Add to playlist: False Aralia’s mysteriously relaxing environment and the best new tracks of the week | music

from San Francisco
Recommended if you like Rhythm and Sound, Ricardo Villalobos, Vladislav Delay
the next A double LP from Topdown Dialectic was released in the spring

False Aralia disappears into a blurry area somewhere between the record label and the artist’s project. Ostensibly a brand, each EP features a different eponymous artist, and each cover, designed by Nick Almquist, features a different Abstract Expressionist monochrome doodle. But all the tracks are numbered, untitled, and each EP is actually the work of just one producer, Izaak Schlossman (credited as IS), who is joined by a shifting cast of collaborators.

The music also seems to evaporate into a mist, not only resisting genre categorization but actually seeming to evaporate as it plays. The most obvious comparison is to the small house scene of the early 2000s, where artists like Vladislav Delay, Isolie, and Ricardo Villalobos made quietly crashing tracks with the same level of playful sonic detail you might hear in a rainforest. False Aralia’s tracks also have a strong techno flavor thanks to all the fuzzy, sad strings, and a track like 01 by Externalism has a stunning, meandering dub beat, but none of the steady four-and-four techno beats. The closest Schlossman comes is on the Kraftwerkian Iri.gram EP Almost, or 03 by Borgesian Term, a meticulously crafted groove built of live drums, heavily distorted vocals and ASMR sound design that tickles the cochlea.

Vocalist Anya Brisk appears on four versions, and her voice is so heavily treated that it becomes another artificial vocal gesture, though Schlossmann’s only concession to straight songs, the stunning “01” (sung by Lucas DeLeon), sounds like a chill-out by a truly frozen poolside at a holiday resort in the off-season. Aralia’s false paths seem to bend the corners of reality with the delicacy of an origami master, letting you peek into an alternate, soft-focus world. Ben Beaumont Thomas

The best new songs of the week

Francis Chang – I can feel the waves
Before supporting Cate Le Bon stateside, the New Yorker unleashes a gorgeous ballad reminiscent of a more domesticated score for Astrid Sonne’s off-kilter piano and conversational musings.

Robin – Sexy
Robyn challenges Andre 3000 by saying no one wants to hear him rap about colonoscopies with her own loud rap about the physical rearrangement of dating while doing IVF solo.

Bonnie “Prince” Billy – They keep trying to find you
In a beautiful comeback – as spare and sunlit – as it is sinister, Will Oldham sings a tribute to someone who will do anything, even “allowing solitude to be completely distracted”, to remain incognito.

A$AP Rocky – Punk Rocky
Rocky cries in his truck, drowning his sorrows and trying to write love songs even though he hates them, into a drugged haze that threatens to drag you into the mud with him.

Peter Gabriel – undone
As he did in 2023, Peter Gabriel will release a new single every full moon this year: the unwavering “Undone” is a poignant look at human fallibility and anxiety about emptiness.

Doechii and SZA – Girl, stand up
Doechii is chilling on the surface, not a care in the world… a pose that’s quickly undone when she responds to haters with minute detail, her angry verses tempered by SZA’s slippery chorus.

Johnny Hubble – Evergreen in your mind
Sharing the same dark light as Jessica Pratt’s recordings, the Norwegian singer traces the gap between reality and memory in coiling vocal harmonies, all the way to a reassuring acoustic guitar motif. Laura Snaps

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