Listening to Libby Ember’s single “Alibi” is a study in strange emotional temperatures. The sound is a down-tempo, sun-dusted blanket of soft guitars and gentle synth pads, the kind of arrangement you’d put on to feel safe. But the feeling it leaves behind is a deep, architectural cold, the kind you find in the shadowed corners of an old stone church long after the...

In the world of hip-hop, there is a continual ebb and flow of new talent, but every once in a while, a performance will come along that will seem like a revelation. The very talented Eyst and Mac Keller form one half of the dynamic duo known as Apolloïd, which is based in Neuilly-sur-Marne and hails from France. It's like witnessing lightning in a bottle when...