What's Good (Week of 9/15)
Living on borrowed time, the clock tick faster, but we still keep moving forward with yet another week of What's Good. This is a particularly chunky week in both the new music department, and for features across the web, so I'ma get right to it. As far as the new haul, there's:
New Albums
- Marcos Valle
- Pearl & The Oysters
- Desert Camo
- Jamie xx
- The Alchemist
- Regional Justice Center
- John Wells
New Singles
- Alice Longyu Gao
- Mutant Academy
- TV-MA
- Blockhead
- mars kumari
- Blu & Exile
- redveil
And a TON more. Before we get into all the new joints, let's take some Bonus Beats for a spin.
Bonus Beats
Mark Anthony Neal (T/X: NewBlackMan)
The legendary Frankie Beverly passed away last week, and Mark Anthony Neal spared some words for not only Frankie Beverly and Maze's place in black music, but also black music's place in the black community.
The best tribute to Maze’s formula is that they had not released new music since 1993’s Back to Basics, and had been without a recording label for thirty years. As Duke Ellington understood generations ago, the music didn’t matter, and didn’t mean anything, if the people who needed it most, didn’t get to be with it — and a record player was no substitute. Ellington was often on the road with his band 300 days out of the year, to not only sustain the music, but to remind us as he so often did, that he “loved us madly”; Frankie Beverly shared that ethic.
Caltrops Press' RAPS + CRAFTS series continues with two entries, one for each half of sleepingdogs, andrew and Jesse The Tree.
Elmattic
The almighty Elmattic gives us an Egyptian myth framed career and life-so-far retrospective of Ka in the wake of the excellent recent release The Thief Next To Jesus (which came to streaming this week).
And, Ka is a firefighter on 9/11. We don’t know much of anything about this, except that he lost compatriots that day: more loss, more trauma. There are 9/11 Ka songs — think about this! Imagine what they must be like! He told VICE: Every song that I do is not for everybody else to hear. I dealt with a lot of shit that day. I lost a lot. Those songs are the ones I use for therapy. Just for me to get off my chest what I think about. He does once allude to it, on “With All My Heart” (as well as clapping back at the New York Post smear): When them planes crashed, Ka did his task, in the catastrophe / I dug and I held when them towers fell, how dare you try and hassle me?
That’s how his voice changes, I think, becomes the low rasp we hear on the records we know: it’s from smoke inhalation. It’s weathered from breathing in the fumes and the ash of devastation, of loss, of the dead. This is the next soul, Ib: the heart. Essential to surviving death and proof as to how its bearer lived. The first trial of the afterlife was the Maat Kheru: your heart, the deeds of your life, weighed against an ostrich feather. If they did not balance, the Devourer consumed your heart.
Gary Suarez
Gary Suarez's weekly review drop focuses on Phiik & Lungs fantastic POW Recordings LP Carrot Season
You might catch a slam on Versace-clad mayoral buffoon Eric Adams over the jingling muzak flip "Uber Dents," or you might not. You might whiff the canned Ragu pasta sauce disses of "Uninvolved," or you might not. The point is, unlike rappers who strategically hide behind fast flows, if one were to write all of this down there would be substance to behold. If nothing else, the Olasegun-produced effort gives Lungs' beatmaking alter ego LoneSword a breather, offering contrast but also putting his focus squarely on the mic. And with a rapper guest list this strong–AKAI SOLO, Michael Christmas! Fatboi Sharif! YL!–attention must be paid.
Son Raw
The second entry in Son Raw's No Country For Old Men series questions the notion of rave culture and dance music's past and present as a "safe space".
Dance music in 2024 is a mess of contradictions. House music started by working-class queer men of color in Chicago, Detroit, and New York has been wholly subsumed into a European-led leisure activity, but we’re meant to be cool with it because (most) Black legends still get gigs. The history of raving is framed as an anti-capitalist activity of resistance when the vast majority are for-profit ventures by small entrepreneurs with a high tolerance for risk (and/or rich parents).
Underground music is mostly played, discussed, debated and supported by a small minority of people who think and care about it extremely deeply – for an audience that often engages with it to stop thinking entirely. Go to your favorite club or a packed festival and watch the crowds lose their heads. Then look to the back of the room and spot the couple slightly older vets having a serious-looking chat: you’ve just found the DJs and potentially, a writer. Their priorities are very different from everyone else in the room, and I’ve had more than a few conversations about how very weird it is to realize that everyone is enjoying your thing at the moment, and are having more fun than you are – leaning against the wall, critiquing a mix.
Music
The Underachievers - Megatron (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Blueprint - The Second Chamber (From *Chamber Music II, out 11/5. Preorder: Bandcamp | Bundles, including back catalog discounts and a free 7-inch of "Put it On Wax/No Bottle Service" via Weightless Recordings)
Mutant Academy - Rock, Paper, Scissors (From KEEP HOLLY ALIVE, out on 10/8. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Gabe 'Nandez & Thomas Maggart - Joker Card, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Jabee - No Love (From The Spirit Is Willing, But The Flesh Is Weak, out 10/4. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Shigeto - Can't Keep Up feat. KESSWA (From Cherry Blossom Baby, out on 10/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Vinyl and Digital via Ghostly International, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify
The Armed - NEW! Christianity (From Everlasting Gaze, out 10/18. Preorder: Bandcamp | Three vinyl colorways via Hello Merch, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Ain't - Teething (From the Oar/Teething 7", out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Kurious - Untainted (From Majician, out on 9/20. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals, merch, and digital via Gas Drawls/Metalface Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Alice Longyu Gao - Bird W/O Next feat. Danny Brown (From Assembling Symbols Into My Own Poetry, out 10/23. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Pearl & The Oysters - Triangular Girl (From Planet Pearl, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Vinyl via Stones Throw, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
14KT - Ye-Me-Lê (One 4 Sergio Mendes) (Out now. Purchase/Stream: Bandcamp)
Ripped to Shreds - 殭屍復活 (Horrendous Corpse Resurrection) (From Sanshi, out 9/27. Preorder: Bandcamp | Physicals and Merch via Relapse Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Rival Schools - You Should Have Hung Out (From the deluxe reissue of Pedals, out now. Purchase: Vinyl via Run For Cover Records, Stream: Apple)
Kimbra - RNTBCK feat. Sahtyre (From Idols & Vices, Vol. 1, out 10/25. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Broadcast - Colour Me In [Demo] (From Distant Call - Collected Demos 2000-2006, out 9/27. Preorder: Warp | Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
redveil - arizona (Out now. YouTube only for now.)
Mount Kimbie - Empty and Silent feat. King Krule (From The Sunset Violent, out now. Limited Petrol Blue vinyl release out 10/25. Purchase: Bandcamp | Vinyl and merch bundles via Warp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify | YouTube)
Salami Rose Joe Louis - N O S T A L G I C M O N T A G E (From Salami Live at 2131 North Kacey Street, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Brainfeeder/Ninja Tune, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Larry June - A Little While (From Doing It For Me, out now. Purchase: CD via Empire (Search "Doing It For Me" for merch and bundles), Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Jamie xx - Waited All Night (From In Waves, out now. Preorder: Bandcamp | Merch and Physicals via The xx's Official Store, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Ongjoco - Weird Song 4 Weird Times (From BAD TRIP, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
VINSON - Player and a Lover (From knowledge of self ep, out 10/18. Preorder: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Blu & Exile - Gold feat. Nana & Amhad Anwar (From Love (the) Ominous World, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Ka - Borrowed Time (From The Thief Next To Jesus, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
TV-MA - Heat Death feat. Issac Schultz (From The Light at the End of Decay, out 10/4. Preorder/Stream: Bandcamp)
cropcropscrops & steel tipped dove - On A Horse Named Hurricane (From Long-Light Derecho, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
ScHoolboy Q - THank god 4 me (From Blue Lips, out now. Purchase: Merch and Physicals via Q's website, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Sam Gendel - My Love Is Peach-Colored (Haruomi Hosono cover) (From Hosono House Revisited, out 11/1. Preorder: Bandcamp | Stones Throw, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Regional Justice Center - Take A Step Away (From Freedom Sweet Freedom, out now. Preorder: Bandcamp | Vinyl via Closed Casket Activities, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Tom Misch - Better Days (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
tp dutchkiss - Bumble Bee feat. Jahsh Banks (From high functioning, out 10/25. Preorder: Bandcamp | Leaving Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart (Out now. Preorder: Bandcamp | Sub Pop Mega Mart, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
The Alchemist - Scientology feat. Havoc (From The Genuine Articulate, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Yaeji - booboo (extended dance mix) (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Blockhead - Hard Pass On The Afterlife (From Mortality Is Lit!, out 11/22. Preorder: Bandcamp | Preorder vinyl via Blockhead's store, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Rome Streetz & Daringer - Sage feat. ScHoolboy Q (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Lana Del Rabies - Paranoid (Garbage cover) (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
TOKiMONSTA - Floating (Out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Lungs & Phiik - Kurt Mcburt (From Carrot Season, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Desert Camo (Oliver the 2nd & Heather Grey) - Baked Beans feat. Nolan the Ninja (From Desert Camo, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Killer Bee - II. a bright summer day (From Neptune - EP, Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify | YouTube)
Dave Guy - Still Standing (From Ruby, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Big Crown Records, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify | YouTube)
John Wells - RUBBERBANDS feat. NVSV (From Whole World Burnin' Down, out now. Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
mars kumari - Dissolve & Reform (Mahapralaya) (From the upcoming Daybreak "By Any Means Necessary". Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal)
NAHreally & The Expert - Accumulation (From FLIP, out 10/4. Preorder/Stream: Bandcamp)
Marcos Valle & Leon Ware - Feels So Good (From Túnel Acústico, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp | Far Out Recordings, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Sleepdealer - Paradise (Out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
BLACKSTARKIDS - SATURN DAYZ (From SATURN DAYZ + HEAVEN ON URF, out now. Purchase: Bandcamp, Stream: Tidal | Apple | Spotify)
Playlists
That does it for this week. Be sure to share this with your folks, and don't hesitate to let me know what you're listening to this weekend down in the comments. Take care, and make good choices.
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