🐣 TOPAZ — CROSS

The main core beating-hear of this track is that overdriven bump, that tumbling rhythm of distorted boops that seem to roll around your head as you listen; that, strangely, is the catchy part of this track. For a rhythm to be catchy is quite some feat, rather than, you know, an obvious hook, the hook here in 'CROSS' by Chicago-based musicmaker TOPAZ is the deep-set creaking bulky hypnotic foundation of the track itself. Vocals croon ghostly contentment whipping through the canyons and peaks of crushed sound, ushering you in.

Alongside this the upper air of the track flickers and crackles with all the negligent energy of an ancient television, an incorrectly repaired plug, an original tract of music with guitars and vocals sent through a digital mangle. Tracks with this sort of quality always have this feeling of speaking from elsewhere, having to squeeze signals through a fissure in time in order for them to swim scratchy gorgeous in your ears, like a kind of aural oxidation, the track feeling dug-up, uncovered.

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• 🔔 The artwork for 'CROSS' was created by João Coutinho.

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📠
☟ TOPAZ Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 COMPUTER DATA — STRESS

The very sparing nature of this track is partly what makes it, the purposeful holding back on how many elements should be used and where, and secondly it is the sense of decay that eats around the edges of its sounds, providing you with a glimpse into what it might sound like transporting a feeling or a general mood from the afterlife into the waking world via digital means, or vice versa. The atmosphere in 'stress' is cold, computerised, voidsome even, yet shot through at all times with a continual warmth.

COMPUTER DATA follows in the vein of broken house purveyed by producers like DJ Seinfeld, except with a notable veil of chill at work: the synths are constant and wavy, deep hypnotic streams of robust texture that call to mind something in the realm of vaporwave. Streamers of fluid fuzzy melody ring out gleaming against that warm plasma modulation, ghostly samples waft in and out, the beat in its drum machine glory crackling with rapid-fire handclap fills and the synths swell with bass, absorbing you into its swell of cool vacancy.

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• 🔔 COMPUTER DATA's lovely track 'stress' may be purchased from Bandcamp for just $0.50.

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📠
☟ COMPUTER DATA Internet Presence ☟
soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify

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🌱 TUSKS LIVE @ RONNIE SCOTT'S, LONDON

Cocktail-making clonked at the bar and a card machine bleeped as TUSKS launched into her finale, 'Dissolve'. This is her new single. Live, as with the tracks that preceded it, this one is a combination of guitar playing and keyboards and pre-arranged electronic swirling that make it an intense hypnotic experience, the noise surrounding you and gleaming glittering in your ears. Music of this magnitude felt like it didn't belong here, upstairs at Ronnie Scott's, sort of like the end-of-episode live music showcases in the new series of Twin Peaks, post-work suits occupying tables, the last brightness of the day shining through skylights. "It's strange to be playing somewhere you can see it's still light outside," said Emily Underhill between songs—this is real person behind stage presence and music entity TUSKS.

After her set we spoke to Emily briefly, agreeing that her music suited somewhere darker and smaller and more intimate and with less of Soho's oblivious droppers-in. Though imperfect in terms of venue, Ronnie Scott's nevertheless afforded Emily a showcase for her music, an opportunity to do what she does regardless of where that might be. Where-ness, however, ended up somewhat irrelevant. It didn't affect, for instance, the guitar-only rendition of 'Toronto' – usually punctuated by booming drum rolls and veiled in soaring synth fog, this version focused on that sharp far-off melancholic refrain, Emily eyes-closed, swaying as her fingers ran over the strings, pinkie poised on the pickups. The set began with 'For You' – the opener of TUSKS' debut Dissolve LP – a song we've not yet heard, one framed by robust warm dusty piano chords, chunky and heartfelt, the gradual synth tide rising from these notes, the repetition of "for you" made mesmeric by Emily's satin whispering tone overlapping with pitch-shifts low and high for full haunting experience, a sparse beat lusciously textured played on Roland drum pads, her standing and bouncing slow to rhythm. The slow-burning coil of compelling midnight flavours, the elsewhere phantomatic feeling of it, made for an introduction to TUSKS as a live act that instantly compelled and transported.

And though stormy all-encompassing sounds pull you into Emily's musical world, so too does the minimalism she seems to cradle so easily, the love of playing the music, feeling the music, clear on her face—as with 'Toronto' her Foals cover 'London Thunder' is guitar-only, the background fuzz of heavy effects white noise static killing thankfully the ambient hum of the venue, the watery chorus effect lovingly liquidising the sparse plucked notes, moving to grungy strums that filled the room, her voice crooning in this slow-rippling pool of electricity. Immensity in simplicity. The majesty of TUSKS was bigger than this little upstairs room of Ronnie Scott's with its to-and-fro table service waiters and waitresses and discretionary 12.5% service charge; thundering or gently quiet the music captivated, its well constructed melancholic grandeur surging and breaking the windows and turning day into night and rising well above any sense of place.

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• 🔔 TUSKS' debut Dissolve LP is out 13th October via One Little Indian.

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☟ TUSKS Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ songkick

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🐣 NAKURY — AUNQUE QUIERAS

With soothing plumes of bass glooping behind a laid-back slowdown boom-bap beat 'Aunque Quieras' begins, the chilled and subtly dynamic vehicle for the words and voice of Costa Rican artist, Nakury, formerly of graffiti crew Pintores Sin Kontrol and breakdancing veteran.

In the singular groove crafted by San José-based producer Barzo, saw-wave synth and glittering trails of ambient computerised sound lend a heavy misty atmosphere to the instrumental, a sultry melting vibe that solidifies and buzzes with electricity when it comes to the hook—"aunque quieras…" Nakury sings anthemically, the vocal soaked in reverb, adding to the thick delicious haze of the instrumental, bounced and pockmarked by the shuffle of the beat.

As for the verses, Nakury shines. Her flow is breathless, skipping along, pursued by itself, layered with hypnotic monotone harmonies, the vocal resonating with its rapid staccato and Latin lilt. Though low-slung and casual, the rap feels extra-explosive above the robust calm of the instrumental, its speed is satisfying, the tone sumptuous, and it gleams poised to pounce, pushes clouds across the sky: it feels vital, elemental.

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• 🔔 'Aunque Quieras' is taken from Nakury's recent album VIA, released by Lácteo Cósmico back in April—it's packed with tracks, including another standout, 'Rima Que Ilumina'. You can download the album here here.

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☟ Nakury Internet Presence ☟
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BLUFRANK I FELL IN LOVE WITHOUT YOU :&: PILL FOUND / FIELDS OF NOTHING

Cairo's own indie dance producer offers up some new stuff. Maybe this time around I could just say that and that it's "sounding really good this evening" or something like that and just be done with it. I could but I won't. Good music deserves more words than you think they do. It's an extended compliment; a song-length description; accompaniment. Quick—! Steal the keyboard! Stop me waffling!

So anyway, this is a new (but not the newest) track from Egyptian musicmaker, BLUFRANK, whom I wrote about at some point last year for the first time. It's interesting to find out about someone in Egypt because, well, there was a revolution there last year (the second in as many years) and in such an atmosphere it seems that creativity continues (the internet probably helps in this respect), with BLUFRANK herself playing at a downtown-Cairo club called Vent for New Year's Eve just gone. It just surprises me.

In any case, let's have a little listen to BLUFRANK's penultimate track, 'I Fell In Love With You'.

Thumping along to a clean, allegretto hip hop beat throughout – complete with snappy snares and thud-pulse kicks – the track is a hypnotic trek through surreal club landscapes, walls dripping with sweat in slow-motion and the floor a bouncing mat of disorientation. Samples, some female vocals sung, are dropped throughout the song, as are snippets of vocal well after the halfway mark, combined with the ripping crash-crackle of water & bubbling bongwater sounds, as the drums go virtuoso with rapid-fire hi-hats. The thick jumble of sounds that creates the track's foundation gives it a heavy, mesmerising flavour, whilst the sharp drums and sample placement keeps it exceedingly fresh.

On the other hand, BLUFRANK's true latest track is a mix of acid house with a dark, almost icy disco-house tang towards the end, a mix of styles that indeed is reflected in its title, 'Pill Found / Fields Of Nothing':

Whilst in my opinion not as strong as 'I Fell In Love Without You', well actually that's not fair to say: it's not a strong STARTER but it certainly ends with a bang of disco-house beats. (Interestingly, the end of this track leads pretty much perfectly into 'I Fell In Love Without You' – a nice EP set up, perhaps…?) The second half of this track, 'Fields Of Nothing' I guess, is really great, dominated by its foot-possessing beat and muffled synth waves, enshrouding you with addictively comforting white-noise-esque sounds as you dance in a mindless fog. Void! That's why we dance yo.

So, get to know. I'm looking forward to seeing how BLUFRANK evolves in the future. Here's to creativity!

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