The 5 best songs of the week

Oklou

Obvious

You might call the French producer, singer and artist Oklou’s music hyperpop as it is sometimes deemed, but there is something altogether nebulous and viscose at play in the debut album choke enough.

Ambient dream pop is another way to describe it, but there’s something genuinely off-kilter and close to confounding in how the album moves between melodies and textures.

Understated yet widescreen, minimal yet somehow maximal, choke enough is thoroughly 2025 music, digital yet full of soul, heart and weirdo pop morphs. It feels like post-PC Music experimental pop, that features an AG Cook and Danny L Harle production credits though most of the record was co-produced by Oklou with producer Casey MQ.

‘Outside’ is the best way into this beguiling record.

Oklou is lined up for a Dublin gig this December, by which time, we decree she will be a much bigger artist.

I also love the NTS session performed on ice:

Avalon Emerson

Don’t Be Seen With Me

After a successful run out of more shoegaze-focused music with her band The Charm in 2023, Avalon Emerson returns to her solo moniker with more song-based electronic pop music that has some ’80 electronic pop DNA, which is because it’s a cover of Oppenheimer Analysis’ song ‘Don’t Be Seen With Me’.

It’s from a forthcoming record Perpetual Emotion Machine  which will come out on Dead Oceans.

“These songs were created for my DJ sets. Whether they’re entirely original, edits to recontextualize old favorites, instrumental, or feature me singing, they are all part of my perpetual emotion machine. And the machine steams on.”

The Null Club

Slip Angle (featuring Valentine Caulfield)

Gilla Band’s Alan Duggan Borges debuted the new project The Null Club, and features Mandy, Indiana’s Valentine Caulfield.

The EP also features tracks from Faris Badwan of The Horrors and ELUCID of Armand Hammer, and a series of live shows in Dublin, London, Bristol and Manchester have been announced as per below, and come after Alan “spent time writing and producing music using an array of old synths, drum machines, and guitars – leaning into noise, techno and experimental hip hop, as well as post-punk.”

Mamalarky

#1 Best Of All Time

Mamalarky are a Los Angeles indie rock foursome with jazz and math-rock tendencies. Their new album Hex Key comes out on Epitaph Records on April 11th.

I was taken by their song ‘Nothing Last Forever‘ in November, with its woozy indie jazz soul vibe. ‘#1 Best Of All Time’ is on a similar frantic jazz drum tip.

“Through a lot of games of UNO I’ve discovered I’m actually a pretty competitive person. And somehow, the feeling of losing has become highly motivating to me. I always feel like I’m competing against myself, trying to best my last attempt at whatever I’ve set out to do. Like, you probably can’t be the best of all time, but you’ll always be the best you of all time–no one can dispute that,” singer Livvy Bennett says.

“I wanted to write something that felt powerful but funny, too, like laughing in the face of doubt. Cause betting on yourself even when you feel like a losing horse pays off in big ways! If you can make yourself feel like you’re winning right at the moment of failure and only measure yourself against your own barometers, you’re gonna be a lot happier. When we recorded this, we asked Dylan to just play something ‘crazy’ on the drums and worked backwards from there. He powered through this insane performance and the song came together autonomously from there.”

Mamalarky is Livvy Bennett, Noor Khan, Michael Hunter and Dylan Hill.