TekForce is an artist from Dallas who has been releasing music for a few years now, most notably dropping his albums Tek Support and Server Crash Pt. 1 back in 2015 and 2016, respectively. For his career, he’s mostly been known as an emcee, but with his latest project, Teknikally Beat Stage 1, he switches things up and drops an instrumental album, showcasing his abilities as a producer. This is somewhat new territory for TekForce, so it seems appropriate to grade this project on a curve.

J.Lamotta is an artist born and raised in Tel Aviv to a Moroccan family who now calls Berlin home. Two years ago, she released her debut album, Conscious Tree, on Jakarta Records. She now comes back with her sophomore album, Suzume. When J.Lamotta released her first album, it was entirely self-produced, relying mainly on samples and found sounds. Since that time, she has toured internationally extensively with her live band, The Dizzy Sparrow, and that is reflected here on Suzume.

Odd Nosdam is a producer from Berkeley, and one of the founding members of anticon.. He’s been carving out his own unique space as a solo artist for about twenty years now. His last album, Like When You Ain’t, came out just last September. He now returns with a new album based on found sounds, Mirrors. Mirrors is an interesting album in a few different ways. For one, Odd Nosdam is one of the most distinct producers of his generation, creating this unique style that combined ambient electronic music with a dusty vinyl hip hop aesthetic that was always recognizable the minute you heard it.

Aru-2 is a producer from Tokyo who has been releasing beat tapes and EPs for about five years now, garnering some acclaim along the way. His last project, Episode II Leaving Love, came out last summer. Up until now, most have Aru-2’s gains have been made as a DIY artist. That changes with the release of Ayakashi Instruments, which comes via the Portland Label, Fresh Selects. The title for this project comes from Japanese folklore, referring to the ghost lights that appear above the ocean water, said to be the vengeful spirits of those that died at sea.

Richard Daniel is an artist from Birmingham who has been working over the past five years or so, both as a solo artist and as part of the RDFND collective. His last solo album came in 2016, when he released Sedan. He now comes back with most ambitious and polished album to date, The Lemon Tree Project. For the project, Richard Daniel enlisted the help of some of Birmingham’s finest producers, including Erthling, C’Mar the Producer, Maestr0, Bliss, and Suaze.

Uncle Meg is an emcee from Brooklyn who used be part of the group known as Handjob Academy. In 2016, they dropped their first solo album, Bug, and shortly thereafter began using he/him pronouns and began a personal exploration of gender expression and medical transition. This is a deeply personal process to a lot of people, but fortunately for us, Uncle Meg decided to make their journey very public, posting on social media along the way, explaining things like medical procedures and the process of getting government IDs changed.

Amp Live is the Bay Area producer best known as one half of Zion I, but after leaving the group a couple of years ago, he’s been working on solo projects and some other collaborative projects. Most recently, he made an album with Del The Funky Homosapien, Gate 13, which came out about a year ago. His most recent solo venture came two years ago, when he released an EP called Atmosphere.

SkyBlew is a North Carolina emcee who has been releasing music for the better part of the decade, becoming notable among other things for being the first artist not named Mega Ran to put out an album on Random Beats Records. He’s been working at a pretty steady clip this whole time, with last album, Painting ‘Til She Dials, coming out a little less than a year ago. Now he comes back with a new album done in collaboration with DJ Reimei, The Universal Journey.

New Haven artist Ceschi has been carving out a unique path for himself for over a decade, both as a solo artist and as co-founder of the Fake Four label. It’s been four years since he released his last album, Broken Bone Ballads, once of the best albums of the 2010s. After touring extensively, guesting on albums, and running a label, it’s finally time for the official follow up album, Sad, Fat Luck.

Rhys Langston is an L.A. emcee/producer who has been steadily gaining steam and attention by carving out his own path, most notable with his 2017 album, Aggressively Ethnically Ambiguous. Now, as he gets ready to release his next full-length album, he preps things with a new EP, Master Fader On Speed Dial. Master Fader On Speed Dial is an interesting release, mostly in the way that it seems like one thing on the surface, but then when you start to pay closer attention, you begin to realize what Langston is really doing here.