Show number 20! For LOOPS + DOTS this month I had a chat with Brooklyn-via-Seattle experimental jazz musician Kassa Overall over Zoom outside a Starbucks in Queen Anne, Seattle. … Continue reading
Extremely heartened to hear this new batch of songs from one of the best duos in experimental indie-pop-soul. Now based in Bristol (and no longer wearing facial coverings that… Continue reading
Mood-infused UK soul. London singer-songwriter Tora combines synth keys, raw horns, and impassioned vocals to create “Call Your Name,” a yearning yet confident R&B cut. Track of… Continue reading
“Cake so sweet it don’t need no icing…” Sounding like the best song Gorillaz never wrote, “Love Galaxy” wears its star power on its sleeve. Paul Epworth,… Continue reading
Eclecticity. A delicate yet driving experimental invention by lead singer Rahm Silverglade, bassist Jesse Bielenberg, guitarist Mike Haldeman, and drummer Dillon Treacy, otherwise known as the New York quartet altopalo.… Continue reading
Rex Orange Country meets A.K. Paul. Heavily into this new excellence from Royce Wood Junior featuring Shirazpapi (nice). I’ve been into the London producer’s work ever since… Continue reading
“You could grow forever, if you let yourself.” Beginning with a pensively picked acoustic guitar, “Grow Forever” is a singalong soul throwback that leans back complete with vibraphone chimes,… Continue reading
Show number 18! Hope you’re doing well and keeping safe and healthy. LOOPS + DOTS is back with another special all-music mix for episode 18! … Continue reading
Do you know, do you know, do you know that things get better? Taking cues from the percussive xylophone chimes of Shuggie Otis’ “Strawberry Letter 23” and the instrumentation… Continue reading
Jenny Marie Sabel and Eirik Vildgren’s year has just begun. My favorite Oslo-via-Troms duo return with “The Year is Over,” which, despite it’s foreboding title, is a simple, stripped-down beam… Continue reading
Mysteriously mysterious. Not a lot is known about Coco, an unknown group from an unknown locale making very beautiful music. To date, they’ve only released “Empty Beach,”… Continue reading
This gentle, pastoral, uptempo beat jam “Deliverance” by Utrecht, Netherlands producer Beatsofreen is my track of the day. Like Bonobo gone folk-boogie. Love it. Beatsofreen – “Deliverance”… Continue reading
When they’re not hanging out in derelict seaside holiday resorts in Dubrovnik, Croatia that were abandoned during the Croatian War of Independence in 1991, Berlin friends Anton Feist and Fabian Fenk make… Continue reading
“Seven billion residents of the Earth…” How are London hip-hop trio Hawk House not massive? Brothers Eman and Sam and their friend Demae’s track “Tidal Tendencies” was number 42 in my Top… Continue reading
Singer Amelia Meath & electronic music producer Nick Sanborn hail from Durham, North Carolina. Together they make experimental, beat-driven, indie-folk as Sylvan Esso. Their previous single, “Hey Mami,”… Continue reading
Nights of Rizal is Migi de Belen from the Philippines who makes some magandang beats. Migi started writing music in 2007 while studying in London. He’s also a core member of the BuwanBuwan Collective—a… Continue reading
Clappy-go-lucky, joyful, ramshackle, impossible-to-Google madness from Sydney, Australia duo Fishing. Love it. Fishing aka best friends Doug Wright and Russell Fitzgibbon wrote their debut album, Shy Glow, (from which “Your… Continue reading
Equal parts “Get Lucky” and “Lose Yourself to Dance,” this new track from Pharrell Williams’ brand new album G I R L features Daft Punk and might just prematurely own summer 2014. Love that brewing… Continue reading
Put aside, if you will, your prejudices about all things Coldplay and give this track a chance! Chris Martin and his cohort’s latest offering is deep, soupy, nocturnal experimentation that sounds like they’ve… Continue reading
Really cannot get enough of this latest wave of late-night electronic soul transmissions that seem to be dominating my headphones at the minute. Ed Thomas, Erik Hassle, Perera Elsewhere… all of these mightily… Continue reading
No lie, I probably listened to this track over a million times today. “Send a Prayer Pt 1” is straight soulful deep house from Germany’s Danilo Plessow. Motor City Drum Ensemble… Continue reading
Anything that features even a few bars of Sampha‘s production or vocal talent deserves an automatic click of the play button. Here the English falsetto wizard teams up with Chicago’s Jean Deaux (correctly… Continue reading
“Red Dust” isn’t a new song; it’s been a favorite of fans of the Irish troubadour James Vincent McMorrow for at least a couple of years now. This brand new remake improves on the… Continue reading
Provo, Utah-via-Los Angeles three-piece The Moth & The Flame parlay perfectly formed bass tones and driving psyche stomps and strums with “Sorry.” The Moth & The Flame – “Sorry” … Continue reading
Husband-and-wife duo and perennially-difficult-to-Google band Tennis unpack the vintage organs, pianos, drums, synths, harpsichords and charm for their latest song “Mean Streets.” Tennis – “Mean Streets” “Mean… Continue reading
Hip-hop producer Preservation worked on the original The Ecstatic LP from Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def. Here he re-jigs the entire album, adding deep-crate-dug record samples from New Orleans swing outfits… Continue reading
Enchanted, psychedelic, folk vibrations on this brand new Washed Out song, sounding not unlike a dialed-down, Sunday morning Tame Impala. Washed Out – “It All Feels Right” (Official Video) “It… Continue reading
This five-year-old knows how to bust a move. Jungle – “Platoon” (Official Video) “Platoon” is released via Chess Club Records on July 15. More from London’s Jungle here. … Continue reading
A departure from my usual penchant for boom-bap beats and growling bass but a crackingly well-written tune nonetheless. Luke Sital-Singh – “Bottled Up Tight” Luke Sital-Singh’s Old Flint EP is out… Continue reading
This video: Best. Drunken Yoga Class. Ever. Atoms For Peace – “Ingenue” (Official Video) Amok, the new album from Thom Yorke’s other band Atoms for Peace, is out now on XL… Continue reading
Sheffield, UK, badman Toddla T teams up with Shola Ama and emcees Serocee and MC DRS to form super-collective Toddla T Sound. “Worst Enemy” is their first ever tune. Love the A$AP-esque pitched-down… Continue reading
Fractal factories of 1950s Americana click and whir in this kaleidoscopic dicing and splicing of Norman Rockwell’s cerebral cortex that sounds light, gentle, and benign, just as the song’s title would suggest. For… Continue reading
Steepless and steel rattle. This song is a collaboration first for Jack Wyllie, Duncan Bellamy, Milo Fitzpatrick and Keir Vine, aka London’s Portico Quartet, here teaming up with Swedish singer Cornelia, and what sounds… Continue reading
German “acoustic techno” live electronic trio and possible Hamburg law firm Brandt Brauer Frick team up with the long-time Berlin resident, now Nashville-dwelling, Jamie Lidell. Shades of “Phat Planet,” ad-libbed Motown soul vocals,… Continue reading
Vanilla is a very talented beatmaker from the UK. I played his track “Morning Sun” from his album Soft Focus a lot last year. “Rashida” is my favorite song from his new(ish) album… Continue reading
Australia’s Hiatus Kaiyote is easily a Neon Milk favorite. Their debut Tawk Tomahawk was one of the best albums of last year and their track “Mobius Streak” was number 18 in my top… Continue reading
Canadian Pastoral both in scene and sound. Montreal indie-folksters Half Moon Run pair Fleet Foxes vocal melodies with shimmering post-rock guitar. Half Moon Run – “Full Circle” (Official Video) Listen to… Continue reading
2013 could well belong to this man. Toro Y Moi – “Say That” (Official Video) Feel-good anthem of the winter. More from Toro Y Moi here.
First-person music videos are usually pretty powerful pieces of art. Without asking permission, both Gomez’s “See the World” and, more controversially, the Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up” temporarily reverse the normal artist-fan relationship… Continue reading
Hannah, Daniel, and Dot are London Grammar. As the cryptic clue in their name suggests, they are from London. They are also currently catching a lot of well-deserved attention for their gentle and… Continue reading
Space-age R&B slow jams are still where it’s at. Dig BenZel, who describe themselves as two Japanese teenagers with “a profound appreciation for ’90s R&B and J Dilla.” Fresh from partnering with Jessie… Continue reading
From the Fugees to Nas to the Wu-Tang Clan, the output of Philadelphia soul outfit the Delfonics is an oft-mined hip-hop sample staple source. The haunting lilt of “Stop and Look (And You… Continue reading
Hypnotic kick-drum stomps and Instagrammed roller-disco vibes courtesy of New York producer FaltyDL and Ed Macfarlane of St Albans, UK indie-dance trio Friendly Fires. FaltyDL ft Ed Macfarlane of Friendly Fires –… Continue reading
Mini-Jessie Ware the singer meets mini-Julio Bashmore the producer. There are many best moments in this video, but the bestest is at 1min 49sec. Jessie Ware – “Sweet Talk” (Official Video) … Continue reading
When Paul McCartney’s not busy reuniting and fronting Nirvana, he may find his catchy Christmas synth-singalong “Wonderful Christmastime” being sampled and flipped into a R&B cut for the festive season by Detroit’s Black… Continue reading
From a few years back. Nothing as sweet to the ears as some chopped-up, warm, and soaring Beach Boys harmonies over some steady-strollin’, hi-hat-happy, ice-cold Dilla beats. Respect to the man like Nathan… Continue reading
Ambient electronic R&Business from Sydney, Australia that sounds like an album cut from James Blake’s debut. Guerre – “For Qwanisha” (Free Download) Download “For Qwanisha” (and the equally mellow, moody excellence… Continue reading
Questions drop into blues guitar chord puddles amidst gently insistent vintage drums. Arima Ederra ft Blu – “Questions” (Produced by Bhonstro) (Free Download) Download this track for free here.
My favorite song of all time gets the cover treatment again, this time from LA’s Decoders, who take the psychedelic soul of the original and infuse it with upbeat samba. The Decoders… Continue reading
