Smerz, Blessed
Our love for these girls will go on and on. Since we featured them in this years pre-spring issue of i-D, the Norwegian duo have gone from strength to strength, performing at all manner of festivals and getting picked up by Radio 1. Remember their name.
JoJo, Mad Love
JoJo continues her much-better-than-anyone-could-have-anticipated second act with a song that fits neatly into the recent trend of retro soul stylings from disyllabic female singers: it’s a little bit RiRi, a little bit Bibi. All we need now is Duf-fy and we have the makings of a potentially very good girl band indeed.
GTA ft. Vince Staples, Little Bit of This
Vince Staples is on a bit of a run, isn’t he? Hot on the heels of the very good Prima Donna, the man whose mom calls him Vincent when she’s mad has teamed up with Miami production/DJ duo GTA for a video that sees surrounded by cars in a dust strewn environ. Is he making a play for the vacant Top Gear job? Probably not, no.
Thee MVPs, Slimelord
A load of absolute racket here from Billy Childish fanatics Thee MVPS. A Sabbath-esque riff of amps-up-to-11 proportion it’s a song all about “those jerks that wear rollnecks, douse themselves in cologne and grab your friend’s arse while you’re playing a gig”. Down with the Slimelords! Up with Thee MVPS!
Lola Blanc, The Magic
Born Bavaria and raised in Michigan by her CIA operative father and motivational speaker mother, Lola Blanc spent her childhood travelling as a ventriloquist in a magic show, before falling in with a religious impostor posing as a true LDS prophet. She now resides in LA and makes music that sounds a bit like Gwen Stefani. We’re happy with the decision.
Mulàn, Night
This was premiered by our friends at Noisey the other day and while it all sounds quite interesting and we do quite like the little guitar bit, one does have to be wary of the mysterious approach. What if it’s all a trick and they turn out to be rubbish? What if we live to regret their inclusion in the our weekly music round-up? Only time will tell, readers. Only time will tell.
Rejjie Snow, D.R.U.G.S
Sounds to us like Mr Snow is well supplied. Hit play and get stuck in a loop as this nice animation shows Rejjie and a friend just driving driving driving while this super chill track has us in a daze. This is music to play video games to, music to drive to, music to smoke to, music to live to. His Dear Annie LP couldn’t come soon enough.
Kaytranada, 0.001%
It seems like a certain Canadian had a strong To Do list for this week…
1. win 2016 Polaris Prize for 99.9% LP.
2. drop surprise mixtape.
Tick, ticky, tickity, tick. Nice one, Kaytranada.
Leah McFall, Wolf Den
Some of you might remember Leah from her appearance on BBC One’s The Voice, others from her 2014 earworm, Home. After a not so positive experience of major label life, she’s back with a slinkier sound but certainly hasn’t toned down that incredible vocal range. “After two years the chains have broken and ropes untied,” she writes to fans on soundcloud of her newfound independence. Be free!
Dirty Projectors, Keep Your Name
Dirty Projectors have returned with their first new song since 2012’s About To Die EP. Keep Your Name charts a relationship breakdown and opens with a simple piano and vocal pairing before David Longstreth falls down at 2 minutes 20, and with him, the format of the track. Beginning to rap, everything glitches out and gets a little more intense. With a black and white video co-directed by Kanye’s creative director Elon Rutberg, it’s emotional and really beautiful.
Credits
Text Frankie Dunn and Matthew Whitehouse
Photography Maxwell Tomlinson