Five years ago, ambient pop group Cigarettes After Sex released their first EP, I. Since then, they’ve steadily grown their following and are finally readying their debut self-titled full-length. With the album out June 9th on Partisan Records, the band have today shared the latest preview, “Each Time You Fall In Love.”
Welcome to a special holiday edition of our Weekly Playlist. Pour yourself a glass of wine and take a seat by the fire and enjoy our carefully selected mix of melancholic winter-themed and Christmas tracks and reflect on the year gone by. Happy holidays! --P.F.M.
London producer Jack Richie, aka Bearcubs, has dropped the infectious single ‘Do You Feel’ which accompanies the announcement of his debut album Ultraviolet. The single which follows his two brilliant EPs, Chroma and Underwaterfall, is a stunning exercise of his signature sound; velvety vocals, and some emotional experimentation with vibrato, atop an addicting beat that draws you in.
Showcasing star quality can take years for a new artist, but Los Angeles-based artist Billie Eilish is a natural. She’s only 15 years old, but she’s had an insane 2017 and songs/videos like “Bellyache” and “Ocean Eyes” have racked up tens of millions of plays. Billie’s been selling out shows around the world, winning over fans and media outlets alike, and she’s on her way to becoming a household name. Today she keeps things moving with a new release, the slow-burning “Bitches Broken Hearts.”
Grandbrothers‘ latest offering is very much in the vein of neo-classical compatriots and contemporaries Hauschka and Nils Frahm – dramatic piano flourishes and grand, sweeping sonic statements marry beneath minimalist-lite motifs. Where Grandbrothers take a leap to leftfield is further down in the mix, right at the bedrock: built on a foundation of thumping rhythms and clubby beats, this could easily find a home inside sweat-soaked warehouses as easily as the majestic symphony halls of continental Europe.
Recorded in a working dairy farm in the backwoods of West Wales, ‘Reflection of Youth’ was written during a period of EERA’s life when, she says, Norwegian society expects everyone “to figure everything out.” It’s no surprise, then, that this record is investigative, as it thrives in its experimentation, moving seamlessly between styles from honey-sweet lo-fi to angry pulsating rock with soul-searching, introspective, electronic twists.
Scottish producer Makeness, aka Kyle Molleson, has released ‘Loud Patterns’, a thundering slice of electronica. Makeness has also signed to Secretly Canadian, the Indiana label home to Anohni and The War on Drugs. His music usually falls on the harsher, more industrial end of the musical spectrum. On ‘Loud Patterns’, however, he combines raw, organic drums and grating synth lines with ghost-like vocal melodies to create a track reminiscent of pop-laced EBM.
The New York City and Seoul-based producer Kathy Yaeji Lee makes house music and pop tunes, but her vocal delivery often sounds like rap. In past songs, like “Guap” or “Last Breath,” with hard 808s, she flashed a unique flow that showed precision in both English and Korean. For her new track, “Drink I’m Sippin On,” Yaeji embraces her inclination toward the style and trades in her usual four-on-the-floor for a trap beat.
J Balvin and Willy William’s “Mi Gente” was a certified banger from the moment it dropped—in the streets, the clubs, the airwaves, and the charts. Released during the summer of “Despacito,” it proved the Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi’s Spanish-language pop smash was no fluke. With the track’s latest remix, blessed by none other than Beyoncé, Balvin and William seem to be following the “Despacito” playbook, adding a feature from an English-speaking pop star singing in Spanish to expand the song’s reach.
FINALLY HAD THE chance to watch The Royal Tenenbaums (2001, Wes Anderson) this past weekend (yes, P is constantly astounded as well by the sheer number of films I haven’t seen) and we also made a little time on Sunday for lounging about in the park, perhaps for the last time this year, as it has been very much summer-like still, despite autumn’s official arrival.
Earlier this year, the legendary producer Madlib reconnected with past collaborators Blu and Med for March’s joint record “The Turn Up.” Now after spending the better part of 2017 laying low, the West Coast perfectionist is back with more incredible new sounds.
