Wherever you go, you take yourself with you
Mix 5: Loneliness, jazz, and a long stretch of short, noisy bangers from around the world, plus the triumphant return of Leila K (sort of)
Since there is at least one song about loneliness on this week’s mix, I’ll link to an old post that I’m particularly fond of from 2017, about listening to Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)” with my son. You will see that the figure of Queen Elsa as metaphor for something or other is a longstanding preoccupation (I watched a lot of Frozen circa 2017!).
Meanwhile, please check the first of three swan songs (can you have three swan songs? Why not?) over at the Peoples Pop Polls: it’s Black Pop History Month, a yearly theme that generates so many incredible new-to-me songs that I can usually make four mixes just from the ones I haven’t heard, one for each year in the theme’s date range (this time around it’s 1978-1981). After BPHM, there will be a themeless “favorites” poll, followed by the long-awaited RAGNAPOP, where all winning former entries do battle to see which is the last one standing. (My money is on “I Feel Love” by Donna Summer, the winner of the very first poll.)
Also, I am currently at work on a 33 1/3 proposal (just announced, get your proposals in if you’re so inclined; I haven’t attempted one in over a decade!). Fingers crossed.
Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4
MIX 5: WHEREVER YOU GO, YOU TAKE YOURSELF WITH YOU
1. Pet Shop Boys: Loneliness
The Pet Shop Boys construct pop like an abandoned Christmas village: confronted with the discomfiting counter-forces of bodily movement (theory only) and psychological alienation (real!), you run up to an inviting-looking facade and knock on the door only to realize you’re alone in the cold. This one is like that, but it’s about that, too.
2. Arnaud Dolmen, Leonardo Monata: Zouky Monky
More Monk-y than zouk-y, I wish the credited Guadalupean-French artist—who build up a real head of steam thanks to that chunky piano pattern in the left hand—would take a note from successful jazz-pop crossovers and make a dash for the exit before the piano solo (which is good, don’t get me wrong). Maybe it needed to be Zouky Monky Guarald-y.
3. Fabiano do Nascimento, Sam Gendel: The Room
Well, if I’m going to find jazz hooky and funky enough to merit a track 2 placement, I might as well extend it to this soft but surprisingly propulsive guitar-and-sax duet.
4. Laura Day Romance: Young Life
Can never predict which 90s indie rock miners will strike slacker gold—this week Japan gets the medal (yeah yeah they’re digging for medals now, why not).
5. A Certain Ratio: All Comes Down to This
Have heard of but to my knowledge never knowingly heard A Certain Ratio. This strikes me as Britpoppy in contrast to their mutant disco origins. (Ah, I have heard them—I added “Shack Up” to my Golden Beat playlist back in April 2021 from a People’s Pop tournament.)
6. LAIR: Tatalu
Indonesian psych-rock freak-out.
7. Nandy f. Alikiba: Dah!
Sweet Tanzanian Afropop duet.
8. Ranjit Bawa: Marka
Solid pop Punjabi track.
9. Meryl, Dj Tutuss: Bigidi
And so begins a flurry of fast ‘n’ noisy bangers—I really like this stretch of ten songs, which average 2 minutes and change, though the runtime is slightly inflated by the indulgent expansion of a new Príncipe track to four minutes. Kicking things off, a dembow(ish) French track. Dembow is not only firing on all cylinders but is exporting well, too, which means…
10. Rochy RD: Wao Nena
…I think I’m ready to announce that dembow is officially in ferment, after two or three years of hinting that it was heading in that direction without hitting its full zeitgeist momentum. I’m going to go ahead and pin it all on Angel Dior. Song lengths are cut in half while the vocal feats feel like they’re bouncing off the walls with more force than ever (if not hitting Angel Dior’s Happy Fun Ball-style killer alien velocity).
11. Dj Brenno Paixão f. Mc Th, Balaz: Cola no Chao
Funk’s ferment continues into its fifth(?) straight year, and now I’m just plucking it up at random, not concerning myself with who’s best or who’s interesting, just letting my ears alight and throwing it all against the wall. This one rides an eerie echoing synth into its electroclave. Mc Th is one for me to keep a more watchful eye on, his name keeps cropping up in stuff I like so far this year.
12. DJ Kolt: Fiqexpert
Another Príncipe release, another hopeless word cloud of adjectives to choose from. This time, let’s say…“insistent, easy menace.”
13. Gamma, Lünik f. Natoxie: Pann
New bouyon music from Dominica is now on my list of subjects for future research—don’t know this scene at all, but it’s pretty great from what I’ve sampled. Steel drums copying prominent hip-hop samples at breakneck speeds? OK!
14. TiaCorine f. Zelooperz: Olive
I find TiaCorine amusing because in addition to being a promising weirdo-rapper who hasn’t quite broken through as far as I can tell, she is also the first thing that always comes up when I search for People’s Pop playlists on Spotify under “freakytrigger” (she has a song called “FreakyT”). Yet more promising weirdo-rap here, with a Twilight Zone figure chugging along in the background like an old Dan the Automator beat or something, and Zelooperz huffing and puffing to keep up.
15. Nada Nader: Masla7ty
Competent Egyptian rapper over a ho-hum trap beat, but she’s in and out by 1:59 and I’ve yet to hear anything like this from Egypt.
16. $hiro: Marmelat
More phonk-inflected Turkish rap after last week’s inclusion.
17. Melo: Pää Eel
And now the first I’ve heard of a Finnish rapper trying out hypertrap. Doesn’t sound quite enough like he’s drowning, needs several hundred more gallons of water, or at least for something to go down the wrong pipe, still pretty good.
18. Angry Blackmen: FNA
Distinctively pre-pandemic noisy indie rap, I guess Death Grips are officially oldies? The political commentary feels dated: they’re still rapping like interest rates are at zero and you can’t find an entry level job.
19. Johnny Bravo, Billy G: Tudo Mentira
Angolan artist in France and a Lisbon-based producer with a quick kuduro rap.
20. RUSIIICK, Misha Substance: Hate Is OK (No)
And here we resurface with a bit less abbreviated abrasion, with a Ukrainian track that splits the difference between industrial and…hip-house?
21. Maddix f. Leila K: Open Sesame (Abracadabra)
And now to really push the untz untz untz to 11, it’s Dutch DJ Maddix ruthlessly chopping up Leila K’s Eurodance “Open Sesame” in a way that doesn’t quite deter me from wanting to listen to the original (Metal Mike Saunders sent me some Leila K in a care package back in 2005, so there’s more than a little sentimental value) but he gets close, which is still an achievement.
22. Aнастимоза: Звір
Ukraine really knows its way around a goth-pop tune, huh.
23. Iglooghost f. Marina Herlop: Collision Data
Iglooghost really knows his way around a Marina Herlop vocal, huh.
24. Eli Mich: We Are the Risers
Another Dutch DJ, much less gonzo than the last one, with (relatively) restrained, moody EDM.
25. RYUTist: 君の胸に、Gunshot
Ending things with a bang, but the sort of bang where you’re not sure when it’s going to surprise you, throwing poppers at the ground like Alfred Molina’s firecracker buddy in Boogie Nights. Ryo Miyauchi calls this an early candidate for idol track of the year. I have no reason to doubt it, but am mostly impressed with how consistently this spare-sounding flurry of hi-hats and synth pulses keeps pushing me off kilter while the group hauls forward with its pretty melody. Last weekend my kids showed off their circus school skills at a playground on a long balance beam that shifts around as other kids push on it—they both tiptoed right across in a similar style, one playing the melody across while the other played the beat shaking the beam. (The youngest needed an occasional pinkie finger to hold on to, though he could mostly maintain balance himself. Not sure if this applies directly to the song, but it does feel like there’s a pinkie in there keeping the thing from flawlessness.)
***
Until next time, try to hold on to your loved ones if you’ve got ‘em, even if it’s only with your pinkie.
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Pet Shop Boys’ “Loneliness.”