Forty tracks that you owe it to your ears to hear this month.
PLAYLISTS
There are three flavours of playlist (although some tracks aren’t available on Spotify & Soundcloud)
Subscribe to my weekly playlist on Spotify (Open in the app or your browser)
or listen to the monthlies on Whyd or Soundcloud.
Here’s some of the standouts from this month.
(If you like any of the tunes below please spread the word by showing them some love over on the Hype Machine):
DANceFLOORs oF EnGLanD by ThE DiAboLIcaL LibERTieS
club upon pub, out of my constriction
heroes and ghosts, lost and still looking
for the dancefloors of England”
There aren’t many acts that warrant their own section in my vinyl but the many guises of Rob Gallagher have been an essential part of my musical landscape for 25 years now.
Starting with the joyful acid jazz of Galliano – who someone in my YouTube comments amusingly described as “so 90’s it hurts” on a on a clip I uploaded of them performing ‘Earth Boots’ on The Word – 90’s or not I loved them. After Galliano came Earl Zinger who even managed to turn his co-conspiritor Gilles Peterson’s departure from Radio 1 into the funkiest celebration of a broadcasting career possible, and there were many others like William Adamson.
Now Rob’s back with ThE DiAboLIcaL LibERTieS, a collaboration with Alex Patchwork and it’s refreshing to report an artist who decades on is still brimming with ideas and energy. Standout track “Dancefloors of England” should be single of the week in every publication going (if singles and publications still existed). Over an urgent clattering beat and looped effects Rob intones on iPhone lit dance floors, sub bass and the moment you briefly notice who you’ve been dancing next to for two hours.
Do yourself a favour and nab a limited edition (300 vinyl copies) one-off pressing or head to Bandcamp for digital stylings.
REAL TALK by KOOL A.D.
Das Racists Kool A.D. returns with more new music, this time twisting Kanye’s ‘Real Friends’ and several other popular r’n’b and hiphop hits with his own musings. Police brutality, Harriet Tubman and mass incarceration feature alongside Frankie Beverly and Maze. It’s all slathered in vocal effects in the style of Kanye, leaving some to wonder whether the entire project is an elaborate pisstake on mainstream hiphop.
ECHO by WILL ADLARD
Will Allard’s last release – the gorgeous ‘Oh heart that beats’ – featured in my top 200 tracks of 2015 and now Will’s back with an album written and recorded in a loaned (as opposed to lone) cabin in Wisconsin.
‘I’ve Been Dreaming Of Chrome Horses’ is available through Bandcamp on a name your price deal.
A STOVE IS A STOVE by DUWAP KAINE
Rising 14-year-old rapper Duwap Kaine returns with a Spongebob Squarepants sampling banger ‘A Stove Is A Stove’ — produced by lilskys.
CAR BOMB by MURKAGE DAVE
Murkage Dave on ‘Car Bomb’
“I was in a band for six years. We got famous in France, made zero cash, and then broke up. Now I have all these stories to tell.
I wrote ’CAR BOMB’ in 30 minutes,” he explains. It was easier than speaking to someone. People keep asking if it’s actually me singing, like they don’t know I’ve got soul. Nobody wants to give man credit for shit.” It’s understandable – this is brave new territory. Speaking on the video, he says” “Marco Grey directed this shit. I spent fuck all on the video. No sunglasses and no free clothes with bait logos. I just wanted to sit in my house and say some real shit on camera.”
GET DRESSED by JEFF PARKER
Lead single from Jeff Parker’s forthcoming full-length International Anthem release The New Breed. Released digitally and on limited 7″ phonograph flexi disc with gold foil titles and glossy photo print of Ernie Parker and friends.
TRAP JAZZ (FEAT. BUSDRIVER by LORDE FREDD33
From the Dead Man’s View LP (out now) by Milwaukee’s Lorde Fredd33, produced by Q the Sun and featuring Busdriver.
https://newagenarcissism.bandcamp.com/album/dead-mans-view
BIOMETRIC by SILAS & SNARE
Silas & Snare Surgeon met in Leeds three years ago and are one of the new wave of UK Bass advocates pushing the sound through their night, Brotherhood Soundsystem.
MELROSE by WABZ
While tipping his hat to the history of uk garage, over many years of experimentation, Wabz has developed his own style of avant-garde influenced two step/garage. Sleep Less is composed as one continuous piece of work and is best listened to at full volume.