Welcome to Songs You Need to Know, our weekly rundown of the best music right now. The Rolling Stone Philippines team is constantly sharing things to listen to, and each week, we compile a ragtag playlist of songs that we believe every music fan today needs to know. Whether it’s the hottest new single or an old track that captures the state of the present, our hope is that you discover something for your musical canon.
This week’s songs explore dance music and the unknown corners of electronic music with maximum Pinoy pride, with Ninajirachi’s collaboration with daine remixed by underscores, fitterkarma lurking in their neck of the woods looking for the aswang, Danny L Harle revisiting his chamber roots, and Swedish pop star Lykke Li dancing through the pain, and many more. The week has a lot in store for you. You could either dance to a jerk beat or bounce to a maximalist EDM track nonstop.
Electronic music’s most promising newbies maximize their joint slay
“Something really huge just happened for the Philippines,” said Filipino-Australian musician daine on X as she heralded the release of “It’s You” on February 18. The track is a remix of Ninajirachi’s “It’s U” by Filipino-American artist underscores. Here, she takes the original track, already a lively EDM cut that harkens back to the 2010s, and injects it with the energy of a Skrillex dubstep hit, heavy on the bass and glitching in the breakdown. Now, I’m not the best mathematician, but I believe two half-Filipino electronic artists, plus a rising star in 2020s EDM, equal one firecracker of a banger. —Pie Gonzaga
Biting hugot and a whole lot of pop-rock guitars
For breakout band fitterkarma, love arrives with violence and distance. In “Aswang sa Maynila,” the band brings in Novocrane frontwoman Kai Sevillano, whose voice cuts through the song’s surging guitars and relentless momentum. The song hops in the J-rock influences, from its melodic phrasing to its driving pace, while holding onto its supernatural theme. fitterkarma gains that momentum with a pop rock song that’s catchy as hell. —Elijah Pareño
Something sad is about to happen in pop
Swedish disco-pop songstress Lykke Li raises the stakes in her comeback single “Lucky Again,” signaling a return to form at a time when dance music balances both seduction and emotional ruin. The drums land crisp, her vocals sound more desperate, and the recurring image of a “black hole” anchors the song’s infectious hook. Lykke Li is confronting the inevitable, and she meets it head-on with the kind of pop song that thrives in heartbreak. —Elijah Pareño
A string-infused cut that’s swift, slow, and painful all at once
Seeing soft girl poster child Clairo’s name in British electronic producer Danny L Harle’s newest album, Cerulean, was surprising. Harle’s catalog of dance music and collaborations with the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen, Caroline Polachek, and fellow producer A.G. Cook make Clairo an unlikely partner. And yet, on the criminally short “Facing Away,” the two work so well together.
On Cerulean, it follows the more energetic “Azimuth,” which includes Polachek on vocals. While “Azimuth” pumps and electrifies, “Facing Away” feels like sinking. Here, Harle returns to his chamber roots, blending acoustic strings with synths as Clairo sings about being abandoned. “You’ve let me go to swim ashore,” she laments. But as she concludes the interlude, she, too, lets go: “Facing away feels like the sun.” —Pie Gonzaga
New York is the home of new age jerk rap
Part dreamy, part delinquent, New York’s xaviersobased dwells on the disorientation of early fame in “iPhone 16.” The production builds on the jerk rap foundation that first defined his rise, pairing hazy textures with his loose, conversational delivery. Many have tried to mirror his sound, but imitation rarely captures the magic behind his delivery. —Elijah Pareño
A high point for the new trip-hop canon
Since the 2023 EP Pillow Talk, Berlin-based trio trickpony has been contributing to a rising nostalgia for ‘90s trip-hop. Australian producers Mike Midnight and Roza Terenzi, and Finnish singer Maria Korkeila, carry on this mission in the six-track 24/7 Heaven, released in December 2025.
Like the rest of the release, opening track “Ripple” is wordless but full of breath. It heavily deploys shadowed, ambient synths and sinewy percussion, with a hi-hat slicing through the misty soundscape like laser light. It’s sexy and gossamer, and could also be the exit music in RuPaul’s Drag Race. With music’s emerging craving for trip-hop, trickpony is bound to make the new canon with “Ripple.” —Pie Gonzaga
