hyperpop prank rap, nü-electroclash & australian soul?
New music from Blaketheman1000, Sipper, MegMcRee, Ella Thompson, and Danny Daze
Couldn’t think of a good headline this week but the best of the week is here, extra fresh and extra strange.
But first, some good links for you fine people:
The Good Land – Meaghan Garvey’s Milwaukee dive bar crawl is a delight to read – “Date enough artists and you get to thinking these regular Joes are the ticket to love. Bad news, babe: they’re even worse!”
Better than the Skinny Dennis jukebox – No Fences did a three-part series on the best country records of 1973. The first entry is a perfect starting point for a country deep dive this week.
Three Stacks breaks a record with his new flute jams, beating out Tool for the longest Top 100 chart entry of all time
Fuck this guy – I don’t know if flooding the internet with poorly written SEO bait is a “hack,” but it sure makes you one!
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!
Blaketheman100 feat. Frost Children and Genny – Float On
Blake finally ascends to his correct position in the joker-rap throne formerly held by Das Racist. Eyerolls abound for many of Blake’s punchlines, but isn’t that the point? “Voting Marianne next election” – honestly half of the lyrics are questionably not jokes at all, which only makes it more fun. The song’s pop punk campfire jam turn at the second half is like, only the 5th weirdest thing about this. Isaac Brock could never.
Sipper – Sid
Okay NOW I buy the electroclash revival. This is pure Ladytron-meets-Crystal Castles, and the OG Skins reference puts it over the top as a 2005 time machine, but in a good way. The murmured vocals that slither in around the minute mark provide the track with a heavy dose of charming menace to counterpart the afterparty vibes of the main bass hook. If you remember Sparks, you’ll cringe a little, but there’s a lot to love here.
Danny Daze – Antigravity Machine
True to its name, Danny Daze’s track “Antigravity Machine” never dares to touch solid ground. The song’s blooming arrangment turns into gunk (complimentary) at the 2:30 mark, paired with a Kraftwerk-style vocoder break. The drums, however, continue to ascend even as the melodic elements break off as the track rises through the atmosphere.
Meg McRee – Wildflower
A bone-dry, demo-like country offering from Meg McRee that charmed me amidst the more radio-ready Nashville tracks on Spotify's New Music Friday.
Ella Thompson – Wouldn’t It Be Easy
Italian-influenced soul from Australia? I honestly wasn’t ready for how hard this record from Ella Thompson and musicians from the Frollen Music Library hit – the perfect glacial vocal reverbs, the dead snares, the hushed arrangements…I dare you not to fall in love with at least one track from this record.
throwback
Cornelius – Breezin’
I was working on a playlist of errand music with my bandmates Kareem and Dale, and this was Dale’s #1 “doing errands” song. As Brian Eno and millions of teens looking for lo-fi beats to chill to, finding the right music that you’ll mostly ignore isn’t easy. But Dale’s choice, a 2006 song from Cornelius, is a perfect warm synth blanket for running around the city doing banal shit – “it never really starts, it never really stops, it’s always lurching like a machine that has too many parts to see how they work individually, but moves forward with momentous harmony.”