Listen: Häntextra — Fricky

Bathed in warm tones, crisp drum rolls and jazzy touches, Fricky’s Häntextra brings together some of my favourite elements of D&B and shakes them, gently.

The spacious, jazz elements recall LTJ Bukem’s Good Looking Records, but here they are blended with the sunny vibes of Movement and the soulful space of Defunked. All of which to say, this skews intelligent, emotive and sophisticated, but still makes me want to dance in the sunshine or in sweaty rooms with low ceilings.

Tricky is artist, producer and designer Erik Friman. Having grown up in Sweden, he got exposed to hardcore bands, DIY music and rap. Friman formed a rap duo with his childhood friend Broder John, before eventually branching out to more exploratory, melodic and atmospheric sounds.

Häntextra is taken from the forthcoming album Horizon Inn. Rather than focusing on D&B or rap, the album takes a wide-angle lens to 90s and 00s music, encompassing sounds as diverse as indie pop, and trip hop. The music is in truth a collaboration, by Fricky, but together with collaborators Joel Kiviaho, Magnus Larsson and Simon Lundgren. Describing the sound, Friman says:

“This is the closest I get to the sound that only exists in my dreams. The inspiration is taken from drum and bass, trip-hop, acid and old school hiphop. The world can undeniably feel escapist, but at the same time, I can't remember ever being as present in the music as I was during this process.”

Listen: Autocratic Gore — Don’t Get Lemon

With a thrumming energy, Don’t Get Lemon bring together a sense of glittering melody with a dash of gothic introspection. Autocratic Gore sounds a little like REM doing a cover of the Cure, with a dash of the magical energy of Future Islands’ Samuel T Herring.

Autocratic Gore opens with slow walking bass and vocals that puncture the melody like a brass tack. The sound is wound taut, invoking the monochromatic styles of post-punk, but with a glimmer of playfulness in the vocal harmonies, dressed in reverb, that echo through the song’s background.

As things progress, Autocratic Gore becomes increasingly insistent, melodies swirling and drums crashing as the song builds to a sudden vanishing… And just like that, we’re done, and I’m left marvelling at the space Don’t Get Lemon just created and consumed.

Based in Austin and Houston, Texas, Don’t Get Lemon position themselves as detached, yet danceable, which is pretty much my vibe. On Autocratic Gore, they look to capture “the fear and frustration of the falsified American Dream”. It comes ahead of a to-be-announced forthcoming LP and a clutch of Texas dates to celebrate the song’s release:

• Austin May 25th at Feels So Good
• San Antonio May 26th at Vice Versa
• Dallas May 27th at Double Wide
• Houston May 28th at The End

Listen: Significant Kind — Piers

Following on from his recent collaboration with Monomotion on the emotive piano-tech-ballad that Another Story, Piers is back with his latest solo effort, Significant Kind.

The red thread that connects these two releases is a level of attention to small details. Where Another Story was all about creating space for the piano at its core, Significant Kind is a more focused on layered percussion and the interplay of texture.

Based around a central melodic riff and a repeated vocal, it is actually the underlying detail that really holds my attention here… Subtle cymbals, the little click tracks that underpin the drums, tiny glitchy details.

Significant Kind marks a departure for Piers, the charting out of a new direction:

“My world is changing fast, and so is the music. In a world where everyone needs to fit to a trend, I just want mine to be worth listening to.”

Piers Thibault was born in Normandy, but moved to Houston in Texas at a young age. The impact of the US is something he still carries with him, unlocking his sense of creativity and awareness of culture. Following a move back to France, Piers felt displaced and alienated, but eventually dove into the world of music and clubbing at a young age:

“I wasn’t interested in doing drugs, and alcohol wasn’t my thing. I was the only one going out to actually listen to the music. It took me a few years to realize that it wasn’t just a phase—it was my passion.”

This sentiment resonates for me, as someone who moved to Sheffield in the UK in my late teens just to get closer to the nightclub and music scene I had become obsessed by. I had little interest in the drugs, and not enough money to pay the drinks prices at nightclubs… Instead, my friends and I would stay up until dawn, just dancing and enjoying the music.

You can also hear Piers’ devotion in his sound — it is precisely why the music has a transcendent quality. It isn’t intended to be in the background, and instead is an immersive experience.

Listen: ANIML — Great Northern

The new release from Great Northern hums along with a simmering fury that teeters on the edge of boiling over. As we reach ANIML’s chorus, Great Northern unleash soaring vocals and increasingly threatening bass in a way that feels utterly thrilling.

Made up of duo Rachel Stolte and Solon Bixler, Great Northern had separately spent time dedicated to music. Solon spent years playing with the likes of 30 Seconds To Mars, Earlimart, and Sea Wolf, and Rachel in the OC music scene, with Cold Water Crane, and Whirlpool. Working together, the pair jumped into Great Northern, before reaching a point in 2015 where they felt the need to pause, reflect and step back.

In taking a break, Stolte and Bixler found and nurtured new parts of themselves, and brought a fresh love and perspective towards making music. Spending a period of time working without a defined plan or timeline in Napa, co-habiting together with an artist friend who painted, Great Northing found themselves reborn, in what Rachel describes as:

”A life-changing experience and some of the best work we’ve created to date, and a fierce departure from anything we have previously created.”

Following the loss of her mother, and off the back of a career surrounded by male voices, the sound began to coalesce around a more feminine energy.

Great Northern describe ANIML as something akin to the sound of a software integration of Siouxsie & the Banshees and Trent Reznor. There is also more than a little of Karen O’s distinctly feminine sound here – the electronic humanity of It’s Blitz!, in particular. The thick synths and gritty distortion here perfectly complement Stolte’s dramatic vocal performance — check it out below:

Listen: This Way — The Landing

Layered neo soul, funk, and psychedelia come together in a tight embrace on the contemplative, reflective stroll that is The Landing’s This Way.

In creating This Way, The Landing was inspired by the energy on Jungle’s track Bonnie Hill. The resulting piece finds its way to its own distinct vibe and atmosphere. There is a lovely richness to The Landing’s sound here, and it invites you to luxuriate in its own moment. The song ends up being a meditative tribute to presence and mindfulness, as the artist describes:

“The lyrics of This Way speak of the inevitability of the present moment, that the Universe always unfolded just so, in just this way, to arrive here, at now. Wow!”

A classically training musician and amateur astronomer, The Landing looks to bring together synth arrangements that would scale to a symphony orchestra, all whilst leveraging a cosmic perspective. As you hear here, the result is lively and human, leveraging a sense of scale to landing something reassuringly earthy and compassionate.

With over 5-million streams online, The Landing has twice been featured by Apple Music as a Top New Artist, and featured on Spotify’s own curated playlists.