Vol 3, #1 - 18 May 2021

Hello and welcome back! I’ll spare you the usual ‘sorry for not writing’ blog update, but I did want to let you know that I’ve migrated to a new email platform that I’m hoping will discourage me from doing things that make it harder for me to actually write a dang email. If you got ported over inappropriately, I’m sorry about that– the unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this letter. This platform also wonderfully supports RSS– so if you want to check that out, just add this url to your feed reader.

Anyway, let’s check out some music! It’s been a while.

Albums

Let’s kick things off by getting caught up on some of my favorite new albums from the past month or two!

Dawn Richard - Second Line (listen): I’ve been a fan of Dawn Richard since she rebooted her solo career in the 2010s with a trilogy of excellent electronic albums (Goldenheart/Blackheart/Redemption). Second Line is her first release after being picked up by Merge Records; if you only have time to check out one track make it the excellent lead single “Bussifame”.

Porter Robinson - Nurture (listen): Porter Robinson started his career with a heavily-promoted release on Skrillex’s music label that had its moments, but ultimately felt kinda forced into the dubstep trend of the day. His followup Worlds which came out 7 years ago felt like a recalculation of the course he wanted to follow, rejoining his longtime friend Madeon in making anthemic, sweeping electronic music. Robinson’s work is heavily inspired by the music of Japanese video games and anime, so if you like the music from those, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

Remember Sports - Like a Stone (listen): I wasn’t familiar with this band before this album, but I’ve really been enjoying listening to it. Like a Stone is 38 minutes of jangly indie rock whose sound reminds me of Hop Along or Speedy Ortiz and which I think is quickly becoming my go-to summer album.

Singles

CFCF - “Heaven” f. Sarah Bonito (listen): A good companion to the Porter Robinson recommendation above, this single from the new CFCF album Memoryland features the lead singer of Kero Kero Bonito singing a bit more wistfully than you usually hear her. I’ll probably feature the full album in this newsletter as I get caught up on the stuff I’ve been enjoying this year, so check it out if you want to get ahead.

Sandy B - “Student Night” (listen): I came across this track via this wonderful Fact Mix by Shannen SP featuring a lot of great kwaito, a genre of house music from the 90s out of South Africa. (I can’t figure out where I found the mix–apologies if the person who sent it to me is reading this!) Anyway, this song has been popping into my head periodically ever since I heard it and I’m totally okay with that.

Yo La Tengo - “Black Flowers” (listen): I recently found myself listening to 2006’s excellent (and excellently titled) I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass and had forgotten how much I love this song, its swelling orchestral arrangement, its little synth undercurrent, and its yearning vocals. So good!

Thanks for reading! If you have any feedback feel free to reply to this email or get in touch on Twitter. Have a good week!

Casey Kolderup