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Interview: Harkin

“The desktop of my mind has been cleared. Now it’s time to clutter it up again.”

A founding member of the band Sky Larkin, Katie Harkin has just released her debut self-titled solo album. In the intervening years she’s toured and recorded with some of the most successful and acclaimed indie rock acts in the business, including Kurt Vile, Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee and Wild Beasts, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that Harkin is an absolute gem of an album: urgent, expressive, affecting.

I’m incredibly grateful to Katie for taking the time to answer some questions for The Predatory Wasp… and if you haven’t yet listened to the album, I highly recommend you do so.

Congratulations on the release of your debut album – it’s brilliant. When did you start recording it, and was the process generally positive, stressful, invigorating, a combination of all of these… or something else entirely?

Well thanks! I felt a huge amount of growth through the process. I recorded it without a label (we founded our own to release it- Hand Mirror), and though organising everything and clinging onto hard drives as I moved between studios in different time zones was stressful, it was thrilling to do it all on my own terms.

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Music

Buscabulla – Manda Fuego

The indie pop duo Buscabulla moved back to Puerto Rico from New York after the island was devastated by hurricanes in 2017. The experience inspired a new album and documentary, both called Regresa.

You’d be hard pressed to find a record better suited to lazing around on a beach at sunset with a cold drink pressed into your hand. But given that no-one’s going on holiday any time soon – if ever again – your garden/balcony/porch/bedroom with the window slightly open will have to suffice. Regardless, this is evocative enough to whisk you away to wherever your imagination has the patience to take you. It’s taken from their debut LP Regressa, which is similar in tone to the Erika de Casier album from last year, and like that I expect this to be on hard rotation for most of the summer.

https://www.buscabulla.com/

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Music

I Break Horses – Turn

I had never heard of I Break Horses until about half an hour ago, but I’m pretty sure that after listening to Turn three times on the bounce they are my new favourite band. Granted this is the only song of theirs I’ve ever listened to, and that may seem premature, but just listen to it: it’s absolutely spectacular. Not sure I even want to listen to the rest of the album as surely it can’t live up to the epic magnificence of one of the best, most powerful opening tracks I’ve heard in recent years. Can it?

https://www.ibreakhorses.se

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Music

Kehlani – Can I feat. Tory Lanez

This is the second track on Kehlani’s very well received second album It Was Good Until It Wasn’t, with a guest verse from Tory Lanez with whom I became vaguely obsessed with around the release of his I Told You LP, but haven’t really paid attention to since. Both are on excellent form on Can I, which is a sultry, lugubrious banger.

https://www.kehlani.com

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Music

Hayley Williams – Taken

Taken is from Hayley ‘Paramore’ Williams’s debut solo album Petals For Amor, which on first listen is a little hit and miss but with a few real highlights. This is one of them, as is the opening track Simmer, which was released as a single earlier this year. Taken has a fantastic swagger about it and a Haim-ish quality that makes me like it straight away.

https://www.paramore.net

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Music

DJ Healer – Ins Herz der Dinge Lauschen

DJ Healer (aka Traumprinz, DJ Metatron and various others) just posted three new mixes comprised of 100% new and unreleased material, and I am really very excited about this. I haven’t even started on the other two, but Ins Herz der Dine Lauschen [Listen to the heart of things] is delicate, melancholy, sun-bleached ambient and electronica, and jesus christ it’s fucking amazing. Check his Soundcloud page for the other two. What a time to be alive.

EDIT: I literally just cried listening to this. Actual tears.

https://soundcloud.com/planet-uterus

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Music

Guapdad 4000 – Dolce & Gabbana Dalai Lama

“You already know I got bitches in Baguio. But, my family is from Olongapo in Zambales province. I also got family in Manila. So, like, I be out there. I really tap in with it. I literally know how to cook the tightest lumpia from scratch, chicken adobo, pancit, I even fucking eat balut!” (via Hip Hop DX)

Guapdad 4000 aka Bitcoin Batman aka Shia Labustdown aka Jean Fraud Van Scam aka Prada Prettiest aka Stone Cold Steve Flossin aka Valentino Viper aka Ferragamo Falcon.

https://guapdad4000.com

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Music

Johanna Warren – Hole In The Wall

Beautifully simple and delicate folky americana from Johanna Warren, taken from her new album Chaotic God, which I’ve found incredibly soothing this morning. And if you like this, I’d highly recommend checking out Tomberlin’s album At Weddings from a couple of years ago, which is absolutely brilliant and has similar vibes, both vocally and in the instrumentation.

https://www.johannawarren.com/

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Music

The Soft Pink Truth – We

The Soft Pink Truth is an experimental electronic alias of Drew Daniel, who apparently started the project after Matthew Herbert bet him he couldn’t produce a proper house record. This is the first time I’ve come across his music, but I think it’s fair to say he won that particular bet. We is glorious deep house music that sounds like something from Laurent Garnier’s seminal Unreasonably Behaviour LP. Definitely check out his new album as well, Shall We All Go On Sinning… which is an absolute delight from start to finish.

https://thesoftpinktruth.bandcamp.com/

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Music

Austra – All I Wanted

All I Wanted is taken from Katie Stelmanis’s fourth album as Austra, HiRUDiN, which is about as positive, uplifting a way to start the week as you could hope for. Her voice is absolutely incredible, and shines especially bright on this and the next track on the album How Did You Know?, both of which are utterly brilliant.

https://austra.fyi