Video & Audio: March 2021

Boys just wanna have fun, women want self-actualization and maybe frottage, enbies want it all

Bicep: “Apricot”

Belfast DJs hammer a Hugh Tracey vocal recording in Malawi into monotone rhythm, then add a dirty kick drum and Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares for emphasis and minor-key cross-cultural fun.

Sa-Roc ft. Styles P: “Rocwell’s America”

Remember-him Styles P claims to be both “Malcolm and Mandela”, good for him, while Sa-Roc pours a less egocentric, no-less-catchy revision of Black history. Old school scratcher/producer Sol Messiah brings a hook that works as foreground and background, and is that a real guitar solo?

Bladee & Ecco2k: “Girls Just Want to Have Fun”

You can tell this is by high-voiced boys having fun because it’s barely two minutes.

India Jordan: “For You”

They (singular) take a sample from a forgotten 1984 Jam-Lewis jam and turn it into a glorious celebration of “you”, by which they mean them. But you can make the “you” you if you want—pop pronouns are flexible that way.

Mariana Zwarg Sexteto Universal: “Pra Ele”

“Universal music,” meaning vocal jazz with flutes, which since the bandleader is Brazilian isn’t annoying (to me, YMMV.) The composition is oddly Mahavishnu-like, and singer Mette Nadja follows the tricky lines as wordlessly as John McLaughlin would.

Tune-Yards: “Hold Yourself”

About parents and children, some of whom might exist, and anthropocentric ecological collapse, which certainly does. If Paul Ehrlich had such a deep rhythm section, the U.S. fertility rate might be below replacement by now. Our ecology would still be fjucked.

Grrrl Gang: “Guys Don’t Read Sylvia Plath”

I mean no woman owes society an explanation of her decision not to have children, but if you are going to give one, “I was born to live a life of my own” is perfectly sufficient.

Shygirl: “Tasty”

Sometimes straightforward lust-and-frottage pop-house is all you need. (Okay, there’s a trace of the hyper-avant, but you have to reach around for it.)

Blaq Diamond: “Ibhanoyi”

Is there an infinite stream of these lightly likeable South African post-kwaito songs about buying your love an airplane? Okay, the plane bit might be specific to this one.

Mery Spolsky: “Sorry from the Mountain”

From a Polish album named after Kiéslowski’s Dekalog even though it has twelve tracks, this one is hyper-avant. What I really want is a Wiesław Myśliwski-inspired album; European pop is hyper enough as it is.