On Heavy Rotation: 19 July 2023
New music by Snõõper, Ploy, DrummeRTee924, Vigro Deep and Troye Sivan
As I was putting together my radio show last Friday, I did some research on some of the new artists I was going to play. I’ve mentioned the South-African amapiano producer DrummeRTee924 a couple of times before in this newsletter, and I picked a track called “Cyborg” from his (great) new EP to play on the show. One of the featured producers on the track is called Ross, and through a little Instagram sleuthing I found out that… he’s a guy from my hometown, Amsterdam. Of course, I shouted him out on Echobox.radio, but I also subscribed to his great playlist, Pianosexual.
Ross’s playlist focuses exclusively on sgija, which is the harder, percussive, mostly instrumental side of amapiano that I usually prefer as well. This migration to harsher sonic territory happened in jungle and dubstep as well, but whereas that was the beginning of the end for those genres, I believe something else is happening with amapiano and sgija. The music is not getting faster. There are no (white) outsiders taking over the style, cranking everything up and dumbing it down. It looks to me like a younger generation enjoys getting experimental and expanding, for example, the possibilities of the log drum.
DISQUE POP DE LA SEMAINE
My favourite new album this week is a good example of ‘I don’t normally listen to this kind of music, but…’. What comes after that but is: this is incredible. I may not even have listened to it had I known that some people call it ‘egg punk’. That sounds terrible, and Snõõper is the most exciting rock ‘n’ roll band I’ve heard in years.
Super Snõõper, the first studio album by the Nashville band Snõõper, feels like you’ve fallen into a slush puppy waterfall, or like the brakes on the school bus have been sabotaged, or when you’re on a plane full of cheerleaders crashing into an active volcano. Whooooop, here we go. Thirteen songs in 22 minutes plus an intro that makes you doubt whether you’ve connected your cables properly. I had to listen to the most sensational rock ‘n’ roll record since I don’t know when for about six times (that was easy) before being able to distinguishing the individual songs, such is the killer pace with which the band leap from one into the other. All but one are newly recorded versions of songs that Snõõper, which started out as a duo during the pandemic, have been releasing on lo-fi e.p.’s for the past three years (and which are still available for download on Bandcamp at a pay-what-you-want). And what a contrast. Suddenly Snõõper sound like a 4K Dolby colour chase scene instead of a 16mm black-and-white home movie. Frontwoman Blair Tramel works, apparently, as an elementary school teacher. With her band, she makes music for anarchic punk kids of all ages. Splash, crash, swim to the edge, get up and go do it again.
THREE SONGS
The Bristolian DJ Sam Smith (you can see why he changed his name) is back after a few years on Timedance, the label he debuted on in 2016. “Crazy BBY” builds on a cavernous UK garage rhythm with an insidious undertone. The track, from a forthcoming e.p. titled For When We Haven’t Slept, truly comes alive after two minutes with what sounds like a sample from a wailing woman. Its source is electronic in all likelihood, but it’s the almost-humanness which startles even as your feet keep moving in time.
One of the reasons I love doing my Echobox.radio show, is that I get to play my favourite music extremely loud in the studio. Amapiano - sgija - sounds incredible at high volume. Two different synth worms lend “Cyborg” its defining features, but the way the drums and bass jump out at you from the speakers is something else. (It also works on headphones.) Right now, for my money, nobody does it better than DrummeRTee924 from Pretoria and this is just one highlight from his new self-released e.p. Trust the Process.
Vigro Deep is one of the amapiano DJs who plays outside of South Africa the most, and maybe that’s why his sound stands a little bit apart from many of his contemporaries. His drums and synths have a polished sheen. I don’t know, I was talking to Ross on Instagram and he said “Soundcheck” is great, but not sgija. To be honest, he’s probably talking about differences too small for me to hear. Having said that, with a 4x4 production, this could probably be a Chemical Brothers-style festival banger thanks to a very memorable minute-long beatless fembot ‘stereo test’.
FULLSCREEN
Tedros from The Idol is happily nowhere to be seen as Troye Sivan is having the time of his life at a squatted Berlin pool. A certain beer brand is sponsoring a very queer-friendly dance party that moves from the terrace to the gender-neutral toilet. Trousers tend not to stick to hips in ‘Rush’, the first music video from the acclaimed fashion director Gordon von Steiner. I’m not crazy about the song, but the visuals are stunning.
Once again: thanks for reading! I’ve noticed in that stats though that not a lot of people click on the songs. I like that you’re reading (really), but please check out the music, that’s what it’s all about :)