Jlin – Black Ballet
Jerrilynn Patton from Gary, Indiana, creates dance-floor footwork with encompassing, unexpected symphonic string blocks. It is the sound of machines and humans jousting together in an ecstatic dance. Brutal beats underpin it all … perfect.
Julia Holter – Feel You
This was the pop song of 2015, but never got on any mainstream radio. An unforgettable, swoonsome track, it reminds me of Slapp Happy at their best.
Holly Herndon – Interference
Here’s some future music that is situated in the present. On Interference, Herndon tears up the rulebook and stirs us with chunky beats and strangely addictive electronica.
Laura Cannell – All the Land Ablaze
This Norfolk violinist has a way of evoking a familiar landscape and turning your previous perception of it on its head. The hill and meadow you thought you knew suddenly take on a strange hue through her music, as though its past inhabitants are ghosts parading by. Cannell’s music sounds like an aural accompaniment to a Ben Wheatley film.
Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker – Silverline
These are my favourite new artists (new to me, anyway). Clarke is on vocals, while Walker does arrangements as well as playing mesmerising guitar. With songs that rearrange your internal emotional landscape, this sublime duo are reinventing the popular song structure. A sublime and important act.
