Singles Meetup: 5 Tracks You Should Hear
Every few weeks I’ll post a Singles Meetup. Five album singles you should give a spin, and a blurb on why they’re pretty pretty pretty good.
Micachu- “I Dare You (Demdike Stare Edit)”
Micachu is best known for her avant pop releases as Micachu and The Shapes, but her new Taz and May Vids EP on DDS records is darker and more experimental than previous albums. The dance floor mutations stutter and shiver, as lo-fi grit and distortion grinds away at it’s very joints and seams. The DDS boss Demdike Stare exploits this in order to extend the stand out “I Dare You” into a low bit-rate dubstep jam. The cold groove responds to Micachu’s melodic vocal sample with nothing more than swinging bass drum and a scratch of a hi hat. It’s a sort of psychedelic brutalism on wax, but I guarantee you will be able to see your way to the dance floor through that haze.
Deep Sea Diver- “Wide Awake”
Deep Sea Diver flirt with a certain brand of accessible indie pop. They aren’t a challenging listen when it sounds like it’s always warm, or at least partly sunny, in Deep Sea Diver land. However, no matter how nice they can sound at times, they always incorporate small bits of guitar pedal play, spacey reverb, and some really moody chord progressions that draw me into their records. The track “Wide Awake” is a fitting soundtrack for someone perhaps possessed by insomnia and uppers, or eluding capture at the Mexican border by way of a stolen car. The track opens with a chugging rhythm section that ascends for over two minutes as layers of psychedelic synths and guitars weave to and fro. This attempt to stretch the introductory groove seems to be a page out of the James Murphy book, and with the Jimmy Page guitar grind it works really well. Once lead singer Jessica Dobson and a strong melody enter the scene, she sings of manic pursuit, which is sonically appropriate. The track is one of a few jaw dropping standouts from Deep Sea Diver’s new Secrets LP. RIYL: My Morning Jacket, Local Natives, St. Vincent
Nearly Oratorio- “Tin”
Simon Lam, the somnolent Aussie singer formerly of I’lls, has revived his solo project Nearly Oratorio. The I’lls project had released a handful of great singles and EP’s over the last 5 years, all the while developing their sound into what would become the spare and chilly sounds found here on “Tin”. The icicle synths and spacious drum tracks from last year’s Can I Go With You to Go Back to My Country are here, and Simon’s wispy vocals navigates the electronics like mist through this cleft of a soundscape. RIYL: Magnet, Thom Yorke, James Blake
TV Girl- “Cigarettes Out the Window”
After a lineup change, being dropped from a label, and losing management, the members of TV Girl were at a crux. A string of self-released EP’s weren’t garnering any buzz until the ‘name-your-own-price’ French Exit LP dropped. It bestowed upon them the honor of being one of those cultish, unsigned Bandcamp acts. They followed that album about love as a twenty-something, with another free album(seriously, what a deal?) entitled Who Really Cares. The newest record sounds like a full length ode to laying in bed all morning, and meditating on the quirks of a new lover. “Cigarettes Out the Window” is that moment your lover leaves bed for a few minutes, and you stretch your unimpressive, naked body across the mattress to scribble some lyrics into a dying iPhone. Don’t sleep on this if you dig Washed Out or Koushik.
Samrai & Platt- “Tease Me” feat. Kemikal
TV Girl’s album of art school pillow talk is playful, but Samrai & Platt’s “Tease Me” is by far the most fun. Try not grinning ear to ear when featured rapper Kemikal unleashes his ad-libbed machine gun noises or his “gul-ah-gul-ah-gul-ah.” But the track doesn’t just tease and please with vapidity. Samrai & Platt’s grooves play between many styles in two very juxtaposed pieces. The minimal bashment/ grime verses playing against the house pre-chorus is heavenly. The blending of grime, house, and dancehall is not news for anyone familiar with a dance floor, but sometimes it takes a song like this to remind me that marrying distinct British and Jamaican styles is usually delightful.
