Terrell Hines has released a remix of 'Get Up', from his forthcoming debut mixtape 'Portal One: The Mixtape', with Terrell Hines as a guest. The song starts with a quiet acoustic guitar loop, it builds production and tempo until it reaches its forceful, heart-racing peak. Lyrically, it's a diatribe against the ills of racist capitalism.
Idles released a powerful remix of Sex Swing's 'Passover', minimalist and atmospheric, a new song; 'A New Kind of Sky' is timeless psych-folk by the Hanging Stars; Rider Shafique and The Bug collaborate on dark industrial hip-hop 'Burn'; Porridge Radio find a different angle to themselves on Lala Lala collaboration 'Good For You'; industrial trap meets grindcore on Luma's 'Lionsblood', it sounds strange and it is strange; Manonmars' 'Pidgeon' is psychedelic hip hop gem; Monte's 'Mirla' is the sound of bird dying.
"When I was a kid, someone hung a noose in my family's garage... On June 6 of this year, there was a Black Lives Matter rally and march in that same town that drew over 1,000 people" - Tom Morello explained the inspiration behind his new song 'Stand Up', which he wrote after that rally, it features Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds, Shea Diamond and the Bloody Beetroots; 'Into Strangeness' by Fear of Men is tense indie rock with a touch of sax; 'Time To Walk Away' is a lovely come-back song by the underappreciated Washed Out; Sasami made a psych-folk cover of System of a Down's 'Toxicity' - to say it's cool is an understatement; 'This is What You Did' by This is the Kit is a relaxed panic attack song; piano-heavy 'River Dreams' by Beverly Glenn-Copeland is atmospheric and rich.
Sam Valdez released her new single, a shoegaze-folk beauty 'Clean'; Flaming Lips announced their new album with big words in a laid back song 'My Religion is You'; with Mourning [A] BLKstar everything is seemingly unusual - the name and the dark gospel genre - whereas music is actually deep and warm; Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament struggles with vivid dreams and helplessness in 'The Divine Perfume'; Anteloper play modern jazz + electronica which makes for hypnotic 'Bubble Under'; Gordi's 'Sandwiches' is an elegiac love song; an impressive line-up of Tony Allen, Shabaka Hutchings, Dele Sosimi, Tamar Osborn, Miles James, Ed ‘Tenderlonious’ Cawthorne, Afla Sackey and Antibalas on Keleketla's upbeat and harmonious 'International Love Affair'.
Anthony Garcia melts folk-rock and classical together on 'The Wind'; 'Hard Life' by Sault is a protest song, yet a very beautiful one; The Streets has shared his latest single 'Falling Down', featuring self-proclaimed "G-folk" singer Hak Baker; Sigur Rós frontman Jónsi has released his new single 'Swill', industrial and noisy, with a strong video; Jordan Lawlor of the M83 is set to make his solo debut as J. Laser, 'Waves & Blades' is an up-beat taste from his EP; Fenne Lily's 'Alapathy' is an upbeat indie rock about starting to smoke weed as a means to switch off your brain; math-rock meets noise-rock on 'Worship House' by Sprain; 'Money' by Widowspeak deals with seeing everything in terms of value; Gordi's 'Extraordinary Love', on the other hand, is about making someone feel exceptional.
Anderson 'Paak's 'Lockdown' deals with protests, the long history of racism and unjust police killings; Kaleida announced her new album with a mighty pop single 'Other Side'; R'n'B singer Orion Sun suffered violence from the police, but responded gently with 'Mama's Baby', a victory!; Norwegian pop-singer Annie has a new synth pearl 'American Cars', cold and pretty; 'Epistrophy' comes from one of Thelonious Monk's best performances - from a high school in Palo Alto, CA in 1968, recorded by the school's janitor; acoustic version of 'Heatwave' by Mereba is tender and strong; Tee Grizzley goes fast and furious on 'Lions & Eagles', with Meek Mill borrowing a verse; 'Fight On' by the Harlem Gospel Travelers is a groovy gospel song; Derrick Hodge's 'Heartbeats' is like a jazz flying carpet; Misery Signals combine post hardcore and post-rock on 'River King'.
A fun new song 'Pelota' by the psych-trio Khruangbin; 'Dreams' by Hannas Georgas is a simple, almost cold, albeit full-hearted song produced by The National's Aaron Dessner; Braids 'Snow Angel' is elegiac and threatening, a pearl!; J Cole's 'Snow On Tha Bluff' addresses the issue of Black Lives Matter protests (supposedly he's aiming at activist and rapper NoName); Idles' new song 'Grounds' features a big beat and a big riff.
John Prine sang "Got no future in my happiness/Though, regrets are very few/Sometimes a little tenderness/Was the best that I could do" on 'I Remember Everything', the last song he recorded before he passed away from COVID-19; JD Simo's 'One Of Those Days' is a soulful, psychedelic and amusing rock; Bettye LaVette remade Billie Holiday's iconic 'Strange Fruit' reminding us public executions of this day aren't that different from the ones from two centuries ago; bass icon Bootsy Collins released 'Stars', featuring philosopher Dr. Cornel West, drummer Steve Jordan, banjo legend Béla Fleck, and EmiSunshine & Olvido Ruiz; Pop Smoke's posthumous album is coming out in July, 'Make It Rain' sounds promising, in mainstream hip-hop terms; Woodkid's 'Pale Yellow' is a strange fruit, dramatic, cinematic, folk-ish.
"This song represents frustration and aggression but also knowledge of self and eagerness to nullify in the burning hunger in my soul" - Cambatta says about his new song 'Bones of Osiris'; Kenyan rapper MC Yallah has teamed up with Irish DJ and producer Eomac for a new EP 'Mama Waliwamanyii', a wild and groovy thing; Starlight Girls released a new EP 'Entitled' of goth/indie.
Mr. Bungle released their 1st recorded music since 1999, an Exploited cover 'USA', for charity; Wiley released his last album this weekend, 'Double Dragon' is the club banger from it; Bob Mould's new 'American Crisis' title says it all; Thurston Moore released 'Strawberry Moon', a new nine-minute post-rocky instrumental; Meek Mill's 'Otherside of America' is a melancholic protest song.
Emma Ruth Rundle leads a mighty pack - Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher, YOB’s Aaron Rieseberg, and Old Man Gloom’s Santos Montano - covering Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill', a strange, serious-funny song; Jack Colwell's 'Conversion Therapy' is a dramatic pop song with a strong message; 'Lovers Fool' is a smooth jazzy rap from Osquello self-produced debut album; Bent Arcana is a supergroup featuring members of Oh Sees, TV on the Radio and others - their first single 'The Gate' goes into prog, kraut-rock, experimental ambient music; Travis were a late Brit-pop band, they still do what they did, but hey, 'A Ghost' is a good song.
Terrace Martin has made a powerful protest song with an equally strong video, recorded in reaction to George Floyd’s murder and the protests that have happened afterward. "Someone asked, how do I feel? I told them hurt, fearless, angry, aware and fully ready to protect me, my family & my people at all cost” Martin said about the song. Denzel Curry, Daylyt, Kamasi Washington, and G Perico joined him on it. The song’s equally powerful video begins with a message - “the video to this song is happening right outside your window” - and features footage from the protests. It ends with a long list of black men and women who have been killed by the police.
The Flaming Lips shared a brand new song 'Flowers of Neptune 6', mellow and pretty, the video features frontman Wayne Coyne in his signature plastic bubble; Canadian secretive cowboy Orville Peck released 'No Glory in the West', an outlaw-country song; Wayne Phoenix released a new video, explicit and moving 'Mood'; Ghanaian Afro-dancehall and reggae star Stonebwoy released 'Le Gba Gbe (Alive)' - a song all about positivity.
Heavy metal talk show Two Minutes To Late Night's latest cover is a funny little thing - it has members of Sleigh Bells, Poison the Well, Cloak and High On Fire covering Guns N' Roses' 'Rocket Queen'; experimental rapper JPEGMAFIA has released a new, energetic and direct song 'Cute Pie'; art rockers The Velvet Teen have released a big and atmospheric song 'Mean Mind'; Nicolas Jaar released yet another new song - 'All One', a latino psychedelic club smoothie; Bright Eyes' new song 'One and Done' is heavily orchestrated, melancholic, almost Mediterranean-sounding; 'Cannibals' by Paddy Hanna is theatrical and haunting;
The Mysterines' 'I Win Every Time' is a raw, loud rock song, the new band doesn't really seem to care what anybody thinks; 'Sucker' by Madeline Kenney is a different love song, it features Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner; the mysterious Slingbaum has shared a new track, an alter-pop song titled ‘Behoove’, featuring D’Angelo and Erykah Badu; Sondre Lerche goes from indie-pop to synthpop in 'That's All There Is', with a great video to go with.
“Everyone send your thoughts to Slowthai. Fuck knows where he is, but God bless the boy… fucking nightmare” - was The 1975 Matty Healy's reaction to Slowthai's shenanigans at NME's Awards, 'Enemy' is rapper's own take on it, not something everybody's gonna agree with, but he does take a legitimate stand; Arthur Gunn played a beautiful cover of Bon Iver's 'Hey Ma' at 'American Idol'; Naomi Lien's 'Don’t Need None' is a, well, decent R'n'B song, with a video made with a budget of enthusiasm, no banknotes exchanged; the title says it all really in 'Raincheck Summer' by Lillian Frances.
'Shadow of Doubt' by Satin Nickel is strange and great - prog-rock meets Americana; 'The Eddy' takes St. Vincent in an unseen jazz direction - the song is from ‘La La Land’ director Daniel Chazelle's new Netflix drama; singer, songwriter, and producer Ted When takes on isolation in 'The Edge'; Fontaines D.C. won't change rock with 'A Hero's Death', but it is a potent rock song; Rhye is going for the beautiful with her new song; Muse frontman Matt Bellamy is alone on 'Tomorrow's World', inspired by isolation on the piano-heavy, haunting song; Zeshan B mixes global music and soul in 'Only in my Dreams', a song that came to him in a dream.
Bob Dylan at midnight released his new track 'False Prophet' and announced a new album 'Rough And Rowdy Ways', due out next month. The song itself is a slow blues number which explores the dark side, with lyrics such as: “I’m no false prophet, I just said what I said/ I’m just here to bring vengeance on somebody’s head”. The two songs Dylan released this spring - 'Murder Most Foul' about the J.F.K. assassination, and 'I Contain Multitudes' will also be on the forthcoming album.
R.A. the Rugged Man 'Dragon Fire' is a great neo-Wu-Tang Clan song, featuring Masta Killa, XX3EME, Kool G Rap & Ghostface Killah; Disheveled Cuss play noise-pop on 'Oh My God'; 'Being Me' by Louis Culture is the sweet spot where hip-hop meets techno; Einstürzende Neubauten are back! - 'Alles In Allem' sees Blixa Bargeld playing organ in a meditative track; Brendan James' 'In Common' is a touching song calling for unity and hope; Christine and the Queens released a chamber pop cover of Neil Young’s 'Heart of Gold'.
Avishai Cohen the trumpet player (not Avishai Cohen, the bass player) released a mesmerizing cover of 'Teardrop', a jazzy, post-rocky take on the classic; Khruangbin announced new album 'Mordechai' - influenced by reference sounds from Pakistan, Korea and West Africa - with the lead single ‘Time (You and I)’; Rufus Wainwright's 'Alone Time' is warm and rich in its simplicity; Bristol singer-songwriter Fenne Lily's new single 'To Be a Woman Pt. 2' is a "retaliation against subordination and a reclamation of power"; experimental musician serpentwithfeet is back with 'Apparition', an arty R'n'B EP; BadBadNotGood released two new songs - an R'n'B-ish 'Goodbye Blue', and jazzy 'Glide'; singer Amber Mark goes into male-female interaction in clubs in '1894'; London singer/songwriter Eve Owen has built, in collaboration with The National's Aaron Dessner, a big-sounding song 'Mother'; Samia released a folk song 'Is There Something In The Movies', with a cinematic video to go with; Thom Yorke released his new song 'Plasticine Figures', a piano ballad.
Isaiah Rashad returns with 'Why Worry', his first new song in 4 years, a good slice of soul-sampling hip-hop; Sigur Rós’ Jónsi shared his hypnotic new song 'Exhale'; Elder dropped their new album 'Omens', containing a great atmospheric prog song 'Halcyon'; Johnny Flynn - who plays David Bowie in new movie 'Stardust' has released 'Good Ol' Jane', intended to sound like an early, lost Bowie song; iLe and Natalia Lafourcade play futuristic Latin music on 'En Cantos'; Ben Gibbard played a nice piano cover of Nirvana's 'All Apologies'; Earl Sweatshirt's first single of the new year is a lazy 'Whole World'; just a beautiful song 'It's Hard to be Human' by Lawrence Rothman, featuring guest vocals by Marissa Nadler and the MUSYCA Children Choir.
The Rolling Stones have released their first new single in eight years, 'Living In A Ghost Town', a sparse blues track. It references the coronavirus crisis, with Jagger singing: "Life was so beautiful, now we all got locked down / Feel like a ghost, living in a ghost town". The track was initially recorded a year ago in LA but was "finished in lockdown", with slightly revised lyrics.
Deradoorian's 'Monk’s Robes' is just a beautiful and just slightly strange song by the singer-songwriter; 'No-One' is a psychedelic stadium-rock song by the everlasting Psychedelic Furs; Deerhoof demonstrate chaos control on 'Farewell Symphony', with a good video; Sex Swing share their new psychedelic noise track 'Skimmington Ride'; Moore Jewelry demonstrate noise-industrial rap on 'Look Alive'; Skullcrusher's 'Places/Plans' is a delicate piano and guitar ballad; the beautifully named Angelo De Augustine shared a new single, 'Santa Barbara' which he worked on with the beautifully voiced Sufjan Stevens; Chelsea Wolfe and members of Dillinger Escape Plan covered Ozzy Osbourne's 'Crazy Train' - it's different, and it's great, especially with her voice; 'Halogen Eye' by the O'Brother is a big alt-rock song designed for stadiums
Baltimore rapper Jayy Grams has a great new song and video 'Hood Tales' about violence; 'In a Good Way' by Faye Webster is a simple love song, emanating strength through simplicity; 'Leader Of The Delinquents' by Kanye West's collaborator Kid Cudi is smooth and jazzy hip-hop; Wailin Storms play doom-grunge on 'Rattle'; 'But There’s Still The Moon' is some smooth soul by Tasha; Dougie Poole is a "weird country" singer from Brooklyn, proving the fact with 'Vaping on the Job'; Angel Olsen debuted two new songs on her recent livestream; Canadian Powfu's 'Death Bed' first exploded at Tik Tok, it's a type of song UK grimers would really appreciate.
Phoebe Bridgers first recorded 'Kyoto' as a ballad, then changed it into a rawky-folk thing, a good move; Members of Power Trip & Fucked Up formed Masterpiece Machine, shared debut song, a powerful, industrial rock gem 'Rotting Fruit'; Mick Harvey shared 'Turkish Theme', an appropriately titled and melancholic song; 'Gap Tooth' is dancey synth-pop by Best Ex; former The Kills member Alison Mosshart shared her debut solo single 'Rise' - tense, simple rock with an accompanying message - "When the sky is coming down on ya/baby don’t look back/we will rise”; Cindy Lee's 'I Don’t Want To Fall In Love Again' is timeless, haunting, pretty and cold; Gorillaz have impressive guests on their new single 'Aries' - UK dance-pop singer Georgia on drums, and the legendary Joy Division/New Order bassist Peter Hook; Seattle rapper Kateel looks back on his life’s journey in hip-hop banger 'I Aint Forgot'; Manga Saint Hilare goes halfway from grime to pop on 'Not Around', also looking on his younger days; Canadian singer-songwriter Camille Delean shared her graceful and disquieting 'Fault Line'; RnB singer Nylo goes with less-is-more with 'History of Sorry'.
Jesse Tabish wrote 'We Wait', his new song for his project Other Lives as a tribute to his old friend Tommy, who was shot and killed at the age of 25, Jennifer, Tommy's wife, had hired his murderer; Katie Harkin has played with Sleater-Kinney, Wild Beasts, Courtney Barnett’s band, with her new single 'Dail it In' going in a different direction - moody and atmospheric; Justin Vernon debuted brand new Bon Iver song 'Things Behind Things Behind Things' during Bernie Sanders stream, an old-school Bon Iver thing; Desire's 'Escape' comes from their first new album in 11 years; The Strokes are changing their sound - with 'Brooklyn Bridge To Chorus' they go into synth-pop territory; O'Brother released their new slow-burner 'Killing Spree' produced by Manchester Orchestra’s core duo of Andy Hull and Robert McDowell; a great video for 'Don't Slack' with Justin Timberlake and Anderson .Paak.
'Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America' by the 1975 and Phoebe Bridgers is just great (and a wee bit closer to what she usually does); 'Keep it Chill! (In the East Vill)' is a witty and thoughtful and hopeful new song by the singer and comic Jeffrey Lewis; instrumental trio GoGo Penguin shared their beautiful and meditative 'Kora'; the indie-star of the moment Waxahatchee covered Caroline Polachek's 'So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings'; Orville Peck released his first Columbia song 'Summertime' about "biding your time and staying hopeful"; Andrew Bird's 'Capital Crimes' touches the issue of giving IQ tests to death row inmates, whose life was spared if they scored below 70; The Tallest Man on Earth beautifully, of course, plays and sings the folk song 'Mole in the Ground'; Purity Ring's 'I Like the Devil' is piano-driven, dark electro-pop with a great video (below); 'Chosen Family' by Rina Sawayama is a grandiose ballad, which is rarely a good direction, but in this case it's a nice, catchy song with an important message; remember rap-metal? - Kool Keith and metal duo Thetan have a new take on it, with dark and slow 'Let's Take a Trip'; Thao and the Get Down Stay Down shared a psychedelic alter-pop song 'Phenom' with a video shot entirely within Zoom; 'Rider' is lush and dramatic, but Skylar Gudasz’s voice would be more than enough to dedicate two minutes for her new song; black metal turned trip hop turned synthpop band Ulver shared their new song 'Little Boy', presumably about the atomic bomb; "the drums and the bassline and the rhodes and the synths and the horns and the strings!!!" - RJD2 said about his new song '20 Grand Palace', and he's right.
Kings of Leon's frontman Caleb Followill released 'Going Nowhere', an acoustic song, quite simple, but just about right; Niniola made an Afrobeat banger 'Fantasy' featuring Femi Kuti; Amber Mark shared an r'n'b cover of 'Heart-Shaped Box', different, to say the least; Greg Fox - drummer for Ex Eye and Liturgy - released 'From the Cessation of What', an interesting progy-jazzy little thing; London singer-songwriter Eve Owen made an album with the National’s Aaron Dessner, 'Blue Moon' is the latest single from it.
"The original intention was to get your attention" - Chuck D said on Talib Kweli's weekly show People's Party about the public feud he had with Flavor Flav over Bernie Sanders. When Kweli noted that Flavor said he can't be fired, Chuck agreed - "He can't, he's a partner". To prove it, Chuck D announced their new album 'The Enemy Radio', made as a duo, and today they released the first single 'Food as a Machine Gun'.
Torres covered Portishead's 'Wandering Star', made quite a different song; string arrangements on Ladybug Transistor’s 'Giovanna Please' sound like open spaces and countryside; Brutus slowed down their metal on 'Sand', but keep the intensity and melody; Channel Tres' 'Weedman' is a funny song about a “notoriously unreliable” weed dealer; another funny one - Chai's 'No More Cake' about too much make-up; Bizou features former and current members of Light FM, Smashing Pumpkins and Glaare - their new single 'Crashing Sky' puts them between pop and dark; Htiekal is a music project by the actor Lakeith Stanfield, and 'Fast Life' is his step into leftfield pop; Jessie Reyez released a retro-soul song 'Coffin' featuring Eminem; 'Only Children' by Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit is a lovely sombre song.
