Tomorrow (March 15), Rolling Loud California returns. Among the dozens of featured entertainers, the 2025 lineup features several notable independent musicians, such as Peysoh, King Lil G, Chow Lee, Hoosh, Kamaiyah, and more. A future festival fans of electronic music have to look forward to this year is Wire Festival 2025 and A-Trak & Friends during Miami Music Week 2025. Organizers for both events have unveiled its roster.
This week, multiple labels announced talent expansions of their own. Dean Johnson signed with Saddle Creek, and Case Oates inked a deal with Merge Records. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rémy Martin V.S.O.P. launched its This Is My City microgrant initiative for creative entrepreneurs.
On the music front, this week’s releases were relatively plentiful. But our top independent recommendations include Bambara’s Birthmarks, Circuit Des Yeux’s Halo On The Inside, Jordyn Simone’s REMEMBER WHEN? Deluxe, St. Lucia’s Fata Morgana: Dawn, Stela Cole’s I Die Where You Begin, Throwing Muses’ Moonlight Concessions, and Whatever The Weather’s Whatever The Weather II.
Some of the album synopsis featured below were provided by their respective record label.
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Bambara - 'Birthmarks'
Birthmarks marks a reincarnation for the trio — Reid and his twin brother Blaze (drums), alongside childhood friend William Brookshire (bass). Five years removed from their last full-length Stray, and three from their 2022 EP Love On My Mind, Birthmarks emerges directly from the band’s favored aesthetics and themes, but captures them with a new sense of sonic adventurousness and thematic subtlety, resulting in a collection of songs that are somehow both the band’s most apocalyptic and most poignant. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Bella Union/Wharf Cat
Circuit des Yeux - 'Halo On The Inside'
Halo On The Inside is the product of Circuit des Yeux’s spiritual metamorphosis. It is the butterfly and the beast – a rhapsodic, hedonistic, dance floor-adjacent, pagan-friendly, horns-adorning wall of sound and emotion. Halo On The Inside finds Circuit des Yeux renewed, recombinant, and thrillingly alien. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Matador
Jordyn Simone - 'REMEMBER WHEN Deluxe'
Jordyn Simone is a strict follower of the classic soul and contemporary R&B’s sonics. The “Hideaway” singer’s project REMEMBER WHEN? is a reflection of that musical dedication, but the body of work’s deluxe edition exemplifies that. On REMEMBER WHEN? Deluxe, Jordyn Simone taps fellow vocalists Dende, Lekan, Phabo, Reggie Becton, TA Thomas, Joseph Solomon, Gemaine, and Ben Reilly for an intimate push and pull of love— – its highs, its heartbreaks, and the moments in between. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Boom.Records
St. Lucia - 'Fata Morgana: Dawn'
When it comes to Fata Morgana, you've never heard St. Lucia like this before. The fifth album from Jean-Philip Grobler's long-running alt-pop project with his wife Patti Beranek expands the band's sound in massive and widescreen fashion-encompassing psychedelic pop, the gritty pre-'80s dance music of the NYC punk-rock scene, the cinematic sweep of classic film scores, and much more. As a band, St. Lucia has always been focused on taking their listeners on a journey, and Fata Morgana is unquestionably the headiest trip they've cooked up yet. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Nettwerk
Stela Cole - 'I Die Where You Begin'
Since her 2022 breakthrough on American Song Contest, viewers have patiently awaited Stela Cole’s first full-length artistic statement. That sonic declaration has arrived by way of her debut studio album, I Die Where You Begin. Across 13 tracks, Cole blends her cinematic influences with bold, unapologetic storytelling. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Stelavision/Amuseio AB
Throwing Muses - 'Moonlight Concessions'
Moonlight Concessions goes back to basics, a return for Throwing Muses to their esoteric, off-kilter best courtesy of Kristin’s pin-sharp sketches and their suitably abrasive musical arrangements. The album follows their acclaimed ‘Sun Racket’ from 2020, a heady set filled with tough and tender tales spiked with surreal imagery. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Fire
Whatever The Weather - 'Whatever The Weather II'
Across a remarkable run of releases in barely half a decade, London’s Loraine James has established her identity through a blend of refined composition, gritty experimentation, and unpredictable, intricate electronic programming. While titles released under her given name on the esteemed label Hyperdub tend toward IDM-influenced, vocal-heavy collaborations, James reserves her alias, Whatever The Weather, for a more impressionistic, inward gaze. On Whatever The Weather II, rich worlds of layered textures flow seamlessly from hypnotic ambiance to mottled rhythms to cut-up collages of diaristic field recordings. The result is a uniquely fractured beauty, born from a compelling union of organic and human elements, processed through a variety of digital and analog methods. To stream or order, click here.
Source: Ghostly International
