Nialler9’s favourite songs of the past month, all in one place.
1.
The Avalanches
Wherever You Go (feat. Neneh Cherry & Jamie xx)
Wherever You Go’ is a euphoric piece of music featuring co-production from Jamie xx, and vocals from Neneh Cherry and Sydney-based producer Clypso that takes you on a celestial journey with samples of sampled fromThe Voyager Golden Record, a gold-plated copper disk launched into space by Voyager 1 and 2 in 1977. The Clash’s Mick Jones plays piano on it. (Original Post)
2.
Khruangbin
So We Won’t Forget
Texas trio Khruangbin’s new album Mordechai is smudged summer bliss. I recommend getting a vinyl copy. There’s a Song Exploder about this tune.
3.
Fontaines D.C.
A Lucid Dream
For our full Fontaines D.C. A Hero’s Death review, listen to our round table podcast episode.
4.
Gemma Dunleavy
Up De Flats
Gemma Dunleavy celebrates the Sheriff Street community she grew up in on ‘Up De Flats’. Original Post.
5.
Berwyn
Trap Phone
The second solo single from the East London artist who featured on the Everything Is Recorded album.
6.
Silverbacks
Klub Silberrücken
Another fine Irish rock album as reviewed on the podcast.
7.
Rejjie Snow
Cookie Chips feat. MF DOOM
Ever since Rejjie Snow appeared on the scene as Lecs Luther, there was only one rapper he ever really talked about and sounded like most. That is the supervillain MF DOOM, one of the best MCs going – and a long favourite around here.
And so, Rejjie now has a track featuring DOOM along with Cam O’bi, the first track from Snow since Dear Annie in 2018.
Not only is Rejjie meeting his heroes, he’s rapping with him too.
8.
Jaakko Eino Kalevi
The Search – Domenique Dumont Remix
Latvian/French trio Domenique Dumont bring the Kraftwerk vibes on the remix to our Finnish favourite’s original, which was released on Kalevi’s 2019 Dissolution EP.
9.
Róisín Murphy
Something More
Róisín Murphy is releasing a new album on September 25th called Róisín Machine. It was made with Crooked Man aka DJ Parrot and will feature the singles she’s put out this year and in previous years like ‘Jealousy’, ‘Simulation’ and ‘Murphy’s Law’ among them.
10.
Wyvern Lingo
Don’t Say It
Caoimhe Barry , Karen Cowley and Saoirse Duane are back with a tease of album two, which the band recorded in Berlin between 2019 and 2020 before lockdown interfered.
‘Don’t Say It’ is a song that is informed by their R&B/funk roots, capably spun in a style that feels fresh for the band, more confident and tightly arranged while also harkening back to their very early music.
They say the song “is about an inevitable and reluctant end, where the reasons to stay are deeply rooted, but the reasons to leave are becoming harder to deny.”
11.
SL, Kenny Beats
Bad Luck
Rap flute banger 2k20.
12.
NZCA LINES
Prisoner Of Love
If you’re looking for an album of sleek electro-pop bangers, get yourself onto NZCA/Lines’ new album Pure Luxury. ‘Prisoner Of Love’ is one of the album’s highlights, a string-assisted disco ball of a song.
13.
God Knows
Move The Needle feat. BONY & MuRli
God Knows is going to followup his recent EP the with the Who’s Asking? EP Vol. II in August with another EP on Fly High Society, the follow-up to the South West All-Stars-featuring EP in February.
‘We Move The Needle’ is the first song from Volume 2 featuring turns from Rusangano’s MuRli and Cork MC Bony and is right up to date from the off with references to Black Lives Matter protests and lines like “the living embodiment of a Scary Eire” over a spaced-out bass-blown SertOne beat.
14.
Dua Saleh
Body Cast
Minneapolis MC responds to what has been happening in her city.
15.
Bríen
Sundried
Brand new on Soft Boy Records from the Belfast producer Bríen – a track from a the recent DIY Vol 1. Sounds like Kean Kavanagh on the hook of this late-night, early morning vibe.
16.
Westside Gunn
Buffs vs. Wires
Buffalo MC Westside Gunn followed up one of our albums of the year so far with the mixtape Flygod Is An Awesome God 2 in early July and this track really flies.
17.
Chloe x Halle
Ungodly Hour
Disclosure on the beat for some house-R&B heaven.
18.
Mansur Brown
It’s My Time
UK jazz guitarist does wonderful things with his instrument that don’t involve shredding like a MF.
19.
Biig Piig
Don’t Turn Around
Twisting a sample form Claudja Barry’s ‘Love For The Sake Of Love’ (as also sampled by Montell Jordan, Prodigy of Mobb Deep and Poolside), the new track from London-based Irish/Spanish artist moves her craft further into pop-focused R&B jam vibes.
It’s the followup to her best song to date (IMO) – ‘Switch’.
20.
Taylor Swift
EXILE (feat. Bon Iver)
A Taylor Swift album produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner is not something we knew existed until yesterday. Such was the secrecy around it that even Dessner’s own 8-year-old daughter was kept in the dark. And the addition of Justin Vernon lending his baritone to a duet with Swift on ‘Exile’ is another unlikely pairing that we couldn’t have expected to hear this week.
21.
Patricia Lalor
Alone
14 year old Dublin singer-songwriter shows skill beyond her years on the dreamy new song ‘Alone’. It’s from a new EP called Do It Again that came out on July 24th.
22.
!!!
Do The Dial Tone
Never a bad time to drop in some !!! punk-funk hedonism into your playlists. This track has a Bicep-esque rhythm and is from a new dancefloor-centred EP Certified Heavy Kats
23.
Planningtorock
Jam Fam (Chanel Slow Version)
Big ’80s synth vibes from gender-queer artist Planningtorock on Chanel EP. This is the sound of anticipating a weekend, preferably not in your own house.
24.
James Blake
Are You Even Real?
“This song hits so close to home in 2020 because you don’t know what is real and what is cake,” goes the Youtube comment.
25.
Bill Callahan
Protest Song
Old Bill is to release a new album Gold Record in September and has been teasing out songs from it. The fourth song is a sarky blues song that sounds like it was written on a dusty porch with Bill growling at a singer he’s not happy seeing on late night TV. “This boy’s / messsing with a man’s toys.”
