Boyfriend, Teenager, Low, and Other One-Word Acts

This week's Freshly Spilt Milk features new music by Todd Terry, Christian Rich, Branko, and Ezra Furman covering LCD Soundsystem.

This week's Freshly Spilt Milk features new music by Todd Terry, Christian Rich, Branko, and Ezra Furman covering LCD Soundsystem. 

1. “Live Fast” - Teenager: From the ashes of King Rey comes this electronic duo and their self-titled debut EP. They play Thursday, August 20 at Gasa Gasa with Rareluth.

2. “Beauty” (feat. Sampa the Great) - Wallace: The new single from Australian future soul singer Wallace Gollan. 

3. “One in a Million” - Nicole Willis and the Soul Investigators: Retro R&B with Nicole Willis and her band of cratedigging Finns from Helsinki. From the album Happiness in Every Style, due out October 2.  

4. “Hit to the Head” (Loveskills remix) - Beca: Brooklyn’s Loveskills remixes this Beca track to make a truly dreamy dream pop track as waves of breathy, processed vocals seem to buffet against each other.

5. “Deadbeat” - Boyfriend: The latest from New Orleans’ Boyfriend, who will play her third anniversary birthday bash at One Eyed Jacks Friday, August 28 with Trixie Minx and Fleur de Tease, Mulheron, Maggie Koerner, Air Sex, and Vinsantos.

6. “Futuristic Love” (Christian Rich remix) - Geotheory: The Nigerian production duo pick up on the late night, quiet storm vibe of Geotheory’s track and lush it out. Christian Rich’s new album, FW14 is due out August 21.

7. “Take Off” (feat. Princess Nokia) - Branko: I’m a fan of Buraka Som Sistema’s techno take on zouk and kuduro, and here founder Branko backs the NYC rapper with a very cool baile funk beat. 

8. “Harpe” - Kenton Slash Demon: A slow builder that starts with an elegant austerity and grows more musically and emotionally involving.

9. “Midnight Sun” - Synkro: Synkro made his name in dubstep but adopts a more patient, less partying approach here with a track that never hurries. He starts with snappy drums that promise to mash the accelerator, then lets the bass settle into a groove that settles into a half-time nod. From his upcoming album Changes, due out September 18.

10. “All Gone” (Laurent Leroy mix) - Allies for Everyone: Swiss DJ Laurent Leroy gives Allies for Everyone’s “All Gone” a pogo stick rhythm and enough space to strip away much of the atmospherics that make dream pop so precious.

11. “Bruck Out” (feat. Shush) - Retrohandz: A compelling blend of jungle and dancehall featuring reggae singer Stush. 

12. “Body” (Peaking Lights Disco Dub) - Young Galaxy: The L.A. duo Peaking Lights flesh out the Montreal band’s electropop track, giving it an electro-disco motor and taking some of the emphasis off the lyrics. The former’s a good thing; I’m not sure about the latter. 

13. “Sinister” - Todd Terry: Todd Terry has been recording house tracks since the 1980s, and “Sinister” moves with the patient confidence of someone who knows how to build a track without jumping straight to a frequency sweep or a drop. He’s almost three minutes in before he introduces a melody, and he didn’t need it any sooner. 

14. “Bad Habits” - David Tort: The title comes from a pitched-down vocal sample that gives shape to Tort’s rich, bell-driven percussion base.

15. “Ukail” - Morten: This track by Danish DJ Morten is by the numbers with dynamic shifts, melody snippets, and drops happening as if on a stopwatch—“Percussion break, aaaaaand Go!”—but it works. A musical Big Mac. 

16. “Find Yourself” - Birthmark: Nate Kinsella is Birthmark, and How You Look When You’re Falling Down (due out October 16) will be his fourth album. Musical friends from Antibalas, Mivos Quartet and TV on the Radio’s touring band played what he couldn’t on this sonically expansive album.

17. “Boys Life” - Small Black: From Best Blues, the new album from Brooklyn band Small Black. The track embraces its own sweet melancholy, and the band will play Gasa Gasa October 14. 

18. “What Part of Me” - Low: Another track from Ones and Sixes, the new musical return of Low, due out September 11. 

19. “I Can Change” - Ezra Furman: Ezra Furman is having a very good year—a debut album, Perpetual Motion People, that’s getting love, and a gushing live review in The Guardian for starters. That kind of acceptance prompted him to record this unrepresentative cover of LCD Soundsystem.

20. “Blue Uniforms” - Yung: The arrangement for this Danish rock band’s “Blue Uniforms” fuzzily follows the sonic blueprint of New Order until the roof collapses under a barrage of cymbals. From The Thoughts are Like Mandatory Chores, which will be out on Fat Possum September 18. 

21. “Enemy Ladder” - Wolf Eyes: New on Third Man Records, a guitar storm of a power trio with roots in The Stooges’ wall of distortion. From I am a Problem: Mind in Pieces, which will be released October 30. This song will released as a 7-inch single September 4.

22. “It’s Late Queeny” - Indian Handcrafts: The first release from Creeps, the upcoming second album from the power duo based in Barrie, Ontario. The group hears the ‘80s in their new tracks, but heavy ‘70s blues rock still sounds dominant. Emphasis on “heavy.”