Sam Atkins – It’s a Brat world and we are just living in it. No album seemed to capture my social media and normal life like Charli XCX‘s latest record did. I wouldn’t say that Brat is my favourite album of her career, but it’s definitely the most ‘Charli XCX’ thing she has ever released.
The release of the ‘girl, so confusing’ remix with Lorde was the peak moment of the month. A song so specifically written about confusion over where you stand with someone else in the industry leading to an extra verse being added by the artist in question is unhinged and defines everything that is making this the most exciting era of Charli’s career so far. Lorde’s verse in particular ‘You’d always say, “Let’s go out”, But then I’d cancel last minute, I was so lost in my head, And scared to be in your pictures’ there’s a stark honesty between two women experiencing the music industry in a very different way to each other that feels so powerful in its simplicity. Its a triumph from two of pop’s most exciting artists.
Rick Larson – Girl Scout is a band fairly recently emerged from Stockholm. Like the severely underrated Pom Poko, they are Scandinavian jazz students throwing themselves enthusiastically into rock. The band released a single, ‘I Just Needed You to Know,’ that is one of the best things I’ve heard this year. It sounds like it could be an outtake from The Bends, a la ‘Bones,’ a heaping helping of straight dopamine, an immensely pleasurable listen that you can’t turn up loud enough. Fuck yeah, Girl Scout, I can’t wait for more.
I reviewed the debut album from Chicago’s Cusp last year. The
band released an EP, ‘Thanks So Much’, that is thankfully more of the same and some things different. The opener, ‘The Alternative’ sounds a bit Beach House-y dreamy, but with the clatter of live drums. ‘Your Freedom’ is chunky and satisfying. Cusp writes songs that wear vintage Husky corduroys from Sears. Lead singer Jen Bender has an easy delivery that reminds me of Carol Van Dijk of old favorite Bettie Serveert. It’s good stuff.
James Spearing – Two cracking but very different gigs in Manchester this month. First, CSS was a throwback delight at a sweaty Gorilla with, often hilarious, deliberately lo-fi visuals. This was followed a few days later by a contrasting an all-seated affair at Factory International with Bat for Lashes which made excellent use of the theatre setting with use of light and shadow.
And it was a lovely surprise to be reminded of a under the radar tune I’d forgotten about while sipping a coffee in a local cafe. Check out ‘Charmed’ by Σtella if you’ve never heard it before.
Tom Burrows – I’ve really enjoyed James Massiah’s True Romance EP this month. Massiah is primarily a poet and spoken-word artist, but the six songs on last month’s release show an impressive dexterity on the mic as a rapper, with his tales of hedonism and heartbreak crackling over instrumentals immersed in acid house, dub and dancehall. Massiah has said “I’m a poet, but the music offers another pair of teeth,” and it’s absolutely true; you could listen to these beats in isolation and feel the nocturnal adrenaline pulsing through the capital’s underground. With the words added, the effect is amplified. This is still fully on rotation for me.
Album-wise, Anderson Paak and Knxwldge finally released their second album as NxWorries, Why Lawd? (only 6 months too late to meet their inclusion in our 2023 Album preview article). The intervening 8 years have somewhat mellowed the freewheeling energy that coursed through the first album, but the slower pace still finds them in fine form. Paak’s clownish womaniser still has a lot of fun with Knxwldge’s J Dilla-esque beats, ending up as the losing party in these entertaining short stories. ‘KeepHer’ featuring Thundercat is one of my favourites from the non-singles.
And staying on the hip-hop theme, Mach-Hommy released the final album in his Haiti-centred trilogy, #RICHAXXHAITIAN, which I’ve been playing frequently in June. Longer and less consistent than Pray For Haiti and Balens Cho (Hot Candles), it nevertheless contains a range of highlights from one of my favourite rappers out at the moment. The Black Thought-assisted ‘Copy Cold’ is a highlight, with danceable flows and a prominent Sky News sample which effectively demonstrates how Haiti is perceived by the outside world.
Will Collins – Despite having performed together as British Murder Boys on and off for two decades, Regis and Surgeon have only just got around to releasing their first studio album proper. Fortunately, it is worth the wait, a bracing, in your face set of their characteristic blend of techno, dub and industrial. The sound is cavernous, deploying sledgehammer beats that are immense and overwhelming, whilst also playing around with the unsettling ways sounds are distorted by or disappear into the space around them. Despite its density, it also has a litheness to it that makes clear this is still, at its heart, music for dancing. The shamanic vocal delivery on several of the tracks reinforces the feeling that the listener is caught in some kind of end of days ritual worship. It’s an overwhelming, sensory onslaught, but it is also beguiling and strangely uplifting.
That’s all for this month. Enjoyed these recommendations? Why not buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com/pickybastards?
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