Blog: The Needle Drop

A smooth, quirky trap banger from Italian producer Aquadrop. If he keeps his productions this colorful and alluring, he'll be going places. Follow his exploits on SoundCloud here .

• Aquadrop - Shakin'

Ontario rapper Shad drops a new demo titled "Peace," which exposes some harsh realities of our current musical state. In Shad's opinion, pointing out out the world's flaws in hip hop has become old hat. Beats and trap tales have become what's hot, but Shad is still looking for peace. Now I'm really looking forward to this guy's next album! / via /

• Shad - Peace (demo)

Some twisted visuals coming through on the new Queens of the Stone Age video for "I Appear Missing," which is a newly released track that's set to be released on the band's next album, ...Like Clockwork . Enjoy!

Irish black metal outfit Altar of Plagues' latest album sees the band challenging their atomspheric black metal roots with loops, synthetic drums, keyboards, noise, and some unique grooves. WATCH THE REVIEW

Chicago rapper and singer Chance The Rapper comes through with a more ambitious mixtape with Acid Rap, improving upon his production, hooks, and recording quality. A lot of the beats on this project are impressive as hell, but Chance often puts hooks, ad-libs, and instrumentals ahead of the quality and cohesion of his lyrical content. Anyone listening deeper than Chance's over-the-top persona will find there's a little something missing. WATCH THE REVIEW

A brand new track from the chiptune rockers Anamanaguchi, which comes from the NY group's forthcoming album, Endless Fantasy . The LP is currently looking at a May 14th release date, and the band is trying to make this album cycle bigger and better than past ones with a new Kickstarter that's currently raising money for distribution, music videos, live show lighting, future collaborations, and more. Enjoy!

• Anamanaguchi - Space Wax America (from ENDLESS FANTASY out May 14th)

Bass master Thundercat has dropped yet another track from his sophomore full-length, which is on the way soon via Brainfeeder records. The track's title is "Oh Sheit It's X," and it's led to yet another moment where I'm left wondering how good this album is actually going to be. Thundercat's first album took on many of the same funk and jazz fusion influences the song above does, but translated them into something futuristic, intergalactic thanks to production help from longtime collaborator Flying Lotus. This new cut takes a lot of the same funk tropes, [...]

• Thundercat - Oh Sheit It's X

A lyric video for the new Uncluded track, "TV On Ten," which comes off the surprise collaboration's debut album, Hokey Fright . The album is looking at a release this week on Rhymesayers Entertainment. The Uncluded is essentially the artistic pairing of singer-songwriter Kimya Dawson and MC Aesop Rock. These unlikely collaborators found common ground on a number of tracks from Kimya Dawson's last full-length , and it seems they're trying to stretch their creative spark out for an entire album. Check a review for Aesop Rock's last LP below:

Red Wine by Tonetta The Internet's most NSFW outsider musician has a new album release out with the good people at Woozy Tribe. The title: Red Wine , which is aptly covered in a somewhat disturbing image of Tonetta himself adorn in a strangely fitting red dress. Like his past releases, Red Wine seems to be built out of songs from across the Tonetta catalog. There's even a second version of the song " Drugs Drugs Drugs " on here. A few oddly alluring ballads make it onto this release-specifically [...]

Some intense, teeth-clenching hardcore from the band Sleep Patterns. The band sticks pretty adamantly to the genre's formula on this title track from their forthcoming EP, CHOKE , which is looking at a release later this month on 13th Floor Records and Killer Robot Music . Enjoy!

Some guttural, grimy, and wild post-hardcore from Creative Adult on their new EP, Bulls In The Yard . Even the guitars sound like they've got whiskey on their breath and a few days of stubble on their teeth. There's a primal, Dope Body-esque vibe to the odd vocals, but the band's momentum is a little more driving. Enjoy, and hear more music from the band here .

• CreativeAdult - Bulls In The Yard

VILAGVEGE by RORCAL Swiss metal outfit RORCAL combines elements black metal, doom metal, and more into eight arduous listens on their latest album, VILAGVEGE . It's a noisy, heavy intense listen. Without question, the band was rightful in putting the phrase "end of the world" in the search tags for this full-length. The band's homogeneously thick and hazy approach to writing these songs certainly sounds like the world's greatest civilizations all crumbling in unison. Enjoy, or, uh, try to!

R.A. The Rugged Man returns with his first album in almost ten years. While he may be rapping faster than ever-and is incredibly vile at points-some of the production on this LP sounds incredibly dated and obvious. WATCH THE REVIEW

Atmospheric black metal outfit Deafheaven returns with the first single from their sophomore release, Sunbather . WATCH THE REVIEW

A new single from the band Waypoint, which has a somewhat nostalgic, post-grunge vibe to it that reminds me of a lotta radio rock from the early 2000s. However, the bands tightly harmonized vocals and melody writing have a forlorn, sharp quality to them that I like a lot. Enjoy!

Bullshit from clipping on Vimeo . A new set of visuals from the experimental hip hop trio clipping. They're attached to the song "Bullshit," which is featured on the group's latest release, midcity . Catch an interview I recently did with them below:

Savages' full-length debut may just be a group of tracks, but they're an incredibly performed, produced, and written group of tracks that bring the energy of old school post-punk and gothic rock alive again. WATCH THE REVIEW

The Gaslamp Killer has released a video for the massively heavy closing track to his latest full-length album, Breakthrough . It's an incredible track that features wailing synths, ear-shattering percussion, and dramatic strings. It's got some incredible textures on it, and I'm glad to see this monolithic beatmusic matched with some visuals of equal intensity. Enjoy! Check a review for Breakthrough below:

Janelle Monáe drops some stellar visuals for her funky, strange, and eccentric new single, "Q.U.E.E.N.," which has me absolutely psyched to hear her new full-length when it drops. Enjoy!

New York hip hop outfit Pro Era drops a new video for the track School High, which was featured on their last mixtape, PEEP: The aPROcalypse . Check a review for it below: