The Predatory Wasp
Clocking in at under two minutes there’s not an awful not to Hey Boy, but what it lacks in length it more than makes up for in sultry smoothness, with both Apollo and Kali Uchis delivering their short verses in tones that can only be described as sexy AF. Hey Boy arrives at around the halfway point of Apollo’s excellent new album Apolonio and is a masterclass in modern soul-inflected R&B.
Erika de Casier’s 2019 album Essentials was hands down one the best LP’s of last year, and came – at least for me – completely out of the blue: fully formed, unique, brilliant. Newly signed to 4AD, No Butterflies, No Nothing is her first new music since then, and is a bit of a departure from her previous work. Where Essentials was light and buoyant – naive almost in its simplicity – the production on No Butterflies… is much darker and more complex, reminiscent of something like Kelela’s Frontline. Still great, just in a different, slightly more intimidating way.
Fields is taken from the new album from Gabriel Garzón-Montano, on which the NYC-based singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist presents tracks from three distinct self-created characters (lots more on this in Pitchfork’s glowing review for those who are interested). Fields bears comparisons to to fellow experimental r&b practitioner Moses Sumney, both vocally and its rich, occasionally unsettling production and meandering, unpredictable structure. Both artists are pushing boundaries in intoxicating directions, and Agüita will surely stand up as one of the year’s best (and varied) albums come December.
Previously best known for his production work for Danny Brown, as well as collaborations with Jamie Woon and Charlie XCX in addition to production duties for a vast number of other MCs and singers, Paul White has stepped more fully out of the shadows in the last few years. Following a string of album releases over the last decade, 2018’s Rejuvenate felt like a statement of intent, and clocked up plenty of very positive reviews. His new mixtape All Eyes Open sees his step back from the mic for the most part, instead delivering a kaleidoscopic range of beats, synths and samples from multiple genres, all undershot with a yearning nostalgia that holds everything together.
Records like this are the exact reason I wanted to start this blog: an artist I had never previously heard of, making absolutely incredible music that – so far at least – isn’t quite the attention it deserves. Anjimile Chithambo wrote much of the album from which In Your Eyes is taken while in treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, while also “living more fully as a nonbinary trans person”. The press release goes on to make Sufjan Stevens comparisons, which is usually pretty dangerous ground on which to tread, but in this case is absolutely on-point, and there are also echoes of Tracy Chapman in much of Giver Taker, both vocally and in the quiet rage that underpins some of the songs.
There are so many moment of brilliance in the album, but In Your Eyes gets my particular stamp of approval for being one of the best songs I’ve heard all year.
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.
Jouska is an Oslo-based duo making R&B-inflected electronica, or electronic-tinged R&B; whichever rolls off your tongue more easily. They recently released their debut album, Everything Is Good, from which Lemon Twigs is taken, and which touches on a range of themes, some overtly political, some intensely personal. Lemon Twigs itself is wonderful, the melancholic yet relative bombast of the production magnifying the raw, intimate pain of the lyrical content.
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.
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.
Downtempo R&B jams galore on Summer Walker’s new EP Life On Earth, from which this collab with PARTYNEXTDOOR stands out, largely due to the production which sits in a very sweet spot between melancholic gloom and hopeful longing. Vocals from both are perfectly on-point, resulting in a finely balanced and affecting portrait of a relationship under strain.
