In a ghost arcade

Mix 28: Indie real deals and fake, K-pop klaxons, respectful Doja Cat, and semi-successful dembow bandwagoneers

Zen and the art of arcade cabinet maintenance

If you have been waiting for some down-the-middle indie rock after weeks of novelties and pop polls, you will find a rare indie block in the lead spots this week, thanks to the titular ghost arcade. And speaking of ghost arcades, I really need to re-read Lucky Wander Boy, the novel by Game of Thrones co-creator D.B. Weiss that imagines a philosophical dictionary of arcade games that is, if I remember correctly, more interesting than the main plot of the book.

After last week’s comment overload, I’ll keep the intro light. Will put in a quick plug for Brad Luen’s poll for 1974 albums/singles. I’m applying my patented Chaotic Serendipity Method to the task and so far have found a few incredible things: Brazilian singer and Françoise Hardy collaborator Tuca’s glam-goth-samba masterpiece Dracula, I Love You; Romanian psych-rock bad Phoenix (or Transslyvania Phoenix)’s Mugur de fluier; Japanese surf rock by Takeshi Terauchi & Blue Jeans, Tsugaru Jongara; Japanese proto-disco from Candies’ Namida no kisetsu (I already have a top 20 of 1974 just for Japan); Hyunkyung & Youngae’s country-tinged Korean folk-pop self-titled album.

You can keep up with my shortlist here. Recommendations welcome. (Will anyone go to bat for Lou Reed’s Sally Can’t Dance?)

And perhaps I should finally get around to mid-year album recommendations? Uh…let’s see…go listen to the Willow album! (There may be more on Willow — and also a single line from a Tori Amos song — soon.)

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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: IN A GHOST ARCADE

1. Los Campesinos!: kms

I suppose my ambivalence about Los Campesinos! — who to my ears have never earned their exclamation point — should get my turn-of-the-’10s Anglophilic music nerd accreditation revoked, but I always found them a little twee and overwritten for my tastes, crossing the line between trying hard and tryharding. This is still overwritten—following up a lyric worthy of a newsletter title like “food court fountain’s bubbling in a ghost arcade” with clunker of the week “slim fingers sieving through the rubble in bittersweet nightshade” made me shudder; I can practically see the coffee-stained notebook paper. But they’ve traded in the aughts mandatory fun singalong for a bread-and-butter mid-90s indie rock sound, disaffection courting my affection.

2. Fake Fruit: Más O Menos

Indie block continues with a severely underrated rock group that, you know, rocks. I don’t know how current alt tastemakers converge on the nth wave of post-punk guitar bands, but this one has been failed by the process.

3. Color Green: Four Leaf Clover

I also don’t know how alt tastemakers converge on their neo-60s jangle — my Spotify lists keep shoving the too-studied Lemon Twigs toward me when this group, closer to an Elephant 6 marriage of sunshine and slacker, seems closer to what I’m after.

4. Galaxie 500: Shout You Down [1988]

And of course you can always just do the real deal, with an outtake from the first Galaxie 500 album, from an upcoming compilation.

5. The Jansen: Hanya Ada Kegelapan yang Menunggumu Di Sana

Or, for any top-shelf simulacrum of pop’s past, you can always opt for the best-running fake deal, which will likely come from Indonesia, a global leader in uncanny period pastiche.

6. Denyce “Flip” Isaac: Be For Real [1980]

But enough of all that, here’s a 10-minute disco rap single from 1980 by Denyce “Flip” Isaac, who gets through boasts, astrology, a long story about avoiding someone with “disco breath,” and an early use of “lime to a lemon, peach to a plum” that was the subject of some online etymological conversation recently (can’t remember where).

7. (G)I-IDLE: Klaxon

Metal Mike Saunders recommendation klaxon! I haven’t kept up enough with Metal Mike for years but occasionally will see him post something (often about K-pop) over on Facebook. I searched some old emails for a detail in my Taylor Swift proposal (not accepted, oh well) and remembered that he was always bearish on Swift’s place in the late-00s teenpop torch-passing sweepstakes, liked Miley Cyrus and especially Lady Gaga more, but he eventually landed on K-pop as the true inheritor of the millennial teenpop zeitgeist, as didn’t we all.¹

8. BINI: Cherry on Top

Kayla Beardslee’s ongoing thread of “the year is 2024 and every pop song sounds like this now” — what I’ve started thinking of as the Atlanta/dnb axis, breakbeats at varying speeds (cruising to breakneck) paired with chunky synth chords — gets a shiny new entry from the Philippines.

9. noa: Honey Trap

Noa is back after some viral success with “Any Angle,” opting for a pop-punk number that I’m guessing will not go viral but has gone viral in my heart.

10. Neona: Pretty Girl Rock

An Indonesian attempt at [TK]-pop (a new phrase I’m trying out for K-pop as a central gravitational force for a whole orbit of regional pop styles from [fill-in-the-blank] countries, soon to be abandoned I’m sure) that charms by sounding like it was written for Cher Lloyd over a decade ago.

11. Doja Cat f. The Joy: Disrespectful

I never really bothered with Doja Cat’s Scarlet, though moments I liked made their way to my ears over the course of last year. The album has now been reworked and remodeled so many times there is a deluxe edition to the deluxe edition that seems to have an entire EP’s worth of new material, including the original version of this song, a bit earnest for Doja but a good use of her singing. Then she stuck on another add-on of remixes with this pretty adornment from a trendy South African choir, which finally crossed the threshold of mix inclusion.

12. DJ Danifox: Boneco

DJ Danifox gets understated but stays hypnotic — has been interesting to watch Príncipe and -adjacent artists stretch into pop styles this year.

13. Dar Disku f. Yacine El Khaldi: Dbayli

It took several rounds of online search to confirm that this is not an archival release from Soundway — these Bahranian-Londoners approach the analog disco soundtracking Egyptian pop magazines in the 70s (the source of the band’s name) with a Jack White-like monomania.

14. Los areyes De La Sierra, Yeri Mua, Luis R Conriquez: Ducati

15. NLE Choppa, Yaisel LM: Catalina

Two vacations to the Dominican Republic from two different places — broader Latin American pop continues its gradual absorption of dembow, as evidenced by Mexican reggaeton artists clumsily approximating a dembow chorus with less artlessness than Bb Trickz (hence not as good as Bb Trickz) — which is not to say artfulness (complimentary). Then NLE Choppa takes lead on a dembow track after appearing on an El Alfa track earlier in the year and reminds me that not speaking the language can be very helpful when trying to actively ignore lyrics.

16. Alicai Harley, Toddla T: Too Girly Girly

Day-glo dancehall that borrows the vast majority of its ebullience from its sample (Sophia George’s “Girlie Girle”).

17. Hulk Van JMF, Tayron Kwidan’s: Tout Donner

Congolese-Belgian artist modifies the harps from “The Boy Is Mine” and does them justice with a deceptively tricky production that sounds effortless.

18. Tzzy Makhathaza f. Thama Tee, Mellow & Sleazy, Ohp Sage): Kokeyang

Another amapiano song that I assumed would be much bigger than it really is (under a thousand views on YouTube at press time), with most of the heat coming from a charismatic vocalist rather than from Mellow & Sleazy, who seem to have quiet-quit envelope-pushing amapiano this year, but sound good in the background.

19. Ekuka Morris Sirikiti: Tec Me Ot Jok

The first studio album from Ugandan lukeme (“thumb piano”) player Ekuka Morris Sirkiti, whose live performances were collected in a Nyege Nyege Tapes compilation in 2018. I like how the production doesn’t go for the strict verisimilitude of documentary recording, cutting and pasting, letting what sound like filters and reverb create interesting artifacts that are then fed back into the song. More info on Bandcamp.

20. Ty Segall: The Dance

A jazzy jam from a garage-rock indie guy I always confuse with a bunch of other indie guys (I’m pretty confident his other stuff does not sound like this, though). Heavy on vibes (as in vibraphone), light on everything else.

21. Tryp Tych Tryo: No Going Back

Polish jazz that features what sounds to me like an impossibly double-tracked saxophone — can’t tell if it’s studio gimmickry, quixotic academic virtuosity, or if I’m just hearing things. (On my final listen before sending, I’m thinking I’m just hearing things. Ah well!)

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That’s it! Until next time, keep your virtuosity grounded.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from Los Campesinos!’s “kms”

1. In my proposal I distinguished between the first and second waves of millennial teenpop — Britney/BSB in wave one and Avril Lavigne (via Michelle Branch, Vanessa Carlton, and P!nk w/ Linda Perry) in wave two. Metal Mike never really took to the more earnest pockets of the confessional turn and was always looking for more unabashed bubblegum.