Noonday Tune

Essential Four - Soulwax

Some new funky beats from Soulwax off their upcoming album ESSENTIAL. I love how it sounds like vintage Soulwax, reminds me a lot of their previous tracks. 

Essential drops in June.

Heaven - The Blaze

French “producer/director tandem” The Blaze keep a pretty low profile online, but their three music videos (and handful of audio tracks) on their YouTube page are all worth a listen/look. Plus, they’re showing up on the bills of all the big festivals this year, so you may’ve seen the name but glossed over it.

The duo’s visual output is particularly worth your time. Beautifully shot, and uplifting in their own way, each video offers a take on modern masculinity, friendship, and interpersonal relationships. Sound-wise, it feels more IDM than EDM.

They’ve said they’re working on an album... and I can’t wait (but I guess I’ll have to).

Glass Jar - Tristen

When I first heard this jangly guitar intro on Spotify I thought it must be something by the La’s or Sixpence None the Richer. That wide-eyed pop sensibility definitely characterises this track, but it also has a harder undercurrent that balances it out nicely. It’s a neat little four minutes that’s well worth your time.

Listen to the track here if you don’t have Spotify.

Weightless - Black Gold Buffalo

These guys are just getting better and better with every new single they release. The four-piece hailing from London has largely stayed under the radar in recent times, but with their first studio album coming out some time in 2018, I see big things on the horizon for them.

Wriggle - Cosmo Sheldrake

Having released various singles and EPs over the past four years, British troubadour Cosmo Sheldrake has at long last dropped a full-length album. “The Much Much How How and I” features his usual fantastic (in both senses) mix of folk and electronica replete with references to (and samples of) various wildlife, strings, woodwind and Sheldrake’s unmistakable voice. I suspect Sheldrake’s musical offerings are destined to be extremely polarising. Listen to the first 60 seconds of “Wriggle” and you’ll know whether or not this is your sort of fare. It’s certainly mine.

Place I Know/Kid Like You – Arthur Russell

For anyone that hasn’t really explored Arthur Russell’s oeuvre (and who many only be familiar with him via either Kanye West’s sampling of him on 30 Hours or via Sufjan Stevens’ cover of A Little Lost), this would be a good place to start. A departure from the dance music he’d been creating, he turned here to cello, electronics and various other effects. Playing with echo, reverb, distortion etc. he manages to create something that’s strange and disorienting but beautiful, too. Last year, I had this on repeat on my commutes and eventually couldn’t stop listening to it. This song and the rest of the album absolutely rewards you on repeated listens and I’d recommend diving into his work.

Diary - RYI

Some new stuff from lesser-known RYI. 7 minutes of absolute bliss. I find it hard to describe this type of music. I suppose it could be labeled as melodic electronic, bordering on house, but to me it’s just a sweet sounding tune that makes me want to kick-back with a pair of headphones and disconnect from the world for a while.

Shoe Boot - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

This foot-stomping knee-slapping slice of Americana is a great introduction to the sounds of Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats if you’ve yet to encounter their particular brand of stompin’ rhythm and blues (in the original, brass-laden sense, not the contemporary swoony one).

There’s a great KEXP session version of “Shoe Boot” on YouTube over here.

Too Cold to Waterski - Walter Martin

Hot on the heels of former The Walkmen bandmate, Hamilton Leithauser’s stellar solo work last year, Walter Martin is not to be outdone. Too Cold to Waterski is my pick of his fourth solo offering, with the quirky melody immediately catching one’s ear before the meandering, anecdotal lyrics take hold and draws one in deeper and begs for the repeat button to be hit. 

Contributed by @RHarryHarris

Emerald Rush - Jon Hopkins

Jon Hopkins’ 2013 record Immunity is one of my all time favourite electronic albums.  It is a dynamic record, moving from haunting ambience to throbbing dance floor epics, and all ending in a place of pure, transendental beauty on the title track.  Hopkins manages to bring a variety of disparate elements together into a glorious, cohesive whole.  His songs always contain bizarre and unique touches, whether its etherial vocals or found-sound clockwork precussion, and he manages to bring a holistic asthetic with his music videos, live performances and album covers.

Hopkins has just released the first single off of his forthcoming record, Singularity. The track, Emerald Rush, fits perfectly into his sonic oeuvre, with it’s thumping syncopated beats and swirling,  atomspheric vocals.  The music video is an animated head trip that also matches the glorious sleepy-psychedelic aesthetic that Hopkins exudes. 

Wide Awake - Parquet Courts

Title track of the forthcoming album, produced by Danger Mouse.

Listen on Youtube if you don’t have Spotify.

This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) - Kishi Bashi

It’s been a while (a few months, at least) since I posted a Kishi Bashi track here, and at least a few weeks since I posted a cover, so here’s a track that covers both bases. Originally by Talking Heads, I love the soaring strings and Kaoru Ishibashi’s rousing delivery. Plus, the opening lines have seemed particularly fitting in recent weeks, where I’ve found myself on too many planes, too seldom at home, and having bizarre, non-sensical dreams I can’t make sense of.

Home is where I want to be Pick me up and turn me around I feel numb, born with a weak heart I guess I must be having fun

Also, now that Spotify is in South Africa, it seems less necessary to post alternative sources, but just in case, here’s a YouTube link.

I’ll Still Love You - Elvis Costello.

The forthcoming album Johnny Cash: Forever Words will feature some prestigious artists such as Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Elvis Costello and the late Chris Cornell, all turning some of the unpublished writings of Cash into fully fledged songs. This is Costello’s “I’ll Still Love You,” a wondrously sweet and expansive piano ballad inspired by a Cash poem.

Epitaph - God is An Astronaut

Some new melodic stuff from Irish post-rock trio, God Is An Astronaut. I love the piano intro and how this track builds up, slows down, gets heavy and takes you on a magical 8 minute journey. If you’re into the post-rock genre then check out God Is An Astronaut - quality stuff.  

Live In The Moment - Portugal. The Man 'Live In The Moment' – featured on Portugal. The Man’s eighth studio album WOODSTOCK – is the follow up to the album’s lead single ‘Feel It Still’, which was undoubtedly one of the biggest songs of 2017. 'Live in the Moment’ espouses adolescent abandon, which mid-song evolves into a ‘90s R&B sounding track with a host of production tweaks adding to a blend of vocal effects, synth squalls, triggered drums and an anthemic, propulsive vocal from Gourley. It’s another upbeat dance-hall jam that showcases the band’s musical diversity. 

Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) - Irma Thomas

This track is easy enough to love on its own, but if you need more motivation (or are wondering why you’ve been hearing it so much of late), it’s the unofficial theme tune of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian series Black Mirror, showing up in a handful of episodes distributed across the various seasons, and it’s also the key sample in Felix Laband’s “The Savage Bush Hotel”.