Haul of the Month — June

The Haul of the Month will be a recurring monthly blog post presenting some of my favourite tracks that I have caught this month due to Spotify’s Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists.

Before we begin, I would like to give a MASSIVE thank you to the very talented James Reilly for the fab artwork he created for the Haul of the Month blog series. It was looking a bit bland without it. You should all go check out his work here.

For all the lazy people who can’t be bothered to read my words, I understand. Skip to the bottom for a link to the playlist. Also, where possible, each tune is linked in YouTube when listed. As requested by Gallahad. Lazy!

I’m always on the lookout for new tunes to add to my library. The weekly curated playlists that Spotify generates for me all but gaurentees a couple of new tunes a week. Basically, Spotify learns what you like and tries to serve new tunes up to you based on how it perceives your musical pallet based on previous listening history. I have been listening to both the Discover Weekly and Release Radar playlists, about 30 tracks in each, religiously for over a year. Every time I hear a song I enjoy it gets saved to my library. And I have to say Spotify is getting to know me pretty well.

In these monthly posts, I am going to share with you the very best of the music that has entered my library this month. I will select my favourite 10 tracks out of all the tunes that I have saved from each playlist. The Release Radar and Discover Weekly. So hopefully that’s 20 tracks for you guys to enjoy to every month. Although I would fully recommend first, for the foolish people who don’t yet have it, getting Spotify, then teaching it what you like by listening to the Release Radar and Discover Weekly playlists as often as you can.

I would like to point out I am not trying to say my tunes are the best. I’m saying is here is some new music I have discovered this month, maybe you will enjoy some of them too.

Discover Weekly

This is the first of the two playlists that I started to listen to on Spotify. Every Monday you get fresh selection of songs that Spotify thinks you might like but that you have never listened to before on Spotify. It’s great for discovering new artists but also rediscovering tracks that you already like but haven’t yet listened to on Spotify. Remember, by saving the ones you like to your library Spotify learns that you like this kind of music and will get better at selecting new music in the future. At least I think that’s how it works.

This month I caught 23 songs. It was a reggae-heavy month and left me with a few tough choices to whittle them down to 10. I got there eventually. A particular favourite for me this month was Baltimore by Nina Simone. My ex-housemate Dan would be pleased, he was always banging on about her and now I can see why. Other tunes to definitely check out are Ding Dong Thing, an alternative, possibly African influenced, tune and Kathy’s personal favourite. Also, Slide is a lovely track to kick back and relax to.

Here are my favourite 10 tracks from Discover Weekly this month:

Ding Dong Thing — Felix Laband

Big Bad Trumpet Player — Kormac

Bohemian Idol (DJ Day’s Chair-Bros Remix) — Lord Echo

14 Til — Anti-Lilly & Phoniks

Slide — Salmonella Dub

Baltimore — Nina Simone

Above the Water (feat. Biga Ranx) — Blundetto

Answer to Your Name — Protoje

All A Dem A Do (feat. Juggla) — Noiseshaper

Lovesick — Gang Starr

Release Radar

The Release Radar is also pretty cool, I only started listening to it after a friends recommendation. Thanks Charlie pal. This playlist is again a selection of around 30 tracks but of music that has recently been released, as the name suggests. It refreshes every Friday. By listening to this you can keep up to date with new music released from your favourite artists, Spotify definitely knows who these are! But also newly released music from artists you have potentially never heard of but that Spotify believes is a good match to your tastes.

23 new tracks from my Release Radar made it into my library this month. Remember these are newly released tunes so if you like any its worth listening to the full album, assuming they were released in an album. For example, this month tune after tune from 15 Years of Underground Sonics made it into my library from this album. There are even 2 in my top 10. A stand out tune from this album for me is In The Clouds. Definitely not an everyday tune. But if it’s the time and place for some heavy DnB this is a decent track to have in your locker. Another track I really enjoyed was Still Got a Way to Fall.

Here is my top 10.

Still Got a Way to Fall — Nicole Willis, UMO

Beach Time — John Holt

View Point — Mystic State, Lucy Kitchen

Castle For Sale — Session Victim

Serenade — Satl, Malaky, GLXY

Chrysalism — Dub Phizix

Show U Something — Sam Binga, Eva Lazarus

In The Clouds — Break

Samurai — Bonobo

You Keep Telling Me — The Undercover Hippy

If you haven’t already worked it out, I rate Spotify. Best app on my phone by miles, and in my opinion the best way to listen to and discover new music. It does occasionally let me down by not having a tune that I am looking for. However, it is constantly adding new music so hopefully this will improve over time.

Here is the link to the Spotify playlist with all the tunes. Hope you enjoy the music.

Follow The Tune Catcher for a constant supply of bangers.