REC 01
Gangrene
Better Than McDonald's
♪ underground hip-hopShatter the Standards frames the Alchemist and Oh No's Gangrene as the place loops get chosen on the basis of how ugly they are, the pair rapping stoned, angry, and pleased with themselves over samples no sane producer would give a client. It's the deliberate inverse of the smoothed-over daytime client work both men leave at the door.
REC 02
FATHERS
STUB
The grooviest cut on the self-titled Blue Note debut from the trio of Kiefer, CARRTOONS, and Nate Smith, where synths whirl over keys, drums, and bass in synchronous flow. Recorded in roughly 48 hours of improvised sessions with Kenny Beats as producer and creative director at his Putnam Hill studio.
REC 03
Kelela
new avatar
Kelela's most accomplished record yet, complementing her genre-splicing adventurism with a new sense of lightness and self-assurance. The opener "idea 1" leaps from downtempo meditation to space-age hymn on quicksilver guitars and skyscraping harmonies, while shoegaze textures from her D.C. indie years resurface across "linknb" and "crystalize." "don't piss me off" foregrounds UKG's slippery low-end with new confidence, and guests like PinkPantheress and AK Paul open up space that suits her.
REC 04
RAYE
Who Knows Where the Time Goes
♪ Pop / Jazz-PopThe Gig singles out RAYE's Montreux opener, a cover of Sandy Denny's 1966 song, delivered with power and pliability and a steady command of dramatic tension and tonal shading. Her Nina Simone name-check elides the more complicated history of that 1976 set, but the vocal itself justifies extending grace.
REC 05
Hen Ogledd
Dead In A Post-Truth World
Lamniformes calls this 2026 Discombobulated track an absolute jam where the Richard Dawson bits are the most straightforward stretches. Stick around for the killer sax solo: the band stays consistent while the arrangement shifts like a constantly moving amoeba, never the same shape twice.
REC 06
Play Time
Q&A
From the trio's debut LP Magic Object, where percussionist Booker Stardrum (SML, Weyes Blood), saxophonist Will Epstein (Nicolás Jaar, Darkside), and synth player Ben Vida oscillate between spiritual jazz and Krautrock. Epstein's brass becomes the focal point above a Vida-Stardrum rhythm section, with overdubbed saxophone unisons giving the illusion of multiple horns in conversation. Grown out of a bar-band residency at Tubby's in Kingston, New York.
REC 07
Charanjit Singh
Raga Bhairav
♪ proto-acid house / electronic ragaThe Bollywood session musician blended ancient Indian ragas with electronic dance beats made on then-state-of-the-art Roland gear: the Jupiter-8, TR-808, and TB-303. The result uncannily anticipated the sound of Chicago acid house by five years, an album way ahead of its time now returned via reissue.
REC 08
FATHERS
Pearl
♪ jazz/beat-tape fusionBorn from an accidental two-day session when Kiefer, CARRTOONS and Nate Smith gathered to test a new studio console, the record moves at the clipped, looped pace of a beat tape. Shatter the Standards singles out PEARL, where a light, Brazilian-influenced groove lets Kiefer deliver compact melodic cells while Carr weaves complex lines between them.
REC 09
Nathan Fake
Hypercube (Hard Version)
One of five versions on the Hypercube EP, drawn from the LP Evaporator. While early buzz gathered around the Basile3 Remix, a closer listen points to the Hard Version that opens the set: a retro bleed of breakbeats and hard trance, a summer banger.
