The best tracks of the week
9. Octave Minds – ‘Tap Dance’ feat. Chance The Rapper & The Social Experiment
Chance The Rapper is a versatile talent. He sits outside rap’s porch painting a world that has more colour, passion and emotion than most. It’s almost hyper-real. On last year’s guest verse on SZA’s ‘Child’s Play’ he illuminated the track with Popeye references and a tightly structured flow that ends in a wistful singsong “But memories keep coming back / All the nights that we used to laugh / Wanna know how we used to was, how we used to was.”
He’s guested on tracks from James Blake, Justin Bieber and most recently to me, Shlohmo and Jeremih’s ‘The End’ adding a dragged syncopated ryhthmic stop-start verse to proceedings. On his own, or with his band The Social Experiment he approaches the unusual – covering a Kids TV theme song with Jessie Ware in tow.
On this Octave Minds song, a collaboration between Chilly Gonzales and Boys Noize (a fine match that has produced an album worthy of investigation), Chance’s pitter-patters lightly on Chilly’s bright piano riff, dexterously leapfrogging around the track’s melody, adding a filmic experience to the polymorphic exuberance on display.
Hey, before you go...
Nialler9 has been covering new music, new artists and gigs for the last 19 years. If you like the article you just read, and want us to publish more just like it, please consider supporting us on Patreon.
What you get as thanks in return...
- A weekly Spotify playlist only for patrons.
- Access to our private Nialler9 Discord community.
- Ad-free and bonus podcast episodes.
- Guestlist & discounts to Nialler9 & Lumo Club events.
- Themed playlists only for subscribers.
Your support enables us to continue to publish articles like this one, make podcasts and provide recommendations and news to our readers, and be a key part of the music community in Ireland and abroad.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.