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 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.

Ako — "PAPER MOON"

There's a mysterious, hushed and at times oft-kilter to the fragile rock songs Ako has been writing over the course of the 2020s. Yet sometimes, you just have to appreciate the young artist's knack for a good groove. Latest single "PAPER MOON" carries a slightly sinister edge to it, but one that quickly gets shoved aside in favor of a skippy melody and horn blurts adding to the intoxicating emotional rush she delivers. It also features one of Ako's best vocal performances to date, with her usually near-whisper delivery turning ecstatic throughout, really delivering the joy at "PAPER MOON's" core. Listen above.

Fetus  — "Microstoma"

Fetus’s latest reassembling of the hardcore continuum featured in Fish, Fished, Fishing bangs relentlessly as ever, and the four-track EP goes from zero to 100 real quick from its opening track, “Microstoma.” A choppy whirlwind of jungle breaks and woozy bass, the beat is intoxicating in its turbulence. What cuts through is Fetus’s prankster giddiness as he fiddles with the production, cutting off the tracks and messing with the levels, all seemingly in real time. The synths cry out a malfunctioning screech every so often, like even the music can’t keep up with his wicked experiments.

Khaki — "Hidaka, Michi Sugara"

Khaki can't settle down for a second. "Hidaka, Michi Sugara," a taste of the band's forthcoming sophomore album out in May, starts with a rush of guitars and horn, before fracturing even further into segments featuring sing-speak lyrics, jazzy passages, and eventually blown-out blurts bordering on no-wave chaos. It's a song in constant motion — and all the more invigorating for it. Listen above.  

killmilky  —  "Nanimokamo Tsuki Ni Niteru"

While the wall of noise hardly ever dies down in the shoegaze of killmilky, “Nanimokamo Tsuki Ni Niteru” features the clearest scenery in the band’s new album, Ikitai. Usually coming down like a blizzard, the guitars here hum than they roar as vocalist Manaco Komori sings in a sweet murmur fitting for the dreamy soundscape. “I want to live, until the night is over,” she sighs in the chorus. The lyric might give off a touch of despondency had it been surrounded by heavier music; in this sunny song, it instead scans as joy felt to be alive at all.

LiVS  —  "Boku No Koe, Hanekaeru"

LiVS have taken on the punk-rock torch from their predecessors in the idol agency WACK, their heart-on-sleeve sing-alongs recalling third-gen BiS or the short-lived CARRY LOOSE. But then there’s “Boku No Koe, Hanekaeru” that kicks off their new WARMiNG EP. It’s blistering punk that veers into pure noise. “BPM180!!!” The idols scream, and their vocals bleed into the red along with the thrash-metal shredding and the gabber drums — an unwieldy mess expected from a song written by Ryosuke Shinoda of the band Top Secret Man. If you missed the anything-goes chaos of OG BiS, this is it.

xiangyu — "Mootainai Obake"

Japanese artist xiangyu has always let her stomach play a part in her music, with songs across her career built around varieties of curry or chain eateries. On her first album, she fully embraces where her appetite takes her, with every song using culinary delights as a thematic appetizer to get to the main course — her frantic and always-mutating sound. "Mootainai Obake" offers one of the most satisfying examples of this point, telling the story of ghosts who don't want to waste food, delivered through slippery vocals slipping over one another as the song dashes ahead on an uptempo beat. A cute concept, but one turned into a delight by the disorienting production. Listen above.