New Music Friday: Listen to new projects from Been Stellar, Daniel Davies, Kronos Quartet, and more

Been Stellar revive an old-school (read 2001-2007) era indie rock sound on their debut album. The band worked with producer Dan Carey, who has previously helmed albums by Fontaines D.C. and Wet Leg, to create a record that is moody and swaggering but impassioned enough to avoid ever feeling bloated. "Passing Judgement" pays its respect to the band's New York forefathers, boasting the imposing aura of an Interpol song with an added youthful kick. "Pumpkin," meanwhile, takes things in a twinkling and widescreen pop-rock direction. Lyrically, frontman Sam Slocum leans into the grind of city life, buzzing street lights and endless noise bleeding through the walls builds out their world, as well as the moments of human connection that offer temporary relief. It's a collection of songs written about New York but could apply to anyone feeling chewed up but not quite spat out. — David Renshaw

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Best known for his work with John Carpenter, Daniel Davies has spent the past decade working on hair-raising soundscapes for horror films and TV, as well as a few synth-heavy solo records, just as spectral as his scoring work. Ghost of the Heart is a nostalgically moody and grandiose rock ‘n’ roll record containing hints of ‘70s glam, goth, and King Crimson-style prog. The most fascinating aspect of Ghost of the Heart, however, is Davies’ ability to infuse a sense of foreboding dread into even the catchiest of psych melodies, coating everything from the militant churn of “I Know Why” to the twisted flamboyance of “Into You” with a layer of fear-inducing hypnotic sludge. — Sandra Song

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The fourth in a series of Sun Ra tribute albums sponsored by AIDS nonprofit Red Hot is helmed by Kronos Quartet, an experimental institution that’s been at it almost as long as Ra’s Arkestra has — under his stewardship and, since his passing, that of Marshall Allen, who turned 100 last month. The project features an incredible cross-section of the contemporary avant-garde’s top talent, each guest presenting a distinct take on Ra’s music, using his original scores as source material. Esteemed jazz singer Georgia Anne Muldrow opens the album with a relatively faithful rendition of its title track, an Arkestra staple. Laraaji applies his signature ambient brush strokes to the doo-wop deep cut “Daddy’s Gonna Tell You No Lie.” And Jlin and RP Boo, iconoclastic electronic artists with roots in the footwork tradition, use sampling and complex drum patterns to twist Kronos’ strings into strange new shapes on “Maji” and “Blood Running High,” respectively. Elsewhere, Nicole Lizée and Evicshen assemble their respective cuts, “The Furthest Out Things” and “Three Seasons In the Tempestuous Twelve Inch Planet,” at an atomic level; Terry Riley and Sara Miyamoto bring the album home with wild improvisations on its 10 minute closer, “Kiss Yo Ass Goodbye”; and Allen himself appears on three tracks with the legendary Laurie Anderson. At every stage, the strange string vibrations of Kronos Quartet permeate the record, standing in for Sun Ra’s piano as the project’s guiding hand. For all its surprising moments, Outer Spaceways Incorporated coheres as a single body of work, an undulating opus Ra himself would be proud of. — Raphael Helfand

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“Exhibition Mode” is a phrase familiar to anyone who’s played a 32-bit racing game set in some distant cyberpunk future: hovering supercars armed with missiles race down speedways built in the center of neon supercities, and every radio is set to the local pirate radio station. A New York City-based producer attached to the jungle revival, dazegxd doesn’t keep things static on the project : “one more eye” enlists rapper Moh Baretta for a razor-sharp drill-club cut that hits with cruise missile precision; Sari brings purple-tinged crooning to the morose four-on-the-floor pulse of “hate it on your own”; “girl of the century,” featuring Af1shawty, is built for lovesick anime fan edits with its slickly Auto-Tuned vocals and melodies that cascade like the contents of an exploding glitter factory. Unlike other modern jungle records, Exhibition Mode isn’t a churlish assertion of pedigree or vacuous trend-chasing. It’s filled with heart-swelling, head-bobbing moments that make a crowded, sweaty basement feel like the happiest place on earth. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Spotify | Apple Music | Bandcamp