This week’s roundup take us to versions of dystopian futures, explores the trans/human, and delves into the undeniable euphoria of, well, weird dance music. Listen below:
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ARP – New Pleasures
American producer ARP’s latest single New Pleasures comes off the album of the same name, the second entry in the artist’s ZEBRA trilogy. Beginning in 2018, the project sees ARP imagine a future Eden. But while ZEBRA found its sound informed by matters of the natural world, New Pleasures finds itself concerned with the concept of a future metropolis. With propulsive percussion that blends the organic with the programmed, New Pleasures is a synth driven nu-disco track with a retro-futurist edge. Mechanical and dystopian, it’s an alternate view to ZEBRA’s natural utopia.
Haai, Obi Frankly – Purple Jelly Disc
Lately, Australian producer HAAi has really been finding her groove. Based in London, it’s clear that the city is having an impact on the music she makes. Taken from her upcoming album Baby, We’re Ascending, Purple Jelly Disc with Obi Franky is a trance rave track reminiscent of Underworld’s Born Slippy with its thunderous techno pulse and bright, introspective tonality. Acid techno touches glitch at the start, eventually giving in to glowing drones that glimmer behind the chaos on this eight minute epic.
Eartheater – Mitosis
Multi-instrumentalist, producer, and vocalist Alexandra Drewchin may be a more elusive presence on the alt-pop scene than some of her peers, but for the past half decade she’s been creating a sonic and aesthetic identity that today, has come to inform much of the scene itself. Mitosis, her latest single, is an abysmal darkwave-trap witch house dirge. Exploring themes of mutation, the track is fittingly discomforting, with rave synths writhing and twisting across a nebulous beat as Eartheater shifts from childlike falsetto to devastating and primordial chanting.
The Fear Ratio, Kashmere Kat – Spinning Globe
The collaborative project of Mark Broom and James Rush begin the rollout of their sophomore effort, Slinky, by enlisting British rapper King Kashmere. The result, Spinning Globe, is a sort of bubbling grime / acid glitch hybrid. Over a bouncy, rubberised yet amorphous beat, King Kashmere contemplates the socio-political state of the world and the validity of his own world view by asking, “does anything exist when I am not observin’ it? Does energy persist when I am not concerned with it?”
LVL1 – Co1n
On the cover art for their latest single, queer rapper LVL1 appears as a troll. For a hip-house/bubblegum bass song that deals with whether or not to hook up with someone by way of a coin toss, this imagery seems appropriate. Co1n is a club-ready banger to add to LVL1’s growing arsenal, who’s been releasing some seriously fun and seriously gay party music. Switching between quickly rapped Spanish verses and a hyperpop adjacent refrain sung in English, Co1n is another irreverent toss for the artist in the right direction.
