The Predatory Wasp
This is a new collab from funk/soul music artist, producer, and songwriter Tim Rose and R&B and multi-instrumentalist DDidThat, the fourth in a series of reflective, funk-inspired lofi compositions. It’s a real, head-nodding vibe of a record, rolling unhurriedly along on shuffling breaks, gentle guitar and meandering Rhodes-y piano: the ideal soundtrack for drifting away to lands more pleasant and peaceful.
This came out back in March so may well be on your radar already, but I only just came across it after delving into the goldmine that is the Quietus’s best albums of the year so far list, which is highly recommended. Kiss for The Valley is one of 36(!) tracks on Kizis’s absolutely extraordinary album Tidibàbide / Turn, which seems to have flown under the radar a little, despite a fairly positive Pitchfork review. Honestly though, this sounds like nothing else I’ve heard this year, and deserves far greater acclaim than it looks likely to get. I’ve singled out Kiss For The Valley for special mention, not just because it takes a turn for the Sufjan-esque (choral choirs, falsetto, plaintive trumpets, etc.) about halfway through, but that it also sums up the raw energy and unpredictability of the entire LP. At three and a half hours, it’s not to be taken lightly, but it’s worth it.
Taken from Nigerian artists Obongjayar and Sarz’s new collaborative EP Sweetness, Gone Girl is a perfect 80s r&b throwback, all velvety smooth vocals, churning bass and effervescent chords. That’s all I have to say: I’m off for a bubblebath.
At 86 years of age, Shirley Collins is still creating music brimming with life, vibrancy and hope. Her new EP Crowlink includes spoken-word poetry, ambient, glistening new-age synths and deep, earthy folk, dragging seemingly ancient tales into the present and creating something deeply personal and intimate yet entirely relatable and accessible. Crowlink is a thing of timeless, transportive beauty, and deserves your immediate attention.
TPW favourite Quinton Barnes drops his latest single Arouse today, further establishing himself as an incredibly sexy and talented motherfucker. Haunting synths sit comfortably alongside his trademark hard-hitting drums and woozy flows – the entire thing is just fantastic and deserves to be listened to at an outrageously volume, preferably while receiving a massage.
I’m back! Did you miss me? Didn’t even notice I was away? Well, I was – moving house since you asked. Yeah, it was pretty brutal. Boxes breeding boxes and all that. Anyway, here’s an absolute banger from Ora The Molecule’s new album Human Safari that you might not have heard yet by way of an apology. I won’t let it happen again.
My obsession with anything that even vaguely evokes the 80s continues unabated, satiated generally today by Bristol-based artist Lucy Gooch’s beautiful EP Rain’s Break, and specifically by this track, with its sparse, crystalline synth lines and breathy vocals. Gooch said of the EP that she wanted to create something “with a dissonance and eeriness to it”, and those aims have absolutely been fulfilled, the resulting EP providing a brief but engrossing escape from the relentless grind of reality.
I’m a little conflicted about today’s post. On the one had, I love The War On Drugs, have listened to both Lost In The Dream and A Deeper Understanding relentlessly over the last few years, and an incredibly excited about their recently announced new album and European tour. All of that: great. Their new single however, I am not entirely convinced by. I’d even go so far as to say it was (whisper it) a bit boring and forgettable and fairly cliched? Note the question mark: I’m not even sure about my own opinion. What a sorry state of affairs. Anyway, here it is: make your own mind up.
I personally find Yves Tumor be to at their most compelling when they’re balancing visceral electronic experimentation with big, rocky hooks, either in a single track or across an entire albums worth of material; see: Safe In The Hands Of Love, in which you never quite know what’s lurking around the next corner. Their latest EP Asymptomatic World leans way further into the rockier of these two worlds, forgoing the crushed, fizzing synths in favour of prominent guitars and stadium-friendly vocals, so while it’s by no means my favourite release of theirs, it’s still comfortably better than pretty much everything else that came out last week.
The term “easy listening” has a fairly bad rep, and probably for good reason. It evokes mindlessly inoffensive music that seems to be almost wilfully devoid of character, and while I’m by no means arguing that Durand Jones & The Indication be reclassified into this vague sub-genre, one of the things I enjoy so much about their music is that it’s such an effortless pleasure to listen to. Latest single The Way I Do combines elements of funk, soul, disco and pop into an intoxicating blend that infects everything with its breezy, understated optimism, and I am fully here for everything it stands for.
The Predatory Wasp 