Listening to Oxiroma unfold "Hug & Hold the Ocean (Cosmo Symphonic Version)" feels less like pressing play on a digital file and more like opening a window in a submarine that somehow navigates the Milky Way. Roman, the creative force behind the moniker, brings a peculiar discipline to this composition perhaps it’s the Kriya Yoga, or maybe the ghost of his big band trumpet...

Mike Stewart Theory’s new single, “It Reaches Us,” feels less like a piece of music and more like a strange meteorological event happening inside your head. You’re immediately dropped into a groove that has the smooth, shoulder-rolling confidence of 80s soul, but something is off in the atmosphere. The air is thick with a psychedelic haze, a sense of temporal displacement that is both...