March: Six artists you need to check out this month

After spending his formative years involved in classical music, Leeds-based Adam Pits is forging a new path. His high-octane tracks feel like a blueprint from the future and releases on Holding Hands and Wex showcase his versatility and a disregard for genre tags, winning nods from Ciel and Peach. Keep an eye on his collaborative Space Cadets project with Lisene too.

Adam Pits has EPs coming on X-Kalay and Coastal Haze in 2020

US-born, Berlin-based artist Lyra Pramuk channels classical and folk influences through club culture – landing her gigs at Unsound Festival and Berghain (as part of CTM). This month, she releases debut album ‘Fountain’ via Iceland’s Bedroom Community. The seven-track LP explores a “post-human, non-binary understanding of life” through the power of Pramuk’s angelic voice.

Lyra Pramuk’s debut album ‘Fountain’ is out via Bedroom Community on March 20

[Photo: George Nebieridze]

As part of Teknox, Nikki Nair has been putting on free, community-focused parties in Knoxville, Tennessee since 2014. Last year, he began to break out with promising releases on Scuffed and Mr Mitch’s Gobstopper. Now, he steps out on Barely Legal’s Pretty Weird imprint for a two-tracker of no-nonsense electro and dark garage, earning support from Four Tet and Ben UFO.

New EP ‘Scuzzy/The Analyst’ is out this month on Pretty Weird

[Photo: Holly Rainey]

London-based Shalt’s star continues to rise. With an almighty string of releases – including 2018’s ‘Seraphim’ LP - and an ever-growing knack for alternative versions of the Holy Trinity of percussion, tempo and texture, he’s entering 2020 with what appears to be his most tightly crafted project yet, ‘Ochre Flood’. The potent three-track EP finds the perfect sweet-spot between restraint and the cusp of overload.

‘Ochre Flood’ is out now on Astral Plane Recordings

Founder of collective Non Dual, China-born, London-based Li Yilei uses her music as a vehicle for high-concept ideas of space, silence and the diasporic experience. Debut album ‘Unabled Form’ is released by London label LTR Records, with ten tracks of harsh, abrasive sounds drawing attention to the emptiness surrounding them. If you’re searching for an artist challenging boundaries, look no further.

‘Unabled Form’ is out now on LTR Records

Peruvian producer Sofia Kourtesis has been making lambent electronic music for nearly a decade - but her recent EPs on excellent Swedish label Studio Barnhus have brought her to the fore. Last year’s ‘Home Is Where I Can Dance’ EP marked out her knack for a gleaming house track while her latest release, ‘Sarita Colonia’, pieces together disco vocal snippets, vinyl-slippin’ rhythms and a memorable Marvin Gaye sample.

The ‘Sarita Colonia’ EP is out now on Studio Barnhus