ON REPEAT: Sofie Royer, Maurice Louca, Regularfantasy, 헤이즈 (Heize), Scrunchies, XiAOWANG, Jens Lekman
Finally came out of a chaotic and bad month! I’ve got a new apartment and my cat is very playful and comfortable in it, so things are a lot better. These picks don’t terribly reflect anything in regards to this, besides that some of the songs are messy and some are happy? Idk read on please.
Sofie Royer “I Forget I’m So Young”
It’s getting in right under the wire, but song…of the summer? Certainly my song of the month, since I’ve played it every morning to start my day for the past two weeks.
I’ve liked Sofie Royer, who is from Austria and currently on Stones Throw, for a while now. I think I found her through NTS mixes, but she was also heavily involved in Boiler Room as well I believe.
I saw her post a new song a week ago. There’s a part in this song where the vocals in the chorus turn into church bells.
The bells reminded me so much of something, and it was killing me every time I listened to this that I couldn’t figure it out. I knew it was either a disco song or a 90’s dance song—then I finally figured it out (it was both):
The Tamperer feat. Maya “Feel It”
I was thinking of this, which along with having a very extra TOTP performance, samples the bells from this:
The Jacksons “Can You Feel It”
Even before Captain EO, Star Wars clearly had a big impact on the Jackson boys, this music video is full of Lucasfilm sounds and they straight up started dressing like sci-fi characters:
The video was made by Robert Abel, whose team made the visuals for Tron and several other projects in the 1980’s. Basically when you think of the “80’s aesthetic” being a grid in space, you’re thinking of his work. This video is my favorite thing to project on the wall at a party, and it’s been used as the base visuals for many Best Show sound collages:
Scrunchies “Black Egg”
YUP
Maurice Louca “Garraya”
Maurice Louca is an experimental artist from Cairo and this is what my brain sounded like the last month. Thank you, Maurice for finding the right balance of discordant and pleasant to soundtrack my chaos!
Regularfantasy “So Sweet”
And a thank you to Montreal DJ Regularfantasy for some bubblegum dancepop to soundtrack my relief after the storm has passed. This song was made with PC Music’s Cecile Believe and Priori.
HEIZE, DEAN & dj friz “And July”
A big shout out to my friend Katie who helped me so much with my apartment hunt and found the place I currently write this from. She’s also a kpop aficionado and has guided me through the world of big kpop. A lot of it is just a bit too slick for me, but a few did connect with me, including this one, which has enough old-school elements, even a Kurtis Blow sample.
XiAOWANG “Stasii”
I guess I’ve been sleeping on the Beijing punk scene…
Between the chaos and the cuteness, everything about XiAOWANG's music is honest and has raw expression. By utilizing our unique voice and our emotions in good faith, we resist and face the world.
Same
THE GOLD STANDARD:
Jens Lekman “You Are The Light”
Some more bell songs came to mind when trying to think of what Sofie Royer’s song reminded me of, and I’m featuring this jem by Jens, which has some bells at the end and even has the artist getting arrested by polis! I featured this in my New York Noise retrospective, too.
This song came out in 2004, and tells of Jens Lekman getting arrested and being bailed out by the light of his life. First, who would arrest this sweet man? Secondly, in Sweden, you can use your one phone call to dedicate a song to someone one the radio. Must be nice!!
I’ll end with this picture of Jens Lekman hanging out with Joe Pera, a meeting of gentle men:
