Best New Tracks Of The Week: August 18th, 2024
Was on vacation this week but I'm cooking up plenty of good stuff for the next week, let's do it.
5. Vanessa - Midwife
If you're familiar with the brooding cloudy slowcore Midwife typically serves up then you basically know what you're getting with Vanessa. Across a full 6-and-a-half minutes Midwife makes use of swaying repetition to slowly weave together an impressively spellbinding cut that will swallow you whole if you give yourself to it.
4. Garmonbozia - Flying Lotus
I think everyone was anticipating a return from Flying Lotus, but I bet most people weren't expecting something like this. He returns by taking over lead vocal duties on a reserved and murky jazz number backed by his usual fluttering electronics. The slow pace and dark demeanor of the song actually plays to his strengths as a vocalist, even if its plodding pace feels a tad dry by FloLo standards.
3. Shake It Like A - Frost Children (feat. Danny Brown)
From Danny's embrace of new albums from Jane Remover and Underscores last year it was clear he's down for a hyperpop moment. That's manifesting now with an appearance on the new single from Frost Children, who I've long thought made hyperpop that sounds like what people who hate hyperpop hear when they listen to 100 Gecs. But I enjoyed the duo's second album of 2023 and this intense maximal piece of thumping electronica fits both their style and Danny's.
2. Mutations - Nilufer Yanya
Another Nilufer Yanya single and yet another hit from her highly-anticipated new record. Like the previous single this one has a bit more of a reserved approach but Nilufer once again crushes it within those bounds. She's a compelling vocalist but also delivers her loose refrains into a textured and dynamic sea of gentle slinky instrumentation that I like a lot.
1. Veneficium - Xiu Xiu
Of the two new singles from Xiu Xiu, both of which I liked quite a bit, this difficult-to-pronounce banger takes the cake. Pairing Jamie Stewart's iconically neurotic singing vocals with grinding guitar whirring and haunted house keys may not be the most strikingly original Xiu Xiu idea ever but god nobody can do it like them.
