If I don't win, I'm in the bin

Mix 29: Hit 'em, win 'em, bin 'em, dream, dance, rhyme, ball, and when all else fails get your mom involved.

All I do is not win

As promised in last week’s newsletter, I did in fact put together a top 25 albums from Japan in 1974. The first installment ran Monday, second installment should run this coming Monday if I can get it together. (This means I’ve had to put my weird essay on Willow, Tori Amos, and Inside Out 2 on hold for a bit.) The search for 1974 music has been a lot of fun; might even write about countries that are not Japan. I’ve been neglecting the singles side of the poll, but will put together a playlist of stuff I’ve found sometime in August.

This mix has more dance music on it than the last few weeks, but it is missing a crucial track: the Bandcamp-only release from Alex Reed, who conjured a 5/4 rave music subgenre called “hit ‘em” from a dream that Drew Daniel recounted on Twitter.

Drew is now sharing other examples of hit ‘em that people are sending him. At press time the number is at, let’s see, one, two, three, four, five.

OK, enough chat — hit ‘em.

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Mix 1 // Mix 2 // Mix 3 // Mix 4 // Mix 5 // Mix 6 // Mix 7 // Mix 8 // Mix 9 // Mix 10 // Mix 11 // Mix 12 // Mix 13 // Mix 14 // Mix 15 // Mix 16 // Mix 17 // Mix 18 // Mix 19 // Mix 20 // Mix 21 // Mix 22 // Mix 23 // Mix 24 // Mix 25 // Mix 26 // Mix 27 // Mix 28

MIX 29: IF I DON’T WIN, I’M IN THE BIN

1. JADE: Angel of My Dreams

Today’s title lyric has been singled out as lyric of the year by Kat Stevens. That’s an endorsement good enough for automatic inclusion, but I’m surprised at how much this solo song from Little Mix’s Jade — now JADE, just in time for a revision to my style guide — has stuck with me. It starts with something like a millennial Xenomania chorus (I’d swear it’s a quote of something more famous, a good sign of how good it is on its own, unless I missed the reference) before basically turning into a just-OK K-pop song. At first I described it as falling between the stools of a mainstream pop hit and weird-for-weird’s-sake landfill hyperpop experimentalism, but it’s grown on me. It’s not as accidentally brilliant of a mess as “I LUV IT” by Camila Cabello, but it does sound a little bit brilliant on purpose.¹

2. SBTRKT: Classic Theme

3. De Schuurman: Raw

4. salute, Disclosure: Lift Off!

Dance block! The first is a banger from SBTRKT, whom I’ve been vaguely aware of for a long time, though can’t tell if I’ve rated anything by him in the past (quick search suggests no).

The second is from Nyege Nyege Tapes, by a Dutch DJ in the bubbling scene described thusly:

In the late 1980s, as techno and house made its way around Europe, mutating as it hopped from city to city, one young DJ from Curacao made a mistake that would inspire a brand new sound. While he was performing at Den Haag's Club Voltage, DJ Moortje accidentally dropped a dancehall track at 45RPM rather than 33, and let it play out. Thirsty for a hi-NRG sound, the crowd loved the squeaky vocals and rapid beat, and bubbling (or bubbling house) was born.

For the next couple of decades, bubbling was a crucial part of Holland's Afro-diasporic club landscape. And as a new generation of wide-eyed young DJs and producers began to take the reins, it evolved accordingly.

And finally, a track off Manchester-based producer salute’s new album of high-profile pop/dance collaborations, bringing Disclosure in for the liveliest thing I’ve heard from them in a while.

5. Pongo: Katana

6. Samara Cyn: Katana

Katana block! I first heard Angolan pop-kuduro artist Pongo in a People’s Pop Poll, I think, and couldn’t resist putting her back to back with a very different “Katana” from a rapper with some TikTok heat and a cool “dance video” that warns you there is no dancing in it.

7. Tinuke: Be There

Had to include a track that opened with a cartoon sword-unsheathing sound for continuity’s sake, from an under-the -radar Ghanaian artist who does Afrobeats with some grit in a style that often codes as too pearly for me.

8. Zadi the King: Bossu

More sword SFX! This one’s featured in some insistent Côte d’Ivoire pop, a recommendation from Lokpo, who asks, “does it get any plus chaud than this?” Was able to follow the recommendation breadcrumbs from this one to a decent playlist of CI pop that will hopefully feature in future mixes (in my experience, Spotify has not been a great place to track Francophone African pop).

9. Rema: Ozeba

Was not expecting Rema to go this hard after finding huge crossover success with “Calm Down” — he could have called this one “Agitate Up.” There is yet another decent Central Cee feature on a remix of this one, but I prefer this version.

10. Cordae f. Lil Wayne: Saturday Mornings

I think Cordae’s been underrated for several years — thought his 2019 album The Lost Boy was #3 of that year, behind Mahawam’s Is an Island (not much music since then, though he just put out an EP I should listen to) and Inna’s Yo (loads of music since then, but little of it very good). “Bad Idea” was the best thing I’d heard from Chance the Rapper in a long time, and I’d say the same of Lil Wayne on “Saturday Mornings,” except anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Lil Wayne has been killing guest verses consistently for years, not that you’d know it from most of his solo material. Still, this is a highlight — amens, praying hands, sacrificial lamb, teddy grahams, jelly jam, deli ham, candied yams, Steadicam, Graceland, red flag. And after all that he sneaks in an extra couple bars as a hat on a hat on a hat. (Call that a hat trick? Once you stack enough of ‘em on top of each other it works again.)

11. Culture Jam f. BIA, Lakeyah, Flau’jae: Can’t Get Enough

I wouldn’t have pegged the secret ingredient here as “Jock Jams” but there was something vaguely commercial (not complimentary per se, but non-derogatory) about this song that made sense when I learned that Culture Jam is a project affiliated with ESPN and the WNBA, and this group was curated to create thematic hype music (one of the featured rappers, Flau’jae, is a college basketball star). Between this and Megan Thee Stallion’s “It’s Prime Day” — song of the summer in my household according to what my kids spontaneously sing around the house — it’s been a good year for pop jingles.

12. Mtipa, Teslah, Unspoken Salaton: Pull Up

The Kenyan singles that wind up on my mixes tend to be a totally random assortment of mid-tier pop-rap, so I can’t tell you anything about why this one made the cut, except that sometimes the mid-tier sounds just fine. This is the first of three Kenyan songs I shortlisted this week after featuring close to zero Kenyan songs so far this year.

13. Bade: Meyhane Manhattan

If you’d given me ten guesses I probably wouldn’t have correctly ID’d where this is from. (Turkey.) Maybe on the eleventh, though.

14. NENE, Young Coco: Yummy

Extremely annoying sample propels this Japanese rap novelty to semi-greatness.

15. Maandy: Naskia Fiti

16. Jabidii f. Ayuni Nyapolo: Miel Matin

The remainder of the Kenyan tracks. Maybe I do have consistent tastes in Kenyan pop-rap after all — this is Maandy’s second appearance on my mixes, after last year’s “Tena.” But my favorite Kenyan track is a charming, minimalist mother-son track from urban gospel artist Jabidii.

17. Thuto The Human f. Shakes & Les: Home

Another strong Shakes & Les instrumental amapiano collaboration that I have trouble describing.

18. Lihle Bliss f. Xduppy, Herc Cut the Lights, Lokzin Keys, Sandza De Keys: Inhliziyo

This poppier amapiano interested me for its genre tag “barcadi,” which led me to other stuff thanks to a partial reboot of Glenn McDonald’s Every Noise. McDonald (whose new book you should read!) recently built a cool new Spotify search tool for filtering new releases by genre. (I wouldn’t know a Spotify API from a hole in the ground but I followed his instructions and it works.)

19. Sandro Brugnolini: Cirotil [1970]

Cool down time — how about a rerelease of a track from an Italian saxophonist’s 1970 album Overground?

20. Võ Lê Vy: Quên Em Đi

And finally, a lovely chanteuse-ish ballad from a Vietnamese singer I didn’t find much information about aside from an interview in which she says she’s avoided the spotlight of Vietnamese competition shows in favor of a quiet life.

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That’s it! Until next time, do whatever it takes to make your dream genre a reality, especially if it’s in a weird time signature.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from JADE’s “Angel of My Dreams”

1. Disclaimer that when I say “on accident” and “on purpose” I’m only describing aesthetic qualities, not a commentary on the actual production process!