Chris Bosh

Chris Bosh/ Letters to a Young Athlete/ Penguin Random House

Phosphorescent

Phosphorescent/ ‘The BBC Sessions’/ Dead Oceans

Phosphorescent’s Matthew Houck has announced The BBC Sessions, a new EP to be released June 11 on Dead Oceans. Featuring stripped-down, intimate performances of songs from 2013’s Muchacho, 2010’s Here’s To Taking It Easy and 2007’s Pride, the EP features material from two separate BBC Radio performances held in 2011 and 2013. Notable among them is a previously unreleased rendition of “Song For Zula” out today, an undeniable benchmark for Phosphorescent that topped multiple year-end lists upon its original release with Muchacho. Removing its sublime swirl of synths and strings, the BBC version of “Zula'' puts fresh emphasis on Houck’s rich lyricism and storytelling – likewise for “At Death, A Proclamation” without marching band drums or “Terror In the Canyons (The Wounded Master)” sans horn section and pedal steel. Looking back on these performances nearly a decade on, the collection exposes the core of some of Houck’s most beloved, mysterious, and timeless songs.

Ruth B. Finds/ ‘Moments In Between’/ Downtown Records

25-year-old Ethiopian-Canadian singer and songwriter Ruth B. announces her new album Moments In Between, to be released June 11 via Downtown Records. Executive produced by Patrick Wimberly (Beyonce, Solange, Blood Orange, Ellie Goulding), the album features eleven new, original songs all written or co-written by Ruth. Following her gold-certified 2017 debut Safe Havenand multi-platinum hit single “Lost Boy,” Moments In Between is a raw emotional accounting of the anxieties and uncertainty Ruth faces as a woman in her mid-twenties, giving voice to her inner strife via warm vocals, shapeshifting textures, and hazy harmonies.

Rachel Baiman/ ‘Cycles’/ Signature Sound

Rachel Baiman's new album pushes the boundaries of her folk roots and experiments with indie-pop and grunge-rock sonics alongside a predominantly women crew of collaborators including Hally, GRAMMY-winning engineer Shani Gandhi (Sarah Jarosz, Sierra Hull, Mandolin Orange), drummer Bree Hartley and others. Baiman recruited several other top-notch musicians for the album including Cy Winstanley (Brandy Clark), Josh Oliver(Mandolin Orange), CMA Musician of the Year Jenee Fleenor (Dolly Parton, Kathy Mattea) who took on the role of Baiman’s co-writer for album closer, “The Distance."

Crowder

Crowder/ ‘Milk & Honey’/ Capitol Christian Music Group

Amythyst Kiah

Amythyst Kiah/ ‘Wary + Strange’/ Rounder Records

Amythyst Kiah announces her new album and Rounder Records debut, Wary + Strange, to be released on June 18. The collection - featuring eleven songs all written or co-written by the artist - finds Amythyst redrawing the lines of roots music, and then coloring completely outside of them with a collision of styles that is fearless, iconoclastic and exhilarating. Expanding on the role she staked out in Our Native Daughters - the Grammy-nominated, all-women-of-color supergroup she co-founded with Rhiannon Giddens, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell - Amythyst’s writing on Wary + Strange is raw yet nuanced, as she expresses grief, alienation, and ultimately the hard-won triumph of total self acceptance.

Wild Up/ ‘Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine’/ New Amsterdam Records

On June 18, 2021, Los Angeles-based musical collective Wild Up will release the premiere studio recording of Julius Eastman’s “Femenine.” Arriving on New Amsterdam Records, Julius Eastman Vol. 1: Femenine is the opening entry in Wild Up’s multi-volume anthology celebrating Eastman, the late composer whose amalgamated musical vision was repeatedly dismissed during its day, but is now being unearthed to critical acclaim. 

Shungudzo/ ‘I’m not a mother but I have children’/ Svikiro Records/Young Forever/BMG

Zimbabwean-American artist/activist Shungudzo has announced the release of her debut album, I’m not a mother but I have children (Svikiro Records/Young Forever/BMG) out June 18, 2021. Written and produced primarily on her own, the 16-track (13 songs and 3 poems) album is a testimony to her life both growing up in Zimbabwe and now living in America, and her talent in making songs and poems that uplift, excavate and enlighten. The album is a proclamation, asking the listener to look inside themselves, embrace their good, analyze their intentions, and rethink life’s priorities.

Cher Strauberry/ ‘Chering Is Caring’/ Silver Arrow Records

Cher Strauberry, the most exciting new voice in punk music & a trailblazing groundbreaker within the transgender community, announces ‘Chering Is Caring’, an audio experience that defies easy categorization. Out June 18th on Silver Arrow Records, the record plays out like an immersive alt zine meets a DIY punk show meets an audio diary (recorded nearly entirely on a microcassette player & walkman).

Angelique Kidjo

Angélique Kidjo/ ‘Mother Nature’/ Universal Music Group

Angélique Kidjo has announced her new album, Mother Nature, to be released on June 18 (Universal Music Group). Mother Nature finds the 4-time GRAMMY-winner joining forces with some of the most captivating young creators of West African music, Afrobeats, Afro-pop, hip hop and r&b, and represents a newly heightened awareness of her own musical legacy and remarkable influence she's had on younger generations. 

Kojaque/ ‘Town’s Dead’/ Soft Boy Records

Rising young rapper/producer/artist Kojaque is poised to have a breakout 2021, and today has announced his debut album Town’s Dead, out June 25 on his own Soft Boy Records label via [PIAS]. Kojaque has toured with slowthai and Lana Del Rey, performed at Glastonbury and Pitchfork Paris, made his COLORS debut this past summer, and the record label he co-founded has been the subject of its own Boiler Room documentary. Kojaque first started writing Town’s Dead when he was 19, and made it mostly on his laptop in his bedroom and on tour busses. From spewing rage to tender ruminations, he confronts a broken system, the out of control gentrification of Dublin, toxic masculinity, the loss of his father, and more, all in the pressure cooker claustrophobia of a hometown.    

Pom Pom Squad

Pom Pom Squad/ ‘Death Of A Cheerleader’/ City Slang

Pom Pom Squad (the Brooklyn-based four-piece led by the powerhouse Mia Berrin) announces the new album ‘Death Of a Cheerleader’ set to drop June 25th. A sonic collage of deeply personal odes to self-identity, raucous lashings against society’s BS, and snapshots of messy, complicated and fraying love affairs, ‘Death Of a Cheerleader’ will be their first record following their recent signing to City Slang Records.

Cedric Burnside/ ‘I Be Trying’/ Single Lock

After a year when plenty discovered what "the blues" really means, Cedric Burnside returns with I Be Trying; a new collection of 13 original songs that chart a course through dark times and towards the resonant love waiting to be found on the other side. A masterclass in Mississippi Hill Country Blues from its greatest living practitioner and two-time Grammy nominee, I Be Trying features stories of connection, hurt and redemption in the South as Burnside’s blistering guitar riffs become one with his emotive vocal melodies; sometimes conjuring what words can not. 

JAG25

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble/ ‘This is a Mindfulness Drill’/ Jagjaguwar

Jagjaguwar reveals the next phase of their 25th Anniversary, with the resurrection of another mantra from the label's storied history: This is a Mindfulness Drill. Out June 25th, This is a Mindfulness Drill encompasses the second installment of the record label's commemorative Jag Quarterly series -- a year-long, four-part celebration of collaboration and community -- and it features a fully reimagined reissue of Richard Youngs' 1998 album, Sapphie. In this new take on a definitive moment of the Jagjaguwar catalog, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble transforms Youngs' intimate compositions, originally recorded with just classical guitar and voice, expanding the instrumentation to include affecting and intuitive arrangements of horns and more. Moses Sumney, Perfume Genius and Sharon Van Etten pay homage to Youngs' plaintive vocal performances, delivering remarkable, reinterpreted renditions to each of Sapphie's three torch songs.

Jake Scott/ ‘Goldenboy’ EP

On June 25th, Jake Scott will release his first official career collection, an eight-track EP called Goldenboy.  Scott — the LA-based heartthrob — has built a name for himself with his unconventional release strategy which has made him one of streaming breakout stars and has amassed well over 250 million streams (150M+ in 2020 alone) in addition to a songwriting resume with collaborations with Jason Mraz, Aloe Blacc and many more.

Arrested Youth/ ‘Nonfiction’/ Lowly / Big Noise

On June 25th, Ian Johnson, the mind behind Arrested Youth, will release his first studio album ‘Nonfiction’ via Lowly / Big Noise. Produced by famed producer and Goldfinger member John Feldmann (Blink 182, The Used, Fever 333), ‘Nonfiction’ is an introspective story about growth, discovery and Johnson embracing his path in life.