It’s officially brat summer – and chances are your social media feed has been soaked in a lurid shade of green the past couple of weeks. While the Charli XCX rollout has admittedly eclipsed this month’s music headlines, with its infinite reel of memes, remixes, thinkpieces, there are a bunch of standout releases that deserve the limelight. A personal favourite from June is EmmaDJ’s latest record Lay2g, in which the Paris-based musician trades his usual lengthy mixtape style in favour of a more condensed 13-track offering inspired by turn-of-the-millennium style warehouse bands, indie sleaze, dance punk and industrial noise. This is one for the blog house enjoyers and hedonism seekers, so internet-coded it reminds me of Web1 messaging boards, more maximalist transmissions designed for the dancefloor.

Elsewhere, Kaytranada goes mainsteam on his latest album Timeless, featuring the likes of Channel Tres, Charlotte Day Wilson, Anderson.Paak, and his brother, Lou Phelps. Dazed cover star Normani debuts her highly anticipated Dopamine, her debut solo album and the first release since her 2019 single “Motivation”. Headie One returns with his sophomore record The Last One and Slim Soledad sends us hurtling off to space with her debut EP – check out her Dazed mix here. 

CHARLI XCX, BRAT

EMMA DJ, LAY2G

KAYTRANDA, TIMELESS

HEADIE ONE,THE LAST ONE

NORMANI, DOPAMINE

SLIM SOLEDAD, SPACE MANUEL FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SWIM