Listening to “Small Town Syndrome” by thinking silly is an exercise in delightful contradiction. Dylan Morrison’s project, shaped here by the production hand of collaborator Margot Taylor, builds a sleek, propulsive chassis of dark pop and minimal techno, only to house an engine of pure, grinding ache. It’s the sound of someone forcing a smile so wide their face hurts, a dance track for...

There’s a curious kind of cruelty beating at the heart of Emma Whybrow’s new single, “Amnesia,” and it is utterly exhilarating. Here is a massive, pulsing techno anthem—a thundering, four-on-the-floor declaration built for vast, sweaty rooms—and yet, tucked inside its propulsive machinery is an intensely private, bitingly personal act of dismissal. It’s like finding a handwritten "get lost" note folded neatly inside a fireworks...