Body Dysmorphia
This playlist is a funhouse. Booby-trapped with trick mirrors, shifting floors, and wonky widgets. Strange far-off sounds. Children laughing. Echoes of memories. The reverberation of nostalgia. Swirling lights like a hazy, half-coherent dream. An unidentified electric humming is sporadically interrupted by the shiver of acoustic guitar, the jolt of abrasive drums, or the shock of a computerized glitch. At every turn, you are faced with your own reflection. Distorted. Disfigured. What power do you give it? Is it humorous or horrifying? Your younger self stares back at you. Does it haunt you? Make you smile? This playlist is at once a foresight and a recollection. A call from the past and a reminder of why you must keep walking. You may be spooked, you may be charmed. But you are guaranteed to be amused. This is Body Dysmorphia.
Musicality, haloplus+ (2025)
Among my favorite albums of the year. Musicality is all over the place in the best way. Like a whole universe stuffed into a little bottle. Colorful, funky, wonderfully surprising. Do not let the outdated-looking album cover fool you. Musicality is fresh. haloplus+ brings a weird art-kid touch to the romantic sounds of adolescence. Musicality sounds lost - sometimes intentionally so, other times accidentally so.
Their unpredictable melodies unfurl sporadically. They wander, but with purpose. The up-and-coming Danish alt-indie trio is admittedly still getting the hand of their craft on this sophomore album. But they’re onto something good. Even when vocal production falters or instrumental transitions feel clumsy, Musicality kiiinda pulls it off. By openly embracing (and owning) their silliness, from the distorted vocals on Open Air Backset or Mouse Tag to the beat-boxing on Beatbox or the beat-change fuckery of Super Cute / Put it on, haloplus+ is able to get away with a whole lot more than they would otherwise. Indeed, their strange writing (about salamanders, for example), combined with their ambiguous accents make the album feel authentic. And special. Musicality is not perfect. And that is what makes it so. Sometimes cluttered, sometimes awkward. But imaginitive. And oh so fun.
The Most Dear and The Future, ear (2025)
ear’s debut does not disappoint. The experimental music collective has racked up an astonishing fan base in just over a year of releasing music. With just four singles, the duo amassed a monthly listener count of hundreds of thousands. There was pressure on this debut album. But instead of backing down, The Most Dear and The Future rose to the challenge.
More than that, the duo managed to do it in a way that felt utterly grounded to the core. Patient, structured, gentle, and glowing, The Most Dear and The Future might not blow your socks off upon first listen. But it will sink in, especially after a handful of listens. Like rewatching your favorite movie, you discover new small joys with each indulgence. Like the meeting of memory and anticipation. Listen for the bird sounds blended into the bass. Listen for the sound of a bucket clanging. Listen for the grooves that you didn’t catch at first because they are so loosely strung together. Listen for the sick ass hyperpop flips. On that note, keep your eye out for the title track. A rather astonishing piece, I think. With eye-catching tempo changes and danceable interludes, The Most Dear and The Future is taking us somewhere - we just don’t know where. And still, it has a pulse of nostalgia. Perhaps the album title was intended to be a hint at this duality: the tension between our memories and our anxieties. With between these touches of reflection and phenomenal production, The Most Dear and The Future is sure to give you a whole lot to think about.
LL, The Hellp (2024)
On their second LP, confusingly and yet charmingly titled LL, The Hellp finally started to sound like themselves. While their debut Vol. 1 (2021) was a step in the right direction, it was most certainly not the full picture. They hadn’t quite figured out the perfect equilibrium of unpleasantries and fire production, leaving them somewhere just… unpleasant. Three years later, under Atlantic, the duo returned. Focused. Clean.
Blending nostalgic electroclash, hyperpop/dubstep chaos and raw indie rock grit, LL leaves us with something unapologetically maximalist and acutely youthful. Scrapping together glitchy synths, throbbing bass, distorted vocals and abrupt beat shifts, The Hellp creates a soundscape that feels like a fever dream built from fragments of early 2000s emo pop. Although urgent and reckless, LL also feels unexpectedly heartfelt, fueled by authentic storytelling that includes small details, memories and wishes. Whether Noah Dillon is “over one block up” or “in Colorado”, we feel right there with him. In this way, the album feels like a sonic diary. A collage of a little bit of everything. The highs and lows of youth: the drama, the angst, the back-and-forth, the betrayals and the fun. The kind of thing you might one day miss. Or the kind of thing you might only find beautiful when young.
Forever, Bassvictim (2025)
You probably don’t need me to introduce Bassvictim to you. But in the off-chance that you don’t know the rather popular art electronic duo, Bassvictim is Polish-English vocalist /writer Maria Manow and American-English producer Ike Clateman. It only takes one look at their discography to get the vibe: chaotic, iconic, reactionary and unapolagetically y2k intentionally-cringe chronically-online shitposting MySpace revival core.
Their tatseful messiness, unsurprisingly, has some controversy attached. But rumors aside, Bassvictim has made some damn good music. While their debut and sophomore albums stuck to their self-proclaimed “basspunk” sound, mixing eurodance with SoundCloud rap undertones, their latest release (and second in 2025), Forever, leans more creepy (in a good way). The album is a more nuanced, artsy approach to Bassvictim’s usual 2000’s pop soul. The melodies keep this album afloat even through the duo’s trials and tribulations and weirdo experimentation. As written by Archie Forde, “Clateman and FAKETHIAS’ dense production helps turn the accidental into art. They make hallmarks from the types of things that other studio engineers might cut from the mix without hesitation…Layered with clanging percussion, gnarled harp sounds, and howling synths, their production is thickset yet deceptively simple—equally rewarding in your headphones and on a massive speaker. It sounds like the past without ever feeling derivative: a memory crystallized in bass, cracked phone screens, and dingy little London flats.” Forever keeps all the same experimental essence of Bassvictim’s earlier work but channeled into a (slightly) more mature direction - but not at the expense of having fun. Despite a serious production, Forever is still a party.
