Man, focus on yourself
Mix 42: Viral rap, murky beats, French atmosphere, and some metal for people who don't like metal
Each week I skim through about 2,500 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 feel obliged to comment on the “new” “Beatles” “single” that came out last week—and was the first track on almost every Spotify New Music playlist this week. I liked it! I have not yet watched the video, because (1) see above image and (2) why would I need to watch a video, anyway? I think the song itself is OK, in a way that makes me misty even, but I can overlook the merits or lack thereof of this song in particular to just say that, in my opinion, using new technology to rescue demo-quality vocals is a miraculous feat of sound recording, full stop, and I am thrilled that we can do it. (I think the proof of concept has been covered by other Beatles re-releases — especially the incredible reconstruction of the Hollywood Bowl concert.)
Now that that’s out of the way, you will not hear the new Beatles song on the mix this week, but you will hear viral hip-hop in poor taste, plus lots of interesting instrumental stuff only coincidentally in celebration of this week’s League of Pop theme (instrumentals!).
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MIX 42: MAN, FOCUS ON YOURSELF
1. Aliyah’s Interlude: IT GIRL
TikTok novelty rap with a rapper long (OK, medium) on personality and short on talent — shades of Flo Milli in affect, but with a flow so stilted and beat so chintzy that it crosses some kind of incompetence valley and becomes charming again.
2. Shenseea f. Lola Brooke: Beama
I featured dancehall artist Shenseea on Mix 14, and here she seems to be making a(nother) play for pop crossover with a Lola Brooke feature.
3. Dess Dior f. Skilla Baby & Rob49: Leave Her Alone
Every so often I’ll get something from the “We Have Rap Caviar at Home” Spotify playlist Most Necessary that I don’t even realize I’ve been missing in hip-hop. Here, Dess Dior makes good on the exhausting mining of millennial hip-hop, breathing some life into a Cash Money-ish beat with amateurish enthusiasm and surprising (relative) wholesomeness. Skilla Baby sings the hook like a proud little brother protecting big sis on a first date (“Man, focus on yourself! Leave her alone!”). At one point guest rapper Rob49 gets across his champagne dreams by chanting “G6” five times in the mirror so it’ll eventually appear like the Candyman.
4. Chrisman f. AUNTY RAZOR & Ratigan Era: Lost in the Darkness
A third winner from Aunty Razor, who seems to have entered the do-no-wrong phase of her career (is that just her whole career? Her 2020 breakthrough suggests yes), on this song from a strong album by Hakuna Kulala labelmate Chrisman.
5. Offica: Yoruba Flow
Irish drill in the perfect dosage to impress without leaving much of an impression (96 seconds).
6. Audrey Nuna: Cellulite
Suburban NJ Korean-American artist turns out to be on Arista — and here I figured she was a nobody! Lite hypertrap with crass pop ambitions (to its benefit).
7. Ivelyn: โอม (Ohm)
Horrorcore-leaning Thai rap that sounds like it was recorded at the bottom of a well (to its benefit).
8. Lil RT: 60 Miles
Was intrigued, then disturbed, then sort of empty-feeling about this one, viral trap anthem from a 9-year-old rap prodigy whose filth makes me feel skeevy even listening to it, in a paternalistic sort of way.
9. Finesse2tymes f. Sett & YTB Fatt: Can’t Go to Jail
Been holding on to this single from Memphis rapper Finesse2tymes for a few weeks, something about the hook made it impossible not to find a slot for eventually. Couldn’t decide whether to call it “bread and butter braggadocio” or “meat and potatoes menace.”
10. VHOOR: Digital
Belo Horizonte DJ whose sonic base has no wildness in it, let alone car alarms, is in fact closer to “beats to study to,” though he dabbles in semi-tasteful Miami bass, too. Unfortunately, baile funk has absolutely obliterated the curve for modest Brazilian pleasures.
11. Bello no Gallo f. Bizizi No Kaygee & Deejay Zebra
Starting to suspect that some amapiano folks are starting to tiptoe away from amapiano proper (the new Kabza De Small album is much more stylistically diverse than his overstuffed 3-hour amapiano “mixtape” with DJ Maphorisa, e.g.), and I’ve apparently had a hankering for harder South African stuff, like this track from a duo that, as far as I can tell, never went in for amapiano at all and now sound like they’ve weathered the zeitgeist.
12. DJ DARIIOFOX: KAMBODJA
More Príncipe-adjacent batida from a London-based Portuguese something-fox artist. DJ Dariiofox isn’t technically on the label, but he’s related to it—literally: he’s the brother of DJ Nervoso.
13. Nakibembe Embaire Group f. Gabber Modus Operandi & Wahono: 133
Ugandan collaboration melds embaire music with the sort of avant-dance you might expect on Nyege Nyege Tapes.
14. Web Web & Max Herre f. Marja Burchard: The Source of All Things
German jazz with percussion that transitions well out of the previous beat suite, and with flutes that transition well into the Euro fluff to follow. And of course I’m always a sucker for good vibes (the instrument, not the atmosphere, about which I am merely ambivalent).
15. Bon Entendeur: Disco en Egypte
Euro fluff #1: feather-light disco-pop from France, though not sure why they claim it’s in Egypt; the chord progression is straight outta “Hotel California.”
16. The Offline: Jeanne et Alain
Euro fluff #2: instrumental neo-soul from Hamburg with an eventual Mangione horn line.
17. Anton Kramer f. YUVI: До краплі
Bittersweet Ukrainian electropop.
18. Death Pill: Monsters
A rare (fake-?) metal interlude! First up, more Ukraine, yo-yos between clumsy, cutesy riot grrrl punk verses and a thrash chorus.
19. Green Lung: Hunters in the Sky
British heavy metal throwback that’s maybe a little too pastiche-y but manages some decent falsetto harmonies. You can tell I don’t listen to a lot of metal based on the “metal” I end up liking, huh.
20. Girl and Girl: Strangers (Fright Night)
Australian pub rock whose chorus (“I will…go out…with strangers…”) grated on my kids’ nerves even given his extremely high tolerance for grating music, which he comes by honestly. I’m not sure what it was about this one that did it. He absolutely loathes the song “Fish Heads” at the moment (does NOT come by that honestly), so maybe there’s some spiritual connection?
21. Mito y Comadre: Guajirando
Pretty, minimal Venezuelan electro to segue into the jazz and classical stuff at the end.
22. Mary Halvorson: The Gate
The jazz stuff! I like this one! I have nothing to say about it!
23. Rakhi Singh: Sabkha
The classical stuff! Dreamy violin composition! I feel like I should have more to say about it (it’s gorgeous) but also fear I’ll embarrass myself trying to write about it!
24. Marcin Masecki: El diablo suelto
And as a coda, a neo-ragtime piano piece by Polish artist and composer Marcin Masecki. This is real but-for-the-grace-of-God stuff for me, as I used to admire and study on a few occasions with a ragtime expert as a kid but never practiced enough (or fixed the neural wiring for my locked-up hands on fast passages) to handle a decent rag.
***
That’s it! I hope that one day when you are dead someone will use machine learning technology to make your voice sound fantastic.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Dess Dior f. Skilla Baby & Rob49’s “Leave Her Alone.”