Japanese psychedelic pop band The Tenniscoats have been compared to the San Francisco noise-punk ensemble Deerhoof but their music is dreamier and more experimental. Takashi Ueno twists electronic and classical instruments over and around each other in a strange erotic symphony that Saya, the band’s ethereal singer, elevates to magical innocence. Even the most hardened heart recognizes and yearns for what The Tenniscoats have found.

—Camilla Padgitt-Coles

This infectious pop tune delves into the nerdy realm of graphic design and Photoshop to pull out metaphors for love and life. Singer Allison Apperson delivers lines with effortless sincerity, while the rest of the band provides a mix of fitting electronic embellishments and spot-on instrumentation.

—John Ruscher

Using the blues as material for laptop manipulation in his latest album, A Life Without Fear, German artist Ekkehard Ehlers strikes a quiet balance between artifact and innovation. In this sparse and haunted track, distorted guitars hum in and out of audibility over a crackling vocal borrowed from Charles Haffer Jr., the little-known American early electric blues musician.
—Bob Hammond

Unheralded San Francisco hip-hop producer Unagi has reinvented cheesy baby-making music. “If You Wanna” is on a funky gangsta-love vibe that reminds me of Tupac's moments of sweet serenade (think "Thug Passion").
- Bob Hammond