On "You Put The Flame On It," soul music's reigning PhD Charles Bradley cranks out a deliriously timeless summer love song with the trusted help of his Daptone backing band. Like his best work, it sounds like something you'd listen to in 1965 while running through a stream of water spewing from a fire hydrant. Sometimes that, and a little love, is all you need.
Ultra-noisy, blasted and artsy, Fuck Buttons have returned with 'The Red Wing" – appearing here in edited form and serving as the initial salvo for their upcoming Slow Focus. Whereas last time around the duo teetered dangerously close to trance, this one is formed around a bumping breakbeat that provides a new canvas for the group to unleash a torrent of jungle-ready sounds and full-spectrum sonic blowouts.
On "Word Is Bond," Joey Bada$$ continues his hazy trip through '90s New York hip-hop. The Statik Selektah beat, with its piano plinks, boom-bap and Premier scratches, is pure catnip for the old school heads and Bada$$ even plays along, namechecking George Pataki and employing dense numerical lyricism.
Young Brits idolize Eno and Hot Chip; make a foggy-eyed summer jam. That's the story behind Outfit's "I Want What's Best" – a simple-sounding exercise that actually flowers into a textured, danceable mountain.
Back from the mists of nostalgia and creepy field recordings, Boards Of Canada are finally putting out a new LP of mushroom music on June 10. Your first preview of Tomorrow's Harvest is the unsettling, droning, teasing and ultimately explosive "Reach For The Dead." If the everyday fan has become accustomed to drops, this one is a reminder that nobody does that 'here's the drums!!' moment quite like these Warp legends. Forget careening bass, this will scramble your brain.
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On the impeccably-titled "Magichour," Mister Lies and KNOWER start with a slow build and it pays off as well as any electronic music I've heard this year. The entire track is a huge, open-hearted, swelling crescendo as touches of house music smash into deeper, textured sonic experimentation. When the top blows off, it's an ecstatic mindwarp.
Los Angeles-based songwriter and sonic experimentalist Julia Holter ushers in a new album, Loud City Song, with this gorgeous torch song entitled "World." It's appropriately operatic and subtly showy as her dense language and expressive vocals get mirrored with cavernous orchestral hits.
Sparkling, driving yet restrained, Natasha Kmeto's "Idiot Proof" merges house music, intergalactic R&B and a minimalist sonic palate. Kmeto brings a distinct sass to the track – almost like a contemporary Lisa Lisa that's taking advantage of the Internet while being super pissed at it.
On "Casino Lisboa," Dirty Beaches makes one of the dirtiest combinations of funk, post-punk and lo-fi muck imaginable. It feels like a nightmare set in a hellish club where everyone is dressed in leather and drinking brown fog. It's also oddly danceable – try to resist.
On "Everything," Case Studies continues their exploration of post-Basement Tapes Americana. Swaying, drunk, ramshackle, a little countrified, a little bluesy, a little rocking, this one has more concern for the right emotional take than the right instrumental one. Keep it in your pocket for your next road trip.
