Essential Listening: The best new music releases in April 2024

Besides the absolute bliss of seeing that same song live, not much beats the feeling of discovering a new track that properly blows you away. And that’s why we do Essential Listening - to help you enjoy that experience too. 

And since we find it impossible to commit to just one genre, we cover a bunch including house, techno, DnB, indie, hip-hop, and jazz, and split them into dedicated playlists so you can relish that beautiful moment of falling head over heels for a new track each week. 

If you’re ready to hear the best new music of April, check out the playlists and give them a follow below. 

 

Essential Listening: House and Techno

 

Summertime Blues - Chris Lake, Sammy Virji, Nathan Nicholson 

This is a bit of an unusual one for us to include in the house and techno playlist but it’s a banger. Chris Lake and Sammy Virji teamed up on this one for a cool fusion of UKG and tech house with Nathan Nicholson on vocals. 

A melancholy banger, the lyrics detail the passing of time and how it feels like that time is being lost. On top of that, he needs to let go of his memories and negative feelings. 

Marrying UK garage with builds and synths commonly found in tech house to create a hazy and somewhat sad track, ‘Summertime Blues’ stays energetic thanks to that unmistakable UK garage percussion. 

Easily one of the best new music releases in April 2024, we can't get this one off repeat. 

 

Get tickets to see Chris Lake and Sammy Virji live here:

 

Parklife (Sammy Virji, Chris Lake, and more) | Saturday 8th - Sunday 9th June 2024 | Heaton Park in Manchester

Buy tickets:

 

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Essential Listening: Indie and Alternative

 

Resisting Resistance - Maruja

A band we’ve already talked about here in the recent past, Maruja are a spacey, jazzy Manchester band who craft open-aired atmospheric pieces of music that fans of Black Country, New Road and Squid will likely take a shine to. 

‘Resisting Resistance’ is the final track on the band’s new EP Connla’s Well and brings the project to a close as a tired instrumental before building to a chaotic crescendo, expressing an oddly familiar feeling that isn’t the easiest to pin down with words. 

Still in their early days, you can support this small band and help them reach the next stage of their career by securing tickets to see them in their hometown below

 

Get tickets to see Maruja live here:

 

Bad Dreams: BODEGA, MODEL/ACTRIZ, MARUJA, PANIC SHACK + more | Monday 27th May 2024 | New Century in Manchester

Buy tickets:

 

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Essential Listening: Drum & Bass and Jungle

 

Hooked - A.M.C and Koven

Two of DnB’s best-loved, award-winning producers, London duo Koven and A.M.C, hooked up for this heavy new track ‘Hooked’. 

With Koven’s Katie providing vocals on the cinematic track that could easily work in a movie, there are plenty of catchy moments to latch onto and belt at the top of your lungs at the rave. But, as with many of the best DnB tracks, ‘Hooked’ has its main moment when the drop comes. Distorted, energetic, and bassy as hell,  

The best bit? They’ll both be at New World Fest on the August bank holiday weekend. 

 

Get tickets to see A.M.C and Koven live here:

 

New World Fest (A.M.C, Koven, and more) | Saturday 24th - Sunday 25th August 2024 | Kings Farm in Writtle

Buy tickets:

 

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Essential Listening: Hip-Hop and Jazz

 

911 - SuperJazzClub

Ghanian creative collective SuperJazzClub was formed in 2018, marking the birth of an incredible, genre-blending group. SJC has mashed up a handful of genres, including hip-hop, jazz, West African genre highlife, and afrobeats to create their own irresistible sound. 

The group dropped their new track ‘911’ just a few days ago, which focuses more on hip-hop and jazz elements. A bit lo-fi with some soft keys and gentle vocals, it's easy to not realise the topic of the lyrics is actually a little on the dark side, talking about killers and guns. Injecting some energy with a rapped verse before shifting back to that laidback sound to finish. 

Signed to Human Re-Sources, the same label that shot RAYE to fame, we're hoping a similar trajectory is in sight for this collective that definitely deserves some more recognition. 

 

Get tickets to see SuperJazzClub live here:

 

Cross The Tracks Festival (SuperJazzClub, BADBADNOTGOOD, Erykah Badu, and more) | Sunday 26th May 2024 | Brockwell Park in London

Buy tickets:

 

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

 

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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.

 

 

  

 

 

Header image credit: Serum / Facebook.com