In Corp Sanctis - Eres Diferente

Score: 7.2 

The third full-length album from the emergent band In Corp Sanctis showcases great potential in its guitar-driven, wobbly-infatuated synths and trippy melodies, so it's a pity the songs weren't developed enough to leave off greater impressions. Eres Diferente delights, sure; it's just not the right amount of awe to jaw-drop.

Tracks I like the most: Que No Digan Nada, Todo Lo Que Intento

Tracks I like the least: Las Cuestiones Que Nos Tienen Preocupados

Artist: In Corp Sanctis

Country: Argentina

Album: Eres Diferente

Released: 07/09/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia

Length: 24:10

Jvlian - Crisis

Score: 6.2 

The sophomore release from the rap quintet carries a lot of promise, but it's usually unable to cope and live up to its initial pretenses. Some of the eight bassy, organic and almost-caricaturesque songs are fire, but some are just a glimpse of gas. Crisis is an even necessary step forward into their career, but it's also a symptom that they're not "there" quite yet.

Tracks I like the most: No Hay Foto De Lo Que Hicimos Hoy, Tam-Bien

Tracks I like the least: Desencantado

Artist: Jvlian

Country: Argentina

Album: Crisis

Released: 09/03/2018

Genres: Hip Hop, Rap, Soul, Funk

Length: 23:16

Los Mundos Posibles - Pintura De Guerra

Score: 7.3 

The collaboration between already experienced singers Rosario Bléfari and Julián Perla is a beautiful scope onto tranquil(ised), rhetorical, almost confesional-like romantic music. It's an overtake on love and its ups and downs, since every palette shows a different hue or shade of the human spectrum. Short and unambitious as it might get at times, Pintura De Guerra is no less powerful, and it surely demonstrates the chemistry between the artists; a kind of performative art to take into account in the future.

Tracks I like the most: Daba Para Más, La Guerra Del Japón, La Ciudad Más Austral Del Mundo

Tracks I like the least: En Otra Dimensión

Artist: Los Mundos Posibles

Country: Argentina

Album: Pintura De Guerra

Released: 19/01/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Indie Folk, Acoustic, Singer-Songwriter, Chamber Pop, Dream Pop

Length: 22:47

Niagara - Apologia

Score: 6.7 

The first full-length album from Portuguese electronic trio Niagara aims at mixing future beats with distant past exotica and carnavalesque sounds. It's certainly an entertaining listen and, at times, it has the potential of some bangers, but for the most part, one is wishing they would put and push their enormous capacities to wider, more challenging levels. Apologia serves its purpose goodly, but it's too comfy in its place to make you shake.

Tracks I like the most: França, Damasco, Siena, Cabo Verde

Tracks I like the least: Senhora Do Cabo

Artist: Niagara

Country: Portugal

Album: Apologia

Released: 14/09/2018

Genres: Electronic, Exotica, Experimental, World Music

Length: 53:53

Guerilla Toss - Twisted Crystal

Score: 7.1 

The latest release from New York-based band Guerilla Toss is a fine example of how quirky and playful can indie rock/pop sound like, given just the right amounts of trippy synths, energetic performances and savage lyrical content. Twisted Crystal achieves its purpose, but it's not on the peak of the band's career nor will it awe listeners and/or fans, though.

Tracks I like the most: Jesus Rabbit, Meteorological, Retreat

Tracks I like the least: Magic Is Easy, Walls Of The Universe

Artist: Guerilla Toss

Country: United States

Album: Twisted Crystal

Released: 14/09/2018

Genres: Indie Pop, Indie Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Zolo, Art Pop, New Wave, Dance-Punk

Length: 29:35

Ash Koosha - Unnamed

Score: 7.7 

This release from Iranian producer is a collection of unseen tracks he's been working on for the past couple of years, and are intended to be interpreted backwards, in a kind of journey that goes from the point of self-realisation to the starting second of life. It's a coherent record that sweeps and soothes with caustic, marbled voices and heavy-loaded, glitchy baroque instrumentation. Less a format of commercial art, Unnamed inhabits a rare space, where appreciation and meditation are key for it to cling into.

Tracks I like the most: Unnamed Pt.2, Unnamed Pt.6

Tracks I like the least: Unnamed Pt.9

Artist: Ash Koosha

Country: Iran/United Kingdom

Album: Unnamed

Released: 30/05/2018

Genres: Art Pop, Alternative R&B, Electronic, Experimental, Glitch Pop, Glitch Hop, Wonky

Length: 42:53

Lykke Li - so sad so sexy

Score: 5.8 

The fourth record from Swedish singer-songwriter Lykke Li deviates itself from the cannonical, heart-wrenching style of the artist to mimic modern trends and get close to trap-influenced sounds. The results are a failure: over-repetitive phrases try to impact, but are fastly overdriven by lazy production and almost silly lyricism. so sad so sexy works much better when it lets the singer do what she does best: break hearts and minds with her simple, rotten and profoundly touching voice and laid-back, confesional music.

Tracks I like the most: two nights, bad woman, utopia

Tracks I like the least: deep end, sex money feelings die

Artist: Lykke Li

Country: Sweden

Album: so sad so sexy

Released: 08/06/2018

Genres: Alternative R&B, Art Pop, Trap Pop, Singer-Songwriter, Ballad

Length: 34:02

Ash Koosha - AKTUAL

Score: 7.6 

After a grandiose debut album and a mild sophomore record, Iranian-born, British-established electronic producer Ash Koosha returns with the first part of his trilogy ZUUM, entitled AKTUAL. Though his intentions are clearly futuristic and dystopian, it's the first time we can see some glimpses of the past in the artist's approach to music, thanks to his innovative take on folk and traditional music. The blends between strings and synths have never sounded this blurry, and the more the instrumentalist gets close to the singer role, the more intimate (and almost intrusive) the songs feel. AKTUAL doesn't break new grounds nor it mesmerises with its tumultuous panache, but it certainly marks a shift into the composer's career and sets high bars for the other chapters to come.

Tracks I like the most: Aktual, End The End, Yona 1.1, Magnet

Tracks I like the least: Aroha, Eve

Artist: Ash Koosha

Country: Iran/United Kingdom

Album: AKTUAL

Released: 30/03/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Glitch Pop, Glitch Hop, Wonky, Folk, World Music, Ambient

Length: 44:16

altopalo - frozenthere

Score: 7.9 

New York-based band altopalo delivers unclassifiable low-key music that serves lots of purposes but clearly states that the quieter, the bigger. Few other times are we able to testify such control of silence, stillness and otherworldiness than on frozenthere. It's the sound of a band that knows what it wants and, most of all, how to achieve it; with its cavernous palette, its menacing intersections and its ever-growing tension, the album succeeds and lingers long after the music (or the lack thereof) stops. A huge achievement for such a young quartet.

Tracks I like the most: Mono, Blur, Pulp, Terra
Tracks I like the least: Wikcer

Artist: altopalo

Country: United States

Album: frozenthere

Released: 12/09/2018

Genres: Electronic, Experimental, Alternative R&B, Experimental Pop

Length: 35:17

Thou - Magus

Score: 5.7 

Thou is already known for heavy, drowning, cryptic and agonic drone sludge metal, but that doesn't take away the fact that their newest record, Magus, is excessively long; so long, it lets itself dissolve and lose out all the charm it may have initially had. It's a pity, since the album could have been greatly richer and strikier if it were at least half an hour shorter...

Tracks I like the most: Inward, Elimination Rhetoric

Tracks I like the least: Sovereign Self

Artist: Thou

Country: United States

Album: Magus

Released: 31/08/2018

Genres: Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Drone Metal

Length: 75:44