This week on Icons the percussionist and composer Eli Keszler makes abstract expressionism out of the cultural detritus of New York. Matt Sweeney and Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, the Superwolves together with Emmett Kelly, find tranquility among the pack at the Apex Protection Project in Los Angeles. And Angel Bat Dawid speaks to the spirituality of Sunday mornings in her hometown of Chicago, where the free jazz of her clarinet summons spectres of the scarcely distant past.
Throwing Snow bends primordial bass and untangles the complexity of neural networks on Dragons, the Guatemalan cellist Mabe Fratti seeks understanding between buzzing synthesizers, field recordings, and sublimated voice, while through droning accordion Walt McClements conjures subterranean worlds. Backxwash seeks solace in siren wails and horrorcore transgressions, and Kenny Mason wants to play ball but only on his own terms.
On her debut mixtape EXCELSiA, the London artist POiSON ANNA laces elements of trip hop, dancehall, and darkwave with strappling futuristic ropes and threads. The Berlin-based Perila finds equilibrium through head-spinning ambient music, Dizzy Fae adopts the role of chiropractor, and Feyi takes a rain check cloaked by ski masks, gas canisters, and tulle nets. In a week brimming and bristling with new music, Six Organs of Admittance unveils his twentieth album, Indigo De Souza rolls out her sophomore record, Wiki and company navigate the peaks and valleys of life, and Tirzah, Xavier Rudd, Doja Cat, and Half Waif cap the best.
Playlists: Spotify · Apple Music · YouTube
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Walt McClements – ‘Thresholds (through a hole in the fence)’
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FEYI – ‘333’
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Doja Cat & The Weeknd – ‘You Right’
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POiSON ANNA – ‘COMiN FOR YA’
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Six Organs of Admittance – ‘Old Dawn’
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Tyler, the Creator – ‘JUGGERNAUT’ (feat. Lil Uzi Vert & Pharrell Williams & Lil Uzi Vert)
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Wiki – ‘Highs and Lows’ (feat. REED & HunnaLoe)
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Backxwash – ‘WAIL OF THE BANSHEE’ (feat. SurgeryHead)
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Xavier Rudd – ‘Stoney Creek’
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Kenny Mason – ‘Play Ball’
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Angel Bat Dawid – ‘Sunday Meeting of Colored People in Chicago’
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Matt Sweeney & Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – ‘My Body Is My Own’ (feat. Emmett Kelly)
