It’s been a little over a year since Undrcurrents began, which is pretty crazy. The pandemic has messed with my sense of time to the point where I’d be hard pressed to accurately tell you how long anything has been going on, but aside from that I never would’ve predicted we’d still be going strong a year in. It’s been a fun ride, and I’m glad that people are getting some utility out of the site. Our only goal is to help people discover music, and if only one person reads our site and finds something new and exciting we’ve done our job.
In that spirit, we’re here with a new feature. There’s so much great music (new and old) that it’s truly impossible to write about everything we’d like to cover. Recent Listening is aimed to improve that; a list of new and not so new music that we’ve been spinning as of late. Some came to us via submission to the site, some via organic discovery, some are old favorites. The connecting thread: it’s all great.
Les Filles De Illighadad – Eghass Malan
At Pioneer Works, a live album from Niger’s Les Filles De Illighadad (whose name translates to “daughters of Illighadad”), was originally supposed to come out at the end of this month. Now delayed until early July, it’s a record I’m excited to write more about in a month’s time. I’d also been listening to the group’s last album, Eghass Malan, in preparation for writing about At Pioneer Works, and highly recommend checking it out to tide you over. Many of the same songs feature on both albums, although there’s a slightly more raucous energy on Eghass Malan compared to the meditative, hypnotic grooves of At Pioneer Works.
Bloodz Boi – soundcloud discography
I’ve always been old at heart, and nowhere does this manifest more than my methods of music consumption. I find it hard to digest loosies spread across Youtube, Soundcloud, and myriad other platforms, and as a result I’m sure I miss a lot of great and cutting edge stuff. That’s why this album (which landed for May’s Bandcamp Friday) is exactly what old farts like me need. Beijing based rapper Bloodz Boi has been uploading tracks to Soundcloud for years, and this compilation collects them in a single package. You can draw some comparisons to Bloodz Boi’s sound (the melancholic electronica of Burial or the cloud rap of Drain Gang come to mind), but the compilation, which covers about three years of work, sees Bloodz Boi working though many different musical ideas. After listening to this, I can’t wait to hear what he does next.
Body Meπa – The Work Is Slow
The term “supergroup” can be thrown around liberally, but in the case of Body Meπa it feels apt. The quartet of Greg Fox (drums), Sasha Frere-Jones (guitar), Melvin Gibbs (bass), and Grey McMurray (guitar) have individually played with everybody from Liturgy to Sonny Sharrock, and they’ve just re-released their debut album (which appeared in digital form back in December) via Hausu Mountain. Drawing on a diverse but shared musical vocabulary, the band makes music filled with complex rhythms and sonic textures sound effortless; this is an album that feels infinite and elemental, like floating down a river with no end.
McKinley Dixon – For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her
“Storytelling is time travel, it’s taking the listener to that place” says Richmond, Virginia based artist McKinley Dixon. Fittingly, his latest album (and first for Spacebomb Records) For My Mama And Anyone Who Look Like Her is transportive music. The concluding entry in a trilogy of albums (which also includes Who Taught You To Hate Yourself? and The Importance of Self Belief) sees Dixon exploring history and telling stories of both trauma and uplift. It’s music that sounds absolutely massive, filled with orchestral bombast, jazz interludes and genre bending beats that come together to create a fully realized sonic universe, and it’s without a doubt one of the best albums I’ve heard this year.
Ducks Ltd – Get Bleak
When listening to “Get Bleak”, the titular opening track on Ducks Ltd’s debut EP, you’d be forgiven for thinking you’d stumbled upon some long lost Flying Nun release. The core duo of Tom McGreevy and Evan Lewis met in Toronto; then known as Ducks Unlimited, they originally released Get Bleak back in 2019. Now signed to Carpark Records, the duo has released an expanded reissue of that record with some new tracks. Aside from Flying Nun, I hear echoes of C86 and some of the contemporary jangle pop coming out of Australia (see Dick Diver, Possible Humans, Chook Race, etc). A charming, breezy listen that’s easy to play on repeat.
Century Egg – Little Piece of Hair
I first heard of Century Egg when researching and writing about Fiver’s latest record earlier this month; a former member of the group also played on that record. Little Piece of Hair, their latest release, is a set of infectious pop punk, the kind of music that practically begs for a mosh pit. Across five bombastic, hook filled originals and a cover of Japanese art pop weirdo Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, the band never fails to sound anything less than joyous. It’s by far the most fun I had listening to a record this month.