Essential Listening: The best new music releases in April 2024

The best new music releases in April 2024, covering DnB/jungle, house/techno, indie/alt, and hip-hop/jazz.

Skiddle Staff

Date published: 15th Apr 2024

Reflecting on 2024, it’s been a good year for music so far. We got great albums from The Smile, Beyoncé, Mannequin Pussy, Adrianne Lenker, Brittany Howard, The Last Dinner Party, Idles, Nia Archives, and more. And we’re only in April.

Shifting to the present, some brilliant tracks, EPs, and albums have been released recently and we want to share them with you.

Some of the best new music of April 2024 which you can find in our playlists include new tracks from Kasabian, David Morales, goddard, Your Old Droog ft. Method Man and Denzel Curry (prod by Madlib), Kaleena Zanders with House Gospel Choir, Skepsis, Prospa, Nia Archives, Dax J, Reinier Zonneveld with Hannah Laing and Push, English Teacher, Serum with Inja and MC Spyda, and more.

Have a listen to April 2024’s bangers, follow the playlists, and secure tickets to see our featured artists below.

Essential Listening: House and Techno

Ghetto - Hannah Wants

Taken from her EP of the same name, released on Defected Records’ DFTD, ‘Ghetto’ sees the Brummie house producer return to her bass-driven roots.

Both tracks were clearly designed for clubs and festivals with a huge focus on bass, percussive sounds, and build-ups that’ll have crowds going wild.

Unsurprisingly, if you’re at all familiar with Wants’ track record, she’s released another belter that sounds unbelievably good and will cause chaos on dancefloors.

Get tickets to see Hannah Wants live here:

Hannah Wants: All Night Long | Friday 10th May 2024 | The Loft MCR in Manchester

Buy tickets:

Essential Listening: Indie and Alternative

She Took You To Narnia - HighSchool

With a bit of a gothic, nostalgic, New Order-ish kind of vibe, HighSchool has dropped a new track ahead of the release of their forthcoming EP Accelerator, which should be with us on the 19th of April, and serves as a follow-up to their debut EP, released in 2021.

The London-based band from Australia explained the track was influenced by The Horrors’ ‘Mirror’s Image’. Featuring distant vocals that sound defeated or tired over a similarly sleepy but possibly hopeful instrumental.

Cool, emotive, and intriguing, it’s easily one of the best new music releases in April 2024 for fans of unusual indie.

Get tickets to see HighSchool live here:

HighSchool | Friday 10th May 2024 | Dead Wax in Birmingham

Buy tickets:

HighSchool | Wednesday 15th May 2024 | The White Hotel in Salford

Buy tickets:

Essential Listening: Drum & Bass and Jungle

Tell Me What It’s Like? - Nia Archives

It's been a great weekend for Nia Archives fans with her debut album dropping plus her Boiler Room set dropping on YouTube just a few days before. Since we’ve included all the singles from her album in our playlists already, we picked an album track this week.

Often using guitars on the album, including on this track, Nia has crafted a solid debut with this belter on it. Like with many tracks on the album, ‘Tell Me What It’s Like?’ has a super infectious melody in the chorus that you’re certain to have circling around your head when you put your earphones away.

Get tickets to see Nia Archives live here:

Rockstar Energy presents Parklife Festival | Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th June 2024 | Heaton Park in Manchester

Buy tickets:

Essential Listening: Hip-Hop and Jazz

Friday Film Special - GoGo Penguin

The “Radiohead of jazz” is back with a new EP consisting of seven tracks the band performed live in Manchester. It may seem strange for us to include this track since it was originally released a year ago but the sound quality is incredible as is the track itself, so it’s definitely worth a shout-out.

If you’ve got a moment, definitely watch the whole video. The techniques, brilliant work from the sound engineers, and even the video editing are stunning. But what it comes down to is how cinematic and lush GoGo Penguin’s music is.

Get tickets to see GoGo Penguin live here:

GoGo Penguin - Everything Is Going To Be OK Tour 2024 | Saturday 11th May 2024 | The Bradshaw Hall Royal Conservatoire in Birmingham

Buy tickets:

Follow our Essential Listening playlists featured above to discover the best new tracks released each week, as curated by the Skiddle team.

Check out our What's On Guide to discover more rowdy raves and sweaty gigs taking place over the coming weeks and months. For festivals, lifestyle events and more, head on over to our Things To Do page or be inspired by the event selections on our Inspire Me page.