🔮 IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER: GUS BONITO'S TOP MUSIC OF 2023

Hello. Happy New Year. The year begins with a selection of last year's best music as it appeared to your friend and mine, Gus Bonito (alias: the human, Douglas Augustus Lobban). Gus needs no introduction, but here it is. He comprises one third of the wonderful electronic pop rap trio, Kero Kero Bonito and also creates his own music, mixes and remixes, sometimes as Augustus, other times as Gus Bonito but perhaps most notably under the moniker Kane West, a stalwart of the experimental netlabel PC Music.

Another reason that Gus needs no introduction is because he wrote his own (below). Enjoy.

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And so the Earth's 2023rd rotation around the sun following the birth of baby Jesus is complete. My central preoccupation this year has been the next Kero Kero Bonito album, but there was time for some extracurricular activities, like KKB's theme song for the Pokémon World Championships, the Kane West slot on PC Music's 10th anniversary mix, and my and bo en's remix of our old song "Money Won't Pay" for his Pale Machine 2.

In fact, my first major activity of 2024 will be to bring a rare Gus Bonito vs. Kane West live show on tour across the USA with bo en and Kikuo; see you there music lovers.

My personal musical highlight was probably the indescribably mind-melting Yumi Matsutoya concert at Budokan I flew to Tokyo specifically to see (thanks Ken), but it was a solid year for new music too. Here's some 2023 music that reflects my experience of the year in no order.

underscores – Wallsocket

Gus Bonito: Cutting edge digital indie rock that precisely captures small town American paranoia.

Laura Groves – Radio Red

GB: Masterful singer-songwriting for the ages.

Braids – Euphoric Recall

GB: Lush, creative arrangements and joyfully exploratory vocals just sound great.

A. G. Cook – 0000ff

GB: A rarely personal farewell to an era. See also: everything else PC Music released this year, one of their best.

Lil Hero – big ballin

GB: One of the sparkliest hyperspeed TikTok rave pop gems (the parent EP [pawwwfect!] came out this year so it's not cheating). See also: kkbutterfly27xx's suburban BritTok madness and Odetari being embraced by the masses despite zero trad music journalist acknowledgement.

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[cf. kkbutterfly27xx - Barbie Lifestyle
Odetari - Good Loyal Thots]

Frost Children – Speed Run

GB: Expertly-tooled electro house for the hyperreal generation.

Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want to Turn Into You

GB: There's a reason why this is lots of people's 2023 favourite; a triumph of the virtues of great chords, beautiful melodies and insane vocals.

Tapeworms – IRL

GB: Tapeworms are one of the best future rock bands out there right now.

felicita – Spalarkle

GB: I saw Felicita thrice this year, performing completely different shows each time. I think this might be the best thing they've done yet.

Jessy Lanza – Love Hallucination

GB: The record that means the ever-reliable club-pop deconstructivist Jessy Lanza's discography now comprises four essential albums.

Jockstrap – I<3UQTINVU

GB: 2023 was the year the credited remix was confirmed as the musical equivalent of ignored DVD bonus content (I'm saying this as someone who still does and enjoys remixes). In its place comes the mysterious collaborative-self-remix-album-sequel. See also: bo en's pale machine 2.

Max Tundra – This Woman's Work

GB: Don't call it a comeback! See also: Max Tundra's "Lights 2023".

• 🔔 See Gus Bonito on tour with himself and bo en this month if you're in the United States of America.
• 🔔 Illustration [top] by Charlotte Mei.
• 🔔 While you're here, check out the patented* yes/no Lazy Interview with Kero Kero Bonito from 10 years ago. TEN YEARS.

*not patented

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🐣 ILLION — BANKA

Inhabiting a place caught between two different worlds, one of lightness, human reality, softness, flesh and blood, heartfelt emotions, and one of gravity, fear, something inhuman, irregularity, hardness, mechanics, uncontrolled urges, Japanese musicmaker illion (solo project of Yojiro Noda, lead singer of rock band RADWIMPS) croons his way through gentle clouds of aching cello and piano chords, creating a wholly balladic feel in 'BANKA'. Beneath this soft surface, where real feeling is told in washes of watercolour with these traditional instruments and with illion's lilting vocals, lies something darker: acceptable emotions and "normal" ways of expressing them cover the bricked-up well of inner turmoil, of the rarely discussed and unspeakable.

So it is that the choked secrets of 'BANKA' bulge beneath the pop ballad beauty, wholly at odds with the delicate piano, this internal conflict begins with indistinct rumbles glossed with sandy abrasions and grows throughout the song, elements of glitch and breakcore and noise infused in these sudden fragmented outpourings of grief and despair—the twinkling piano is cut short at 3:59 for just under 10 seconds of unadulterated chopped sounds with rollicking percussion and grinding distortion gnashing its teeth before the song's crescendo, illion crafting a legible beat, layering vocals that echo strong, awakened, in this final showdown of sound, the culmination of these combined elements now working in harsh heartfelt harmony.

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• 🔔 Though taken from illion's 2016 album P.Y.L, 'BANKA' is the theme song / lead track taken from the soundtrack to the live action adaptation of Tokyo Ghoul. Based on Sui Ishida's manga of the same name, the film hits theatres worldwide on 29th July. This hyperlink leads to a trailer.
• 🔔 The limited edition album P.Y.L [Deluxe Edition] will be released on 26th July via Warner Music Japan—get it here.
• 🔔 The video featured in this post is around half the length of the actual version; stream and purchase the full-sized 'BANKA' by illion on various platforms via this link.

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🐣 TOUCH SENSITIVE — LAY DOWN

There is something instantly classic in this track, something that is instantly gratifying, a dose of familiarity with just enough unfamiliar infused, a sound an atmosphere that virtually lives in our collective memories with the easy sway afforded by the clean bouncing syncopated synth bass throughout, with the clonking stabs of piano chord that summon a resurging era of yesteryear, kicking up dust and giving this track the raw organic feel that effuses from real instruments like that, the sweating bodies hot skin real life humans on the other side of the speakers, a sense of sensual reality also rising from those vocals: "Why don't we lay down for a while?" The poetry in this simplicity is too much to bear: the electric charge behind those words, what it suggests as a situation, what preceded, what follows, it quivers carnally.

Australian musicmaker Touch Sensitive has certainly evoked something in 'Lay Down', that is for sure. Lyrically, because language is what we understand, but also in the warm crowded varying layers of the vocal, the aching reminiscence of the melody, the repetition of "lay down for a while" calling to mind some unnamable nostalgia—and then that shivering falsetto. And next to all this human organicity is of course the synthetic, the neon chords that fade in and out towards the end, the French touch splat and thud of the beat, the construction of it all, its artificiality, desperate desire for closeness in closed quarters, in private, spinning mantra-like in this track that both suits and evokes public dancing places, where you are alone in a crowd, an internal juxtaposition that combined with its timeless retro appeal gives 'Lay Down' a sense of tragic beauty, a yearn for something that was never there.

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• 🔔 The very fitting video for 'Lay Down', decidedly of a different era with its flashing fonts and collages of dancing 3DCGI objects and imagery – and directly inspired by Prince's lyric video for 'Sign 'O The Times' – was directed by Lost Art with the 3D bits created by Melbourne-based Adam Parata.
• 🔔 'Lay Down' is the latest single by Touch Sensitive released by Sydney-based record label Future Classic. You can purchase and stream the track variously if you click upon this link right here.

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🐣 ANNA OF THE NORTH — SOMEONE

In a hypnotising swirl of '80s flavours, a wash of mind-cleansing synth that spreads like nocturnal mist or faux fog from a smoke machine at a retro disco, Norwegian-New Zealand duo Anna of the North spin an expansive track in the form of 'Someone', exuding a sense of hopefulness, a filmic reverie whose soft focus scenes of neon-pink-and-green-on-black flash in your mind, a balance of feel-good fun and melancholy romance swinging to the rhythm of the thumping electro drums. "It’s about how easy it is to break your promises when you’ve had a couple of drinks," the band explains in a press release.

"Going deeper," it continues, "the song is about accepting that you’re only human and to learn how to forgive yourself for your own mistakes and accepting that sometimes we need someone to save us from repeating any old habits." You can definitely, definitely feel the drama of that explanation imbued in the track, something highly emotive at work as Anna literally sings asking for someone to come and save her. The wide, vast synths of this track suggest a newness, a discovery, a revelation, the feeling of having been closed up now cast aside in light of new acceptance, something about the cold light of day blaring bright as the glistening sheen of synth sparkles atop the juddering electro bass, sobriety and honesty set sail in a vessel of retro pop.

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• 🔔 'Someone' is taken from Anna of the North's debut album Lovers, which is getting released on 8th September via, for some reason, three labels (Different Recordings / Honeymoon / +1 Records). You can pre-order it variously via this link.

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🐣 NSAY MADA — UNDER COVER

The vocals here are so softly done so falling over everything mistily like a veil, the long curls of its silken tones unfurling, whispers into the night air, the nocturnal desire effusing as from a smoke machine at an otherdimensional disco, how it is slowly serpentine like this, how it coils with the leisure and languor of looming lust, the low tones of Nsay Mada and her fluttering highs rich with feeling and focus, fragranced by its textures, pastel spray paint above the neon crunch of the throwback synth that frames this track perpetually in another realm of time where midnight is dark yet chequered with colours and promise of something more.

'Under Cover' keeps to this juddering syncopation, the clang of its electro mainstay providing the foundation, the simple alternating beat with the trebly kick and the shhff shaker shifting sand spray can snare (allegedly Joy Division achieved a similar drum quality in 'She's Lost Control' by spraying an aerosol can into a microphone), the sparse hi-hat chit-chat with the open sharpness echoing blissfully, drum machine tom tumbling occasionally, augmenting the sparse feel of the track, with the modulating synth, the hazy nebulous chords, the icy pings, all decorating and helping to augment that late night feeling with starlight apartment block window twinkles and slow hum of traffic taillights extending into night. Still, that voice, "under cover, under cover," this refrain unusual and fragmented, satin sheen on this sparkling bed of sounds.

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• 🔔 'Under Cover' was produced by Cyenna Bay. You can catch more from Nsay Mada on SoundCloud.

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🐣 BLACK FLY — SIGN 2

In an instant it's a realisation that the simple thump of the beat, thick behind the creeping electronics of it all, gives 'Sign 2' a robust uncrackable foundation. This beat ballast bumps below steadily allowing the real rhythm of the track to be in the colliding melody of the synth, sharp yet muted like a dull kitchen knife; here is the hook, in the syncopation of these notes, the coherence in their uncomplicated pattern, transferable with ease from ears to fidgeting feet. Like the constant of big desolate landscapes depicted in the video for the track, directed by Black Fly himself and in which the viewer sees him dancing, so too in the actual music do the electronics skip and skitter on a big digestible backdrop. The bass guitar also provides uncluttered rhythmic direction.

But alongside this sensibility for movement is mayhem, goth-flavoured in taste and with hints of noise. The vocals growl, almost purring, in the verse, hovering just above and below monotone in a stoic procession, rising emotively in the choruses. And post-chorus the electronics become more intense, quench the ears' thirst for more and more noise, gratify with white noise abrasive whirling in this new sonic gale and the gravity of it increased with zigzagging synth arpeggio fierce and piercing and trance-like. These saw-tooth endeavours add elemental difference to what is certainly not a simple electropop song—there's a keen desire to exhibit darkness, to mix shuffling shoes and introverted expressionism, a howling wall-of-noise you can move to.

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• 🔔 'Sign 2' is the Vermont, USA-based Black Fly's second single (the first is called 'I Don't Know'). Both of them were mixed by David Tolomei, who has also mixed tracks for Beach House and Future Islands.

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🐣 DJUSTIN — NEW PRESET

All along the quivering carapace is beset with jabbering angular synth like the ebbflow throttle of an alien machine, driving and forceful. The thud of the beat keeps time with electro sensibilities, the French touch thump-thwack clacking in the backdrop as the track tacks along its overcast path. It's a hearty potion of cold electronics, brightened by the ghostly vocals which seem apart and drifting above the slow gallop mechanics.

And into 'New Preset', by Stockholm-based Djustin, like welcome shards of sun on hard cold land, into the track arrive javelins of synth ablaze with uplifting light, lancing above the dark lurch of the beat and bass below, illuminating these lonely electronics like flashing lamps, the thin-air lustre of love or something like it, friendliness even, a new sheen of life. Dynamics of light and dark are wonderfully illustrated here, with thin synth juxtaposing thick, changes in key and the vocals ascending like the sun above clouds.

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• 🔔 Djustin is Rose Suau and Johan Angergård.
• 🔔 'New Preset' is taken from Voyagers which is the duo's new album out 7th May on Swedish label Labrador Records.

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DRAGON UMA – COSMOS

Here is a song from a Japanese producer Ryuma Miyamoto aka Dragon UMA. Now, UMA could stand for a lot of things (Universal Music Australia, Union du Maghreb arabe, uniform memory access) but I like to think, given the preceding 'Dragon' that it's a reference to the game Little King's Story. The enemies in the game, for the most part, are classified as "UMA" – Unidentified Mysterious Animals; though I can't remember stumbling upon a dragon-based one, unless it refers to the Worker Onii (onii = a kind of pun because "oni" is demon in Japanese and "onii" is means something like older brother or "big bro"), or the Blue Dragon Guardian (boss).

Anyway — enough of this!

I stumbled across this track called 'COSMOS' today and was pretty much intent on writing about it all day and I MADE SURE I DID. SO HERE I AM WRITING! WILLPOWER!

Beginning as a beat-heavy piece of robust pop that seems to sample some Japanese singing, the track soon slides into a unique foray into distorted trance-flavoured sounds. Piercing glassy chords lance outwards from a booming soundscape of fuzzy kicks exploding with bass, which become more frantically frequent as the melodies become more energetic.

In particular this is a synth symphony, a sweeping exposition of sounds from blissful solos to clustered bleepings, from syncopated grinds of bass blasts to high pitched sounds that are kind of like sneakers making that squeak sound on a polished floor (or the high pitched sound you can hear in the Graveyard level from Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins). Overall it's packed with as much alternative dancefloor leanings – the bouncy yet abrasive kicks made me think of Pictureplane, as a comparison – as it is with not necessarily atmospheric but certainly scene-setting sounds.

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• Check out some of Dragon UMA's releases: here's a recent EP courtesy of alternative Japanese netlabel Omoide, and on his own Bandcamp there's an album called Princess恵.
• Recently he also uploaded a track called 'Casual Vacancy' that's set to appear on Tanukineiri Shiori Sampler, a compilation (by the netlabel Tanukineiri) set to be released in the near future

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WORLD'S END GIRLFRIEND – XMAS SONG 2014

It's Christmastime! Christmas! CHRISTMAS! CHRRRIIISSSTTTMMMAAASSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's Christmas. Again! It's cool. I like Christmas a lot. It's a lovely time of year. Just wish I got to see more snow when it rolled around but oh well. It's ok!

And because it is Christmas, Christmas Day in fact, here is a Christmas song. I've been awake since 5:30am playing Smash Bros., Nintendoland & Mario Kart 8 with my brothers after like 2 hours' sleep O_O. Now almost 3pm. I've had a nap now. And a shower. It was a good start to the day.

Arriving courtesy of Virgin Babylon Records (who are also responsible for releases by a load of interesting Japanese artists, inlcuding N-Qia, amongst others) it's a track by World's End Girlfriend, a musicmaking project by Katsuhiko Maeda, simply called 'Xmas Song 2014'. What more do you want in a title?

And it's totally fitting; the whole song is basically a huge variation on a theme, a nutty electronic virtuoso re-doing of 'Jingle Bells', which moves from cute, glitchy subtleties, through beat-heavy repetitions via distorted synth stylings and explorations of pushing synthesised sounds past what they're normally supposed to do, arriving at the end panting and breathless after a manic almost-7-minutes of hyperactive electronic symphony-crafting. In some ways, it's the perfect soundtrack to the manic energy, zany (yes zany) fun and excitement of Christmas – if you're not devoid of a heart, that is.

All the while, samples from 'Jingle Bells' are cut-up and patterned to varying degrees of legibility, making this one heck of a remix (if you can call it that) and one heck of a Christmas song. There are no words involved really, but if you want an utterly unique song to add to your catalogue of Christmas classics, this is the one. THIS IS THE ONE.

And the video. That's the other thing: it's just as crazy. Filled with the chaotic, magical fun of Christmas, how it should be, what every good Christmas film should effuse and be imbued with.

Merry Christmas everybody, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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• Treat yourself to a Christmas present today and buy this for $1 on Virgin Babylon's Bandcamp page (if you like, that is).

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SAUVAGE – MARÉE NOIRE

I first wrote about these guys a while ago, finding the beat and vocal harmonies and, well, everything about their track 'Camel' quite difficult to not become addicted to. They're from Paris and they're French and they're called SAUVAGE and this track is called 'Marée Noire' which is an epithet (literally means "black tide") for an oil spill in French.

This one is quite different to what I've heard before; it rings with juddering electro energy, bass jouncing along with the rollicking beat joining it, electric chords jolting across the galloping path of the rhythm. This is at least how it sounds in the first half. But a middle section announces the arrival of a fresh-rain-against-a-window gentle drum pattern, the entry point for the vocals, too, which almost whisper in this quiet section.

The track's second half is all groove, a contrast to the first half; synth chords seem full of feeling zap into life – which seem to breath heavily at the end – the bass holds court with its simple groovesome rhythm accented with octave-skipping notes, the vocal melody is not over-highlighted and smoothly sails across the crashing, raging waves as electric arpeggios sparkle like twinkling stars in the eventual crescendo of the track. All that's left is the kinetic beat.

• This totem for a new wave of indie music comes from SAUVAGE's very recent four-track Jadis EP ("jadis" is like a way to say "once" in French with connotations of "long ago", too). Check it out here if you wanna hear more from these guys.

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Y/N GUEST MIX 018 :: STONEWALL KLAXON

This mix. It is a wholly original mix. It features only tracks from the artist himself, Mr. Stonewall Klaxon. Obviously, or perhaps not obviously if you're not au fait with Americano historia, this guy is named after Stonewall Jackson, an American Civil War commander. A few potential reasons why: 1. This guy is a Confederate sympathiser (being from Texas and all); 2. Apparently Mr. Jackson was something of a legendary person, why not name yourself after (kinda) him?; 3. Just cos it rhymes; 4. Don't know. Should've asked really shouldn't I?????????? lol oh well. Not the point right now is it.

The point is this is a mix with a difference because it's basically like hearing a Stonewall Klaxon live set. His music is like… really nice. It's beats-heavy, synth-heavy, a waterfallish cascade of electronica set to mostly uptempo rhythms, kind of in a paint-splashed realm between dubstep and footworky stuff, for instance with the white noise watercolour wash and pneumatic drill kicks of his remix of 'TBAE' by urlchild or the hyperactive synth stutterings and finely diced vocals in 'Gary Lazer-Eyes', coupled with the busy explosiveness of 'Neon Swords' and its gurgling vocal samples whose beat seems to hang in the air, and 'Cigarettes', where infra-bass kicks are the gloopy swamp out of which brittle mangrove snares snap and crack.

The mix, which includes samples of Link's sword-swinging shout in Ocarina of Time ('All Of Me') and Navi's "Hey!" ('Neon Swords', the set closer), and a sparkly remix of 'Latch' by Disclosure, pitch-shifting Sam Smith's vocals just ever so slightly, is luscious, the sound equivalent of breakdancing under a canopy of stars, or playing videogames with friends because one of them has a free house and it happens to be a marble-and-gold mansion of a place. Stonewall Klaxon, real name David Andrew Lunson, is 26 currently lives in Austin, Texas, "working as a chef in a restaurant downtown." But cooking skills aside, musicmaking comes first: "Music has always been my passion, and my true priority," he tells me. "I suppose what first inspired me to make music was simply being in the school band and orchestra~ playing euphonium, trombone, and cello."

The rich flavours and dynamics of his sound are, with this information in mind, easily traceable back to this classical and traditional training in music; you can hear the feel-good, triumphal nature of band music in each rousing hit of synth, and in its gentler moments, his music is certainly orchestral, albeit with electronic sounds – the melodies and progressions are so well done, so basically perfect. I've seen reviews of his stuff saying 'Flume-esque' or 'Wave Racer-esque' but you never hear anybody say that any classical music is 'Beethoven-esque' or 'Mozart-esque', really, do you? There is space enough in the music world for true talent and actual hard work to shine through, and it seems as if the gleams of Stonewall Klaxon are just about starting to reach the eyes and ears of the world.

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• T R A C K L I S T •

1. 0:00 Chords (Excerpt) (Vocals are Frank Zappa)
2. 2:39 Gary Lazer-Eyes
3. 7:27 Spherical
4. 12:07 Cigarettes
5. 15:21 Urlchild - TBAE (Stonewall Klaxon Remix)
6. 20:09 Disclosure - Latch (Stonewall Klaxon Remix)
7. 23:21 All Of Me
8. 26:38 Neon Swords

All tracks by Stonewall Klaxon

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• Hey! Listen! Go download a free copy of the Neon Swords EP, from which most of these songs are taken.

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MARCIOZ – GOD AIN'T GONNA PAY YOU BACK

Well well well. This is pretty damn cool. Never before have I heard harpsichord in a song like this before, but here it, harpsichording away like some frock-coat-wearing, grey-wigged phantom of the baroque era floating over the distorted kicks of our hectic and noisy modern world. It arrives from the mind of 18-year-old musicmaker Marcioz, who is from Curitiba, Brazil, and it's called 'God Ain't Gonna Pay You Back'.

Flashing with antiquity, the track begins with the atmospheric and virtuosic harpsichord pluckings, soon joined by fallen columns of bass that seem to go on forever. Then from chamber music to a chamber of noise, as if you've stepped on a tripwire, huge laser beam synths shoot out at you with acid sharpness, loud and slick, accompanied by a screaming, spooky melody of synth. Later on this copies the harpsichord's melody, blooping all the way.

These chops of synth are replaced for the chopped up remains of some other track, these truncated snippets breathing over the the deadly tectonic beat whose kicks seem to move the very earth, and whose lethal snares slice the tops of mountains with their high velocity attacks; these sometimes turn into tongue-clicking woodblock clops, reverbing into the sophistication of the track. A vocal sample appears like a memory, framed by this mix of baroque music (the track ends with some mean sounding strings, too) and super-modern footwork-ish flavours – v unique sounds presented in a kind of satisfyingly jarring manner.

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TDOYLE – COTTON CANDY CLOUDS

Ahh… tdoyle. I said it three times in the mirror last night (it was Halloween, yes I'm writing this from the past) but no one appeared. I tried it also with a hundred other different names of different people I know but no dice. Too bad. But anyway; news flash, tdoyle (which TextEdit keeps correcting to "toddle" which would be hilarious if it wasn't so damn annoying) might be changing his name. We were at Kami's Lookout (online venue) the other day and this was one of the things discussed. I won't divulge anything else though. Y? COS I AINT TELLIN U M8. Besides, I know nothing.

Anyway, here we are. A new track by Mr tdoyle. It's called 'Cotton Candy Clouds' (nice alliteration) and it is as the title says. Sounds like sweeties. Sounds like sugar. Popping arpeggios intermingle with more tangy arpeggios, each note seems to zing in glorious waves across a teal sky painted salmon pink with smiling, lazy clouds. It sounds actually almost as if it could've been written not from the point of view of looking up at the sky, but from being up in the sky looking down – from an airplane or something.

Yoshi makes an appearance, his cute lil voice sampled in the song's second half where claps run amok and synth chords almost like trumpets are triumphal and welcoming. There is a blissful simplicity at work here, something easygoing and uncluttered that makes it all the more easy to drift off to this one, really float 'pon it.

Wouldn't it be super cool if you could fly? That'd be amazing.

• tdoyle is Tom Doyle. A few months ago I wrote about his track 'Free Floating' – is there a theme here? – which is very nice also.
• This is taken from a fun compilation by Midwest Collective, simply titled Vol. 5 – the 5th volume of standalone singles created by the collective's affiliates. CHECK IT HERE (CLICKY).

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JACOB 2-2 – SAVE MIRACLES

The way Jacob 2-2 makes music creates a good listening environment; it seems architecturally led, constructed with slabs of robust building materials and decorated with the synth equivalent of glitter to ornament his sometimes towering, sometimes sprawling, winding, tunnelling, labyrinthine edifices. These are not gothic structures however, nor Edwardian or art-fucking-deco or harsh brutalism; in fact, it might be better to say that his music – a mix of hip-hop patterns and glitching noises childhood-memory-summoning – is more of a collage.

And it has never been more of a collage than with the opener on his new EP, The Rec, called 'Save Miracles'. This is a dadaist collage, a plasticine stir-fry, funky fragments weaving in and out of mist left by resonant cold cosmic chords, squelchy bass breakdancing as the beat skiffles in flourishing waves of virtuosity; chopped chunks of sound rapid-fire like kaleidoscopic stills flashing in front of your eyes; its interior is splashed with biomechanical groove, funk flavours written in abstractions on the walls, but otherwise it is another Jacob 2-2 construction with its odyssey of chords feeling like empty oddities, a yellow brick road leading to blank nostalgias, roughly sketched by its creator for you. This is not your nostalgia it is a manifestation of collective recollection.

Um…

• Like I said this comes fresh from J2-2's The Rec EP, which is actually aptly described as "late-night lock-in gymnasium funk" – which is about right. You should check it out.
• Oh and this comes fairly soon after his album, Herbivore, to which I gave a massive thumbs-up, awesome-out-of-awesome. If those were homely, bedtime sounds, The Rec effuses a slightly more adolescent attitude.
• He made a rrrrrrreally cool mix called Abiogenesis for YES/NO, a blender full of jazz, hip hop, electro, prog rock. Really do check it out when you got time.

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EGGROLL – NO SATISFACTION (VALIANT VERMIN REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Brilliant! That's the first word I'll say about this. But before I even begin to tip-tap some words out about the song itself: Just WHO is Valiant Vermin anyway? FURTHERMORE — Eggroll…?!

(The) Valiant Vermin aka Bettina Campomanes is a young (I believe currently she is 17) producer from the Philippines. A self-described bedroom project, the Facebook page for it shows off Campomanes' modesty and humour: her bio reads "I didn't want to go outside so this happened," whilst her description is "I'm 16 years young and bored as hell." The very epitome of bedroom producer if ever there was one. Bettina is also a prized member of the Manila-based artist collective, Youngliquidgang – the co-founder of which, Zeon Gomez (aka Ulzzang Pistol), made a lovely guest mix (#014) for Y/N recently showcasing the group's talent; it included the electro-pop goodness of 'Good Girls Sin' by VV herself.

Her latest track is an impressive remix of an obscure and rather ungoogleable '80s duo, Eggroll. Called 'No Satisfaction', the original is as '80s synthpop as you can imagine: power drums, keytars, twangly guitar. I was gonna just link you to the video (dated 1987, aired on NY Public Access) but I'll embed it at the end of this post because you'd like it probably.

Anyway: the remix is a different kettle of fish.

Taking the strong, soulful vocals of the original, Valiant Vermin puts these to use in an extremely appealing way, setting them above an elastically punchy four-on-the-floor beat and syncopated stabs of robust house piano, as well as the occasional synth chord. Wheeling synth melody screams over the top with all the exciting intensity of Sonic 2's Chemical Plant Zone – but more jazz, less urgency. Speaking of jazz, piano fills spill over between chords in virtuosic fashion, further highlighting the elated funk of this track. It's house, classic 90s house – with a dash of French-touch sound – combined with the fun-loving nature of jazz and electro, simply brimming with energy. Download it for free!

Two things are immediately clear: 1. To find & utilise well such an obscure gem; 2. Production is high quality. Here is a talent still relatively undiscovered, from somebody barely even an adult (in the true sense of the word) yet. You can only hope that Miss Campomanes continues on this creative path; who knows what she will dream up in years to come.

And, as promised…

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WOOLFY – CITY LIGHTS EP

Waking up waking up is difficult especially on a Monday morning soooo why not go on a disco odyssey for 8 minutes 11 seconds? And this ain't no sweaty throwback New York dopamine-enhanced disco club disco, this is like the slow jam of disco, slo-disco, and as such it's perfect for a brain that doesn't want anything faster right now. Perfect for a brain that like, wants to wake up, but not suddenly, and definitely not anytime soon; this kind of quasi-sleep in the early morning is quite nice its own horrible little way.

And what track pray tell am I chatting about? Well, it's come aaall the way from LA and it's by a guy named Woolfy (real name Simon James) and the track is called '17' which is one of those Great Ages – others being 18, 19, 21, 23, 27 or something (this is what happens when you write early in the morning, you make shit up) – that everyone loves so much. Anyway, like I said earlier this is like slo-disco, slo-house, chilled kinda sound, and it reminded me of the sort of sounds I heard once on one of German (Munich) label Permanent Vacation's If This Is House I Want My Money Back compilations – there've only been two so far so it's one of those – which is funny cause this other track at least ostensibly has something to do with Perm Vac. After some reading, I've found that he first released music under his alter-alias Woolfy vs Projections (his The Astral Projections of Starlight album) on Permanent Vacation, so there you go.

Anyway, it comes from his newly released (14th April) City Lights EP which features two original tracks and two remixes. Here you go it's right below uh so you can listen to it.

At the beginning and at the heart of '17' the main riff is provided quite unusually by a ukelele or mandolin or something, a little toy-esque riff that gives the track a cutesy earthiness, grounding it something entirely different from what the funkily popping slightly slap-bassline and rich piano chords will have you believe. Combine this with misty swooshing tides of synth, scattered tumblings of lead blips and ever-so-often saw-wave chord stutterings, you have quite the soundscape – a mix of Del Mar flavours, coastal indie pop and late-night lounge music. Glassy organ solos enhance the atmosphere, draping it in classy inebriation; and that's not to mention the singing, which talks of some kind of romance and being 17 years old ("And when you grow up grow up to be the woman that you are / you're gonna appreciate the fact that I / kept myself away / cause you were seventeen"). Ghostly, synth-punk vocals reverbing into space with the slacker refrain that mentions sex, cigarettes, Ford Cortinas (¿¿¿ or am I deaf ???): "Couldn't care less."

It comes as the late-late-night sequel song to the first track of the EP, the eponymous 'City Lights'. It's a nicely bouncy track, a slapdash acoustic guitar riff being the foundation of the track, packed with organic percussion like shakers and gently muffled kicks and this one fluid sound that sounds like a cross between a delayed sample of water simultaneously dripping into and draining out of a sink, and tasty woodblock cloppings. This roots-indie flavour is strengthened by two additional things: a xylophone that gives the track a airily cute appeal, and of course the vocals which appear endearingly unpolished and campfiery. In fact, campfire is very much the vibe here. A beach campfire. WHICH is strange considering the song's title and its lyrics: it's about city lights. Being in the city. So in some ways, instead of making "the city" out to be this archetypal hazy, scary, hard-edged, blocky place, the magnitude of its impact is brought down a peg or two thanks to Woolfy's treatment of it – it becomes pretty and quaint, essentially having been observed from a different angle. The finishing refrain, "We live to love you…" – a perfect sing-along – tops it off as a lovesong, the so-often-done love-letter to a city, but with a refreshingly down-to-earth difference.

But wait there's more! Two remixes of '17' grace this EP, too. One by fellow LA-ppl Split Secs is a slow-builder into a synth odyssey, sawtooth boops bouncing along with retro intent in place of the more organic bassline of the original. The vocals, reverbing and dreamy before, are now much trippier, blasting off into the void with heavy delay and reverb like a weird cloud passing above. Synth lead roars into life and explodes with the same trajectory as a cosmic boiling kettle amidst the warm chords and popping clusters of melody. Francis Inferno Orchestra, from Melbourne, makes it a more intense ride, however, with clearer synths playing cosmically over the hard pulse of kicks, waves of phased-out sound blanketing it all. The second half of the track is pockmarked with laser-like synths and a mash of sounds from crashing disco hi-hats and cymbals to booming toms and thickening chords. Both remixes do different things, one is low-key and the other is imbued with much more of a sense of head-spinnery than the other, but both are excellent treatments of the original.

Soooo yeah that was Woolfy. And it will maybe (maybe) surprise you to learn that this has graced your ears today courtesy of Australian label Future Classic, who've been putting out great stuff for ages, wonderfully diverse all the way from the surgical synth of Charles Murdoch to the Drive-inspired sounds of Touch Sensitive, and this most recent release with Woolfy (his debut with the label) continues a much-loved series of sounds with dance/electronic-leanings that ooze originality as much as they do quality and loveable quirks.

• Grab this if u like it from iTunes now or just stream it forever on SoundCloud
• Or hang on if you like vinyls it exists in 10" form too

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BROOKLYN83 – STORM IN A TEACUP + PRINCE OF TENNIS REMIX

You know sometimes you just gotta do something? Just gotta do it. Like, oh a piece of cheesecake just appeared in front of me, gotta eat it. Or, wow there's a £10 note on the floor, gotta pick it up. And in this instance, I just got sent this music and listened to it, gotta write about it! That's how it works. But FYI you shouldn't be as instantly self-gratifying like this when it comes to immoral stuff – please stay moral and loving and nice towards each other.

Anyway, this music appeared all the way from Prague, capital of the Czech Republic. It's just one song, one song by the mysterious Brooklyn83 (just this one song is on their SoundCloud, and they have like no followers, no links either), with a remix of that song by fellow Prague duo Prince of Tennis, their name obvs inspired by manga/anime The Prince of Tennis. The song is called 'Storm In A Teacup' after the fun idiom that basically means making a big deal over nothing (synonymous with tempest in a teapot, tempest in a teacup, storm in a cream bowl, tempest in a glass of water, storm in a wash-hand basin and storm in a glass of water, according to Wikipedia).

And it's that phrase precisely which refrains throughout the song, heavily vocodered with cybernetic aesthetics – a light sprinkling of vocals to season the track, tangled and bristling with shuffling shaking beats that sway between thudding kick and cracking snare in a perfect rendition of UK garage sensibilities, yet budding with the rhythmic addiction of footwork. Bass stays low and subby but there are moments where it's thrown out like a lasso to the higher ends of the spectrum and pulled back with kinetic whiplash effect. Weird and lush, it's happily surprising and shivery with sonic nuances that you can't help but eat up.

Prince of Tennis's remix is a much noisier affair, a sort of indie-dance-pop with steely and robust bass guitar driving the song in a fragmentary fashion; brash explosive electro drums make up the semi-brutal dancefloor-friendly beat; the refrain "Storm… in a teacup, in a teacup" is treated well alongside smart pulses of synthpop chord and heart-popping copter-like chops. Two surprises in one. Two very different songs. Both unique and affecting enough to get excited about. Check out their other stuff.

• It's available for a free download if you like it CLICK RIGHT HERE or go to Prince of Tennis's SoundCloud (link below innit)

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NEON BUNNY (야광토끼) – IT'S YOU (너여야) [VIDEO]

I have been spending most of today looking out of the window at the same view I pretty much always look at. It's greenish, pretty, flowery, but it's not inspiring me. And neither was anything I had heard up until now. Then I remembered that I had to check out this new Neon Bunny track. And I was cured! Cured of my malaise. Cured I say. Thanks to K-pop. Or K-indie.

Where are we now? Anyway, this is the THIRD Neon Bunny (real name Lim Yoojin) track I've heard and the third I've featured here. I discovered her at some point last year (with her song 'Oh My Prince') when I was actively exploring the Seoul music scene – and what a happy discovery! Since then, she's worked with fellow Korean producer Demicat on the song 'Singing Bird' from his Out Loud EP and, well, not much else that I know of. Until now! This song has seemingly appeared out of the blue as a purchasable single and it's called "너여야" (neoyeoya) or 'It's You'.

Like her past songs, this one follows in their footsteps with electro aplomb, fuzzy distorted saw-wave bass blasting in waves, losing its distortion outside of the catchy chorus, where Neon Bunny's gentle voice sings the hook, and where the beat bustles with doubled-up hi-hats in all its footwork flavour, snapping back and forth between cracking clap-snare combination and throttling kicks. Swept with waves of mystified chords and glistening delicate melodies, this is a song of contrasts: the sweet and softly sung vocals with their near-nostalgic pop sensibilities; the hard and driving beat drenched with harsh distorted synth. But it works wonderfully.

Hopefully, and I don't know if it's the case or not, this is taken from an upcoming album. It'd be nice to hear a full-length collection of songs from Neon Bunny. I mean, even an EP would do. But for now, the summery 'It's You' and its addictive, perfectly pop sound is just fine!

• And you can buy it for $1 (or more) over at Neon Bunny's Bandcamp page.

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SPAZZKID – AT FAULT (FEAT. THERE IS A FOX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

I love Spazzkid. How can you not? I mean, even as a person (called Mark Redito) he's really nice, so the fact that he makes really lovely music is a bountiful bonus if ever there was one. If you don't know this guy then, um, get to know: the best way is to trawl his Bandcamp page where you'll find everything from Early Demos (2004–2006), to the wholly immersive experience that was his album release of last year, Desire (願う). His lovingly crafted sounds ring with electropop, with chillwave, with J-inspired melodies, with footwork flavours and above all, with touching positivity.

I managed to miss the uploading of his latest track 'At Fault', however, but thanks to Oliver (s/o The 405) I heard it today and I knew instantly that I had to write about it and share it. This track is unique in that it features the cooperation and collaboration of fellow SoCal resident, There Is A Fox. Real name Hiro Makino, I wrote about him and his dreamily endearing brand of indie-folk-pop last Autumn, and was therefore pleased to find his sound and style permeating this song alongside Spazzkid. Beginning life as something that sampled & re-arranged a There Is A Fox original, 'Bad Day', it grew until these two artists were working alongside each other on the track.

Tagged "folktronic" I think this just about sums it up. Folk-pop guitar appears out of the void in vibrantly choppy succession with xylophonic sounds raining down in the slow sway of the song; by the end everything is jumbling together in a colourful mash of sound, from right down low with the booming bass and muffled kicks to the high registers of rattling percussion and looping guitar riffs. Vocals sing out innocently with lashings of dream-laden reverb, "It's not my fault…", calm in the zinging euphoria of the track. It is expansive, opening up as it goes along, evolving all the way, filled with wonderfully living-and-breathing organic samples and sounds residing harmoniously next to wholly electronic fabrications. At every moment it is endearing; did you hear the little cough/clearing of the throat at the start? Just another magic touch.

So there it was. Hoo-hah! It's lovely. I can't help but love it. I'm a fan. I hope you're a fan too. Fyi this song was supposed to feature on Spazzkid's upcoming EP (which I'm v excited for), but it grew and grew and, as he describes, "ended up wanting a life of its own. It stands for itself, pure and beautiful." Well well well indeed it does.

• Go and download 'At Fault' for absolutely nothing.
• Enjoy this little interview that Spazzkid was kind enough to agree to.

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JAASKA – CHINNA CHINNA (காதல் காதல்)

I really like this song. There is something so different about it. To be honest with you, I don't know of many "modern" tracks from new and up-and-coming artists and producers or whatever that have ever used a sample of Tamil singing. But hearing this now I just think well, why not? Why the hell not? People are grabbing at samples from other languages, heavily from Japanese with anime stuff being super popular amongst the children of the world, and I guess that means Tamil films and music are just not that popular. Oh well. Maybe they will be one day. Here's a fun fact about me though: I like to listen to a London radio station called IBC Tamil – it is digital and you can listen online so go check it out. It fills any house with instant beauty.

Yesterday the track didn't have the parenthesised "காதல் காதல்" – காதல் is "kāthal" and kāthal means love. So doubled it could mean... I dunno. Love love. Big love? I dunno. I literally don't know I'm just guessing. On the other hand "chinna chinna" is "சின்ன சின்ன" – just the singular chinna (or சின்ன) means "petty" but also "young; small; little" (check if u don't believe me), so I am confused. Con. Fused.

Anyway for goodness' sake I'd better just talk about this damn song. It's great. It's from a New York City-dwelling person called Jaaska and Jaaska makes music. From its beginnings as something mysterious and near-menacing, with the sound of a gun being cocked at the end of the intro, 'Chinna Chinna' features the serpentine elasticity of a fluttering vocal sample (in Tamil) that ornamentalises its heavily distorted pillars of bass that prop the song up with triumphal pop patterns.

A simple melody plays gently over the top of the waterfallish haze of the synth, below which is the neo-trap rhythm: thudding tumbling rocks of kick virtuosity and – in place of a snare – something that sounds like coconut halves clopped together or some other equally clopping slice of percussion. It's a really fun song that feels as though you're being swayed back and forth, dancing with somebody perhaps, and it is full of carefree colour and vivacity.

As for that sample: maybe it's from the A. R. Rahman song 'Chinna Chinna Aasai' or maybe it's from 'Chinna Chinna Vanna Kuil', a song in Mouna Ragam, a 1986 Tamil film – perhaps it's from this other song. Fact is, I don't know, and it's been driving me nuts trying to find it. I've just spent the last half an hour, maybe longer, maybe an hour, trying to find this sample. WHERE IS IT FROM TELL ME NOW.

• If you liked this portion of surgingly fun music, it comes from an UPCOMING EP from Jaaska called Videshi, out soon on AMDISCS.

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