Gojira – Fortitude

This record is such an amazing balance of being full of zest, groove, great tunes and moods, while also being technical and musically complex. And the latter is by no means detrimental to the prior. It’s just extremely smart and also extremely enjoyable metal.

Tosca – Osam

Last time I actively followed Tosca was at the time of No Hassle in 2009, feels like another life. (Indeed, it was another life.) In 2021, when Kruder & Dorfmeister released 1995 and dZihan & Kamien ‎put out IV I noted that it feels like there’s a bit of nu jazz downtempo lounge comeback in the air. This record came with that same bunch but flew under the radar for me then. In hindsight, I don’t feel that comeback in a trending way after all, but these new records take me back and it’s a nice kind of reminiscing. Smooth as silk.

DJ Krush – Saisei

Triphop but with a surprising amount of glitch and IDM compared to a regular DJ Krush record. I recently saw him play live, which was a huge demo of his technical skills, and that shows on this album, too. It’s a diverse ride from smooth hiphop flows to strong industrial bangers.

Polyphia – New Levels New Devils

When I think of math metal, I think Converge and Dillinger, which besides being very technical are also harsh and chaotic. This is also math but it’s also extremely approachable, much closer to, say, jazz than metal. It’s a very unique record, I love this sound.

The Cassandra Complex – Sex & Death

The other day I got this instant hook on The Cassandra Complex, which I’ve never heard before. That naive early ’90s industrial electronic rock nostalgia on this record and Cyberpunx stole my heart. Now, listening these two records again after a week I don’t find them that much appealing, so not sure what it is, could be a mood swing in play. But The War Against Sleep is a definitive hymn, there’s no question about that.

Deena Abdelwahed – Jbal Rrsas

This is bass-heavy electronic music that I can place closest to dubstep. I also feel like I have extremely little cultural context to form well-articulated thoughts about this music, which makes it exciting.

Saying that it’s “something Arabic” feels like derogatory to how rich it is beyond language, and when I say “Arabic” I am concerned that I’m already making false identification. I just don’t know, I am not aware, I lack knowledge. However, it doesn’t feel intimidating but rather I feel the urge to explore, know more, learn, listen, understand, makes me wonder.