Dryadic opens the door on their new single "Ghosts," and you immediately feel a change in the room’s pressure. The piano chords that introduce the piece, played by frontwoman Zora McDonald, don’t twinkle; they place stones, one by one, creating a path through a grey landscape. Her voice follows, not as a guide trying to cheer you on, but as a determined companion walking...

Nothing Concrete’s new album, “The Imperfectionist”, is less a collection of songs and more a vessel that’s been around the world a few times, collecting scuffs and stories. It’s a beautifully unsteady thing, this record from the duo of Fergus McKay and Gaia Miato. They’ve crafted a dusty, globetrotting shuffle where bluesy resignation and the dramatic posture of tango are held together by the...