Joliette – Luz devora (Penelope)

Mexican mathcore act Joliette have always been cool. Today, it’s because they’ve recently released Luz devora, a massive hourlong overdriven math rock adventure. This awkward description is also why I reluctantly call them “mathcore”. They do not sound like your Car Bomb or your Dillinger Escape Plan. They’re more like a heavy math rock band with some hardcore influences. Never mind the taxonomic squabbles, try out Joliette and figure out for yourselves!

Le String’Blö – March for Nature (Veto)

The Swiss avant-garde jazz quintet just released March for Nature, an incredible, challenging, and at the same time infectious album touching on many subgenres of jazz, but pulling off everything they dare try. Two saxophones—including a big-ass one!—bass, keyboards, and drums make up the String’Blö band, and serve as conveyors of noise, feelings, melodies, atmospheres, all by way of experimentation, improvisation intertwined with composition. Odd times and harmonic tectonics are par for the course, here, so don’t fret and get yourself that little gem of an album!

Diego Caicedo, Gonçalo Almeida, and Vasco Trilla – Low Vertigo (Multikulti)

The Portuguese trio released Low Vertigo all the way back in April, but I couldn’t afford the album—which is unavailable for streaming—until now. Out on the amazing Multikulti label, Low Vertigo deals heavily distorted improvised music. Call it free metal, if you will, I’m in! As such, it joins the ranks of albums like dMu‘s Synaptic Self and Death Drag‘s Shifted as some of my favourite albums.

Liquid Quintet – Bouquet (Sirulita)

Sirulita Records never disappoint, when it comes to free improvisation. The last of these non-disappointments comes from Liquid Quintet, an entity combining some great names such as Agustí Fernández, Don Malfon, Ramón Prats. Throughout the Bouquet, the group takes many forms, from various duos to the full-fledged quintet, on each “Fire Rose” present. Each provides the listener with a new perspective on their creative hive mind, and each facet is worth checking out.

A World Wondered Full – ประเทศของคุณอยู่ในงานศพมานานแล้ว (Pratheṣ̄ k̄hxng khuṇ xyū̀ nı ngān ṣ̄ph mā nān læ̂w)

This two-side, thirty-minute album is a testament to Thai post-rock band A World Wondered Full‘s brilliance. The quartet uses many instruments from their traditional music scene—phin, santur, and many percussion—and applies some of the tropes of the genre unto them, which results in a rather novel and endlessly interesting blend. Read the album liner notes for some insight into the conceptual basis of the album!

Andrea Belfi – Strata (Float)

The album’s notes write “Strata’s inception is due to Belfi’s playful experiments with Gnawa rhythms”. Need I say more, really? From German drummer and composer Andrea Belfi, Strata is an incredible modern album of electronic music, contemporary classical, world fusion, and experimental jazz ilks. Seriously, this is some next-level enjoyment I’m getting out of this!