Experimental music

FKA twigs: Caprisongs review – wild invention let down by weak songs

Darkness turns to light in Tahliah Barnett’s follow-up to 2019 LP Magdalene but, even so, it’s an adventurous but undercharged effort missing hooks and cohesion

Alexis Petridis

13, Jan, 2022 @5:00 PM

Valentina Goncharova: Recordings 1987-1991 Vol 2 review | Jennifer Lucy Allan's contemporary album of the month

With household objects, an electric violin and a tape recorder, the composer and her collaborators made this magnetically playful DIY music

Jennifer Lucy Allan

07, Jan, 2022 @9:00 AM

John Glacier: the Hackney rapper mingling catharsis and mystery

Made while living with a chronic disability, the producer-vocalist’s esoteric streams of consciousness mark her out as a major new voice

Christine Ochefu

03, Jan, 2022 @12:30 PM

Special Interest: the DIY noise-poppers calling for reparations

The New Orleans band, ‘all actively practising homosexuals’, evoke the chaos of today in their whirl of punk, techno and melody – and resist the commodification of queerness

Luke Turner

31, Dec, 2021 @12:30 PM

Japanese gems, maligned boybands and ‘the Dan’: the best old music Guardian writers discovered this year

In a good year for rummaging through back catalogues, our writers have been delighted by everything from a A1’s embrace of soft rock to the Marvelettes’ ageless glee

Tayyab Amin, Rachel Aroesti, Ben Beaumont-Thomas, Michael Cragg, Tara Joshi, Christine Ochefu, Alexis Petridis, Jude Rogers, Dave Simpson, Laura Snapes

23, Dec, 2021 @10:00 AM

The 10 best contemporary albums of 2021

The year’s best experiments ranged from Blank Gloss’s ambient Americana to Space Afrika’s manipulated Manchester field recordings and Floating Points’ extraordinary electronic masterpiece

John Lewis

22, Dec, 2021 @1:00 PM

Me Rex: Megabear review – a choose-your-own-adventure trip for the streaming age

A debut album with 52 tracks that can be shuffled at will offers immersive listening – and the feel of a near-religious ritual

Jenessa Williams

16, Dec, 2021 @10:00 AM

Jerusalem in My Heart: Qalaq review – bearing witness to a manufactured apocalypse

Radwan Ghazi Moumneh and avant garde peers collaborate on a defiant, vulnerable lament for Lebanon

Tayyab Amin

16, Dec, 2021 @10:00 AM

Jeff Parker: Forfolks review – a meditative gem

The style-surfing guitarist deploys self-quoting loops and minimal solo work to beguiling effect

Kitty Empire

12, Dec, 2021 @9:00 AM

‘He touched a nerve’: how the first piece of AI music was born in 1956

Long before Auto-Tune and deepfake compositions, university professor Lejaren Hiller premiered a concert recital composed by a computer and became an overnight celebrity

Jeff Gage

07, Dec, 2021 @12:33 PM

Modern Nature: Island of Noise review – mesmerising musical riff on Shakespeare

Jack Cooper swerves the cliches with this transporting, melodic album, adding free jazz to a treasure trove of ideas

Rachel Aroesti

03, Dec, 2021 @9:00 AM

Arca: Kick ii, iii, iiii, iiiii review | Alexis Petridis's albums of the week

Four new albums of extravagantly warped electronics offer listeners a lot to take in – and her most pop-focused music to date