JAMIE XX – IN COLOUR

“I wasn’t old enough to go to raves, so I have a romantic idea of that period and the scenes that were happening before the internet, Jamie xx told us in an interview last month. His words neatly sum up this glistening, colour-soaked debut, which crafts a sonic love letter to the dancefloor of yesterday – from the euphoric, acid house-flecked “Loud Places” (featuring xx bandmate Romy Madley-Croft) to dancehall standout “I Know There’s Gonna Be Good Times” (featuring Young Thug & Popcaan). Yeah, we might not have made it down to the world’s best parties either, but that doesn’t mean we can’t fantasise.

A$AP ROCKY – AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP

You’d be forgiven for thinking that our favourite A$AP had gone a bit “off the main road” lately, what with all his illuminating revelations and all those back-to-back LSD-fuelled orgies (surely that can’t be fun?) Gross shenanigans aside, At.Long.Last.A$AP has finally landed and we love it, from the throwback, sample-heavy beats of “Wavybone (feat Juicy J X UKG)” to the sweetly psychedelic “L$D”. Kanye West, M.I.A. and Lil Wayne also lend their talents to this collab-filled second album.

CORBIN & BOBBY RAPS – COUCH POTATO

The days of wearing do-rags and turtlenecks in the snow may be long gone, but sensi-teen Corbin, who dropped the Halloween-ish moniker Spooky Black last year, still has those sweet, syrupy vocals down to perfection. In this collaborative EP, Corbin teams up with heavy-lidded rapper Bobby Raps, both formerly of misfit collective theStand4rd, where they serve up seven dark feels on death, disaster and the internet.

HOLLY HERNDON – PLATFORM 

Unlike Jamie xx, Holly Herndon has her eyes fixed firmly on the future. “A big thing for me is not relying on nostalgia or past ways of expressing emotion,” the tech-obsessed composer told us in an interview last month. “I think it starts by trying to create new archetypes.” That’s exactly what she’s done with Platform, a hyper-synthetic concoction of intricate beats and digital patterns that has the ability to run endless rings around the listener.

SHAMIR – RATCHET

Las Vegas’ nu-disco child and last year’s Dazed 100 alumnus Shamir first graced us with a taste of Ratchet back in October, when he released the cowbell-heavy, schoolyard taunting, diva ode “On the Regular”, which is still buzzing round our heads seven months later. The rest of the album is jammed with equally catchy tracks for the club, as he takes the early, disco-smattered roots of house and twists them into gleaming new shapes for the 21st century. There are some introspective standouts on there, too, which showcase his vocal talent as gloriously as his recent Kacey Musgraves cover.

LUCKI ECK$ - X

What did you do on your 19th birthday? Chicago rapper Lucki Eck$ popped a Xanax and dropped this mixtape. Well, maybe that’s not strictly true, but these 11 tracks do sound like they emerged from the residual druggy haze of a late Sunday afternoon, with their deep, aquatic beats that whir beneath Lucki’s slow, Chicago drawl. “Man I’m just too fucked up, tryna make this dumbass riddle,” he raps in “What I Wanna Do” before the track winds to a slo-mo close. X marks the spot in that stoned space between poetic and comfortably numb.

DONNIE TRUMPET & THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT – SURF

Surf is the summer mixtape we never knew we wanted and it’s perfect, from the warped, Beach Boys-style opener “Miracle” through to the easy, rich jazz melodies of “Nothing Came to Me”, the blissful heights of “Go” (featuring Joey Purp) and the funk-spiked grooves of “Wanna Be Cool’” all pinned together with a unique and exceptional collaborative energy between band members Chance the Rapper, Peter Cottontale, Greg Landfair Jr and Nate Fox.

ZHALA – ZHALA

If you haven’t yet heard of Zhala, have a look at this video where she plays a self-described “Anastacia-inspired personality in a post-apocalyptic environment” where “Kim Kardashian is on acid in a doom state” (yep). Her oponymous debut album is brilliant: a feverish lesson in dancefloor-ready electro-pop comparable to the likes of The Knife and Robyn, the latter of which has incidentally scooped Zhala up as the first (and so far only) act on her Konichiwa Records. Catch the two of them together in London on June 24.

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE – HOW BIG, HOW BLUE, HOW BEAUTIFUL

Break ups can be earth-shatteringly, snot-drippingly ugly, but Florence Welch transforms hers into something beautiful (and big, and blue) in this bright and bold third album. “It’s a different kind of danger, and the bells are ringing out, and I’m calling for my mother, as I pull the pillars down,” she sings over pearly piano melodies and bass-drum thuds. It might be her most complete record to date.

GUCCI MANE – KING GUCCI 

True, Gucci Mane went mad with a firearm again last year, and he’s still in prison, but that hasn’t stopped him from smuggling out musical contraband like some kind of felonious beat wizard. This pop-heavy mixtape from the Atlanta trap house king will mark his tenth musical project this year, and he’s showing no signs of slowing down. The mixtape features cameos from Chief Keef, Fetty Wap and Riff Raff, who wax lyrical about drugs, sex and ice cream.