Add to playlist: Boundless bedroom-made black metal from Powerplant and this week’s best new songs | music

from London
Recommend if you like Defoe, Home Front, Sniper
the next The new album Bridge of Sacrifice was released on March 13

Theo Zikharev is one of those genius eccentrics who can turn wild ideas into reality. Since starting Powerplant as a bedroom recording project in 2017, two years after leaving Ukraine to study in London, he has released records built on raucous electro punk, dungeon synth and treble-heavy hardcore, and concocted Dungeons & Dragons-inspired role-playing adventures to accompany some of them, while visually throwing in DIY merchandise through his label Arcane Dynamics. However, even amidst this freewheeling production, his upcoming new record is full of surprises.

Bridge of Sacrifice is a centerpiece in black metal, with Zhykharyev’s funky synth melodies and staccato garage rock guitars now accompanied by eerie screams and drum machine beats small enough to evoke the frostbitten demos that emerged from Norway in the early 1990s. It’s a surprising combination executed with the exhilarating energy of fans indulging their emotions — in the video for the title track, a sportcoat-clad Zhykharyev plays a Flying V in a spooky basement, while the Hall of Wolves’ raucous tone sounds comically sinister — until the song breaks into a wonderfully camp, cramp-worthy chorus.

In these ever-anxious times, when hope is largely limited to placing one’s faith in the least bad outcome, Zikharev’s willingness to prioritize fun, seriousness and escapism in his wonderfully strange music feels like a sweet relief. He knows the risks better than many – Beautiful Boy, a song taken from his 2023 Grass EP, lamented all that has been lost since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is how he fights. Whoo Beans

The best new songs of the week

Love rarely – woe
Has sports rock ever been this upbeat and fun? Sure, the Leeds band’s time signatures jump like stunned cats, but it’s paired with emo-tinged vocals and Courtney Levitt’s screaming vocals. BPT

Fakemink – young millionaire
The UK underground’s most popular MC alongside EsDeeKid, Fakemink quickly struts through gothic guitars and syncopated beats, with an effortless mastery of his flow. BPT

Tama Gochi – Xexe
“I can make it clean or I can make it dirty,” the New York City musician sings over blasted bass and industrial grime that strongly suggests the latter — but his imagination takes a surprisingly gentle turn. L.S

Chris Forsyth What’s Now – Both/And
The Philadelphia guitarist trades his usual TV-indebted style for 25 minutes of spine-tingling exploratory improvisation alongside double bassist John Moran and drummer Joey Sullivan: Imagine Dirtier Necks. (Only available on Bandcamp.) L.S

Caulk – bead
Justin Morris perfectly embodies The Wire’s “McNulty and Beadie,” and Joe Pera’s “Joe Pera and Sarah” speaks with you in this slow, sad meditation on what it means to stop running and build a life. L.S

Thundercat – I did this To myself (feet my yacht night)
Backed by the kind of super-slick jazz-funk to knock pork pie hats off heads at a hundred paces, this is a smiley comeback for Thundercat, singing his desperation with someone out of his league. BPT

Brown horse – hurricanes
You might think this group comes from Tulsa, Oklahoma, rather than their actual home of Norwich: Twisters is a groovy piece of country rock in the vein of Neil Young or Kurt Vile, with a cool, rounded electric guitar. BPT

Subscribe to the Guardian’s Rolling Add to Playlist picks on Spotify – or transfer them to Apple, Tidal or other services