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New Music Friday: Stream new projects from Four Tet, Heavee, Devon Welsh, and more

Stream every standout album released this Friday with The FADER’s weekly roundup.

March 15, 2024

Every Friday, The FADER's writers dive into the most exciting new projects released that week. Today, read our thoughts on Four Tet's Three, Heavee's Unleash, and Devon Welsh's Come With Me If You Want To Live.

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Four Tet: Three

Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden has always been incredible at creating dreamy soundscapes so impossibly sensory and tactile, they sometimes feel like they could actually be habitable. They’re captivating and lifelike in their movements and textures, remarkable in their ability to trigger memories of soft spring meadows or the lazy summer breeze, even within the darkest corners of a club. Needless to say, it’s a relief to see Hebden finally end his brief stint in mainstream EDM with something as mesmerizingly biotic as his twelfth studio album, Three. A magnificent return to form, the record is a lush, downtempo effort that brings back the stately softness he’s so good at drawing out with his heavy sampling of organic instrumentation. And with tracks like “Loved,” “Daydream Repeat,” and the standout gem that is “Three Drums,” Three is as transformative as it is transportive; the sound of two decades spent blurring the lines between sequencers and the human soul to remarkable success. — Sandra Song

Hear it: Apple Music | Spotify

Heavee: Unleash

Heavee has a similar relationship with footwork as Jlin, another producer tied more to progressing their sound rather than any one genre. Both the dance music of Chicago brought to the world by DJ Rashad and Heavee’s desire to experiment are equally foundational to how he creates. He describes himself a “Jam Session Specialist” in his Bandcamp bio, and it’s easy to see why: Unleash, the Chicago producer’s new album for Hyperdub, feels like a sentient relay tower that’s forming new transmissions from the sounds it receives. Taking the restless spirit of footwork dancing as its own, Unleash is irrepressible yet highly choreographed and full of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it details. There's the palpitation-worthy ambient techno (album opener “StarSeeker”), the angular and deconstructed shards of TNGHT on “Whiplash”, and the Satie-esque ambiance of “Heart Fragments.” Such refreshing and consistent left turns keep the moments when Heavee returns to footwork — like “WorkMe,” “Unleash,” and the beautifully jazzy closer "Smoke Break" — feel like cinematic homecomings. — Jordan Darville

Hear it: Apple Music | Spotify | Bandcamp

Devon Welsh: Come With Me If You Want To Live

On his latest solo album, Come With Me If You Want to Live, former Majical Cloudz frontman Welsh takes the idea of life being a movie and runs with it. The fantastical project centers Welsh as a Bruce Willis-style all-action hero — the kind of guy who saves babies from burning buildings and foils a bank robbery with no back-up. Listening to the tightly produced synth-pop songs Welsh lends his voice to leave you feeling both stranded and uplifted in equal measure. There is a carpe diem spirit to the album that undercuts the pensive words that compose songs like "That’s What We Needed" or "Heaven Deserves You," the latter lamenting how time decays all. Elsewhere, like on "Twenty Seven," Welsh writes earnestly from the fresh perspective a new calendar year can bring. The pop melodicism present throughout makes the interpolation of Motown hit "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted" on "You Can Do Anything" a natural fit, making its fist-pumping mantra soar. That track, an uplifting drum n' bass-adjacent tune, feels like the calling card for a truly unique creative venture. — David Renshaw

Hear it: Apple Music | Spotify | Bandcamp

Other projects out today that you should listen to

Alison Cotton, Engelchen
Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones, New Monuments
Ana Lua Caiano, Vou Ficar Neste Quadrado
bedbug, pack your bags the sun is growing
Branko, Soma
Bktherula, LVL 5 Pt 2
The Black Crowes, Happiness Bastards
Boeckner, Boeckner!
Charles Lloyd, The Sky Will Still Be There Tomorrow
Chief Keef & Mike WiLL Made-It, Dirty Nachos
Chuck Strangers, A forsaken Lover’s Plea
Clint Mansell, Love Lies Bleeding (Original Score)
Dave Bessel, Chromatic Lightning Cage
Devon Welsh, Come With Me If You Want To Live
DJ Latinchat, Tagadá EP
DJ Nigga Fox, Chá Preto
Gouge Away, Deep Sage
Flo Milli, Fine Ho, Stay
Friend of a Friend, FACILITIES
Holly Humberstone, Work in Progress
Horsebeach, Things To Keep Alive
ICYTWAT, Magic As Usual (Deluxe)
Jay Critch, Humble Giant
Jay McCarrol, Blackberry (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
John Lurie, Painting With John (soundtrack)
Justin Timberlake, Everything I Thought I Was
Kacey Musgraves, Deeper Well
Kenny Mason, 9
The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis, The Messthetics and James Brandon Lewis
Michael Vincent Waller, Moments Remixes
Moonee, Sandquest
NAH, TOTALLY RECALLED
Noa Sainz, ISABEL LP
Raffi Garabedian, The Crazy Dog
Robert Ouyang Rusli, Problemista (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
SEBii, VVSS2
Sweet Pill, Starchild
Tierra Whack, World Wide Whack
Various Artists, Soft Selection 84 - A Nippon DIY Wave compilation
Violent Magic Orchestra, Death Rave

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