Video & Audio: Low places

With some Americans, if you must, mostly near the bottom

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party: “Ya Allah Ya Rehman”

Some weeks you mostly just want to play Nusrat. I don’t know enough about qawwali to describe how this rediscovered 1990 recording differs from a hundred other good Nusrats; you can read Tom Moon for that. But this week it’s okay to simply listen.

Rosé & Bruno Mars: “Apt.”

Long a supporter of semi-ish New Zealanders Blackpink for nationalistic reasons, I’ve found their solo moves to be aimed at pretty low common denominators, which doesn’t necessarily mean they’re bad. This might be the very lowest, and also the best: “Mickey” claps, Bruno Fjucking Mars, the most repetitive possible chorus, and it all works.

Sho Madjozi, Gemini Major, Ntando Yamahlubi, Tee Jey, Exclusive Drums: “Kadigong”

(At least I think Exclusive Drums is an artist and not an instrument.) Musically this is a pretty safe, if still effortlessly danceable, release by Madjozi’s standards. Linguistically she’s rapping in Chichewa, Malawi’s most spoken language. If the West is going to declare multiculturalism over then at least we still have ambitious South African gqom/amapiano stars.

Joel and the Neverending Sextet: “Swirling”

I know I go on about Nordijazz a lot, but it might have the highest hit rate of any scene in the world if you like that sort of thing. This track has a swaggering tuba-underscored riff, above which happens all kinds of fleet improvisation, which is all undermined when said tuba (played by one Heida Karine Johannesdottir Mobeck) whines and grinds and the drummers-plural go off.

Rocky Gold: “Réveilles toi”

Dave Moore pick from Côte d’Ivoire that at press time has all of 78 YouTube views. And yet it sounds like a megahit and/or an alarm clock, with all kinds of gripping textural and rhythmic hooks. I particularly like the synth that sounds like a guy imitating a trumpet, unless that’s just a guy imitating a trumpet, unless that’s just a trumpet.

MC Monalizo, Ari Falcão, DJ Daav: “Fresh Prince”

The beat isn’t exceptional by funk single standards and Monalizo’s merely a good digger, but I’m really starting to appreciate Falcão as a vocalist. With only a clank to compete with in the treble she just picks a tone and gives so much impetus to it without unbalancing the composition.

Ashna Lweri: “Uma Oma Ayi”

The polling is telling us to get over Gen Z, so let’s move on to four-year-old Lweri, born shortly after the first detected COVID case in the Congo and now based in Uganda. She’s an effective singer, more Jordy than Shirley Temple, and her production features a pan-African collection of funny electronoises, including a big synth sound so tubey that one wants to fill it with a nice tomato-based sauce.

Rosalía ft. Ralphie Choo: “Omega”

A Rosalía song with a real melody and chorus? We really are going back to the late 2010s, when I intermittently thought she might actually be the great Euro hope. Ralphie Choo provides low-effort vocals and high-effort weirdness that I so far find mostly superfluous, but maybe it’ll help with long-term replay value.

Mthandeni SK, MaWhoo: “Gucci”

A more traditional South African maskandi musician whose “Paris” upset a murderers’ row of nominees for Record of the Year at the South African Music Awards. “Gucci” is better still, with a mathy rhythm, a catchy high bass or low guitar riff, and a sense of wistfulness in its minor key mood.

MJ Lenderman: “Knockin (Single Version)”

You may not be surprised to learn I didn’t get much new out of Pitchfork’s mid-decade lists, but this was a tickling find: a golf slash Dylan song that somehow Elizabeth Nelson didn’t write. Only problems are (i) it’s much better than anything on Lenderman’s new album; (ii) there’s not much room to identify with John Daly, the least surprising Trump celebrity endorser, no matter how much the narrator drinks. Which is the joke—a good one, but a spiritually and electorally limited one. In the interest of transcendence, I encourage Long John to run for a public office that only the worst possible Republican candidate could lose. You might win!

Godfather Don: “Definite”

Kool Keith associate who’s been in the biz for over three decades, including a parallel career as a free jazz guy. At the beginning he declares his affection for “a nice beat track and you… just wanna get on that shhh and be like raaaauggh”, and that’s what he does over his own production, aided by DJ Debonair P’s scratches. Yeah, I’ll take that.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party: “Aaj Sik Mitran Di”

But really though, some weeks you mostly just want to play Nusrat.