Dedicating to Drake, Featuring Lil Wayne, and Covering the System
This week's Freshly Spilt Milk includes new music from Erykah Badu, !!!, MAKJ, AM & Shawn Lee, Fro-Yo Ma, and more, including a bonus mix of Brazilian '70s soul, and "Meow the Jewels."
This week's Freshly Spilt Milk includes new music from Erykah Badu, !!!, MAKJ, AM & Shawn Lee, Fro-Yo Ma, and more, including a bonus mix of Brazilian '70s soul, and "Meow the Jewels."
1. “You Are in My System” - AM & Shawn Lee: The Northshore-born AM’s voice perfectly suits ‘70s and ‘80s pop, so he’s well-suited to this cover—sweeter and more wistful than the vocal on The System’s original and less overwrought than Robert Palmer’s when he covered the song for Pride.
2. “Hotline Bling” - Erykah Badu: Badu's killer cover of Drake's new track, from Badu’s upcoming mixtape, But U Cain’t Use My Phone.
3. “Champion Song” - Slangston Hughes: Slang’s been busy with the bands MoFro and Fo on the Flo, but here he’s dead serious and in his groove as he assesses his place in the indie hip-hop scene.
4. “Luv of my Lyfe” - Fro-Yo Ma with J’Von: From Fro-Yo Ma’s Twitter feed: “i wanna make music tht makes ppl feel like theyre skipping class n middle school & watching mtv cribs or a nickelodeon movie abt hi-sqool.”
5. “Next to Me” - Keeper: Lush, soulful R&B harmonies over electro house beats. So ‘90s in all the best ways.
6. “Featuring Lil Wayne” (AF the Naysayer remix) - Tomorrow Kings: AF the Naysayer’s atmosphere and stylized, ’80s percussion lifts the Tomorrow Kings’ track from its humorless intensity.
7. “Ooo” - !!!: Immediately engaging dance rock from !!!’s upcoming album, As If, due out October 16.
8. “Drive the Car” - Exploding Clouds: Miami is home to Michael Barksdale, who records electropop under the name Exploding Clouds. “Drive the Car” tries to see how little you have to do to still be catchy and succeeds in being minimal and engaging.
9. “Last One in The in The” - Ipman: The Glitch Mob’s Glass Air label will release Ipman’s Depatterning on October 16. The synth textures are largely the product of Ipman’s compulsive efforts to break down and rebuild his instruments.
10. “On & On” (original mix) - Kenze vs. MAKJ: MAKJ reaches into the house world with the secretive Kenze on this track.
11: “Fire” - Lowly: This Danish band is pop sensibility is straight out of the ‘70s, but so many arrangement decisions exaggerate, test, and play with those pop elements, meaning that nothing’s as simple or direct as the hooks seem.
12. “I Dreamed I Saw Jack Nance Last Night” - Dumb Numbers: The return of Twin Peaks with David Lynch and Mark Frost at the helm will make me subscribe to Showtime. Here, Dumb Numbers’ sonically refer to Twin Peaks’ opening theme as they pay tribute to the late mainstay in Lynch’s family of players. The actor who died in 1996 played the lead in Eraserhead, Paul in Blue Velvet, 00 Spool in Wild at Heart, Pete Martell in Twin Peaks, and Phil in Lost Highway.
Bonus Mixes
My current favorite mix is this one by NYC DJ and Brazilian music fan Greg Caz. Culture of Soul Records will release The Brasileiro Treasure Box of Funk & Soul on October 23 with 14 tracks of rare Brazilian funk and soul. It inspired this mix, which I've listened to a lot since it was posted.
The Brasileiro Treasure Box of Funk and Soul Mix by Cultures Of Soul on Mixcloud
Finally, Run the Jewels have released Meow the Jewels--a remix of Run the Jewels 2 augmented with meows. So perverse, Download it here.
