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 2025 playlist on Spotify or Apple Music.
2beef — “aura city”
Tokyo's 2beef blankets breakbeats with synthesizer wooze on the enveloping “aura city.” The group has been finding new perspectives on shoegaze for a bit now, but with this latest number they move away from feedback in favor of electronics, with the blurred vocals underneath turning the song into a fever dream, while the rhythm keeps it moving forward. Listen above.
7co — “ZIDANDA”
Leaning too much into the past can hamper a pop song, as it becomes like a diorama for a different era. Rising act 7co avoids this on “ZIDANDA” by grafting throwback elements onto a more modern number. The way this one struts forward is pure New Jack Swing, but it never aims to be a recreation but rather melds it with more modern touches. Listen above.
Abaraya — “Diagram”
Abaraya take delight in the overload brought on from their kitchen-sink pop creations, and their new song “Diagram” is teeming with a spillage of spiky guitar-jamming and amoebic synth bubbles. The Vocaloid producer tries to make sense of all the splatter on the page through the warbling vocals of Hatsune Miku. Yet what’s way more fun than making sense of the chaos is to just get lost in the busy music.
Regallily — “Coaster”
In last year’s hit for the anime Delicious in Dungeon, Regallily interpolated “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” into a lamenting nursery rhyme reminiscing about bygone relationships. The indie-rock duo pulls a similar track in new track “Coaster” with the ready or not, here I come sing-song signaling the start of a not-so-fun game of Hide and Seek. “I heard happiness is still hiding in a place I don’t know about,” they sing in a weathered sigh like they’re tired of being the only ones who haven’t found it while jangling riffs soundtrack their mundane loop of an everyday routine. You almost need something charming like a nursery rhyme to sweeten a song that’s so exhausted from its own ambition.
Saori Hayami — “Last breath, Last record”
After a rather quiet year in music, Saori Hayami returns with a howling ending theme for Record of Ragnarock Season 3. As her voice escalates in urgency, the stormy symphonic-rock arrangement further raises the stakes pressed in the lyrics until only matters of life and death seem suited to discuss in the song’s chorus. It’s driven by a volcanic intensity familiar to her collaborations with Takuya Watanabe, an arranger also responsible for the epic highlights from the voice actress’s latest album, Shiroto Hanataba. “Last breath, Last record” marks yet another bracing experience from the two.
yama — “shadow dance”
A song doesn't have to be overly busy to feel like a trip. This deeper cut from yama’s most recent single finds her (with a huge assist from Matt Cab and GRe4N BOYZ on the songwriting front) finds her delivering a doozy that starts off minimalist — a strolling beat backed by what sound like woodpeckers — before the beat picks up the pace. That would make for something solid, but when it reaches a crystalline breakdown and a spoken-word interlude that ups the emotional ante, this becomes a journey. Listen above.
