Dawit Eklund, Ouroborous
Recommended tracks: “Litchi Juice,” “Lies Are Chic (Makeshift Mix)”

So far, stout head-nodders haven’t been the domain of D.C. electronic label 1432 R, but imprint co-founder Dawit Eklund maximizes the 4/4 energy on “Litchi Juice,” and keeps it bubbling on two versions of “Lies Are Chic.” But don’t view Ouroborous as a departure from 1432R’s heavily Ethiopian vibe (see: E.R., Mikael Seifu). Instead, it’s a complement: All those Horn of Africa sounds have been filtered with American house freakitude in one small way or another, and this EP proudly flaunts those roots. (Joe Warminsky)

Ricky Eat Acid, “Dear Lord”
Recommended track: The only track, “Dear Lord”

Former calzone delivery guy Sam Ray, aka producer Ricky Eat Acid, has always liked futzing around: The Maryland native (who also plays with Teen Suicide and Julia Brown) started out diddling with pop and hip-hop, then graduated to thinky ambient works on his debut Three Love Songs, titling his compositions with long, vague phrases (“Driving alone past roadwork at night”; “God puts us all in the swimming pool”). Ricky Eat Acid’s latest track, “Dear Lord,” throws hooky hip-hop, techno tropes and piano chords into a Magic Bullet and watches them whirl. (Ally Schweitzer)

Future Times Records’ Vibe 3
Recommended tracks: Protect-U, “Krums,” Juju & Jordash, “Soggy Bottom,” DSR.MR, “Crystal Jungle”

Like a lot of Future Times releases, the vinyl version of the new compilation Vibe 3 is already sold out (one retailer allowed one per customer). For most of us, though, those “out of stock” notices don’t matter, because the label made these goods highly accessible on the digital tip. (The Internet hasn’t always been a priority for the Vibe series.) Considering the Future Times crew’s knack for sequencing tracks, the digi flow makes more sense, anyway: 14 cuts, a global outlook (the crew extends from Vancouver to Amsterdam at this point), tons o’ bliss and myriad lessons about popped percussion and manipulated frequencies. Lay ’em end to end. (JW)

The Walking Sticks, “The News”
Recommended track: The only track, “The News”

The Walking Sticks started as a folk-pop band. You wouldn’t know it from the Maryland trio’s new single, “The News,” a squelching earworm with singer Chelsea Lee crushing — crushing! — the vocals. The single is officially out Nov. 20 on Play Me Records. (AS)

Brett, On Account Of Your Love
Recommended track: “On Account Of Your Love (Club Mix)”

Originally based in the D.C. area, Brett now operates out of Los Angeles, which seems like the right spiritual home for the group’s bittersweet synth-pop. On Account Of Your Love is Brett’s latest EP, released on L.A.’s Chill Mega Chill label, which promises a vinyl edition next year. Also coming in 2016: Brett’s sophomore LP, the followup to their 2014 self-titled debut. Look out for that March 11 on Cascine. (AS)

Benoit & Sergio, “Dancing Shoes”/”Old Streets”
Recommended track: “Old Streets”

Benoit & Sergio, the globe-hopping party boys who started in D.C., return with two low-key house concoctions. Like earlier tracks “Walk and Talk” and “New Ships,” their vocals still ooze drowsy sleaze — the kind you might encounter in the last hour of an after-afterparty. The 12-inch is out Nov. 17 on Soul Clap and digital versions are available now on Spotify, iTunes and Beatport. (AS)

Brutalism, No Rave
Recommended track: “Friday Night”

One of the more absurd new groups out of D.C., Brutalism keeps its tongue firmly in cheek. Debut single “Friday Night” was a deceptively peppy murder ballad; “New Empire” pledged allegiance to a draconian political regime. But on the trio’s new tape, No Rave, Brutalism takes the insanity down a notch with a track we haven’t heard before: “Human Being.” (AS)

Other new local music: The latest from rock groups More Humans, Swings, Polyon and The Split Seconds.

NPR received more than 5,000 eligible submissions to the national competition, which gives musicians a shot at performing a live concert at the radio network’s headquarters in D.C. But fewer than 60 submissions came from inside D.C.’s borders.

NPR’s data shows that more than half of entrants from this region identified as Marylanders or Virginians, many of them far outside the beltway in places like Bluemont and Clarksburg. And if you watch all 130 local submissions like I did, you’ll find that many went the coffee-shop route: a solo performance, usually involving an acoustic guitar and a tender song.

But those who took another path made a big impression. That’s why — if you asked me to judge a regional Tiny Desk competition — I’d hand the prize to D.C. hip-hop artist Kokayi.

The established producer, vocalist and rapper from Deanwood has been nominated for a Grammy. He was a member of ’90s-’00s hip-hop ensemble Opus Akoben, who had a short stint on a major label. He’s prolific — last year he challenged himself to release a new track every day — and he’s taken hip-hop to Senegal with the grant-funded DC2DK project. So it’s no surprise that Kokayi brought his A game to his Tiny Desk submission.

On a song called “The Lick,” Kokayi sings, speed-rhymes, plays the keys, chair-dances and punctuates his verses with goofy faces. NPR’s official Tiny Desk Contest rules say that stage presence and charisma make up 20 percent of the judges’ criteria. Kokayi nailed that category, all while sitting down.

As for the rest of the field, I’m finding it tough to pick a clear runner-up, so how about I just name a bunch? D.C.’s M.H. & His Orchestra, Stranger in the Alps and Virginia’s The Plank Stompers turned in dynamic performances — and brand-new local band The El-Mansouris made a strong impression for a group that hasn’t even played its first show yet (see their debut Feb. 26 at Transformer).

I also enjoyed the videos from Reston’s Space Waste (they start the song by chanting “Yoko! Ono!”), Takoma Park guitarist Angie Head, Silver Spring smooth-pop trio The Walking Sticks and D.C.’s Be Steadwell, Sara Curtin, The Sea Life, Boon and The Highballers.

Watch Kokayi’s video plus 12 handpicked runner-ups in this playlist, below. NPR announces the national Tiny Desk contest winner on Feb. 12.

Want to share this playlist? Find an embed code on YouTube.

The band’s forthcoming EP, Pop Dreams, may find them further along their chosen path. Today Bandwidth premieres “Bang,” a cut from the EP that builds on the silky sound The Walking Sticks began to construct on their 2013 release, Send the Night. Conveniently, the new tune arrives one day before the band plays a special show at DC9, where they’ll be taping footage for a new music video—one that involves choreographed dance.

Dream pop? Choreography? The Walking Sticks are running it all up the flagpole. They seem happy that way—maybe because in a past life, the band’s members didn’t have the advantage of a long leash.

The Walking Sticks’ Max and Spencer Ernst, 24, were thrust into the music biz at a young age, an experience they discuss in a short film that documents the band’s early days. The multi-instrumentalists were discovered by an industry rep at a high school gig, and soon found themselves recording music that didn’t feel like their own.

“We made a lot of recordings where we weren’t playing our own instruments,” Max says in the film. “We thought that’s how it should be, that’s the system,” adds Spencer. “We thought maybe someday we’d be good enough to play our own instruments.”

Their time in the industry lasted five years. They later started The Walking Sticks as something of a folk act, and released their debut album, World So Bright, in 2012. Then along came McLean native Chelsea Lee, another young talent who had been through the system: A friend of the brothers, the now-23-year-old released 18 and Alive on Atlantic Records in 2011. She joined the band in 2013, and that’s when their sound began to change.

“When Chelsea teamed up with us, our sound quickly evolved into dream pop/synth pop,” writes Spencer in an email. A neighbor gave them a 1980s-era Casio synth that had never been taken out of the box, and the band got to work reinventing itself.

Send the Night marked a new day for The Walking Sticks: They’d held onto their pop sensibility, but channeled it into a dreamier sound. The EP’s sophisticated title track sounded like a flag being planted—and by the end of 2013, “Send the Night” stood out as one of the year’s best local songs.

Out Nov. 11, Pop Dreams promises to pick up where Send the Night left off. “One Sweet Thing,” the focus of tomorrow’s video shoot, bounces around a simple, effective hook; “Bang” prefers to glide.

“When I was 10 years old, I was obsessed with Sting’s song ‘A Thousand Years,’ and ‘Bang’ brought up a lot of those same emotions for me while we were building the track,” writes Max. It’s a surprisingly adult-contempo reference point for a young guy—but can a band be called adult contemporary when its oldest members are 24 years old?

Also, can adult-contempo be fun? Because The Walking Sticks appear to be having a lot of it—particularly in the instructional video they made in advance of their show tomorrow night. Then again, it seems like disciplined fun.

Just listen to Greg Lukens, the video’s narrator. Stretch before you dance, he advises. But be careful not to get too loose. “Alcohol is not recommended before attempting these moves.”