See the New Music section for full selection of tracks and albums featured this week.
1.
Rosalía
SAOKO
Rosalía is finally ready to announce her new album Motomami will be released on March 18th this year. The followup to 2018’s breakthrough El Mal Querer has seen a string of solo singles and collaborations with Billie Eilish, Travis Scott and The Weeknd since it arrived but it’s finally proper album time and it’s promising a mix of styles – ” art and flavor, dembow, champeta, flamenco, bachata, hip-hop, piano melodies.”
The album’s lead single ‘SAOKO’ arrives with an all-women motorbike gang video by Valentin Petit and channels sample reggaeton artists Daddy Yankee and Wisin’s ‘Saoco’, along with some jazz style.
If you notice, the lyrics revolve around the same concept: transformation. Each and every phrase is an image of transformation. Celebrating transformation, celebrating change. Celebrating that you are always yourself even though you are in constant transformation or even that you are you more than ever at the very moment you are changing.”
2
Mitski
Stay Soft
The sixth album from Mitski, Laurel Hell, dropped today and earlier this week, the singular feel of ‘Stay Soft’ is a standalone highlight of the new batch.
3.
Cate Le Bon
Moderation
From Pompeii, another six studio album released today from the Welsh avant-art pop artist Cate Le Bon. I don’t always jive with Cate’s music but there are often singular highlights for me. Having said that Pompeii sounded like one to return to this morning for an appropriate mood. ‘Moderation’ was originally released in the busy November time, and its built on a bass-guitar line, shimmery guitar and Le Bon’s commanding melodies.
Le Bon says ‘Moderation’ is “a nod to the daily dilemma of trying to curb inherited and novel habits, when you want to eat the moon, and an essay written by the architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1958 that continues to kick hard.
4.
Kae Tempest
Salt Coast
After announcing an Irish tour a couple of weeks ago alongside a new album The Line Is A Curve on April 8th, and a single with Kevin Abstract, Kae Tempest has released another track from their album. ‘Salt Coast’ features production by in-demand producer Dan Carey backing Tempest’s magnetic poetics.
5.
JarJarJnr
Boost
Cork producer Jarjarjr’s track was used in yesterday’s podcast and here’s a standalone shoutout for this groove. It’s a pitched-down version of the track that was originally released five years ago.
6.
The Line
The Day The Birds Stopped Singing
Meltybrains?’ Brian Dillon returns to his project The Line for a 10-minute track commissioned by The Source Arts Centre in Thurles.
‘The Day The Birds Stopped Singing’ feels like a self-contained story with its electronic and piano tones augmented by violin, reaching atmospherics and Dillon’s sunken singing.
7.
Jehnova
Golden Sceptre
Never sleep on a Jehnova track.
8.
Hubbabubbaklubb
Konkylie (Telephones Hubba Dubba Dream Dub)
Quite why a 2018 album from a fun Norwegian post-disco pop band is getting the remix treatment four years later isn’t quite clear but I ain’t mad at it. And there’s an entire album featured reworks by Axel Boman, Domenique Dumont and more on the way this month.
9.
Cbakl
Man She Loves
A Kanye instrumental with an Irish twist is how Cbakl sold this beat, and he ain’t wrong. ‘Man She Loves’ is a song that samples a soul heartbreaker and hangs percussive beats around it in a Dilla-esque fashion.
10.
Touts
Shane MacGowan’s New Teeth
The Derry rock band Touts are back with the best-named track of the week for absolute sure.
Nialler9 New Music Playlist
