The Predatory Wasp
Two of my favourite artists of the year coming together means I was pretty sold on this before I even listened to it. Jim-E Stack brings the melancholy vibes to the fore with his remix, further teasing out the already lovelorn qualities of the original and adding warm chords and a skittering breakbeat to create something that sits right in the happy/sad sweetspot. A beautiful, dejected banger.
I’m back! Did you miss me? Sorry for the complete lack of posting for the last week or so, but it felt real good not to open a computer or do anything except interact with people IRL and consume endless amounts of everything that’s bad for me.
Anyway…
This is the time of year that I start looking at everyone else’s Best Of lists and realise that despite listening to really quite a lot of music, I’ve missed some absolutely incredible stuff. So apologies if the next month or so includes things you’ve been on for months. Case in point: Emily. A Sprague’s mesmerising Hill, Flower, Fog from which Horizon is taken; a blissful six-track ambient album comprised of little more than gently modulating synths and lush, undulating pads.
There’s a little chord change about halfway through simmerDown that absolutely destroys me: crushingly melancholic but simultaneously optimistic and hopeful, it’s everything I love about this kind of lo-fi, heartfelt r&b, and as it only happens once and the track’s less than two minutes long, I’ve probably clocked up 20 listens on this already today. Man, it’s great, and hopefully after a string of singles this year we might see an album in 2021. That would be lovely.
The latest single from Puerto Rican ambient composer TROVA, Discussions is highly reminiscent of a very specific Burial track that I can’t quite put my finger on, but with all the sharp edges smoothed until it becomes this glassy, slow-building, quietly overwhelming track. It’s lush – in both the west country and general sense of the word – and I wish it were at least twice as long, as its effect is transportive and deeply relaxing, which is something we could all probably do with.
JPEGMAFIA produces like he’s channel surfing at a billion miles an hour. The sheer amount of influences and styles packed into relatively short tracks can at times be a little overwhelming, but when it works, it’s some of the most creatively inspired and unpredictable music out there. SUPER TUESDAY is built around a warping, string-led ballroom sample – like The Caretaker doing woozy hip-hop – and is the last track on his new EP (confusingly titled EP!) that packs a frankly ridiculous amount of ideas into its 26 minute running time.
The Newcastle-based musician talks about the emotional impact of Joanna Newsom’s work
The premise of One Track Mind is pretty simple: I ask artists to pick one track that means a lot to them – either something they’ve discovered recently, something that’s been with them for years, or one that reminds them of a specific time in their life or career – and tell me what makes it so special to them. I get to talk to the artists I love, and they get to talk about the artists they love. Love all round!
Next up on the series is Me Lost Me, who released her latest album The Good Noise in November. It’s a fantastic piece of music, and ranges from meandering, folky ballads to soaring, ethereal pop, many of which are pinned together with crisp and precise drum programming, shot through with a dreamy and completely unique atmosphere. It’s just brilliant, and if you happen to be in the area we massively recommended checking out one of her upcoming (fingers crossed) live shows, as her recent stream was one of my personal lockdown highlights.
For her selection she’s picked out the opening track to Joanna Newsom’s 2015 album Divers, and discusses the multitude of arguably conflicting emotions it stirs within her.
Wave III is the second single to be released from NYC-based musician, composer and skateboard enthusiast Elori Saxl. Half composed in the Adirondack mountains during summer amid lakes, rivers, and moss-laden forest floors, and half on a frozen Lake Superior island in deep winter, The Blue of Distance – unsurprisingly given its genesis – takes many of its musical cues from the vastness of nature, and Wave III itself is glassy, expansive and sparse: a quietly shimmering lake under an infinitely but almost reassuringly black sky.
Quinton Barnes is just absolutely fucking brilliant. Not only did he put out one of our favourite albums of the year with Aarupa, he recently announced a new LP As A Motherfucker which will be landing in January to buoy us all when we’re skint and miserable after one of the weirdest festive periods of our lives. What a dude. Switch is stripped-back but punchy as hell replete with eerie pads and crisp drums, and further reinforces the fact that he’s a thoughtful, outrageously talented artist surely destined for greatness.
Varsity Star is a Brooklyn-based electronic musician who grew up in the suburbs of Boston, but relocated to Berlin after a “biblical flea infestation” made his apartment uninhabitable. His remix of Coolgirl’s Gaussian Blur amplifies some of the more retro-leaning electronic elements of the original, upping the tempo and adding furious, Squarepusher-esque drums to run alongside the neon synth lines. By turns franticly glitchy and soothingly warm, it’s an assured reimagining of what was already a strong record.
HIRA is one of the artists that has come up through Jai Paul and A. K. Paul’s Paul Institute, something that will come as no surprise to anyone who listened to Eclipses: an achingly chill R&B cut that bears a striking resemblance to much of the Pauls’ respective bodies of work. Sparse and downbeat with fleeting shimmers of guitar and occasional drums providing a skeletal backing for HIRA’s gorgeous falsetto, Eclipses is so confident in its own ability to beguile it barely needs to bother trying.
The Predatory Wasp 