to the point of inaccessibility. Lamp Lit Prose is a daring pop record that deserves to be highlighted, but it's definitely lower than what we come to expect from such a voracious group.

Tracks I like the most: Break-Thru, That's A Lifestyle, You're The One

Tracks I like the least: Zombie Conqueror, I Found It In U

Artist: Dirty Projectors

Country: United States

Album: Lamp Lit Prose

Released: 13/07/2018

Genres: Experimental Pop, Indie Pop, Baroque Pop, Electronica

Length: 37:20

Snail Mail - Lush

Score: 6.7 

The debut album from the solo project of the 19-year-old Lindsey Jordan aims at choking and expanding the terrains of bedroom, teenage indie rock. Sadly, what it actually does is to add another record to the already crowded music library of angry, existentially wounded young artists who claim not to know the answers while (at the same time) not putting the right questions in the first place. Lush works better for its aesthetics than for its content, and only shines at sporadic, rare glimpses.

Tracks I like the most: Heat Wave, Golden Dream

Tracks I like the least: Stick

Artist: Snail Mail

Country: United States

Album: Lush

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Bedroom Pop

Length: 38:16

Sleep - The Sciences

Score: 8.6 

The supergroup trio Sleep returns after more than a decade to deliver their most spacious album to date, lingering on five epic songs that lurk on heavy drones and schizophrenic riffs to pull off some of the most intense and interesting stoner metal compositions of the decade. It's a pleasure to have them back, and even better than ever.

Tracks I like the most: The Sciences, Marijuanaut's Theme, Antarcticans Thawed

Tracks I like the least: Sonic Titan

Artist: Sleep

Country: United States

Album: The Sciences

Released: 20/04/2018

Genres: Doom Metal, Stoner Rock, Drone Metal

Length: 53:00 

Jorja Smith - Lost & Found

Score: 8.5 

The British rapper, singer-songwriter and producer releases her debut full-length album and overwhelms with charisma, sensuality and passion. Lost & Found feels minimal and quiet in its place, but destroys your feelings with its razor-blade storytelling, bubbly production and stellar compositions. At just 21 years old, it's clear we're in front of one of the most powerful new voices of this generation, and I'm sure this is just the beginning.

Tracks I like the most: Teenage Fantasy, Where Did I Go?, February 3rd, The One, Lifeboats (Freestyle), Goodbyes, Don't Watch Me Cry

Tracks I like the least: Wandering Romance

Artist: Jorja Smith

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Lost & Found

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: R&B, Soul, Trip Hop, Hip Hop, Electronica, Indie Pop

Length: 46:00

Kimbra - Primal Heart

Score: 8.3 

The third album from the New Zealand artist Kimbra is explosive in its etherealness and celestiality. Sometimes hard-pushing, sometimes hauntingly introspective, the attention to the detail and the harmony of instrumental voices keep this record from falling onto identity tramps. Obfuscated between synth-pop and blue-eyed soul, Primal Heart feels authentic in its intentions and vivid in its execution.

Tracks I like the most: Top Of The World, Everybody Knows, Version Of Me, Right Direction, Real Life 

Tracks I like the least: Human

Artist: Kimbra

Country: New Zealand

Album: Primal Heart

Released: 20/04/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Synth-Pop, R&B, Soul, Electronica

Length: 44:24

Mourn - Sorpresa Familia

Score: 7.2 

The third album from the Barcelona-based indie rock band is raw, young and messy all around. The formula is still intact, and the results surely pay off, but after twelve songs one would be hoping for more diversity for an interesting change. It's still a band to keep an eye on, but the maturity of their sound should them climb high and get them even more attention than what they already have and search for.

Tracks I like the most: Barcelona City Tour, Orange, Doing It Right

Tracks I like the least: Strange Ones, Divorce

Artist: Mourn

Country: Spain

Album: Sorpresa Familia

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Post-Punk

Length: 29:18

Iceage - Beyondless

Score: 7.0 

The fourth album from the Danish post-punk band Iceage delivers a set of songs that intend to mix their already established landmark sounds with some vaudeville, jazz fusion and gothic music. Though the results are some of the most diverse music they've ever done, it's almost impossible to unnotice the lack of passion and sense of entertainment the members are having. It's not a bad record but, for their standards, it usually misses the point more often than it hits it.

Tracks I like the most: Pain Killer, Showtime

Tracks I like the least: Under The Sun, Beyondless

Artist: Iceage

Country: Denmark

Album: Beyondless

Released: 04/05/2018

Genres: Post-Punk, Indie Rock, Jazz Fusion, Art Punk, Art Rock

Length: 40:54