We jumped into the margins
2025 Mix 29: Obligatory KPOP DEMON HUNTERS thoughts before enjoying the sounds of scene outsiders rapping, rocking, and ama-popping to strange and beautiful places.
I have now officially seen KPOP DEMON HUNTERS, the Netflix smash that has finally dislodged Alex Warren from the top of the Billboard Global 200 charts (at press time “Jump” by BLACKPINK has rocketed straight to #1 with Alex Warren all the way down at #4 below Justin Bieber’s “Daisies”). Thought the movie was charming but slight, could have used another few songs. Will undoubtedly see it at least one more time, as one of my kids liked it a lot and the other one will probably want to see it, too. I was more interested in it as A-pop Theory than as a movie.
What I thought was interesting about KPDH is that it seemed like the first fully post-A-pop children’s film: created in English and with American audiences in mind, but with no meaningful referents to American culture aside from an interesting songwriting blend of K-pop and musical theater. That is, it was for American audiences, but not only them, and not pandering to them. I would say the resulting tunes are firmly in the 6/10 category music-wise, with the occasional gentle nudge up to a soft [7], but this is much higher than the average pop song written for a movie about pop music, and the songs seem to be doing their job just fine.
The biggest lesson for filmmakers is to just make sure your movie has bangers in it! This was the fatal flaw of Vox Lux, a film comprised almost entirely of flaws though none of the others technically fatal. I talked about it with Holly Boson on her podcast a few weeks ago. We go long on the pretensions of A24-core, present a capsule history of millennial teenpop, mercilessly tear into Sia’s career (with special acknowledgement of the all-time great topline for “Titanium”) and extol the virtues of a genius who acts like a hack rather than vice versa — and this was only the first half of the convo.
1. CRXSHXL: 21 Century Funk [2024]
Brazil
Kat Stevens challenges my thesis about funk being out of ferment this year with an aggressive goof on the 20th Century Fox fanfare, from a producer who styles themselves in the phonk fashion (creepy animated demon child avatar) but alas! It is technically from 2024, so does not challenge this year on a technicality.
2. Tei Shi, Loyal Lobos: 222
Canada/US
Tei Shi has now fully moved away from indie-pop and into Spanish-language vibes-pop, and now some proper alt-reggaeton. She sounds better every step in the process.
3. Pink Pantheress: Illegal (Nia Archives Remix)
UK
A dependable batshit remix from Nia Archives that somehow zaps more personality into PinkPantheress’s vocal than I think I’ve ever heard from her, like destroying the entire power grid of your city to generate a single spark. Frankenstein: Or, the Modern PinkPrometheuss.
4. pinponpanpon: Isetan
Japan
Well I knew that my new favorite Japanese group, pinponpanpon, were a little demented but this is full bore post-Carti hypertrap, tinnitus inclusive.
5. Ninjajirachi: iPod Touch
Australia
Australian EDM-pop producer has a light enough touch to neither remind you too much of the EDM part nor sneakily launch a revival—it’s on the horizon, though, you can only keep the drop out of the limelight for so long. If you squint you might think you’re just listening to dance-pop, but it wants to drop so much harder, too. Her time will come, and it will sound massive.
6. Kimera: Stop Talkin’
Turkey
I like finding a hard to categorize Turkish oddball on my enduring quest to find the next “DARBUKA” by Eftalya Yağcı, even if none of it will ever get close.
Yağcı wasn’t far off from the zeitgeist that Marina Satti would eventually figure out how to wrangle. Also, this appears to be a connection to the spirit world deal—the first song Yağcı has put out that is anything close to “Darbuka” since then just came out about a week ago as I’m writing this. It will be on next week’s mix.
7. Lella Fadda: OKHTY
Egypt
Trap beats and disaffected conversational rap from an Egyptian artist who’s got a whole album of this stuff that gets even weirder and more disaffected. Needs another listen or three, but very promising so far.
8. Mezz: Touch
Japan
I have questions. First, butterfly meme style: is this ama-pop? (It is.) Second, whose producer tag is that rising woman’s voice going “ahh-ahh” at 3:05 mimicking? Or is it just a generic amapiano convention? (That was a sub-question of #2.) Three, why has Japan been so successful adapting South African pop music? Or rather, (not a sub-question) four, why isn’t everyone else better at it? This is what all music is supposed to sound like now! (Not a question, it just is!)
9. Dj Drewther f. Naxssy: Pa Sus Chiklez y Su Cumbiaton
Mexico
I guess cumbiaton is another years-long subscene I need to learn more about, huh. Sounds like fun.
10. CENT: Love Syndrome
Japan
CENT is back and gets her second newsletter title! The first was “Junk rocket take me to the moon” in 2023’s “決心.” Pop-punk lives and breathes.
11. Loco f. TAICHU, Young Coco: Matcha High
South Korea/Argentina/Japan
An interesting cosmo-pop blend of Korean and Argentine rappers on an ode to a drink that nearly always makes me feel ill after I drink it but I will always drink anyway if at all possible.
12. Modem: BS
Finland
Dorky Finnish electro-pop with plastic vampire fangs. Been thinking a bit about the beat in Bauhaus’s “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” after contorting my brain to have coherent thoughts about clave last week. It really is an interesting beat, isn’t it? Lokpo points out this Turkish song (Zeki Müren’s “Mühür Gözlüm”) with a similar beat, and notes a later Turkish coincidence/connection: “Peter Murphy is incredibly Turkey-connected: he has a Turkish wife, converted to sufism, moved to Istanbul in the 90s and worked with Turkish musicians. However, from what I’ve been able to find, Bauhaus made ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’ one or two years before he met his wife.” Anyway, this song could use more clave!
13. Pierwiastek Z Trzech: Jak Jane Birkin
Poland
14. Ganser: Discount Diamonds
US
15. Fitza: Cosa cazzo significa
Italy
16. Pina Palau: Letter to the Editor
Switzerland
17. Neggy Gemmy: I Don’t Feel Like Dancing
US
A very long international indie block! First, big warm Polish indie from a sister duo who incorporate bluegrass into indie-pop without sounding overly Mumfordian. Then a Chicago group does some low-key post-punk with smothered sprechgesang, mostly comes alive when the guitar goes, as they say, angular. Fitza is more low-key post-punkish indie from Italy, whose title translates to “What the Fuck Does It Mean,” but seems to get by more on melody than meaning. Pina Palau is a Swiss artist (whom I’ve featured before) who here sneers at losers who get hung up on pronouns, set to tasteful alt-country, and finally Neggy Gemmy is technically mining trip-hop but I have little enough to say that I figured it could remain a stub at the end here without anyone minding.
18. Madison McFerrin: Heartbreak
US
Yes, it is that McFerrin, surprisingly not begging the comparison to her dad despite some tricky acapella multi-tracking (neo-soul enough that I didn’t even suspect anything until getting this blurb together).
19. Dana Salah: Bent Bladak
Jordan
Easy Golden Beatology pick for Jordan-Palestinian artist Dana Salah’s folk-pop, which as a bonus features many incredible costumes, a few good horses, and one rug that I’d bet would really tie my room together.
20. Noura Mint Seymali: Guéreh
Mauritania
Ah, sorry, Golden Beatology slot is full! But still enjoyed this Mauritanian folk, just a hair more “world music” than I was looking for this week (but will still go on the Golden Beatology playlist).
21. Hatis Noit: A Caso (Jlin Rework)
Japan/US
Japanese vocal artist adds some appropriately avant beats to her looser neoclassical compositions from 2022 all-vocal album Aura, with mixed but generally strong results, including this one from Jlin.
22. DJ ILIANA: Destina!
Brazil
Toyed with putting this, my ceremonial random Brazilian funk track to remind everyone that there are still dozens of good funk songs going onto my holdover lists every week, second this week, but it has an annoying extra 15 seconds of silence at the end, so to the end it goes. It’s kismet, though — great transition from the previous track.
***
That’s it! Until next time, try to hunt the demons in your own life, even if the metaphor is a little muddled and it’s unclear exactly what the demons “do” in terms of the plot. Er…of your life?
—Dave Moore (the other one)
Title translated from CENT: Love Syndrome (“余白に飛び出した僕ら”)
The rhythm on "Bela Lugosi's Dead" and "Mühür Gözlüm" is the clave with the last note delayed a half beat. When "Bela Lugosi" showed up in People's Pop Polls' "World Cup Of Death And The Afterlife" I commented that it was as if Bauhaus took the first two songs on the first Stooges album – the clave rhythm of "1969"* and the downward riff of "I Wanna Be Your Dog" – and combined them but at suspended speed. Anyway, "BS" has the "Dog" riff and suspended speed of "Bela Lugosi" but not the rhythm; as you say, the track might have been better had Modem used the clave beat or something like it.
*The "1969" riff is the full clave rhythm but adds an extra half beat to it, whereas Bauhaus replace the last clave beat with the delayed beat (hope what I said is clear). In my Disco Tex essay I point out that "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)" breaks into that 1969 riff** (at about 1:30 or 1:47 in, depending on which edit you're listening to), though I also point out that the Byrds (!) had done the identical Stooges riff (in the break in "Tribal Gathering") a year *before* the Stooges – though for all I know the riff shows up earlier than that in something by the Four Seasons or in some other part of the Crewe-Randell-Linzer-Nolan crew's oeuvre. [Relevant dates: "Tribal Gathering" 1968, "1969" 1969, "I Wanna Dance Wit' Choo (Doo Dat Dance)" 1974, "Bela Lugosi's Dead" 1979.]
**But drop the final delayed beat! [For someone else reading this: yes I know there are scads of rock songs that use a clave rhythm – Bo Diddley bases many of his rhythms on the clave rhythm – an early punk-rock usage is the Electric Prunes' "Get Me To The World On Time" in 1967. The cited songs by Byrds-Stooges-Disco Tex use a *specific* riff that ties itself to the clave rhythm; Bauhaus and Modem don't use that riff; they have a percussion instrument playing the clave-like beat. But those Bauhaus and Modem tracks do use a Stooges riff, a different one. While using their clave-like beat.]
"This is what all music is supposed to sound like now!" Sounds like an advert for the NOW! series.