For fans of Fugazi, Idles, Mclusky, college radio post hardcore from the 80s, and throwing your phone at the wall after experiencing social media stupidity in full force, Lack by Lack strikes deep at all our most pointless fascinations, using raw dissonant energy to motivate us into the sort of genuine action which we’ve previously been taught to entirely rule out.

For fans of Duster, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pram, noisy indie rock, and that protective layer of stoicism between your mind and the outside world, Put Rings on All My Fingers to Weigh Down My Hands by Curbside Lambsear wraps its progressive, windmill-adjacent indie rock sound in a warm cloak of digital fuzz, a covering which grows thicker over time until there’s nothing left but the barrier itself.

For fans of Hesse Kassel, Black Country, New Road, Uniform, that rising brand of extremely intense and uncomfortably personal noise rock, and an anxious spiral where you spend all day wondering whether you left the oven on when you left the house, Vaho by Asia Menor meets us at the moment when everything falls apart, using an extremely varied post hardcore palette to show us those problems we’ve ignored for far too long.

For fans of LA Timpa, William Basinski, Hedgehog, early post rock, and wondering if the ant on your floor sees you looking down it at and also wonders what you’re doing there, Purpurea by Molia Vis immerses us in a downright horrifying ambient space, blending intimate, minimal performances with an encroaching, droning sense of doom.

For fans of Stereolab, Slowdive, Animal Collective, the transitional period between peak krautrock and early electronica, and taking your backpack off after a ten mile hike, Losey by Gnoomes explores a mind recently relieved of an enormous source of stress, cautiously relearning positivity and reintroducing light to a formerly destitute reality.

For fans of Febuary, Scarcity, Converge, old school screamo, and disturbingly vivid revenge fantasies, Quantas Vezes Ao Sol Até Eu Morrer by Prado uses a typically hopeless musical form to encourage us to stand up for ourselves, bringing all the same apocalypticism we expect from the far fringes of skramz while retaining hope in our collective will.

For fans of Sigur Ros, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Yoo Doo Right, noisy ambient music, and the nightmarish vertigo of a mirror maze, Opening by Klara Lewis filters our experience of music through an anxious subconscious, resulting in the foreboding hum of a mind always preparing for the next disaster.

For fans of The Hotelier, Snowing, Joan of Arc, Americana-tinged slowcore, and the acknowledgement that we’re all learning how to be human for the first time, Idk by Tearyeyes engages with ignorance as something ultimately permanent, taking us down the path of acceptance through an emotionally vibrant indie emo sound.

For fans of Dream Dolphin, James Ferraro, The Orb, wonky techno, and the pure joy of a good oddities shop, Gizmo Bleat Exhibit by Doctor Cosmonaut dazzles us with strange and at times seemingly random analogue synthesized sounds, all of which coalesce at the most unexpected of times to reveal dancey grooves which have been hiding in plain sight.

For fans of The Smile, Jockstrap, Bingo Fury, baroque pop, and the cool, damp embrace of an English rain, Something Built, Something Remembered by Morgan Noise completes the Windmill sound’s transformation into pure classically-informed jazz, only returning to rock to further implement some brilliantly strange progressive compositional elements.

For fans of The Zombies, Vampire Weekend, The Olivia Tremor Control, windmill pop, and finding the few bright moments in the worst day of your life, Love Aggregates by Asher White relishes in everyday absurdities through a masterfully crafted psych pop sound.

For fans of Carcass, Ak’chamel, Tantric Bile, and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, the experimental tape Weeping on Banks of Garbage by Tongue Yanked reacts with pure disgust to humanity’s global trash apocalypse.

For fans of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Weirs, Yoo Doo Right, drone metal, and the first rays of sunlight after a devastating storm, Rainsmoked Christmas by Food People invokes intense tragedy through subtle abstractions of the folk form.

For fans of Gavin Caine, REM, Elliott Smith, power pop, and the jagged story arc of a summer in the city, Unalaska by The Alaskas builds on an impressively catchy sound by stripping back to folksier roots.

For fans of Bjork, Anastasia Coope, Titanic, trip hop, and noise as a comforting, harmonious presence, The Arc of a Pit Falling Backwards by Virusse warps alternative pop into a slightly psychedelic direction, serving as a dreamlike remembering of that artsy 90s sound.

For fans of Johnny Coley, Sean McCann, Nicolas Jaar, sound collage, and the connections between psychology and non-human natural processes, Will You Try to Stand by Me and Look at Something Beautiful by Asha Sheshadri unpacks the traumatic chaos underpinning a seemingly inconsequential moment using an experimental spoken word songwriting style.

For fans of Aphex Twin, Prewn, Venetian Snares, early post rock, and breaking out a cello at the club, Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then by Melaina Kol explores a fusion of classical sounds and electronic sampling to evolve on this artist’s trademark folktronica sound.

For fans of Unwound, Dismemberment Plan, Slowdive, emo-adjacent indie rock, and being slightly off-putting at the function, It Can Happen Anywhere by Swarm Comp applies a challenging, experimental edge to the indie rock formula, keeping up appearances of a fun, danceable atmosphere while gesturing towards something much darker.