Despite the ease of access that streaming has brought to the distribution of music, the volume that's released can make it a daunting task to find unique new stuff every week. In this recurring weekly feature we put together a short list of new songs from the past week that stand out amongst all the noise and deserve a spot in your rotation.
All songs featured in this recurring series can be found in our scrmbl selection 2026 playlist on Apple Music or Spotify.
Billyrrom — “Boogie”
Patrick: Do you have a specific sound that acts as instant sonic catnip upon hearing it? For me, I could be listening to the worst song ever recorded but if some talk box popped up, I'm all in again. Rising funk unit Billyrrom's“Boogie” thankfully doesn't approach those depths, as at its core it's a grooveable dance-pop number showing the palm-tree-accented-shadow that Suchmos casts over modern Japanese rock. But it becomes irresistible from the jump when those robo-voices come in, adding great sonic texture (I mean, in some folk's opinions).
Hoshimiya Toto, EAERAN & phritz — “Outline”
Ryo: Virtual singers Hoshimiya Toto and EAERAN sing quite a lot about endlessness in their new collaboration with phritz, one of the many producers behind PAS TASTA. But when they sigh into the track’s effervescent electropop, this imagery of them drifting out into the vast sea seems not of ennui but of them achieving an ultimate calm. If the twinkling downtempo feel reminds of the dreaminess behind the moody pop of Porter Robinson–an artist whose song phritz also covered in the past–it might be from them reaching for the same ends: masking the dark by letting the light in.
Japanese Ape — “Didier Drogba”
Ryo: Japanese Ape treats the slinkiest hip-house beats like how another similarly zen rapper would treat a drumless jazz loop: a canvas made not for commanding a dance floor but for lyrical shadowboxing. For his new song, go-to producer RhymeTube hands him one tricky beat where the skips of glitch-hop meets the off-kilter bounce of UK drill. But the rapper seamlessly finds the pocket, rhyming about how the pen is mightier than the sword without breaking a sweat.
Kaede Hirata — “anata no mono?”
Patrick: Electro-pop hides vulnerability under layers of buzzing synthesizers and machine beats, using the digital to conceal the very human. Kaede Hirata has learned from the best as “anata no mono?” springs ahead and can feel downright glowing when chimes deeper in the mix creep in. It's internet-era pop joy sonically, but Hirata's lyrics detail a more complicated reckoning with a dissolving relationship, going from pained to cathartic (“let's have the biggest fight in the world” delivered with giddiness).
killwiz — “cult”
Patrick: Following one of the year's fiercest and most emotionally raw releases of the year, Tokyo's killwiz returns with a buzzy dispatch reminding of her strengths. On “cult” she's bouncing over blown-out beats and steel rattles, yet she is able to add a melodic heart to this noise that gives it a catchy side without diluting the heaviness around it.
Spit lulu’s — “Tremble, and bloom / Ume”
Ryo: Spit lulu’s indulge in what’s almost post-rock in “Tremble, and bloom / Ume,” a highlight from the band’s new Mirumono subete? EP. Gone are the woozy riffs expected from this self-proclaimed “shoegaze-influenced alternative rock band.” (Check the EP’s opening track, “weird world, for those.) Gently-picked guitars instead set a breezy scene and soon stir up a quiet storm fitting with the song’s title. This slow-burning indie-rock still feels one with the band’s emo and shoegaze palette, though, particularly through its climax, where they bring back that familiar blizzard of a riff, except slower, rougher and more cathartic.
