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Music

Automatic Tasty – Rising Sun

The most amazing thing about Rising Sun is just how optimistic it makes me feel, given the current state of everything. So in that spirt… it’s not mid January, it’s not lockdown central, we aren’t staring down the barrel of some of the bleakest months of our short and ever-diminishing lives. Instead it’s actually mid summer, the sun’s just creeping up past the horizon, and you’ve just had one of the best night’s out of your entire life with some of your favourite people. One day, perhaps even this year, this will have happened to you. Until then, we have music like this to keep us going.

https://soundcloud.com/automatictastys

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Music

Sofi Gev – You’re The Star

This is the latest single from Sofi Gev, the solo project of American singer-songwriter and indie pop artist Hannah Lovelady. Blending elements of folk, indie, electronica and pop, You’re The Star features some wonderfully subtle and evocative vocal manipulations reminiscent of Oklou’s recent album. But while Oklou’s music feels sparse and at times detached, You’re The Star is warm and richly populated with a variety of instruments and textures: an intimate, glimpse into both the strength and fragility of desire.

https://sofigev.com/

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Music

SOPHIE – BIPP (Autechre Mx)

I’ve been avoiding this for a few days now because a) I didn’t love SOPHIE’s album – or any of her work – as much as every single music site told me I should if I had any kind of taste at all and b) I don’t actually know as much about just how important Autechre are to electronic music in general. Consider this my public apology. Anyway, this is predictably amazing, opening with some of the punchiest drums I’ve ever heard and I guess this now means I should listen to everything Autechre have ever produced. Bet they haven’t made many albums though, so expect I’ll be up to speed before the end of the day.

https://autechre.warp.net

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Music

Quinton Barnes – As A Motherfucker

This isn’t the first time I’ve said this, but Quinton Barnes is a truly remarkable artist. Writing, singing, producing, mixing, mastering: he does everything, and at a quite incredible rate. As A Motherfucker is his second album in less than 10 months and it sounds as slick and polished as anything else you’re likely to hear this year. Packed full of big hooks, intricate melodies and propelled by his relentlessly wonderful voice, it’s everything I need from an r&b album. I HEART QUINTON!

https://quintonbarnes.bandcamp.com/album/as-a-motherfucker

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Music

Casper Clausen – Snow White

Sitting around the midpoint of Casper Clausen’s debut solo album Better Way, Snow White demands special attention, standing out even amidst the rest of this intriguing LP. Yes, Clausen often resembles Bono vocally (a comparison that Stereogum deemed vital enough to spend the majority of their album review hashing out), but this is far weirder, dreamier, warmer and more interesting than anything U2 ever recorded, so let’s say no more about it. Snow White doesn’t so much start as slowly materialise in front of you, something that’s always been there but that you’ve only just noticed, and proceeds to drift effortlessly along on a haze of spectral synths and drums that sound like their buried under a ton of smoking dust.

https://casperclausen.bandcamp.com/album/better-way

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Music

Nation of Language – Deliver Me From Wondering Why

Two of my favourite artists releasing singles on consecutive days is making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Pretty sure they didn’t do it specifically for me (although, maybe?), but following Gia Margaret’s surprise drop yesterday, here come Nation of Language marching in with another melancholy banger that builds to a crescendo of snaking, shimmering synth lines and crystalline drums.

https://www.nationoflanguage.com/

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Music

Gia Margaret – Solid Heart

Music was one of the few things that made 2020 bearable, and Gia Margaret’s album Mia Gargaret stood out amidst even the best releases of the year due to its almost paralysing beauty. Solid Gold came out today, and unsurprisingly it’s wonderful, with yearning, Americana-esque guitars lolling gently in the background accompanied by a steady, hushed pulse of percussion. With or without her voice, she’s one of the most consistently mesmerising artists out there, and we should treasure her.

https://giamargaret.bandcamp.com

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Music

Father – Come Outside, We Not Gone Jump You

I’ve always associated Father and Awful Records with a certain kind of drug-fuelled hedonism that seems to spark both creativity and extreme levels of lethargy, probably in large part due to that Boiler Room documentary where they all sit around in a pretty run-down house, talking about music, religion and getting extremely fucked up. His music has always been fairly tongue-in-cheek and hazily delivered, but Come Outside, We Not Gone Jump You – the title track from his latest LP – sounds almost sincere and, well, romantic? Maybe that’s taking things a little too far, especially given some of the lyrical content, but regardless, it’s a welcome return.

https://awfulrecords.com/father

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Music

The Green Child – Low Desk : High Shelf

Here comes another entry in the “things I completely missed in 2020 but probably shouldn’t have done” canon, this time courtesy of Raven Mahon and Mikey Young aka The Green Child. Low Desk:High Shelf is taken from their second album Shimmering Basset, the recording and themes of which deal with Raven’s relocation to Australia from California. A week ago I would have casually mentioned that the lo-fi, almost naively wonderful electronic opening reminds me of some of John Maus’s best work, but as it turns out even niche musical heroes of mine can trash their own legacy in a single swoop. So instead I’ll say it’s a brilliant, yearning, melancholic, hopeful slice of electronic folk-pop, and leave it at that.

https://thegreenchild.bandcamp.com

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Music

Patricia Taxxon – Dandelion

I’ve come to realise just how much of an impact computer game soundtracks – specifically the 8 and 16-bit bleeps of my Master System and Megadrive-obsessed youth – has had on the music I’ve enjoyed for the rest of my life. I compared last year’s brilliant Scacco Matto album by Lorenzo Senni to Lemmings, and now we have the outrageously prolific Patricia Taxxon back with yet another album including the wonderful Dandelions, which sounds like a cut from a modern version of a 90s Final Fantasy OST. As ever with Taxxon’s music the entire album Sapphire Apts is available to stream on YouTube, and even though Dandelions is a definite highlight, there’s plenty more nostalgic fun to be had throughout.

https://patriciataxxon.bandcamp.com