I'm like Buffy, I'm a slayer

Mix 18: Buffy's dayenu season, very good dembow, very young rappers, and various weirdos from Honduras, France, Italy, Japan, and Poland.

One of the great dayenu seasons

A 16-year-old rapper has name-dropped Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which gives me an opportunity to share my theory of dayenu seasons of television, named for the Passover passage where God provides more than was asked for (“dayenu” means “it would have been enough”). In a dayenu season, you get extra-mile storytelling that had no reason to exist, but gives you character development or thought experiments or closure that you didn’t even realize you wanted. This is distinct from fan fiction television that tries to engage with or subvert fandom’s expectations (though Season 6 of Buffy, its dayenu season, has that, too). Examples include season 2 (and arguably season 3) of the Netflix Jessica Jones series, The Comeback season 2, and basically every season of Halt and Catch Fire after its first season.

Sometimes you need to give thanks for media that provides so much more than you thought was already sufficient. Dayenu television may also be a long-form narrative parallel to the Frank Kogan “free lunch.” But I can’t really get into it any more at the moment as I am currently on vacation! So consider this a quick one while he’s away.

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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: I’M LIKE BUFFY, I’M A SLAYER

1. HyunA: Q&A

HyunA can do no wrong, and she’s deftly picked up K-pop’s increasing tempos and adapted to the post-NewJeans 90s house/drum ‘n’ bass adamantine skeleton. Maybe I’ll get sick of it someday, but so far I show no signs of tiring of it.

2. Zinoleesky: Element

Zinoleesky remains by far my favorite Naija pop vocalist—I was certain I’d already referred to his voice as an “adolescent croak,” but no, it was “adolescent quaver.” I think Naija pop’s ambivalence to vocal grain is part of what keeps me at a distance. Needs more Zinoleeskies!

3. Isabella Lovestory: Botoxxx

I had to double check to confirm that I’ve been following Isabella Lovestory from the very beginning, and yes, as far as I can tell, “Humo,” a blindfold taste test keeper from my 2019 playlist, was her first single. This one ventures into Lady Gaga territory, simultaneously campy and bloodlessly professional, but I’m sold on the project and, like HyunA (for well over a decade now!), she’s firmly in the do-no-wrong category.

4. Jhayseven: Pitone

A great dembow track from December, the chorus ducks in and out of the beat like a speed run through playground equipment.

5. Bb Trickz, Kevin AMF: Jálale alv

An interesting take on dembow-like delivery from two very young Mexican and Spanish rappers, one of whom can handle the flow (Kevin AMF) and one who can’t (Bb Trickz), and she sounds more interesting as a result. There’s a part where rather than even attempt to repeat a phrase, the Bb Trickz vocal is looped, the last word getting clipped before repeating. The effect is unlike anything I’ve heard in dembow as far as I can tell, and I love it.

6. Maldy, Angel Dior: Pila d Cuero

I get the sense that Angel Dior, like Anitta in Brazil, is getting mega-popular at the expense of the provocative weirdness of his scene, and here he sort of splits the difference between the uninspired collaborations he’s been pursuing and his demented earlier material. I don’t begrudge him success and hope that he gets as big as Anitta did, but part of me hopes he’ll find a way back to recapturing the unhinged glory of “A I O.”

7. Yeri Mua, Rixxia: U R Such a Lame!

Another set of Mexican influencers after last week’s Kenia Os song. This one really sounds like influencers — extremely dumb novelty of the sort that I am, of course, a total mark for.

8. Star Bandz: Yea Yea

I don’t pay attention to “bubbling under” up-and-comers so had to rely on playlists and scenesters to bring Chicago teen Star Bandz to my attention (don’t remember who shared her first, though). The force of personality is strong with this one — especially love the “Star/guitar/far” rhyme in the chorus, which she pummels, “Stah/guitah/fah,” so that the following onomatopoeic fa-fa-fa lands violently enough to make David Byrne proud. Also found the Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference charming — do kids still watch Buffy?? (The line I used in the title is funnier than the transcription makes it out to be: “I’m like Buffy—I’mma slay her.”)

9. DJ NK3, Theuz ZL: Planeta Desconhecido

This phonk-y São Paulo funk is technically more abrasive than a lot of other funk music is—the drums are completely blown out in the mix—but it’s not half as harsh-feeling as much of the other São Paulo material I’ve gotten recently, whose bleeping tuin sounds can nauseate you without any distortion at all, making this easy listening by comparison. (I’ve kept several of the harsh ones that I rather like off of these mixes, but they’re on my unruly holdover playlist.)

10. Ceri Wax: Il suono di Milano Nord

It’s Italy calling; I almost let it go to voicemail but I’m there right now(!) and dammit, I’m a sucker for annoying keyboard presets, especially the one that approximates the cuica.

11. 15 15: Rafale

Noisy French band eventually clatters and stumbles their way into a groove.

12. Hodge, Minami Nakamura: Everyday in the Club

A Bristol DJ paired with a Japanese rapper, and both halves of the equation feature music I’m finding impossible to describe adequately beyond “hyperactive, but not in poor taste.” I think if I gave it a little more effort, I could probably beat the wan Bandcamp description. (But unfortunately I will not.)

13. WaMi, Maeshima Soshi: First

I am also finding it impossible to describe this one (gotta get thru this!) — Japanese electropop. Decaf.

14. Ara Johari: Delulu

Much less convincing than Lexie Liu’s “Delulu” from last year, but (1) it’s from Malaysia, which is underrepresented on my mixes, and (2) she has plenty of fun with the sound of “lulu” coming off the tongue.

15. Safira: Toivoton Romantikko

Finnish pop that I briefly mistook as Vietnamese in its melody and vocal rhythm. Why that is and what I’m hearing in Vietnamese music requires some thought.

16. Asuka Ando: Abuku

A Japanese artist who specializes in reggae and lovers rock.

17. Angélica Garcia: Gemini

Look, I’m just going to put everything that Angélica Garcia does on a mix at this point.

18. Jam TheBrain: Yulunganu

Gabonese singer based in Montreal offers the de rigueur Afrobeats/amapiano blend and, as is often the case, it works.

19. Lava Lava f. Diamond Platnumz: Kibango

Dig the call and response in this Tanzanian bongo hit.

20. Gazirovka, Zyava: Тратить

A lot of the goofy tenor Russian rappers I was interested in a few years ago — notably Morgenshtern — haven’t been showing up much lately, since reliable Russian playlists on Spotify are harder to find than they used to be. (Morgenshtern’s latest single isn’t really rap, sounds a bit like…Blur?). So this rap group, who broke through with a huge Russian hit in 2017, was a nice find.

21. レイラ: このまま

22. Yuri Tanaka: 4:00 A.M.

Two from Japan, one indie rock from a group, Layla, that hasn’t made their sunny, fuzzy new track available on YouTube yet, the other a singer who covers classic city pop—this one is a cover of Taeko Ohnuki’s “4:00 AM” from 1978. (Consider its inclusion a loophole to get the original in.)

23. Khruangbin: May Ninth

Wondered with a name like Khruangbin what country this might be from (it’s a Thai word), and the answer was…Texas. Rosy Alvarez at Pitchfork informs me that they “have become a streaming behemoth and darling of the indie jam scene.”

24. Polski Piach, Patryk Zakrocki: Smoking Cat

When I have the opportunity to end a mix with weird instrumental Polish music, I take that opportunity. (How do I refer the nexus of jazz, classical, and miscellaneous “electroacoustic”? Academycore?)

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OK, that’s it! I’m not sure where you are reading this, but I very well might be on a boat now! That would be cool.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from Star Bandz’s “Yea Yea”