Packaging deeply revolutionary rhetoric in surprisingly cozy packaging, Box of Dark Roses by Mope Grooves introduces us to the lives shattered by institutional dehumanization, seating us at the table with an inspiring family of choice as they weather nonstop storms with no help but one another.

West African dance traditions adopt a psych rock flair on Avoude by Dogo Du Togo and The Alagaa Beat Band, sending us into a swaying trance characterized by bouncing bass lines, playful guitar licks, and powerful horn leads.

Using an unnervingly cozy post apocalyptic setting to frame a relatable coming-of-age story, B| Décimas de Phuyu y la Fantasma by Phuyu y la Fantasma describes events of the current day as a series of traumatic cultural myths and legends.

Chinese neoclassical group Whale Circus announces the now inevitable environmental collapse on An Elegy for the Ocean (I Feel You), reframing the typical call to action narrative on the climate into a heart-wrenching lament for a battle already lost.

Montreal experimental outfit Yoo Doo Right captures our unease on their new record From the Heights of Our Pastureland, aggressively chasing the drama of post rock with an anchor in krautrock that prevents a freefall into formless ephemera.

Expressive vocals connect a series of snappy transitions between sections of dancey post punk, moody post rock, and crunchy math rock, burying a resilient source of warm musical light deep within a layer of overdriven calamity.

When we accept the constant presence of this existential discomfort, we gain access to a new plane of peace and prosperity, potentially even giving us the confidence to find other lost, lonesome souls out of place in all space and time.

Unlike some krautrock which leans heavily into an electronic, almost post-human sound, this record takes the bones of this versatile aesthetic in the most humanist possible direction, assembling an enormous lineup of live-recorded musicians playing instruments from all corners of the world.

This haunting release features traditional instrumentation like the Nyckelharpa and the Bereban, embued with heavy distortion and in arrangements that sound like doom metal riffs, lending these songs an appropriate sense of dread and urgency for the end that Jarzmo warns is neigh.

Packaging deeply revolutionary rhetoric in surprisingly cozy packaging, Box of Dark Roses by Mope Grooves introduces us to the lives shattered by institutional dehumanization, seating us at the table with an inspiring family of choice as they weather nonstop storms with no help but one another.

Evocative and personal lyrics are brought to life by Ivey’s natural twang and fit beautifully in the arrangement alongside pedal steel, stable piano chords, and acoustic guitars.

This abstract hip hop album fuses elements of noise electronica with a straightforward prose rap delivery reminiscent of the 90s, pairing this articulate vocal style with an unusually unsupportive backing beat.

Every component of this album, every stanza of half-spoken poetry, every deeply textured percussive element, every spatially aware synth tone reaches desperately for sublime beauty, thwarting each other’s reach with the entanglement of their own arms.

If you’ve ever submerged yourself into a social media algorithm that subjected you to nothing but pain, with each post angering you or downright terrifying you, the music of Passing Stones by The Gallstones has you in mind.

Teasing out the darkest, most brutalist components of UK garage, Municipal Dreams by Low End Activist tells an autobiographical story of life on the fringes of British society.

The electrifying free jazz guitar of Brandon Seabrook tells a vivid story on Object of Unknown Function, an album jittering under the pressure of its own entropy as a depressive abyss opens beneath.

In the same way that a cubist painter captures all sides and angles of the subject on one flat canvas, the sounds of Pescadou Gualapagouse by Babe, Terror combine music from a vast array of time periods all in one succinct, beautiful, cohesive piece.

In the air we breathe, on the ground we walk, a blatant disregard for human life prevails. Jolted awake to face the consequences of a homicidal, post-human ruling class, Chat Pile uses their new record Cool World to pull us closer to the distant atrocities committed in our name until we’re face to bleeding face with our own unceremonious demise.

This struggle plays out on There Will Come Gentle Rain by HMOT, a collection of sonic memories bursting forth from within the colonizer state.

We’re quick to ascribe the adjective “apocalyptic” to music, but how often do we think about what music would actually sound like during an apocalypse? Itsasoko Sua by El Café Atómico presents an answer with its dilapidated production quality, DIY instrumentation, and lonesome spirit, replicating the type of music that would emerge in a state of extreme austerity and paranoia.