With so much good music coming through thick and fast, it’s easy for new music to drop online and go unnoticed. To help prevent this, we’ve picked five releases that may have slipped past your radar. Stream music from Alfa Mist, Ahmed Sirour, Sufyvn, Manu Delago and Mary Ocher. If you like what you hear, support the artist.
Alfa Mist – Antiphon
We’ve been following Alfa Mist for a while now, and this new work finds the East London artist really coming into his own. Easily his most accomplished work to date.
★★★★☆
Ahmed Sirour – XL
Released on his birthday last month, and inspired by a speech given to his peers by DJ Jazzy Jeff, who encouraged artists to simply “die empty”, keeping nothing but selling or giving away as much music as they can, because the point of the creative art we have is to share with the world and not horde to ourselves, and thus is Ahmed Sirour’s attempt to purge from his vaults some unreleased joints as well as a couple of instrumental versions of vocal tracks from his previous album.
★★★☆☆
Sufyvn – Ascension EP
Khartoum-based producer Sufyvn follows up his Pseudarhythm EP with another excellent project full of hip-hop drum loops and Sudanese sampled beats.
★★★☆☆
Manu Delago – Metromonk
Celebrated Hang player, percussionist, producer and composer Manu Delago releases his third solo album on 27th January. “Metromonk‘” finds this boundary-testing artist distilling and delicately exploring extremes of dynamics and mood; manipulating the Hang in experimental and inventive ways, the many voices and tones of this rare instrument are given top billing among a minimalistic palette of beats and acoustic sources.
★★★★☆
Mary Ocher – The West Against The People
Berlin psychedelic pop craftswoman and experimental vocalist, Mary Ocher returns with an all-encompassing new album, her darkest yet, in times of confusion. It is a document on social indignation and the deconstruction of our identities as citizens.
★★★☆☆
