On Heavy Rotation: 14 June 2023

New music by Decisive Pink, DrummeRTee924, Anika, Bruce and PJ Harvey

If there’s a second issue of Heavy Rotation—and you’re reading it now—that means my new newsletter about new music has become a real thing. 48 subscribers (only a few of whom I know in person) and counting! I’ve been using the name Heavy Rotation for my Spotify playlist since 2016, and also for my monthly show on Echobox.radio, which is live again this Friday, 16 June, from 4-6pm CET, 3-5pm GMT, 10-12am EST and a ridiculous 7-9am PST. (If anyone from there is reading this, I would love to know.) Do tune in!

The image above is a jpg of Entscheidendes Rosa, a 1932 painting by the Moscow-born artist Wassily Kandinsky, who already was a German citizen by the time he made this. When the nazis took over Germany he moved countries again, and he died a Frenchman in 1944, a few months after the liberation of France. The name of the painting (which hangs in the Guggenheim in New York) can be translated as ‘Decisive Pink’, which brings me to…

DISQUE POP DE LA SEMAINE

my favourite new album this week. Don’t forget to follow on Instagram! I just hit my 350th consecutive post since 2 October 2016.

That the American artist Angel Deradoorian and her Russian colleague Kate NV would start a band together was a surprise to me, but their pairing works really, really well on Ticket to Fame. Deradoorian (who previously released several albums using only her last name) was once in Dirty Projectors and makes experimental jazzy pop music. I guess you can call NV (five solo albums, the most recent arriving only a few months ago) a synthpop performer. She’s one of just a few Russian pop musicians with any kind of profile in the West and, like Kandinsky a century before her, she has now emigrated: Kate NV left her country after the invasion of Ukraine last year and now lives in Berlin (at least that’s what her social media seem to indicate). Even though Ticket to Fame is the duo’s debut album, Decisive Pink has existed for at least five years, and with Deradoorian’s Armenian family history, there may even be some kind of Soviet connection between them, too. With influences ranging from Kraftwerk to Talking Heads, Decisive Pink’s music also refers to the Cold War era, albeit with contemporary concerns like online shopping in ‘Dopamine’, the most danceable song here. Escapism, of course, fits very well with a period of nuclear threat. Reportedly, Deradoorian wrote most of the lyrics while NV handled most of the production. Their voices complement each other very well (Deradoorian’s is in the lower range of the two). The album was recorded in Cologne and excels in eccentric, catchy pop songs. It’s anything but a simple sum of their individual careers, the synergy is palpable.

THREE SONGS

Don’t end the week without giving them a spin.

DrummeRTee924 from Pretoria West has fast become my favourite amapiano producer. His album 924 to the World 2 from last winter was fine, but it’s been the singles he’s released since that pushed him to the top, for me at least: “Haunted Drums” in March, then “Tambula” in April, the insane “Quantum Nkwarii” last month and now “86 Drums”. I guess it’s a sequel to January’s “43 Drums”, although it’s a totally different tune. Like that one, it’s a ‘salutation’ (something he and other South African amapiano producers do more often) to his fellow DJs 2woBunnies and Major League, who should be able to really let rip when the log drums, after about two-and-a-half minutes, start galloping. With a couple of backspins, as if you were listening to a DJ set, DrummeRTee slows down the tempo of the track, before hitting back even harder. (As I was typing this, I found out he put out another, slightly underwhelming new track yesterday, oh well.)

I love the German/English artist Anika who last year put out her best album so far, Change. Her sparse, post-punky pop songs and melancholy voice are largely absent from Eat Liquid, ‘composed for and performed at the Zeiss Planetarium in Berlin in Feb 2023’. It’s a pretty, meditative, drony album of mostly strumming, Velvety electric guitar and synthesizers, with Anika delivering spoken poetry rather than singing. The exception is “Ticket Collection”, which is the closest the album gets to a conventional song, although there are no verses or chorus. “And wait… for something to come” are the first words, while synth bleeps light up the planetarium (I imagine). It ends more defiantly than expected, with Anika singing that “no matter what you try to tell me, I’m not gonna be your fool”.

I’ve been struggling with Not, the new e.p. from the British producer who goes by the name of Bruce, whose work I normally adore. It’s such an enormous departure from what he normally does, namely bass-heavy UK club music—although often a little bit weirder than some of his fellow travelers. Last year’s great XRA (Bruce + Lurka) e.p. was a sign of things to come though: for the first time in eight years of making records, it featured Bruce singing. And on his new solo release, Bruce’s voice takes centre stage. It’s not dance music at all. The label copy compares Bruce to David Sylvian and even Scott Walker and it’s not hard to hear where they’re coming from. He has great presence! But is it good? After a few plays, I think I’m going with a careful yes. Especially “Cala Mastella” (named after a beach in Ibiza). “Let’s take it slow, I don’t wanna miss a moment,” Bruce croons as expansive synth chords float over nocturnal bass pads.

FULLSCREEN

I’ve posted over a thousand music videos already on my Fullscreen Instagram account. This is the best new video I saw in the last week.

“I Inside the Old I Dying” is a fantastic stop-motion music video made by Chilean filmmakers Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña, who earlier this year were also responsible for the incredible animation sequence in the middle of Beau is Afraid, one of my favourite films of the year. PJ Harvey’s song is about a longing for a new beginning, and in the video, that theme applies, one could say, to the owner who goes into the woods with his dog. (Notice the real dog for just a few seconds!) During an overnight stay in the wilderness, the man is eaten by a large beast, and the next day his faithful companion runs off with one of his bones and buries it. Peeing on it bears miraculous results.