When Roosevelt dropped new track “About U” it didn’t grab me right away, maybe because it was missing his trademark Lord Byron meets Mentos commercial lyrics. But over time its simplicity and propulsive energy made it a contender for Sbrizzi Song of the Year; it revealed itself as a hypnotic dance imperative, a soaring personal mantra of self love, and a fucking jam.
Black Dice poked their head out again, nine years after electric chair rollercoaster Mr. Impossible, and they were right back at their ultraviolence you can art dance to peak with “White Sugar” and its abstract video art video directed by Aaron Anderson.
Meanwhile Tirzah dropped “Tectonic,” dropping her light touch melancholia in favor of dark, smoky, no apologies sex.
Skylla by Ruth Goller was a revelation, exploring time signatures like imaginary numbers, her high- register plucked and sustained vocals performing a kind of butoh theater against amelodic clusters of notes played on bass guitar. It came together in a series of novel forms that felt equally alien and organic.
Italy was the surprise winner of the Euro 2020 played in 2021 soccer tournament, and their beautiful underdog run, capped by a come from behind win over cocky England, was like a gift out of nowhere. The team had a really dumb unofficial song called “Ma quale dieta” by Luca il Sole di Notte an unknown dude out of Napoli, a kind of Italian reggaeton cut that lyrically transposed Amy Winehouse’s thoughts about rehab onto food. Fuck diets, basically. Mmm so good…
I also came across a couple of what I would consider alt-drag classics: the slow trickle of thick, honeyed poison of “Malaak” by Fatima Al Qadiri (no idea what the lyrics mean but it sure sounds like revenge served slow and painful)…
…and the weaponized contralto vibrato of Keeley Forsyth on “Debris,” which had actually come out in 2020 but was new to me.