New Music Friday: Stream new projects from O., Snow Strippers, and more

Since 2019, Vaermina have been making some of South East London’s evilest sounds. Sharing the name of a sadistic dream haunter from the Elder Scrolls franchise, their music is appropriately unhinged, trawling the contiguous realms of industrial, punk, synth-pop, and metalcore — as well as the further-flung empire of folk — for their least savory elements. Their new “mini-album,” Tantrum, is struck through with a malevolent energy that spreads from its death-march opener “Sally’s Song” to the thrashing violence of “Real Panic” and beyond, even infecting the superficially wholesome ethos of “Irish Blessing.” The project is perhaps best represented by its corrosive closer, “Butterflies” — three-and-a-half minutes of unrelenting guitar feedback and blast beats undergirding lyrics that twist like knives. — Raphael Helfand

Hear it: Spotify

Snow Strippers' last project, April Mixtape 3 (released, confusingly, in May) was a treat for those who experienced the goth-meets-rave microscene of witch house and those who simply lived vicariously through latter-day discovery of SALEM. The duo return today with a new mixtape; Night Killaz Vol.1 and will follow the release by playing shows with both Evilgiane and Uffie, which gives a pretty good indication as to the waves of online music they sit between.

Night Killaz Vol.1 is a short, seven-track, collection of songs built around jackhammer drums and vocals fried with so much distortion they alternately sound crunchy and sweet. "Just Your Doll" filters Europop hooks and house piano through a gauzy lens, a digital soundtrack to an analog horror movie. "Another High," meanwhile, brings the BPM down from the nosebleed territory, adding a rhythmic texture to the project and creating something you can imagine one of Snow Strippers' Surf Gang label mates jumping on. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

bo en has always existed on the fringes of the PC Music Cinematic Universe, producing playful, patchworked tunes showcasing his expansive musical taste through an eclectic, candy-colored lens. And on Pale Machine 2, his hyperpop tendencies and encyclopedic knowledge of cutesy J-pop hooks, New Orleans bounce triggerman beats, and sweeping symphonic compositions, plucked from the score of an old Hollywood film, are still on full display. As a remix record though, it maintains the same unexpected sonic flips found on his initial release from 2013. The only difference is that the sequel is a more refined version of what was a somewhat disjointed and often chaotic record, demonstrating bo en’s growth as a producer while still maintaining the brazen curiosity and irreverent excitement of the original. I mean, who else would be ballsy enough to recreate a classic footwork beat using chirpy 8-bit video game instrumentation, while Khia’s infamous “My Neck, My Back” whispers in the background? — Sandra Song

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

full body 2 make music that sounds like what it feels to take shrooms as you’re driving on the Rainbow Road racecourse in your Mario Kart vehicle of choice, trying to avoid red shells and banana peels, and I say this in the best way possible. Their latest EP infinity signature is a wall of sonic pandemonium that mutates and evolves within itself, a burst of proto-shoegaze and electronic pop where the only aligning thread is that of glitch-rock anarchy and lawlessness. Hotline TNT’s Will Anderson is a fan of the band, and you can hear the similarities between the two: dreamy noise-pop projects that are unapologetic in loudness and feeling. — Cady Siregar

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

Too often, the saxophone acts as some intentionally cheesy signifier of the '80s. Nostalgia with a dose of winking irony is the be-all and end-all for these pop groups, not creating something actually progressive. Enter O., the Brixton-based duo of Joseph Henwood and Tash Keary. In a purely structural sense, the songs lend themselves to jazz in their jammy synchronicity. But O. have a broad, exciting sound that's apparent from the moment Keary's seamlessly tight drums weave into Henwood's baritone sax; even at its tense peaks, the songs of SLICE have a pastel-colored jovial quality to them, like they're built for the friendliest mosh pit on the planet. Henwood puts a collection of vintage dub delay and reverb pedals to effective and tasteful use across the four songs, balancing out the fracas with gentle ethereality. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music