Let me tell you about my bruise

2025 Mix 8: Fergie gets in on some TikTok shit, smoking the ashes of your enemies, Swedish also-rans get back on the horse, and catching up with South African music from December

Everyone gets an Oscar before Taylor Swift. Eh-ver-y-one.

Will try to keep it light after a few weeks of essay content with chord charts and intervals. A follow-up on last week’s post on “Say So” and K-pop: I started keeping track of all the K-pop C-list stuff that I come across that is doing the thing I’m describing but without sounding like it’s aping American pop. This week it was A-plus’s “Schedule.”

I should probably prepare some thoughts about Eurovision for a longer essay, since I made a claim a while ago I’d like to follow up on: that American pop and Eurovision are in the slow process of Freaky Friday-ing. I’m not totally sure what I meant by this when I said it, and I’m not at all confident that whatever I meant is true.

But I do have some definitive proof that it couldn’t literally be true, and that a Eurovision-style competition wouldn’t work as an interstate tournament in the US. The proof is that, unbeknownst to me until a few weeks ago, they tried this in 2022 with the American Song Contest on NBC.

It was not really a success. What fascinates me is that the (spoiler alert) eventual winner was AleXa, an Oklahoma native who started out in the K-pop circuit, competing in idol auditions run by JYP and then Cube Entertainment. To me that sounds as American as apple pie.

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Previous 2025 Mixes

Tidal || YouTube

1. Rockout Danny: How to Bip
US

2. Sturdyyoungin, Ohthatsmizz, Zeddy Will: Trippin
US

Let’s start with two songs I immediately filed under “TikTok shit” — which is to say, I’m not bothering to follow the breadcrumbs to figure out where it actually came from.

Will use Rockout Danny’s song as an opportunity to link to Tom Breihan’s post on XXXTentacion, which mostly squirms around trying to avoid talking about the subject at hand (with good cause — XXXTentacion by all appearances was a monstrous abuser before being senselessly murdered in an armed robbery at age 20). But it did cause me to go back and listen to his older stuff, which I too avoided at the time, and admit that it was indeed ahead of its time. Rockout Danny is so far removed in the lineage that you could practically imagine his post-post-post-Soundcloud rap in a Target commercial.

Then there’s “Trippin,” which not only samples Fergie but got her to appear in a video in a scene so stilted that she seems like an authentically harried but good-hearted public school teacher. Get this woman a supporting role in a downer prestige flick for her Oscar nom! Everyone gets an Oscar before Taylor Swift. Anyway, this is pretty far in the opposite direction from Rockout Danny, i.e. sounds like it was already a Target commercial but they made the lyrics just too raunchy to air.

3. Nayomi, Perrie: Eih El Kalam?
Sweden

A rap that goes surprisingly hard, from an Arabic-Swedish artist who, if I’m getting the translation correct, is going to put the ashes of her enemies in her cigarette.

4. Marina Satti f. Mikros Kleftis, Vlospa: Tucutum - RMX
Greece

Another appearance from Marina Satti, whose remix on the deluxe edition of her “album” (really more of an EP) is as good as the original, and also generously shares the mic with other Greek rappers. Saw this via the latest of Frank Kogan’s Eardrums mixes (You should check these out. He programs a mean whiplash segue.)

5. Terrenoire: Le fou dans la voiture
France

Gloomy French rap from a Lyon duo that come out of neo-chanson music but I guess have decided they need a hit. Most of their other stuff is sappy earnest balladry, so I have no idea where this one came from. They should have made a whole album of this stuff instead.

6. ARTIGO016, Ari Falcão: Quero Que Se Foda
Brazil

If you act now, you can still be in the first ten listeners to this track on YouTube. The very hard to Google without copy-and-pasting ARTIGO016 (that’s “Arti Go 016”) is a Ribeirão Preto Soundcloud producer who puts baile funk off at an avant distance and uses beds of noise without sounding nearly as noisy as much sparer stuff he’s in competition with. He buries the Ari Falcão vocal so deep into the mix you start to think there’s no one there and you’re just hearing things, like she’s struggling in quicksand before getting slurped under entirely.

7. Menor Teteu, DJ Guina, DJ J2: Nunca Mais Voltei
Brazil

8. MC Kevinho: IA
Brazil

Far from burying the vocal, the next two Brazilian tracks are straightforward vocalist showcases. The first one lets Menor Teteu, nee MC Teteu, show off his smooth adult croon, which isn’t as distinctive as his piercing but plaintive teen warble, but is still more than enough to carry the track. The second is a pop track from Mc Kevinho with only a light reminder of clave throughout to remind you it’s funk at all, the spolight given to the vocals and a hook that looks like a guitar (in the video) but sounds like a ukulele.

9. FearDorian: Forecasting
US

FearDorian’s new album lacks the cartoon frying pan whack of his work with AyooLii and Polo Perks. He lets his voice hover like a fog over the beats, which in this case is constructed from what I can only assume is an extremely deep cut of indie music that I probably reviewed at some point 20 years ago and have since completely forgotten about.

10. Spunk: Hot Flashes [1981]
US

An early ‘80s funk band on the Gold Coast Entertainment label in Chicago, from their 1981 album Tighten It Up. One of two Numero Group rereleases I let slip through this week. I needed a strong transition away from the rap half.

11. Σtella: Omorfo Mou
Greece

A Greek indie pop artist on Sub Pop, pretty drone against a drum loop and some synth noodling but holds together despite its semi-pop-by-numbers feel and achieves the status of Golden Beatology pick of the week.

12. MINNIE: Her
South Korea

Another day, another K-pop girl group soloist diversifying their portfolio by getting some A- in their K-pop — in this case it’s MINNIE from (G)I-DLE, providing this week’s title with her bruise (ouch — ow, ow).

13. Dolly Style: Yihaa
Sweden

14. Meira Omar: Hush Hush
Sweden

Maybe my two favorite Swedish Eurovision semifinalists, both of whom got through the penultimate competition round by the skin of their teeth. The first might be the goofiest international take on country I’ve heard since 2YOON’s “24/7.”

Meira Omar is an Afghani-Swedish singer who brings in a nice Arabic pop two-count rhythm in the song’s chorus, which almost but doesn’t quite make up for the rest of the song not figuring out what to do with itself.

15. MAISONdes: Show MeYour Phone (Korean version)
Japan

Another VTuber, with a song originally released in 2023 but rereleased a few weeks ago in a Korean language version that I’m counting on a technicality, even though the part that I like the most is the same in both languages (“ke ke ke!”).

Patrick St. Michel had a good piece recently about the rise of VTuber influence in the Japanese pop mainstream: “This [Hoshimachi Suisei’s “BIBBIDIBA”] is the moment VTuber music went from interesting development to something playing on the mainstream stage.” My ears are sadly no help here, don’t hear anything in that song that would have clued me in to this at all. This is why I read actual experts.

16. Wooly: Love Market
Taiwan

Breezy, jazzy pop that once again has me thinking about America’s turn toward arrangements more common in Japanese and South Korean music. This one’s from Taiwanese artist Wooly, on Warner Music Taiwan.

17. Martini Police: Błękit
Poland

There appear to be several competing Martini Police from England and Italy, which is how I learned that the phrase appears in an Arctic Monkeys song. And indeed, this Polish indie group (the best Martini Police that I sampled) does lean Britpop, but I can’t figure out why this doesn’t particularly bother me. May be as simple as my bias against contemporary British rock and toward any rock not in English.

18. Liya: Whine
Nigeria

Well of course I’m going to find a Naija pop song with triple-digit YouTube streams that I confuse for something massive—what newsletter do you think you’re reading?

19. Uncle Waffles f. Royal MusiQ, Uncool MC, Xduppy, CowBoii: Zenzele
South Africa

I missed an excellent Uncle Waffles “EP” (maxi-single?) in December, 4 Da Ho’s. Her work with Royal MusiQ has been incredible and I haven’t really given it its due, though I did include what I think is her biggest hit to date, “Wadibusa,” on a mix last year without knowing in advance how popular it was.

20. ANATII f. Busta Rhymes, Chley, MarC, Almighty: Boom
South Africa/US

A solid amapiano banger that already had a good chance of getting on a mix for Chley alone but was notable to me for its Busta Rhymes inclusion—he sounds great. Hopefully this will mark the end of my trawl through all of the amapiano I missed just in December of 2024. I am now close to three mixes ahead of schedule; there is too much good music!

21. Hooky, Winter: Horseshoe
US

Have to hit my random bedroom indie quota for the month — this will do nicely.

22. GG ГуляйГород: Криниця
Ukraine

Interesting contrast here between the expected minor-key melancholy in the vocals and a more EDM-influenced beat than I’d expect to go with them. Go_A is still pretty far ahead in this space (their beats are much more interesting), but this one still caught my attention.

23. Matters Unknown, Onipa: I Am the Birds
UK/Ghana

Expansive — maybe too expansive — easy listening world fusion from members of Nubiyan Twist and Onipa. Not sure if there is a name or genre for this sort of stuff—maybe I should call it “world café” in honor of the Philly institution. I do tend to like it, especially for a mix wind-down.

24. Reid Alan: Almost Hard to Believe [1975]
UK

Lovely Rhodes-driven soft pop from Scottish folk artist Reid Alan, originally released in 1975, though the version I’m finding on YouTube is slightly different from this one. I can’t tell if it’s a different recording or if the YouTube vinyl rip is playing at a slightly higher speed (I think it’s the latter). Anyway, sounds better in this remastered format from Numero Group, and it’s a good one if you’re using this mix to drift off to sleep. The first half probably wouldn’t have helped you much with that.

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That’s it! Until next time, remember only to listen to the first half of these mixes while operating heavy machinery.

—Dave Moore (the other one)

Title from MINNIE: Her