A mythical entity, a legend, supreme chancellor

2023 Mix 17: lo-fi grrrls, Hi-NRG Swedes, shopaholics pretend it's the 80s, Cameroon in the actual 80s, and finds from Taiwan and Turkey

Each week I skim through about 2,000 songs mostly from Spotify's company-curated New Music Friday playlists. Whenever I find 80 minutes worth of music I like, I make a CD-length mix and write a newsletter about it.

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Big news this morning here in Philly, where we selected a mayor(al candidate, same difference). I knew enough about the local ins and outs to be skeptical of some of the national coverage. One thing I’ve decided recently is to stop putting so much energy into following national news the way I follow music, and to direct some of that energy into following more music.

So here is more music!

Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11 // Mix 12 // Mix 13 // Mix 14 // Mix 15 // Mix 16

1. Sweeping Promises: Eraser

Boston band realizes an effective, if somewhat overwrought, approximation of early riot grrrl and/or whatever you call Liliput (a stated influence over on their Bandcamp) by a “patented single mic techinque.” If anything, this song from their new album sounds even lower fidelity than the older stuff, so maybe the single mic is worse?

2. Decisive Pink: Dopamine

Kate NV teams up with Angel Deradoorian from Dirty Projectors on this 80s funk pastiche about e-tail addiction that features a voice recognition customer service recording in lieu of an awkward synth solo. (Don’t worry — if you’re patient you’ll get an awkward synth solo at the end of the mix.)

3. Altin Gün: Rakıya Su Katamam

A standout from the new Altın Gün record, one of my playlist ringers from my albums list.

4. SIMONA: POLIDRAMA

Flashes of hyperpop in this Spanish ode to polyamory in the summertime.

5. Bbyafricka f. MVW: Have You Seen Her?

More anxious interiority in just-under-the-radar rap, this time from Bbyafricka, a self-described one-time teen “rocker” who stuck out listening to the Misfits, the Donnas, and Slipknot with kindred spirits in her South Central high school. But it’s a good time for weirdos and misfits in rap: her breakthrough, “Baby Mama Coochie,” got a plum feature from Saweetie. She’s hard-edged enough to sell the threat in the title hook, but she lets her outcast bonafides slip right at the last moment when she refers to herself as a “supreme chancellor.” Nerd!

6. Lord Echo: Makossa No. 2 [2016]

Soundway Records digital release of a vinyl-only 2016 track from a New Zealand DJ. I figured Soundway must have filtered into my algorithm after I featured an archival song from the label on a previous mix, but no — this was the one keeper from Ryan Schreiber’s weekly playlist, which I added to my playlist pull last week.

7. Ipek Ipekcioglu f. Aşık Mahzuni Şerif: Yuh Yuh

Turkish DJ Ipekcioglu remixes Turkish folk artist Aşık Mahsuni Şerif in what once upon a time would have been called electronica. Made me wonder how Moby holds up these days. Sonically he’s through the Nostalgia Dead Zone: the 7 to maybe 15 years of cringing before the era settles or calcifies into a historiographic blob of The Past. Which is to say Play still slaps.

8. Sex Mob: King Tang

Jazz fusion, with drums funky enough to almost (but not quite) justify the terrible band name.

9. Stepz: Book Bag

Fun single from UK rapper Stepz, whose “Pac-Man” was a highlight of the People’s Pop poll of 2022, even though my own nomination knocked it out in the qualifiers (sorry!). Always open to UK rap recommendations — my ear for it isn’t tin, but…aluminum maybe? Wait, no — aluminium! See, this is what I’m talking about.

10. Cornelius: Sparks

Cornelius is someone I come across a lot on the Japanese Spotify lists while almost never encountering any of his work made in the last 20 years elsewhere. But he keeps chugging along—I had one of his recent songs, “Tsuzukiwo,” slated in this spot, but “Sparks,” which is better, dropped today and I made an unprecedented last-minute switcheroo.

11. Roger Bekono: Jolie Poupée [1989]

Cameroonian bikutsi hit from 1989 finally available for digital distribution from Awesome Tapes from Africa. I’m curious about how something like bikutsi’s flurry of triplets in 6/8 finds its way into other music in Cameroon over time, or if lots of music from Cameroon has this feel and bikutsi is just one variation.

12. Rebecca & Fiona: Sing Hallelujah

A Hi-NRG take on a Dr. Alban’s Eurodance classic from 1993 by Rebecca & Fiona, who made their name opening for Robyn in the ‘10s.

13. The Chemical Brothers: No Reason (Ewan McVicar ‘1994’ Remix)

The “back to basics” Chemical Brothers songs I keep getting from Spotify this year have been a little boring, but I loved this remix, which seems to capture something more exciting (something closer to the Prodigy, but not the Prodigy in 1994, more like in 1997).

14. MC Cauanzinho x Brendow: Faz Videozin

The random baile funk that caught my ear this week, mostly helps shift the mood on the mix.

15. BANANA: ZAMUNDA

Goofy foul-mouthed meme-chasing by a couple of Italians, produced by Crookers.

16. Donae’o: Where’s The Party At

UK rapper/producer, who I probably knew best from a few featured tracks on Crazy Cousinz all-timer This Is UK Funky House Vol. 1. This appears to be a scrap from one of those annoying multi-EP release strategies adding up to an album(ish) worth of material within a calendar year. But it’s under two minutes!

17. Aiko el grupo: Toro

18. DVTR: DVTR

Spiky indie from Barcelona and Quebec, respectively. Sound good together, have little to say about either.

19. Y La Bamba: Collapse

Indie pop with a hint of trip-hop from this Portland band has a secret weapon: lead vocalist Luz Elena Mendoza Ramos’s voice reminds me of Alejandra Deheza from School of Seven Bells—automatic mix inclusion.

20. No Party for Cao Dong: 床 [Lie]

Michael Hong’s Mando Gap newsletter is a godsend as I try to parse some of the playlists for Mandopop and Cantopop, which have so far not left much of an impression. His recent survey of the Top 100 Mandopop Albums of the ‘10s is a must-read if you’re curious to learn more. He recommended this Taiwanese group, whose breadth and restlessness makes them tough to pin down — they’ll do emo, then dreamy indie-pop, then get closer to thrash.

The Top 100 Mandopop Albums of the '10s

21. Billie Eilish: hotline (edit)

This micro-cover of “Hotline Bling” is Billie Eilish goofing around with a ukulele and a megaton of vocal reverb for 60 seconds and it’s great. I’ve crossed the rubicon and now believe she can do no wrong — give her a MacArthur genius grant or something.

22. Liv Andrea Hauge Ensemble: Everything Will Be Alright

Ending things with what sounds like pleasant, if slight, jazz-pop from Norwegian pianist Liv Andrea Hauge, until you stumble onto that absurd synth solo at the halfway point that is so jarring I had to listen to it at least three times to figure out if I was missing something—did someone figure out how to record a solo inside of a washing machine? Is it experimental A.I.? Was there an animal involved? Suffice it to say I absolutely love this solo, credited (as far as I can tell) to Marte Eberson, a keyboardist with her own solo pop career.

That’s it! If you have any upcoming municipal elections, remember that every vote for supreme chancellor counts.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from “Have You Seen Her?” by Bbyafricka