I haven’t done one of these for a while, so here we go! Artists featured this week include Louis Cole, JPEGMAFIA, Nilufer Yanya, Worthitpurchase, Tommy Richman, Dream Phases, Astral Swans and NoCap.
THE BEST:
‘These
Dreams Are Killing Me’ – Louis Cole
It’s time for
another track from zany singer/drummer/keyboardist Louis Cole and his skeleton
orchestra. This one’s a heartbreak anthem accompanied by elegant strings and
funky bass. As much as I like his silly songs about masturbation and bank balance anxiety, it can be refreshing whenever Louis Cole gets sincere as it’s
a chance to show how gorgeous his music can be.
‘Don’t
Rely On Other Men’ – JPEGMAFIA ft. Freaky
Wake up babe,
new Death Grips just dropped. Oh wait, no it’s just JPEGMAFIA. The production’s
very noisy and abrasive on this one. Peggy denies us any melody until the two
minute mark, pummelling the listener with fragmented drumming and thick
distorted bass. When that tuneful electric guitar does come in, it’s very
satisfying. Meanwhile, the lyrics are typically wild: ‘she thicker than
Cartman’.
‘Method
Actor’ – Nilufer Yanya
Off her
upcoming album My Method Actor, London singer-songwriter Nilufer Yanya
drops this quirky almost-title-track. It starts off as an off-kilter indie
bossa nova track and then without warning dives into a dissonant Deftones-y
riff for the chorus. It’s at complete odds with the video, which features
Nilufer dressed up like she’s about to drop a ‘Espresso’-style summer bop.
‘Heaven On
Earth’ – Worthitpurchase
‘Heaven On
Earth’ is an interesting juxtaposition of earthy slacker rock and cosmic glitchy
electronica. ‘They say Mars is nice this time of year’ sings Nicole Rowe
dreamily over spacey synths and faraway chimes, before revealing that she’s just
fantasising from her ‘shitty three-bedroom apartment’. Second member
Omar Akrouche takes over the vocals half-way through, at which point the synths
break away in exchange for lo-fi guitars. However, the synths and Rowe’s dreamy
vocals return at the end along with some bleeps and bloops, launching the
listener back into the heavens. All in all, it’s quite a musical adventure.
‘Devil Is
A Lie’ – Tommy Richman
Following his
viral TikTok hit ‘Million Dollar Baby’, US rapper/singer Tommy Richman returns with a new
single titled ‘Devil Is A Lie’ and yet again it slaps. The production reminds
me of early-00s Neptunes, while the vocals sound a bit Sampha-like. I’m also
loving the unpolished DIY quality. A refreshing change of pace from the overproduced
trap rap dominating the scene right now.
‘Living In
A Cave’ – Dream Phases
This is the
second rock song about living in a cave that I’ve featured this year, which
would suggest that we truly have devolved back into troglodytes. This one is
the work of LA band Dream Phases and comes off their upcoming album Phantom Idol.
I am absolutely loving the woozy guitars and airy vocals. Their previous tempo-changing
single ‘Speed of Light’ is also a blast and worth checking out.
‘The
Coward’ – Astral Swans
With a name
like Astral Swans, I was hoping for something a little psychedelic. And ‘The
Coward’ certainly delivers. It opens with a dissonant echoing synth complete
with vortex visuals and then dives into some breezy indie pop that turns out to
be lyrically themed around the not-so-breezy topic of suicide. Every time the
vortex returned, I thought the song was going to fall apart, but it never does.
It’s very apt considering the song is about wanting to end oneself but never following
through. ‘The Coward’ is one of two songs on Astral Swans’ new split EP with Julie Doiron, Split 2.
THE WORST:
‘Baby
Drake’ – NoCap
‘Know we
call the chopper Adonis/ It’s a baby Drake’. Adonis is being name-dropped
into rap songs left, right and centre. Personally, I think naming your gun
after Drake’s son is a bit weird.