Evan Sheres – More of You
Jordan Clawson – The Play
Rocky Jones – Jitterbug Overnight Delivery
Tanner Carlton and the Bottle Shop – South Like
Trouble Funk – E Flat Boogie (Instrumental)
Waltz Brigade – Sarsaparilla
The Jazz Infuzion – Latina
Staunton – Spaceman
Will Copps – Rush
Nerftoss – Some Kind of Way
So Spirited – Fevers
Denis Malloy & Stanley “Z” Ng – Memories of Kelvin
DC Improvisers Collective – Unified Conspiracy Theory
April + Vista – Overture
Jon Miller – Jello
Aaron Agre – Nocturne
aerialist – computia
Ben Dransfield – Slow Motion
Cosmic Romp – BandanaJam
Tom Espinola – Gold Rush / Cherokee Shuffle

Anchor 3 – Backmasking
The Moderate – Late 90s
Scythian – Jigsaw
BOOMscat – MORETHANANYTHING
The Buzz – Got Me Runnin’
The Orchid – Don’t Be Afraid; We’ll Be Together
The Blackberry Belles – Buried Our Love
Flash Frequency – Time
Class Portrait – Time Zones
Super!Silver!Haze! – Train to Berlin
Disco Muerte – Lullaby
James Wolf – Haa
Brûlée – Flamingos Above
Fields Burning – Tigris (No Tomorrow)
April + Vista – Theme In Adagio
The Stick Mob – Sugarcane Road
Nadastrom – Intro
Lance Neptune – Janus
Le Loup – Go East
Broto Roy – Never Enough Cake

Patuxent Partners – Washington County
ZOMES – Ruminants
Supper Club – Chambray
Fort Knox Five – Swinging On a Rhyme (Instrumental)
Tomás Pagán Motta – Love In Her Lies
Justin Jones – Miracles
Kev Brown – Always (Instrumental)
Be Still, Cody – Wrong Right
Buildings – Everything Is Possible
Lifted – Silver
Sun Machines – Mono Mind
Derek Evry – Wake Me Up
Iritis – Pedal
A Tale Of – Oh, We Owe This to Ourselves
Nitemoves – Ashe
The Petticoat Tearoom – Kundalini
Jonathan Parker – CO86
Girls Love Distortion – Sleepwalking
Dawit Eklund – Lies Are Chic
Masego – I Do Everything (More For Cruisin’)
Otis Infrastructure – Furniture
Oooh Child Ensemble – Diko’s Groove
Extra Golden – It’s Not Easy
Kev Brown – Party People Dedication (Instrumental)
Marian McLaughlin – Your Bower
The Greatest Hoax – Opus no. 28
Marvin Gaye – What’s Happening Brother
Aerialist – Naiad
Wanted Man – Interlude
Baby Bry Bry – Slumzzz
April + Vista – Theme In Adagio
Stranger In the Alps – Love/Afraid
Swings – New Year

Lanterns, their March 2015 debut, was a journey through the cosmos with suspended, airy beats and dreamy vocals. The firmer, more direct “Beasts” is the cornerstone of the followup EP, Note to Self, which offers a much-needed landing, with April George’s precise vocals venturing into more gravelly territory and Matt Thompson’s production taking a more inquisitive turn.

George explains that “Beasts” came together as they were trying to figure out their place and their direction in music. (The full EP arrives July 28.)

“It was kind of like we were venturing through uncharted land,” she says. “It felt like we were going through a very primal stage in our career, like we were beasts moving through some type of jungle.”

“Perseverance is what it’s about,” Thompson adds.

The two Maryland residents currently work as graphic designers, but as they keep pushing to find new audiences, they’re hoping the double-career life can merge into one just focused on music.

“I just want to live off of music for real,” Thompson says, laughing.

Following Lanterns, George had the chance to collaborate and tour with fellow DMV artist Goldlink (a 2015 XXL magazine “Freshman Class” honoree) after meeting him through a mutual friend.

“There’s a lot of value in collaboration,” George says. “It really introduced me to a new way of thinking, music-wise, because [Goldlink’s] music is dance-y, very upbeat. So it helped me with my writing, just my understanding of music. I’ll be able to take the things I learned with him and his crew to what we did.”

Musically, George says she and Thompson have the “same brain,” but their approaches can differ.

“I’m really into raw, dark imagery and April’s really into colors and things that are vibrant. So we initially clash sometimes but we always really find a dope middle ground,” Thompson says.

When they do find it, it’s contemplative and sincere.

“I always say that you go through things to help other people,” George says. “I really do believe that the experiences we have in our lives, we experience them because we can help someone else deal with whatever they’re dealing with. You can only help someone if you are super honest about where you are.”

April + VISTA perform July 23 at 7DL Studios on 2008 8th St. NW.

That’s what I asked Bandwidth’s contributors to help me do last month. Our writers sent me their picks for their favorite D.C. music of 2015 thus far, and the result was this extremely awesome playlist (stream it below).

One limitation, though: I had to pick songs that have been uploaded to Soundcloud. As it turns out, not everybody puts their music on the service. A lot of rock and punk bands, in particular, use Bandcamp, and some artists — for reasons my under-30 brain is still struggling to understand — don’t even put their songs on the Internet for free.

So this playlist still isn’t as exhaustive as I wanted it to be, but it’s still pretty freaking great. Give it a listen on your computer or chosen mobile device, and be sure to chide us in the comments, on Twitter or via email for missing your favorite D.C. music of the year. (Seriously! Send me your nominations — we want to hear it all.)

For more coverage of D.C. music, follow Bandwidth’s Track Work series.

Warning: Explicit lyrics.

Image, clockwise from top left: April + VISTA, Kali Uchis, Young Rapids (partial image), Ras Nebyu, Prinze George (partial image), Visto.

Lanterns opens with a serene instrumental — one of two on the six-track EP — that sets the release’s contemplative mood. The project was a joint effort between members April George, 24, and Matt Thompson, 22, both graduates of Hampton University who found their creative boundaries being pushed while making the EP.

One of the instrumentals, “Overture,” marked Thompson’s first time writing anything of the sort. “I never thought I’d co-write a classical composition, at least not at this stage in my production,” Thompson writes in an email. “Being a part of the production process for the ‘Overture’ was surreal.”

George and Thompson’s idea was to create something cinematic. “Originally, we wanted the EP to flow like a movie, so the overture and end theme are like the opening and closing of a movie soundtrack. They also tie everything together,” George writes.

Despite Lanterns being their first project, April + VISTA don’t present as amateurs. That could be because both were raised in musical environments. Thompson took guitar lessons, growing up with a father who played bass and introduced him to different styles at an early age. George is a classically trained violinist; her mother plays piano and her father also plays bass.

Together, the two artists mesh elements of themselves and their experiences for an exercise in presence.

The EP’s songs feel unforced, with George’s voice blending naturally into Thompson’s production and the tracks’ live instrumentation, none fighting for space. Their synergy comes as the result of nine months of working jointly, though not always in the same place — both geographically and creatively. George says she tends to understand music emotionally, and Thompson finds ideas through visuals.

“I think the coolest thing about our dynamic in this project is that the beats and lyrics were written separately,” Thompson writes. “So when we came together to actually make the songs, we unwittingly created a new narrative from two completely different stories.”

I first spoke to Carlson in late 2013 when I wrote about one of his early Moonlight Mask songs, “Palm Bay,” for Washington City Paper. He’d cobbled together the chunky tune using a Ryan Hemsworth drum sample for a Levi’s-sponsored online contest. He didn’t win, but no matter — that song will live on via Moonlight Mask’s self-titled debut album, out May 1.

Mildly kooky and thoroughly distorted, Moonlight Mask’s debut has as many highlights as it has hooks — I’m particularly big on “Bao Bao’s Birthday,” a tribute to one of D.C.’s pandas-in-residence. In an email, Carlson says that track’s about “longing for a phone call from his girlfriend abroad” on the giant panda’s special day.

About the record, Carlson writes, “There are radio hits, but there is a lot of darkness and weirdness going on here. It’s all accessible and easy to swallow, but there’s a lot of buried treasure to uncover if you wanna put on some good headphones, close your eyes and zone out on your mattress for 45 minutes.”

Carlson has never performed his recent material live, but tonight he plays his first gig as Moonlight Mask at Joe’s Record Paradise in Silver Spring. (He says to expect just one or two songs from the record “because I really feel like those songs need a full band.”) He says he’s also been filling in on bass with promising Maryland R&B duo April + VISTA, whose debut EP arrives tomorrow — March 31.

Stream Moonlight Mask’s debut via Bandcamp, below, and look out for it on May 1.

Moonlight Mask plays Monday, March 30 at Joe’s Record Paradise in Silver Spring.

The collaborative effort, which George says intends to “depict the falling sensation of losing love,” serves as an alluring introduction to the duo whose EP, Lanterns, comes out March 31.