Fusing elements of indie rock, avant-garde electronic music, dub, and dance rhythms, Deradoorian is the name Angel Deradoorian works under as a solo artist. She launched said solo career after making a name for herself as a member of Dirty Projectors and collaborating with artists such as Avey Tare and Flying Lotus. Her albums, including 2015’s ‘The Expanding Flower Planet’ and 2020’s ‘Find the Sun’, are cosmic song cycles informed by her spiritual journey. After collaborating with Kate NV under the name Decisive Pink on 2023’s heavily electronic ‘Ticket to Fame’, Deradoorian added that sound to her already jam-packed approach on 2025’s ‘Ready for Heaven’.

‘Ready for Heaven’ deals with heaven and earth, damnation and salvation, and using intelligence against rampant, naked greed. It is a classic forty minute set of inquisitive pop songs, blessed with a lightness of touch and a sharp focus that can’t help but charm the listener. It conjures up some last, faint afterglow of the old belief that an electronic, programmed beat can smash itself – and you – into another, more egalitarian consciousness.

“Deradoorian’s voice is the main attraction. Wispy one moment, bellowing full-throated the next, and capable of dazzling melismatic runs, it remains her not-so-secret weapon.”  Pitchfork

It is a remarkable fact that this bold and open-hearted record is made by one person, working alone. Repeatedly reworking the songs until they were complete is a painstaking process that generated an energy and space where Deradoorian could indulge in the arcana of her artform. “I love the production more than the songwriting. […] In fact, I don’t even feel like a songwriter at times, I feel like someone who is just inspired by so much music. And I want to try it all out! Like Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Mingus, or ESG and Silver Apples, or making weird krautrock and industrial music. I love dub, and Sly and Robbie. I love the productions of those records and the collective energies released by their creators in the studio. It’s just a weird thing to do it by yourself!”

Engaging with past musical glories helps deal with a major theme of this album; the awful nature of the world around us. Deradoorian: “This album is partly about watching humanity erode. It’s about mental struggle, and it’s avowedly anti-capitalist. I mean; would we have all these identity labels we have to live by, if we didn’t live in a capitalist world?”

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Guitarist Mason Lindahl  – whose “unabashedly beautiful” (Aquarium Drunkard) sound “balances the romantic dynamics of flamenco and the meticulousness of Windham Hill with the unguarded qualities of improvised music” (Pitchfork)  – released a pair of new albums, Joshua / Same Day Walking, last autumn via Mt. Brings Death.

Though packaged together, Joshua and Same Day Walking chart distinct worlds. Recorded in northern California and produced by Robby Moncrieff (Dirty Projectors, Zach Hill), Joshua is woolier and warmer, evoking haze, humidity, and overgrown Spanish moss. Meanwhile, Same Day Walking – recorded in Iceland and produced by Moncrieff alongside two-time GRAMMY-winning composer / sound designer Sam Slater (Joker, Chernobyl) – is, appropriate for its icier climes, windswept and beholden to the vast emptiness of harsh landscapes. As a pair, they provide a thorough portrait of Lindahl’s singular and versatile playing.

Described by friend and contemporary Hayden Pedigo as “the greatest living guitar player,” Mason Lindahl’s “austere, gothic flamenco… dares you to submit to this odd and immersive sonic universe” (Uncut). The North Carolina native’s solo instrumental debut Kissing Rosy in the Rain, released in 2021 via Tompkins Square, was praised as “gorgeous” (Petal Motel) and “a minimalist gem” (Everything Is Noise). Prior to that, his only other solo release is 2009’s Serrated Man Sound.