Fortunately, I assume my nonsense
2023 Mix 22: Go_A, Peggy Gou, Chinese pop, the Ethiopian Golden Age, and dork-rap from Denmark and Canada.
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.
I’ll be on vacation next week, so probably no installment, unless I schedule a mid-year rundown of my tracks of the year so far. If I survive my children’s archery lessons, you’ll hear from me soon afterward.
In my absence, I encourage you, too, to teach your children the important archery skills they will need to navigate a future apocalyptic hellscape, or in the much more likely event that they get really into Ren Faire at some point.
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 // Mix 17 // Mix 18 // Mix 19 // Mix 20 // Mix 21
MIX 22: FORTUNATELY, I ASSUME MY NONSENSE
A melancholy mermaid banger from the Ukrainian Eurovision finalists.
2. Peggy Gou: (It Goes Like) Nanana
A decidedly not-melancholy house throwback from Peggy Gou, whose “I Go” was one of my favorite singles of 2021.
Spotify has been serving me songs from Yaya Bey for years now, and each time I hear something by her I think I should like it more than I do. Now they’ve offered up yet another song from her March EP, which I thought I’d heard in its entirety, only to find that this is my favorite song from it. Persistence pays off!
Two Chinese songs that caught my ear this week. I figured one or both might have come from Michael Hong’s Mando Wrap or Canto Wrap playlists, but both came from Spotify’s Chinese New Music Friday. The first is an indie artist, the second a contestant on a Chinese rap reality show who says that her music is informed by hip-hop and more traditional musical elements like Peking opera, and that she’s a fan of Little Simz, as aren’t we all.
Fefe Dobson is back with steal-your-girlfriend swagger and a tummyache after eating Advil for breakfast.
7. Barbi Recanati: Arte Arte Arte
Argentine indie rock that puts a fun sneer into the phrase “oh, what art!” again and again.
8. Sister: Tigerbalm & Les Amazones d’Afrique: Sisters
UK DJ specializing in African funk and disco, here teamed up with a Malian (PR-described) “world music supergroup.”
9. Cyril Cyril & Meridian Brothers: Diablos de Chuao
Bogotá-based artists almost trick you into thinking this might be one of the two songs on this week’s mix from the 70s. (Those are coming up later.)
10. Asake: Basquiat
Good album with a good Joshua Minsoo Kim review attached to it—I’m glad Joshua documented the cross-pollination of amapiano sounds and techniques into Nigerian music in the past year or so. At this point the amapiano moves feel naturally integrated into what Asake is doing.
11. Uloko: Nsogbu
More Naija pop, less exciting than Asake but transitions well into the amapiano section.
12. BosPianii f. Mr JazziQ, Busiswa, Lady Du, & Que Dafloor: Banyana
Two amapiano tracks, one featuring Busiswa, a vocalist whose great “Lahla” from 2014 was a lovely find in the People’s Pop charity tournament (though didn’t realize it was the same artist until researching it just now!). The other is an instrumental from MDU aka TRP that to my ears inches away from amapiano and toward a different form of house. Always fun to hear things shift in real time, not that I’m remotely equipped to really keep up with everything.
14. MC Lan x DJ Arana: ABCDário Da Guerra
A jagged epic of a baile funk track from DJ Arana. I’m tempted to say that this is what would happen if you tried to bring the mini-opera logic of “Bohemian Rhapsody” to funk’s embodiment of Manny Farber’s concept of termite art, though I’d need to think it through. Anyway, I think it works, though I don’t recommend playing the second half of this one while operating heavy machinery.
Light disco pastiche from Turkey.
During the pandemic, Madlib started a project to highlight friends’ and collaborators’ instrumentals. This is the first official installment, German artist JJ Whitefield mixing Ethiopian jazz and funk from the Ethiopian Golden Age, the first of two mentions of this period this week.
The series as a whole should eventually make for some damn fine dinner music. Speaking of which, if you need the most genteel possible version of all of my 2023 mixes, you can try my background music playlist: More Claret?
17. Yoruba Singers: No Intention [1974]
Great Guyanese funky folk (folky funk?) from 1974, another predictably strong find from Soundway Records, which is quickly becoming a go-to label for archival releases.
18. Aselefech Ashine & Getenesh Kebret: Ene Yalant Feker [1976]
Some vibrant monophony from a 70s Ethiopian duo, another nod to the Ethiopian Golden Age. Here’s the Bandcamp for more information.
an19. Marvelous Mosell: General Af Pral
Cheesy early-90s hip-house that’s just goofy enough to get this dorky Dane across. I find that lots of Scandinavian and Western European rap tries way too hard to emulate the hardness and swagger of US rap only to fall hopelessly flat. This is a better strategy.
20. Chilly Gonzales: French Kiss
Another quasi-rap dork (Canadian), known more for his collaborations than solo work if you don’t happen to be from Canada. He really leans into being uncool, much to his benefit. Video is fast cheap and out of control, employing a technology that I can only describe as shallowfakes. Builds the whole thing around “Claire de Lune.” Lord help me, I think it’s a hoot.
21. Dengue Fever: Touch Me Not
Another band I got into thanks to the People’s Pop polls, Dengue Fever won the Golden Beat award for best new discovery against very stiff competition (it was the Not in English tournament, full of discoveries).
Speaking of discoveries, the People’s Pop luxury site has been running a discovery poll that you should check out if you are looking for even more music you probably haven’t heard of yet! It’s a league format (12 people nominate tracks once a week) and I’m a nominator this month and currently riding high in first place. Not that I’m annoyingly competitive or anything.
A pretty, Feist-y closer from a London musician. My youngest kid is obsessed with portals, so of course this was a must include.
Which reminds me, if you have any leads on scientists who are working on cutting-edge portal technology, please be in touch! I have a small friend who wants to learn everything there is to know about this emerging field.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from Chilly Gonzales, “French Kiss”: “Mais heureusement, j'assume mes betises”