ON REPEAT: Sault, Nourished By Time, Yasuko Agawa, bar italia, DJ Crazy Times & Ms Biljana Electronica
ELECTRIC! ELECTRIC!
Hello again. Before I get into my picks, here are some recommended listens. My pal Darren’s WFMU show has been on hiatus for a while, but he recently returned, with a bunch of new music to check out. There will definitely be future picks from these episodes. I have not listened yet, but it’s always quality, along with Darren screaming.
Also my pal Kate Sweeney is apparently moving on up and will be DJing on NTS this Saturday evening. Kate’s taste is impeccable and she always suprises me with deep cuts I’ve never heard and now love.
DJ Crazy Times & Ms Biljana Electronica “Planet of the Bass”
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Look, if we’re being honest about the music I’ve been listening to FOR REAL all week, it’s this. Numerous people sent me this because it feels like something I would have done. And though I previously wrote an unperformed sketch featuring my own eurodance duo, MC Pump and Arabella Decadence of Teknophonica (sorry, I’m still proud of the names), it wouldn’t have been anywhere as good as this.
Kyle Gordon is one of the funniest character performers going right now, but I for sure did not expect this guy I’ve done bar shows with to legit put out the SONG OF THE SUMMER. That’s not me joking, it’s in Rolling fucking Stone.
I will say shooting in the Oculus is inspired and it’s just a perfect everything. DJ Crazy Times also apparently performed at Mood Ring in Bushwick which is so funny for me and makes me miss living 5 minutes away from it.
Sadly, they got kicked out of the Oculus the day of the first shoot and maybe that has something to do with this new reshoot. (I could ask personally, but speculating is way more fun.) Also this person made some salient points about some of the details of the video, which was probably never intended to be seen by 100 million people (not an exaggeration).
https://twitter.com/_MichaelOswell_/status/1686092138688204800
He just put out a new video, but something is different:
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First, I 100% believe they went to Croatia for this. Second, people are fucking FURIOUS that Ms. Biljana Electronica (aka @AUDREY) is missing from this new iteration, replaced with a dead-eyed Balkan model.
There’s probably a normal reason for this but people are so genuinely mad about it. Read every comment, it’s incredible.
I’m not sure who this new woman is, but as I talked about in my lengthy history of “I’ve Got The Power” by SNAP!, producers in dance music (particularly of the 90’s eurotrash variety) are notorious for just up and replacing their singers with little fanfare. While bands like Black Sabbath make headlines when they replace their vocalists, people seem to care a lot less when it’s a group like La Bouche, who have had the late Melanie Thornton, Natascha Wright, Kayo Shekoni, Dana Rayne, Sophie Cairo, Deidra Jones and Belle Johnson singing “Sweet Dreams (of Rhythm and Dancing)” throughout their history.
Again, this is only speculation but if they put out a new video every week with a new singer, it would actually be quite accurate. That being said, the OG Biljana deserves her flowers.
Nourished By Time “Unbreak My Love”
I’ve been liking what I’ve been hearing from Nourished By Time. This one is like a hypnagogic 90’s R&B jam. It’s like if Dean Blunt was a little more into TLC or something. This is not representative of all of singer/producer Marcus Brown who jumps around genres like they are Quantum Leaping song-to-song.
Sault “The Plan”
It’s hard to sum up Sault quickly and effectively, especially when I dedicated so much space to DJ Crazy Times, but here goes. Sault is a music collective formed in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, helmed by producer Inflo, consisting of a number of unknown collaborators that may or may not include Cleo Soul, Kid Sister and Chronixx. They eschew the trappings of most band publicity and avoid contact with the media, letting the music speak for itself. And they are great.
Their genre shifts from neo-soul to reggae to classical with every one of their many releases since 2019, some released five albums at once. It’s all very intriguing and complicated.
Despite loving their past work, I had no idea this was them when I first heard this song. It was dumped into a playlist of music I listen to out-of-context. But of COURSE it’s Sault. Despite putting out so much, it’s always quality.
bar italia “rage quit”
Another band I’ve been listening to a lot is bar italia. This song pick is arbitrary, it’s one of many I’ve been enjoying by them. Based in London (minus one point for not being from Rome or Pisa or something), this group puts out their records via World Music (Dean Blunt’s label!), though they’ve just signed to Matador). I somehow missed them coming through town last month and I’m furious about it. Recommended for fans of anything from Pavement to My Bloody Valentine to King Krule.
THE GOLD STANDARD
Yasuko Agawa “LA Night”
This song gets stuck in my head pretty much any time I watch WWE now, because they have a wrestler named LA Knight (—YEAH!). But this song is a longtime fave for me.
Just got in from Tokyo
Tell me cab driver, where is there to go
Malibu, what a view
They say the mountains look at you
In L.A., I get into a happy mood
(L.A. Night, don't you wanna treat it right)
Yasuko Agawa is a renowned jazz singer and actress from Japan, and she released this song well into her long career in the mid-80s. It was apparently released with a B-Side called New York Afternoon, so she’s covering her bases.
Peoples' faces are showin' a lot of fun
They're at the beach, soaking up the sun
Goin' down to Hollywood, to see Grauman's Chinese Theatre
The Colosseum to see the L.A. Raiders
Apparently, this song is based off of the more known but still kinda obscure "London Town” by Light of the World. But I don’t live in London town, I live in LA, and only in LA can you have LA nights.
I have friends visiting from out of town this weekend, and I’ve been trying to plan a fun sexy LA night for them but so far I only have KBBQ in mind, and playing this song on the drive over.
Have you ever heard of concerts by the sea
Listen to a little Jazz band sing, makes me feel free
Over by the Boulevard, someone gave me his card and said
"Little girl, don't you wanna be a star?"
(L.A. Night, don't you wanna treat it right)