New Music Friday: Listen to new projects from skaiwater, Zsela, Martha Skye Murphy, and more

To be a vulnerable hip-hop artist is to open yourself up to a battery of chauvinistic criticism and accusations of being out of line with hip-hop’s masculine foundations. skaiwater, a rapper and producer from Nottingham, U.K., is a prime target on paper: a thin, genderfluid Black youth who wears tight clothes and raps about the highs and lows of their relationships. But unlike Drake, a key musical influence for skaiwater and the rapper who’s dealt with similar accusations for his entire career, skaiwater’s shapeshifting feels less like a weather vane and more like the wind itself. #gigi, skaiwater’s sophomore album, is a sumptuously crafted record fuelled equally by the modern rap underground and a quest for timelessness. Truly inspired sonic blends are everywhere: “richest girl alive” mutates a baile funk beat into the kind of song SZA might hop on, “heavy metal” taps the beating heart at the core of OPIUM-style rage rap, and “box” might be the essential Jersey club cut of the summer (that’s not from Jersey). Above all, #gigi just sounds fresh — as a style, and as a sound — announcing the return of a wildly inventive artist aiming for new commercial heights without compromising. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

In the context of current industry pressures, Zsela has been relatively slow to arrive at her first full-length. Big For You comes five years after her debut single, “Noise,” and four years after her debut EP, Ache of Victory. Her unhurried approach pays dividends on the new album, a diverse yet cohesive set of 10 tracks, peppered with moments of bona fide brilliance. The first of these instances comes on the record’s second track, “Fire Escape,” when Zsela sings “I’m falling down” for the first time, and an initially playful instrumental is replaced by an astonishing wall of sound. Other coups de grace are subtler, less cathartic but no less genius, products of Zsela’s mind meld with superproducer Daniel Aged (Frank Ocean, FKA twigs, Kelela, Rosalía). “Still Swing” — the track Zsela says went through the wildest number of transformations on a record that was reimagined ad infinitum — was originally a slow meditation on growth in the face of tragedy. In its final form, the loaded line “I got news just yesterday” finds a new home on an irresistible groove that recontextualizes it as the type of catchy, pithy mantra Tracy Chapman and Joan Armatrading would be proud of. And on “Moth Dance,” the seed from which the rest of the project germinated, evocative heartbeat metaphors are underscored by a slow, steady drumline and accentuated by a guitar solo courtesy of Zsela’s teeth. — Raphael Helfand

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Um starts deceptively small, with the click of a tape recorder and Martha Skye Murphy ordering the orchestra to “commence” on a cinematic opener that creeps towards the warped and grotesque. It’s a fitting introduction for a breathtaking debut brimming with ghostly art-pop ballads that flit between dead-eyed indifference, opulent angst, and spasms of electronic noise. Worth highlighting is the corroded innocence of “Need,” her delicate and deceptively childlike voice wrapped around a whispery piano melody and the striking strums of an electric guitar, intertwined with experimental guitarist Roy Montgomery’s rich baritone. Meanwhile, moments like the sharp transition from the ambient, rainy-day thrum of “Dust Yourself Off” to the bone-shaking growl of feedback on “IRL” exemplify Um’s magical ability to capture those ephemeral feelings. But they’re vague feelings that conjure more questions than answers before quickly disappearing back into the darkness, swallowed like a sprinkling of fairy dust tossed into a bottomless void.

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp

nusar3000 is connected to the Rusia-IDK collective, a Madrid-based group of enigmatic and playful experimentalists that includes Ralphie Choo and rusowsky. 3000, however, is his most complete personal statement to date. It's an album that acts as a tribute to Mediterranean culture, filtering past through present to create something uniquely out of time. Recorded in Morocco, 3000 follows a path from the tip of North Africa through to southern Spain with different tracks representing geographical checkpoints. "NASKAR" starts the trek with a frantic and distorted take on the regional Moroccan genre chaabi, infusing the traditional folk sound with hyperspeed beats and tire screeches. nusar3000 moves at a breakneck pace throughout, charging across the map in just 16 minutes. "ROSA DE JERICÓ" marks the arrival in Spain with suitably dramatic vocals from flamenco artist Israel Fernandez, "Melaza" meanwhile zooms off on a reggaeton beat. The overall effect is overwhelming; a mixture of old and new that manages to steep tradition in modern production and shaking up both worlds in the process. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music

Let’s address the elephant in the room: POPtical Illusions is a bad album title. Nevertheless, rock legend and avant-garde icon John Cale has delivered another excellent LP at the ripe young age of 82. It's not as adventurous as Cale’s last few outings — particularly last year’s Mercy, for which the silent-generation superstar crossed generational divides to work with the millennial creme de la creme: Weyes Blood, Laurel Halo, Tei Shi, Actress, Animal Collective (technically Gen X but right on the cusp), et al. But what the new record loses in strangeness, it makes up for in songcraft. Across 13 tracks with a combined runtime of 64 minutes, Cale puts forth his most compelling pop project in 20 years or more, depending on where you rank 2003’s Hobosapiens. Gorgeous grooves like God Made Me Do It, the album’s trip-hop-leaning opener, and “Laughing In My Sleep,” a touching heartbreak anthem that leads into the record’s closer, the tentatively hopeful “There Will Be No River,” sit alongside endearingly odd cuts like “Company Commander” and “Funkball the Brewster.” And bitter ballads “Calling You Out” and “I’m Angry” are flanked by redemption songs “Edge of Reason” and lead single “How We See the Light,” one of the most genuinely uplifting tracks I’ve heard in some time. — Raphael Helfand

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music