What I've Been Listening To, 9/15/20
What I've Been Listening To, 9/15/20
Hope y’all enjoyed getting something different last week, now back to What I’ve Been Listening To.
Muthaland - Bbymutha
25 tracks, 61 minutes
Released: August 28th, 2020
From: Chattanooga, Tennessee
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Recommended For Fans Of: Three 6 Mafia, Gangsta Boo, Junglepussy
BANDCAMP | (Bandcamp exclusive as of this post)
After numerous EPs, short tapes, singles, and live shows, the full length debut album from Tennessee rapper Bbymutha has finally arrived. Unfortunately, Muthaland has also been announced to be her last album. Rappers have notoriously poor track records on following through with retirements, but if this is actually the end, she went out on the best project of a short but impactful career.
Standout Track: Roaches Don’t Die
VIOLENT - David Wolves
15 tracks, 54 minutes
Released: August 28th, 2020
From: Medellín, Colombia -> Orlando, Florida
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Recommended For Fans Of: Travis Scott, Kid Cudi, Night Lovell
Thanks to the one and only Johnny O’Connor for putting this on my radar. This debut project has been about 3-4 years in the making for David, noted perfectionist. Violent was largely produced by David with the help of his friend Josh December, but he clearly has a solid team around him already. This project was released through No Matter, the latest endeavor by the creators of notorious blog era site Pigeons & Planes. Additionally, it was mixed and mastered by Anthony Kilhoffer who (among many other projects) also worked on every Kanye album from College Dropout up to Life of Pablo.
Standout Track: Touring Test
Flow - flwr chyld
7 tracks, 18 minutes
Released: August 21st, 2020
From: Atlanta, Georgia
Genres: R&B, Indie
Recommended For Fans Of: Steve Lacy, bLAck pARty, Leven Kali
Flow is the sophomore project of Atlanta artist flwr chyld, following up the 2019 EP Iridescent Luv. Flwr chyld produced all the tracks himself, and he comes off as an artist in full creative control of his presentation. Everything from the lyrics, sound, and images, are all very in sync, working together beautifully.
Standout Track: Aurablu
These Days - St. Panther
6 tracks, 22 minutes
Released: September 4th, 2020
From: Irvine, California
Genres: R&B, Soul
Recommended For Fans Of: The Internet, Terrace Martin
These Days is St. Panther’s (real name Daniela Bojorges-Giraldo) return EP, following their only other project P(1) that came out in 2015. Daniela is a talented producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist, but also tapped Nate Mercereau (Lizzo, Leon Bridges, and Shawn Mendes collaborator) to help work on production for this EP. The title track, linked below, is a somber, jazzy number written in the memory of a friend who died of on overdose on their birthday last year, and Daniela’s struggle to keep moving forward in the time following the news.
Standout Track: These Days
Weirdo - Carla J. Easton
12 tracks, 42 minutes
Released: August 28th, 2020
From: Glasgow, UK
Genres: Pop, Electronic, Synthpop
Recommended For Fans Of: Charly Bliss, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sir Babygirl
Carla J. Easton is a veteran of the Scottish music scene. The 35 year old has played in bands Futuristic Retro Champions, and TeenCanteen, as well as under the alias ETTE in the past. Here she releases the second album under her birth name, and it’s filled to the brim with spunky pure-pop hooks. The mixing engineer described the track below as “Hey Ya meets Mickey on acid.”
Standout Track: Heart So Hard
AUNTIE - Ian Isiah
7 tracks, 27 minutes
Released: September 4th, 2020
From: New York, New York
Genres: Funk, R&B
Recommended For Fans Of: Kokane, Blood Orange
Ian Isiah’s 2018 mixtape Shugga Sextape (Vol. 1) was all about futuristic beats, but this latest project is all about taking you back. AUNTIE is old school funky R&B, featuring numerous west-coast bass lines, vocoder, and more in the Chromeo handled production. The main criteria that Chromeo and Isiah agreed on for this project was to “avoid references to music made after 1989.” Mission accomplished.
Standout Track: Princess Pouty
DON’T - Frank Leone
10 tracks, 26 minutes
Released: September 1st, 2020
From: Allerton, Illinois
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, R&B
Recommended For Fans Of: Kevin Abstract, DJ Screw
Produced, performed, written, mixed, and arranged by Leone, this album was created during a 2019 period of self-isolation in the California country side (talk about a bad year to willingly self isolate). The album comes with a mission statement detailing how he was unhappy with the space he was in while making this music, but the songs helped him to move out of it. Which is why every song title is a variation of the word “Don’t.” While Leone has been making music for over nine years, this is his official debut album, and he’s going all in with the release. I can’t find any official confirmation, but the album is allegedly getting a visual project with director Hiro Murai and actor Lakeith Stanfield through FX.
Standout Track: Don’t Need
Meri - O Mer
9 tracks, 29 minutes
Released: September 4th, 2020
From: Tel Aviv, Israel -> Brooklyn, New York
Genres: Electronic, Alternative
Recommended For Fans Of: James Blake, Nick Hakim
There isn’t a lot of press or info out about O Mer’s latest project Meri, but that’s probably just be the way he likes it. Moving in silence and letting the music speak largely for itself is something he admires about the band Sault. I’ve been singing O Mer’s praises for a few years now, and even though it’s just 9 songs, this is his longest project to date. Electronic production has always been his strong suit, but on this album the guitar work really steps forward into center stage with multiple song stealing solos.
Standout Track: Birds
A Song
99 Corolla - Medium Build
Inherently, this song is pretty simple. But wow, that hook just hasn’t left my head since the first time I heard this. I just keep coming back.
A Video
Dear C - Cosima Olu
I found this song earlier this year when it was posted on the Soundcloud of artist Cosima. I thought it was a song by her and I liked it, kept coming back to it. The slow swell into an epic, swirling, kaleidoscope of sounds was mesmerizing. Cut to last week, and I found the song was removed from her Soundcloud. No big deal, songs get removed from Soundcloud for various reasons, but I then check Cosima’s Spotify and Youtube, the song isn’t there either. After some frantic confusion and google searches, I found that the song is actually by an entirely different artist named Cosima Olu. No idea how it ended up on Cosima’s Soundcloud, but I’m happy that lead me to the song, and then the journey to find the song again lead me to the video. A beautiful tribute to her late mother.
This week’s challenge for my subscribers is to send this to one (1) person you think would enjoy an artist here, or this type of content in general. Thanks for reading :)