Every day, I sift through the hundreds of tracks that bombard my inbox. On a biweekly basis, I tell you about the two artists whose music most impressed me. This time, Horsegirl's enchantedly slanted indie rock lives up to the hype and Seattle's Delta IV's synth-heavy space-outs launch you out of Earth's hellscape.

Horsegirl, “Switch Over” (Matador) 

Horsegirl are yet another Matador signing that reaffirms the long-running label's acumen regarding impeccable indie-rock acts. That's no mean feat in 2025. The Chicago trio—drummer Gigi Reece and guitarist/vocalists Nora Cheng and Penelope Lowenstein—follow in the Matadorean tradition of Helium, Pavement, and Circuit Des Yeux: all bands that abide by rock's instrumental and songwriterly conventions while subtly twisting them into interesting shapes. 

On their 2022 debut album, Versions of Modern Performance, Horsegirl purvey a lean, wiry attack that occasionally flares up into clangorous conflagrations ("Live and Ski") or gets skuzzily atmospheric ("The Fall of Horsegirl"). Cheng and Lowenstein's unison vocals carry a deadpan acuity as they fight their way through the treble-kicking, twin-guitar buzz. That they put their catchiest song, the instant classic "Billy," at the end telegraphs confidence in their listeners. 

For the Cate Le Bon-produced Phonetics On and On, Horsegirl strip things back, curb their noisier inclinations, and add clarity to the vocals. Frequent comparisons to Young Marble Giants and Raincoats ring true, thankfully. Album opener "Where'd You Go?" boldly bolts out of the gate, mastering the rare art of the poised anthem. This is as punchy and satisfying as anything the Velvet Underground did during the John Cale years. "2 4 6 8" morphs into a manic, hypnotic chugger akin to Wire's "Straight Line." 

"Julie" exemplifies Horsegirl's penchant for oblique love songs of nuanced passion. The song has a similar coiled rhythm to Can's "Soul Desert," but this is a more pensive, folk-scented track than that tense, Malcolm Mooney-sung banger. The reprise of "da da da da DADADA ah" reflects the band's clever use of scat singing to create gentle earworms. "I Can't Stand to See You" epitomizes Horsegirl's ability to acutely capture relationship/friendship ambivalence while penning memorable melodies that never come across as pandering. 

"Switch Over" peddles tart, cruise-control rock that flirts with a motorik rhythm, but chooses to rollick stoically; think the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On," but drained of decadence. However, it does possess some of the coolest "ooh"s and "la di da"s of the century. "Rock City" rides a lovable, dubby bass line and vocals that loop coquettishly around the perfectly basic rhythmic pocket, recalling Raincoats at their most light-hearted. If you were buying Rough Trade singles in 1978-1980, or enjoying them in retrospect, you will fall hard for this cut. Believe the hype... for a change. 

Horsegirl perform on August 20 at Neumos.

Delta IV, “Mists of Tarantula” (1473892 Records DK) 

Seattle duo Delta IV's music launches the listener out of Earth's current hellscape into a much more escapist zone of turmoil and turbulence: one of science-fiction/thriller movies' charged atmospheres and bellicose conflict. Certainly, keyboardist/guitarist Jared Pace and drummer/keyboardist Michael Schorr are working in crowded territory, especially in the wake of S U R V I V E's success with scoring the TV series Stranger Things and amid legions of Tangerine Dreamers. But it's been clear since 2021's II that Delta IV are no mere dilettantes in this field, but rather ultra-skilled practitioners of the noble art of cinematic instrumentals for stormy, interstellar action sequences.

Schorr—who's drummed for Death Cab for Cutie, Long Winters, and Fotoform—flexes a muscular style, balancing power with dexterity. Pace's keyboard techniques favor grandiosity and ominousness on a galactic scale. They've really honed their earthy/airy and grounded/ethereal dynamics, and while there's not a ton of variation in their music, the vibe is bracingly grave and grand.

Delta IV's new album, Radium Arc, burnishes their spacey electronic music to a blinding gleam. The contrast between Schorr's forbidding slaps and Pace's high-pitched and soaring synth melody and drone lends "Polymorph" an interesting friction while on "Remembering Enceladus," Pace's radiant ostinatos cascade against landslide-causing low frequencies and pugilistic beats. This piece carries the suspenseful air of the best library music dedicated to scoring crime thrillers. "Multivac" is a methodical grinder of a track with a lofty synth motif that wouldn't sound out of place on side 2 of David Bowie's Low. "Primordial" is funereal yet deceptively funky in its appealingly plodding way. 

The album's most enigmatic, subtle track, "Mists of Tarantula" possesses the creeping tension of British prog-rock deities King Crimson at their mid-'70s best, while also conjuring a poignant desolation and ticking-time-bomb tension. The relentless upward spiral of "Citadel" is the kind of piece that ushers you to the exits feeling like a triumphant warrior... even if the most heroic thing you've ever done is dashed and slipped by the train door right before it closed.