This week’s New Music playlist is another genre-schizophrenic dose of fresh tracks, featuring new songs from Basenji, Mark Pritchard, Jameszoo and more. In our efforts to widen the taste spectrum, we’ve tag-teamed a collaborative effort with our UK and Australian editors to bring you the best new songs hitting the streams this week.
Check out this week’s dose of new tracks below, with accompanying detail on your potential favorite new artis. As always, keep up with our weekly new music finds as they arrive by subscribing to the Crave New Music Playlist on Spotify.
Underworld – ‘Nylon Strung’
With Barbara Barbara, we face a shining future, Underworld’s first new LP in a decade, it is clear that the Essex dance outfit has not ignored what has transpired in the genre since their last release. Far from being a throwback to the halcyon days, the album instead represents a stirring pot of ideas lifted from where the duo have been, along with nods towards the direction in which they believe they’re headed, best exemplified by closer ‘Nylon Strung’.
A breathlessly celebratory finale of pulsing synths and the refrain ‘Open me up / I wanna hold you, laughing’, 20 years later and Underworld certainly aren’t the same guys who once made Americans aware of the existence of Romford, expressing a keen understanding of the demonstrable impact made on the scene by James Murphy, Nicolas Jaar & co. – Paul Tamburro, UK Editor
Mark Pritchard – ‘Beautiful People’ feat. Thom Yorke
While we wait for Radiohead to drop their ninth album (a surprise release, by our guess), frontman Thom Yorke has surfaced on a collaboration with veteran producer Mark Pritchard. Known for his work in a myriad of dance genres over three decades, Pritchard’s next collection of works is called Under The Sun, due for a May 13 release on Warp records. The Yorke collaboration, “Beautiful People,” is a minimalist ambient offering creeping through melancholy synths. Thom’s double-tracked voice moves subtly, a sad resignation under the repeated phrase “I can’t go back”. Pritchard has described ‘Beautiful People’ as a “personal song about loss, hopelessness and chaos”, adding: “ultimately the message is love and hope.” – Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Basenji – ‘Chroma’
Following a stellar 2015, Basenji has kept the vibes going this year with his first new track Chroma. This latest cut has been kicking around his live sets for a little while now and definitely isn’t your standard dance track. It’s an easy, breezy tune doesn’t rush any of its transitions and instead focusses on slow layer-building.
Chroma may be based around one vocal sample, but it’s in the layering and texture of the instrumentation that Basenji shines on this one, as he explores just about everything you could possibly do with adding and subtracting layers of sound, creating a surprising amount of complexity in what sounds initially like some fairly simple melodic motifs. – Zanda Wilson, Crave Australia
LANKS – ‘Golden Age’
Like me, you’ll probably wonder why the opening 30 seconds of the new music video from flawless indie-electro angel LANKS appears to feature the handsome man himself in the midst of a monster grog bog from hell, but don’t worry, it will all become apparent very soon.
IMHO literally every single release from the Melbourne producer so far, has been flawless, including last year’s Hold Me Closer, which is perhaps my favourite singular song from 2015. “Golden Age” sees old mate Will lean more heavily on percussion, going absolutely batshit on the drum machine to mesmerising, infectious effect, as well as more unworldly screams, distorted into computerised yelps of unknown emotion. MORE PLEASE LANKS THANK YOU. – Mitch Feltscheer, Crave Australia
Meyhem Lauren – ‘Garlic and Oil’ ft Action Bronson, DJ Shadow
“Split the arrow with the arrow / the sparrow flies” Queens spitter Meyhem Lauren is working up his Piatto D’Oro mixtape, the follow-up to 2014’s Silk Pyramids set for release later this year via Fool’s Gold. Along the way, he recruited Mr. Wonderful himself, Action Bronson, to throw down some bars on an appropriately-titled track called “Garlic and Oil”. Icing arrives via production from the legendary DJ Shadow and A-Villa. Action fans will recognize Lauren from his frequent appearances on Bronson’s magnificent Viceland show “Fuck, That’s Delicious,” as well as Action’s 2011 track “Central Bookings” with Statik Selektah. – Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Jameszoo – ‘Flake’
Jameszoo’s Flake to me is the audible representation of a futuristic Geppetto tinkering in his workshop. We start with tiny little squeaks, while magical cogs turn leading into a series of glitchy chimes and then, at almost a minute and a half in, comes a jazzy drum roll as a 70s funk version of Pinocchio is brought to life. In this story, Pinocchio reforms his pathological lying tendencies by becoming a jazz piano virtuoso.
Look it’s all a bit fanciful, but this track is all fantasy. An eclectic collection of fantastical sounds, joyously and lightly bouncing in and out. Flake will feature on the Dutch artist’s debut album Fool due out on May 13th, and I for one cannot wait to see what other adventures are in store. – Nastassia Baroni, Crave Australia
The Claypool Lennon Delirium – ‘Mr Wright’
A wonderfully weird new project from Sean Lennon and Primus singer/bassist Les Claypool has arrived, with a debut album due in just over two months’ time. The band will release their debut album Monolith of Phobos on June 3, with a tour following shortly after (more info).
“Sean is a musical mutant after my own heart,” Claypool said in a press release. “He definitely reflects his genetics – not just the sensibilities of his dad but also the abstract perspective and unique approach of his mother. It makes for a glorious freak stew.”
Claypool’s fanbase will eat this up, while newcomers should find a similarly delighting oddity in the fascinating sounds that they did for Oysterhead, Les’ collaboration with Trey Anastasio of Phish. – Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Check out our killer New Music mixtapes from previous weeks, and don’t forget to subscribe to the Crave New Music Playlist on Spotify!
