Sleaford Mods – O.B.C.T
Sleaford Mods are taking the piss, and they’re very good it. They’ll take the piss out of everyone, from Blur guitarist Graham Coxon (described on new album track ‘Flipside’ as looking “like a left-wing Boris Johnson”) to themselves (the first vocal on ‘Eton Alive’ is a belch) and even poor old NME (they slagged us off on their enjoyable 2017 album ‘English Tapas’).
They’re often described as a political band, and the duo – comprised of shouting frontman Jason Williamson and minimalist beatmaker Andrew Fearn – can certainly be eloquent in interviews, denouncing Brexit or the political class that engineered it. But actually the music’s more oblique than that. They’re not Idles (often the object of Williamson’s ire) who write out-and-out protest songs about the forces that divide the country. This record, like its four predecessors, trades in gallows humour that just so happens to be delivered in a working-class voice. It’s Modern Toss set to music. When Williamson half-sings on ‘When You Come Up To Me’, it’s intentionally funny because it’s earnestly inept.
Read the rest of this article at NME
Teeth Of The Sea – I’d Rather, Jack
Teeth Of The Sea partner with Erol Alkan on bold new song ‘I’d Rather, Jack’.
The group will release new album ‘Wraith’ on February 22nd, and it finds them approaching music from a host of fresh angles.
Linking with Erol Alkan at his London studio, Teeth Of The Sea began constructing something startlingly different, a kind of caustic but euphoric piece of avant-electro.
‘I’d Rather, Jack’ is both an exceptional pun and a muscular, jagged work out, a distinctly original piece of EBM derived production.
Erol Alkan comments: “I’ve been a fan and friend of Teeth Of The Sea for a number of years. We have a shared love of music people wouldn’t associate with me, so being able to work with them and flex that part of my musical mind was a joy.”
Read the rest of this article at Clash
Marie Davidson – ‘Lara (Daniel Avery Remix)’
In a Crate Digging feature with fabric late last year, Daniel Avery named his top tracks of 2018, including Marie Davidson’s ‘Day Dreaming’ within that haul.
Now, the Phantasy Sound artist has supplied a rework of Davidson’s ‘Lara’, crafting five minutes of giddying, dark techno with a snapping acid line.
It’s yet another in a string of remixes of Davidson’s tracks, with Nina Kraviz, Afrodeutsche (who we named one of our artists to watch in 2019), John Talabot and Silent Servant also stepping up for reworks.
Read the rest of this article at Dummy
ushamami – jinx
DJ and musician Mena Sachdev, who goes by Ushamami on stage, premiered their new music video for “Jinx” with Dazed last week. With a very 80s inspired melody and gorgeous, decidedly queer visuals, “Jinx” is a song to find comfort in.
While the chorus croons “she loves you bad, don’t turn away,” images of intimacy appear on the screen — touching, holding, putting on your companion’s makeup, smiling together — Ushamami has created a physical space to occupy. It’s warm and inviting. Above all, it fits to every form.
“I think the biggest influence was just looking at our own queer communities and thinking of ways we could build off of the different types of intimacy, environments, and styles we see in our lives and relationships,” Ushamami told Kajal. “We really wanted to show the complexity of what a queer relationship can be, and this idea was intertwined with the production of the each distinct aestheticized space. For example, for the bathroom scene with Gio, we showed how putting makeup on a partner can be such an intimate and flirtatious thing, and, to us, feels so deeply and beautifully queer.”
“I showed the video to my friend Jasdeep who is an amazing filmmaker and they said something that really stuck with me: ‘This doesn’t feel like a reaction to misrepresentation, it’s more of an assertion.’ I loved that. I want this to be an assertion of queer style, sound, connection. The message of jinx feels unapologetic to me, and I hope that it gives voice and validation to other queer folks,” they continued.
This is Ushamami’s first music video. “Jinx” is directed by Clare Dingle with creative direction from Ana Marx, photography by Alexis Gomez, color by Grace Naw, and lighting by Polina Zakharova. The video features Ushamami, Ana Marx, Gio Santiago, Rebecca Cumberbatch, Aarish Rojiani, and Fadwa Ahmed.
Read the rest of this article at Kajal
Rico Nasty – Sandy
With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear curated by the Levels team. We sort through all the new songs—across all the platforms and subgenres—so you don’t have to. Thank us later.
When Rico Nasty first previewed her song “Sandy” a couple months ago, her fans were shook, basically turning into that Mr. Krabs meme from “Spongebob.” The song’s instrumental, produced by close collaborator Kenny Beats, was pretty simple—featuring handclaps, an unsettling mosquito-like hum of guitar feedback, and a raucous bass line. But Rico, who possesses more raw punk energy in one of her perfectly manicured fingernails than any of your favorite male emo rappers, ignited the bare bones beat into a crowd-rouser that could trigger an all-girl mosh pit to open up anywhere. She delivers each line with chaotic glee, squealing the hook in sing-song: “Smoking out the bowl like the bitch named Sandy.” The song was clearly a banger even through shitty Instagram Live audio, and the snippet sparked a fervent fan campaign calling for Rico to drop the full version.
On Sunday, Rico finally gave her fans what they were begging for by dropping “Sandy,” along with music video directed by comedian Zack Fox, the Awful Records associate formerly known as Bootymath. In the clip, Rico’s anarchic energy is matched by Fox’s slideshow of unsettling memes and cursed images—including a pictures of turkey gravy in a Windex spray bottle, a bowl of cigarettes covered in milk, and beans… lots and lots of beans. (Is Zack Fox OK?) But the best joke in the entire video comes right at the beginning, in the title sequence, when Fox credits production to “Kenny Beats (a white man).” The day of the song’s release, Kenny took to Twitter to call out his collaborators: “Bro I hate @zackfox and @Rico_nastyy so much my entire mentions is just ‘(a white man)’ after everything I say,” followed by laughing and crying emoji. Clowning your friends on the internet is cool, but it’s even better when the prank is the product of something really excellent that you all made together.
Read the rest of this article at Pitchfork
