Every month, AVRA MUSIC collect the best new tracks from across the musical spectrum into a playlist that reflects the diversity and creativity of the moment.
Earl Sweatshirt - TISK TISK/COOKIES
When Earl Sweatshirt’s mini-album FEET OF CLAY came out earlier this month (almost exactly a year after the excellent Some Rap Songs), the prospect of a similar sonic identity of post-Madlib beat-collaging seemed to run the risk of self-repetition. Constantly shifting in rhythm and key, it is bewildering, but Earl’s flow pulls you through the middle, creating wonderful order out of something so seemingly disorderly. There is also vulnerability to be found beneath the opaque production: “Sunny day but I'm cooking inside/ Muddy path but I’m taking my time” he raps, giving us flickers of light through the mist.
FKA twigs - Sad Day
Before returning with cellophane over six months ago, the prospect of this metamorphosis of FKA twigs from densely layered electronica-auteur to a stunning creative embodiment of her own pain seemed unlikely, to say the least. MAGDALENE came at last, exposing her bare like never before in her short but beloved oeuvre. Sad day does that and more. Beyond her excellent and somewhat theatre-school vocal performance, only the wincingly soft piano chords resemble a recognisable instrument, as processed beats, faux-choirs and a jaggering, industrial synthesizer spiral to the brink of losing control, desperately trying to save face - as is human to do.
Edbl & Kofi Stone - I’ll Wait
The final collaboration on producer Edbl’s debut EP, I’ll Wait is a shining example of the hotbed of potential that the UK hip-hop scene has become. But this track takes as much from the early-noughties sex-swing R&B of D’Angelo as from Guru’s Jazzmatazz project. The rich combination between casio-like toy synth tones and funky but flirty bass keeps this song rooted between the hips.
Michael Kiwanuka - Light
With such a quality of work in his back-catalogue, it seems odd that Michael Kiwanuka should have found broader commercial success off the back of Cold Little Heart featuring as the main theme for HBO’s Big Little Lies. The spotlight now firmly placed on his follow up, Kiwanuka was an undisputed triumph. Its crowning jewel: Light, the closer and epic conclusion to a journey of self-acceptance and socio-political inquiry. Indebted to Pink Floyd as much as Hendrix, with a splash of cinematic drama, Light crescendos to a place of ecstasy in clarity: “Shine your light over me / All of my fears are gone” cry a choir behind Kiwanuka before he is lost into the sun of triumph over adversity. It is the song of 2019 not only because it is the best, but also the most necessary.
Listen to the full playlist here