CHLLNGR, “Haven.” The manipulated and pitched-all-over-the-place vocal-sampling style made popular by artists like Burial and James Blake is a bit played out by now, but Copenhagen’s CHLLNGR (a.k.a. Steven Jess Borth II) takes the trick to new heights—or depths—onhis debut album, Haven, which is out this week. The title track paints a disturbing portrait of some futuristic industrial factory whose robot-slave workers sing ghostly, amorphous spirituals to each other atop stylish programming and steely synth work. Ghosts in the machine, indeed. Sal Cinquemani
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXiSwbGD9JM
Major Lazer, “German Elefant Killer.” Major Lazer continues to do what they do best: fuzzy beats coupled with MCs making impassioned pleas for you to move onto the dance floor and get down. Their dubstep-with-a-hint-of-disco “German Elefant Killer” will be the hit of the summer at dancehalls that play dancehall. The perfectly utilized bassline is taken from Seal’s 1991 hit “Killer,” proving once again that recycling is a producer’s best friend these days. Happy Daggering. Michael Kilpatrick
Wilco, “I Might.” “I Might” finds singer Jeff Tweedy threatening to “set the kids on fire,” but the real attention grabber here is John Stirratt’s bassline: a distorted, near-menacing rumble that drives the track through fits of stammering organ, wistful xylophone, and searing guitar. Though “I Might” bears a passing resemblance to the thematically deceptive pop of Wilco’s Summerteeth, it nonetheless sounds refreshingly detached from the band’s more recent forays into complacent, gray-hair indie rock. Jaymie Baxley
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