ON REPEAT: Miho Hatori, The Orielles, Cheryl Glasgow, New Optimism, American Spring, Watermelon, Puzzle, Jessica Winter & Jonathan Snipes
In care of my...sweet mountain of love, au bord de ma chere...montagne d'amour
Got some new songs. Actually a bunch of them are a little bit old, but maybe new to you. Check out the full playlist of these picks here.
Also, Diners stopped by The Best Show—check out this fun set if you’re a Power Pop Pop Pop:
The Orielles “The Room”
I loved the last record, Disco Volador, by The Orielles, which jumped Broadcast-y dream pop to disco samba. Somehow I overlooked last year’s Tableau, which is much darker and more atmospheric. This is one of the poppier songs from that record but filled with interesting flourishes. I’m overdue for another deep dive on this band.
New Optimism “Dr. My-Ho”
I’m a huge fan of Miho Hatori, who is best known for her stuff with Cibo Matto, as well as being one of the coolest people ever. This project from a few years prior leans more in the hip-hop and dance direction, though she refers to it as “a borderless genre-less creation.”
But did you know she’s got bars? What those are I cannot tell you but I learned they are inspired by the writing of Édouard Glissant, who wrote about racism from his French Caribbean perspective.
Miho Hatori “Tokyo Story”
I also loved her 2021 album Between Isekai and Slice of Life, and this song, “Tokyo Story” which has a similar song and a music video where she wears three pounds of face masks.
What’s the most fascinating aspect to me is that Miho is pretty much a Gen X 1990’s underground icon—Cibo Matto started in 1991. But she continues to make new music that sounds like it came out ten years from now. Also, she doesn’t appear to age so maybe she’s like one of those cool artsy vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive and she’s been influencing culture since the 1800ś.
Watermelon “Two Dimensional Pagoda (Indopepsychics Remix)
Heard this on Anu’s NTS show, which is very good.
Jessica Winter & Jonathan Snipes “Finish Line”
This song borrows the Y2K sound but not in the “I like the girls that do DRUGS!” kinda way. Instead it’s that pre-9/11 Eurodance practically 90’s, “la la la la la, it’s all around the world” kinda way.
Jonathan Snipes is one of the producers from the rap group Clipping. which features Daveed Diggs—it’s more Gravediggaz than Hamilton soundtrack, I promise you. And Jessica Winter appears to be positioning herself as Gen Z’s answer to Goldfrapp or Robyn or something on the chorus. I hope I’m making a good case for this song, I like it! But I was also raised in a house that played KTU a lot.
Cheryl Glasgow “Glued To The Spot”
I will forever have a warm spot in my heart for that hard-to-describe ZE Records sound (Kid Creole, Lizzy Mercier Descloux, Cristina, The Waitresses), regardless of how in-vogue it is. This sounds like if Sade was the singer for one of those bands and they relocated to Ibiza or something and chilled the fuck out.
In reality, this was a minor club hit in 1987, reissued by Numero Group recently.
Puzzle “Loose Cannon”
My friend Kate told me about this band, and I said “this sounds like The Garden” and you know what? It’s the guy from The Garden. Except in this he doesn’t have face paint on. On Spotify, this appears on the playlists “webcore” and “SMASH” and “Hope Core 🤝 Core Core” and this made me reconsider posting this song on here. I am not #nichetok enough to know what Core Core is. I feel like if I met this guy at a party, it would be 50/50 whether I liked or hated him.
THE GOLD STANDARD
American Spring “Sweet Mountain”
I love Brian Wilson. I own two Brian Wilson shirts. Actually, it’s just the same one twice—the place I ordered it from messed up and sent two. I went to go see him play in McCarren Park years ago and he just sat bored/confused at his piano, reading the lyrics of “Surfin USA” off a teleprompter, until he played Pet Sounds in full with PASSION.
Brian helped produce this song by American Spring, who were originally just Spring but they had to change it for the same reasons The English Beat did. It consisted of Brian’s then-wife Marilyn Wilson and Diane Rovell, formerly of girl group The Honeys.
It’s very much a classic Brian Wilson production, particularly towards the end (or entirely, if you listen to this version).
The song seems ahead of its time, particularly those keys in the bridge. It almost sounds like a Cocteau Twins demo or Beach House. Also the album cover art looks like a goth band’s from 1985:
Sadly the rest of the hard-to-find record is mostly normal covers of songs like “Superstar” by The Carpenters and “Forever” by the legendary Jesse & The Rippers. The production is still nice, so it’s worth a listen, but nothing comes close to the mood of this song.