You should listen to Nico Tripodi, Angry Blackmen, Lily Seaglass, & more!
First post of 2024!
I don’t know what to call these posts anymore. They started out as ‘ What I’ve Been Listening To’ posts, then I moved to having unique titles based on the article content, until last year I started calling them ‘roundup’ posts. Now, I don’t know. I would love to have some consistency with my posting and how I title and organize everything, but I grew to dislike all those naming methods for different reasons. Gonna focus more on the content this year and let the right name come to me naturally.
The content will remain the same though! Write-ups and features on somewhere between four to eight great new projects from the year that I think you should listen to, to help ensure they aren’t lost and buried by the algorithm! Along with other things worth listening to, reading, things that feel relevant to share, and ‘alumni’ releases from artists I’ve covered in the past.
New playlist is here to collect a song from every project in every post for 2024! If you just want to throw a playlist on shuffle to figure out which songs/artists stick out to you, this is the easiest way to follow along. Will be updated all year.
Please give your body a break - Nico Tripodi
6 tracks, 13 minutes
Released: January 29th, 2024
From: Toronto, Canada
Genres: Alternative, Indie, Future Folk
Recommended For Fans Of: Dijon, Alex G, Mk.gee
When darkness closes in, and it’s time to look for safety, what does that look like when you’re an adult who’s grown beyond the comforts of home? This idea sets the scene Toronto artist Nico Tripodi’s debut EP, Please give your body a break. Tripodi made a name for himself working behind the scenes in various capacities, both as a music journalist and as a producer for other Toronto artists, with this being the first official release of his own music. “This is the first time I’ve created something I’d actually listen to,” said Tripodi. Sonically, you could describe the project as ‘future folk,’ where the soft acoustics and intimate lyrics are strategically countered by hard processing, tuning, and drum machines. Each song could make you cry while walking around your hometown at night, just as easily as you could speed it up for a catchy TikTok sound. The whole project sees Tripodi nostalgically reminiscing on moments and feelings passed, wondering how to process the present moment in those contexts. These reflections came on the heels of two important figures in his life passing consecutively last year. The understanding that people will always come and go in life, whether you’re ready for them to or not, emphasized the importance of having a sense of home to depend on. Even if home doesn’t always look the same as you remember it.
Standout Track: Wonton
This is an abbreviated version of a writeup that previously appeared in Norbu Magazine.
The Legend of ABM - Angry Blackmen
11 tracks, 30 minutes
Released: January 26th, 2024
From: Chicago, IL
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap, Industrial
Recommended For Fans Of: clipping., Injury Reserve, JPEGMAFIA
The Legend of ABM is an angry project. There are countless songs on here that would get you kicked off any public aux cord for the beat alone. But Angry Blackmen, the duo of Brian Warren and Quentin Branch, aren’t here to people please. Matter of fact, they’re here to piss you off. One thing I found myself struck by with this record was the candid clarity of the vocals. Sure there’s moments like the strained scream chants at the end of Fuck Off, but generally their vocals hold a relatively normal and natural presence around the chaotic beats. This contrasts many contemporaries that would elect to bury the vocals within the beat or layers of distortion and effects, which can certainly lead to exciting results. But the approach ABM takes gives a resounding urgency to what they’re saying that can’t be accomplished by the unique production alone. With this in mind, you can clearly hear when they call out fanboys “dickriding Fantano” on Grind and say “fuck a publication and them crackers up at Pitchfork” on Dead Men Tell No Lies, before the project went on to receive praise from both outlets. In some sense it feels American Fiction-esque, but in another sense it just shows that their art is undeniable. For more on the album than I could ever give you, and great in-depth conversation, read the duo’s interview with Will Hagle for Passion of the Weiss.
Standout Track: Sabotage
Alas, - Lily Seabird
10 tracks, 47 minutes
Released: January 12th, 2024
From: Burlington, VT
Genres: Alternative, Folk, Indie
Recommended For Fans Of: Big Thief, Johanna Warren, Waxahatchee
If Spotify dubbed your music taste (like Charli XCX’s) to be ‘Burlington Vermont’ core during last year’s wrapped season, this project could have specific appeal to you. Actual Burlington, Vermont artist Lily Seabird returned at the start of the year to drop her painfully touching second album, Alas,. Like the album title that ends in a comma, Alas, is the sound of someone with unfinished business, still searching for answers. Dedicated to the memory of a close friend that passed, this is an album that tackles grief while also recalling and exploring past connections, and the effects these people had (and still have) on who Seabird is today. Nothing is too big or small to make an impact on a person, whether it’s a lengthy connection like that of her friend, or something as brief as a girl she only knew for one week in the summer she turned 16, whom she “can’t recall what her name was,” as she sings on Grace. Wading gingerly between moments of soft guitar strums and heavy fuzzed-out blasts, Seabird understands and effortlessly captures the uncontrollable waves emotions can come in. It culminates in a disfigured portrait of learning how to continue after trauma, unraveling yourself in the process, somehow fostering hope for what comes next,
Standout Track: Grace
Never miss a post, all year!
an object of desire - Spider
5 tracks, 16 minutes
Released: February 23rd, 2024
From: Dublin, Ireland → London, UK
Genres: Rock, Grunge, Alternative
Recommended For Fans Of: Willow, Bully, Pinkshift
SPIDER’s third EP is here to charm you as quickly as it will rock you out of your seat. I first listened to the Irish singer after a Pigeons & Planes feature in the spring of 2022. At the time she was promoting her debut EP C.O.A., an eclectic collection of alt-internet pop inspired by M.I.A. and Lorde, named as a ‘coming of age’ project. In the two years since that coming of age, SPIDER has come into her sound as well. Here, as well as with her second EP released in 2023 (Hell Or High Water), the new music has more in common with glam grunge rockers like Hole or Garbage than her previous 21st century influences. an object of desire sees her thrashing with confidence, and feeling more at ease in her own sound than ever before. Through the journey of melding her past influences with her current trajectory, she seems to have found the the sweet spot between a harsh punk-rock vocal tone and using a higher, almost bratty, pitch of voice on tracks like 5678 and the title track. It’s an incredible development in the artist’s journey, that should also leave listeners eager to see where she takes things next.
Standout Track: an object of desire
The Pilgrim, Their God and The King Of My Decrepit Mountain - Tapir!
12 tracks, 45 minutes
Released: January 26th, 2024
From: London, UK
Genres: Folk, Electronic, Indie, Alternative
Recommended For Fans Of: Fleet Foxes, Alt-J, Of Monsters and Men
Tapir! is a six piece London band that took on an ambitious quest for their first album, crafting the epic fable that is The Pilgrim, Their God and The King Of My Decrepit Mountain. As implied by the mythical title, this album tells a story, broken up into three 4-song acts. There’s no better way for me to summarize it than their description, “the story of a solitary traveller, an ambiguous red creature known as The Pilgrim, on a journey across a mythical landscape of eerie forests, stormy seas and unholy mountains populated by beasts, injured birds and idealised eidolons.” Donning red paper mache heads, the band has taken on the character of The Pilgrim in promoting the album, with band pictures that exist somewhere between the movies Frank (2014) and Where The Wild Things Are (2009). It’s beautiful to watch an expansive narrative be crafted within an album, and then take on a life of it’s own in the videos and real world outside the music. While the songs aren’t necessarily what I typically listen to, the way it’s presented allows my imagination to run wild every time I return to this album. It reminds me how vast the scope is of what music can be.
Standout Track: My God
Gray - Lil Gray
17 tracks, 44 minutes
Released: February 27th, 2024
From: PG County, MD
Genres: Hip-Hop/Rap
Recommended For Fans Of: Joony, LUCKI, Baby Fifty, Robb Bank$
If you haven’t listened to Lil Gray before, this somewhat self-titled album Gray is a great intro project as it shows off the rapper’s versatility, toying with sample based beats, rage beats, and much more as he melds various rap scenes together and taps into standout features from Joony, Tony Shhnow, and Tae Dawg. It’s a good time to get introduced as the name is buzzing more now than ever before. Brent Faiyaz’s last album featured a plethora of rising DMV talent, and he reserved a podium spot for Lil Gray, next to legendary Virginia rapper Missy Elliott on the single Last One Left. It’s a well deserved come up for an artist who’s been grinding for years. His first moments of notoriety came around 2019-2020 when he was rapping over unusual beats that flipped sources like Sisqo’s Thong Song and the Eastern Motors commercial jingle. It’s proof he’s a rapper’s rapper, ready to rap over any and everything, and make it sound natural.
Standout Track: I Want da Smoke
Also Worth Listening To!
The one of a kind Detroit rapper with an oldhead cadence, Bruiser Wolf, is back with his second album on Danny Brown’s Bruiser Brigade Records, My Story Got Stories. Standout track 2 Bad even sees Danny Brown revisit the sample for 1Train, the iconic A$AP Rocky posse cut he featured on in 2013.
Sophie Cates (f.k.a. Silver Sphere) went the major label route, didn’t like it, got out, and is now releasing some of her best music on her own terms, with this first release under her new name, 17chains.
Huron John aims to ignore the content sludge and focus on putting his best, most authentic self (and music) forward with his 3rd album, Indigo Jack & The New World Border.
Smooth talker Kyle Dion’s brand of slick and cocky R&B sounds better than ever with the release of his latest EP, If My Jeans Could Talk.
Surf Gang skater and producer evilgiane got the who’s who in new wave internet rap on board for their latest album #HEAVENSGATE (VOL. 1).
Their previous album Guitar Music got a nod in my favorite albums of 2022 list, and Courting’s follow-up album New Last Name sounds like it may also occupy space in my list for 2024.
Lovingly dubbed “PinkPantheress for grownups” by Twitter, Erika De Casier’s reputation precedes her as she released her latest project, Still, to much fanfare.
Super Mario samples, bubblegum synths, and boisterous 808s set the scene for outlandish Atlanta rapper Bear1Boss on his Popstar FM mixtape Super Boss!
Katy Kirby continues to prove themself as an elite lyricist, making little moments feel vast with their sophomore album Blue Raspberry.
Mexican trio Meth Math prides themselves in making music that plays between “the sacred and the profane,” as they pull from club, dream pop, reggaeton, techno, emo, and more for the profoundly original Chupetones.
Alphonse Pierre’s Pitchfork review put me on to this project from Atlanta rapper Glorygirl2950, and to be honest I couldn’t really tell you what I just listened to after first hearing it. It sounds like every iteration of Atlanta rap that came before her all at once, like literally playing at the same time. Listen to Queen Of The Land to hear for yourself.
Good Reads
Probably will amount to nothing, but file under ‘things that make you go hmmmm.’
Scientists may have the key to treating tinnitus: Retrain the brain
I take care of my ears, but also secretly harbor hope that there will be a cure for tinnitus in the near future that I can take advantage of if needed. This sounds like a step in the right direction, plus details on how to participate in the brain training now if needed!
Biggest fight over music catalogs is happening on TikTok
Press Play with Madeleine Brand for KCRW takes on UMG’s battle with TikTok, arguing that while the standoff has mainly focused on big shot artists like Taylor Swift (whose videos on the platform are now silent), emerging artists on UMG’s imprint labels are being impacted the most.
Alumni Watch
Mall Girl (featured 5/11/22), the off-kilter Norwegian rockers, returned with another rambunctious album in Pure Love.
oogie (featured 5/12/21) returned this year with his signature south London drawl on his second project, Phew.
Friko (featured 4/27/22) took a major step up from their great 2022 EP on the impressive album Where we’ve been, Where we go from here.
Kevin Holliday (featured 8/18/21) shows major growth and creative vision with his heartfelt new album Ladybug.
Bats (featured 3/2/22) is continuing to make earnest folk rock from the heart on their third album Good Game Baby.
PROM (featured 3/17/21) shift away from the full band sound and more towards the electronic on their second exciting EP, Private Dream.
Dreamcastmoe (featured 12/19/22) is still making a very special style of House R&B with his new EP Molly’s Son.
1Alkebulan (featured 2/7/23) makes beats that sound like beautiful collages of samples for their dynamic vocals to go crazy on, with the new EP A Bowl For Lilith.
Asha Imuno (featured 10/28/20) crafts an ambitious and cinematic sophomore album with PINS & NEEDLES.
Very happy this blog is still alive and kicking for another year. Hope you enjoyed this post, share it with a friend if you did, it all helps!