With the arrival of Pandemonium's debut single, "Dalí", it feels as though someone has cracked open a geode on the studio console and let the crystalline chaos spill out. Billed as “pan-dimensional pirates,” the trio of Maffmatix, Claire Ray, and Charlton Banks deliver a sound that feels both ancient and beamed in from a strange future. It’s built on the sturdy spine of boom-bap,...

The title of Rusty Reid’s new single, "Attitude Change," has the sterile ring of a corporate warning, which makes the desperate, heart-on-the-floor plea within it all the more jarring. This is the sound of the final straw, a melodic ultimatum delivered while someone else in the room is looking at the baby, or the TV, or anywhere but at the person whose love is...