Lately August 5
Recap of July 27-31
Hello!
Thanks so much for reading Lately. I’m working away each week combing the internet to find new music releases that speak to me, as well as sharing the music that I’ve been into lately. Sorry for the delay this week!
New Releases
Fred again.. & LATIN MAFIA - 9 months & 50 hours
Great new collaboration project between Fred again and Latin Mafia, that features some incredible vocal harmonies and beautiful re-works of Fred’s tracks. I’ve always thought Fred was at his best when pulling from a more emotional place, and the vocals from Latin Mafia across this project really help frame that beautifully. There’s still plenty of fun and more hard-hitting dance tracks throughout, but I feel this project really shines on tracks like “benjy chord” or “Film Scene Soundtrack,” not to mention the astounding rendition of “Cmon” from Fred’s project with Brian Eno. This one has a little something for everyone and is really just Fred going wherever his instincts take him, which always produces his best work.
Ninajirachi & Porter Robinson - WannaCry
Ninajirachi has long cited Porter Robinson as an influence for her (which is immediately obvious when listening to her work), so it’s very cool to have them work together on a track here. Their styles have so much overlap, with lots of glitchy electropop production that also features really strong vocal melodies and hooks. While Ninajirachi seems to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting, Porter’s verse on here is still a standout moment. Seamless collab and I’d love to hear a full album from them.
venturing - Nowhere EP
venturing is one of the side projects of Jane Remover, who I respect but have to say have never really been able to get into. I do love that they just continually work on and release side projects in addition to their already successful music career. I remember listening to venturing’s debut Ghostholding and having its moments but ultimately never really revisiting. I feel a bit more positive toward this EP, as short as it is, but not sure if I can fully get into it. Tracks 1 and 3 kind of remind me of the early Ethel Cain EPs, but also a little of Brockhampton? I can’t quite put my finger on it but just when I think I’m into it, something happens in the tracks that just take me right out of it, whether that’s a vocal delivery or a switch up in production. Overall not bad though!
Francisca Valenzuela - MALDITA
This is the first project I’ve heard from Chilean-American singer Francisca Valenzuela, and it’s her seventh full length album which is pretty amazing. Something that’s always rewarding about writing about music in other languages is it really forces me to do a bit of deeper research to actually try to know what I’m talking about, and that’s exactly what I did here! “Maldita” loosely translates to “cursed,” as Valenzuela wrote the album about feeling this way dealing with how she felt postpartum. She talks about the “romanticization” of motherhood, and how being postpartum can make you feel trapped in not being able to express any negative feelings or emotions, or risk having people thing there’s something wrong with you. Musically it’s very art pop, with production that ranges from intense and dramatic to lighter and warm. I haven’t been able to spend a ton of time with the album but it definitely struck me and it’s one I’ll be coming back to.
Cautious Clay - The Hours: High Noon
Cautious Clay was a name I’ve heard for years but until this project, I realized I had never actually intentionally listened to. This is the latest in his The Hours series of albums, and it’s got me wanting to go back to listen to the last two. His vocal melodies are so strong and catchy, and the production is really smooth. The timbre of his voice has this unique quality to it that I suppose you could call “raspy” but still has a lot of command, that really anchors these tracks. Just a really easy listen here.
What I’m Listening To
“Tonight” by girlsweetvoiced came up as a track Spotify was playing based on a playlist, and every so often Spotify will actually nail it between suggesting I listen to the same 10 tracks that artists have given up their royalties to have promoted for. I ended up listening to her whole album Lovesweet and it’s quite nice! Her vocals are lovely and the production is good but it stays out of the way which is most important for a project like this to be honest. I also noticed it was released via A24’s music label which is interesting, I thought that they were only distributing their own movies’ soundtracks but seemingly they’ve started to work with artists as well? Not really sure what skin they have in the music game but I hope they add to it meaningfully!
Speaking of film scores, I’ve been spending some time going through Ludwig Göransson’s score for The Odyssey, which has some really incredible moments. This guy is really gearing up for his fourth Oscar by age 41 which is nuts; for reference, Hans Zimmer has two, winning his second for Dune at 64, and John Williams won his fifth at age 61. He’s an absolute phenom that can handle both the memorable themes of someone like Williams and the more abstract, sound design inspired scores like Zimmer’s later work. The Odyssey is a perfect meld of those two aspects, with pieces like “Sirens” being such a musical token of the film, with there still being plenty of unique and darker moments like on “Hades.”