Men of the Year

In this week's Freshly Spilt Milk, our playlist includes new music from rappers Jayaire Wooods and Lil Yachty, as well as tracks by house and techno classicists Erick Morillo and Kevin Saunderson, electronic music made from found sound in Senegal and Gambia, and remixes of Beck, The Crystal Method and Freddie Gibbs.

In this week's Freshly Spilt Milk, our playlist includes new music from rappers Jayaire Wooods and Lil Yachty, as well as tracks by house and techno classicists Erick Morillo and Kevin Saunderson, electronic music made from found sound in Senegal and Gambia, and remixes of Beck, The Crystal Method and Freddie Gibbs.

1. “Man of the Year” feat. Lil Yachty - Jayaire Woods: Chicago hip-hop is hot, as is Atlanta’s Lil Yachty, and this is what happens when you put them together. Woods has a distinctive sing/speak/slurring style, and we’ll find out if it becomes tiring when he drops his FREETHEFALL mixtape August 31. On individual tracks, I’m with him.

2. “Oil Money” feat. Chuck English, Chip the Ripper, Bun B (Quickie Mart remix) - Freddie Gibbs: Rapper Freddie Gibbs is never musically lonely, working with a wide assortment of emcees and DJs over the course of his career. He and Quickie Mart have worked together a number of times, and here Quickie Mart remixes a track from Gibbs’ 2010 EP Str8 Killa.

3. “Raised” - Graffiti Royale: Brooklyn’s Graffiti Royale his a cool, hip-hop/sunny soul vibe on this new track.

4. “Running After” - Amtrac: Kentucky DJ Caleb Cornett finds a host of ways to dress up and down the strobe-like throb at the heart of this new house track.  

5. “Busy Child” (New Jack remix) - The Crystal Method: I’m not sure if the world needed a remix of a song that is almost 20 years old, but this Russian DJ fleshes the song out drastically, broadening its sonic spectrum.

6. “Drop the Mic” - 909 til Infinity: One of two songs on a cool new house EP by Los Angeles’ MANIK and Denver’s Option4, who record together as 909 til Infinity. 

7. “Suicide Squad” - Styline: Not the theme to the movie by the same name, but a track inspired by it. This power house track is little more than a rolling bass line, electronic wood blocks, and a host of textures laid over it to create the illusion of motion, but the bass moves well enough make the slightness of the composition irrelevant. 

8. “Oooh” feat. Angel Taylor - Erick Morillo: Long-time house producer and label owner Erick Morillo has recorded a tech-house track with classic directness. 

9. “One Nation” - Kevin Saunderson as E-Dancer: A new track from one of Detroit’s big three techno pioneers. Originally, the scene seemed bigger because Saunderson, Juan Atkins, and Derrick May recorded under a host of names. Saunderson first used E-Dancer in 1988. 

10. “Peace” (Lone remix) - Kenton Slash Demon: London DJ and producer Lone wakes up this KSD track, which seems too impressed by the line “History’s just a box to keep you in” to let the song build. Lone disposes of it and most of the vocals, adds a little found sound, some old school tambourine and a piano break to take the track to the dance clubs of the early ’90s.  

11. “House Work” - Jax Jones: London club DJ Jax Jones has titled the song literally. It’s house work, but his tight control and muted sonic palate make the song stand out.

12. “Bumba Ras Clot Chune” - Codes: New York DJ and producer Codes pays homage to jungle and dancehall on this house track from his new Pyramid EP. 

13. “Drowning” - Night Talk: “Drowning” leads the new Hours EP by Swiss DJ Lukas Horst, who performs as Night Talk. 

14. “Jola House” - DJ Reaganomics: From Senegambia Rebel, a new album organized by Leonard P. of Voodoo Rebel, who spent a month in 2014 traveling through Senegal and Gambia recording sounds, concerts, and ceremonies along the way. He then shared his collection of found sounds with DJs from around the world, and they made the music that is found on Senegambia Rebel from it. Staten Island’s DJ Reaganomics is one of Leonard P.’s collaborators …

15. “15” - Capibara: … and the Italian DJ Capibara, who gives “15” a dub feel, is another. 

16. “Don’t Need Your Love” (Maths Time Joy remix) - Lucas Nord: Maths Time Joy develops the hint of ‘80s synth R&B implied by the Swedish Lucas Nord’s original by giving it a little funk.

17. “Somewhere” - Soft Glas: Brooklyn producer Soft Glas has created a dreamy R&B slow jam complete with saxophone while a female vocalist tries to sing her way out of the reverb haze she’s trapped in.

18. “Heavy Discus” - Chevalier Avant Garde: European-born Montrealers Chevalier Avant Garde echo ’80s electropop minus all the faux and eye shadow. The mood’s appropriately melancholy, and the duo get surprising mileage from held chords, a tuba-like bass line, and pre-glitch skittery percussion. 

19. “Hey Big Star” - Kishi Bashi: A preview of Kishi Bashi’s new album,  Sonderlust, due out September 16. He’ll play One Eyed Jacks November 1. Kishi Bashi tells the stories behind the songs on the new album here.

20. “Wow/Guau!” (Mexican Institute of Sound remix) - Beck: Beck’s “Wow” sounds like a crowd-pleasing sing-along after a deep tissue massage. Mexico City’s Mexican Institute of Sound buys the song an espresso sprinkled with cinnamon, complete with mariachi horns. 

21. “Pens from Space” - Loch Lomond: Portland’s Loch Lomond run a little bit of everything at you in this vocal-oriented bit of indie chamber pop—synths, strings, and an assortment of bells, chimes, and things that make shiny sounds.

22. “Two Vagabond Lovers” - Kevin Bowers: I’m not sure Kevin Bowers, drummer for soul punk band The Feed has the vocal chops to be the point man of a bossa nova track, but he gets by on nerve, commitment and obvious affection for the form. He reaches for the sweet, slightly lush sound of Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66, complete with nylon-stringed guitar, airy-voiced flute and equally airy-voiced female duet partner. From the new album Nova, out now.