Lockstepp
Cindy Lee, Shellac, Fat White Family, Hermanos Gutierrez, Money for Nothing, The rise of AI labels, New Undomondo Discover Weekly
Howdy all, hope you are enjoying this hot and humid summer, which is going to be the type of Summer that we are going to get every year from now on, increasingly. Here’s some music to accompany it.
♩ Cindy Lee - Lockstepp: This is Khruangbin, done better. Darker, noisier and more lo-fi by drag pop duo Cindy Lee. Try Dracula or Lockstepp first and see if you like this mammoth of an album which clocks in 2 hours, with nary a song that sounds as another. Stream the full album exclusively on Youtube.
I just wanted someone to believe in Baby
There's not a soul around
And I’m lonely
If I follow them
It’s to a losing end
.. or watch this full concert first to get into peak-Twin Peaks vibes.
♩ Shellac - Chick New Wave
Still trying to get over Albini’s death and that Todd Trainer and Bob Weston won’t be able to play Shellac songs anymore. If you are so inclined, read this amusing Reddit brain storm on an impossible Albini replacement.
I'm through with music from dudes
What you do isn't brave
All I care about
Is chick new wave
♩ Fat White Family - Bullet of Dignity
It’s baffling that the Saoudi extended family still finds ways to challenge audiences lyrically and musically after what I thought was their peak of drugs, nudity and shock when we saw them live a decade ago in NY. This album is their strongest since their debut, and even though I geniunly think his rendition of "the memory of his circumcision ceremony in Algeria” can not be topped lyrically, yet I wanted to share a more musical favourite here. There are too many favourites on this album.
You say you're just 31
What's that in cannibal years?
We'll be the laziest rhyme
Since words walked in pairs
♩ Hermanos Gutierrez - It’s all in your mind
The Gutierrez brothers basically are making the same acoustic duo album since 2019 - when I first heard them- and yet they have the sweetest melodies and the coolest cinematic western schtick that we can never pass them.
Undomondo Discover Weekly
♩Tune in to a selection of tunes I played on a few gigs in Istanbul's Arkestra. Samba, zouk, soca, cadence, jazz, disco and general vintage Caribbean, latin and afro influenced stuff!
Elsewhere
♩Michelle Lhooq is on top form on her Rave New World newsletter. Loved this write up about Ozora, a psytrance festival in a critical way:
I was initially trepidatious about going to a festival devoted entirely to psytrance—a scene that, as the rave academic Arun Saldanha writes, has historically been about “white hippies exploring the lines of flight that open up their bodies to other places and cultures.” The psytrance scene has long been home to the the most annoying kinds of orientalism, as well as the kinds of kitschy aesthetics found in college dorm rooms and local heads shops: Buddhas with lightbeams shooting out of their foreheads, bodies comprised of geometric fractals, you know the fucking vibe.
♩The rise of AI artists/labels: A few days ago I noticed Oh My God, Is That Really Your D***?! from an artist called Tamara West from the 60s, a few nudges here and there, and lo it’s an AI music artist called The Euphonic Engineer that’s mimicking old time music, blues, and soul from last century.
After some more digging and I chanced upon this tune called You Came In My *** (1972) which is another AI artist, which finally led me to SpookyDooky Recordz.
I don’t know why they always have sexual innuendos in their titles, but if I had the energy and a userbase who would read about it, I’d have tried to make a longform interview out of this.. And maybe I should…
👀 Watch a short video on the story of Dire Straits’ timeless Money for Nothing.
👨💻 Bandle is a game where you try to guess a song, with just one instrument at a time.
… aaand that’s all for now folks!
