Race Jones
gangster. grace. alchemy
Chloe x Halle
The Two Of Us (self-released)
Chloe x Halle may be the first artists signed to Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment, but the sisters hardly need her endorsement. Their music, including last year’s underrated Sugar Symphony, is an exercise in lush layering.
Differ-Ent
It’s Good To Be Differ-Ent
(Don’t Be Afraid)
Balancing taut drum loops with soaring, sci-fi chords, It’s Good To Be Differ-Ent combines the best of Detroit’s old and new schools, crafting a colorful, fluid collection of emotional bangers in the vein of Reel By Real and Model 500 that sound like they could have been made in the ‘90s. Timeless.
Future
HNDRXX
(Epic)
That’s why HNDRXX is so damn special. It’s Future’s second album of the year and eclipses its predecessor, Future, in every way, reflecting on excess, regret and disappointment with a level of melancholy that’s impossible to fake. When he sings, through a haze of trumpet blasts, “I seen a so-called good girl turn on me,” it’s hard not to choke up. This is the Future we’d been waiting to hear.
Kehlani
SweetSexySavage
(Atlantic)
SweetSexySavage references TLC in title, and in spirit too: “Everything I do, I do it with a passion / If I gotta be a bitch, I’mma be a bad one,” she sings on ‘CRZY’, insisting that “I need you to respect it” over a deliriously ‘90s beat on ‘Distraction’. The result’s a listen that’sSweetSexySavage, yes – but a whole lot more on top.
Khalid
American Teen
(RCA)
One of our R&B-pop acts to watch in 2017 and a fixture on Kendrick Lamar’s recent ‘The Heart Part 4’, Texas singer Khalid has already impressed in the first few months of 2017. His debut American Teen proves pop can be evocative and boundary-free.
His descriptions of his formative years are relatable without using platitudes – and if anyone should know the mélange of high school experiences, it’s someone who was both an army brat and prom king.
Latasha Alcindor
B(LA)K
(Self-released)
Latasha Alcindor’s first full-length since 2014, B(LA)K is the perfect representation of her genre-skating style, blending poetry, R&B and rap with the ease of Lauryn Hill or Erykah Badu.
Mary Ocher
The West Against The People
(Klangbad)
The West Against The People was produced with Faust’s Hans-Joachim Irmler and is as sonically dense as it is politically potent. Songs roll through organ drone and monastic chanting, Iranian-flavoured surf guitar riffs, while taking in krautrock drums, cavernous post-punkisms and the minimal electronics of Ocher’s adopted homeland. Her putty-like voice plunges you into underwater dreamworlds and places you’ve never even heard of before. Karen O once said that Ocher gave her “the chills”. She’s not wrong
Migos
Culture
(300 Entertainment)
The successes of ‘Bad And Boujee’ and ‘T-Shirt’ are almost false flags.Culture is the end result of years of ATL innovation, from T.I., Outkast and Gucci Mane to Future, Young Thug and 21 Savage. And the fact that traditionalists and purists still don’t get it is all too familiar – they didn’t like The Beatles, either
mmph
Dear God
(Beer On The Rug)
Boston-based producer Sae Heum Han makes a haunting impression on Dear God, an EP that shuffles creepy industrial atmospheres, primal techno and IDM glitches with expert sleight-of-hand.
Mount Eerie
A Crow Looked At Me
(P. W. Elverum & Sun)
Elverum’s open-letter tribute and his eighth album as Mount Eerie keeps Geneviève in the frame throughout, referencing her on nearly every song. It’s a beautiful, painstaking, tribute to his love that sees Elverum explore everything from bodies and biology to the devastating effect of his wife’s loss on their young daughter.
Nathan Fake
Providence
(Ninja Tune)
Nathan Fake’s colorful, hyperkinetic charms have long burned out onProvidence, a record that emerges weathered and tough after five quiet years. Fake retains his ever-changing virtuosity but now chooses to paint stormy atmospheres, emotional catharsis and anxious melodies. Providence still has euphoric powerhouses aplenty, but they’re more complex.
Otim Alpha
Gulu City Anthems
(Nyege Nyege Tapes)
You may not have heard of electro acholi, but Otim Alpha’s debut cassette on Nyege Nyege Tapes deserves to make the genre every bit as popular as South Africa’s Shangaan electro. Recorded over an 11-year period, it’s an infectious introduction to the style, an electronic reinterpretation of the Acholi region’s traditional ‘larakaraka’ wedding dances.
Priests
Nothing Feels Natural
(Sister Polygon)
DC post-punks Priests have forged a new frontier for themselves on their self-released debut full-length Nothing Feels Natural. For those familiar with lead singer (and Chain And The Gang member) Katie Alice Greer’s wail from the band’s previous EPs, Bodies And Control And Money And Power and Tape Two, her vocals here may come as a surprise.
Sampha
Process
(Young Turks)
An album that could have been a starry confirmation of Sampha’s rise to the R&B elite instead stays close to home, delving into the faces and places of his journey so far. Process is all the better for it – an intensely personal triumph of ideas, bolstered by supreme production.
Starlito & Don Trip
Step Brothers Three
(Self-released)
Rather, the album is a set of doomed, painful tracks blessed by a backdrop of slithering, ominous beats. The two protagonists have never sound more at ease, trading bars in slow, measured tones about infidelity, police brutality, government corruption and whatever else they decide to tackle. It’s cerebral but never labored, honest but never soft around the edges – it’s essential listening.
Stormzy
Gang Signs & Prayer
(#Merky)
Two-parter ‘Blinded By Your Grace’ evolves from a soft Rhodes keyboard lullaby into full-blown religious fervour, ‘Velvet’ is Stormzy’s very own smoochy ‘Poetic Justice’, while ‘Cigarettes & Cush’ is peak R&G. Most debut albums by artists in Stormzy’s position reflect on a white-knuckle ride to the top, delivering more of the same kind of tracks that broke them. Gang Signs & Prayer is too busy looking forward to look back – Stormzy’s all about the next chapter.
Suda
Hives
(Her)
Her Records boss, Suda – he’s chopped the “nim” off of his pseudonym – has made a project of ambitious club constructions in Hives. Whether he’s employing 808s or drafting from a drone palette, the album is one you feel in your bones – and that was the goal.
Syd
Fin
(Columbia)
There are strong notes of late ‘90s-era Aaliyah and Janet Jackson throughout, especially on tracks like ‘Nothin’ To Somethin’ and standout track ‘Body’, but Fin is anything but a throwback. Even if the album’s title is the suggestion of an ending, the glossy neo-soul production and self-assured lyrics are the work of an artist looking towards the future.
Thundercat
Drunk
(Brainfeeder)
Drunk is funny and thrilling and dancey and fun, but it also plays out with the current sorry political climate as a looming background presence. You won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe you’ll do both.
Turinn
18½ Minute Gaps
(Modern Love)
However, Turinn has enough of his own influences to make sure his music doesn’t fall into copycat territory. ‘1625’ is a lopsided deep house jam that sounds like it was sketched out on a knackered MPC, ‘18½ Minute Gaps’ takes the album into breakneck Detroit electro territory and ‘Ondine’ is a hardware techno jam with a sinister edge.
Unknown Me
Subtropics
(Not Not Fun Records)
Winter is making its final death gasps, spring is here and there isn’t a better thaw soundtrack than this euphoric pocket warmer from Tokyo crew Unknown Me. Subtropics charts a globe-trotting journey where each track is inspired by a different city, each piece fitting into a sonic travelogue.
Visible Cloaks
Reassemblage
(RVNG Intl)
On their second album, Visible Cloaks deliver a symphony of liquid textures, glowing ambiance and fractured sound design. Reassemblage marries technology and nature better than almost any record in recent memory because it explores both the chaos and meticulous design of each.
Wiley
Godfather
(CTA)
Whether or not you believe that Godfather is Wiley’s final album, one thing’s for sure – if it is, the grime don has given himself an epic send-off with a fast, furious, 140bpm banger-packed ‘career-closer’ that stays faithful to his immutable sound.
The Two Of Us (self-released)
Chloe x Halle may be the first artists signed to Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment, but the sisters hardly need her endorsement. Their music, including last year’s underrated Sugar Symphony, is an exercise in lush layering.
Differ-Ent
It’s Good To Be Differ-Ent
(Don’t Be Afraid)
Balancing taut drum loops with soaring, sci-fi chords, It’s Good To Be Differ-Ent combines the best of Detroit’s old and new schools, crafting a colorful, fluid collection of emotional bangers in the vein of Reel By Real and Model 500 that sound like they could have been made in the ‘90s. Timeless.
Future
HNDRXX
(Epic)
That’s why HNDRXX is so damn special. It’s Future’s second album of the year and eclipses its predecessor, Future, in every way, reflecting on excess, regret and disappointment with a level of melancholy that’s impossible to fake. When he sings, through a haze of trumpet blasts, “I seen a so-called good girl turn on me,” it’s hard not to choke up. This is the Future we’d been waiting to hear.
Kehlani
SweetSexySavage
(Atlantic)
SweetSexySavage references TLC in title, and in spirit too: “Everything I do, I do it with a passion / If I gotta be a bitch, I’mma be a bad one,” she sings on ‘CRZY’, insisting that “I need you to respect it” over a deliriously ‘90s beat on ‘Distraction’. The result’s a listen that’sSweetSexySavage, yes – but a whole lot more on top.
Khalid
American Teen
(RCA)
One of our R&B-pop acts to watch in 2017 and a fixture on Kendrick Lamar’s recent ‘The Heart Part 4’, Texas singer Khalid has already impressed in the first few months of 2017. His debut American Teen proves pop can be evocative and boundary-free.
His descriptions of his formative years are relatable without using platitudes – and if anyone should know the mélange of high school experiences, it’s someone who was both an army brat and prom king.
Latasha Alcindor
B(LA)K
(Self-released)
Latasha Alcindor’s first full-length since 2014, B(LA)K is the perfect representation of her genre-skating style, blending poetry, R&B and rap with the ease of Lauryn Hill or Erykah Badu.
Mary Ocher
The West Against The People
(Klangbad)
The West Against The People was produced with Faust’s Hans-Joachim Irmler and is as sonically dense as it is politically potent. Songs roll through organ drone and monastic chanting, Iranian-flavoured surf guitar riffs, while taking in krautrock drums, cavernous post-punkisms and the minimal electronics of Ocher’s adopted homeland. Her putty-like voice plunges you into underwater dreamworlds and places you’ve never even heard of before. Karen O once said that Ocher gave her “the chills”. She’s not wrong
Migos
Culture
(300 Entertainment)
The successes of ‘Bad And Boujee’ and ‘T-Shirt’ are almost false flags.Culture is the end result of years of ATL innovation, from T.I., Outkast and Gucci Mane to Future, Young Thug and 21 Savage. And the fact that traditionalists and purists still don’t get it is all too familiar – they didn’t like The Beatles, either
mmph
Dear God
(Beer On The Rug)
Boston-based producer Sae Heum Han makes a haunting impression on Dear God, an EP that shuffles creepy industrial atmospheres, primal techno and IDM glitches with expert sleight-of-hand.
Mount Eerie
A Crow Looked At Me
(P. W. Elverum & Sun)
Elverum’s open-letter tribute and his eighth album as Mount Eerie keeps Geneviève in the frame throughout, referencing her on nearly every song. It’s a beautiful, painstaking, tribute to his love that sees Elverum explore everything from bodies and biology to the devastating effect of his wife’s loss on their young daughter.
Nathan Fake
Providence
(Ninja Tune)
Nathan Fake’s colorful, hyperkinetic charms have long burned out onProvidence, a record that emerges weathered and tough after five quiet years. Fake retains his ever-changing virtuosity but now chooses to paint stormy atmospheres, emotional catharsis and anxious melodies. Providence still has euphoric powerhouses aplenty, but they’re more complex.
Otim Alpha
Gulu City Anthems
(Nyege Nyege Tapes)
You may not have heard of electro acholi, but Otim Alpha’s debut cassette on Nyege Nyege Tapes deserves to make the genre every bit as popular as South Africa’s Shangaan electro. Recorded over an 11-year period, it’s an infectious introduction to the style, an electronic reinterpretation of the Acholi region’s traditional ‘larakaraka’ wedding dances.
Priests
Nothing Feels Natural
(Sister Polygon)
DC post-punks Priests have forged a new frontier for themselves on their self-released debut full-length Nothing Feels Natural. For those familiar with lead singer (and Chain And The Gang member) Katie Alice Greer’s wail from the band’s previous EPs, Bodies And Control And Money And Power and Tape Two, her vocals here may come as a surprise.
Sampha
Process
(Young Turks)
An album that could have been a starry confirmation of Sampha’s rise to the R&B elite instead stays close to home, delving into the faces and places of his journey so far. Process is all the better for it – an intensely personal triumph of ideas, bolstered by supreme production.
Starlito & Don Trip
Step Brothers Three
(Self-released)
Rather, the album is a set of doomed, painful tracks blessed by a backdrop of slithering, ominous beats. The two protagonists have never sound more at ease, trading bars in slow, measured tones about infidelity, police brutality, government corruption and whatever else they decide to tackle. It’s cerebral but never labored, honest but never soft around the edges – it’s essential listening.
Stormzy
Gang Signs & Prayer
(#Merky)
Two-parter ‘Blinded By Your Grace’ evolves from a soft Rhodes keyboard lullaby into full-blown religious fervour, ‘Velvet’ is Stormzy’s very own smoochy ‘Poetic Justice’, while ‘Cigarettes & Cush’ is peak R&G. Most debut albums by artists in Stormzy’s position reflect on a white-knuckle ride to the top, delivering more of the same kind of tracks that broke them. Gang Signs & Prayer is too busy looking forward to look back – Stormzy’s all about the next chapter.
Suda
Hives
(Her)
Her Records boss, Suda – he’s chopped the “nim” off of his pseudonym – has made a project of ambitious club constructions in Hives. Whether he’s employing 808s or drafting from a drone palette, the album is one you feel in your bones – and that was the goal.
Syd
Fin
(Columbia)
There are strong notes of late ‘90s-era Aaliyah and Janet Jackson throughout, especially on tracks like ‘Nothin’ To Somethin’ and standout track ‘Body’, but Fin is anything but a throwback. Even if the album’s title is the suggestion of an ending, the glossy neo-soul production and self-assured lyrics are the work of an artist looking towards the future.
Thundercat
Drunk
(Brainfeeder)
Drunk is funny and thrilling and dancey and fun, but it also plays out with the current sorry political climate as a looming background presence. You won’t know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe you’ll do both.
Turinn
18½ Minute Gaps
(Modern Love)
However, Turinn has enough of his own influences to make sure his music doesn’t fall into copycat territory. ‘1625’ is a lopsided deep house jam that sounds like it was sketched out on a knackered MPC, ‘18½ Minute Gaps’ takes the album into breakneck Detroit electro territory and ‘Ondine’ is a hardware techno jam with a sinister edge.
Unknown Me
Subtropics
(Not Not Fun Records)
Winter is making its final death gasps, spring is here and there isn’t a better thaw soundtrack than this euphoric pocket warmer from Tokyo crew Unknown Me. Subtropics charts a globe-trotting journey where each track is inspired by a different city, each piece fitting into a sonic travelogue.
Visible Cloaks
Reassemblage
(RVNG Intl)
On their second album, Visible Cloaks deliver a symphony of liquid textures, glowing ambiance and fractured sound design. Reassemblage marries technology and nature better than almost any record in recent memory because it explores both the chaos and meticulous design of each.
Wiley
Godfather
(CTA)
Whether or not you believe that Godfather is Wiley’s final album, one thing’s for sure – if it is, the grime don has given himself an epic send-off with a fast, furious, 140bpm banger-packed ‘career-closer’ that stays faithful to his immutable sound.