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10 Albums to Stream: EMA, Todd Terje, Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, OFF!, Protomartyr, More

ema, the future's void, album stream

It’s that time of the week: Hotly anticipated albums are streaming online right now, and we’ve collected the best of the bunch. Scroll down to check out new releases by EMA, Protomartyr, Todd Terje, Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, and the Flaming Lips (okay, their latest was an April Fool’s gag, but still).

1) EMA, The Future’s Void. “What’s great about The Future’s Void isn’t its frame of reference, which hearkens back to William Gibson’s novels, Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, PJ Harvey and the just-post-Cold War mood of The X-Files. It’s the fearless dexterity Anderson and her producer/main musical partner Leif Shackelford employ while making this vintage-’90s worldview resonate right now.” (via NPR)

2) Protomartyr, Under Color of Official Right. “Protomartyr is a four-piece post-punk band from Detroit, which vocalist Joe Casey paints as a modern-day Mudville over the course of these 14 songs. There are no silver linings on Under Color of Official Right — only overcast ennui. Poignancy and shame rule the day, and it sounds like the meds ran out long ago. Callous, sometimes comical clarity is all that remains, and it’s a brilliant thing to behold.” (via NPR)

3) Todd Terje, It’s Album Time. “The whole of It’s Album Time, not unlike a certain robotic French duo’s latest effort, ebbs and flows with nostalgia for this journey to the light. Unlike the French, though, Terje seems to still believe that the moment will again be attainable, instead of forever lost to a bygone youth.” (via NPR)

4) Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks, Enter the Slasher House. “Given the ‘Slasher Flicks’ handle, it wouldn’t be out of line to assume Avey Tare and co. specialize in avant menace — not so with lead single ‘Little Fang.’ The track swings with disco-pop ease, leaving behind the watery cave explored on Avey’s solo debut, 2010’s Down There.” — SPIN (via YouTube)

5) OFF!, Wasted Years. “On April 8, Vice Records will release Wasted Years, a 16-track shredder featuring first taste ‘Void You Out,’ a ripper that blasts off with a bass bowwwww then explodes into a breakneck freak-out about getting beaten down in the land of the free. Morris, guitarist Dimitri Coats, bassist Steven McDonald, and drummer Mario Rubalcab recorded the whole set live in their Los Angeles practice space, to 8-track on 1/2-inch tape.” — SPIN (via The New York Times)

6) Ratking, So It Goes. “Yes, So It Goes does bear the musical DNA of its lauded ’90s and early 2000s predecessors. But it does little to imitate them. It’s not Dipset, Wu-Tang, G-Unit, Terror Squad or even Native Tongues rehash. This is the now New York seen through the eyes of vocalists and Manhattan natives Wiki (Upper West Side) and Hak (Harlem) as they come of age — their words set to the off-kilter and decidedly nonboom-bap soundscapes provided by Bushwick-by-way-of-Virginia producer Sporting Life.” (via NPR)

7) Various Artists, Hy Brazil Vol. 4. “Like its predecessors, Hy Brazil Vol. 4 asks a simple question: What is the sound of contemporary Brazilian electronic music? The answer, it turns out, is excitingly nebulous. Manara’s ‘Man, Mytho’ is sunrise techno in a Joy Orbison-meets-Underworld vein. Bruno Belluomini’s ‘P95G’ is a descendant of Chain Reaction’s lush-but-linear school. Hip-hop’s long history in Brazil comes through in songs by Secchin and No Step, while Carrot Green and Ney Faustini pursue deeper strains of downbeat house and slow-motion breakbeats, and ALDO prove that the spirit of LCD Soundsystem is alive and well in São Paulo.” — SPIN (via Bandcamp)

8) SOHN, Tremors. “This elusive, London-born, Vienna-based crooner is a one-stop shop for gorgeously minimal melancholy. He’s responsible for all of his own production, but voice is his best instrument, his desperate croons floating above warm surges of synths and quietly gurgling backing drums.” — SPIN (via iTunes)

9) John Frusciante, Enclosure. “John Frusciante has taken album-release stunts out of this world. Really. The former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitar ace’s new album Enclosure, due out April 11 via Record Collection, is currently loaded into a satellite circling the globe. Download a free mobile app to hear the full-length, Frusciante’s 11th. The catch: The app will unlock the music only after the satellite passers over a listener’s geographic area.” — SPIN (via John Frusciante’s website)

10) The Flaming Lips, Flaming Side of the Moon. “Five years after unveiling their cover of Pink Floyd’s entire Dark Side of the Moon, the Flaming Lips are revisiting that classic album with a companion LP called Flaming Side of the Moon. The surprise release is designed to be played at the same time as Floyd’s original, with the new echo-heavy soundscape adding more psychedelic layers.” — SPIN (via SoundCloud)