Remember New Navy? Well the producer from that (James Chave-Dubois) is back on the airwaves. He has combined with singer Jazz Barry to create Pèt Nat. Probably your new favourite Australian indie electronic duo. Their debut single is Thin Skin, it’s out now, and it’s lovely. Keep your eyes out for more soon.
Bonus track: fun fact, I once convinced a random American that I was on tour as a part of New Navy. Just about obscure enough to get away with…
*GUEST POST*
Another release from Disclosure, another banger. This first featured in their Streaming From Isolation set for Boiler Room and they’ve been good enough to grace us with the full release just as the sun comes out.
The prolific pair team up again with Malian singer-actress Fatoumata Diawara (if you like this, check out the 2018 release Ultimatum), who gives an impassioned tribute to her home country, heralding its ‘unity, harmony, love and brotherhood’. An uplifting message over characteristically uplifting beats from Disclosure which will transport you from home office onto a sweaty, packed, carefree dancefloor (remember those?) in an instant. The video is great; it was shot via drone during lockdown in Jo’burg, Como and NY and features phenomenal scenery and dancers alike. Disclosure’s new album ENERGY drops end of August…
Written by Al Richards
This one is best categorised under ‘deeper cuts’.
Drum & Bass / Jungle pioneer Photek released this drifty, meditative soundscape in 1995. One of his less-known tracks, it is pretty much impossible to find (Discogs only baby) but it always sends me deep every time. Mad to think it was released 25 years ago.
A couple of side-notes for the nerds. If it sounds familiar, it could be for two reasons. Option 1 is pretty cool, the 1971 jazz track Astral Traveling by Pharoah Sanders:
Option 2, is well, less so. The backing track to FA Premier League Football Manager 2000 on PS1. Yep.
Big ol’ housey banger. It’s strange, it’s creative and it’s large.
This is a track that I cannot wait to hear out. As in out out.
I came across this little beauty in another of Boiler Room’s Streaming From Isolation mixes. Peggy Gou from the highest point in Seoul. Solid. Very solid indeed.
P.S. A divisive question for you: is Peggy Gou…
a) fucking awesome – the incredible global female DJ superstar from a traditionally underrepresented minority that the whole world needs, OMG I love Peggy!
or
b) a bit basic?
I’m hearing both sides of the argument. Let me know please
Photo credit: JUNGWOOK-MOK
If you’re having the feeling that Summer has been cruelly ripped from your grasp by this COVID-crap then I have something to help. Melbourne Drum Authority. They describe themselves as a “Melbourne house music collective looking to make you groove” and that is pretty bang on. In the Groove is my pick, a cheeky acid-infused disco chugger with a lovely little brass section – what’s not to love?
Natural High is their debut release, out now on Sydney-based label Refuge Recordings, and that’s all I know. Enjoy.
Shout out as always to Ben Gomori for the tip.
Moodymann has two modes: lusty and haunting. His new album Taken Away retains some of his signature erotic funk, but ache come to the fore.
At the start of 2019 Moodymann (Kenny Dixon Jr.) was involved in a pretty terrifying incident with the police – a reality that people of colour face in America on a shockingly frequent basis. Famously enigmatic, he does his talking through his sampling, and his message comes across loud and clear, especially in the title track. It’s house music, it’s foot-stomping, but it is filled with pain and anger.
My take on some more upbeat Moodymann here and here, or you can read an excellent review of the album on Pitchfork here. Shout out to Ben Gomori’s Turned On for the tip.
Today I present to you my favourite track of the Summer so far.
It’s US three-piece Khruangbin doing what they do best. The track drips with a simple, understated beauty. Magic.
*GUEST POST*
The middle of a pandemic might not seem the best time to release a debut album, but Westerman’s Your Hero Is Not Dead feels like exactly the music we need right now. It’s full of uplifting, mesmerisingly beautiful songs that combine challenging and unusual textures with just the right amount of dopamine-inducing choruses to satisfy our simple animal brains. It’s an album that will leave you nodding in trance-like stupor one minute, curled up on the floor in the foetal position covered in snotty tears the next. Blue Comanche and Confirmation offer up sublimely accessible pop refrains, but the album is one that really deserves a full 40-minute sit-down listen. It’s raw and unflinchingly honest but fundamentally optimistic about the world; the best new music of 2020.
Written by Tom Edkins
I didn’t know that there is another track out there with such strong Pure Shores vibes. And yet, here we are, and here it is.
Jesse Bru put this one out as DJ Man Child. Why? I don’t know. All I know is that it is a really very tasty breaksy emotional housey number. That’ll do. And bonus points for birdsong. Always bonus points for birdsong (looking at you Leon).
