With the crackle and hiss of an old blues record and a high-pitched caterwaul which lies somewhere between Grouper and Skip James, from the living room of her house in the seaside town of Fremantle in Western Australia, Tiger Hutchence-Geldof goes under the name Heavenly for a heartfelt and potent tribute to her sister Peaches. Liz Harris and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma capture a strange time spent in the desert, the jazz quartet Fuubutsushi collect their four seasonal albums, while between the lingonberries and wildflowers of the Åland Islands, the duo of Jeremiah Chiu and Marta Sofia Honer snatch a moment on the house piano before settling down for an evening of film.
Blending the bounce of reggaeton with the languid late-night intimacy of the tarraxinha dance from his hometown of Lisbon, the producer Blastah issues his first record on DJ Python’s Worldwide Unlimited with the proceeds going to the homeless association Centro de Apoio ao Sem Abrigo. For Teklife the prolific Sirr TMO infuses Chicago footwork with ideas drawn from deep dives into Buddhist philosophy and Sufi mysticism. And Loraine James lands on Ghostly International with her ambient alias Whatever The Weather, whose temperate ambiances fit snugly alongside the field recordings of the Nairobi native KMRU and the hazy dreams of Perila.
Commandeering the freeway as the leader of an all-girl biker gang, Rosalía charts a bold new course on a song which references Wisin and Daddy Yankee, Vivienne Westwood, and Homeric Troy. Predicating her album upon the precipice of the supernatural, the spellbinding Cécile McLorin Salvant reinterprets a Sting original from the underrated romantic-comedy fantasy Kate & Leopold. The juke veteran Jana Rush lets loose on a horn sample with DJ Paypal, Matmos reassemble the works of the Polish polymath Bogusław Schaeffer, and Laura Cannell, Kamasi Washington, Koffee, Animal Collective, and Yeule complete the roundup of best new music.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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ROSALÍA – ‘SAOKO’
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Laura Cannell – ‘The Girl Who Became an Owl’
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Heavenly – ‘I Know What You Mean’
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Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer – ‘Stureby House Piano’
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Kamasi Washington – ‘The Garden Path’
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Matmos – ‘Flight to Sodom / Lot do Salo’
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Animal Collective – ‘We Go Back’
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Cécile McLorin Salvant – ‘Until’
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blastah – ‘fish friend anthem’
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Jana Rush – ‘Lonely’ (feat. DJ Paypal)
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Koffee – ‘Pull Up’
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Benny the Butcher & J. Cole – ‘Johnny P’s Caddy’
