In recent weeks on Dazed, we’ve interviewed Bb Trickz, Violent Magic Orchestra, and Billionhappy. We’ve also explored the 20-year history of Hyperdub, looked at the new wave of artists changing the sound of London, and hosted a Dazed Mix from Manuka Honey.

2023 is over, and it’s sadly safe to say these are still very challenging times. Despite the sometimes spoken, sometimes unspoken uncertainties that colour the day-to-day realities of many, music continues to function as a shared communal space and a source of collective solace. In the wake of the pandemic’s lockdown years, the global music community faces ongoing economic challenges around touring, releasing and promoting music. Regardless of the difficulty setting of the moment, new and under-discussed talents from the worlds of underground music continue to use community and craft to find a way. 

For the first edition of our quarterly roundup for 2024, we’re continuing to reflect and acknowledge musicians, artists, producers, and DJs from across the globe, all with strong communities, real visions, and important statements to make. Here are ten essential Q4 releases, all available on Bandcamp. 

JULIA HOLTER, SOMETHING IN THE ROOM SHE MOVES

WHO: An ever-curious Los Angeles singer-songwriter, composer and producer with a taste for the avant-garde and pop in equal measure. 

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Her sixth studio album in 11 years, Julia Holter’s Something In The Room She Moves is a watery collection of songs that rides the line between modern composition, avant-garde pop, field recordings and hazy, hypnagogic lounge music. Opening with the rhythmic psychedelia of “Sun Girl”, the album juxtaposes expansive, soundtrack-style pieces like “Ocean” with ascendant art-pop (“Spinning”) and nocturnal sophi-pop (“Evening Shadows”). In the past, Holter’s music has often been linked with fading memories and dreamlike premonitions of the future. This time around, Something In The Room She Moves finds her firmly rooted in the magic of the present moment.

FOR FANS OF: Joe Hisaishi, Cate Le Bon, Bullion.

DJ ANDERSON DO PARAÍSO, QUERIDÃO

WHO: One of the most exciting baile funk producers and DJs active in Brazil right now.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: When baile funk music began to become popular outside of Brazil in the 2000s, its dominant sound was a fusion of Miami Bass loops, traditional percussion patterns, horns, an anything-goes approach to sampling, and exuberant Portuguese-language party raps. Two decades later, the genre makes room for a plurality of expression. With Querid​ã​o, Belo Horizonte producer/DJ Anderson do Paraíso and his collaborators present a minimal, stripped-down version of the sound that takes skeletal cues from trap, drill, Jersey Club, and 90s rave music. A master of silence and space, his work feels like it’s been broadcast back in time from 2124.

FOR FANS OF: Pop Smoke, Ruff Sqwad, L da Vinte.

ANA TIJOUX, VIDA

WHO: A journeywoman Chilean rapper putting her spin on pop, reggaeton, and Afrobeats.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: In the early 2010s, Ana Tijoux made a name for herself as a skilled rapper who was more than comfortable addressing topics like The Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, Indigenous issues, and social and economic inequality, both at home and abroad. With Vida, her first album in a decade, Tijoux takes a joyful look at grief in all its forms, rapping and singing optimistically alongside a cast of guests, including UK soul singer Omar, iLe of Calle 13, and De La Soul’s Plug 1. Somewhere between old-school and 21st-century cool, Vida honours both the past and the present moment.

FOR FANS OF: Calle 13, Tayhana, DAM.

HELADO NEGRO, PHASOR

WHO: The Ecuadorian-American sound artist making rhythmic folk songs out of glistening electronics and everyday life. 

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Phasor, Helado Negro’s eighth studio album, feels like a warm well-needed hug. Sparked by five hours spent with the vintage Sal-Mar synthesiser in 2019, Phasor’s nine songs unfold like a golden beachside sunset near the end of summer. Using the Sar-Mar’s retro-futuristic sounds as incidentals, he wraps them around delicate English and Spanish language folk songs, blistering drum breaks and shuffling, sunkissed percussion. Following on from his 2021 lockdown album Far In, Phasor is about exiting the calm and quiet of isolation, and returning to the world as we find new ways to live and love in these times.

FOR FANS OF: Devendra Banhart, Tirzah, Buscabulla.

LARYSSA KIM, CONTEZZA

WHO: A Brussels-based Italo-Congolese singer and composer conjuring up esoteric and ceremonial ambient R&B for modern life.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: During the early pandemic years, Laryssa Kim looked inward by exploring meditation, astrology, and mysticism. In the process, she conceived of an album as a ritual. Somewhere between a dreamscape and an experimental folk story, Contessa renders Kim’s ritual musical magic through a glorious confluence of environmental ambient music, avant-garde experimentation, and new-age soul/R&B. From the opening bird calls of “Les Amants d’Osmium—76 OS” to the fading synths that conclude “La Vie Is Magic—Contezza”, Contezza reveals itself as the work of an artist who took the time to listen closely to what the world had to tell her. 

FOR FANS OF: Julianna Barwick, Space Afrika, Erykah Badu.

BOLIS PUPUL, LETTER TO YU

WHO: The Chinese Belgian musician using techno, new beat and synth-pop to explore grief and history.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: In 2018, a decade after his mother’s death, Bolis Pupul visited Hong Kong. During that trip, he made a set of cityscape recordings, which laid the foundations for his debut solo album and homage to his Hong Kong-born mother, Letter To Yu. Over 11 elastic tracks, Pupul wraps those recordings around song structures inspired by Detroit techno, Chicago house, electro and technopop. Landing on a sound that lives in the intersection between his East Asian and European roots and his American inspirations, Letter To Yu delivers on the promise Pupul showed across Topical Dancer, his 2022 collaboration with Charlotte Adigéry.

FOR FANS OF: Kraftwerk, Philip Glass, Miss Kittin & The Hacker.

VANESSA BEDORET, EYES

WHO: The French experimental violinist, composer, and producer exploring electronics, field recordings, and emotional introspection in London.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: With her new album Eyes, Vanessa Bedoret brings together a lifetime of musical experiences. Across seven tracks, she combines classical composition, the theatrics and heft of black metal and opera, the euphoria of eurodance, and IDM’s shifting, syncopated machine beats. A nimble vocalist with an open ear for what a song can be tracks like “Choice” see Bedoret soaring over endless drones, hulking dubbed-out percussion and glittery, stargazed melodies. Alternatively, on “Ballad”, she sings in a pastoral, folkloric style while fantasy-fueled guitars and sprawling synthesiser pads duck and weave in the distance. Every song feels like a world in itself.

FOR FANS OF: Coby Sey, HTRK, Flora Yin Wong.

JONNY FROM SPACE, BACK THEN I DIDN’T BUT NOW I DO

WHO: A Colombian American producer and DJ helping keep Miami’s electronic music scene on the cutting edge. 

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Sleek, spacious and stylish, Jonny From Space’s debut album back then I didn’t but now I do, is a vivid melange of sunset/sunrise ambient music, downtempo beachside grooves, chunky breakbeats, and skyscraper high dub techno. As a resident at Miami’s storied Club Space, Jonny From Space (hence the moniker) has made a name for himself as a versatile, scene-setting DJ. This adaptability comes through loud and clear across back then I didn’t but now I do in the form of glossy studies in pink clouds boom-bap (“Crystal Eyes“), squelchy VGM jungle (“Dream Reality“), and the synesthetic chillout bliss of the album’s closing track, “Seeing Colours”.

FOR FANS OF: Nick Léon, Ayesha, Skee Mask.

NAILAH HUNTER, LOVEGAZE

WHO: A Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and composer using the power of the harp to unlock mystical dreamscapes.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Growing up as the daughter of a Belizean pastor, Nailah Hunter spent her youth playing drums and guitar and singing in a church choir. After high school, she picked up harp while studying vocal performance at CalArts. The harp unlocked a sense of myth, legend and psychedelia for Hunter, leading her to release a series of singles and EPs in 2019. Across her debut album, she shares ambient folk music couched in fantasy and a deep appreciation of nature. Recorded on the southern coast of England with a borrowed Celtic Harp, Lovegaze is a remarkable introduction to Hunter and her songcraft.

FOR FANS OF: Ana Roxanne, Mary Lattimore, Kadhja Bonet.

REGAL86, UNEARTHED VOL.II

WHO: The Monterrey, Mexico-based producer and DJ who sees rap and rave music as flipsides of the same coin.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: The sequel to 2021’s Unearthed Vol.1, Unearthed Vol.2 is a mammoth collection of 100 tracks from one of 2023’s true breakout underground stars. Throughout Unearthed Vol.2, Regal86 shows off his considerable skills as an adaptable production stylist, offering up footwork, juke, techno, booty bass, hardgroove, lo-fi house, Baltimore-style club music, dubstep, ambient, southern rap, g-funk and trap instrumentals. Simply put, it’s a dizzyingly diverse and deep collection. That said, the real gold here is Regal86’s ability to display a working knowledge of electronic music at large while always putting his own spin on things.

FOR FANS OF: DJ Swisha, Clams Casino, El Irreal Veintiuno.