Permanent as party balloons
Mix 24: Midyear stuff I missed: Headache, Kara Jackson, Skeng, Hanabie, plus Shakira and RXKNephew and, you guessed it, baile funk and amapiano
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.
We are officially halfway through the year and I’ve found 544 songs I like and have read just over half of Moby-Dick! Not going to do an official halfway post because (1) I can’t figure out which songs I like best yet (sorry) and (2) soon I’ll need to nominate a 2023 song for the League of Extraordinary Tracks, the discovery poll over at the new People’s Pop website where you’re not supposed to vote for anything you’ve heard before. Don’t want to tip my hand; the voting margins are tight (you should join!).
Tom Ewing, creator of said league, recently asked his followers for the best songs of the year so far, and it’s a good batch. Two of the songs mentioned had been sitting in my song or album purgatory playlists (the opening two on the mix, Headache and Kara Jackson). Also on the mix from that thread: Skeng and Hanabie.
Let’s see, other preamble news…oh right, my family got second place in a pub trivia contest while we were on vacation, in part because I could identify “Hoedown Throwdown” by Miley Cyrus in a Name That Tune question (“Boom de clap!”). Getting 100% of movie premiere dates in the bonus round didn’t hurt, either. When we collected our $25 gift card, my son beamed at me like I was a superhero. It was one of the proudest moments of my life.
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 // Mix 23
MIX 24: PERMANENT AS PARTY BALLOONS
1. Headache: The Party that Never Ends
It’s hard to figure out exactly what this song is — I’ve been sitting on it for three weeks, and every time I listened to it I felt myself stubbornly refusing its advances. Is it a midlife “Sunscreen Song”? Is it “Fitter Happier,” but in the spirit of the new Kesha album? (Trick question, Kesha’s new album is already OK Computer and thus includes its own “Fitter Happier”!) I suspect a machine-learning vocal generator was used to make it and for some reason don’t want to research it to confirm or deny. But why should I care one way or the other? It’s got the profundity right there—the depth’s all on the surface. I’d rather just accept it than continue to hunt for something that gives me pause. Because they’re right — the heart knows the truth. (H/t @naxxu)
Another one I’d been processing for a long time without finding my way in. In this case I just trusted Jacob and listened to it a few more times. Now I don’t get what I wasn’t getting!
3. Shakira x Manuel Turizo: Copa Vacía
New Shakira, about as savvy-sounding to my ears as her Bizrp session back on the first mix of the year, though haven’t heard much about this one yet.
4. Sory L’officier & Rich Waneh: Zeulé
One of my week’s small pleasures is when I’m in the home stretch of the monster playlist and something jumps out right at the end — this was something like the third-to-last song I heard, what sounds like some good-natured boasting from Senegal. Doesn’t hurt that the title sounds like “silly,” putting me in mind of VIC’s song “Get Silly.”
5. Chani Nattan & Miss Pooja: Case
Two great pop songs from India. Pleased that I’ve found so much I’ve liked so far on the Hindi and India playlists this year, since historically Spotify hasn’t pointed me to a ton of keepers.
New one from the ambiguously indie Japanese group, certainly going for 80s pop in the visuals, though the sound seems more contemporary to me.
Great Jamaican dancehall track from the midyear round-up, h/t @tomwtn.
Chinese rap, in hypertrap style, from Michael Hong’s Mando Gap playlist.
10. DJ Rude One & RXKNephew: BB Belt
Annoyed not to be able to vote for this song in the latest round of the League of Extraordinary Tracks — at two minutes, it’s the perfect length for RXKNephew to beat, berate, pose, joke, and flick you behind the earlobe a few times. Whole album is a good match between the two credited artists, though it loses some of the breathlessness of RXK’s usual style, which I described as a “disorienting rubato” of cut ‘n’ splice audio editing back on Mix 3.
11. DJ CARAI f. Duda Freitas: Pump It Ritmado
12. RP NO BEAT, Mc Rd, & Mc Mary Maii: Vou Sarrando
Two funk tracks, the first with a demented sample of “Pump It” by the Black Eyed Peas and the second with Señor Wences falsetto. Weird, wild stuff.
13. La Bomba de Tiempo x Chocolate Remix: Bip Bip
Argentine percussion ensemble goes EDM with a little help from a pointedly queer-inclusive reggaeton artist I am now interested to learn more about.
Naija pop pick of the week, another nice iteration of amapiano crossover, which is turning into a real peanut-butter-in-my-chocolate situation.
15. Zan’Ten f. Umthakathi Kush: Cha Cha Cha
Amapiano pick of the week.
16. Gibraltar Drakus: Exode Rural [1989]
More 80s Cameroon bikutsi from Awesome Tapes from Africa, though this time with no email space left to put the triplets under a microscope.
17. Flat Worms: Time Warp in Exile
Rock section begins with worms — Ty Segall adjacent.
18. The Breeders: Go Man Go [1993]
Rock section continues with Breeders, an unreleased outtake from the Last Splash sessions.
Rock section reaches my personal fave with a bunch a punks, one-minute bonbon from a Nashville band.
Rock section climaxes and concludes with some choral theatrics from the Canadian indie band.
21. 花冷え。: お先に失礼します。 [HANABIE.: Pardon Me, I Have to Go Now.]
Excellent J-pop metal I missed at the beginning of the year, h/t to Jel.
22. Mez: Woi
Grime from Nottingham with light dubstep atmospherics.
Tropicalia from Amsterdam by way of Indonesia.
24. Nadin Amizah: Rayuan Perempuan Gila
Indonesian folk pop(?), couldn’t place it in time on first listen but it’s brand new.
25. Joanna Sternberg: Drifting on a Cloud
American folk pop(?), the first song from Joanna Strenberg that’s connected despite their whole vibe — something between Kimya Dawson and Nellie McKay — being very much up my alley.
Until next time, I hope you have an experience that gives you as much pride as I had knowing without even thinking about it what year The Patriot was released.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from “pawnshop” by Kara Jackson.