From Boston, via TexasRecommended if you like Grace Ives, Porter Robinson, GrimesUp next Touring EU/UK in NovemberRiya Mahesh has perfected her own sweet, whimsical brand of plunderphonics; her seventh project as Quiet Light in six years, this year’s Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2, sounds a little as if it’s been chopped together from samples of Mahesh’s own memory. On Berlin, she sings to a wayward love interest over a moony breakbeat and IDM glitches, as a spoken-word part – what sounds to me like a recording of a lecture – floats in the background. Star100 starts all whispers and garbled laughter, before ceding space to Mahesh’s multitracked harmonies. Sometimes, Mahesh will suddenly deliver a wildly catchy chorus, something she clearly has an aptitude for – check Dealerz, her collab with Danish band A Good Year.Mahesh’s music is avowedly feminine in its tone; she seems to advocate for sample-heavy music, as a form, as a perfect way to deconstruct and reconstruct fantasies and memories. True to that idea, Blue Angel Sparkling Silver 2 is moody and magical, and recalls singer-songwriter projects such as Samia (in its vocals especially) and Pinegrove while also tapping into the exacting, dreamlike production of artists such as Grimes and Desire.Mahesh was raised in Texas and played piano from a young age, thanks to the urging of her mother, a sitar player. She self-describes as “an insanely Texas girl” – she was prom queen of her high school – but still wanted to play music when she graduated. After failing to get into Juilliard, the prestigious music college, she decided to pivot and currently balances medical school with her burgeoning music career. It’s an unorthodox backdrop for unorthodox music, which splits the difference between dazed ambient production and big-tent pop melody as if it’s nothing. Shaad D’SouzaChat Pile, with canine friend. Photograph: Ryan LawsonThis week’s best new tracksChat Pile – Deep Blue