Essential Listening: The best new music releases in May 2023 (Updated)
The best new music May 2023 with playlists dedicated to DnB and jungle, hip-hop and jazz, house and techno, and indie and alternative.
Date published: 22nd May 2023
It’s been a good month for new music!
To help you discover the best new music in May 2023, our music-obsessed team updated our Essential Listening playlists for you to peruse. Listen when you’re bored, walking home, hungover, soaking up the sun, whenever, wherever.
Among our additions this week is NxWorries, Jess Bay, Dream Wife, Dimension, Turno, The Japanese House, Kaytramine, and so many other scorchers. Scroll down, have a listen, find tickets to see our featured artists, and follow the playlists!
Essential Listening: House and Techno
God Made Me Phunky (Jess Bays Remix) - MD X-Spress, Jess Bays
A classic from 1994 revamped by Jess Bays to create a banging throwback track that’ll take raves and clubbing up a level.
Bays has hosted regular shows on the radio, remixed tracks for plenty of huge artists, and brought funky house vibes to countless global parties. With a handful of Ibiza dates, festival appearances, and raves in her calendar for 2023, we’re sure she remixed this track with performances in mind, as this is the perfect track for two-stepping with your sunnies on.
Bringing the track into the present, she’s added some deep, rumbling bass and brightened the percussion while keeping the brilliant vocals in there, crucial as the lyrics make the track what it is.
Get tickets to see Jess Bays live here:
Aftrs presents Jess Bays | Saturday 27th May 2023 | The Source in Maidstone
Essential Listening: Indie and Alternative
Who Do You Wanna Be? - Dream Wife
The politically charged, feminist band is back with a dancy but gritty track about “running on the capitalist treadmill and falling face-first on the pavement.”
Walking the line between singing and speaking, Dream Wife’s Rakel Mjöll criticises our current world, “When the movement becomes part of the patriarchal system we swore to tear down, the left cuts down the left while the right upholds the crown.” this track has that clear indie/post-punk sound but is boldened with a bouncy rhythm, making it perfect to dance, jump, mosh, or sing along to.
Taken from their upcoming album Social Lubrication, which drops on 9th June this year, we reckon this album will be a stunner.
Get tickets to see Dream Wife live here:
Dream Wife | Thursday 5th October 2023 | New Century in Manchester
Dream Wife | Friday 6th October 2023 | The Castle And Falcon in Birmingham
Essential Listening: Drum & bass and Jungle
Rave Out - Turno, Skepsis, Charlotte Plank
Ahead of a shedload of festivals, raves, and a huge night at Ibiza as part of WAH’s residency, Turno’s dropped a genre-bending belter that’ll no doubt be the track of the summer for ravers.
When we saw Turno at Highest Point Festival, he played this banger and it was stuck in our heads for… well, up until recently. We heard it again today while finding tracks for the playlist and we’re sure it’ll be stuck with us for another good week or so.
Get tickets to see Turno live here:
DNB Collective: The Invasion | Saturday 27th May 2023 | LAB11 in Birmingham
Essential Listening: Hip-hop and Jazz
Daydreaming - NxWorries (Anderson .Paak & Knxwledge)
Anderson .Paak and Knxledge are back with another collab after releasing Where I Go with H.E.R a few months back.
A bit different to the rest in the playlist, this one’s a tad more soulful and dreamy, but we still felt it deserved a shout-out. Silky as always, the track is perfect for the warmer weather that’s been slowly creeping up on us. Late summer nights under the sun soundtracked by this will be next level thanks to that heavenly guitar break, funky bassline, and the vibe of the track as a whole.
Also, extra points for that GTA-inspired music video.
Get tickets to see NxWorries live here:
Cross The Tracks Festival | Sunday 28th May 2023 | Brockwell Park in London
Parklife | Saturday 10th - Sunday 11th June 2023 | Heaton Park in Manchester
Make sure to 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.
Header image credit: Hozier / Facebook.com