Welcome to another installment of Today's Release Highlights, where the TND writers room gathers up some brand new projects they want to draw your eyes and ears to.

Today, we have a list of seven new releases we'd like to key you into as you head into the weekend. Check them all out below.

Ba bam!

Ali Sethi & Gregory Rogove – Room Jhoom [Zubberdust Media]

Since his breakout single “Pasoori” four years ago, Pakistani-American artist Ali Sethi has put out a trio of albums in quick succession – Intiha with electronic artist/producer Nicolas Jaar in 2023, solo album Love Language in 2025, and now Room Jhoom with musician and composer Gregory Rogove – each showing a distinct new side to his rapidly expanding artistry. Described by Sethi as a “romantic rebellion,” Room Jhoom occupies a borderless devotional space, drawing from South Asian vocal traditions, ambient minimalism, and the spiritual jazz adventures of Alice Coltrane. It’s also a kind of queer musical archaeology, in the spirit of precolonial times when gender was not so fixed to physical biology. Exile hangs over these songs too, both geographically and emotionally, but the ache of it never curdles into something dour or despairing. Room Jhoom instead sees absence and longing as something of a generative force, one that sharpens our alertness to beauty beyond binaries, and it's mesmerizing stuff. – Alan Pedder

Bladee - Sulfur Surfer [Trash Island]

Bladee's multicolored, spiritual persona returns on Sulfur Surfer, this time with a little bit more to say. Starting out with "I declare war on the evil star, I demand its defeat," on the titular track makes it clear that his jaded self on his last record Cold Visions is quelled by his quest for goodness. Fellow Drain Gang member Whitearmor's production also makes a comeback after four years to add that classic otherworldly atmosphere to Bladee's lyricism, while outside feature Current 93 adds a grounding outro by David Tibet on "Fox & Birch." But don't worry; we still get those cheeky bars that remind us we're listening to the same golden boy from Stockholm: "I had ate so many nights, I'm becoming skinny fat." Let's surf through space and time on this one. – Dana Badii

fakemink - Terrified . [EtnaVeraVela]

After a short film, pop-up show, and Frank Ocean collab speculation (sorry folks, not this time), fakemink gifts us Terrified . While this January's The Boy who cried Terrified . EP felt metaphorical, now he's in the real deal. Expect the hallmarks of a fakemink release: buzzy vocals, artful sample selection, and lyrics on the pressures of fame. His eerie production on the record throws us into classic LA spots like the grimey streets of Hollywood Boulevard and lobby of Chateau Marmont, expecting us to fight alongside him for survival. fakemink remarks on these liminal spaces that "I feel like running away, but I'm just stuck in this place," as said on "51 Ttashpel Pony Ave .," with a sampled Julia Wolf verse dotting the background. This British boy's homesick, but he's taking his sweet time getting out. – Dana Badii

Hannah Peel & Beibei Wang – The Endless Dance [Real World]

Uniting over a conversation about imagined cities some years ago, Hannah Peel (an electronic artist and composer from Northern Ireland) and Beibei Wang (a world-class percussionist based in London) bring the live improvisational chemistry of their 2023 collaboration Spirit of Edens into a studio setting with their debut album The Endless Dance. Adventurously fluid and rhythmically bold, it draws on – among other things – Taoist philosophy, cyclical cosmology, Japanese ambient experimentalism, and rapid-fire tongue twisters to create a very human record that makes space both for playfulness and extraordinary discipline, as well as the trust that comes from deep admiration on both sides. Wang’s instruments include rice bowls, a jawbone, and bamboo clappers, while Peel mixes up her trademark synth work with a touch of prepared piano. Producer Mike Lindsay of LUMP and Tunng deserves a ton of credit too, signing it off with some signature whimsy. – Alan Pedder

Lowertown – Ugly Duckling Union [Summer Shade]

Ugly Duckling Union by the zany duo Lowertown is courageous in its search for unconditional love. The record, inspired by the band's struggles (and later proud acceptance) of not fitting in the music industry machine, retreats into the familiarity of their oldest music, where the two lifelong friends would bang piano keys, fingerpick guitar riffs, and scream into the microphone until a good song came out. What we get is a record as energetic, spontaneous, and DIY as the people who penned it, stuffing baroque pop ("Cover You"), meditative folk ("Some Things Never End," "Big Thumb"), twee ("Mice Protection"), punk ("DIPSH*T"), spoken-word poetry ("(I Like To Play With) Mutts"), and rock ("Worst Friend," "I Like You A Lot") into as many gaps as possible until Ugly Duckling Union sounds like an album composed on an alien planet. Sweet and honest in its portrayal of true friendship — recognizing and appreciating the darker parts of each other, and modeling one's own path to growth after the beauty they see in their best friend — its abrasion leaves the listener warm and fuzzy inside...almost like the world's cutest guard dog decides to lie by your door while you sleep. Read our interview with Lowertown about Ugly Duckling Union. — Victoria Borlando

Marianna Winter – The More You Know [Tutl]

Rooted in her dual upbringing between Los Angeles and the Faroe Islands, this debut album from indie-pop artist Marianna Winter feels both grounded and cozily dreamlike, framed as a coming-of-age reflection that revisits growth with hindsight and a windswept touch of unease. As a self-portrait of sorts, it favors lived-in honesty over glossy construction, balancing beauty and friction with an analog aesthetic shaped at her home studio with co-producer Ragnar Finsson, who also sings on two tracks (“You Could Have a House There,” “Let Me Love You”). Highlights include the lightly rebellious “Patio” and carefree hot-girl-summer song “Airdry.” – Alan Pedder

Tim Kasher – Sponges of Experience [Born Losers Records]

Today kicks off Memorial Day weekend. Got big plans? Maybe some sun, some BBQ, a couple drinks with friends. How about writing, recording, and finishing an entire album over the course of one long weekend? No? Well Tim Kasher of Cursive and The Good Life already did that last year, and the result is Sponges of Experience, released today. The project stemmed from an experiment inspired by Elvis Costello once casually claiming he could write an album over a weekend. Kasher decided to test himself and spent four days during Memorial Day weekend 2025 writing and recording the album while documenting the process through his Patreon community. Even if you’ve never connected with Kasher’s previous work, there’s something inherently fascinating about hearing what an album created start-to-finish in four days actually sounds like. One catch though: you won’t find this one on streaming services. Sponges of Experience is physical-only, so if you want to hear it, you’ve gotta put in a little effort too. – Ricky Adams