Friday, 7 April 2023

BEST NEW TRACKS OF THE FORTNIGHT 07/04/2023: Icona Pop, redveil, Tyler the Creator and more...

 


No 'worst' tracks this week. Artists featured include Icona Pop, redveil & JPEGmafia, Tyler the Creator, Tom b, OOF and Chat Pile.

‘Faster’ – Icona Pop

If you love house music, don’t let this track pass you by. Swedish electropop duo Icona Pop have created one hell of a banger here. I’m loving those old skool synth stabs. It’s definitely got an early Azealia Banks vibe to it.

‘black enuff’ – redveil & JPEGmafia

JPEGmafia and redveil are both producer-rappers from Maryland. And this is not the first time they’ve appeared together on a track – redveil recently appeared as a guest on JPEGmafia and Danny Brown’s latest album Scaring The Hoes, delivering a verse at the end of ‘Kingdom Hearts Key’. This time around redveil handles the production, although I’m sure there was some JPEGmafia influence given how chaotic the beat is. As for the rapping, the two of them seem to have pretty good chemistry, both sporting a fiery delivery.

‘Sorry not Sorry’ – Tyler the Creator

Tyler has been releasing a series of bonus tracks (I refuse to refer to them as ‘loosies’) from his 2020 album Call Me If You Get Lost. And so far they all sound pretty damn good. ‘Sorry not Sorry’ is particularly playful and takes the form of a heartfelt apology, starting off sincere before gradually getting more sarcastic. The video, which features versions of himself from every album cycle standing next to each other, is also very charming, even if it does end with him beating himself to death.

‘She’s Like A Dream’ – Tom b feat. Lucy Wroe

‘She’s Like A Dream’ features some aptly dreamy production made up woozy keys and heavily edited vocals courtesy of Lucy Wroe. In fact, the whole track plays out like someone fighting to stay within a dream – the heavily warped moments in between the moments of clarity sound just like those seconds of confusion when you realise you’re waking up.

‘Can’t Have Just One’ – OOF

I featured Brooklyn post-punk band OOF on the blog a couple years ago. They’ve now got a new album out titled What’s Bad Is Good containing seven snappy tracks where they continue to play around with their unique grumbling baritone-sax-infused rock sound. I didn’t know which track to feature here, as they’re all pretty fun, so I thought it was apt to go with ‘Can’t Have Just One’, which you can check out above.

‘Cut’ – Chat Pile

Following the release of their debut album God’s Country last year, Oklahoma sludge metal/noise rock outfit Chat Pile have now released a new split album with Nerver titled Brothers In Christ (the band seem intent on tricking listeners into thinking they’re a Christian rock group). ‘Cut’ comes off the new album and sees the band experimenting with a more alt-rock-flavoured sound – albeit with murky detuned guitars and even some blast beats. It’s all very gloomy and sinister.  The VHS-quality video is also pretty creepy.