boy math is measuring berghain in kick drums

Plus Shit Robot, Blonde Redhead, Melenas, MIKE, and Seablite

Honestly, after seeing this tweet from Objekt, I believe we should be measuring more things in kick drums.

“How long was the openers set?”

“Oh, like 200 kicks too long”

Excellent tweet. Sorry it’s your viral legacy, buddy.

On to the best of the week! You can follow along on our playlists on Spotify and Apple Music, which update every Tuesday along with the newsletter. Enjoy.

Shit Robot feat. Suzi Horn – Breathe (Looking at Gibraltar)

Right before LCD Soundsystem announced “tri boro tour” of NYC, there was some much more exciting news (imo) about James Murphy: he’s back to producing DFA records!! Not his own rockers, but the weirder deep cuts that made DFA Compilation #2 so physical. I’d much rather see Murphy enter his Eno/Visconti/Rubin era than play more LCD shows at this point, especially as his POV as an engineer and mixer is in increasingly stark contrast to the in-the-box digital sounds of what’s on the dancefloor. It helps that “Breathe” is a simmering banger, with Suzi Horn’s spoken/sung vocals providing perfect narrative framing for the song to build.

Melenas – Flor De Frontera

Okay I know I shared their track “K2” just the other week, but turns out Melenas’ whole new album is really good! I haven’t enjoyed a record front-to-back as much as Ahora in a long time, and the band find an impressive array of colors in their minimal arrangements. “Flor de la frontera” is slo-mo motorik, equal parts Neu! and Tender Buttons, but elsewhere the band use C86 harmony (“Tú y yo”) or light, janging choruses (“Bang”) to add levity and shade to their hypontic arrangements.

Blonde Redhead – Melody Experiment

I was shocked when I realized that Blonde Redhead hadn’t released a record in nine years, having come of listening age in the 2000s, when an excellent Blonde Redhead album every 3-4 years was a given. Sit Down For Dinner balances the spindly melodies of Barragán with some of the lush pastels of 23 and Misery is a Butterfly – triangulating their way to a hushed, delicate record whose front half is incredibly strong for a band who hasn’t surfaced in nearly a decade.

Alchemist, MIKE, Wiki – Mayors A Cop

Good song, and another great Alchemist collab record, but it’s also just a good reason to reiterate fuck Eric Adams.

Seablite – Melancholy Molly

San Francisco is on a real jangle pop tear lately – I had to check multiple times to make sure this excellent record from Seablite wasn’t actually a Slumberland deep cut I had missed. Seablite keep the legacy of the Aislers Set alive, and even tap in Mark Gardener of Ride to master the record!

throwback

Cerrone – Body and Soul

Caught an edit of this disco killer in this week’s Beats In Space. I spent too long trying to find his height online to confirm his OG Short King status, so I’m including the cover of Cerrone 3 as my proof.