The song crush team have sonic whiplash this week, veering from orchestral bombast to old-school hip-hop to scandi-avant-techno to Chinese opera meets Jamaican rocksteady.
The Phoenix Foundation's Sam Scott joins Kirsten Johnstone and Tony Stamp.
Angel Olsen - Lark
I think you have to hear Lark with the music video to fully engage with it. Angel Olsen seems to get more interesting with each release and this is distressing alchemy of emotional songwriting and tense, ever evolving production. SS
Danny Brown - Best Life
Danny Brown has undergone a striking transformation in between albums - out with the wild hair and broken teeth, in with some tightly cropped locks and a beautiful new set of chompers. The music’s considerably more upbeat too, helped along by producer Q Tip’s good vibes and a newfound positivity in Danny’s lyrics - although he casts an eye back to his wayward youth, it’s in contrast to how he’s living in the present. TS
Jenny Hval – Ashes to Ashes
Jenny Hval is a Norwegian avant-garde artist who makes pretty provocative electronic based music, with uncomfortable lyrics about things like menstrual blood, sex, gender, childlessness, and love.
‘Ashes to Ashes’, the first single from her seventh album The Practise Of Love, is a gateway song to her sound, awash with pretty synths and rave beats familiar to anyone who grew up in the 90s. As she builds to a euphoric climax, her musings on creativity and dreams become increasingly surreal. KJ
Stephen Cheng - Always Together
This is in a genre of one. An unearthed rare gem of 60s Jamaican rocksteady fronted by Chinese singer Stephen Cheng. I haven't heard anything like this ever, yet it makes total sense to my ears. A beautiful aural mystery. SS
Read about his story over at The New Yorker
Karnan Saba & Hone Be Good - Raukura
The first release on Tom Scott’s Years Gone By imprint is a years-in-the-making collaboration between producer Karnan Saba and lyricist Hone Be Good. It was made in London, Toronto and Melbourne but there’s something distinctly kiwi in its sonics; laidback, jazz-inflected and festooned with acoustic guitars.
‘Raukura’ bounces along with help from Uncle Silverback’s bass trombone, which riffs over lovely piano melodies and dollops of vinyl crackle and tape hiss. TS
