DJ AB’s “YNS Cypher 2025” has swaggered into existence. Not a gentle arrival, mind you, but more the auditory equivalent of a conquering legion setting up a very loud, very confident camp. This isn't background hum for a Tuesday afternoon; it’s a full-colour, high-decibel assertion from the Northern Nigerian hip-hop vanguard, a yearly planting of the YNS flag. DJ AB, the central current, is...

Jon Gold’s new single, "Lullaby for a Dream," is an act of gorgeous disorientation. You see the name—a pianist rooted in the intricate soils of jazz—and you prepare for one thing, but what arrives is a mist-laden skiff drifting from an entirely different shore. Gold, a Delaware musician, has composed a piece of British-Gaelic folk, and the cognitive dissonance is half the immediate magic....