Vōx’s piety-purging new I Am Not a God EP feels like the Resurrection. It sounds like a death, production wise: ominous and low and lurching, like some fantastic creature in its final throes. Lyrically, though, it’s a testament to resilience. She’s replaced her lace-whites with curdling reds, her questions with declarations, her hymn with HIM. We talked about the EP, her recent extended stay in Europe, and her multidimensional approach. This interview by Tolliver. ►

The rose that grew from concrete, the vine grown from the desert: South Central soliloquist def.sound has built a career around lush, buoyant instrumentation and polysyllabic re-imagination of a life anchored in L.A. And what a unique life it’s been. A lifelong vegan born in a food desert, he’s well-versed in contradiction and in the work it takes to water oneself until fully grown. The song—from COLORED Disc 1ne, out July 23—is built around a Vine of Shiloh Dynasty singing and playing guitar, a recent-aughts reference too good to not mention here. (From apps to slaps—damn.) For all the rhapsodic, confessional bars in his oeuvre, this is the strongest return to his roots. ►

Jackhammering, jackhammering, jackhammering: Chinatown, which borders cranes-in-the-sky booming downtown L.A., is lousy with construction. The tempestuous Mimi Temptestt grew up in this neighborhood. Her album Rough Diamond demarcates a two-year period of growth, thrills, sadness and love. Rough Diamond dropped earlier this year, and she's releasing the first video from that project at The Lash on Tues., June 18, at I Do What I Want, a queer art extravaganza. This interview by Tolliver. ►

This is vocalist Sally Spitz' definitive performance, replete with on-a-dime dynamic shifts and cavernous, lifted-soft-palate bellows followed by pinched and powerful punchlines. The rhythm section is equally sublime. The interplay between bassist and saxophonist is borderline balletic, sinewy and seductive. You can also hear a distinctive, left-in-the-mix grunt at 1:38. That’s that good shit. ►

GIANNA GIANNA don’t make any damn sense. She talks a mile-a-minute, an oral collage of asides and cutting insights on modernity, sexuality and love. Her art is equally operatic. It’s big and bright and boldly oblique, yet it describes life more succinctly than anything I’ve seen. You see it, you feel it, and suddenly the existential dread abates because you recognize yourself in the fullness of this character. The ‘Famine’ video is out today, and her full EP is due this Summer. This interview by Tolliver. ►