Featuring DJ Shadow, Chelsea Wolfe, Erol Alkan, Jake Shears, Joy Anonymous, Jungle, Rachael Lavelle, David Kitt, X-Press 2, The Alchemist, Wiki, Mike, Earl Sweatshirt, Vince Staples, Celaviedmai, Ben Bix, Hotwax.
Today is New Music Friday, which means there’s loads of new songs in the world.
Here are 10 songs released this week I loved from my listening this week, along with fresh ones in the New Music section.
See the end of the post for the Spotify playlist featuring much more than 10 tracks released this week, updated weekly.
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1.
Chelsea Wolfe
Dusk
Nice to hear the tones of Chelsea Wolfe once more, on ‘Dusk’ , a smouldering dark track from the American artist, which serves as the first song on new label Loma Vista Recordings.
It’s dedicated to:
“The friends or lovers have gone through hell and back but are still and always united in the end by love, like pottery gone through the fire, broken and pieced back together.”
The track is produced by David Andrew Sitek of TV On The Radio.
2.
David Kitt
Till The End (X-Press 2 remix)
A fine remix package from David Kitt featuring three versions of his recent Idiot Check highlight ‘Till The End’ from X-Press 2.
Available on Bandcamp.
3.
Hotwax
Phone Machine
A fun alt-grunge track from English trio Hotwax, who I’ve been keeping an ear out for since The Great Escape.
The song is from the Alan Moulder-produced EP Invite me, kindly, out October 18th via Marathon Artists.
The bnad support Royal Blood on upcoming dates.
4.
DJ Shadow
You Played Me
If you went in without any context hearing this one, you wouldn’t easily guess it’s big 80s drum soul jam was the work of DJ Shadow.
It’s from the forthcoming record from Action Adventure, out October 27th on Mass Appeal / Liquid Amber.
“You Played Me” was partly inspired by an eBay auction of 200 tapes that were recorded from a radio mix station in the Baltimore/D.C. area in the ‘80s – a distinct blend of dance music, R&B and early hip-hop. Shadow created a beat that had the crackling percussion and burbling synths of classic ‘80s R&B, like a lost René and Angela hit. “I loaded up the instrumental and looped it on my computer to play forever,” he explains. Then he started dropping the needle on records in his collection that he hadn’t processed yet—an experiment to find the vocal in the haystack. “I dropped the needle on an acapella of a really obscure R&B 12-inch from around ‘84, ‘85 and I thought, ‘That actually works.’” After a few weeks of looking for a featured guest to sing on it, he realized he already had what he needed—the acapella was correct. “It’s an example of one of my favorite aspects of the music I make, which is just 100% serendipity. There are a thousand records sitting next to me that aren’t going to work; the right record got put on at the right moment to change the course of my album. It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever made.”
5.
Rachael Lavelle
Big Dreams
Big Dreams is my most anticipated Irish record of the year.
After releasing her first song in four years – ‘Let Me Unlock Your Full Potential’, the Dublin singer-songwriter will release Big Dreams on November 10th, and the title song comes with a video by Bob Gallagher.
The song features the voice of the Luas announcer Doireann Ní Bhriain “who narrates the inner monologue of the millennial mind; the ever-wondering-ever- doubting, the contradicting and the aspiring, concluding: I am open to the possibilities!”
“Big Dreams is an existential ballad; a meditation on love, expectations, failure and the passing of time. When I wrote the melody, it was as if someone was dying. I was thinking about how, when you die, you experience a flashback of your life. That you are flooded with all the memories of love and people who impacted your life. I was inspired by this idea. That despite all the stress and attempts at success, to live is to be open to the possibilities of life and connection.
6.
Jungle
Back on 74 (Joy Anonymous remix)
This is the perfect meet-cute of these two artists TBQHWY.
7.
Jack Shears, Big Freedia
Doses (Erol Alkan remix)
Erol Alkan on the remix of an artist he met 21 years ago for the first time, Jak Shears. The track features on a remix package alongside a Hi-Fi Sean take. The original is on Shears’ Last Man Dancing album.
“I met Jake Shears when we both went were playing at Body Rockers (short lived night at Cynthia’s Robotic Bar in London Bridge during the Electroclash days) but unfortunately the Scissor Sisters couldn’t perform live due to some technical issue on stage, think they got thru one song and I had to come back on to DJ.. we invited the band to come play at TRASH he following Monday (16th September 2002 to be exact) and that night cemented a bond between the band and everybody in the club. They’d be there every Monday they were in turn, and we’d be at their London parties and shows, it was beautiful to watch them grow into one of the biggest bands around.. I reworked ‘I Don’t Feel Like Dancing’ in 2006 even though I must admit, at the time I had no idea which way it could turn out, but I suppose that’s the exciting part.. it’s still one of my favourite reworks.
8.
Earl Sweatshirt, The Alchemist, Vince Staples
The Caliphate
The Voir Dire album official drops October 6th.
10.
Celaviedmai, Ben Bix
Cool Ya Temper
Celaviedmai releases the first song from a new stage of releases, literally called ISSA NEW ERA!.
The entire project is produced by Ben Bix (Sim Simma, Meltybrains?) and the percussive bass of ‘Cool Ya Temper’ is a joint affair with lyrics by: Mai and,Breezy iDeyGoke and music by Ben Bix, Frankie Grimes and Daniel Cregan Whelan.
Nialler9 Weekly Playlist
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
For more extensive Irish and new music coverage, hit up the Irish section for individual track features
For this and more Irish songs, follow the Nialler9 New Irish Spotify playlist.
