THE REPORT: 7/19/2024
A LONDON BAND CALLED NEW YORK
We’ve yelled about London duo NEW YORK before on the blog—the unimpeachable name, the lazycore performance style. Their website has a photo archive of past live shows; the images do a good job documenting the special kind of energy that can only come from an intentionally casual art band. Their new record, *rapstar, is an inspired mix of Tigerbeat6-style glitch, electro monotone, and a little something else. It’s tied with Container’s YACKER as my favorite electronica album of the year. Here is the title track.
Dee Play4Keeps “How Low Can You Go (Remix)”
These vicious, plodding New York club cuts have been a fitting complement to the weather the city has been slogging through. There’s a Ludacris sample on this one, which is counterbalanced by Dee Play4Keeps talking shit about Ludacris within the first few seconds of the song. It would sound good blasting out of the system at the Eldorado Bumper Cars in Coney Island.
Now let’s rock with a minute of perfect punk from a Midwest legend, a nice distillation of the past decade of heartland basement activities, a thing to play in your headphones as you walk around the block in circles in the full throes of a panic attack.
It’s a remix of a song first sung by Schnuffel Bunny, an animated rabbit created by a German media company. I almost wish I didn’t know that piece of information. “Snuggle Song” might shmack harder with no context. Contemporary twee rave at its finest.
Not unlike El Snappo’s home of Florida, “Dickies & Lanvins” is at once pleasant and aggressive. The title presents a different duality: the combination of Texan workwear and French luxury. You should read that last sentence in a British accent. The track’s somber horns make me feel like a detective driving aimlessly through the night, attempting to let go of narrative threads that rest just beyond my grasp. Then the 808s hit.
MIX OF THE WEEK: TORTURE “Live at Sound and Fury 7/14/024”
The hardcore community has been going crazy for the band TORTURE for a minute now. Three reasons why: they play brutal political slam-metal; their album covers look like Pen and Pixel doing anti-war agitprop; live, drummer and project mastermind K.K. sings using a headset mic. He starts off the band’s set at LA mosh marathon Sound and Fury by yelling “Free fucking Palestine,” then they let loose. For 15 minutes, the pit loses its mind.