The Predatory Wasp
Still playing life/work catchup after daring to switch my out of office on for more than an afternoon, but quickly wanted to share this absolute gem from Warpaint’s new album Radiate Like This. Sultry AF.
Apologies for the complete lack of posts: I’ve been away! In an actual different country! For the first time since 2019! And yes it was great, thanks so much for asking. Hopefully you’ve found other places to get your daily music fix, but if you’re still a bit wound up about it have a quick listen to this ridiculously beautiful track from Hinako Omori’s recent(ish) album a journey. And if you’re still angry, there’s not very much I can do for you.
Originally released back in 1997, Hydroplane’s eponymous – and only – debut album has just been reissued by Melbourne-based Efficient Space. If like me you were completely unaware of its existence until now, it’s really worth giving it a listen: its DIY production aesthetic coupled with singer Kerrie Bolton’s hushed vocal results in a dreamlike atmosphere akin to Liz Harris’s work as Grouper, albeit with less existential angst. Opening track Wurlitzer Jukebox should be enough to convince you it’s a worthy investment of your time.
The queen of nostalgic dance music waxes lyrical about a track from The Avalanches timeless debut
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!
DJ Sabrina The Teenage DJ is a London-based electronic music producer. Named after the TV series that pretty much every child of the 90s will be familiar with, her music is deeply evocative, mixing samples from TV, film and music with lo-fi beats and a huge amount of affection for her source material. As Amaya Garcia put in in their fantastic profile for Bandcamp Daily, DJ Sabrina creates music in which listeners can “revel in the intensity of falling in love, experiencing heartbreak, weathering deep crushes, and dancing their worries away in the warm glow of the dancefloor.” Released last month, her latest single Under Your Spell perfectly encapsulates this joyously singular sound, and would be a perfect jumping off point for anyone looking to get stuck into her expansive back catalogue.
For her One Track Mind selection, DJ Sabrina has chosen a song from an act that shares both her penchant for sampling, and her ability to hammer our emotional button, The Avalanches.
Late last month Skee Mask quietly popped out two EPs as part of Ilian Tape’s ISS series, one of which comprises four tracks of fiercely abrasive techno and the other – from which MDP93 is taken – eight tracks of gorgeous, beatless, drifting ambient: perhaps the most relaxing collection of music he’s ever put his name to. Honestly, if you’re feeling even mildly stressed or anxious – or even if you’re not – please put this on and go and look at the sky for a bit.
It’s hard to imagine a world in which a track so gloriously unassuming as Röyksop’s Eple could achieve such ubiquity, but for what felt like the entire first half of the 2000s I reckon I heard it every day. So did you. And even if you can’t immediately call to mind how it goes, listen to it for five seconds and you’ll immediately be transported back to a simpler, happier time when we were all basking in the glow of a post-2YK realisation that all the computers didn’t in fact collapse, and that everything was just going to be just fine from now on.
Anyway, I don’t think I’ve thought about Röyksop for a good 15 years now, but last week they put out a new album and some of it is really lovely. Like this – the penultimate track on Profound Mysteries – which seems tailor-made for the next time Traumprinz makes one of his Very Poignant Mixes.
More dope beats from the other realm courtesy of the queen of electronic witchery. If you’re familiar with DJ Sabrina’s previous work, this follows in pretty much the same vein: 90s-heavy samples blended with bright, open-hearted production. An out-and-out nostalgia-fest, in other words that will make you yearn for the days when aspect ratios were square and TV audiences pissed themselves laughing at literally everything.
I’m not sure anyone does deep melancholy quite as well as Tomberlin. Released today, her new album i don’t know who needs to hear this… was structured around the need to “examine, hold space, make an altar for the feelings”, and while not exactly a departure from her 2018 album – and one of my all-time favourites – At Weddings, there’s definitely been a progression: a sense of expanding boundaries; of actually being able to see the horizon in comparison to the lo-fi ultra-intimacy of her debut. easy is the album opener, and manages to be haunting, inviting, despondent and peaceful all at once.
The singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist on the educational perfection of Harry Nilsson
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!
Emily Wells is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, arranger, and producer, whose extraordinary music incorporates elements from experimental, electronic, chamber pop and classical, and has been variously described as “dramatic, meticulous and gothic” (New York Times) and “visionary” (NPR). Released earlier this year, her latest album Regards To The End was inspired by the often radical actions of AIDs activists in the 1980s as seen through the lens of the current climate emergency. Intricate, sobering and quietly powerful, it is an immaculately atmospheric body of work from a breathtakingly talented artist.
For her One Track Mind selection, Emily has chosen a song from American singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson, that for her transcends the artistry of songwriting and becomes a lesson for storytellers, regardless of the medium.
The Predatory Wasp 