Listen: Hostiles - Benin City feat. Eklipse

Long standing BlackPlastic.co.uk favourites Benin City are back, with a song that carries and important message in deeply challenging times.

Usually I would write something about the artist, the song, and what it makes me feel. In this instance, I think it is much better to let the music, and the artist, speak for itself. The words that follow in this post are those of Benin City.

It was already a painful year, with the Tories, with Covid, with Windrush, with Boris.

This year alone, our aunts have been spat on, our uncles knelt on, our elders deported, our brothers left to the mercy of COVID. George Floyd is the latest casualty in this eternal war against black people’s right to exist, to work, to be happy, to love as we love.

Trust, we’re exhausted, we’re watching the news and despairing, we’re tired, and we’re angry.

We’ve been emboldened by the protests, in the US and globally, even in the face of rampant police aggression. We’re a band, what we do best is music, so we’re putting this song out, Hostiles is our attempt to put our emotions to art in these shiitake-mushroom times.

All proceeds of the track will go to BLM UK, so we’d encourage you to buy it from our Bandcamp, though it’ll be available to stream from everywhere else too. Also, we’ve made a collective donation as well, and other donations to These Walls Must Fall (https://detention.org.uk/) BFTA collective (https://cash.app/$btfacollective) and Black Minds Matter (https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/).

If you can, donate too, or read/share this resource on other charities to donate to and articles compiled by It’s Nice That (https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/resources-supporting-black-lives-matter-movement-creative-industry-010620).

Take care of each other and yourselves. We are so much more to this.

Love is the law Unclench Your Jaw Wash Your Paws

Tom, Shanaz, Josh

#blacklivesmatter #blacktranslivesmatter

Listen: Hurt - Sabrina Lee

On my first play, Hurt opened itself up slowly. The production work is polished but unfussy, mostly focused on giving Sabrina Lee the space to deliver her vocal... gentle guitar strums, light percussive elements. And the vocal starts with a timidity that only grows in stature as the song builds, Lee hitting her stride with a chorus that doesn’t so much soar as drives with strength - it is a sharp point hit with force in order to puncture your defences and make you feel what she feels.

It is in the repeated refrain of the chorus that Hurt really come to life... There is something about the way Lee repeats the simple line like a personal mantra that gives it its own gravity:

“Sometimes I get hurt, I get hurt just a little bit;

I might make it worse, make it worse overthinking it;

And sometimes I get, I get hurt all by myself.”

It is here where the production really shines - a simple distorted bass line underlines the vocal to grant it the emotional significance it earns through repetition. Finally the song closes with Lee repeating the lines one more time, the instrumentation hushed, as she reflects on the significance of her own capacity to hurt herself.

I suffer from anxiety. The lyrics in Hurt struck a chord with me that I wasn’t expecting: I went through the experience Lee depicts here a few years ago, recognising that often the thoughts in my head are worse than the reality. In the face of uncertainty, I will sometimes overthink things and construct a destabilising narrative that takes an eraser to my guide ropes and my safety net and before I know it, I’m left clinging to a sheer rock face, alone... And I’ve constructed it all myself: the negative thoughts, the rock face, the feeling of gravity.

Sabrina Lee is a 17-year old Korean-American musician born in Virginia. She wrote and co-produced Hurt herself.

Watch: Boiler - Monoboi

Boiler is the latest single from German electronic musician Monoboi, who combines haunting melodies with self-made music videos in service of cross-media experiences that experiment with dark atmospherics and hidden meaning.

Arriving in tandem with the announcement of Monoboi’s forthcoming full length album, Year Of The Wolf, Boiler is the album’s first single. Both album and single deal with themes of the fear of loneliness within a composition that combines melancholy and hope.

The production brings together a glitchy, frenetic feeling with slow moving, peaceful melodies. Snatched vocal samples and layered percussion capture the restless nature of our minds against slow, thoughtful chord progressions that feel like the calm, constant change of nature. It’s a beautiful, emotive experience, with the video pairing the emotional feeling of serenity captured within the music.

Check out Boiler by Monoboi below:

Listen to "Boiler" everywhere --- https://fanlink.to/c5y4 Music video by Monoboi Drone shots by Stefan Schiwy Boiler out on Neolodic

Listen: Perpetual - Taroug

Perpetual represents both a refocus, and an official debut release from German-Tunisian electronic musician Tarek Zarroug. Working under the portmanteau of Taroug, he is making deep, experimental and cinematic electronic music reminiscent of the intelligent techno of Jon Hopkins.

As a track, Perpetual is conceptually deep - lyrics that describe the abstract experience of a wormhole in the human mind and depict the tension between imagination, or perhaps perception, and reality. Starting with gently layered electronic instrumentation and hushed, spectral vocals that feel deliberately hard to pin down. The result creates a sense of losing yourself to the music - crunchy, glitchy percussion builds the pace, and staccato melodies give this an overwhelming feeling. It’s dark and haunting, yet beautiful.

Check out Perpetual below:

Listen: Would You Catch Me If I Fall - Thoran James

Would You Catch Me If I Fall is the first single to come ahead of Thoran James’ as-yet-untitled EP, targeted for a late-summer release.

With writing, production and performance all coming from Thoran James, Would You... features a unique and emotive sound that mixes rustic, honest vocals with cinematic electronic melodies. James’ voice has a bruised feeling that, combined with the track’s production, reminds me of Alexis Taylor’s vocals on Hot Chip’s early album Coming On Strong.

The ensuing feeling created by Would You Catch Me If I Fall is one of lonely resignation. Sometimes the night ends and the only company comes from the thoughts in your head, the memories playing over and over. This song is those moments captured in amber - a feeling of solitude and a mixture of joy and sadness.

For me, Would You Catch Me If I Fall’s defining moment is the couplet that James delivers halfway through:

“Yeah it still fucking bothers me - I can’t turn back time but you can change your mind.”

I was recently playing with a phrase in my head, a draft for something never written, or maybe just an album not released... Just because you were right, it doesn’t mean that I’m wrong. Sometimes the hardest losses are those that never quite happen.