Fortifying strong bones of midwest emo and slowcore with the eccentricities of noise rock and post rock, Look Outside, We’re Dying by Sap House addresses the slow encroachment of death as those we love start leaving us behind.

Following up 2023’s lo-fi noise punk record Laurels of the End of History, the new The Cime Interdisciplinary Music Ensemble is bigger, louder, angrier, more vulnerable, and more joyous, bursting at the seams with emotionally volatile arrangements that straddle the line between exuberant chaos and careful composition. 

Trendy lofi flourishes sink into a sparse abyss, sharing this massive space with flowing piano, wispy noise, thundering synths, and odd percussion, all while a thin, defeated voice treads water against this sonic whirlpool.

Mounting bodily anxiety inspires the experimental music of Birds with Vertigo, a record that combines the eccentric poetry of Sammy J Matthews and the highly original electronic music of Cumsleg Borenail.

Full Spectrum Records has been operating for over fifteen years, and to cap off their impressive output, the label and their frequent collaborators came together to provide a final testament to the nature of experimental music.

On their new record Chewing Bread, Australian mathcore outfit Basil’s Kite asks the question bubbling below the surface for everyone with a watchful eye; who does our disengagement benefit?

However, a radically different relationship, a fierce, relentless antagonism, develops between structure and surroundings on Air Pressure by Philip Samartzis and Michael Vorfeld, an ambient record built primarily upon harrowing field recordings from a research lab in Antarctica.

The aggressive atmospheric black metal of Eiger by Aara recounts the story of climbers who lost their lives scaling a nearly vertical peak in the Swiss alps, meditating upon those vast natural monuments we were never meant to master.

Taking the dark, noisy, dissonant world of contemporary post rock and injecting a healthy dose of progressive rock extravagance, Un manual de signos y sintomas by Vientos Moderados del Este uses its extensive guitar solos and varied songwriting in the service of intense, abrasive emotional themes.

With all the grace of traditional country and all the angst of post hardcore, New Old Horse by Twine presents the perfect genre fusion to bolster lyrical sentiments of stagnation, decay, and melancholy.

Of course, elements of hope have always appeared alongside the despair in emo, but the chiptune-infused bedroom skramz of The Civil War in France tilts fully towards the light on There You Are !, an album that processes a troubled past but strides boldly into an uncertain future.

From their own precarious vantage point in Lebanon, Sandy Chamoun, Anthony Sahyoun, and Jad Atoui use their new album Ghadr as a space to vent frustration about the blatant evil going unpunished, and oftentimes outright rewarded, in the world, all without succumbing to a natural soul-shattering pessimism.

Stripped of the meaning typically associated with ancient esoteric rituals, the orphaned prayers of Rawskulled by Ak’chamel unsettle us in all the ways that religion ought to make us feel safe.

The eerie lo-fi sounds of AUTHOR by herratic construct an environment excessively hostile to the individual, pushing against the explosive anger of the featured rappers to create sounds of deep unease and discomfort.

On Petals by Warm Currency, change constantly haunts us, threatening us with decay even as our current surroundings inspire nothing but dread already.

Our lyrical narrator descends into a world of self-imposed isolation, disillusioned by conventionally recommended methods of mental relief like therapy, instead delving into temporary energy sinks like hedonistic relationships and fantasies of climbing the corporate ladder.

Visualizing time as a gradual, graceful downward slope, Flip Top Head’s new EP Up Like a Weather Balloon faces tough inevitabilities with a gentle smile and a playful eye roll.

Through the dizzying field recordings, unrecognizable vocal samples, distant synth melodies, thumping deep percussion, and overwhelming low pads, we receive the purest distillation of the melodramatic liminality that so many popular artists chase, unencumbered by the conventions of verse, chorus, and lyric.

The harsh, cynical darkness of noir comes to life on Moon Is Doom Backwards by Sly & the Family Drone, an album that tersely and detachedly creates and reacts to a shadowy sonic space before diving head-first into the emotion which this space was designed to sequester.

As a snickering, cynical darkness befalls the burgeoning post punk scene, 52 Blue by EMZYG embraces the indie sleaze spirit of the times while also indulging in the off-kilter post rock sounds of the experimental underground.