Experimental
Artist of the Month serpentwithfeet on Black Gay Love, Relationship Advice, and Creative Honesty
Artist of the Month is an accolade we award to an up-and-coming artist who we believe is about to break out. We turn our attention in March to serpentwithfeet, an R&B singer-songwriter presently creating out of Los Angeles. When asked about any especially impactful messages from fans about his music, serpentwithfeet immediately recalls a tweet, regarding his Apparition EP, released last year. He quotes, “This project sounds like what happens in a dollhouse when the humans aren’t looking,” which he follows up with a hearty chuckle. “That is such a great appraisal. And I thought it was a great compliment,” he says. It’s also a more-than-accurate assessment, one that couldn’t be placed on just any artist’s work. Originally hailing from Baltimore — before moving to New York City and now, L...
chromonicci. Drops New Experimental Trap Single “Nono”
Steadily emerging from the underground scene into the forefront of experimental electronic producers, chromonicci. has grown to one of the scene’s most prolific producers. We are only in the third month of 2021 and we are already receiving our fifth single from the beloved artist, the maniacal “Nono.” “Nono” is chromonicci.’s first release on BONSAI, the label and collective led by fellow Dallas-based producer capshun. The beat on “Nono” is simple yet infectious, drawing clear influence from hip-hop productions with booming 808s and expertly crafted vocal chops. With rippling synths and a warm beat, it’s forward-thinking trap music at its finest. “I wanted to make something that bangs,”&nb...
Ian Munro Shares Genre-Bending “Solipsism” EP
Releasing experimental bass gems since 2016 with consistency and a desire to always outdo himself, Ian Munro has established himself as an exciting artist to watch within bass music community over the years. With his 5-track EP Liminal back in 2019, as well as a string of experimental singles last year, Munro’s musical output is impressively diverse, something that has allowed him to build a loyal following as well as carry out official remix duties for the likes of Crywolf, QUIX, Mt. Eden and more. Now, Ian Munro is back with his most personal project to date, sharing his genre-bending, 6-track Solipsism EP. Effortlessly jumping between a bevy of genres and sounds, Solipsism showcases his creative vision at its best. Driven by lush vocals and celestial atmospheres—wihch are cont...
Song of the Week: Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak Play It Smooth as Silk Sonic on “Leave the Door Open”
Song of the Week breaks down and talks about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak dropped their first single as Silk Sonic. Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak have teamed up under the name Silk Sonic, which seems to have been a good name choice. Their first single, “Leave the Door Open”, is nothing if not luxurious, velvety goodness. The full-length project, An Evening with Silk Sonic, reunites the two artists who previously toured together with .Paak as an opening act on Bruno Mars’ 2017 “24K Magic World Tour”. Sonically, “Leave the Door Open” is a return to form for Bruno Mars, who ha...
Björk Shares Sonos Radio Mix: Stream
Björk is the latest artist to curate a Sonos Radio station, plumbing her formidable WAV archives for a playlist that touches every corner of the globe. Her channel is called “21 years worth of wave files liquidated into a stream”. As she explained in an interview at the top of the mix, Björk has owned the same laptop for 21 years. It’s become a repository for all her favorite tracks discovered on CDs, cassettes, vinyl, and more — every song that she says “saved my life” she converted into a high-quality WAV format. Now, these sonic chronicles have been distilled down to an eclectic hour’s worth of music, featuring performances by Alim qasimov, Jeremiah, Oui, LFO, Aby Ngana Diop, ML Buch, and more. In a statement, Björk delved into her curation process, writing, “i am quite t...
serpentwithfeet Releases New Single “Same Size Shoe”: Stream
serpentwithfeet has today released a new track called “Same Size Show”. The latest single off his forthcoming DEACON LP, the song can be streamed ahead. The running thesis of the follow-up to last year’s Apparition EP examines the nature of love and tenderness for a Black gay man. We heard a platonic take on that with the lead single “Fellowship”, and now “Same Size Shoe” delivers a lush exploration of what it’s like to have a romance with someone who can truly relate to you. “Me and my boo wear the same size shoe/ Boy you got my trust ’cause I’m like you,” sings serpentwithfeet. The celebration of that fondness comes to a beautiful, convivial bridge where he calls out for a trumpet only to provide the horn notes with his own vocals. Speaking with Zane Lowe on Apple Music about the track, ...
Unborn Baby Records Debut Album
For decades, musicians have recorded music with the specific intent of helping foster child development in utero and teach soon-to-be kids iconic rap hooks. Now the tables have turned: an unborn baby has recorded her debut album, presumably for the enjoyment of full-grown humans. The baby, named Luca Yupanqui, is the soon-to-be child of Psychic Ills bassist Elizabeth Hart and Lee “Scratch” Perry collaborator Iván Diaz Mathé. Yupanqui created the songs on her album using biosonic MIDI technology that translated her in-utero movements into sound. The MIDI device was hooked to Hart’s stomach, recorded the vibrations created by Yupanqui, and transcribed them into Mathé’s synthesizers, a meditative process that took place over five hour-long sessions. Hart and Mathé then edited and mixed the re...
D’Angelo, Björk, FKA twigs, and The Chemical Brothers to Curate Their Own Sonos Radio Stations
FKA twigs (photo by Matthew Stone), D’Angelo (photo by Gregory Harris), and Björk Ready those speakers, because D’Angelo, Björk, FKA twigs, and The Chemical Brothers are about to take over the airwaves — on Sonos Radio, that is. The online radio streaming service has asked all four acts to curate their very own radio stations. Given the eclecticism of this group of musicians, the new stations are sure to contain exciting finds. Airing first is D’Angelo’s station, named “Feverish Fantazmagoria” (January 13th), followed by FKA twigs’ “main squeeze” (February 10th). On February 24th, Björk will debut her lengthily titled “21 years worth of wave files liquidated into a stream”, while The Chemical Brothers will launch “Radio Chemical” on March 2nd. In addition to these stations, all four ...
Blanck Mass Announces New Album In Ferneaux, Shares “Starstuff”: Stream
Blanck Mass is the solo electronic music project of Benjamin John Power, co-founder of drone outfit Fuck Buttons. Today, the British artist has announced a new album dubbed In Ferneaux, due for release next month via Sacred Bones. The follow-up to 2019’s Animated Violence Mild was written and recorded during quarantine, and is very much a product of its time. Blanck Mass created the album using a decade’s worth of field recordings from his various travels — purposely bringing memories and relationships back to life during a period of great separation and isolation. These recordings inform both halves of In Ferneaux, with each section representing a so-called “long-form journey” in the UK musician’s life. “The journeys are haunted with the vestiges of voices, places, and sensations,” descri...
Kelsey Lu and Yves Tumor Share New Collaborative Song: Stream
Kelsey Lu and Yves Tumor have teamed up for a new song called “let all the poisons that lurk in the mud seep out”. It’s a murky experimental track that also features contributions from Kelly Moran and Moses Boyd. Lu’s 2019 album Blood and Tumor’s 2020 opus Heaven to a Tortured Mind are quite different in many ways, but they share a low-lit ambiance and a sense of cathedral-like beauty. On this collaborative single, both of their steamy falsettos sound part of the same whole, blending and swirling around one another over woozy piano lines. Eventually, some congas and electronic production enter the fray, and the track concludes with a tastefully busy arrangement. Take a listen to the full tune below. In a statement, Lu described the intense emotions the song is...
Top 50 Songs of 2020
The 2020 edition of our Annual Report continues today with our Top 50 Songs of 2020. If you haven’t already, check out our Top 50 Albums of 2020, which came out earlier in the week. Also, be sure to tune in next week as we begin handing out our annual accolades and continue looking back on the strange year that was 2020. Upon being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame some years ago, Tom Waits said, “We love music, but what we really want is for music to love us back.” Believe it or not, it felt like music did that in 2020. For me, anyway. I know that it’s easy to see the world through pandemic goggles right now or strictly through the lens of racial injustice or political turmoil. Tragedy and frustration that keeps piling on can definitely cloud our vision or color our window on t...
Björk Shares New Version of “Sonnets” Featuring Iceland’s Hamrahlid Choir: Stream
Like many Icelandic artists before her, Björk spent much of her teenage years singing as part of the renowned Hamrahlid Choir. Things have now come full circle, as the experimental artist has contributed to the choir’s upcoming album, Come and Be Joyful. The two acts have specifically collaborated on a new version of “Sonnets”, originally taken from Björk’s 2004 album Medúlla. This completely reworked a cappella rendition was actually first premiered live by the choir during Björk’s mesmerizing “Cornucopia Tour” in 2019, but hasn’t been released to the public until today. “[Hamrahlid Choir founder] þorgerður is a legend in iceland and has guarded optimism and the light in the tumultuous times that teenagedom is,” Björk praised the choir’s leader on social media. “she has also encoura...
