Welcome to the March edition of Beats Per Minute’s monthly playlist BPM Curates.
And just like that, wouldn’t you know it, it’s spring! And not only does this mean the blossoming of new life, it also means the blossoming of new love for music. Below we’ve got a veritable plethora of new tracks from all over the musical map ready to be your next infatuation. Dive in!
Below is the track list and some notes from our team about why they’ve selected them for this month’s playlist.
Ava Lyons – “New Hampshire”
Ava Lyons gets my vote for “most spellbinding NYU-educated artist since Maggie Rogers”. She’s spontaneous and energetic on “New Hampshire”, which is a major departure from the poetic grace of her previous single “Groceries”. – Larry McClain
Car Seat Headrest – “Gethsemane”
Car Seat Headrest’s 2020 album Making a Door Less Open was admirable in its boldness, but it felt like a messy sketch of something bigger – like it had all the ingredients but couldn’t quite figure out the recipe. It was everything and nothing at once. “Gethsemane”, even with its 10-minute runtime and many disparate parts, is quite the opposite: sharp, focused, and exactly what fans hoped for. The first track to be shared from The Scholars, a rock opera laced with furry fantasy and tragedy, brings Car Seat Headrest’s always-wild thematic and musical ideas into sharper focus. It’s a swirling mix of doubt, sacrifice, and fate, with all the raw, emotional energy of Will Toledo at his most emotive. Loud, messy, honest – “Gethsemane” is everything you want from the band, and exactly where they needed to go. – Kyle Kohner
Circuit des Yeux – “Skeleton Key”
An incredible cross of late-era Scott Walker, Dead Can Dance and Tears for Fears, “Skeleton Key” is a sensual, intense, seductive, roaring example of Haley Fohr’s genius. Imagining herself as a dark, hungry cosmic entity – part god, part horned trickster – her protagonist lusts after a human figure, engaging them in a dance of torn clothes and entangled limbs. The explosion in Metal during the song’s second half opens the ballad into restless shock. Utterly intoxicating! – John Wohlmacher
Dead Meadow – “The Unhounded Now”
Years ago I found myself at a Dead Meadow show, watching the opener in a dark and sweaty Floridian dive bar. Standing next to me was a lanky, long-haired man wearing flip-flops, his hairy toes just inches from the sludge that coated the sticky floor. When the opener wrapped up, the man casually stepped onto the stage, plugged in a guitar, and began playing the most hypnotic guitar melodies you can imagine. Of course, it was none other than Jason Simon, Dead Meadow’s lead vocalist and guitarist, who has built a devoted cult following over the past two decades. Now, the band is back with their new LP Voyager to Voyager, and listening to lead single “The Unhounded Now” brings me back to simpler days, when all that was needed to entertain were flip-flops, fuzz pedals, and filthy guitar riffs. – Nathan Skinner
Earth Ball – “Live at The Fox Cabaret”
Recorded live at The Fox Cabaret in Vancouver in 2023, Earth Ball member Jeremy Van Wyck describes this show as “the gig that sent us into orbit”. It’s easy to hear why – 20-plus minutes of fast, ferocious, and freewheeling jazzy noise-rock relentlessly sends the listener blasting through the firmament. I can only imagine what this must have sounded like live, and thanks to this recent release from Upset the Rhythm, I don’t have to. “Live at the Fox Cabaret” is music that demands to be listened to over and over again. Loud. – Nathan Skinner
feeble little horse – “This Is Real”
Topping three minutes, “This Is Real” sits comfortably among feeble little horse’s longest songs – and they make the most of the time to jam in as many ideas as possible. Like fellow Pennsylvanians and Saddle Creek labelmates Spirit of the Beehive, there is a collage-like effect to the way they sew sections of songs together – though this one eye-popping in its sudden shifts, as the quartet veer hard right from floating beauty into excoriating hardcore and back again. They do it so smoothly that there’s no whiplash here, but your hairs will be standing on end and you’ll no doubt be gripping on tight to whatever you can. – Rob Hakimian
HAIM – “Relationships”
On March 13, producer Rostam Batmanglij revealed that “Relationships” was one song HAIM couldn’t quite figure at its inception in 2017. Beginning then with demos made by Danielle Haim, it was worked and reworked, then shelved, only to be resurrected eight years and two albums later as one of the band’s best songs. With a circular melody and a sexy bounce, the track is an instant earworm. Messy and unresolved as the group’s fictional-or-otherwise relationships may be, this song is by contrast fully-formed and confident. – Ethan Reis
The Horrors – “Lotus Eater”
Re-imagining the club space as haunted castle, the reconfigured Horrors present their LA album as an open question of ‘quo vadis’. There’s many hallways the album progresses through, but their most successful experiment is the crystalline techno of “Lotus Eater”.
Yes, this is a very ‘Berlin’ song for a London band recording in LA. Hidden within the lascivious, slowly melting beats is a gothic story of addiction, nostalgia and death. It’s oddly touching and sensitive, with faint shoegaze-like beauty shining through the song’s composition. This should be the path forward for the five piece: bold, emotional electronic music! – John Wohlmacher
Jennie – “Damn Right” (feat. Childish Gambino & Kali Uchis) / “F.T.S.”
Wherein Jennie says the quiet part out loud. Loudly. Wherein she fully owns the bad bitch vibes (more clumsily adopted on the album’s lead single “Mantra”) and – wait for it – twists it all into something damn poignant. “Damn Right” and “F.T.S.” are simply inseparable. The former slides through an unfairly smooth concoction – this ruthless thing would make Frank Ocean pick up a pen – with even Childish Gambino so heavily cribbing André 3000’s style that the man ought to sue for custody unable to falter its cleansing energy.
This plunges into the emotional dirge that is “F.T.S.”: the K-pop magnate played the mirthless ice queen with style on “Damn Right”, but the second salvo finds her tired of it all. Sure, it was fun to strut by and say, “yeah, sure, I fucked your life up because it worked for me,” but when the wide-eyed guy that can’t believe you entered his stratosphere simply won’t leave? It all gets tiresome. “Whatever happened to freedom and honesty?,” she asks. It’s the most sobering of pop salvos: “whatever matters to you – it’s not that deep to me.” That girl who blew your mind and moved on? She’s not thinking about you. It hurts. It probably should. – Chase McMullen
Lou Tides – “Autostatic!”
A former member of TEEN and current member of Sharon Van Etten’s Attachment Theory as well as the Sleater-Kinney live ensemble, Lou Tides – aka Teeny Lieberson – reemerged in 2022 with “Sense Of Touching”. The song railed against the person who sexually assaulted her and keyed on her disembodiment and the lack of body ownership that was a legacy of the trauma. The lead single and title track to her forthcoming full-length debut in May, “Autostatic!” has her trying to locate the point when our present selves become our past selves, and accompanies it with growing impatience. The rotating synths mirror the Can, Kraftwerk and Kate Bush influences on the second half of “Touching”, and while their repetition indicates running in place they clearly have forward momentum: more wheel than plain ol’ circle. – Steve Forstneger
Madame Gandhi – “Rise!”
Madame Gandhi has a stratospheric I.Q. and a brave heart. Her songs blend rap, jazz and Indian music in an unforgettable way – and she’s one helluva drummer, too. “Rise!” demonstrates that Madame Gandhi’s career is entering a bold new chapter. – Larry McClain
Madison Perrott – “Not Your Wife”
Madison Perrott deserves a place on both the country and pop charts. She has a fabulous voice and her songwriting chops are on full display on “Not Your Wife”. Be sure to also check out her previous single “The Fixer” – perhaps the best song ever written about a woman breaking free from co-dependency. –Larry McClain
MF Tomlinson – “Die To Wake Up From A Dream”
As an introduction to his ambitious upcoming album Die To Wake Up From A Dream, London-based Australian songwriter MF Tomlinson has shared the sweeping nine-minute title track. It finds the curious and creative talent going bigger and bolder than we’ve ever heard him before – both lyrically and sonically, with a chasm of brass and synth enshrining his compelling pontifications. He flies through the years; visions of stress and pleasure flow by on all sides, swept along on a river of digital and acoustic instrumentation, Tomlinson observing it all with zen-like equanimity. Even as digital manipulation makes the walls of this musical maelstrom start to quiver to the point of collapse he remains steadfast in positivity: “It’s getting better and better”. – Rob Hakimian
MJ Lenderman / This Is Lorelei – “Dancing In The Club”
Two indie heroes of 2024 team up to deliver a new version of an already classic song. Lenderman takes over Nate Amos’ sad sack and lovelorn lyricism in such a total way that you wonder how he didn’t write it himself. It’s not just his voice, it’s the whole instrumentation, changed from the slightly hyper style of This Is Lorelei’s original “Dancing In The Club” into the whisky-soaked Southern twang of the North Carolina native, it’s an unbelievably perfect match. “More so than any other song I’ve written this one was dreamt up for others to sing, so it was pretty freaky watching it fall into place with someone like Jake handling lead vocals,” Amos says. If he wants to write more songs for other performers, he’s got a hell of a calling card here. – Rob Hakimian
Model/Actriz – “Doves”
It’s fun to observe when Model/Actriz go full horny – as on the coda of “Doves”, where vocalist Cole Haden starts to uncontrollably moan over the band’s signature nervous, mechanical Futurismus. At its heart a song about embodiment, the track’s open and surreal lyrics – suggesting a cosmic dancer in the midst of elemental doves – hold the power of William Burroughs’ strange poetry: “I drag my nails on blackened stone / I scratch my name in crooked rows / Trade sweat for wax and tears for smoke / I make a rapture out of / Waiting…”. It is impossible to tell how this imagery functions, but as Haden moans “doves” over and over again, the birds become angelic proclamations. The slight club edge to the song suggests opportunity, but also jagged edges of limbo like stasis. No signature culinary symbolism this time, but the boys are cooking, as to be expected! – John Wohlmacher
Nick Storring – “Roxa III”
Nick Storring’s new record Mirante is a percussionist’s dreamworld, full of rhythmic movement and energy inspired by Brazil. On the final piece to the Toronto-based composer’s album, he stretches out across almost 10 minutes, sewing together all the elements that came before it. Soft and melancholic strings filling the air during the first three minutes before drums enter in bursts, each phase a different feel: some are jaunty and full of flair, others are like a vintage vehicle chugging across a green landscape. It’s a disparate track, but it both serves as a taster of what Mirante offers and also as a rounding off of Storring’s sound journey across the album. – Ray Finlayson
Niontay – “mumbleman”
One of several promising artists on MIKE’s 10k label, Floridian Niontay takes a tongue-in-cheek approach to contemporary criticisms of hip-hop with “mumbleman”. For those who can’t follow the lyrics, the official video provides subtitles, illuminating Niontay’s scattershot thoughts until the end, when the subtitles hilariously change to “(indistinct chatter)”. Mumble rap or not, Niontay’s track provides a quick burst of rap that has me excited for his upcoming album. – Ethan Reis
Rhys Langston & Open Mike Eagle – “Ate The Tuning Fork While I Taxied In The Crepuscular”
At 50 years, rap/hip-hop’s highs and lows are legion and there’s a whole section devoted just to Kanye West. Among West’s is the brilliance with which he rhymed sarcophagus with esophagus, a moment that spills into Rhys Langston’s forthcoming project with pairings such as crepuscular and jugular; peninsula and tibia; plus acquaintance and stanchion. Much more than a lit fest, “Ate The Tuning Fork” is a pseudopsychedelic tarmac tour, complete with a nod to Leslie “You Can’t Take A Guess For Another Two Hours” Nielsen. The backpackers and old-school heads have a new prodigy on their hands. – Steve Forstneger
Vory – “Balance”
Ok, so this song isn’t truly new, but it’s found a home on Vory’s sudden arrival of a new album. If you’re unfamiliar with the man, he’s essentially Drake if he had an ounce of actual talent without ghostwriting, less concerned with creating songs as memes, and a sliver of artistic integrity. He’s a walking contradiction, both the most pitiless, worthless, cringe male alive, and the most vulnerable, well-meaning, desperately lonely man hopelessly roaming in search of a real connection, all while he ends up in bed with every model in sight. His is music to sit on a pier at 2AM, pounding shots, staring into the distant abyss after a big fight with your situationship to. Music that will make you feel dirty and cleanse you all at once. On top of the world and entirely alone. – Chase McMullen
Listen to our BPM Curates: March 2025 playlist here.
