Stitch me up, send me back out to dance
Mix 28: Baile funk goes horrorcore, Ashnikko “Heathers”-pop, Uffie and Andrew Bird return, and songs to make you blush by Sexyy Red, That Chick Angel, and...Cassadee Pope
Each week I skim through about 2,000 songs mostly from Spotify's company-curated New Music Friday playlists. Whenever I find 80 minutes worth of music I like, I make a CD-length mix and write a newsletter about it.
A quick one! Usually I get through my playlist over the weekend, start pecking away at the newsletter on Monday, and finish it up by Wednesday night. But I am currently on a brief vacation so got this queued up before I left. Kindly excuse more than the usual typos, factual inaccuracies, unexplored potential, missed tangents, poor analysis, failure to adequately incorporate the timbres of power tools into said analysis (standard baile funk caveat), and any other manner of hasty sloppiness.
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: STITCH ME UP, SEND ME BACK OUT TO DANCE
1. Dexter Story f. Sudan Archives: Gold [2019]
Ah, the first time I’ve been fooled by my Discover Weekly list! This track turns out to be from 2019 and I don’t have time to find a replacement, so hopefully it’s new to you, as it was to me.
2. The Budos Band: Devil Doesn’t Dance
Fela-esque horn section from Daptone, decaf, but that’s all I need.
3. Jalen Ngonda: That’s All I Wanted from You
More Daptone — what are the odds I’d stick these two together! Didn’t know they were both from the same label until writing the description just now.
4. Uma: Cicadas
A Barcelona & London-based artist whom I assumed was Brazilian when I wasn’t playing close attention. (I mean that as a compliment.)
5. Kwengface & Joy Overmono: Freedom 2
“Joy Overmono” is the portmanteau — or maybe more accurately port-NON-teau — of Joy Orbison and Overmono, working with UK rapper Kwengface.
6. Felicia Takman: De hade vart slut
Swedish singer-songwriter — title just translates to “They Had Run Out,” according to Google. Get your mind out of the gutter!
7. Limited Express (has gone?): HATER
Japanese band started out on John Zorn’s Tzadik label and now they’re here, wherever that is.
8. Ayo Manuel: Fun Time [1983]
Nigerian disco funk billed as “DIY” from the early 80s, rereleased on Soundway Records. Reminds me of a Bumblebee Unlimited demo or something. Goes on at least 4 minutes too long but why not, the more the merrier. More info on the Bandcamp.
9. Zuchu: Honey
Our descent into annoying but undeniable vocal hooks continues with this Tanzanian artist, whose video I wish I had time to watch. Looks like a hoot, but can’t confirm.
10. MC Yallah f. Bokoya and Debmaster: Moto Itawaka
Was mildly disappointed with MC Yallah’s album after really loving the first track I heard from it back on Mix 6. This was a blast, though, don’t know if it was an outtake or a new one.
11. Uffie: Oopsie
Uffie is back! She says things that are somewhat filthy but not as filthy as any of the following three songs, or, arguably, as Cassadee Pope(!) later on.
I used to confuse Ashnikko with Lil Mariko (of “Where’s My Juul” fame), and decided that when I heard someone who reminded me a little of Lil Mariko but wasn’t half as good, I’d know it’s Ashnikko. That worked well for several years until she made this nasty Heathers-esque poison pen letter wherein she advises the titular cheerleader to chug Drano, so now I’m confused again.
13. MCVERTT f. A$AP Ferg and Sexyy Red: Face Down
Ashnikko leads us into a trio of particularly silly/filthy rap songs, starting with this one whose silliness and filth are both undercut a little by just how abrasive and out-there the production is. Love it.
14. Saweetie f. YG and Tyga: Birthday
Saweetie, on the other hand, has no such abrasiveness or out-thereness on hand for her birthday celebration. I needed a buffer song before we got to…
15. That Chick Angel f. Casa Di & Steve Terrell: One Margarita (Margarita Song)
That Chick Angel turns the corner into a full-blown novelty song. I will admit I laughed in public when I first heard her use the word “tush” in maybe the most NSFW way I’ve ever encountered. (Stick around for the last-second punchline, blink and you might miss it.)
16. DJ K f. Mc Gh Sp, MC GB DO ABC, & MC KAIQUE DA SUL: Isso Não é um Teste [2022]
Horrorcore baile funk, which I’m — maybe ignorantly? — distinguishing from the usual acidic hellscape of probidão: this song and d.silvestre from Mix 8 both strike me as a bit more affected and cartoonish (right down to the killer clown imagery). The provenance of this particular song is unclear; the version on the mix dates back to at least 2022, but a song with the same title was also uploaded in 2021. It’s featured on DJ K’s 2023 album, Panico no Submundo (“Panic in the Underworld” — right at home with d. silvestre’s “psycho violin from hell”).
17. Hakushi Hasegawa: Mouth Flash (Kuchinohanabi)
I’m interested in this artist, but for now all I can tell you is that they’re from Tokyo, appeared on a streaming show hosted by Flying Lotus, and can make their harmonies sound like a train whistle.
18. Population II: Beau baptême
Montreal group with a scrappy prog sound that reminds me of a specific 70s band that I will not be able to identify before I schedule this to go out. I hope you will tell me who it sounds like in the comments, as I will have been agonizing over it for four days by the time you read this.
19. Cassadee Pope: Almost There
“Almost there” means what you think it does if your mind was still in the gutter after you misinterpreted that Swedish song, or made it through the margarita song. This song is somehow simultaneously naive and uncomfortably intimate, which is to say the “Avril’s second album” vibe she’s going for pays off.
20. MARIIA: Сльози
Ukrainian rap with a great flute hook that they bury too deep in the mix. Always put the flute way out in front, folks.
Can’t believe this goober got away with an acoustic guitar Kylie Minogue cover in 2023, but the secret to its success is accentuating the song’s flat sixth (the mixolydian b6 scale: basically the first half of the scale is in major and the second half in minor). It’s the thing that makes the Kylie song sound a little mysterious, or like the opening credits of a recently rebooted franchise. The cover, meanwhile, suggests “Padam Padam” could have been a killer Alice in Chains song.
Andrew Bird is back and…playing the blues, sort of?
Meanwhile, no idea what Piotr is playing, but it sounds less strange to me than both the baile funk (duh) and the Sexyy Red feature (more surprising). Found this on one of Polifonia’s weekly playlists.
***
OK that’s it! Gotta go!
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title from Ashnikko’s “Cheerleader.”
It is my duty to inform you that "Oopsie" reminds me sonically of A Tribe Called Quest's "We The People..."