Discover Blogly: Listen to new music from Dealers of God, DJ Chad, and more

Dealers of God are the kind of act that you immediately send to someone you trust, not necessarily because you think they need to hear it, but because you want to make sure that your brain isn’t tricking you. The Australian collective seem transported from a half-remembered dream after a night spent clicking between hundreds of browser tabs — click, there’s an obscure cloud rap song on Youtube with 14 views. Click, there’s the most beautiful painting you’ve ever seen and will forget about in two seconds. Click, there’s a meme you don’t fully understand but laugh at anyway. This ceaseless serotonin binge is rendered cosmic on Dealer​’​s Choice, the sophomore project from Dealers of God. Originally released on January 1, 2023, it returns in 2024 with a newly remastered and extended edition courtesy of the underground label Dismiss Yourself featuring remixes from DJ Rozwell, Moa, and more.

For most listeners, though, this will be their first experience of the album. And at its best, the music is genuinely revelatory. The production contains some of the most intricately composed plunderphonics I’ve heard in years — on display is a Dust Brothers-level keenness for taking clashing sounds from across music and forming new colors. Nothing feels off limits: new age samples and trip-hop-inspired breaks rub up against excerpts from viral newscasts. Matrix soundtrack rave, Mazzy Star excerpts, and haunting solo piano dirges link up. The boundlessness never loses the quality of a pure celebration of music’s malleability.

Unfortunately, distracting from the majesty of the music are the vocalists, who have a comparably diminished sense of adventure. For the most part, they entirely rap and sing about selling and consuming drugs with an irony that can at times seem like disdain for the hip-hop they’re channeling. A shame, because the experience of listening to the album front-to-back leaves you pondering the threads of a spectral narrative whose potential isn’t fully realized. Still, there’s enough true beauty here to make Dealer’s Choice reverberate in your brain for longer than most material from your average internet binge. — Jordan Darville

DJ Rashad’s 18-year-old son Chad lives a relatively private life, considering his father’s outsized legacy. His name has appeared in the news only in relation to Rashad’s — he was seen “hit[ting] the decks” at a memorial service for his father in 2014 and has recently been mentioned in articles celebrating the 10th anniversary of Rashad’s footwork cornerstone, Double Cup. In the past few months, however, he’s been quietly building a catalog on Bandcamp via the homegrown, footwork-centric Chicago labels NuLegendz and Beatdown House. He dropped Raw Is War on the first business day of 2024, its title and cover capturing both our grim zeitgeist and a vicious streak that courses through the record. Most online discussion surrounding the project has centered on its 17th track, “Fuk Spinn,” a direct shot at Rashad’s Teklife co-founder DJ Spinn that heavily features a sample of what is apparently Rashad’s voice saying “Fuck DJ Spinn” over a looped stadium guitar and rapid-fire percussion, leading some to speculate on what might be causing the friction between the late legend’s son and his former partner. But that’s just one of Raw Is War’s 23 catchy, explosive cuts: The air-raid-siren instrumental of the record’s opener and almost-title track “Raw Iz War” kicks off a domino line of hypnotic hits full of drum lines that cascade into one another, pausing only for air. Like his father, DJ Chad is a genius at finding the soothing beneath inherently jarring sounds and letting it shine up through the cracks. — Raphael Helfand

Sufjan Stevens would be the most knee-jerk comparison for the North Carolina-based experimental folk project jesus is the path to heaven, helmed by vocalist and instrumentalist Jordan Hoban. But the jesus is the path to heaven's stranger, more sinister, off-kilter musicianship draws stronger parallels to London-based post-rock outfit caroline, with both projects sharing the same sense of brooding, hymn-like repetitions of melody, stripped-down production, and haunting storytelling. November’s the deadchrist opens with “terror at the fountain,” beginning with somber self-reflection before hurtling towards the gut-punch of a grand finale, Hoban repeating with a grisly disdain: “You fucked it up, you fucking piece of shit / You fucked it up, you fucking little piece of shit.” The rest of the album is not as visceral in lyricism, but still packs plenty of a gut-punch; there’s the eerie, piano-driven “there is a fountain called hope” that sounds like equal parts fairytale and a horror story for children; the springtime whimsy of “the fawn”; and sparse closer “lord, you called.” jesus is the path to heaven dabbles in both hair-raising horror and harmony, often at the same time. — Cady Siregar

2023 was a year in which Afrobeats giants like Burna Boy and Davido cemented their positions at the top with solid albums that showed a laser-eyed focus on crossing over to Western audiences. Coming up on the outside, meanwhile, were contenders to the crown Asake and Amaarae. Wizkid, arguably the biggest artist in African music over the past decade, was uncharacteristically quiet, however. It was only in the very last week of December that he released music of his own, and in a time period when people were more focused on the holidays than tapping in with his work. Skipping over the poised and addictive S2 would be a mistake, though. The four-song release finds the Nigerian artist in supremely confident and relaxed fashion, reveling in his success while never sounding like he takes it for granted. "Energy" is the song I have had on repeat since it dropped — it's a luxurious slow burner in which a lovesick Wizkid quests for medicinal relief. "Diamonds," meanwhile, is a little more club-orientated but aimed at the VIP section than the dancefloor. There are guests on the EP, Wande Cole and Zlatan join the mix, but the focus is firmly on Wizkid. Rapper Zlatan's appearance on "IDK" is a welcome textural addition, his smoked-out voice lending a rough edge to the satin-smooth vibes found throughout. S2 is arguably too short, four tracks are snack-sized at best, but in the cold winter months microdosing the kind of heat delivered on this project offers a welcome and much-needed escape. — David Renshaw