The Predatory Wasp
Shadi G is a classically trained Swedish songwriter, producer and singer who’s latest single Goddess pt. 1 sits somewhere between contemporary r&b and electro pop. The production is simple but extremely effective, with muted drums and hushed snares providing the perfect bed for her wonderful vocals, which remind me of NAO at times and Empress Of at others.
Considering the kind of completely unclassifiable music Oneohtrix Point Never usually crafts, a schmaltzy, vocoder-infused ballad – with The Weeknd no less – isn’t necessarily something you’d expect to find on his latest album. But then hasn’t this just been a year of the unexpected? No Nightmares is warm and wonderfully reassuring, and crackles with just enough weirdness to ensure you don’t think you’ve stumbled into the final moments of 80s school disco. And if you’re really not into it, you only need take a step in either direction on the album to be confused and slightly unsettled again.
Gabrielle Current new single marks a bit of a departure from her previous glossy pop, and channels 90s R&B aesthetics to very enjoyable effect. Both the vocal and production are hazy and understated, gently rolling along without vying for your attention and creating a quietly beguiling, nostalgic atmosphere as a result.
This is the latest single from Norwegian trio Orions Belte, a band supposedly inspired by “Nigerian 70’s rock, postcards from the French Riviera and Formula 1” and while I’m not an authority on either Nigerian rock or Formula 1, the breezy, heady melodies of Conversations absolutely call to mind sitting on a warm beach gazing out at the gentle swells of the Mediterranean. It’s an intoxicating blend, easily accessible yet with enough of a punch to stay with you for some time afterwards.
This is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to feature Blood Orange aka Devonte Hynes aka probably my favourite artist of the last five years on this blog. What’s he playing at?? It’s absolutely outrageous that he’s been starving us of new material for this long. Here he’s teamed up with South Korean 박혜진 Park Hye Jin – who recently released her second EP – on a sad banger, the music video for which is a first-person meander through the damp and deserted back streets of New York. Welcome back guys: you have been missed.
The latest in an ever-increasing and very welcome tide of singles from his upcoming album The Ascension, this is vintage Sufjan from the very first bar. Haunting pads and those brittle electronic drums that he’s been playing around with ever since the early A Sun Came-era weirdness, now honed and refined. Music video is great too. Maybe 2020 will turn out to be ok after all.
Cut Copy have been around for 20 years, and I think this is the first time I’ve ever listened to a record of theirs. It’s entirely possible that I glanced at their name and got them confused with Coldcut which, while not exactly a great reflection on my musical nouse, is at least honest. Anyway, turns out their pretty popular and have released a lot of shiny, towering pop over the last two decades, and that’s definitely something I’m in the market for right now.
Stop, Horizon is taken from their new album Freeze, Melt. It’s about as pretty as pop gets, with a gently layer guitar loops slowly joined by tinkling percussion, whispered vocals and eventually a steady, four-four beat that nuzzles us you through to the end: a cosy, comforting hug of a record.
Automatic Tasty is Ireland’s Jonny Dillon, an electronic music producer who specialises in squelchy acid and electro, while also releasing various experimental acoustic guitar pieces under his own name. On the surface his latest EP A Farewell to Reason is the most overtly ‘poppy’ thing he’s produced – almost saccharine in its happy, open chords and bubbling synth lines – but there’s a darkness to a lot of the lyrics, not least on Wake Up Dead which lists various things you shouldn’t worry about as there’s a chance this will be your last day or earth. My pick of the bunch is opening track Ballad For a Modern Man though, which pairs a chunky bassline alongside beautifully billowing melodies and Dillon’s intimate, closed-mic’d vocals.
Spellbinding experimentations in rhythm and tone here from the Montreal-based singer-songwriter and violinist (and band) on one of the early stand-out’s from her new album KIND. I Forget to Drink Water (Balance) has so much going on, but it’s all hushed, subdued and innate, as if it’s music that has seeped up from the earth rather than been actively performed.
Becky and the Birds is the solo project of Swedish artist Thea Gustafsson, and someone I first came across via her eponymous 2018 debut EP, which is still one I go back to regulalrly. Paris is taken from her new EP Trasslig, which roughly translates from the Swedish “entangled, messy, intricate”, which neatly sums up the vibe across the seven tracks it contains. As on much of her work, her voice on Paris is extraordinary, hitting high notes that transcend traditional vocals and become strange, eerie textures floating above sparse, otherworldly production.
The Predatory Wasp 