Onyx (Feat. Posseeshot) “What We Doin’”
It’s 2023, and Onyx has made another classic Onyx song. It’s got that NYC goon chant chorus that we all crave. What are we doing? And the Griseldacore beat is energetic enough to sustain the vocals. Even the guest feature from Australian "hip hop firm & lifestyle brand" Posseeshot doesn’t ruin it. In a classic example of New York rap’s never-ending global long tail, there are three other versions of this track, each featuring a different rapper from a different country: Colombia, Germany and Norway. Timeless mosh pit boom bap.
The Particles “Truth About You”
More damage from down under. The Particles were an Australian proto-twee band that wrote a grip of great pop songs during the post-punk period. "Truth About You" is off of a recent reissue: Casio-driven bedroom new wave, perfect for the inevitable Square Pegs reboot.
B L A C K I E “followed by the pigs”
It's always great to hear fresh material from B L A C K I E. His new one is called cassette tape music. The record is a focused blast of crispy intensity that recalls some of his early music—the stuff that helped to lay the groundwork for an entire genre ("noise rap"). This sub-two-minute track renders 99 percent of contemporary power electronics impotent.
All of the music Hot Leather recommended in our recent interview is worth checking out. But I had to ping this tune once more, just in case you didn’t listen to it, which, let’s be honest, you probably didn’t. Here is what we have: a blown-out, inspirational trance rap track that interpolates the organ melody from "Walk Of Life" by Dire Straits. Sounds like Chief Keef at the State Fair.
I’ve heard Angel Du$t referred to as "Lemonheads meets Bad Brains," and “Space Jam” is true enough to that formula. It’s fast and fun, and it’s the John’s Music Blog Rock And Roll Pick Of The Week.
MIX OF THE WEEK: DJ Deeon “Housewerk”
Gotta throw out a big RIP to an important figure in Chicago dance music history. Here is a DJ mix from ‘97 or maybe ‘98 that expertly runs through many forms of raw Midwest music: ghetto house, booty house, tracky hard house… All that shit. I can listen to this at nine in the morning through laptop speakers and still want to dance. Within the form, Deeon produced some of the catchiest and the freakiest. Listen to “Shake Dat Butt” and then go listen to some Euro techno record. See what happens.