Category: Music

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Music

Gabriel Garzón-Montano – Fields

Fields is taken from the new album from Gabriel Garzón-Montano, on which the NYC-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist presents tracks from three distinct self-created characters (lots more on this in Pitchfork’s glowing review for those who are interested). Fields bears comparisons to to fellow experimental r&b practitioner Moses Sumney, both vocally and its rich, occasionally unsettling production and meandering, unpredictable structure. Both artists are pushing boundaries in intoxicating directions, and Agüita will surely stand up as one of the year’s best (and varied) albums come December.

https://gabrielgarzonmontano.com

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Music

21 Savage x Metro Boomin – Slidin

“I smashed the stripper in the hotel with my chains on” Thus spake 21 Savage at the start of his infamous 2016 collaboration with Metro Boomin, Savage Mode. Misogynistic, nihilistic, but also darkly brilliant and compelling with brooding, eerie production, it stands as a high (or low, depending on your point of view) watermark for both artists. Now we have the much-anticipated Savage Mode II: a lazer-focused distillation of what makes them work so well together. Though perhaps a couple of shades lighter in tone – the Drake featuring Mr. Bright Now is positively buoyant – it conjures the same beautifully oppressive atmosphere as its predecessor. So…. Savage Mode III?

https://pitchfork.com/news/21-savage-and-metro-boomin-release-savage-mode-ii-listen

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Music

Paul White – All Eyes Open (Mixtape)

Previously best known for his production work for Danny Brown, as well as collaborations with Jamie Woon and Charlie XCX in addition to production duties for a vast number of other MCs and singers, Paul White has stepped more fully out of the shadows in the last few years. Following a string of album releases over the last decade, 2018’s Rejuvenate felt like a statement of intent, and clocked up plenty of very positive reviews. His new mixtape All Eyes Open sees his step back from the mic for the most part, instead delivering a kaleidoscopic range of beats, synths and samples from multiple genres, all undershot with a yearning nostalgia that holds everything together.

https://paulwhite.bandcamp.com

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Music

Khotin – WEM Lagoon Jump

Over the last decade or so, Canadian producer Khotin – or Dylan Khotin-Foote to his friends – seems to have been slowly deconstructing his own sound, moving from admittedly slightly off-kilter but still structurally recognisable house music, to increasingly stripped-down ambient and psychedelia. His new album Finds You Well is his calmest to date: at time playful, at other solemn, but rarely rising above a gentle murmur. WEM Lagoon Jump tips its cap quite considerably to the influence of Boards Of Canada with its stumbling drums and hazy, wandering, nostalgic synth lines, but nevertheless stands out as a highlight in a beautifully introspective release.

https://heart.bandcamp.com

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Music

Loma – Don’t Shy Away

Emily Cross, Dan Duszynski and Jonathan Meiburg formed Loma in 2016 when they met on tour. They released their debut self-titled LP back in 2018, which I became mildly obsessed with for a while, especially the majestically sad I Don’t Want Children. Don’t Shy Away is the latest single from their forthcoming sophomore album – also called Don’t Shy Away – and it’s completely brilliant. Breathy, ethereal vocals and a gently strumming guitar that gradually build, fade, build again to a restrained, devastating denouement.

https://lomamusic.bandcamp.com

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Music

Anna von Hausswolff – Outside the Gate (for Bruna)

Anna von Hausswolff’s latest album All Thoughts Fly was recorded entirely on a pipe organ in a Gothenburg church, and the results are as baroque and dramatic as you would expect. At times furiously intense, at others calm and reflective, it’s not so much an otherworldly experience as it is a feeling of being catapulted back several hundred years into a dank and earthen past. Outside the Gate (for Bruna) is the final track: a soothingly meditative finale to yet another exceptional body of transportive music.

https://annavonhausswolffmusic.bandcamp.com/

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Music

MadeinTYO – Money Up feat. Toro y Moi

Toro Y Moi isn’t adverse to popping up on as a featured artist on hip-hop tracks, but he rarely, if ever, actually raps. Should we count last year’s drawled verse on Blood Orange’s Dark & Handsome? No, we should not. He nails it here though, beefing up his usually relaxed considerably in order to cut through the glossy production and keep pace with MadeInTYO. All in all: a banger.

https://twitter.com/madeintyo

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Music

Curren$y & Harry Fraud – 1 Luv (Roll the Credits)

1Luv (Roll The Credits) arrives right at the end of Curren$y & Harry Fraud’s latest collaborative album, The Director’s Cut. Barely clocking in over two minutes, it’s almost more of an afterthought than a proper track – a super chill rolling groove, occasional strummed guitar and incredibly relaxed flows – but there’s something utterly hypnotic about it. Every time it comes one I have to flip it right back to the start. If only it was three times longer.

https://www.currensyspitta.com

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Music

Vatican Shadow – Rehearsing For The Attack

Vatican Shadow has something of a penchant for long, enigmatic track titles – personal favourite: Boxes Were Wired to Batteries Then Loaded into a Brown Toyota Cargo Truck – so while Rehearsing For The Attack is positively breezy as far as names go, it’s an undoubted highlight from a catalogue that’s both extremely extensive and reliably excellent. Taken from this his latest LP Persian Pillars of the Gasoline Era (see?), it has the effect of being incredibly calming, despite the at times unnerving clanks and scrapes emerging from the glassy darkness.

https://vaticanshadow.bandcamp.com/music

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Music

Anjimile – In Your Eyes

Records like this are the exact reason I wanted to start this blog: an artist I had never previously heard of, making absolutely incredible music that – so far at least – isn’t quite the attention it deserves. Anjimile Chithambo wrote much of the album from which In Your Eyes is taken while in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, while also “living more fully as a nonbinary trans person”. The press release goes on to make Sufjan Stevens comparisons, which is usually pretty dangerous ground on which to tread, but in this case is absolutely on-point, and there are also echoes of Tracy Chapman in much of Giver Taker, both vocally and in the quiet rage that underpins some of the songs.

There are so many moment of brilliance in the album, but In Your Eyes gets my particular stamp of approval for being one of the best songs I’ve heard all year.

https://anjimile.bandcamp.com