Sounds

Every Friday music fans are faced with the same burning question: What to listen to from the sheer endless sea of new albums, EPs and other releases? Don't worry, the people of NBHAP are here to help you with that. Our very own "Release Radar" gives you a quick overview on the music that matters the most this week.

How to party after a year like this? Especially when you are not really allowed to do it in a collective way? Well, maybe now letting off some steam is more important than ever. Just in time for socially distanced New Year's Eve parties all around the world we updated our beloved and diverse party playlist as a mood-lifter for the difficult times we live in. So, move your furnitures aside and give this one a spin.

Beyond Borders celebrates the diversity of musical influences and aims to amplify voices of artists who are often marginalized by the mainstream Euro/US-centric industry. Join us in actively working against these structures in place by decolonizing and broadening our understanding of music.

In a weird and chaotic year like 2020, it's totally normal to get lost in the whirlwind of new releases, and there are plenty of albums that slipped through our fingers over the past 12 months. Luckily, some of them still ended up on our personal best-of-the-year-lists and today the writers of NBHAP share some of their favourite hidden treasures of the year with you, including records by Billy Nomates, Mavi Phoenix, Eddie Chacon, Riz Ahmed, Spunsugar, Pillow Queens, Christian Lee Hudson, Pip Millett and many more.

Songwriting against quarantine boredom. The American superstar simply continued to record more music in the wake of her ‘folklore’ sessions. The world never asked for this sequel but Taylor Swift couldn’t care less about that. Since NBHAP head Norman already reflected on the first album, it made sense for another reflection on a record that couldn’t be anything else but a disappointment, right?

The 2020 holiday season will be a bit different than the last ones, a bit more lonely maybe for many of us or at least a bit more intimate. And maybe that's not the worst thing to happen in order to return to the core of the Christmas spirit. As always music can be a helpful ally in a time of despair and that's why we stocked up our moody festive playlist with great songs by some of your and our favourite artists. May this selection help you to get through this bleak winter time.

Friday is release day. But what to listen to from the sheer endless sea of new records? Don't worry, NBHAP's editors can help you with that. These are our Top 5 recommendations from today.

This year has been a challenge for all of us and we were lucky enough to have such tremendous records on our side to comfort us in difficult times. From gentle melancholia, to raging fury - the albums of 2020 had a lot of stories to tell and these are the ones our staff enjoyed the most. If you haven't listened to all of them you now got a whole lockdown winter ahead of you to do that.

What a freakin' year this has been! This sentence might be more true than at any moment in the past years. The Corona pandemic had a massive impact on pretty much all of our lives, the music industry and quite possibly also the rest of society. In the absence of live music events the songs and records that were released remained an anchor and provided much needed comfort in a difficult time. These are our fifty favourite tracks from this rollercoaster ride called 2020.

How do you keep an overview about the countless new releases in the world of music? Well, easier said than done but thank god the staff of NBHAP keeps an overview. In this column one from the team personnally reflects on the past four weeks and the music that matters during this time. Now it's the turn of our author Andreas Peters to ramble on about our favourite passion in the world.