There is a specific kind of caffeine-jitter energy driving the new collaboration from Doctor Noize, titled "Diversity". It hits you immediately a bright, bouncing sequence of notes played with the frantic urgency of a silent film chase scene, yet anchored by a stride-style rhythm that feels surprisingly sturdy. It’s the musical equivalent of a golden retriever that has just realized you are holding a...

A record can move fast without chasing the obvious route. “EMA”, Sienná’s nine-track experimental electronic album, begins from that possibility. The Kyoto-born, Oslo-based artist builds its premise around ema, the Japanese tool used to communicate directly with the divine. From there, she turns images and impressions gathered in nature into songs. It is a high-concept frame, but it lands because the concept asks a practical question:...