In recent months on Dazed, we’ve looked at how Gen Z Brits reinvented rap in 2025, the rise of Sweden’s post-pop underground, and met Neda, the singer-songwriter blending Farsi classics with Lily Allen. We’ve also previewed Gorillaz's new album, ranked the 20 best albums of 2025, and hosted a new Dazed Mix from Ziúr.

As we race towards the new year, all bets remain off. Despite the uncertainties that colour the day-to-day realities of many, music continues to offer the potential for shared communal spaces and serve as a source of collective solace. The global music community continues to face ongoing economic challenges related to touring, releasing, and promoting music, but the heart wants what the heart wants. Expert difficulty level settings be damned, new and under-discussed talents from the world of underground music will always continue to use connection and craft to find their way.

For the fourth edition of our quarterly roundup for 2025, we continue to reflect on and acknowledge musicians, artists, producers, and DJs from around the globe, all with strong communities, real visions, and important statements to make. Here are ten essential Q4 releases, all available on Bandcamp.

ATA KAK, BATAKARI

WHO: An idiosyncratic Ghanaian hiplife star with enigmatic songs and a global feel.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Batakari, the second album from Kumasi underground legend Ata Kak, is a joyfully idiosyncratic fusion of hiplife, old school hip-hop, reggae and electro, flavoured with acrobatic Twi language raps and elegant Akan harp figures. Since he reemerged a decade ago after Awesome Tapes From Africa reissued his cult debut, Obaa Sima, he’s won over festival audiences across the world with his sun-kissed dance sounds and swaggy outfits. Arriving at Batakari was another long and winding journey, but by all measures, it beats the sophomore slump curse. As it turns out, it’s never too late to live your dreams.

FOR FANS OF: Sandy B, Minoru 'Hoodoo' Fushimi, Nourished By Time.

COURTNEY BAILEY, IN DREAM

WHO: The Japanese producer-DJ bringing kankyo ongaku and ambient-pop sensibilities to Berlin.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Before Courtney Bailey could create her masterful debut, In Dream, she had to live a little. Across the eight-track album, released through Music From Memory’s Second Circle imprint, the influence of Japan’s prolific ‘90s pop experimentalist Dream Dolphin intertwines with vivid memories of Australia’s natural landscape, rendered through a playful studio sensibility. These songs are soft, dreamy and intimate. Hushed whispers enfolded in cloudy synth pads, sparkly acid bass lines and the quietude of the empty hours. Listening to In Dream is like staring out at a perfect horizon. You feel the wonder, and it all makes so much sense.

FOR FANS OF: Visible Cloaks, Teresa Winter, Dream Dolphin.

EDEN BURNS, AND THE MAKE BELIEVERS

WHO: A Naarm-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ who collapses the distance between genres, eras and sounds.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Since 2020, Eden Burns has built a rock-solid reputation in the Balearic sides of house and downtempo via his ongoing Big Beat Manifesto EP series for the Public Possession label. It’s been the perfect set-up for his debut album, And The Make Believers. A set of buoyant instrumentals written for vocalists who never recorded on them, the 11-track project bridges the gap between post-punk, nu-disco, and vaporwave, offering a plethora of floaty bangers for the dancefloor and the chillout room. From the fluttery synths of ‘Oh Oh’ to the sampledelic psychedelia of ‘The Relaxed Man’, it’s a rewarding repeat listen.

FOR FANS OF: The Cure, Soulwax, Alex Kassian.

JUBILEE, MAIN CHARACTER

WHO: The veteran New York producer/DJ who never lost touch with her Miami Bass roots.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Over the last two decades, Jubilee has been a key player in several iterations of New York’s ever-shifting underground dance music scene. With her latest EP, Main Character, a tight collection of solo tracks and collaborations with Jersey Club queen Uniiqu3, all that experience and history shine through as a testament to her strength. On the opener, ‘Trippin’, Jubilee and Uniiqu3 connect the dots between Jersey, Baltimore, and Chicago with an acidic TB-303 bassline. Afterwards, ‘Main Character’ gives Miami bass a breakbeat shuffle and an arpeggiated synth glow, before ‘Lucky’ goes euphoric, driving and epic. These are the good times. Out now on Numbers.

FOR FANS OF: DJ Technics, DJ Stingray, Bianca Oblivion.

HÉLÈNE BARBIER, PANORAMA

WHO: The Montreal singer-songwriter bringing the cool breeze of ‘80s art-rock into the 2020s.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Three albums in, Hélène Barbier has become an exemplar of the power of restraint and considered stylistic sensibilities. Nonchalantly switching between English and French as she sings, Panorama’s nine dreamy songs feel simultaneously effortless and hard-won. Opening with the angular guitars, strutting bass and breathy vocals of ‘Kindness In A Cup’, the album reminds me of a springtime stroll down Rue Saint-Laurent. Despite the sunshine, however, there’s always darkness and dissonance hovering on the edges of cheer and melody. A late highlight is the sweet dance number, ‘Plastique Couch’. That said, there are plenty of perspectives to be explored across Panorama.

FOR FANS OF: Television, Stereolab, Cate Le Bon.

ROCHELLE JORDAN, THROUGH THE WALL

WHO: Toronto’s rising alt-R&B and dance-pop star.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Rochelle Jordan’s Through The Wall is main event music in the same traditions as Janet Jackson and Kelela. Across seventeen nocturnally slanted dance records, she draws together the conventions of Chicago and Detroit House, as well as UK Garage, landing on a mid-tempo mode of modern R&B dressed up in space-age soundscapes. Backed by high-octane production from the likes of KLSH, Kaytranada, Machinedrum, Dam-Funk, and Byron The Aquarius, these songs give her license to go all the way with her killer melodies, verses and hooks. If you need to put your broken heart back together, let Rochelle Jordan help you out.

FOR FANS OF: Sade, Victoria Monét, The Internet.

SABINE MCCALLA, DON’T CALL ME BABY

WHO: A Haitian American singer-songwriter and entertainer creating multi-cultural roots music in New Orleans.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Don’t Call Me Baby by Sabine McCalla is the soundtrack to a night spent dancing closely in a hot, steamy, honky-tonk dive bar. It’s a vividly lived-in and realised album of songs about matters of the heart that draws deeply from the rich traditions of rhythm & blues, country, folk, jazz, Tropicália, quiet storm soul, doo-wop, hypnotic roots music, and whatever else she wanted to throw in the gumbo. Don’t Call Me Baby features two songs co-written with Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys and other friends, but it’s still always Sabine’s show. From ‘Sunshine Kisses’ to ‘Lonely Lovely’, top stuff.

FOR FANS OF: Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music, The Boswell Sisters, Caetano Veloso.

TIM REAPER, IN VAIN

WHO: UK’s jungle’s arch-revivalist is ready to open up.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: As he explains in depth in the Bandcamp notes for In Vain, Tim Reaper has been going through it. Thankfully, however, the London-based producer and DJ knew what to do with his feelings: make them into music. Over twenty stylistically adventurous post-genre dance tracks, Reaper gets emotive and experimental while pushing the boundaries. Songs like the sparkly, shuffly ‘samaritans’ and ‘pathfinder’ vividly evoke the feeling of someone trying to rewrite the stories they tell themself about themself. Meanwhile, ‘fine as dust edit’ is taut, atmospheric and moody. Joy, heartbreak, euphoria, confusion and pain, it’s all on display across In Vain.

FOR FANS OF: Kush Jones, Spaceghost, Kode9.

TOM SCOTT, ANITYA

WHO: The most significant New Zealand rapper of a generation, reimagining himself as a singer.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: After touring his Avantdale Bowling Club group through Europe and the UK, Tom Scott, best known as the frontman of Homebrew, turns his attention to the breakup album tradition. Rendered in an ambient neo-soul style, Anitya tells the story of a defining ending and an equally defining beginning. Embellished with the conventions of psychedelic freak-folk (‘is this the outro or the intro?’), dream-pop (‘khloe’), and prog-rap (‘dirty talk’), it’s an immersive experience. Mid-album, he takes a break from the singing and gets back to the bars on ‘message 2 miles’ and ‘how to perform a lobotomy’. There’s much to ponder here.

FOR FANS OF: Mk.gee, Dijon, Erykah Badu. 

100% SILK, LATE SHIFT SILK

WHO: The sound of a decade and a half of global underground dance music.

WHY YOU SHOULD BE LISTENING: Fifteen years ago, California’s 100% Silk label was a driving force behind the early rise of the lo-fi house/techno movement. In the process, they helped a generation of indie kids find their way onto late-night dancefloors. While other collectives, labels and scenes have come and gone, 100% Silk has stayed true, helping people who feel like they fall between the tracks find community from Los Angeles to Tokyo and back again. Late Night Shift captures a new wave, with finely-honed neon-lit sensibilities and perfectly calibrated bullshit detectors. This is what doing it for the right reasons sounds like.

FOR FANS OF: Octa Octa, Robotalco, Pharaohs.