The Surrealist Blues Poet aja monet’s Jazzy New Album

Electronic

The English singer, producer, and d.j. Nia Archives stands at the forefront of the modern U.K. rave scene, working primarily in jungle and drum and bass. A rare star in a behind-the-decks profession, she is both bellwether and ambassador for one of the more niche music communities. Her 2024 début album, “Silence Is Loud,” sought to blend jungle with the Britpop of bands such as Blur and Oasis, and its more reined-in sound allowed for the kind of clearheaded introspection that most hit the dance floor to avoid. In 2025, she launched her label Up Ya Archives for “everything new gen junglism,” and, later this year, she’s releasing “Emotional Junglist,” which promises to continue her long-running subversion of raver norms.—Sheldon Pearce (Bowery Ballroom; May 21.)

Movies

For her first feature, Aleshea Harris adapted and directed her 2018 play “Is God Is.” The movie is a furious revenge thriller, in which two young women, fraternal twins, Racine (Kara Young) and Anaia (Mallori Johnson), who have grievous burn scars from early childhood, are summoned to the bedside of their mother (Vivica A. Fox), whom they call God, and who is similarly scarred. God reveals that the perpetrator is their long-absent father—and she orders them to find him and kill him. The sisters’ mission involves a dangerous and violent road trip; the fierce Racine outdoes the sensitive Anaia in her bloodlust, and the drama, reminiscent of classical tragedy, resounds with mythopoetic overtones. If the results are longer on action than on substance, they’re nonetheless harrowing and haunting.—Richard Brody (In wide release.)

Movies

The sardonic comedy “Clockwatchers,” from 1997, observes office life from the perspective of four secretarial temps whose daily tribulations reveal bureaucratic absurdities and cruelties in action. Iris (Toni Collette), a new temp at a credit company, quickly bonds with her colleagues: Margaret (Parker Posey), whose derision is matched by ambition; Paula (Lisa Kudrow), an aspiring actress whose optimism masks despair; and Jane (Alanna Ubach), whose dreams center on her impending marriage. The women are blithely dismissive of their tedious work, but their relationships fray under new stresses—including intrusive surveillance. The director, Jill Sprecher, films these antics like a live-action cartoon, with giddy images and spritzy performances that are nonetheless poignant.—R.B. (Metrograph, May 17, introduced by John Early, and streaming on the Criterion Channel.)