26 h. ago Add to playlist: the year’s best electronic debut from Sheffield’s NZO, plus the week’s best tracks

The mysterious new artist’s thrillingly complete sound world is glitchily complex but beguilingly light on its feetFrom Sheffield, via LeedsRecommended if you like Mark Fell, Jlin, Beatrice DillonUp next Live set at No Bounds festival in OctoberIt’s thrilling and satisfying when an artist’s debut album is so fully realised: as if they have their own hyperlocal dialect, and are saying something genuinely new with it. So it is with NZO, a mysterious Sheffield-based electronic artist whose album Come Alive is a defibrillating jolt of vitality. You can find affinities with other artists and styles here, for sure: the bookish but playful minimalism of another Sheffield musician, Mark Fell; Objekt’s trickster vision for bass music and techno; the white-tiled cleanliness of some of Sophie’s work; Jlin’s paradoxically static funk. But the way it’s all pulled together is totally NZO’s, making for music that’s so light on its feet despite its incredible complexity. Continue reading...

Politics

49 h. ago England call Jofra Archer into squad for second Test against India at Edgbaston

Bowler last in Test setup in February 2021Archer played first red-ball match in four years this weekEngland have fast-tracked Jofra Archer into their squad to face India in the second Test at Edgbaston next week. The 30-year-old fast bowler returns to the Test setup for the first time since February 2021 after successfully coming through his first red-ball match for 1,501 days in Sussex’s match at Durham this week.Archer is the only change to the England squad from the five-wicket defeat of the tourists in the opening Test at Headingley. His call-up comes despite the Sussex head coach, Paul Farbrace, suggesting it would make more sense to hold him in reserve for the third Test. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Add to playlist: James K’s downtempo dream pop and the week’s best new tracks

Right on time for the return of the chill out era, the New York producer traces a hypnotic path on an album that bobs along on sleepy breakbeats and angelic atmosphericsFrom New YorkRecommended if you like Caroline Polachek, Voice Actor, Vegyn Up next New album Friend released via AD 93 on 5 SeptemberPull up your beanbag, light a lava lamp and crack open the Vicks VapoRub: downtempo is back. New compilation Telepathic Fish documents the 90s south London ambient night; Logic1000’s latest DJ-Kicks mix would barely register on an ECG; there’s none more languid than even the summer’s flagship pop album, Addison by Addison Rae. New York producer and musician James K has been dabbling in trip-hop – and various shades of experimental pop and club music – for more than a decade, but nonetheless, her new album, Friend, arrives right on time for summer’s wind down. (What is autumn if not the chill out room to escape the year’s most hectic season?) Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Olympic champion Gabby Thomas followed and heckled by gambler at Grand Slam Track meet

Sprinter has reported multiple incidents of verbal abuseGrowth of betting has been linked to abuse of athletesThree-times Olympic champion Gabby Thomas said she was verbally abused at the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia last weekend, the latest incident of harassment she has reported this year.Thomas, who won gold in the 200m, and 4x100m and 4x400m relays in Paris, said in a post on X that a man followed her around the track shouting insults while she was taking photographs with fans and signing autographs. Continue reading...

Sport

3 w. ago Josh Kerr lands huge payday as Team GB athletes bank £225,000

Several Team GB athletes earned a hugely impressive payday at the Philadelphia Slam as part of the Grand Slam Track season at the weekend, including Matthew Hudson-Smith and Josh Kerr

Economics

3 w. ago Team GB athletes scoop mammoth £225,000 as Josh Kerr lands huge payday

Several Team GB athletes earned impressive paydays at the Philadelphia Slam as part of the Grand Slam Track season at the weekend, including Matthew Hudson-Smith and Josh Kerr

Economics

3 w. ago Teen trans athlete at center of rightwing attacks wins track events in California

AB Hernandez, 16, ties for first place in two events as Trump administration threatens to withhold federal fundingA teenage transgender athlete in California, who has been at the center of widespread political attacks by rightwing pundits and the Trump administration, won in two track events over the weekend. The 16-year-old athlete, AB Hernandez, tied for first place alongside two other athletes in the high jump, and tied for first place in the triple jump.This comes as the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding from California for allowing trans athletes to compete in girls’ sports. Continue reading...

Events

4 w. ago Morgan Wallen review – country’s biggest star sings of whiskey, heartbreak and more whiskey

Roundhouse, LondonPlaying a rare intimate show as new album I’m the Problem tops the charts, the laid-back American singer is hardly groundbreaking – but there are funny, moving momentsMorgan Wallen’s world domination continues apace. The country singer’s last two albums spent 29 weeks at the top of the US chart. This week his latest, fourth offering, I’m the Problem, had the biggest opening week of the year so far in the US as well as going straight in at No 1 in the UK.This prodigious achievement may owe a little to a canny release strategy: streaming metrics mean that longer albums often chart higher, and I’m the Problem weighs in at a staggering 37 tracks. Equally, all 37 are in the US singles chart this week, setting a new record – Wallen is a commercial phenomenon, the biggest country star to cross over to mainstream success since Taylor Swift. Continue reading...

Politics