Nialler9’s favourite songs of the past month, all in one place.
1.
Kojaque
Town’s Dead
Kojaque announced his debut album with the title track that races out of the traps with a Girl Band sample, the nervous energy of a Young Fathers track and his delivery which he’s really made his own. The album is out on June 25th and there’s an explanation of the title accompanying the release:
Town’s Dead comes from the potential that I see in Dublin and in the people I’m surrounded by day in and day out. There’s nothing but talent and ambition among young people, I’m constantly reminded of that through the art and music that I see being made but I think so often the city grinds you down, it takes your hope and your ambition. I know that it can change because so many of my friends express the exact same wants, desires and frustrations with living in Ireland. If so many of us are on the same page then I know that things can change, there just needs to be some sort of catalyst to kick start that change and for me that’s always been art and music. Time and time again, amazing art continues to be made in spite of the struggles and setbacks that are presented when living here. The title track and the album is a fight against what can sometimes feel inevitable, it’s a rejection of what people tell you is your destiny as a young person in the city, Town’s NOT dead it’s just Dormant.”
2.
Jessie Ware
Please
Oh cool. Jessie Ware kept back another banger for the deluxe version (June 11th) of last year’s What’s Your Pleasure?. ‘Please’ is a throwback soft soulful gospel-leaning disco track you could imagine George Michael singing. Production is by Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford.
There will be 6 new songs on the deluxe album titled What’s Your Pleasure – The Platinum Pleasure Edition.
3.
Dry Cleaning
Strong Feelings
Dry Cleaning’s debut album New Long Leg is the best album of the last month (alongside Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders’ Promises) and the combination of spoken word poetry by Florence Shaw over a band playing guitar music works because there is a sparkling interplay between these two forces that finds new folds in itself.
Dry Cleaning play the Button Factory in April 2022
4.
Dave
Titanium
‘Titanium’ from London artist Dave is a moody flex that was released alongside ‘Mercury’. It’s a big record.
5.
Self Esteem
I Do This All The Time
‘I Do This All The Time’ is a partly spoken word track about the expectations on people as we move through the world – an anthemic cathartic song that is a hand on the shoulder, an embrace of the self, as the video shows.
Self Esteem is Rebecca Taylor (ex Slow Club) and she is due to play The Workman’s Club on November 9th.
6.
Brockhampton
Chain On feat. JPEGMAFIA
The highlight of the new Brockhampton album, and with that sample flex at the outro? Oof.
7.
Skiifall, Knucks
Ting Tun Up Part II
Montreal and London connect on a track that buries itself deep with jazzy, R&B and rap touchstones.
8.
Faye Webster
Cheers
23-year-old Atlanta singer-songwriter Faye Webster has announced a fourth album I Know I’m Funny haha is out June 25th via Secretly Canadian (she was 15 when she released her debut in 2013).
‘Cheers’ has some of the sound that has dominated indie-rock in recent years (Julia Jacklin, Courtney Barnett, Big Thief) but is a sludgier take on the vibe.
9.
Villagers
The First Day
Conor O’Brien has announced that his fifth studio album Fever Dreams will be released on Domino on August 20th this year. The first single is inspired by a trip to the brilliant Another Love Story festival in County Meath.
“I had an urge to write something that was as generous to the listener as it was to myself. Sometimes the most delirious states can produce the most ecstatic, euphoric and escapist dreams.”
10.
Soda Blonde
In The Heat Of The Night
Small Talk touches on many things: indulging in the darkness, while also trying to derive some meaning from it; on having no degree; on the way I sabotaged multiple relationships, or let my parents down. It’s about looking for resolution and revolution in sex and politics. It’s about being abused mentally and physically by the people you love the most, and in turn, abusing the people who love you
11.
Bloto
Mitomania
Polish experimental jazz which I discovered on Bandcamp.
12.
Sinead O’Brien
Kid Stuff
Sinead O’Brien’s particular brand of spoken word post-punk rock music doesn’t always chime with me, but I find the Irish London-based artist’s newest song ‘Kid’s Stuff’ packed with more dynamism than previous releases, and with a super video to go with it.
13.
Willhouse, Fynch, Sick Nanley
So Sorry
Irish rap labels Poxy Records and Burner are collaborating and this is a great outcome.
14.
L’Rain
Two Face
‘Two Face’ opens up with a looping piano part that sounds like a Kate Bush track but the Brooklyn musician Taja Cheek aka L’Rain unfurls it into a jazzier more psychedelic arrangement.
L’Rain has an album out on Mexican Summer in June.
15.
Sorry
Cigarette Packet
This reminds me of early Micachu and The Shapes and Tirzah.
16.
Poté, Damon Albarn
Young Lies
Poté is Sylvern Mathurin, an artist who has previously collaborated with Kojey Radical, and Chelou an who has a debut album entitled A Tenuous Tale Of Her on Bonobo’s Outlier label. For the record’s first single, none other than Damon Albarn appears on the song’s soft electronic and plucked tones.
17.
Ugolino
Early Hours
Shane Richardson and Oran Hurley’s Ugolino makes an immediate impression with their debut single melding spoken word rap and live jazz instrumentation for something fresh.
18.
Berwyn
100,000,000
Berwyn makes beautiful sad bangers.
19.
ALYXIS
MINE
‘Mine’ is about wanting someone so much you start to dream about them. Convincing yourself you are the one. The video is set in XOIOXO, the digital ecosystem where ALYXIS lives, the same as the other tracks on the ‘RUSH’ EP. It starts with fully-formed bodies, dancing and moving in this dream-like world. Particle energy clouds approach and consume the characters, playing on themes of power, desire and sexuality.
20.
Little Simz
Introvert
Little Simz isn’t doing things by half in announcing her forthcoming album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert for September 3rd. Epic string swells and orchestral fanfare introduce a more ambitious phase of Little Simz’ career. I also hear some of the SAULT vibe on here, which makes sense as Inflo is producer of both.
21.
Italia 90
Borderline
A good old-fashioned Brighton post-punk funk single from a band with a great name.
22.
Farhot
Yak Sher
The Afghan-born producer is making jazzy trip-hop a la Maribou State.
23.
Bicep
Siena (feat. Clara La San)
From the deluxe version of Isles which came out this month.
24.
J Smith, NNIC
Blood Orange
Blood Orange’ is a song written about James Smith’s relationship with his wife Ffion and tells of “a couple’s second chance to reignite their passion in love.” Its Radiohead-esque lilt is a bit of a heartbreaker but ultimately, it’s a beautiful rendering of a real relationship in both song and video.
25.
Zoee
Microwave
Harriet Zoe Pittard is ZOEE, a new London-artist who has previously guested on Joe Goddard and PC Music tracks drops this slice of pleasing hipster indie pop which the artist says is “a many-sided song about familial dynamics, oppressive domestic settings and the joy found in self validation.”
ZOEE’s debut album ‘Flaw Flower’ is due on June 25th via Illegal Data.
