Mannie Fresh Has "Hate," Boyfriend Needs Love, and Alfred Banks Says Goodbye

This week's Freshly Spilt Milk includes new music from Rihanna, J Dilla, Quickie Mart, Pell, Odesza, Wussy, Bombino, and more.

This week's Freshly Spilt Milk includes new music from Rihanna, J Dilla, Quickie Mart, Pell, Odesza, Wussy, Bombino, and more.

[Updated] 1. “Hate” - Mannie Fresh feat. Juvenile and Tunechi: This track is as comfortable as home cooking, and Fresh’s use of a parade snare sound connects his beats to those of bands in the streets. 

2. “Queso” (HYTYD Moolah remix) - Pell: “Queso” has attracted a few remixes including a more recent one from rapper Chuck English, but the cowbell groove that starts and finishes the track gives the electronic build in the middle some balance. 

3. “Bitch Better Have My Money” (GTA remix) - Rihanna: Miami producers GTA don’t do anything that Rihanna’s track didn’t clearly point to, but the sub-bass certainly deepens the groove. 

4. “The Introduction” - J Dilla: I figured the Dilla archives had been scraped down to the phone messages, but the late producer has another album due out, The Diary, dropping April 15. He recorded The Diary in Detroit and handled the vocals himself. The project stalled though, and has remained on the shelves until now.

5. “Company Ink” (AF the Naysayer remix) - Boyfriend: Boyfriend recently released Love Your Boyfriend, Pt. 3, an album of remixes of tracks from the two previous installments in the Love Your Boyfriend series. Quickie Mart, Prom Date, P.Y.M.P., Boogie T and more remix tracks. Here AF the Naysayer adds elements of ’80s electrofunk and some melancholy tints that start an interesting dialogue with Boyfriend’s vocal. Both Boyfriend and AF the Naysayer will be a part of My Spilt Milk’s New Orleans Music Awards April 7 at the Howlin’ Wolf. She’s up for an award (vote now) and he’ll perform (tickets are on sale now).

6. “No Man is Safe” - Quickie Mart: Quickie Mart merges a couple of generations of techno with the speedy, metallic snare-driven sound and chopped vocals from the ’90s matched with face-melting bass and shotgun samples.

7. “It’s Only” (RÜFÜS remix) - Odesza feat. Zyra: It’s an indicator of how low album sales expectations are for EDM that Odesza’s label put out a press release to announce that his In Return album has sold more than 100,000 copies. In other genres, the economics of the music business meant that an album selling 250,000 units was considered a failure. 

8. “Up” - Kid Froopy: Clicking by at a swift 160 bpms, “Up” brings to mind early Moby techno. The breathless tempo and lightweight sonics fuel an uplifting vibe that starts with its R&B roots.

9. “Anchors” - Benjamin Muñoz: British electronic artist Benjamin Muñoz shows his affection for Japanese animes.

10. “Tom Tom” - Holy Fuck: Toronto’s Holy Fuck could look onstage like a yard sale with a table of odds and ends that members picked up and fiddled with in the process of making music. On “Tom Tom” and the upcoming album Congrats (due out May 27), the band simplifies its instrumental lineup and gets closer to the Can and Silver Apples records that inspired it.

11. “The Birds and the Other” - Inside the Baxter Building: This Swiss trio gets points for the Fantastic Four reference in its name. The experimental music trio confine themselves to trumpet, trombone and effects processors. The album Seldom Somber doesn’t show how much can be done with that lineup as much as it reveals the band’s attentiveness to the subtlety of sound its instruments produce.

12. “Drumkit Quartet #1” - Glenn Kotche and Sö Percussion: Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche has stayed busy composing instrumental works, even when touring with Wilco. He decided to write a series of drum kit-centered compositions, each in a different city, and when New York City’s Sö Percussion approached him about possible works, he passed those pieces to them, and they are now available on the album, Drumkit Quartets.  

13. “Kogarashi” - Kikagaku Moyo: This piece of Japanese folk psychedelia was inspired by an Autumn nap on the lawn in the park. From the upcoming album House in Tall Grass, due out May 13. 

14. “Imarhan” - Imarhan: A Tuareg band from northern Algeria. Imarhan shares blood with a member of the best-known Tuareg band, Tinariwen, but Imarhan forgoes the traditional wardrobe in favor of something more contemporary—an approach that extends to the band’s music.  

15. “Timtar” - Bombino: Nigerian guitarist Bombino’s Tuareg blues can get trippy in their circular nature, and that’s certainly the case in this track from his upcoming album, Azel, due our April 1. 

16. “No Chill” - Vic Mensa X Skrillex: “I was born ready,” Chicago’s Vic Mensa proclaims on this collaboration with Skrillex, who stays in his lane here and supports Mensa with a big, solid beat.

17. “Dark Skin Woman” (Chris McClenney remix) - GoldLink: Chris McClenney’s remix houses up the D.C. R&B/hip-hop artist’s track, taking “Dark Skin Woman” in the natural direction.

18. “Calling All the Shakers” - Quickie Mart X Savej feat. Keno: Quickie Mart has been working on the place where bounce and EDM meet, and here he and Savej have a propulsive track that gains personality with Keno on the mic.

19. “Dropping Houses” - Wussy: Cincinnati rock band Wussy has gone a long way on the rock ’n’ roll staples of attitude and a cool sound. This track comes from their new album, released earlier this month.

20. “Be Anything” - Brass Bed: Lafayette’s Brass Bed moved out of the Flaming Lips’ basement with 2013’s The Secret Will Keep You. This single from the upcoming In the Yellow Leaf continues in that album’s vein in its directness and focus on the guitar. Christiaan Mader drops the cold truth that “I can’t say / you’ll be anything” over a stack of heavy, wobbly, and at times surf-y guitars. 

21. “Hawaii” - Rockaway feat. Kristin Control (Dee Dee of Dum Dum Girls): “Hawaii” is a bit of charming, lo-fi rock that slowly but continually doles out basic pop pleasures.   

22. “If I Could Find You (Eternity)” - The Holydrug Couple: This live track from the Chilean psychedelic band is heavy on the phasing, which is a little destabilizing when heard through earbuds. Theirs is a dreamy trip, though, far more about melody and mood than instrumental exploration.

23. “No More Parties in the Attic” - Exploded View: Berliner Anika formed Exploded View in Mexico City. The group also includes Swedish producer Martin Thulin (Crocodiles), and part of its chosen aesthetic was to only use first takes. This song and the resulting debut album from Exploded View will be released this summer on Sacred Bones Records.

24. “To the Floor” - Banginclude X Comrade: NYC DJ Banginclude partners with Brazilian DJ Comrade—sometimes sampled by Major Lazer—for this Baltimore club/baille funk mix.

25. "Bless You" - Alfred Banks: When My Spilt Milk last talked to rapper Alfred Banks, he was working on a project to help him deal with his brother's suicide related to schizophrenia. A Beautiful Prelude is out, and it's not clear if the EP is the whole of what Banks plans to release or if it's just a teaser. Needless to say, the three songs are heavy. Banks probably lets the concept drive the material a little too rigorously, but "Bless You" is an impressively naked goodbye to his brother.

Updated April 27, 11:43 p.m.

The Exploded View entry has been revised to correct an error.