Add to playlist: Tristan Perrish and James McVeney’s score for organ and 100 speakers, plus the best new tracks of the week | music

from New York and London
Recommended if you like Callie Malone, Eliane Radijo, Caterina Barbieri, Comafields Burial
the next Infinity Gradient album will be released on November 21st

There’s something about a pipe organ that keeps experimental musicians coming back for more. No other acoustic instrument cuts through and vibrates the air in quite the same way.

Composers like Callie Malone, Jonny Greenwood, Elaine Arcbrough, Sarah Davaci, and Kate Downs are just the beginning. Experimental organ culture has grown in the UK thanks to events such as Organ Reframed at London’s Union Chapel (which over the past decade has commissioned music from composers including Mark Fell, Iliane Radig and Hildur Guðnadóttir) and the imaginatively named Bristol concert series Essentially Slow Organ Music, as well as adventurous organists such as James McVeney.

Infinity Gradient is the latest in a growing line of initially serene organ music that later reveals depth and grit. An hour-long piece for organ and 100 speakers, it was composed by New York-based composer Tristan Perich in 2021, and performed with McVienie at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2024. After the opening flourish, the piece is arranged in seven sections but, in essence, works through a handful of extended crescendos.

Perich’s breathing and distortion electronics feel like a natural addition to the organ’s already broad sound palette. His textures move surprisingly quickly across moods. The swaying figures transform from Caterina Barbieri to Papa O’Reilly. Drones, pulses and annoying buzzes form the basis of this musical language, to which the organ adds layer after layer. The moment the device fully kicks in (with four massive speakers to boot) is worth the wait. Hugh Morris

The best new songs of the week

Water Baby – Pick n Call
Singing a hopeless infatuation, a member of the Swedish pop group sings one of the best piano pieces we’ve heard in ages, a head-shaking nod that dissolves into a later string arrangement: masterful craft.

Underscore – do it
A key collaborator on Danny Brown’s new album, the hip-pop star links up with Timbaland-era Justin Timberlake with a taut, groovy track designed for serious 2000s MTV dance moves.

Msingno – Think of me
Pairing a brandy sample with a UKG beat isn’t the most original idea, but once again Mssingno is a master of these ghostly, nostalgic edits – and the chorus is pure melancholy euphoria.

Mala and Magogo – Hardcore Don
It’s been circling the bands Four Tet, Skream and more for a while, and now this piece of classic dubstep is reaching the general public with resounding force, further energized by Magugu’s Flowdan-style chatter.

Nothing – the world of cannibals
A massive, bending mass of shoegaze guitars and euphoric pop vocals are produced through “Jungle Breakbeat”: a concept completely inspired by the Philly band.

JBee – If You Lose (with Kidwild)
During DCBeats’ Pink Sunset rehearsal production, JBee morosely contemplates the rigors of the grind, while Kidwild – capping off a great year – allows himself to be vulnerable: “I just want you to hold me.”

Bu Mahadev – lollipop
In the intro to the New York City electronic producer’s debut album, Subterra, a tech house melody ripples like a tropical fish through a cave; Erika de Casier’s fans will love singing too.
Ben Beaumont Thomas

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