This interesting year had just started when the pop record to get you through it popped out. On Full Moon, South Africa’s Moonchild Sanelly does it all, under an iconic thicket of teal hair — from flexing about her round booty (“I got God-given cushion / And some God-given pushing / It’s your God-given duty / To appreciate my booty”) and being rich (“You’re in pain, bitch / ‘Cause I’m paid, bitch”) to tackling much weightier subject matter:
My daddy had ten wives
I was the tenth child
From the fifth wife
Wasn’t the best one
My daddy never had time…
LEWISPYBEY evokes the idea of some trollish mad genius festering quietly, unaware of anything that might have ever happened in music or in the world ever. The song structures are just wild — whether locking into a cluttered, dusty groove or getting sidetracked into musique concrete, somehow it all feels organic and right. But it turns out this is no sickly recluse — it’s Graham Lewis, that legendary bloke from Wire, with his Zoviet France mate Mark Spybey. (The band name should have maybe tipped me off).
Horsegirl seem like they were reverse-engineered to appeal to the Paul demographic, absorbing the indie-est sounds from the fecund ’85 to ’89 era and serving them up fragrant and new. I hear the strummy guitars of Flying Nun, the cooing vocals of shoegaze, the precise balance of the dark and the sweet so stylishly concocted in that heady era. “2468” is pretty irresistible, with its nerdy dancing alt art school fashion video.
They put me in mind of this golden chestnut from my misspent youth:
Remember when that first Fever Ray album came out, like what a revelation? Ela Minus is mining a similar vein of the dark and the messy, with a commanding sense of introspection and a surprisingly similar foreign accent although she’s Colombian not Swedish. Her digital reveries brood in moody atmospherics before zigzagging in the direction of minimalist dance severity. “Upwards” (in which it sounds like she’s singing “I’d like to shave you but I’ve got to shave myself”) — (it’s actually “save”) has a bit of an electroclash vibe:
I try not to breathe
Silently replaying the scene
Behind the veil I see a scream
Behind the veil my mind
Keeps trying to blame me
But hell is hereditary
I choose the void instead
Can’t trust myself
Maribou State are yet another instance of me discovering a band I’d never heard of and finding out they’re massive, with billboards up on Sunset and songs that have over 100 million plays on Spotify. They’re a bit hard to define, resonating with decades of highly melodic dance from Cassius to Moby to Jungle, but their superpower is their sweet, seductive, hooky tunes. “Dance on the World” has a definite Jai Paul shuffling staccato vibe, which almost made my inner derivativeness cop cancel them, but it’s just such a good song, plus they’ve got lots of other arrows in their quiver. “Otherside,” with their Aussie pal Holly Walker, reminds me a bit of La Roux, so OK yeah maybe they are a bit magpie-ish, but their jams per album ratio is delirious so let’s just allow their relentless climaxes of dance pleasure to engorge us all, shall we?
Baths, the rather British-sounding nom de plume of William Boris Wiesenfeld who in fact is from Tarzana, has been around for a minute and has been highly touted yet failed to win me over until this very moment. “Eden” is a swooning dive into a rainbow lake of love, a new gay anthem to enjoy in my Beautiful Aloneness (I’m writing this on Valentine’s Day and I’m being strong). It’s basically an ode to being of service as a proud bottom. There’s an album called Gut on the horizon.
I am what he’ll be drinking
I‘m a spring
Cupped to his lips
Slip into my ellipsis
I am for him to swim in
I‘m the sweat
Pressed on his tits
Slip into my ellipsis
So apropos of nothing I was googling the B52’s and Ricky Wilson and his mysterious guitar tunings and read about him citing Esquerita as one of his main influences. I’d never heard of this person but apparently they were actually a big influence on Little Richard, so yeah, kind of seminal. Check out this rather astonishing 1958 track where Esquerita queens out in splendor, seeming to channel Yma Sumac.
I’m not sure how “Sea Palace” by BSS (aka the not unattractive at all Dutchman Luigi Vittorio Jansen) ended up in my queue, but if you’re looking to levitate into 3:56 of unseemly electronic joy…
I’m old enough to remember people discussing who their favorite Beatle was. I didn’t have a strong opinion; I mean Ringo was definitely the hottest one; John had the most impact on the culture; Paul was the one whose name Pamela Des Barres wrote down every time she farted. But over time I’ve gravitated toward the honey-dripping guitar style and general radiance of George Harrison. When I found a list of Italian chart toppers from 1975 there was a song I had totally forgotten called “You,” that really couldn’t be much simpler — the bulk of the lyrics are just “I / Love / You / And you / Love / Me.” But what a vibe; how it captures that high.
Sym Gharial was a player on the rockier edges of the Brit Pop era with The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, and while his new incarnation as Primitive Ignorant dabbles a bit in dissonant aggression, he has gone guitar-free, and his strongest tracks are in the melodic synth-pop idiom. It feels both anachronistic and kind of fresh in 2025 to hear aggressively male vocals in this girls and gays-centric sub-genre. Sym can certainly write and arrange a tune that moves you in your sensitive depths; he delivers maximum gooshy feeling on “A Day With You” and “Last in the Riot,” songs that feel like surely they’ve always existed.
For me a Pitchfork “Best New Music” recognition is a total red flag — nine times out of ten it’s the sign of an artist who’s polished their image and messaging with a veneer of consensus-cool rather than someone truly out there capturing inspiration and serving it raw. Oaklandian Kathryn Mohr however… I can’t say I’m completely sold, but her PJ Harvey lost in the woods and slowly starving to death vibe is rather charming, and “Take It” is, I dare say, a banger.
In this desert bed I wait for you
Holding on to my skeleton like fruit…
Oh man, I haven’t posted in like two months and I really need to get this guy out the door, but I still have so much cool stuff to tell you about… Hannes Norrvide aka Lust for Youth made the theme song to the last time I fell in love (2014 AD) — the heavens-tickling “Running” — and now there’s finally a worthy follow up called “Dummy,” full of Danish indie feeling and Italo-style “oh-oh”s and female spoken word bits courtesy of their Aussie pal Purient.
An aircraft above weeps
Green eyes wide open, sun-kissed and weary
Some people are still smiling
But most people were silent
The church bell chimed in the distant
Ding-dong, everything changes
OK look, I’m not a big expert on hip hop but I know when I feel that belly booty vibe and North Philly’s Ghais Guevara gives it to me on “Camera Shy,” which incidentally takes a spicy stand against monogamy while providing motivational-affirmational rocket fuel for your beautiful spirit, with a nice sharp edge.
I’m keepin’ up in the discussions with the littest niggas
And by extension, you in pictures with the baddest bitches
And all the people that ain’t never hit your jack before is tryna get your information
Don’t you feel amazing?
And your gratitude is very much appreciated
You ain’t runnin’ from it, uh, damn
7038634357 is Neo Gibson‘s phone number and musical alias. Can’t remember if I wrote about their 2023 album Neo Seven, but I was a big fan of its throbbing, minimalist emotionality. New one “Grace Eject” delivers a kind of heartful take on Philip Glass, with
a million tiny stabs of digital ecstasy.
It’s hard to pin a genre on Mean Bacharach; he’s kind of in the orbit of jazz… maybe alt-jazz if that’s a thing, but he basically pours his cool cat flow over clipped and crafted instrumentation and creates a sound that’s mostly quite arty and unmelodic but draws you in with its alien beats and atmosphere. It took a couple plays for me to get into it, and a lot of people won’t, which is always a pleasure. He gets closest to ear-friendly on title track “Sacrifice“:
I used to be so sure
I used to be so scared
I used to be too nice
I used to be so sane
I used to be so sure
I used to be so immature…
I’m gonna leave you with the latest precious stone birthed by my favorite boy ever Christopher Barnes aka Gem Club, which came out last year and somehow didn’t find me until now.
Tend to me for tonight
I am a fool
Rest your head on my chest
But you left the room
Tend to me for tonight
I can’t return
Lift your eyes up to mine
From across the room
cre you safe in the night love
cre we still apart
With no forgiveness
You’re not stopping now
Finally on something else
Sweet and light