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“In 1994, OutKast released its debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik — an iconoclastic blend of funk grooves, soul melodies, and Southern-style guitar licks. The record not only set the stage for the duo’s ever-expanding approach to hip-hop (subsequent releases fused jazz, dub reggae, country, and spacey electronica), it established Atlanta as an incubator of future-forward sounds. Faye Webster — the Atlanta native whose sophomore LP arrived last month — is 19, the same age André and Big Boi were when they released Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik. Her self-titled record will win fans across the musical spectrum for its left-of-centre approach to folk. Webster is a lifelong student of country-western songwriting and Americana sound (her mom plays fiddle; her grandfather is a bluegrass guitarist). But she punctuates her own tunes with subtle flourishes of funk. Her voice hits a sweet spot somewhere between bluegrass powerhouse Alison Krauss, Natalie Prass, and Tennis’s Alaina Moore, whose light vocals glide across any melody. Webster may seem like a strange signing for Awful Records, the hive of artists rightly heralded as the torchbearers of oddball Atlanta hip-hop. But she’s, literally, right at home. Members of Awful’s roster play with lo-fi 80s synths, country, and punk, often cross-pollinating each other’s work. Shortly before releasing Faye Webster, she contributed silky smooth hooks to Rollin’, a syrupy cut architected by Ethereal. Webster met the rapper and producer over the internet during her senior year of high school, by which point she’d already released her first album, 2013’s Run and Tell. Soon after, she enrolled at Nashville’s Belmont University. College wasn’t for Webster, and she returned to Atlanta before completing her freshman year. Her sonics and songwriting style are most akin to the country, folk, and bluegrass titans who have cut their teeth in Nashville. But while in Tennessee, she discovered another way to creatively engage with her hometown’s music scene: photography. After taking a photo class at Belmont, she began to make colourful, humorous, evocative portrait photographs of Migos’s Offset, D.R.A.M., and her middle school pal Lil Yachty. In one of Webster’s pictures, Awful ringleader Father sips champagne while surrounded by actual kids. In another, Lord Narf’s colourful braids are dotted with butterflies.” -iD-US

The healing hand and surgeon’s scalpel are intertwined on Shepherds’ new album Insignificant Whip. The art-rock masterpiece encases the band’s vulnerable wisdom in flighty melodies that burn with intimacy and fragility as singer/lyricists Jonathan Merenivitch and Adrian Benedykt Świtoń address everything from toxic masculinity and Catholic guilt to Youtube comments and Tupac Shakur. Since their 2011 EP Holy Stain, the band have received accolades for their taut analyses of social ills and the resulting strain on body and mind, but even the skeletal no-wave that defined their early sound was bound with, in the broadest sense of the word, soul. The band’s ability to confront their deepest insecurities and doubts is more than simple catharsis, it serves to illuminate deeper questions of existence and identity, and frame them in context of systemic oppression, discrimination, and isolation.

The minimalism which guided Shepherds’ earlier work has evolved into lush, expansive compositions thanks to founding bassist Peter Cauthorn, who helped flesh out the LP’s identity as a core contributor to the album’s instrumental textures. Vocalist and drummer Świtoń also took on a central role in the recording process, contributing his voice and songwriting talents to the the album’s pensive hue, while new additions Ryan York (drums), May Tabol (guitar, keyboards), and Vinny Restivo (bass) round out the live band. Moments on Insignificant Whip recall everything from Felt to Josef K, but Shepherds have a keen ability to write post-punk which is modern and prescient rather than a simple homage to a particular era of underground music. The martial rhythms still echo with the proletariat fever of their 2015 LP Exit Youth, but now the lyrics are delivered over thrilling saxophone melodies and deliberative chords, making them all the more haunting, thanks to production from Drew Vandenburg (Toro Y Moi, Mothers, Of Montreal).

Throughout Insignificant Whip, the introspective nature of Shepherds is amplified by a holistic understanding of what it means to be human. The anxieties of adulthood, the teenage desires deferred, and the crushing weight of evil in the world are forged into vulnerable psalms. It’s precisely in these tear-stained moments that the album surpasses the encroaching anxiety as Shepherds invite the listener into a community which tempers the surrounding darkness and pushes back against oppression with resolute empathy.

“There’s an amorphous spiritual quality driving Sister Sai’s latest offering, Extempore. From song titles such as “Devotional” and “Glossolalia” to “Wanderer” and “Incarnate,” the album taps into a deeply mystical musical trajectory that reveals itself through the sounds she makes, and the seamless motion of each song drifting into the next. The album is comprised mostly of a one-take, largely unedited session of mind-melting cello loops that, with each listen, reveals layers of depth at work within cellist Saira Raza’s natural musical instincts. Embracing her unorthodox sense of repetition is key to zeroing in on the zoned-out head space that each of these songs occupy. “Glossolalia” is the first immediately arresting number here. Sounds bend and swoop as though they’re being pulled down a drain, moving deeper into her unseen, subconscious mind. The album requires a heady, meditative concentration, as Extempore is more an exercise in automatic writing than it is a collection of composed works. Musically, this is Raza’s equivalent of speaking in tongues. The results are a somewhat convoluted journey into minimalism. Song structures change with each passing listen as the recording moves forever forward, drifting at a dreamlike pace. This is a much different approach from the style on display throughout previous works such as 2016’s Inertia, and 2014’s First Flight EP. This is the unrestrained and unrefined product of what happens when her mind is left to wander — left with nothing more than her musical devices. As such, it’s an experimental album. It’s not the easiest point of entry into Raza’s work, but it’s certainly the most revealing of her musical reflexes, her instincts, and the insights she has to offer.” -Creative Loafing Atlanta

“Rising Atlanta-based artist TAYLOR ALXNDR is gearing up to release her debut EP, NOISE, which will premiere July 7 through Futurehood, the queer label behind underground stars Mister Wallace and KC Ortiz. A self-proclaimed “DIY pop priestess,” ALXNDR leads her breakout project with “Nightwork,” a dense, autotune-heavy track about the oft overlooked hustle of drag culture—especially as a trans person of color. “I would like to somehow know my worth,” ALXNDR coos wistfully, but with a clear sense of self. “Cause I been putting in the nightwork.” ALXNDR’s “Nightwork” video, produced by ACAPULPO, was captured during an Atlanta show she performed at this December. With shots of the singer getting into gig, the visual showcases the behind-the-scenes process of a drag performance—all the gritty hard work that goes into a single night of glamour. “Sometimes you leave the show feeling empty, even with a purse full of tips,” she says, describing how the song unpacks the tug-and-pull relationship of life as a drag queen. Though dreamy and transcendent, the work is also labor-filled and exhausting. “NOISE is a soundtrack to the experiences of my life,” ALXNDR says of her debut. “As a queer and trans person of color trying to live and thrive in this world, you get used to the ‘noise’ or dissonance that comes with existing. From the noise of being a drag queen to the noise of being a part of the Black Trans Lives Matter movement, this EP captures the struggle and the success of my living. It’s a love letter to the communities I’m a part of that, despite the powers that be, still thrive.” -Out.com

“Sharon Oh, better known by her stage name Mikkoh, is a Korean American musician, activist, and multidisciplinary artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from Seoul, Mikkoh moved to a small town on the outskirts of Atlanta at a younge age where her affinity toward heavy basslines, skimming hi-hats, and snappy snares made her fall in love with the city’s booming hip hop scene. While at home, her mother’s vinyl collection and classical training made her appreciate the underlying nuances between all genres. After graduating from one of the top science and engineering programs in the nation, she decided to take the road less traveled to follow her passion of bringing communities together through music and art.”