2025 Mix 44: Tyla goes A-pop (the other one?), women rule rap's afterlife, Eastern Europe and South Africa in the spotlight, and some Indonesia onomatopoeia before soundtracking a nice cocktail hour
Dave, hot from the press, this is my latest list, a couple added today, tho you probably know most of these 'cos I heard them from you in the first place.
TIER ONE
Vĩ - Pink [EP]
Ashley Monroe - Tennessee Lightning
Double Virgo - Shakedown
TIER TWO
Anderson Neiff - I-E-A-A-N
MC BN & DJ Yuzak - Bebeto e Romário
Marina Satti - P.O.P (Deluxe)
DJ Aguilar - Direto do Alto Vol 1
Titanic - Hagen
The New Existentialists - Bad Astrology
The Various Artists - This Is Not The Result of Science, Chemical Reactions Or Likewise
TIER THREE
Various Artists - Stay True Sounds Vol.7
Kilynn Lunsford - Promiscuous Genes
ALT BLK ERA - Rave Immortal
Adéla - The Provocateur [EP]
TIER FOUR
Mutagenic Host - The Diseased Machine
Simona - Astuta
Marina Satti - POP Too
Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack - Six Tenants Killing One Homeowner Six Times Over
MC Larajinha, Wesley Gonzaga - D.D.D 31 [EP]
MTS No Beat - Forrozinho Doido [EP]
Dreamcatcher - My Christmas Sweet Love [EP]
elo elo - I Can't Find My Head [EP]
MTS No Beat - Na Onda do Forrózin 0.5 [EP]
Memie - Rae Thoma Rae Fetsa [EP]
Elizabeth Nichols - Tough Love [EP]
All very provisional, basically Tier One is A or A Minus, Tier Two is A Minus or B-Plus, Tier Three is more tenuously B-Plus, Tier Four has some good and great tracks, and I need to revisit Three and Four to hear if there are enough of them for EOY.
Vĩ's name is absolutely impossible to search. I couldn't find that ep on YouTube, Apple Music or Bandcamp. If you could post a link, I'd really appreciate it.
Haven't given the Ashley Monroe the attention it deserves. Is probably her second- or third-best album (after definite #1 "Satisfied" and maybe #2 "Like a Rose") which should get me engaging with it more -- but the first track I always skip and the second track I totally adored, but a year ago.
If I go with absurdly short EPs I need to grapple with how good I think bb trickz's 80'z is at a very finished-feeling 11 minutes. Will probably do a separate EPs and etc. list (in which I might just collect all of Vĩ's collected material -- Pink + "a-Soft Warning: Live from Glasgow back Home," though the latter passes the Beatles Second Album test).
Ashley Monroe - Tennessee Lightning : You know how Shonen Knife took punk and made it happy?* And groups like Blinding Headache and The Scene Is Now took no wave and made it happy? Well, Ashley Monroe takes the pained mist of songs from Big Star 3rd like "Big Black Car," "Holocaust," "Kanga Roo," "Nightime," and makes it a happy mist. --Don't know if Ashley's ever heard Big Star. She's got reverb and tremolo and a built-in hesitation, so that even when she's rocking out it's with her own emotional tempo, like she's always a few meters sideways from everybody else.
*Overall I'd say punk was more happy than not, actually.
Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack - Six Tenants Killing One Homeowner Six Times Over. Someone – I forget who it was – liked one of my bsky posts so I checked their profile and it linked their music and this is it! I might call the vocals high drama, but instead I'm calling them high drama school. (Compliment.)
Anderson Neiff - I•E•A•A•N: This would qualify on the basis of the title alone, which (as you – Dave – uncovered for me), is short for "INFELIZMENTE EU AMO ANDERSON NEIFF" (translation, "Unfortunately I Love Anderson Neiff"). Good solid uproar from start to finish.
ALBUMS and EPs
Dave, hot from the press, this is my latest list, a couple added today, tho you probably know most of these 'cos I heard them from you in the first place.
TIER ONE
Vĩ - Pink [EP]
Ashley Monroe - Tennessee Lightning
Double Virgo - Shakedown
TIER TWO
Anderson Neiff - I-E-A-A-N
MC BN & DJ Yuzak - Bebeto e Romário
Marina Satti - P.O.P (Deluxe)
DJ Aguilar - Direto do Alto Vol 1
Titanic - Hagen
The New Existentialists - Bad Astrology
The Various Artists - This Is Not The Result of Science, Chemical Reactions Or Likewise
TIER THREE
Various Artists - Stay True Sounds Vol.7
Kilynn Lunsford - Promiscuous Genes
ALT BLK ERA - Rave Immortal
Adéla - The Provocateur [EP]
TIER FOUR
Mutagenic Host - The Diseased Machine
Simona - Astuta
Marina Satti - POP Too
Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack - Six Tenants Killing One Homeowner Six Times Over
MC Larajinha, Wesley Gonzaga - D.D.D 31 [EP]
MTS No Beat - Forrozinho Doido [EP]
Dreamcatcher - My Christmas Sweet Love [EP]
elo elo - I Can't Find My Head [EP]
MTS No Beat - Na Onda do Forrózin 0.5 [EP]
Memie - Rae Thoma Rae Fetsa [EP]
Elizabeth Nichols - Tough Love [EP]
All very provisional, basically Tier One is A or A Minus, Tier Two is A Minus or B-Plus, Tier Three is more tenuously B-Plus, Tier Four has some good and great tracks, and I need to revisit Three and Four to hear if there are enough of them for EOY.
Vĩ's name is absolutely impossible to search. I couldn't find that ep on YouTube, Apple Music or Bandcamp. If you could post a link, I'd really appreciate it.
Here you go
https://videvourworld.bandcamp.com/album/pink
Thanks!
Here's Vĩ's Pink EP on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lAfyCDc9Dq7HYGp9KV7GUUFh_6ZqcxUUk
And here's "Kho Báu," a top-notch non-EP single:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMlWas6VRjE
Haven't given the Ashley Monroe the attention it deserves. Is probably her second- or third-best album (after definite #1 "Satisfied" and maybe #2 "Like a Rose") which should get me engaging with it more -- but the first track I always skip and the second track I totally adored, but a year ago.
If I go with absurdly short EPs I need to grapple with how good I think bb trickz's 80'z is at a very finished-feeling 11 minutes. Will probably do a separate EPs and etc. list (in which I might just collect all of Vĩ's collected material -- Pink + "a-Soft Warning: Live from Glasgow back Home," though the latter passes the Beatles Second Album test).
Ashley Monroe - Tennessee Lightning : You know how Shonen Knife took punk and made it happy?* And groups like Blinding Headache and The Scene Is Now took no wave and made it happy? Well, Ashley Monroe takes the pained mist of songs from Big Star 3rd like "Big Black Car," "Holocaust," "Kanga Roo," "Nightime," and makes it a happy mist. --Don't know if Ashley's ever heard Big Star. She's got reverb and tremolo and a built-in hesitation, so that even when she's rocking out it's with her own emotional tempo, like she's always a few meters sideways from everybody else.
*Overall I'd say punk was more happy than not, actually.
Water Gun Water Gun Sky Attack - Six Tenants Killing One Homeowner Six Times Over. Someone – I forget who it was – liked one of my bsky posts so I checked their profile and it linked their music and this is it! I might call the vocals high drama, but instead I'm calling them high drama school. (Compliment.)
"Various Artists" means a number of different artists. "*The* Various Artists," however, means only a particular artist, our online friend Jel Bugle.
Anderson Neiff - I•E•A•A•N: This would qualify on the basis of the title alone, which (as you – Dave – uncovered for me), is short for "INFELIZMENTE EU AMO ANDERSON NEIFF" (translation, "Unfortunately I Love Anderson Neiff"). Good solid uproar from start to finish.