Darkness can leave room for a joke, and heavy music can still move. On "Rustbelt Rejects", Akron artist Zmack puts that relationship to work through abrasive textures, grooves and odd humour. His original album brings hip-hop into contact with Memphis trap, Horrorcore, industrial, funk-metal and phonk. Yet the aim is not genre display. The range accommodates memory, loss, anger, pride, relationships and Irish-American identity. It gives...

Western Australian producer DJ chookylightningfrog detonates a fresh wave of club-ready bedlam on their new single, “footspring”. Emerging from Perth with a self-taught, completely unfiltered ethos, the producer leans into a brazen collision of trap and dubstep, engineering a soundscape that feels tailor-made to rattle your chest cavity. https://open.spotify.com/album/4lkgwZN8VQMpkkcSfNXRxu?si=a915d44d1f1648ec The track thrives on a distinctly feral kind of kinetic impatience. Tension coils through rapid, ascending sonic...