WIBLT: The Latest & Greatest
What I've Been Listening To, 4/13/22
‘What I’ve Been Listening To’ is a bi-weekly series that highlights 8 projects, 1 song, and 1 video that have been on repeat for me. Be sure to follow the ‘What I’ve Been Listening To’ playlist that is always up to date with the eight standout tracks from all of these posts in 2022.
April always kind of feels like a drag of a month, yeah? Or is that just me? Either way this music will help you get through it!
The Parts I Dread - Pictoria Vark
8 tracks, 32 minutes
Released: April 8th, 2022
From: Iowa City, IA
Genres: Indie, Rock, Alternative, DIY
Recommended For Fans Of: Courtney Barnett, Babehoven, Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail
The Parts I Dread is the debut album from Pictoria Vark (stage name of Victoria Park if you couldn’t guess), a songwriter and touring bassist who’s taken on the road with Squirrel Flower, and currently Pinkshift. Working as a bass player gives Park’s songwriting a unique edge as she often starts with the bass and lyrics, allowing a melody to come together once those two parts are complete. “I like having two separate pieces and seeing what works. The melodies come naturally,” she told Slumber Mag. This album is centered around change, from the fictional story of siblings growing apart on the hauntingly beautiful Twin, to the literal change of Park’s family moving out of her childhood home in New Jersey to Wyoming while she was away at college (most notably addressed on the song Wyoming). Many of the themes revolve around working through the fear, anxiety, angst, and well dread that can come along with major change. "If you think about, like, ‘Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,’ in the way that 'parts' is used there, it's to refer to geographic place," Park told Iowa Public Radio on the album’s title. "Because the album is both about geographic place and emotional territory, The Parts I Dread kind of works two-fold to show those things." Park’s forte is in cutting to the core with direct and sincere lyrics such as, “how much of me is still the same from when I met you?” from the closing Friend Song, which has been resonating in my head since I first heard it. But with all that self-reflection comes a self-awareness as well, like when she playfully suggests the worst part of moving could be having to find a new therapist. Her lyrics can feel specific, but the feeling behind them hits in a way like she’s personally asking, “you’ve felt this before too, right?” Park works through highs and lows over the course of this album, and the songs follow suit as there’s everything from sparse songs of just bass/acoustic/vocals, to songs with nearly 100 layers in tracks (I’ll let you guess which one it is). It comes together to make what will undoubtedly go down as one of the most exciting debuts of 2022.
Standout Track: Wyoming
popstyle - cookii
7 tracks, 19 minutes
Released: April 1st, 2022
From: Melbourne, Australia
Genres: Pop, Electronic, Hyperpop
Recommended For Fans Of: Raveena Golden, Magdalena Bay, Banoffee
After bursting onto the scene with their cover of Bubblegum from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cookii returns here with a brand new mixtape. popstyle is the latest from the Australian future pop outfit, following their first singles and project released in 2020. In some ways though this feels like a debut, as cookii existed anonymously (without publicly revealing their faces) until the release of so young during this album cycle. Revealed to be the duo of Lucian Blomkamp and Rosebud Leach, Blomkamp detailed in an Instagram post how the character of cookii was created. “Something about pop music came really instinctively when we wrote together. Similarly, we found it really fun to write from a perspective outside of our own experiences. Someone younger than us who was still kind of naive, but in a hopefully endearing way.” Their sound is certainly rooted in pop music with bubblegum hooks and melodies, but they push the boundaries of pop even further. Imagine if Magdalena Bay had a merger with 100 Gecs. Pop-punk like guitars and hooks melt into bouncy synths and wobbly EDM bass. The duo detailed how this first project with their faces attached to it affected the approach. "so young was the first song that we kind of took seriously in a way," cookii said via Sniffers. "Most songs we write come from a very clear intention to have fun and only be fun. so young was us kind of letting go of the expectations we put on ourselves in that way and allowing ourselves to change up the sound and get a bit more serious. With that being said, there was definitely a choice to be as angsty as possible and kind of OTT cause that keeps things fun for us – trying to squeeze a lil of that scene music influence in there lol."
Standout Track: so young
Archives - Ruby Francis
13 tracks, 44 minutes
Released: November 19th, 2021
From: London, UK
Genres: Soul, Electronic, R&B, Funk
Recommended For Fans Of: Snoh Aalegra, Neptunes, Joyce Wrice, Nao
Got tapped into this stellar release from the tail end of last year via the Best Soul On Bandcamp roundup. Ruby Francis was raised in a musical household, with a bass playing father and music loving mother, which inspired her to pursue music from an early age. This debut album, Archives, is billed by Francis as, “a collection of songs I have produced and written over the years, encountering different phases and experiences I have been through; from overcoming breakups and relationship hurdles, mental health struggles, exploring fantasies and characters as well as just having fun.” Across the album, Francis tip toes across Neptunes inspired production that melts together with her ‘90s R&B sound. Francis offers a plethora of different styles on this project, with songs ripe for any type of playlist or occasion. The warmth in the production gives the feeling of a live band, but pulls in enough modern sounds to keep things fresh too (Francis produced or co-produced every song on the project). Working in a male-dominated field, that production is a distinct point of pride for Francis. “I want people to know that I produce just as much as I sing,” she said (via Magnetic Mag). “The common view is that women in music are singers and that's it. But I think it's a vicious cycle that self perpetuates. With this album, and as an artist/ producer, I hope to inspire other POC women, to first and foremost feel free to express their creativity in whatever way is natural to them, and if that is through music production then I will always be in full support and encouragement.” While evidence isn’t necessary to fight for more women producers, Archives is still a prefect example of why. My only issue with this project is I wish I found it sooner.
Standout Track: Jasmine
I’M TRYING, TO BE - YTK
5 tracks, 10 minutes
Released: March 30th, 2022
From: Baltimore, MD
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Alternative
Recommended For Fans Of: Teezo Touchdown, Aminé, Terry Presume
I’m Trying, To Be is the latest EP from buzzing Baltimore rapper, YTK. Already a notable name around his hometown, YTK boosted his profile further last year when he flipped Mariah Carey’s Shake It Off into his viral hit Let It Off, and made headlines as Carey responded (in jest) about getting lawyers involved. Though his name is just starting to breakout more, he’s been at this for a long time. “I was writing since I was nine years old,” he told Donna-Claire Chesman for DJ Booth back in 2019. “When I was doing it, it wasn’t even cool to be rapping. Especially when you’re nine, nobody’s thinking about rap. Everybody’s playing with Tech Decks and stuff.” The long term dedication must be what’s helped him craft his one of a kind sound as he drops unique raps with a melodic bounce behind them. That bounce often coincides with the beat to give the feeling that the whole song is moving together, something very intentional from YTK who produced, mixed, and mastered the entire project. While this EP is just a short offering, it’s a means of experimenting with different sounds while building up his name on the way to bigger projects. “I’ve been dropping EPs because I have EP resources,” he explained to Grant Rindner in a more recent DJ Booth interview. “I have EP time, I have EP production budgets, I have EP video budgets. But when I have a debut album, I’m just gonna go so nuts. I’m not gonna hold anything back. I’m gonna really craft. I got grand plans for my album.”
Standout Track: Can’t Eem Tell U Why
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Bluff - yunè pinku
4 tracks, 14 minutes
Released: April 1st, 2022
From: London, UK
Genres: Electronic, Garage, Club, Pop
Recommended For Fans Of: PinkPantheress, John Glacier, Peggy Gou
Yunè Pinku has been making big waves in the electronic scene that are bound to get bigger with the release of this debut EP, Bluff. The Malaysian/Irish producer and singer has carved out a niche for herself by creating electronic music with a human touch. Bluff provides backbeats that are ready for the club, but the moodier synths and lyrics offer something a bit more introspective and enticing. Wether it’s the delicate touch to the pulsing synth lines or the dry yet compassionate vocal delivery, Pinku has ways to hypnotize you with these tracks. The four song EP centers around trying to adjust to new normalcy after coming out of locked down isolation. “It’s quite true to who I was at the time,” Pinku told Ben Jolley for NME. “It’s quite angsty in certain ways and there’s definitely a thing of constantly trying to be tougher, but there’s also a gentleness to it as well.” Pinku is still quite new to this at 19 years old, with her first single release ever coming just last year. She even recalled to NME how she hated electronic music as a child because of how often her mom would play trance music around the house, before getting older and warming up to the limitless possibilities the genre offered. Despite that, her songs have immediately connected with listeners as she’s racked up hundreds of thousands of streams and co-signs from Joy Orbison and Logic1000 among other notable artists in the scene. Bluff sets the stage for Yunè Pinku to be the next big thing in electronic music.
Standout Track: Affection
BANK PROLOGUE - Martian Subculture
10 tracks, 39 minutes
Released: February 18th, 2022
From: Limerick, Ireland
Genres: Indie Rock, Lo-Fi, Psychedelic
Recommended For Fans Of: Jerry Paper, Paul Cherry, Still Woozy
Irish indie act Martian Subculture (project of Evan O'Malley) has stayed on my radar since the release of his 2019 debut EP Mars, and is now following that up with his debut album, BANK PROLOGUE. O’Malley stated via Instagram that he’s been working on parts of this project as far back as 2018, before that first EP was even released. The tracklist for this one reads like a film score to some mysterious science fiction flick, and the funky synths and/or VSTs used here sound fitting for that setting. The project can be played in a seamless loop, and is set in a fictional city on Mars. "Ultimately, the album is an experience of a city on an alien planet, which to the potential listener, highlights my experience of feeling alien on our own planet, as a human/artist/being,” O’Malley told Metal Magazine. In crafting the sonics for this world, he found influence in jazz and funk from Arabic speaking parts of the world between the 1960s and ‘80s. The artwork for the project and its singles mash up alien drawings/edits with actual photographs to create a familiar yet odd sensation. The music can feel similar as woozy synths and guitar chords mash together to create his left-field brand of indie rock. He described the single Bumblebees to Hot Press by saying, “I imagine a band playing in some pub on Mars in a sci-fi movie. Played with instruments that are unrecognizable, but still come across as a 'song' overall.” Alluded to with the album title and final track (To be continued in… ‘BANK STREET’!), this seems to be the first part of a bigger story O’Malley is putting together, so stay tuned.
Standout Track: Enter Martian Pedestrian
Boy Boredom - Cosma Joy
5 tracks, 16 minutes
Released: March 11th, 2022
From: Munich, Germany
Genres: R&B, Jazz, Soul
Recommended For Fans Of: Cleo Sol, Eliza Shaddad, Joy Crookes
Boy Boredom is the warmhearted and passionate debut EP from German singer Cosma Joy. The 21 year old was inclined to art from an early age, growing up around art and poetry from her mother, photography from her father, and storytelling from her sister. She learned much of her singing and instrument skills during evening jam sessions as a child. This debut delivers poetic lyrics accompanied by subdued but soulful instrumentals that teeter between soft indie and jazz influences. It fits as well as a morning cup of coffee as it does as a nightcap on a warm spring evening. I appreciate the closeness and prominence with which Joy’s vocals were placed in the mix, as it often gives the intimate feeling of a close conversation between friends. “Music is like healing magic,” Joy said. “I can transform anything, any memory, be it beautiful or painful, into something that will bring me joy and hopefully be of some comfort to whoever is listening. I just want to make the most meaningful music I can, whatever that might look like.” Each song on the project (except for the closing track, as of now) is accompanied by a video, directed by Joy’s older sister and creative partner, Masha Mollenhauer.
Standout Track: Boy Boredom
20Xr - Tawobi
6 tracks, 15 minutes
Released: April 6th, 2022
From: Philadelphia, PA
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Recommended For Fans Of: E-40, KEY!, Zelooperz, Del the Funky Homosapien
Coming off of performing at SXSW, Tawobi is currently in-between releases, having dropped an album in each of the last two years. To hold fans over, he has this new EP, 20Xr, that collects singles that didn’t land on any of the projects he’s been working on. For the title of the project, Tawobi said on Bandcamp it’s, “named after 20mg extended release adderall (which I’ve had a…personal…relationship with for sometime) 20Xr is more like an instant release in length.” Instant release of high energy is a fitting descriptor for this project. Tawobi takes the skill and finesse of classic rappers like E-40 and Del the Funky Homosapien, and channels it through the liveliness of modern Soundcloud rappers. Every track on here has heavy bass, catchy melodies, and high octane energy. Though it’s a short project, it’s a good introduction to what the artist had to offer. “I think this is the most fun solo project I’ve ever released,” Tawobi said. “All slappers and hits back to back in a bite sized form, staying true to myself and experimentation however pretty damn accessible.” While Tawobi does have a unique voice and likes to experiment with his sound, the songs on this project are certainly accessible, and highlight everything that he can give you.
Standout Track: What Are You On? (Feat. Shaq G)
A Song
Rose Street - Vince Staples
Have mixed feelings on the new Vince Staples album. Found some songs to be great, but others felt underdeveloped or out of place. Hoping it can grow on me with time, but for now I’ll focus on the good here with this single I keep coming back to. Vince’s confidence is balanced out by some slight unease in the beat and the somber chorus.
A Video
Ur Mum - Wet Leg
Earlier in the year I used this spot in my newsletter on a music video by Lava La Rue. Here, La Rue turns her talents behind the camera (under the name Lavaland) to direct the latest video for breakout UK band Wet Leg. With their self-titled debut album dropping last Friday, you’ve probably been hearing all about them as of late. Hard to say the hype is unearned though with the full project now at our disposal. I love the cohesion and intention behind all the set design and costume choices used here.
Bye!