WIDE Recomienda: #0020
Intense hip-hop vibes, ultra-smooth pop music for a dirty weekend and lukewarm love songs: on this issue of WIDE Recommends we bring to you the definitely most hyped-up of the mainstream, the most nonchalantly low-key of indie pop and a couple of new beginnings for your music consumer insatiable hunger! Tune in to our carefully picked gems to really be in the known for this particular moment in time of our very much fleeting existence in the universe!
1. YunoĀ – Fall in Love
If youāre having bae problems,Ā Yuno is your man for those late night, slightly drunk and mopey text links to youtube on a song about longingly longing when we grow distant from our significant dudes and dudettes. A fairly minimal track comprised of detuned arpeggios traversing a thick layer of hall reverb to reach us and gentle, lowpassed guitar fretting/plucking where the only highs are delivered by the singerās sweet, just-above-whispering vocals. A song for make-ups and makeouts.
2. Xzavier Stone – You
Itās been about 20 days since Fractal Fantasyās protegĆ©Ā Xzavier Stone dropped THIRST, a work that really – like, really – dives into the feel of the early 2000s hip-hop scene, with a bit of the cheesy brass sounds and beats to practice the flava whilst looking in the mirror. āYouā works as fine letter of presentation for this album, as it evokes the feeling of thinking of oneās shawties on a spliff-break as you commute to the only Macyās in town in an oversized SUV with the carbon footprint of a regular SUV that has been set on fire.
3. brakence ā effort
ā98% of my flow is stolen, ācause the greatest artists are the one who noticeā – this is the way thatĀ brakence says āHi!ā to the internet. “Effort” is a track that appears like a shift in direction towards simpler hip-hop aesthetics: a steady beat upon a detune-y melody and a litany (pun intended) of reflecting, kinda Troubled but steppin’ up moods. Quite a surprise from an already musically contrived bedroom producer that had us drawing comparisons with James Blake, King Krule or maybe even Dorian Concept (if you replace the synthy-ness for vocal-ness). As it turns out, heās been Drake all along. May the gods protect him from silly tattoos!
4. Travis Scott ā Stop Trying To be God
Trust the divine Anthony Fantano, for it does look likeĀ Travis Scott finally got his mojo back, and at what scale! Astroworld comes as quite the baroque production, with the main man taking a directorial role as he squishes a bodacious amount of really talented featured artists into each track. On this track, a pretty chill trap beat collides with a chamber orchestra + gummy electric piano ascent into heavens lead by James Blakeās extra smooth vocals and a playful harmonica which we may only assume is the musical manifestation of the all-too-wonderful Stevie Wonder. The lyrics strike us a cautionary tale on the nefarious epidemic of God Complex that gave a considerable number of pop stars (Kanye included) a runny, godlike nose: it does get dreary in paradise after too much upperclassinā about, you gotta stick to ya fams!
Listen to our last series of new music recommendations (0019) here
5. Murlo & S-Type – Make Believe
DJ Murlo – synth-heavy beatmaker extraordinaire – is joined by Glaswegian hip-hop producerĀ S-Type on a collab published on the newborn Coil Records. āMake Believeā is a representative sample as there ever was, keeping to the baby-stepping labelās distinct styl: playful, toy-ish synth sounds that take turns with milky, harmonically complex textures over steady beats with a very early 2000s feel and girly pitch bent vocal samples. Coil Records follows the spirit of the times by coming out of the womb fully developed and a-struttinā.
6. Litany ā Call of Me
After a year on hiatus the synthpop duo from Yorkshire returns with their irremediably crescent fresh, oh-so-poppy sound. Beth Cornell delivers crisp and heavy vocals on Jack Nicolaidesā masterfully crafted track, wiggling from side to side on a smooth and omnipresent bassline in cahoots with a rich, sizzling drum beat and cute synclavier-y stabs. The song invites us to a little dirty get-together at a fancy apartment and then submerges into a pool of low-pass filter and reverb where time stops, just a little, to go on shaking its bootay and sip on a glass of wine.
