[SONG OF THE DAY] Cubicolor - "Melodies"

photo courtesy of Cubicolor

You only have three more sleeps until, Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night, the latest from Cubicolor is available for your ears to feast on, and feast you must! Following up their 2016 debut full-length Brainsugar, the trio has continue to build on their reputation for sultry soundscapes with HAD,HAN, which seems nothing short of suitable to spin for the first time at twilight.

To hold you over until Friday, the band released the Melodies EP, which features a thoughtful array of cuts from the record. As for the title track, “Memories”, navigates your eardrums through a slow build of textures that playfully ebb and flow throughout the track.

After scrapping what could have been their followup in 2018, the band explored some powerful themes as they wrote what would become HAD,HAN. The band shares, “There were a lot of moments when we weren't sure we'd ever find what it was we were looking for. On the way we lost friends, lost loves, battled health issues, lost an album, lost each other and came back together again. Looking back now it was pretty crazy but the world keeps spinning and I guess we just didn't want to put out anything that wasn't true to ourselves as a band, and the very best we can do as musicians, no matter how long it took.”

Fortunately for them it was worth the added effort.

Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night is out February 21 courtesy of Anjunadeep.

Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night

Release Date: February 21, 2020

1. Prelude

2. Rituals

3. All You Needed

4. Melodies

5. Points Beyond

6. Now You Know

7. Hardly A Day, Hardly A Night

8. Once Around

9. Wake Me Up

10. Airbeat

11. Kindling

12. Pale Blue Dot

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[SONG OF THE DAY] Tom Misch x Yussef Dayes - "What Kinda Music"

PHOTO CREDIT: Bardha Krasniqi

On Friday Tom Misch and Yussef Dayes launched their new collaborative project - What Kinda Music, which will be dropping on April 24th courtesy of Blue Note. For those who are familiar with both artists, the title of the album is likely the your knee-jerk reaction to hearing that the two made music together. While Tom Misch has been gaining notoriety as a producer working with the likes of Loyle Carner, GoldLink, and De La Soul, Yussef Dayes of Yussef Kamaal and United Vibrations fame is always pushing the envelope as a jazz drummer.

The result of the two joining forces is the kind of experimentation I wish would happen more often to be quite honest. As you’ll hear in the title track, “What Kinda Music”, the effortless genre fluidity that exists in this project can only come from musicians who are masters of their respective crafts. In this particular track there are moments of progressive jazz and trip-hop with some lovely string movements as the cherry on top.

So fun facts to tell at your next party when this song comes on: the pair both grew up in the same area in South East London and Tom actually saw Yussef play drums in the school talent show when he was 9. The two wouldn’t become friends until 2018 when they met at the launch party for Tom’s 2018 debut full-length Geography. The rest, as they say, is history.

What made the guys click, according to Tom and Yuseff, were the exact same kinds of reasons that it technically shouldn’t have worked. Tom explains, "Yussef comes from a more experimental background, and he has a lot of loose, crazy ideas. I know how to write a catchy melody, but with interesting chords and I have a good understanding of popular song forms, so I think I streamlined those ideas and made them accessible". 

What Kinda Music

Release Date: April 24, 2020

1.What Kinda Music

2. Festival

3. Nightrider (feat. Freddie Gibbs)

4. Tidal Wave

5. Sensational

6. The Real

7. Lift Off (feat Rocco Palladino)

8. I Did it For You

9. Last 100

10. Kyiv

11. Julie Mangos

12. Storm Before the Calm (feat Kaidi Akinnibi)

[SONG OF THE DAY] Miss Eaves - "Stacks"

image courtesy of Miss Eaves

VIBE O CLOCK ON FRIDAY

ON VALENTINES DAY NO LESS!

I know given my activity on the rest of the internet today that you might assume that I would have selected some over the top romantic bop on this polarizing over commercialized holiday, but I chose to go another route today. To be very painfully clear: I am NOT ant-Valentines Day by any means.I love the fuck outta love! Instead, I decided to go with something that reflects my impending Valentines Day plans that brings me and plenty of New Yorkers a lot of happiness on a daily basis: a song about bodega sandwiches.

Leave it to Brooklyn’s legendary cheeky wordsmith, none other than Miss Eaves herself, to pen a song that playfully loves on bodega sandwiches in a way they’ve always deserved. As she shared about her latest track, “Stacks”, “I wanted to write a song that reflected my real life. I don’t have a lot of money, but I still want to stack something. And sandwiches are delicious!”

Legit though since love is in the air today, have you ever had a bodega deli dude take a liking to you before? You wanna talk about stacking sandwiches…. they will make them bad boys thiccc. lolololol

If sandwiches aren’t your thing but you’re still fine with being single, she’s got a song for that, too! (“Paper Mache (Single AF)”) On the other hand, if you’re hoping to find love in a hopeless place and plan on hitting the apps hard tonight, there’s “Left Swipe Left” as well.

[SONG OF THE DAY] BOOTS - "Full Of Stars"

It’s been exactly 2 years to the day since we had an official release from one of music’s stealthiest producer virtuosos, BOOTS (born Jordan Asher Cruz). Instead of a releasing a full body of music as he did on his birthday in 2018 with #DARKDAZE, today we see the birth of not just one but three different projects from the Brooklyn-based beat master. So technically today you’re getting three songs for today’s SOTD instead of just one.

Strap in - we have a range of feels to cover in just one post!

The focal point of today’s post is definitely “Full Of Stars”, which comes from an album called XENOPOP. As the Emperor of Tweet and Deletes shared via Twitter, XENOPOP will be the final full-length album under the BOOTS moniker. I can’t help but fixate on his choice of words for this portion of the announcement.

“Spoiler: he gets killed off.”

Throughout the song he’s incredibly transparent about the seemingly tumultuous relationship he’s had with the BOOTS persona, so the idea of it not just fading away or, to be more synonymous with the language used here, dying out, is such a striking distinction that eager does not begin to describe how badly I need to hear the rest of this album.

These are three different songs from three different albums. I'll be releasing this year.

XENOPOP
My third full-length LP and final ever as BOOTS. (Spoiler: he gets killed off.)

NIGHTDEATH
The dreaded existential club LP.

DAYLIFE
A meditation.

— -|---|- (@B00TS) February 13, 2020

The song itself is such a breathtaking evolution to his artistry, combining his signature production style along with these symphonic swells that leave you feeling like you’re actively wandering through a lucid dream, completely love stoned, and moments away from being in arms of your lover. The kind of dream that waking up from would be frustrating and take at least a full day to completely decipher.

Next up is the track “Language” from an album called NIGHTDEATH, which Jordan describes as “the dreaded existential club LP”. The track features Raye and Deradoorian and clocks in at just a few seconds shy of seven minutes, all of which are packed with so much intensity that movement isn’t an option, it is simply the appropriate response for what the song commands your body to do.

Last but certainly not least is an ethereal ambient cut titled, “Primordial”, which is a track from “a meditation” that Jordan is calling DAYLIFE. It’s lush and full of an almost mystical kind of magic. It’s one of those tracks that sucks any lingering darkness everywhere it goes. Given the range of songs that he’s shared with us today, specifically in the order that he chose to call them out, I can only assume that whatever he was working through when he was finishing up XENOPOP has left him in a much lighter and brighter state of being, and as a longtime champion of his artistic endeavors I cannot be happier for him.

So the only thing this update is lacing is TIMING. No idea if these projects are going to continue to roll out as simultaneously as the announcement was, if this will be a year-long endeavor, or if there’s a way to release three separate projects that I haven’t considered yet. Obviously as updates are made available I will be relaying them accordingly. Regardless, I am more than excited for what’s next.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Duck Sauce - "Smiley Face"

image courtesy of Duck Sauce

I know I’m a little late to properly celebrating this wondrous news but one of my favorite side projects to ever grace the planet, Duck Sauce has resurfaced with a new track and announced a few performances which leads me to believe that there HAS to be an album.

RIGHT!? No one would be that cruel!!

At any rate, “Smiley Face”, is a signature vivacious track from the dynamic duo and features a sample from the 1980 classic “Make Someone Feel Happy Today” from Two Tons O' Fun (who would later go by the name The Weather Girls. Yes, THE WEATHER GIRLS. As in, “It’s Raining Men”. “Hit The Road Jack”, etc. etc.) As previously mentioned, the group has unveiled that they will be performing both weekends at Coachella in addition to a Duck Sauce Block Party in San Francisco on May 9th featuring sets from Chromeo, Yung Bae, The Magician, Nancy Whang, Biscits, and DJ Dials. Not gonna lie, I’m definitely going to be wrapping up this post super quick so I can go look at flights to SF in May.

[SONG OF THE DAY] twst - "Are You Listening?"

image lovingly lifted from twst’s instagram

The internet, do you know about twst yet?

I came to know of the now London-based singer/songwriter/producer because I caught Husky hunny Danio Forni proudly promoting her latest track that he co-produced. Following her string of singles, “Girl On Your TV”, “Always”, and “sad girls club but u gotta be cute”, her latest track, “Are You Listening?” continues to flesh out the framework of the up and coming pixelated pop singer’s persona, which appears to be nestling her amongst the likes of artists like Lights, Poppy, Caroline Polachek, or Ashnikko.

“‘Are You Listening?’ is about the information overload we receive on a daily basis, and the struggle to try and find some truth and meaning in it,” explains twst. “There's a pressure to have strong opinions and present a certain image, but is anyone really listening and do they really give a fuck? It’s an angry, frustrated, helpless call out; inspired by fake news, climate change, consumption, internet addiction, misogyny; an apocalyptic feeling that’s kinda looming right now.”

[SONG OF THE DAY] Arabnormal - "Digital Veil"

Not gonna lie, I have taken to Arabnormal pretty quickly in a very short amount of time. Featuring Younes Faltakh, former singer of legendary Antwerp noise outfit The Hickey Underworld and ex Das Pop member Niek Meul, the duo have been doling out some pretty dope post-punk/psych-centric tunes from their forthcoming debut self-titled full-length, which is out this Friday (2/14). Last week the band shared their latest track, “Digital Veil”, complete with a wonderfully bizarre accompanying video.

Speaking on the track, singer Younes Faltakh recounted, “I remember we had Polanski's Frantic on a loop in the studio while we were recording this. Grace Jones' 'I've seen that face before' directly inspired that bridge section in the song.”

I have been fortunate enough to feast my ears on their debut and I can’t get enough of it. If this is your first taste of the band, I HIGHLY recommend going back and bumping “Scorpio” and “Toy” aka the track that made me yell, “HOLY SHIT ARE WE FUCKING SERIOUS RIGHT NOW” in my apartment. Fortunately you all only have to wait four more days to hear the record for yourselves.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Litche - "But Isn't Love Important?"

photo credit: Taliah Darcy-Shaw

Atmospheric Aussie producer Litche shared a new track this week, “But Isn’t Love Important?” Just in time for the over commercialized holiday that makes us all insecure about love and romance, Litche (born Sam Litchfield) leverages, of all things, a sample from a 1980s horror movie to have us contemplating where we prioritize love in our lives. I’ll admit that even before I knew the source of the sample, I found the question to somewhat haunt me long after the song was over.

For newcomers to the Newcastle native, if you vibe with Tourist, Gold Panda, Rx Gibbs, etc, Litche will be an effortless addition to your rotation. His incorporation of unique samples to his ambient leaning production style make you feel very much at home with yourself. “I like adding something human to my music even if it’s just a field recording of real world noises or someone speaking,” Litche explains, “It helps me connect to the tone and journey of the track on a whole different level. The contrast between bright and dark distorted sounds on this song to me gives the impression of inner conflicting feelings, maybe my inner psyche and its dealings with the ongoing positive and negative thoughts that appear in my mind throughout each day.”