This week the Preston piledriver Blackhaine returns alongside his longtime collaborator Rainy Miller, building upon the inner-city ambiances and broken-drill tectonics of their debut record Armour as well as the lurid hotel trysts and paranoid club breakdowns of last year’s scabrous extended play And Salford Falls Apart. Zola Jesus lays bare the spittled wounds and stormy heartaches of desire, N Kramer leads an exercise in fragility, the saxophonist Jasmine Myra forges new beginnings in the form of her debut single on Gondwana Records, and with a head full of whiskey Ethel Cain navigates the yellow lights and shaded underbelly of the American dream.
Drawing from musical traditions which stretch across North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, the producer and researcher Mhamad Safa imbues his pieces with Gnawa ritual poetry, Amazigh polyrhythms, and the social strictures and outcast hedonism of Rai, with the female-fronted recitations of Taggagat which settled in Saudi Arabia and the reedy echoes and celestial shivers of Gulf pearl divers out at sea, exploring sonic ruptures and spatial relations through predictive algorithms, field recordings, and juddering beats. The modular synth pioneer Afrorack preps his debut on Hakuna Kulala, while Mdou Moctar lean on Aya Metwalli, Rey Sapienz, Chrisman and some of the other outsized characters of Nyege Nyege Tapes for a thoroughgoing remix of Afrique Victime.
The Anti-Mass queer club night and DJ collective based in the Ugandan capital of Kampala and Never Normal Records which operates out of the Bronx unveil their first collaborative compilation, born from twelve months of sound exchanges and online listening sessions between rising East African techno artists and rap and footwork specialists at home in the United States. Skee Mask uncoils a duo of dub and breakbeat standouts for Ilian Tape, and there are fruitful partnerships between Xenia Rubinos and El Individuo and TSVI and Loraine James. Tracks by Rosalía, Mary Halvorson, Helado Negro, and the Equiknoxx skippers Gav and Jord complete the roundup.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
* * *
TSVI & Loraine James – ‘Trust’
* * *
Safa – ‘Ouda And The Strikers At Najd’
* * *
ROSALÍA – ‘MOTOMAMI’
* * *
* * *
Helado Negro – ‘Ya No Estoy Aquí’
* * *
N Kramer – ‘In a Fragile State’ (feat. J Foerster)
* * *
Mary Halvorson – ‘Flying Song’
* * *
* * *
Blackhaine – ‘Stained Materials’
* * *
No Eyes & Nsasi – ‘Chun Li Is An Op’
* * *
Gav & Jord – ‘A Yow Jon K’
* * *
Xenia Rubinos & El Individuo – ‘Madrugada’
* * *
Jasmine Myra – ‘New Beginnings’
* * *
Mdou Moctar – ‘Bismilahi Atagah’ (Chrisman Remix)
* * *
* * *
Ethel Cain – ‘American Teenager’
