With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums and EPs from Sleater-Kinney, Polo G, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Dean Blunt, Keith Rowe, and the Narcotix. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Sleater-Kinney: Path of Wellness [Mom + Pop]
Path of Wellness is the tenth album from Sleater-Kinney, and their first new recording since longtime drummer Janet Weiss’ departure from the band. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker produced Path of Wellness. Read Pitchfork’s track review of “Worry With You.”
Listen on Apple Music Listen on Spotify Listen on TIDAL Listen on Amazon Music Listen/Buy at Bandcamp Buy at Rough Trade
Polo G: Hall of Fame [Columbia]
A little more than a year after The Goat, Polo G is back with Hall of Fame, which was led by the singles “RAPSTAR,” “GNF (OKOKOK),” “Epidemic,” and “GANG GANG.” Guests on the album include Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, and Rod Wave.
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King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard: Butterfly 3000 [KGLW]
Australia’s King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have released a slew of live records over the last year, sharing performances recorded in Sydney, Melbourne, London, San Francisco, and more. This past February, they released L.W., and they’ve now followed up with Butterfly 3000, which was not previewed with any singles.
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Dean Blunt: BLACK METAL 2 [Rough Trade]
Dean Blunt is back with his sequel to his 2014 release BLACK METAL. The second volume has contributions from Mica Levi and South London musician Giles Kwakeulati King-Ashong, who engineered, co-produced, and co-mixed the album with Blunt.
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Keith Rowe: Absence [Erstwhile]
Absence is the latest work from English improvisational tabletop guitarist Keith Rowe. The release consists of one 33-minute solo that Rowe recorded on a long Lapstick guitar, live in Bern, Switzerland. The solo is particularly significant because, as he performed it, Rowe (who has Parkinson’s disease) decided he could no longer continue performing solos as a musician. “An important moment in the solo is at 12:10 thru 12:21 where the Parkinson’s tremor frequency (around 300bpm) can be heard,” Rowe wrote on his Bandcamp page. “It’s around this moment I decide not to solo again.”
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
The Narcotix: Mommy Issues EP [self-released]
Mommy Issues is the debut EP from Brooklyn-based band the Narcotix. The self-described “West African art-folk” group is helmed by vocalists, multi-instrumentalists, and longtime best friends Becky Foinchas and Esther Quansah, who met in grade school in their native Virginia. Mommy Issues draws inspiration from choral symphonies, African wedding music, and Afrobeat—musical styles Foinchas and Quansah discovered through choir lessons and their parents, who hail from Cameroon and Cote D’Ivoire, respectively.
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