Listen: From A Chiringuito by OK Doomer

Despite basking in the kind of widescreen production stylings more commonly found among artists of the American Midwest and West Coast, OK Doomer is the musical pseudonym of South London born songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lou Doyle. Following on from debut single Rivers Cuomo, named after the Weezer lead singer, OK Doomer is back with his new single, From A Chiringuito.

Recorded across London and Hamburg by Tonmeister Hannes Plattmeier, From A Chiringuito is designed to ‘unfold like a time-lapse’. Opening with a softly repeating piano chord, the song unfurls beneath Doyle’s earthy vocal. Scattered percussion creeps, like plants pushing through cracking tarmac, testing for weakness. Guitars come to the fore, before receding once more, and Doyle sings of dilapidated houses and satan.

The whole piece feels like a natural step forward from Rivers Cuomo, which was atmospheric rather than cinematic. The resulting evolution, here on From A Chiringuito, lands the listener somewhere between Thom Yorke, Stufjan Stevens and Bon Iver. It’s a tantalising vision of where OK Doomer might go, given the breadth of a full album.

Listen: Your Favorite Girl by Country Girl

With summer, both seemingly feeling relentless, and yet inevitably drawing to a close, I continue to find myself basking in a series of sun-kissed slices of melody.

The latest of these perfect-for-summer records is Your Favorite Girl by Country Girl, a record that basks in its scattershot percussion and hushed vocals. Those voices evoke the feel of a perfect, soft kiss, as the lyrics depict the experience of directing our movie scenes in our heads, the construction of a movie narrative of our latest crush.

Raised in New York and now biased in Brooklyn, Country Girl was homeschooled in preparation for studying classical composition at Juilliard. Insulated from the impact of popular culture, his influences instead came from the likes of Maurice Ravel and Steve Reich. On Your Favorite Girl, the debut single for Country Girl on the FADER label, Country Girl combines his classical upbringing with contemporary pop sensibilities. The result is modern, yet also has a touch of 90s Britpop to it, with echoes of Teenage Fanclub and James, whilst simultaneously evoking the Country Girl’s own environment, as he describes the song as:

‘The very essence of sticky New York summer, an exploration of those little moments when your heart bursts out of your chest, when you have to pour a whole bottle of water on your head and you don’t even feel cold when it hits.’

Your Favorite Girl is a little perfect capsule of summer fancy: apply liberally like sunblock.

Listen: Make Believe by St. Anthony Mann

We are in the middle of a bit of a sustained heat wave in the UK, which is a little rare for August. Typically, as soon as the schools break up for summer at the end of July, the weather turns wetter. Instead, I find myself regularly trying to keep my newly laid turf alive as the sun beats down.

As a result, I’ve found myself leaning even more heavily into the kind of warm synth sounds, falsetto vocals and skittering percussion that I love so much, and that always feels even more perfect in the sun. It’s into this headspace that St. Anthony Mann’s Make Believe arrives.

With the kind of vocal that sounds like fruit that has just reached peak ripeness whilst still on the vine, Make Believe combines an emotive performance with thick and glossy synth melodies and choral harmonies. The effect feels simple and restrained, yet only happens as a result of a careful combination of layers. This beguiling sense of complexity and simplicity perhaps stems from the song’s creation, with the song starting as a simpler acoustic song before mutating into something more energising:

‘This song started out as a soft acoustic piece, but somewhere the arrangement itself went down a different path and came up with all this energy behind it, which was exciting. At that point, it all came together quite naturally. Later on my good friend JT Bates (Bonny Light Horseman, Big Red Machine, Taylor Swift) did some arranging of the drums and percussion sounds after I had recorded the initial guitar-stutter track.’

Hailing from St. Paul, Minnesota, Mann starting making music in high school, with finger-style guitar and experimental alternate tunings. Having spent time in the Midwestern plains, he returned to Minnesota and started recording music under the moniker St. Anthony Mann.

On Make Believe, Mann is inspired by the notion of transition and change as we head down paths unknown, as explained below:

‘This song, for me, is about that point of transition as you step onto a new path or a new journey. (…) A portal or a doorway has always symbolized a new beginning, and folks often might feel some trepidation before the path, as what lies ahead is the unknown. This song meditates on both sides of that decision; those who spend all their time in a sort of liminal space and those that decide to walk the path into the unknown.’

Listen: RC30s by Derek Simpson

Following on from previous singles Wonka and Saturn Returns, Derek Simpson is back with a new single, as he releases each track from his forthcoming third LP, Somehow, week-by-week. This is Simpson’s third time appearing on BlackPlastic.co.uk since April, making him one of my most consistently featured artists of 2024.

Somehow is ‘an examination of falling in love’, each track exploring a romantic experience. As is the trademark of his sound, RC30s blends subtle experimental electronics with guitars and soft, emotional vocals that explore the experience of human connection. RC30s depicts the kind of evening where two romantic lovers feel absorbed in one another’s presence. The sound is intoxicating and entrancing — a perfect sonic depiction of the experience of infatuation.

Hand claps, low slung bass stabs and falsetto vocals give RC30s a playful sexiness, Simpson’s open invitation to ‘call me if you’d like’ desperately trying, and failing, to be casual. Looped guitars, presumably leveraging the RC-30 loop pedal, create a dream-like, hazy quality, and the overall effect is spellbinding. Simpson creates the beautiful joy of finding deep human connection.

Listen: Tired Of Being Tough by JJ & The Mood

Having recently featured on an Apple iPhone ad, duo JJ & The Mood are back with their latest single, Tired Of Being Tough.

Made up of LA-based cartoonist Jack Sjogren and Cincinnati-based songwriter and producer Joey Joseph, JJ & The Mood create disco-pop whilst drawing on the punk-funk influences of Talking Heads, ESG, and Liquid Liquid. The result has the taut thrill of LCD Soundsystem, with the populism of MGMT and Jungle. The pair bring this to bear with a knowing demeanour, adding a slight wink to the delivery without tipping into full-on pastiche, in a way that I find reminiscent of Hot Chip.

Tired Of Being Tough is a relatively rare commentary on the impact of societal expectations of masculinity. On it, the band reject emotional distance and James Dean whilst embracing cosmetics and dancing. From a musical perspective, layered vocals, tight funk-influenced bass and melodic synths combine with clipped drums. The whole song has a functional and focused rhythm section, creating space and contrast for the vocals and synths to embrace the very fun the song is inspiring men to have.

Check out Tired Of Being Tough below: