7 Songs periodically features curated tracks and commentary for a more personal music discovery experience.
Xkyrgios—Evian Christ
Evian Christ thrives on elevating sound design in electronic music, weaving between the familiar and alien. Xkyrgios continues his exploration of atmospheric textures and unconventional rhythmic structures, building tension through restraint. The approach feels architectural, each element deliberately placed, contributing to a larger sonic structure that reveals itself slowly.
The track embodies the kind of forward-thinking electronic music that doesn't announce its innovations loudly but instead lets them emerge through careful listening. Evian Christ understands that the most compelling electronic music often happens in the gaps between genres, and Xkyrgios occupies that space with confidence and purpose in a way that feels worthy of a soundtrack.
Gimme Half—The Devil Wears Prada
Gimme Half makes this month's list in recognition of Daniel Williams: longtime drummer of The Devil Wears Prada who perished in a sudden plane crash a week ago. I learned to drum along to this track and many of the others on With Roots Above and Branches Below. Williams just smacks the kit almost all the way through; the momentum is aggressive and many of the rolling fills are very stimulating to play.
The record represents an apotheosis of aughts metalcore's more melodic and commercial flavors in both style and production. Roots is pretty much a snapshot of the moment immediately before Joey Sturgis's Foundation sound felt overproduced and more artificial than ideally maximal. Clean vocals are quite tuned, studio arrangement doesn't let up often, and the drums are triggered almost to hell, but retain enough feel to punch through very satisfactorily. This LP turns those knobs about as high as they can go before listenability dives sharply—I'm looking forward to banging out a full playthrough in a newly renovated drum room in honor of Daniel. Anyone who's encouraged me to play more music deserves that tribute.
World Speed—Yung Skrrt
Yung Skrrt has been sitting in a lane all his own for a long time: fiercely independent, wildly syncretic, and unapologetically individual. Maybe sonic exploration this broad and unfiltered is a natural consequence of embracing production as a live performance: Skrrt cuts about a thousand tracks a year in front of a livestream audience on Twitch, streaming every single day. It's clear that the man's primary reason for making at this point is for his own entertainment and appreciation, and that's special.
Plenty of Skrrt's work falls back on a tried and true formula, but there are so many nuggets of novelty sprinkled throughout his very expansive catalog. It's clear from his live-production broadcasts that his approach is more gestural than compositional and prioritizes feel despite being very fundamentally digital—the man really plays the laptop. Throw a literal fortune wheel of genre into the process and you get some deliciously unexpected moments.
World Speed has some real earworm qualities for these reasons. It's on one of Skrrt's Half Words projects which play fast and loose with partial lyrical motifs crooned through heavy autotune that would be more at home in an Internet parody of a Playboi Carti reference track. It keeps the listener in a state of keeping up right from the moment a jarring tone cluster blows through a traditional shimmering synth intro. The 808 pattern on this one is something else entirely. I didn't like it at first but I kept revisiting it in an attempt to wrap my head around syncopation so zany that it feels like a polyrhythmic locomotive. It got its hooks into me and I can't get enough of it now. Who would do this in a song and why? Which other artist is punching in with bars about sipping yerba mate like a double cup? This guy is utterly peerless; true one of one.
Genie on My Back—ICYTWAT
ICYTWAT's sound is tough and ethereal at the same time in a way that's frequently hypnotic. The haunting minor string melodies on this track sound right out of a medieval RPG or a title like Silent Hill while the drums knock with a kick that can make a room shake. Perfect soundtrack to lift or walk around to when I can't bring myself to care about anything at all.
Childhood—Kensuke Ushio
There's something simply moving about the way that Kensuke Ushio approaches emotional storytelling through sound. Childhood carries the same delicate weight as many of his other iconic soundtracks as a piece that feels like memory itself: fragile, nostalgic, and achingly beautiful.
Ushio's background in both classical piano and electronic music shines through here. The track manages to be both intimate and expansive, capturing something universal about the bittersweet nature of looking back. It's the kind of composition that makes you pause whatever you're doing and just listen as it picks up a click tempo and swings around to its gently swelling resolution.
Feather (feat. Cise Starr & Akin from CYNE)—Nujabes
Musicians who have perished in transportation accidents seems to be a spurious theme this month. Few producers have left as indelible a mark on hip-hop as Nujabes, and Feather stands as one of his most enduring achievements. The way he weaves jazz samples into something entirely new while maintaining respect for both traditions is nothing short of masterful. Cise Starr and Akin deliver verses that feel like conversations with old friends—thoughtful, unpretentious, and deeply human.
The track embodies everything that made Nujabes special: the ability to create music that's simultaneously nostalgic and forward-thinking, complex and accessible, serious and joyful. More than fifteen years after his passing, Feather still feels like a blueprint for how to honor musical heritage while pushing it into new territory.
Right Now—Mario Abney
I was pleasurably introduced to Mario Abney's music at the 50th anniversary show for Andy's Jazz Club in Chicago where he and his band played with New Orleans legend Donald Harrison Jr. Abney has cultivated a jazz sensibility that feels both rooted in tradition and unafraid to explore new territory. Right Now showcases his ability to create music that's sophisticated without being pretentious, accessible without being simple. There's a spiritual quality to the composition that suggests deeper currents running beneath the surface.
The track works on multiple levels—as a showcase for technical skill, as an emotional journey, and as a piece of music that simply feels good to experience. Abney understands that the best jazz has always been about communication, and Right Now is a conversation worth joining right from the beginning as his trumpet talks to a saxophone.