Baker's Dozen: Pooh Shiesty, Logic1000, Palberta, and the Return of the Return of the Notwist

Baker’s Dozen is a regular thing where I share music I like or find interesting as well as my thoughts on it. It’s not on streaming so I couldn’t include a track in the playlist, but I’d highly recommend checking out FAUZIA’s flashes in time on Bandcamp.

https://open.spotify.com/embed/playlist/4g19UlXgo4yEkpzQYlwS80

One Plus Two, “Promise”

Last one, I promise. Real Gin Blossoms flavor to this, I know I’ve said this before in previous installments but something that I love about the Strum & Thrum compilation is the subtle expansiveness of what “jangle” can sound like that it represents.

Black Coffee, “Wish You Were Here” [ft. Msaki]

Black Coffee is a pretty good DJ but I find a lot of his productions to skew on the side of hotel-lounge house music in a bad way. There’s a simmering elegance to this track though, even though you can practically smell the concierge while listening to this. (You might be familiar with Black Coffee from his appearance on Drake’s More Life, and the style his presence brought to parts of that project is certainly present here too.)

Pooh Shiesty, “Box of Churches” [ft. 21 Savage]

A beautiful yawn of a beat, 21 Savage also sounds good on this. Don’t have a ton to say about Pooh Shiesty right now otherwise, the project this is off of sounded good though.

Yasmin Williams, “I Wonder (Song For Michael)”

I love this, the record as a whole is pretty special too, sounds like inner peace. One of two instrumental guitar jams on this installment, this is the lighter half.

slowthai, “i tried”

So far, it seems like Slowthai’s taking the Dizzee Rascal route when it comes to hotly tipped grime artists, following up a brash and bold breakout with a more expansive, slightly old-head-ier record that expands his own sonic world while gesturing towards more accessible waters. That is to say that I can almost feel him becoming less interesting in real time—and, to be clear, I was lukewarm at best to begin with, even though I think “Peace of Mind” is brilliant. This has a languid and lovely gait to it though, you can hear the A$AP Mob affiliation in the New York-iness of it all.

Goat Girl, “Where Do We Go From Here?”

Maybe my favorite record of the year so far, adventurous and packed with ideas. Hard for me to pick a song but this is the big one for me at the moment. They remind me of Broadcast sometimes, if you missed the piece on Tender Buttons you can read it here.

Madlib, “Chino”

I think people got really excited about Madlib working with Four Tet on an album without realizing that Madlib releases are basically cool beat tapes instead of cohesive listening experiences…which is totally fine of course. Madlib’s the kind of producer where you dig for the gems because the way he hears things is clearly unique and interesting, “Chino” is a good example of that.

The Style Council, “Promised Land (Radio Edit)”

Another quasi-long-running bit on the Baker’s Dozen comes to an end—specifically, posting tracks from the recent Style Council box set. You know, I could never really get into The Jam despite trying a bunch of times, and I’ve always “respected” Paul Weller’s solo stuff more than I’ve actually liked it, but The Style Council is really my speed in general. Good stuff.

Asphyx, “In Blazing Oceans”

Sick. This thing really gets its hooks in your flesh around the midway point. Can’t even remember if I’ve said this around these parts, but I’ve definitely said it to people in conversations—as someone who’s only been getting back into the hard stuff in recent years, I really have no way to talk about a lot of it lingua franca-wise other than “this rules.” But this rules.

Mason Lindahl, “Outside Laughing”

The dark to Yasmin Williams’ light. Bizarre online-brain thing but whenever I think of the title of this song I think of the Nathan Fielder tweet about his friends just being out of frame, laughing with him.

Logic1000, “I Won’t Forget”

Good stuff, EP is banging too.

The Notwist, “Loose Ends”

The new Notwist album is really good! They pulled a bunch of jazz people into their wold and the results feel like a continuation of the sound they’ve been known for while also adding some new textures to the mix. Circa Neon Golden the buzz about the Notwist was that they were one of a few “lap-pop” acts, but I think they’ve always been underrated in terms of evoking something drowsy, droll, and distinctly un-electronic—like they do on this track, which reminds me of “Trashing Days.”

Palberta, “The Way That You Do”

I really like the way Palberta are thinking, even when the music sounds off to me. I especially like how it sounds like their music kind of arises organically, like it’s growing from the ground up. The new album is exciting even when it’s challenging, and interesting even when I don’t like how it sounds all that much. Good band!