New Music Friday: My New Band Believe, upsammy & Valentina Magaletti, and More
A curated rundown of significant new music releases hitting streaming services this week, featuring My New Band Believe, Mei Semones, Lone, upsammy & Valentina Magaletti, and others.
With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new drops available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums from My New Band Believe, Mei Semones, Lone, and upsammy and Valentina Magaletti. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
My New Band Believe: My New Band Believe [Rough Trade]
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My New Band Believe My New Band Believe
When Black Midi were not pretzeling alt-rock into bizarre new-fangled forms, they were usually tapping in to either of two timeworn modes: riotously melodic post-hardcore or fiddly, fingerpicked folk (often about shipwrecked pirates). For much of that latter output, you can thank co-singer and bassist Cameron Picton, who, until now, had remained quiet since the band’s hiatus in 2024. Unsure whether to charge ahead as a bandleader or mingle among London’s nebulous collectives, Picton waited for a sign, which came in the form of a fever dream in a Chinese hotel room, where the phrase “My New Band Believe” flashed before his eyes. The rest came naturally: baroque-pop epics, twinkly piano ballads, and hallucinatory folk odysseys with eerie jazz breakdowns, all pulled off with a flair and charm that exceeds even Picton’s best work with his former crew.
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upsammy & Valentina Magaletti: Seismo [Pan]
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One of the world’s greatest drummers meets one of the world’s greatest purveyors of bass weight on this dazzling collab LP, which crafts modern lullabies out of layered, percussive melodies with plenty of punch and texture. Seismo drummer Valentina Magaletti and producer upsammy’s first full-length collaboration, gets contact-mic happy to capture the nitty-gritty of these artists’ respective arsenals—and no mallet instrument is left un-struck. With roots in the duo’s live performances at avant-garde festivals like Unsound and Le Guess Who, Seismo maintains the excitement of their more improvisatory work. You never quite know where you’re headed next, but there’s a high chance you’ll be dazzled by it.
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Lone: Hyperphantasia [Greco-Roman]
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Lone is back with his first album in five years, and, well, why not let the stalwart UK producer tell you about it himself? “Hyperphantasia is: Unhinged, unrestrained, self-indulgent bat-shit pop music from an alternate dimension,” the artist born Matt Cutler says in press materials. “A beautiful, synthetic hall of mirrors head rush. Like taking every style I’ve worked with, amping them up to 11, and firing them off a cliff.” Opening with a riotous rave throwback in “Life Spark,” the album tailspins into a kaleidoscopic suite of everything from nostalgic garage house to helter-skelter future-pop, arriving at an intersection of bygone dance styles that feels perfectly modern.
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Mei Semones: Kurage [Bayonet]
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Mei Semones is a maestro of bossa nova indie-pop whose labyrinthine melodies only get sunnier as you venture deeper into the maze. Her new EP follows last year’s delightful debut LP, Animaru, and applies a spirit of collaboration to its polyglot thrills: The three tracks comprise mind melds with fellow baroque-pop tinkerer Liana Flores, singer-songwriter John Roseboro, and Semones’ own father, the chemical engineer and euphonium player Don Semones. Alchemy ensues.
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WU LYF: A Wave That Will Never Break [L Y F]
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Never ones to shy away from idealism, WU LYF are streaming their second album (and first in 15 years) only on Bandcamp and their website, inviting listeners to disconnect from the content stream and experience it in isolation. Those willing to meet their high-stakes indie rock on its own terms will be greeted with a seamless reintroduction to the hallmarks established on the band’s 2011 debut, Go Tell Fire to the Mountain: portentous riffs that form reverberant pools of tension before breaking into exhilarating finales, all shepherded along by Ellery James Roberts’ bloodthirsty howl.
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Squarepusher: Kammerkonzert [Warp]
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Even as one of Warp’s most veteran signees, producer Tom Jenkinson, AKA Squarepusher, isn't afraid to pick up some new tricks. His latest offering on the label, Kammerkonzert, swerves through ambient, experimental orchestral, and bread-and-butter drum & bass with the dexterity of a pro. After all, it takes some experience to confidently weave influences as varied as Jenkinson’s are here: contemporary London jazz, giallo soundtracks, French progressive rock, and even some David Bowie shine. The title, which means “chamber concert” in German, clues you in immediately on an important aspect of Jenkinson’s whole sound: he’s a one-man symphony.
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Bossman Dlow: Chicken Talkin’ Bastard [Alamo]
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Bossman Dlow has not let up since his 2024 breakout hit “Get in With Me.” The Florida rapper’s latest full-length presents another giddy tour of rap’s past and present, taking as many cues from Michigan as from his Southern rap forebears. With guests including G Herbo, DaBaby, and OJ da Juiceman, Chicken Talkin’ Bastard corrals flexes and motivational bars into a sort of hustler’s manifesto, spearheaded by his unstoppable February single “Motion Party.”
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Spirit Adrift: Infinite Illumination [20 Buck Spin]
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Spirit Adrift unload an arsenal of doom, thrash, and good old heavy metal on Infinite Illumination, the follow-up to 2023’s Ghost at the Gallows. Despite their infernal scale, Nate Garrett and the band are architects of mood, pinballing from daydreamy plateaus and skin-prickling interludes into blasts of noise and wrathful crescendos. The lyrics document vulnerability and struggle, but the spirit is one of invincible heaviness.
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Hoavi: Architectonics [Peak Oil]
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Hoavi started work on this collection of Indonesian gamelan-style compositions using whatever percussion he had on hand, drumming on railings or empty glasses before layering them into patterns of rhythm and melody. From these everyday sounds, the Russian producer otherwise known as Kirill Vasin designed an underworld of reverb-drenched electronics that beguiles and haunts, evoking contemporaries like Peaking Lights as much as minimalist classical and the gamelan music that inspired it.
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Steve Gunn: Shape of a Wave [No Quarter]
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Shape of a Wave is Steve Gunn’s companion EP to last year’s Daylight Daylight, an album he said was about “a hopeful death, a death where you don’t have to be afraid of renewal.” Its rebirth here comes in the form of two original tracks (made with Daylight Daylight producer James Elkington) and two gorgeous remixes by Sonic Boom, an artist Gunn says “has shaped the way I hear and think about songs.” The single, “Nearly There,” reimagines the Brooklyn singer-songwriter as a woebegone dreamer drifting into the stratosphere.
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