Identity From February 2016

Under the moniker SOPHIE, the reclusive musician Sophie Long made a huge, fizzy splash on the underground dance-pop scene during the mid-2010s with a series of singles that contorted elements of giddy Eurodance, Japanese, and Korean pop, and experimental sound design into blindingly neon-colored pop-art gems. Often associated with the similar-minded PC Music label, SOPHIE's sophisticated, hyperkinetic productions typically feature high-pitched female vocals, sugary synthesizer textures, and beats drawing from underground dance music styles such as U.K. garage as well as mainstream pop and hip-hop. Instead of utilizing samples, she constructs her inventive tracks from waveforms, creating bizarre noises that resemble bubbling water, inflating balloons, elastic bands, and other non-musical sounds, adding to the surrealist, blatantly artificial quality of her music.

The fast-paced, psychologically thrilling sequel to The Vault of Dreamers follows Rosie after her consciousness has been split in two.

When was the last time you heard a Muslim woman speak for herself without a filter?

Bassist Eric Revis typically has so many ideas in play that it's virtually impossible for him to limit himself to one ensemble at a time. This is one of the reasons why he's used a variety of groups over the years to deliver his music. His trio with pianist Kris Davis and drummer Andrew Cyrille released City of Asylum (Clean Feed) in 2013, and then another iteration of the trio, Crowded Solitudes (Clean Feed) in 2016, with Gerald Cleaver taking over the drum chair.