Listening to aktenzeichen_T’s new EP, "Midnight Between Lagrange Points", feels less like putting on a record and more like unsealing a classified file. The artist's name, German for "case file number," seems to promise a kind of cold, bureaucratic evidence, and the Leipzig producer delivers—but the subject of this file is the messy, beating heart of human conflict. A case file rendered in kick...

Some pop songs are built for escapism. They offer a three-minute vacation from the weight of things. Paul Jenner, the creative force behind the musical project 50mething, seems uninterested in this kind of holiday. His work is consistently grounded in the here and now, tackling the social and political agitations of our time with a composer’s ear and a critical eye. His 2026 single, “You Can’t...