It's not meant to satisfy
2023 Mix 10: Baller fairy godmothers, Pipokinha overload, the Stanley Kubrick of amapiano (derogatory), and secrets of my Spotify-slogging success
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.
Full disclosure: I have modified the opening spiel by a single word — in truth I skim through about 2,000 songs mostly from Spotify’s company-curated playlists. Some songs come from playlists that update frequently and have strong curators, a few of whom I know/know of, like Ryan Dee, who keeps a rolling list updated multiple times a week.
Most of the playlisters are a mystery. I follow the Spotify playlist trail when I like a song in a genre or by an artist I’m unaware of: each artist page has a “Discovered On” section that shows you other playlists that refer a lot of listeners to the artist’s work. For artists with low stream counts, it’s possible that every playlist that has ever mentioned them shows up in “Discovered On.” That’s how I find interesting genre playlists, regional playlists, and publications that I don’t know.
This week I thought it would interest a few folks to track where I found everything, along with ID’ing country as best I can and embedding YouTubes, which seemed to work last time.
Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9
MIX 10: IT’S NOT MEANT TO SATISFY
1. Shygirl & Björk: Woe (I See It From Your Side)
[UK & Iceland]
From Release Radar
Björk was very excited about Shygirl last year — same! — and so did a “remix” of one of the songs from Shygirl’s 2022 album Nymph (my #3 of last year).
In a real baller fairy godmother move, Björk plays 20 seconds of the original before writing an entirely new song as an “answer track.” The original is about not being satisfied with the achievement of one’s goals, to which Björk responds “you should really enjoy this dissatisfaction; the whole point is to chase the sublime, girl!”
There’s one great Björkism (“that wanting…it raises our spine”) and one sore thumb that engages with the original’s tone (“those bitches are not meant to satisfy!”).
…No, on second thought, that’s the best line in the song and I should have named the post after it, even though this might have triggered your spam filter.
2. Chlöe: Body Do
[US]
From New Music Friday [US]
The second album cover in recent memory to evoke a pharmaceutical commercial rather than the melodramatic heartache it’s going for (see title image). As far as allergy-medication-pop goes, I prefer Chlöe’s Benadryl wooziness—sounds like Welcome to the Dollhouse era Danity Kane—to Weyes Blood’s groggy Zyrtec plod.
3. Teddy-A: Wajo
[Nigeria]
From New Music Naija
As I continue to navigate Nigerian pop mostly by ears alone, this little-heard song seemed more charming than a lot of other stuff I skipped, and not just because the chord progression reminds me of “Say It Right.”
4. Blanca Paloma: EAEA
[Spain]
From Eurovision 2023
5. Brunette: Future Lover
[Armenia]
From Eurovision 2023
Two of my favorite Eurovision entries, pulled from Spotify’s Eurovision playlist. I found a few Eurovision semi-finalists earlier in the year and am surprised at how strongly I feel about them over what wound up qualifying.
Overall I’m underwhelmed, but I do like some of the songs, including the Spain and Armenia entries featured here, plus Albania, Moldova, and especially Austria, not because it’s my personal favorite but because I think it’s a solid underdog pick to upset Sweden, the boring frontrunner among early prognosticators.
6. Victony f. Don Toliver, Rema, and Tempoe): Soweto
[Nigeria + US]
From New Music Friday [Almost Everywhere, Except…]
Would love more clarity on how the New Music Friday playlists are curated. Literal payola has been considered to be a violation of Spotify’s terms and conditions since 2015, though there are still pay-to-play schemes. But the quirks of audience targeting can be odd, like the fact that “Soweto,” a major Afrobeats crossover release, was made available to every single regional New Music Friday (excluding a few strict genre-based ones) except in the US, UK, Canada, Australia/New Zealand, Italy, and France.
7. TxC & Khanyisa: Vuka Mawulele
[South Africa]
From Amapiano 2023 Grooves
Lots of music scenes are almost impossible to follow on Spotify, as the current stuff is uploaded first to YouTube, so Spotify is a, er, spotty indicator of popularity. Amapiano is a big exception, as playlists with variations on the phrase “Amapiano Grooves” have almost everything I’ve found in other places online. This is my requisite amapiano of the week: some millennial R&B girl group vibes in the interplay of the singers.
The amapiano track I was most surprised by this week was Major Lazer’s attempt to get in on the sound.
They get it wrong in telling ways. They build a spotlight for the singer, changing focus right and left to direct our attention. What you end up with is overwrought production with a melody line that sounds weak instead of diffuse; it can’t handle the spotlight.
Amapiano’s strength is in letting everything cohabitate in surprising ways. It’s like a Robert Altman film—he’ll let everyone play together in a series of long shots; your attention has to find its own resting point. It all seems intentional, but you can’t feel Altman guiding your attention. There’s a great interview where Altman describes trying to explain to Stanley Kubrick how he got an incredible shot, in the opening scene of McCabe and Mrs. Miller, of Warren Beatty lighting a cigar in the dim murk of the evening—a shot Altman had filmed personally while his cinematographer was away.
Altman: “He [Kubrick] said, ‘but how’d you know you got it?’ I said, ‘I just assumed we did.’ And he had a hard time understanding, because Stanley really liked to be very precise about everything, and he wanted to be exactly proper.”
I doubt Stanley Kubrick could ever make anything like a Robert Altman film for the same reason I doubt Major Lazer could ever make a good amapiano song. They figure you must have to do something to get it.
8. MC Pipokinha & DJ Kleytinho: Bota na Pipoka
[Brazil]
From my own MC Pipokinha playlist, + various funk playlists
MC Pipokinha has to be the most “interesting” performer in Brazilian funk right now, and there’s a lot hiding in those scare quotes, vibrancy and humor and audacity and awfulness and greatness. It’s like how Ke$ha was “interesting” in 2010. There’s a lot to be written about her, and I feel spectacularly unequipped to do it.
There’s also the question of handling the volume. On Spotify there are about 80 tracks credited to MC Pipokinha since January 2023. The best of the lot, “Bota na Pipoka,” is a riff or update (in name, at least) on her breakthrough hit, “Bota na Pipokinha” from 2021. (If you want to listen to everything available on Spotify, I compiled it here.)
9. Mc Souza & Mc Kitinho: A favela toda sabe que sua bct é minha
[Brazil]
From Songs of the Week by PAM
The next two are from a recent addition to my list of playlists, Pan African Music’s Spotify account. Some semi-popular songs, but also lots of things with basically zero listens, from all over the globe. I haven’t found this funk track, which samples a cover of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” elsewhere.
10. Catu Diosis & Oh Lorena: Vai
[Uganda]
From Songs of the Week by PAM
Or this, from a Kampala-based DJ who performs with the Nyege Nyege collective and has produced in “Vai” a sound that fits in well next to the baile funk.
11. Moussa Tchingou: Tarha
[Niger]
From Ryan Dee
Tchingou was also featured in Pan African Music, but I found it on Ryan Dee’s list first, which may have led me to PAM a few weeks ago. Playlist collecting is like any other online rabbit hole, you’re tracing steps in the mud after a downpour.
There are decent notes on process for his hypnotic EP over at Bandcamp. In addition to the Tuareg guitar influence, “his recent music is highly influenced by Bollywood artists like Chatou Khan and Rhaoul, taking the rhythmic piano melodies and translating them to the guitar, while singing the words in his own language, Tamachek.”
12. JPEGMAFIA x Danny Brown: Garbage Pale Kids
[US]
From wRap POV (formerly wRap Caveat)
Both of these guys usually leave me cold, so I’m pleasantly surprised to see them work well together. This track succeeds with a trick the Avalanches tried with “Frankie Sinatra” to what I thought were disastrous results—the clumsy lope of the sample lets Danny Brown stumble around with his zigzag cadence but still command the room.
This rec was from wRap POV, a good alt corrective to Spotify’s monolithic Rap Caviar list.
13. RP Boo: B.O.T.O.
[US]
From Pitchfork Selects
Pitchfork rec of the Chicago footwork pioneer/producer I’ve admired without really getting into. This is from a new collection of tracks from 2002-2007.
14. Eddie Fowlkes: Forever
[US]
From New Music Friday Dance
And now we turn from Pitchfork Selections to the massive pile of crap in one of Spotify’s scammier New Music Fridays, a dance playlist full of music with little footprint outside of Spotify, used for “energy boosters” and “chill sessions” and “techno workouts.” But this dubious collection offered up new music by Eddie Fowlkes, a Detroit techno DJ since the late 70s. I probably wouldn’t have heard it any other way (it was under-the-fold news in Mixmag a few days ago).
15. Vybz Kartel & Spragga Benz: Bedroom Slaughter
[Jamaica]
From New Music Friday Canada
16. The Maytones f. Irie Ites: Talk Talk Talk
[Jamaica]
From New Music Friday Canada
Two Jamaican songs that probably couldn’t be more different, except that both only appeared in the New Music Friday Canada list this week. One is from 10s dancehall star Vybz Kartel, who is serving a life sentence for a murder conviction in 2014 but still manages to release a prolific amount of material (I don’t think I’ve even thought about him since 2010 when he put out “Clarks.”). The other is from a strange compilation by Irie Ites, based in France, assembling reggae legends to reinterpret the same song, “Ina Struggle Riddim.” This version’s from Vernon Buckley, one half of the 70s reggae duo the Maytones, who initially broke up when Buckley moved to Canada. Doesn’t explain what Vybz Kartel is doing there, though.
17. Thee Sacred Souls: Running Away
[US]
From New Music Friday NL
Pleasant 60s soul throwback on the Daptone label that was only featured on the Netherlands playlist for some reason. NPR, get on it!
18. The Guapos: Soy Un Guapo
[Spain]
From Novedades Viernes España
More throwback-pop, this time to “Louie Louie.” I swear you can still use this template for any old hogwash and I’ll probably fall for it. (I guess the Kingsmen already did that!)
19. Ros Sereysothea: ស្រឡាញ់ប្រុសស្លត [c. 1970]
[Cambodia]
From Release Radar
20. Hypnotic Brass Ensemble: Treasure
[US]
From Release Radar
Two from the Release Radar list. Occasional canny guesses notwithstanding, I don’t pull a lot from my Release Radar (at least not stuff that I wouldn’t have gotten elsewhere, like the Björk remix). Release Radar is prone to accidentally suggesting sham songs people put up with famous “featured artists” to juke their own stats, though Spotify seems to be getting better at catching these miscreants. This week the offender was “BURT EVE,” who claims to have made a song with Sleigh Bells that tripped the algo alarm. A wasted slot!
But when the radar works, it’s fun to guess at how Spotify came to suggest the track. Ros Sereysothea is easy: I’ve been listening to the Cambodian Rocks compilation of 60s-70s Cambodian rock on Spotify because it goes for forty bucks on Discogs, and Ros Sereysothea is on half the tracks. This is an archival release from the Cambodian Vintage Music Archive.
The other one, by a Chicago brass band, is tougher to figure out. My best guess is it picked up on me listening to People’s Pop Golden Beat candidate “Peace” by MEUTE.
21. Meshell Ndegeocello f. Brandee Younger & Julius Rodriguez: Virgo
[US]
From Pitchfork Selects and Ryan Dee
Meanwhile my “radar” missed that Meshell Ndegeocello put out a spacey song where she literally sings about going into outer space, which is basically missing the broad side of a barn taste-wise.
22. Aseel Hameem: Shahr Al Khir
[Iraq]
From Hot Arabic Hits - Yalla يلا
A ballad from Iraqi singer Aseel Hameem to close things out. Substack tells me I am reaching my email limit so I’ll leave it at that.
I went long, as they say. But that’s OK. I seek the wanting that raises my spine. Until next time, I hope you, too, can keep your spine elevated.
—Dave Moore (the other one)