Tracks of the Week playlist
1. Alt-J – ‘Hunger Of The Pine’
A slow-moving weighted return for the Mercury Prize-winning band who manage to defy expectations by legitimately sampling Miley Cyrus on their new single from second album This Is All Yours. This coarses through the veins the more you listen to it.
2. Jamie xx – ‘All Under One Roof Raving’
“I wanted to make something I could play out when I got home that reminded people of how good home is.”
“I made All Under One Roof Raving whilst on the tail end of another year on the road with The xx. I was missing life in London and trawling through any music and videos that reminded me of home. One in particular I found very inspiring, Mark Leckey’s ‘Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore.’
3. FKA Twigs – ‘Two Weeks’
Twigs sits on a throne in an Egyptian-style temple, looking bronzed, exotic and elegant, singing the words which obfuscate explicitness through her hushed singing and style. There are no others in her category.
4. Lethal Dialect and Jacknife J – ‘Headstrong’ feat. Jess Kav
On the first single from the album, ‘Headstrong’ which does feature a great vocal hook from Dublin singer Jesse Kav (who appears throughout the album), JackKnifeJ’s brooding bumping ambient production (reminds me of Banks’ ‘Drowning’ in tone) is the perfect backdrop for Paulie remaining positive among the curveballs that life throws at him.
5. Rustie – ‘Raptor’
The bass on this track gave me a headache when I first heard it. But there’s something endearing about a producer who uses the mechanisms of trap music in such a bright and brazen way that subtly subverts the form. Clap trap happy music from Rustie’s second album Green Language out in August on Warp.
6. Jessie Ware – ‘Tough Love’
No sign of Ms. Ware going full-on electronic-pop just yet. Instead, her new Benny Blanco and Two Inch Punch-produced single sticks to her modern Sadé R&B template. Super smooth.
7. Carriages – ‘Roots’
The Dublin folk electronic duo’s encouraging new single.
Their new double A-side single, takes it first step forward with ‘Roots’ (‘Significant Landscapes’ is the other track). It’s their most direct track yet, a suitably clip clopping rhythm and synth stabs swell towards the chorus of Page singing “roots run deeper when we play / roots grow high when we lay,” which despite the recordings of the metropolis, firmly place the song in a more pastoral setting.
8. Spies – ‘Moosehead’
The Dublin band stretch their indie-rock M.O. into some more expansive, yet past-referencing.
9. Zola Jesus – ‘Dangerous Days’
The first single from the 25 year-old’s fifth album is her most accessible yet. That glorious warble is still in full flow. Free download.
10. Busdriver – ‘Ego Death’ (feat. Aesop Rock & Danny Brown)
The first single from Busdriver’s forthcoming Big-Dada-released Perfect Hair album ropes in cackling Danny Brown and old favourite Aesop Rock on a Jeremiah Jae beat.
