The best new singles this week

by Juno Daily on 21.05.2021 at 16:14pm.
Last edited: 09.06.2021 at 12:00pm.

The singles you really need to hear this week

SINGLE OF THE WEEK

Both Beneath and Hemlock have considerable reputations as trailblazers. The former made his presence felt in imposing fashion circa 2012 with a canny blend of dubstep, UK funky and techno. It was a time when such cross-pollination was starting to really gather steam, setting the tone for these hybridised times we live in, but Beneath did it with such verve and monumental amounts of dread pressure. Every drop on every label, from his own No Symbols to Tectonic, Keysound to Berceuse Heroique, felt like a distillation of everything vital about moody UK club music. It’s worth mentioning Beneath’s sound isn’t glum or downcast – there’s plenty of cheeky hooks and nagging, weirdo leads to set the dance ablaze – but this is serious system business, not happy-go-lucky terrace tackle.

Hemlock meanwhile was at the forefront of that mad era after dubstep, when James Blake and the Hessle crew were twisting our irregular bass shapes while label don Untold melted everyone’s minds with extravagant grime mutations and more besides. In the here and now, Beneath and Hemlock are not mavericks in the way they once were, but nor should they be. Some 10 years on, Beneath proves his innovation wasn’t an insipid pursuit of hype, but a clarity of vision which he continues to mine successfully now. Likewise, Hemlock has a patient, quality-oriented approach which means four years can pass between releases until the right moment for the right record. In some ways it seems funny Beneath and Hemlock haven’t crossed paths before now, but equally their juxtaposition feels worthwhile as a declaration of commitment to the very sonics presented on On Tilt.

Every one of these six tracks stays true to the spacious, dreadweight legacy of Beneath, but there’s also so much to latch onto musically. ‘Shambling’ pivots around a tart lead hook that wouldn’t sound out of place in a moombahton heater, while ‘Lesser Circulation’ comes draped in luxurious synths buzzing with harmonic overtones. ‘Dark Waters’ channels a golden age of dank dubstep in its sparse percussion and pervading sub, calling to mind Untold’s own breakthrough single, ‘Kingdom’. The metallic pings coursing through ‘A Shrill Manner’ call to mind the Sheffield bleep sound Beneath has referenced previously. The course of a track gets interrupted frequently as wild, buzzing tones slam into each other in pursuit of rave abandon. Serious though these tracks undoubtedly are, they’re also geared towards having fun, and that’s precisely why Beneath remains such a vital proposition in UK club music.

Fantastic Man – Cloud Management (Love International X Test Pressing)

Iconic festival curators Love International again join forces with subterranean word and sound protagonists Test Pressing to furnish music lovers with a refined aural offering. This time, the musical instalment comes in the form of a rather lovely EP from Australian-in-Berlin, Fantastic Man, and is released alongside a selection of desirable apparel designed to complement the creative package.

Mic ‘Fantastic Man’ Newman has more or less acquired the superhero status that his Marvel-esque moniker deserves, thanks to a consistently excellent flow of approximately deep house flavoured sounds on labels including Mule Musiq, Let’s Play House, Kolour, Love On The Rocks, and his own Superconscious records. One of a seemingly endless torrent of talented creators to emerge from Melbourne’s luminous disco furnace, he’s been positioned in Berlin since 2015, and it’s from here that he continues to unleash his seductive sounds onto a receptive underground audience. The EP opens with ‘Cloud Manager’, where delicate Balearic keys glide over crisp drums, ethereal pads and intricate synth textures. On the broken rhythms of ‘Lounge Wizard’, psychedelic swells interplay over deep bass as sprightly snares add thrust to the cut. On the wonderfully wonky ‘Psychic Monthly’ we find conscious-expanding threads organically interwoven over rolling percussion and mesmeric dub undertones. Finally, perhaps the most immediate of the contained tracks is ‘Time Apprentice’, with its bubbling acid, snappy snares and alluring lead synth hook.

Previously the Love International and Test Pressing gangs have combined to present delectable compilations from Gatto Fritto, Beautiful Swimmers, and Shanti Celeste, and this latest ‘X’ project sees the organisations’ favourite, hand-picked musical artists join forces with their own choice of designer to create a range of products to accompany each release. This time, the eye-catching sleeve design art comes courtesy of Berlin-based graphic designer Alexander Papoli-Barawati, and t-shirts, caps and keyrings are also available from the limited-edition collection.

Mukatsuku presents The Lions – The Reggae Funk Edition: Think About It (Mukatsuku)

The Lions is a unique Jamaican-inspired group, the result of an impromptu recording session by high profile musicians in their own right made up of members of Breakestra, Connie Price and the Keystones, Rhythm Roots All-Stars, Orgone, Sound Directions, Plant Life, Poetics and Macy Gray (to name a few). Gathering at Orgone’s Killion Studios, in Los Angeles during the Fall of 2006, they created music that went beyond the Reggae genre by combining new and traditional sounds, and dub mixing with the global sounds of Ethiopia, Colombia and Africa. The Lions also added a healthy dose of American-style soul, jazz, and funk to create an album that’s a modern homage to the funky exploits of reggae acts like Byron Lee, the Dragonaires and Boris Gardner, and a mash of contemporary sound stylings.

James Brown had written the original track which was then made famous by Lyn Collins. This version however, has Noelle gracing the vocals for the A side and bringing to life in their own dub reggae style to be enjoyed by varying types of audiences. On the flip side, the outstanding vocal free version has more than enough instrumentation to carry it on it’s own and has been championed by DJ Koco & DJ Muro from Japan and J Rocc, who have also released their own mixes to this particular track. Originally released back in 2011 under Ubiquity Records, this record has been brought back but this time under the helm of Mukatsuku who are a vinyl only label, and have blessed the masses with a 7 inch copy with very limited numbers. For those who may have missed out on the chance to get their hands on a record when it first came out, this will be their chance now. However it’s highly likely this will leave shelves just as quickly as it came in.

Ahemaa Nwomkro – Nsem Nyinaa Nyame (Philophon)

While we’re all pining after the June sun, it’s no wonder the sunny moods of highlife have been on the brain. In what better direction could we pointer-dog our ears towards now than Victoria Osei and Theresa Owusuaa?

The Ghanaian vocalist duo – together known as Ahemaa Nwomkro, aka. ‘Queens of Nwomkro’ – lay the sun on thick this week, releasing their split single ‘Nsem Nyinaa Nyame’ along with the B-side ‘Nana Kodajayen’.

Both songs are in an old folk style from the Ashanti people – Nwomkro – which preceded and influenced the first highlife recordings. Kwame Asare – highlife’s pioneering guitarist, who fleshed out the style in its native city of Kumasi – has the Nwomkro queens and their ilk to thank.

For this recording, the Queens met with a young group of highlife musicians from the city, creating a blissful, cinematic take on the genre, and fleshing out its roots in crisp quality. The A, ‘Nsem Nyinaa Nyame’, hears the pair sing in drowsy unison. All is slack under the Ghanaian sun. Crossrhythmic clave resounds, dominating the mix in all-encompassing stereo, while a blossomy mood permeates. An impossible, flourishing future-synth dances across the audio image at the two minute mark.

The B, ‘Nana Kodajayen’, lowers the pace ever so slightly. This time, a left-panned electric guitar – played by fellow musician Akule Pepe, who served for years in Alex Konadu’s legendary group, The Wonderful Alex Konadu’s Band – stands out in typical highlife fashion. Meanwhile, the Queens’ lyrics germinate outwards, creating a washy, sung haze.

We hear purity. While later forms of highlife came to a more improvisatory, sunny head, this stuff is moodier, foggier. The Queens seem to want to evoke the humidity of Kumasi’s surrounding jungle; in this smokier, teak-coloured pair of tracks, they’ve done it. And it’s not the first time; they follow 2019’s ‘Ye Fre Yen’ and ‘Me Bo Wo Din’, proving they’re a powerhouse, not a fluke.

JIJ

Solid Gold Playaz – Mind In A Daze EP (Freerange)

Renowned Chi-town heavy-hitters Solid Gold Playaz return with their first release in over two years with their exceptionally well-executed four-track EP, ‘Mind In A Daze’. Freerange Record’s founder Jimpster has long been an admirer of the gritty, subaquatic bounce of Solid Gold Playaz, and was understandably thrilled to present fresh material from the duo on his boundary-pushing label. Kenny Gino and Mike T have won plenty of admirers for their SGP productions, thanks to an uncompromising musical approach that combines with an undeniable knack for constructing compellingly kinetic and nocturnally-charged grooves. With releases that stretch back to the late ’90s on labels including Kanzleramt, DNH, Moods & Grooves, Silver Network, as well as their own Solid Gold Records, the Playaz arrive on Freerange in typically resolute mood.

Opening track ‘My Mind Is In A Daze’ is a particularly immersive number, with dreamy pads and suspenseful strings floating over mind-altering synth lines, crisp drums and sub-focussed bass. Hidden textures slowly reveal themselves as they effortlessly evolve, while the whispered vocal adds a seductive tone to the intoxicating groove. ‘The Kiss’ takes flight through dreamy atmospherics, its off-kilter chords and driving staccato synth enveloping the deliciously deviant bassline as distorted drums propel the rhythm. Next up, we find an overt tip of the cap to the Chicago house forefathers on the late-night haze of ‘Let Me See You Jack’, with its determined call to dance-floor action gliding over affected beats and hallucinatory ambience. Finally, on closing cut ‘Optical Illusion’ SGP treat us to an introspective deep house meditation, with haunting pads relentlessly sailing over astral waves as a steadily hypnotic drum pattern keeps a deceptively robust tempo, and deeply-rooted bass provides body to the panoramic waves. The hand-stamped vinyl EP is limited to 150 copies, so haste is advisable when contemplating an acquisition here.

Tapes – Sauna Research (Research Records)

Jackson Bailey is the man with all the tapes, but fortunately for us he’s very generous with his spools, and we’re now more than 10 years into his idiosyncratic digi-dub journey. Striking a fine balance between dubwise authenticity and a playful melodious attitude all his own, there’s always a teasing sense of unknowing before hitting play on a new joint, and so it goes as he shores up on the increasingly essential Research Records out of Australia.

Following releases on Good Morning Tapes and EM Records, Bailey is in a suitably mellow mood for this short and sweet 7”, which leans in on easy listening island boogie for the blissed-out massive. ‘Sauna Research’ comes on like there’s a leaky showerhead dripping a cooling balm onto your head while you enjoy a piping hot bath, possibly in earshot of the Compass Point studios somewhere around the mid 1980s. ‘Aquarium Trousers’ casts the bathtub out to sea on a dreamy bed of monosynth bass, but gosh, aren’t these waters calm? Given the edginess coming at us from so many angles, a record as wholly relaxing as this is a powerful weapon in smoothing everything out for the good of all humanity. For that, Jackson Bailey, we thank you.

Alan Fitzpatrick – WATB002 (We Are The Brave)

Released on forward thinking UK Label and home to records from well known artists such as Sasha and Camelphat, electronic heavyweight Alan Fitzpatrick drops another big club ready record filled with exuberant chimes and bass just in time for the party season to begin. Known for releasing game changing music under Drumcode, the enigmatic producer introduces four thunderous songs to grasp all electronic lovers’ attention. It’s clear Fitzpatrick is hopeful to garner all the love this year just for himself.

Starting off with the melodious and charismatic track “They All Called ‘Em Garys’”, Fitzpatrick twists and turns his listeners into his signature sounds, complete with gurn face worthy drops before taking us all on a wild expedition into his bass laden world. With ‘Colour Of A Dream’ and ‘Friday Night Dancing’, these songs are ready to transport all back into our memories of dancefloor wonders we all miss. Ending on the biggest high of all, ‘Magnetic Dog’ will refresh all minds back to a time where we all waited at the end of a night out just to hear the very last song. With a weighty feel to this, it’s fast paced and brings the record collectively to a brilliant end to be enjoyed over and over again.

Cosmic Neighborhood – All For All (Kit Records)

Cute psychedelia with a sense of humour is all the rage; perhaps Cosmic Neighborhood’s four -track cassette ‘All For All’ will its peak.

The illustrator-then-cassette-based-releasee is a well-worn path to stardom, but perhaps no-one does it as much justice as York-based artist Adam Higton. Higton’s art takes in comic strips, collage and sound, manifesting in the form of forest beings and asymmetric smiles. This art forms the ‘Cosmic Neighborhood’; a bustling cosmogramma home to tickly sprites, snakelike shouts, and wacky sine bursts.

This is hip hop via psych-jam and found tape sound. All is springlike. There’s probably a big Flying Lotus influence. But ‘All For All’ has motifs from elsewhere: Celtic melisma; toon noises; a just-intoned feel. We’re not sure if track 3, ‘Hedgehog II’, follows up any kind of first hedgehog, but it’s no matter. Whatever sprightly sentient being is being conveyed here, it really does sound like an upgraded steampunk hedgehog. Hedgehog mark two. Hog-borg.

Our favourite is ‘Big Bird In The Sky’, which has next to no bass, fittingly. All is indeed in the sky. LFO-ed psyche-bursts pop out of the mix, like a trembling insect reflection. Modular moods sibilate from the mix, light-filtery, electric bugs under a woodland log. All the while, Tom Cameron and Daphne Oram burst-ripple in the nearby bog’s paradox reflection. Higton’s soundworld is a goblin market, baskets bent with thickset fruit. Come buy, come buy.

JIJ

Anthene – Rosewater [Lillerne Tapes]:

Sometimes dance music has an extra dimension of slipperiness to it – as though it’s been pulled from a divine, primordial soup. AEVA (his real name is known only to us as Adam) has this quality. This EP, ‘I Feel Blu’, feels like the distantly ambient cousin to his debut EP ‘Massive Life’ – which, in all its mercurial dark techno glory, flew criminally under the radar.

Only two of the four tunes here have a beat; ‘I Feel Blu’ is a pumping speed garage via trance track, carrying the digitised memories of Inna and Todd Edwards somewhere between hyperspace and Ibiza (San Junipero, perhaps?). A wailing, effected voice hums over the mix as its main stabber synth develops, bringing out a yet-unheard, gut-wrenchier angle.

The follow-ups prove AEVA’s no gimmick, and show off the painful cost of laying on the emotion thick. Hardcore techno and hyperpummel esnare the ears on the two-part ‘Goblin Portal’, with al-dente drum distortion coming before a bed of impish ambience. ‘Til I’m In Death’ is the standout, with AEVA’s Autotuned vocals soaking up the digital sun, compressed just enough to sound like it’s bursting out of its own balladry. The closer, ‘Mysterious World’, rounds off in a low-key trip-hop mood. The voice of a seven-winged skullgnome whispers on the fadeout, a cliffhanger heard emanating from AEVA’s very own underground passage.

JIJ

AEVA – I Feel Blu EP (Don’t Delay)

Sometimes dance music has an extra dimension of slipperiness to it – as though it’s been pulled from a divine, primordial soup. AEVA (real name Dan Jacobs) has this quality. This EP, ‘I Feel Blu’, feels like the distantly ambient cousin to his debut EP ‘Massive Life’ – which, in all its mercurial dark techno glory, flew criminally under the radar.

Only two of the four tunes here have a beat; ‘I Feel Blu’ is a pumping speed garage via trance track, carrying the digitised memories of Inna and Todd Edwards somewhere between hyperspace and Ibiza (San Junipero, perhaps?). A wailing,aeffected voice hums over the mix as its main stabber synth develops, bringing out a yet-unheard, gut-wrenchier angle.

JIJ

This week’s reviewers: Jude Iago James, Ava Yusuf.