Into the breach! For the month’s best riffs, soul ’n’ bleeps.

1 GORILLAZ STRANGE TIMEZ (FT. ROBERT SMITH)

Ahead of the Song Machine Almanac album, the Cure frontman joins Albarn’s toon time for a whirl around the sad disco of contemporary reality. Very New Order; really good. Find it: streaming services

2 ANOHNI R.N.C 2020

Anohni responds to the Republican Party convention with a metallic Ron Asheton riff, apocalyptic insights and looped screams from a gig in the early ’90s.

Find it: YouTube

3 ARAB STRAP THE TURNING OF OUR BONES

Post-rock guitar, austerely funky drum machine, curdled mutterings of sex… Falkirk duo recapture, brilliantly, the rancour of their youth. Find it: YouTube

4 BUTCHER BROWN CABBAGE

Virginian jazzers mix and match nu-soul cool with Funkadelic crunch. Meaty!

Find it: Bandcamp

5 DANIEL AVERY LONE SWORDSMAN

Bournemouth electronic producer’s vaporous, bittersweet

elegy to the late Lord Sabre Andrew Weatherall, his “hero and friend”. Find it: Bandcamp

6 YO LA TENGO WASN’T BORN TO FOLLOW

Hoboken’s cover version connoisseurs make hay with The Byrds, a prime cut from their new Sleepless Night EP.

Find it: YouTube

7 EDDIE VEDDER CARTOGRAPHY

Elegiac backwoods ambience by Pearl Jam’s frontman from Return To Mount Kennedy, a now-streaming movie that connects the Kennedy dynasty to Seattle grunge.

Find it: streaming services/Sub Pop 7-inch

8 WILCO SUMMER TEETH

Tweedy and co crack open the archives for this “Slow Rhodes Version” of their 1999 sunshine pop gem. A hefty Summerteeth album boxed edition follows soon.

Find it: YouTube

9 EDDIE CHACON WICKED WORLD

After years away, the ex-Charles And Eddie voice presents mesmerising, subtle-rapier modern soul. New album: Pleasure, Joy And Happiness. Find it: YouTube

10 WELFARE HEROINE WHERE DO YOU GO TO MY LOVELY

Sweetly sad, baggy version of the Peter Sarstedt hit from ’92, sung by NME journalist and maverick Dele Fadele, whose 2018 death was reported last month.

Find it: YouTube