Hadewych
enthusiasm and stubbornness
rock, heavy metal, hardcore, pop, hip-hop, r&b, vaporwave
Designed to Break by Breathers (2018, Irrelevant Music) is super-fun retro pop with a strong synth presence. Listen to “Low in the Sky” on our latest City Grid Gravity show.
Lush, almost too sweet vaporwave from Dissociate: 解離 on their Geometric Lullaby double album from this year. Drenched in haze, drawn out, dreamy, this is Japanese pop shmeared out to fill all your cavities.
Short and oh so sweet (and free!): two tiny tracks inspired by that mid-90s videogame sound. erythritol’s Doors to Dreams / Sleeping Forest single (2018, stevia sphere) is billed as background music, but these cuties can stand on their own.
Jungle Brothers - Straight Out The Jungle
True classic from the early days of jazzy hip-hop. Made even greater by the sleazy house classic (you guessed it) “I’ll House You”.
“This release embodies consumption after midnight in all its forms.” Oh yeah… Glorious consumersoft from Little Mac Tonight out on Bogus Collective. That time of night when stuff feels all grainy and you just want some fries, man. ??
Telefone, my entry point to Noname, makes me hungry to check out her more recent LP, because: What a debut! These laid-back rhymes are heavily inflected with jazz and R&B. Warm, syrupy choruses too, and a bunch of great guest appearances.
Chillout Crisis by Sonnig 991 (2018, Business Casual) is a big mashup of samples from pop, dance and jazz, and original composition elements. Great blended sound and full of good energy, as always.
There’s a warm contemporary synthpop/wave sound on Steven Parry’s 10 Past 10 (2018), and it has the appropriate atmosphere, too. Could use some sharper songwriting here and there to take it to the next level.
Various Artists - Native North America (Vol. 1) : Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966-1985 (2014, Light in the Attic)
Fascinating compilation charting some radical, often raw music from many different native artists. A lot of righteous pride and spirit in these songs.
Bright, open, and slightly psychedelic, The Five Ringed Tower EP by Vinyl Dial (2017, Seikomart) is a lovely electronica trip. Proggy post-vapor synth rock with a dash of Asian folk influences, how’s that for a genre descriptor?