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.
Aooo — “CALL”
Patrick: Sony supergroup Aooo has been a hotly-tipped project for a bit now, featuring the former vocalist of Akai Ko-en and several prominent Vocaloid producers turning towards rock. It's an interesting combination albeit one very much carrying a scent of the boardroom around it, but when they can lock in and deliver as something as frantic as “CALL” any of that energy vanishes. Here's a great charge-ahead number that still fits in a catchy hook, drilling right into pop-rock pleasure. Listen above.
ExWHYZ — “TONIGHT TONIGHT”
Patrick: Club-ready idol group ExWHYZ will be calling it a day in the near future, but the project isn't going out with a whimper. “TONIGHT TONIGHT” finds them embracing a dizzying electro-pop barrage courtesy of long-running duo 80KIDZ, raving out as they near the finish line. The group has always been good at delivering euphoria for the past-last-train set, and here's one more example to underline it. Listen above.
Ryo: ExWHYZ’s singles from the past year have rung extra bittersweet with the idol group’s imminent break-up in mind. “DON’T CRY.” “Regret.” “GIVE YOU MY WORD.” These reflections on separation and remembering the times that hit a sensitive spot when also thinking about their end coming soon. A sense of finality drives their new song, too, where they throw perhaps the meanest disco they’ve thrown for their one last dance. The track’s bugged-out electro hardly makes room for softer, more nuanced emotions like melancholy or nostalgia to build, while the idols remain too busy feeling the music to care about anything other than the here-and-now. But then they drop a sneaky little line–I think this is our golden final lap–that reveals ExWHYZ knows this is their last opportunity to make it all count.
Kianna — “Oppressive”
Patrick: A song that sounds like it is being run through a pile of gravel as it plays out. Rapper Kianna excels at turning blow-out sonics that adds to the atmosphere of his music, with “Oppressive” almost being too obvious in what it is doing matching his swift rhymes with claustrophobic production. It can certainly come off as constricting, but with just enough wiggle room to enjoy his delivery. Listen above.
Uchu Nekoko - “Flowing in the Wind”
Ryo: “this is a new song we’re currently on a new album”: these are satisfying words to be attached to a new release by Uchu Nekoko after a four-year absence, and especially with her 2019 record, Kimi No Youni Ikiraretara, grown into a cult classic among shoegaze circles. Like other fan favorites from the singer-songwriter, “Flowing in the Wind” is a drifter’s anthem from its sound but also its longing vibe: over jangling guitars with a light, shoegaze-esque touch of reverb, Nekoko sighs from afar about the changing expressions of a second person. For those already familiar with her work, it marks a lovely return; for those new here, let it be an introduction as well as a promise for more to come.
without - “Self & Health”
Ryo: For the band’s follow-up to last year’s Mind Haze single, without once again deliver gutsy emo-rock that’s been their calling card since their 2020 debut. But if the live-wired riffs and steady beats of this new song give the impression of frontman Minority Chikano dwelling in a well-settled head space, his actual words suggest a more complicated reality. As the guitars rip, he shouts about “all about the sad days” and opportunities to right some wrongs as if to rinse away his troubles with the ringing noise made with his band. “Self & Health” was a rather quick turnaround for without; maybe they needed to get this one out.
