With so much good music being released all the time, it can be hard to determine what to listen to first. Every week, Pitchfork offers a run-down of significant new releases available on streaming services. This week’s batch includes new albums and EPs from Arca, Tierra Whack, Gas, and Nils Frahm. Subscribe to Pitchfork’s New Music Friday newsletter to get our recommendations in your inbox every week. (All releases featured here are independently selected by our editors. When you buy something through our affiliate links, however, Pitchfork earns an affiliate commission.)
Arca: KICK ii / KicK iii / kick iiii / kiCK iiiii [XL]
Across four days this week, Arca has expanded the series that began with KiCk i in 2020 with four new installments. When kick iiii was announced, its press release claimed that it was the final installment in the series. Today, its follow-up kiCK iiiii was released. The four new albums from Arca feature 47 songs across two and a half hours.
Listen on Apple Music: KICK ii / KicK iii / kick iiii / kiCK iiiii
Listen on Spotify: KICK ii / KicK iii / kick iiii / kiCK iiiii
Listen on Tidal: KICK ii / KicK iii / kick iiii / kiCK iiiii
Listen on Amazon Music: KICK ii / KicK iii / kick iiii / kiCK iiiii
Clockwise from the top left: KICK ii, KicK iii, kick iiii, and kiCK iiiii. Artwork by Arca and Frederik Heyman.
Tierra Whack: Rap? EP [Interscope]
The first project from Tierra Whack since 2018’s Whack World (which was 15 songs across 15 minutes) is Rap?, which features three songs: “Stand Up,” “Meagan Good,” and “Millions.” The EP follows a handful of singles that the rapper has issued since last year, which include “Dora,” “Feel Good,” “Link,” and “Peppers and Onions.” She also contributed a track titled “Art Show” to the 25th anniversary Pokémon soundtrack.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Gas: Der Lange Marsch [Kompakt]
The 10th album from Wolfgang Voigt under the name Gas has arrived: Der Lange Marsch follows 2017’s Narkopop, his first Gas album in 17 years at that point, and 2018’s Rausch. Read more about Gas in Pitchfork’s list of “The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time.”
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Nils Frahm: Old Friends New Friends [Leiter]
Old Friends New Friends is a collection of 23 solo piano tracks recorded by Nils Frahm between 2009 and 2021. Pieced together during the pandemic, the double album serves as a refresher of sorts on the German pianist’s career, expanding across eras, genres, and piano models. Frahm calls Old Friends New Friends “an anatomy of all [his] ways of thinking musically and playing.”
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/10/03/937/n/1922564/32ef0987651c87ff971be8.40877988_.jpg)
:quality(85):upscale()/2023/11/29/721/n/1922564/16080d8f65676470f07a65.96876820_.jpg)
