The Drift: the summer’s best in weird and experimental music

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After a lengthy absence, owing to Summermaxxing (a term which, here, means eating nothing but blueberries, having Covid, and harbouring a Godspeed You! Black Emperor obsession that has made writing about other music impossible), I return sunburnt to my desk at The Drift Towers.

Since my last column, the world has changed beyond my comprehension. Charli discourse has come and gone without any participation from my end. The Prime Minister has glow’d up but the world has glow’d down. And for some reason, I’m expected to just tolerate that “UK Poo” is now the music genre on everyone’s lips. Weird.

Another heatwave is beckoning, but the show must go on. Here are the most essential experimental releases of the Summer so far, should you need to soundtrack your beach days with Argentine plugg, Chilean post-post-rock, or some fractured Bristolian rare groove.