{"id":9125,"date":"2015-10-12T04:47:19","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T07:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturedarm.com\/?p=9125"},"modified":"2016-01-05T02:42:03","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T05:42:03","slug":"culturedarms-songs-of-the-month-september-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturedarm.com\/staging\/5793\/culturedarms-songs-of-the-month-september-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Culturedarm’s Songs of the Month (September 2015)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Peaches<\/a><\/p>\n

A belated ‘Songs of the Month’ for September means that a slew of new music stakes its claim out of place: October has already seen excellent new records by Janet Jackson, Kelela, Autre Ne Veut, and Taeyeon, but I’ll save these for a few weeks.\u00a0September’s songs include selections from Towkio, Kyle and Chance The Rapper, Nicole Dollanganger, Peaches, Sun Araw, The Velvet Underground, Run The Jewels and Blood Diamonds, Julia Holter, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Spike Jones, and Ryan Adams.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Towkio\u00a0– ‘Clean Up’ (feat. Chance The Rapper) and ‘Reflection’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Towkio’s .Wav Theory<\/a><\/em> dropped back in April, and while it might\u00a0have made for especially fun listening over the late spring and early summer, it is only over the last month that I have been\u00a0delving\u00a0into\u00a0what stands as one of the year’s most entertaining mixtapes. Previously known as Preston San and Tokyo Shawn, Towkio is part of Chicago’s SaveMoney collective, whose most prominent members, Chance The Rapper<\/a> and Vic Mensa, both feature on .Wav Theory<\/em>. The Social Experiment\u00a0also play their part, with Peter Cottontale the tape’s executive producer, while Donnie Trumpet guests on the lead single ‘Free Your Mind’.<\/p>\n

Towkio is half-Mexican, half-Japanese, and perhaps this within the context of his Chicago hometown goes some way towards explaining the unique vibe of .Wav Theory<\/em>. The production –\u00a0handled mostly by Towkio, with a couple of tracks courtesy of Kaytranada, one from FKJ, and one credited to Cam O’bi and The Social Experiment – offers an exuberant and uplifting blend of a peculiar mix: funk, jazz, and soul, with loose keys and futuristic synths, high-pitched, breathy vocal samples, and persistent handclap percussion. While many of the individual sounds seem to call back to the 70s and 80s, the result is decidedly modern. And Towkio lingers over it all with an enthusiastic, lilting vocal presence, capable of moments of real tenderness.<\/p>\n