February may be the shortest month, but it’s no less packed with great new tracks as we head towards a spring that’s going to be spring with new albums. Pop, hip-hop, drone, electronic – we’ve got a bit of everything among our selections this time around.
We’ve picked out a few of the ones that have most excited us during this dark and dreary month. Enjoy our BPM Curates playlist for February below.
Below is the track list and some notes from our team about why they’ve selected them for this month’s playlist.
Ava Lyons – “Deck of Cards”
NYC artist Ava Lyons first captured our attention with the haunting neo-folk “Groceries” from her first EP. Now she’s back with “Deck Of Cards”. The song’s insightful lyrics and propulsive rhythm put her squarely in the vanguard of new pop talents like Audrey Hobert. – Larry McClain
Danny L Harle – “On & On” (feat. Caroline Polachek)
Despite the nearly unanimous backing of the critical community, Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want To Turn Into You did not deliver the stardom it seemed to invite. If it created any momentum, she capitalised neither on it nor her feature on Charli xcx’s “Everything is romantic” and has released a slow stream of singles since. Almost exactly three years since Desire and a full decade since her first collaboration with London-based writer/producer Danny L Harle, “On & On” wafts in as a central piece in Harle’s latest album, Cerulean. Splashed with ocean sounds and a tribal rhythm, the first reaction is that Polachek is under-utilised making non-verbal da-da-das and generally playing the arm candy. But when the key shifts, both Harle and Polachek transform the song into something imbalanced and mysterious. – Steve Forstneger
ELUCID & Sebb Bash – “Make Me Wise”
Producer Sebb Bash’s creepy accents scintillate while a sludgy beat lurches. ELUCID sets the lyrical stage: he’s “zooted and booted” and “getting blow before noon”. The track unfurls surrealistically – building on the elliptical tilts of Armand Hammer’s last album, Mercy – ELUCID leaping between laments (“We shouldn’t have to work so hard in love”), politically charged memes (“Scarcity is a lie of the state”), and arresting imagery (“raindrop on corrugated metal”). – John Amen
Irreversible Entanglements – “Don’t Lose Your Head”
Camae Ayewa, a.k.a. Moor Mother, continues to deliver blistering critiques while drummer Tcheser Holmes, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, saxophonist Keir Neuringer, and bassist Luke Stewart navigate catchy grooves, free-jazz forays, and ecstatic improvisations. Signature contrasts between Ayewa’s volatility and the musicians’ buoyancy again make for a paradoxical listen – like experiencing an earthquake on a gorgeous spring day. – John Amen
Kim Gordon – “Dirty Tech”
Trust Kim Gordon to still be at the forefront of music after decades in the game. “Dirty Tech”, the latest single from her imminent new solo album PLAY ME, takes the trap-adjacent style of her last record and mellows it into a tactile robot groove that gets under your skin quicker than a scalpel on a robotic arm. Lyrically, she’s unique as ever, part flirting, part making fun, part genuinely commenting on the state of the world as we slither towards AI supremacy. A truly unsettling yet irresistible missive from an undeniable Hall of Famer. – Rob Hakimian
Lana Del Rey – “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter”
Lana Del Rey ups the tension of attraction on this summer-ready sizzler. This is the kind of lust that fuels madness – he’s dangerous, capable and oh so desirable; you can hear it dropping off every intonation she makes. But she’s not exactly a wallflower either, Del Rey plays the part of hot-to-trot cherry bomb to perfection, dropping countless “oopsie daisy”s and suggestively flirting “you know how bad I am with an oven”. OVer an array of pizzicatto strings, “White Feather Hawk Tail Deer Hunter” is a pressure cooker affair ripe for Hollywood adaptation. – Rob Hakimian
Miss Machina – “Serial Monogamist”
The title song from LA artist Miss Machina’s debut album Serial Monogamist is a pop gem that’s reminiscent of Sabrina Carpenter because it’s self-revealing yet slyly humorous at the same time. – Larry McClain
Sunn O))) – “Butch’s Guns”
Since their 2000 debut, Sunn O))) have established themselves as the primary torchbearers of drone, their typical track long, loud, and grating, yet also diabolically engaging. With the 14-minute “Butch’s Gun”, as with earlier work, notes and chords ring and buzz; sounds morph, mutate, fray, and fade, before the next dark tsunami crests and crashes. Subtle and nuanced micromovements – pointing to restraint, an almost meditative incrementalism – are cumulatively thrilling. – John Amen
Tinariwen – “Imadiwan Takyadam” (feat. José González)
Both artists here came to the media’s attention around the same time and neither seems an obvious choice to partner the other – perhaps that’s the appeal. Tinariwen come from a culture of nomads unrestrained by post-colonial map-making, while the Swedish José González represents the sophistication of globalisation. González plays the visitor here, singing in Spanish with his gentle but imposing voice. Tinariwen plays as they ever have, a casually elegant and rustic mix of clomping beat, West African guitar licks, and ageless vocal harmonies. Their new album, Hoggar, arrives March 13. – Steve Forstneger
Visible Cloaks – “Disque” (feat. Motion Graphics)
The Portland duo’s first new music in some years returns us to their polychromatic and percolating sound world with such ease it’s like a portal just dropped over your head. Here, there is no time. There is no worry. It’s like being inside a screen saver that never repeats itself but instead lures you in to deepr blissful atmospheres. – Rob Hakimian
Listen to our BPM Curates: February 2026 playlist here.
