Kate NV - Для For

Score: 8.4 

The second full-length album from Russian composer Kate NV is a fantastic micro-exploration of her native Moscow, packed with whimsy, colourfully artsy little pieces of music that rush, play and intertwine in cathartic ways to create the quietest protest album one can remember. There's a sense of joy but unease, nature but machina, and slow-motion but liquidity.

Tracks I like the most: Ухо Ear, Как How, Жук Bug, Зря See, Пес Dog

Tracks I like the least: Дуб Oak

Artist: Kate NV

Country: Russia

Album: Для For

Released: 22/06/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Ambient, Drone

Length: 37:23

Tierra Whack - Whack World

Score: 8.3 

The self-released, debut album from rapper Tierra Whack is just 15 minutes long and composed by 15 songs, 1-minute each. Despite the ridiculous shortage, the artist manages to display her weird personality, letting herself be vulnerable, sassy, chilly, angry, sweet and determined all at once or separately. Most of the tracks even find their ways to develop and flourish in their 60 seconds, though you might be cursing at them because you'd like them to be longer! Overall, it's an unorthodox, bizarre but endearing experience that showcases the gargantuan potential the artist contains in her loveable persona.

Tracks I like the most: Bugs Life, Hungry Hippo, Pet Cemetery, Fuck Off, Pretty Ugly, Dr. Seuss, Waze

Tracks I like the least: 4 Wings

Artist: Tierra Whack

Country: United States

Album: Whack World

Released: 30/05/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Electronic, R&B, Experimental

Length: 15:00

Telescopios - Doble De Riesgo

Score: 7.4 

The Córdoba-based Argentinian electrorock band Telescopios delivers their sophomore full-length album and, in its compressed 31 minutes, they are able to unfold endless imaginatory ideas that float into space, mixing psychedelia with distortion, reverb, samples and boogy electronics. Where the vocals may fall a bit redundant, the decoration surrounding them add up to the experience; it's a polished album that, despite the fact that it can be better, still sounds in orbit with its desires and objectives.

Tracks I like the most: El Famoso, Tus Amigos De La Cia, El Antivirus

Tracks I like the least: La Partícula De Dios

Artist: Telescopios

Country: Argentina

Album: Doble De Riesgo

Released: 11/03/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Synth-Pop, Electronic, Psychedelic Pop

Length: 31:50

Bandalos Chinos - Bach

Score: 7.6 

The Argentinian indie rock band returns after a couple of EPs to deliver some of the most inspirational, diverse and freely magnetic music the country is currently watching all over its extense territory. There are songs that aim for the beach, others for the dancefloor and a few for the cozy bedroom, and they're all tighted up together with complex, flourishing instrumentals, wacky inter-interludes and a Spinetta-esque leading voice to mellow everything else out.

Tracks I like the most: Súper V, Tema De Susana, Ácido

Tracks I like the least: El Club De La Montaña

Artist: Bandalos Chinos

Country: Argentina

Album: Bach

Released: 03/08/2018

Genres: Indie Rock, Indie Pop, Electronic

Length: 42:29

DJ Koze - Knock Knock

Score: 8.4 

To say Knock Knock, the latest album from the German electronic producer DJ Koze, is weird is an understatement. Pulverised by disorienting, atonal and celestial tracks, beats, samples and sounds, the sixteen songs that compose this odyssey are less dancefloor-oriented than soul-wrenching. When you enter into its world, you might be expecting to move your body to the rhythm of warpable austerities, but as songs go by, you forget that and, instead, you can't wait for the unusual surprises to unfold and marvel. DJ Koze manages to make us feel both obliterated and vibrant as ever, and both claustrophobic and levitated. The record feels like the clearest example of the extents and barriers of electronic music or, more precisely, the lack thereof.

Tracks I like the most: Scratch That, Moving In A Liquid, Illumination, Pick Up, Planet Hase, Muddy Funster, Lord Knows

Tracks I like the least: Colors Of Autumn

Artist: DJ Koze

Country: Germany

Album: Knock Knock

Released: 04/05/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, House, Techno, Ambient, Soul, Funk, IDM, Pop

Length: 78:37

Lali - Brava

Score: 4.0 

It isn't fair to say the third album from Latin-American pop sensation Lali Espósito is a complete disaster because it simply isn't: there are, now and then, some pretty decent tracks for, at least, what mainstream pop demands and measures. But it's a true pity to see that, mostly, the album suffers from an irreversible identity crisis. What's the purpose of it? Does it exist besides the fact of pure commerce and catchiness? It is hard to justify the hard picks that the team had crafted, especially seeing the tremendous mixing problems that some songs have, and that add to the general unpleasant feelings the album gives you. Whether it's on trap, reggaetón, pop or teen balladry, Brava feels fierce in its prose but unwilling to take any risks musically. It's the main symptom of the era we live in: quick, filthy, but generally unsubstantial.

Tracks I like the most: Besarte Mucho, 100 Grados, Una Na

Tracks I like the least: OMG!, Somos Amantes, Salvaje

Artist: Lali

Country: Argentina

Album: Brava

Released: 10/08/2018

Genres: Pop, Electronic, Reggaetón, Trap

Length: 42:23

Christina Aguilera - Liberation

Score: 7.7 

The pop diva returns after six years with an incredibly powerful album, packed up with great production and her usual vocal marvels. Liberation works because it touches so many moods, styles, ranges and topics, and nails in all of them: from furious feminist rocky anthems, going through jammy and dancey pop songs, to edgy and bassy hip hop nuances. There's plenty of room for people to pick the version of Christina they like the most, but I wouldn't blame them if they end up choosing them all.

Tracks I like the most: Accelerate, Right Moves, Fall In Line, Like I Do, Pipe

Tracks I like the least: Sick Of Sittin', Maria

Artist: Christina Aguilera

Country: United States

Album: Liberation

Released: 15/06/2018

Genres: Pop, R&B, Soul, Hip Hop, Ballad, Electronic, Rock

Length: 49:27

Tirzah - Devotion

Score: 7.9 

After a couple of grandiose EPs with her friend, producer and collaborator Mica Levi from Micachu And The Shapes, singer-songwriter Tirzah Mastin makes her much-anticipated debut full-length album and indulges in a distorted, dystopian and anguishly sympathetic version of what post-R&B could sound like. There are equal moments of despair, energy, balladry and dance-oriented delirium, but there's the constant sense of emotion and vulnerability what not only keeps the eleven pieces tight, but also make you dive into the artist's darkest corners and rawest thoughts. Each piece nicely detached from reality, yet simply-executed, Devotion offers a lot and doesn't ask for too much in exchange; that's what makes it as instant as likeable.

Tracks I like the most: Devotion, Gladly, Affection

Tracks I like the least: Basic Need, Fine Again

Artist: Tirzah

Country: United Kingdom

Album: Devotion

Released: 10/08/2018

Genres: Electronic, R&B, Soul, Experimental, Downtempo

Length: 38:49

Basa Basa - Homowo

Score: 8.0 

Dutch label Vintage Voudou attempts at rereleasing lost albums from the jungly corners of electronic African music and, serving this purpose, delivers a remastering of 1979's Homowo by Basa Basa. In it, there's an amazing fusion of styles that all serve to create spaces both exhilaratingly joyful and energetically psychedelic. 

Tracks I like the most: Homowo, Konya, African Soul Power (Instrumental)

Tracks I like the least: Black Light

Artist: Basa Basa

Country: Ghana/Nigeria

Album: Homowo

Released: 13/02/2018

Genres: Electronic, Disco, Funk, Soul, Afrobeat, Psychedelic, World, Highlife

Length: 38:33

Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death In Meatspace

Score: 8.4 

The debut full-length album from the Australian art punk supergroup is chaotic in its cinematicity and apocalyptic performance, dwelling on heavily distorted instrumentals and scrappy vocal harmonies and fulled with political and socially raw themes. Some tracks can get lost into their own maximalisms, but if you consider that that was the point on the first place, the record can't be categorised as anything but superior. Above all, the band continually shows great chemistry, potential, and excellence. Big ups on that.

Tracks I like the most: You Let My Tyres Down, The Future Of History, Soft Power

Tracks I like the least: A Laughing Death In Meatspace

Artist: Tropical Fuck Storm

Country: Australia

Album: A Laughing Death In Meatspace

Released: 04/05/2018

Genres: Alternative Rock, Blues Rock, Experimental Rock, Garage Rock, Post-Punk

Length: 47:17