Baker's Dozen: Jane Remover, DJ Shadow, Shabazz Palaces

City Girls, "Show Me the Money"

City Girls' RAW was tragic, and not just because it was their final album for now...multiple songs on the accidental swan song are indicative of the basically-a-cover pop interpolation trend that spread across 2023 and 2024 like a bad rash, touching the entirety of the Coi Leray record (by my word one of the worst albums of the decade period) as well as this horrendous Usher song. It wasn't all misery when it comes to RAW though, I thought that this cut was a delicious slice of slightly-toned-down Miami bass courtesy of Bigg D and Cainon Lamb.

Sofia Kourtesis, "Cecilia"

Madres was far and away my favorite record of 2023, just pure euphoric dance music from someone who increasingly seems to be DJ Koze's heir apparent (she honestly made a better record this decade than Koze did, but we'll talk more about that some other time). I'll share a few songs from it over the next couple of BD's, this song is just so Koze-y in its woozy and slightly psychedelic motion.

Jane Remover, "Video"

Now here's someone who's constantly suffering under the weight of expectation...I'm making it sound worse than it is, I really love Jane Remover's music across the board (as recent subscribers know I also enjoyed the Venturing record from this year), but they do seem to be subject to an audience that's never quite satisfied post-Frailty with what they're dishing out. This year's Revengeseekerz was energizing and excellent but had people complaining about aesthetic-hopping—and this was after the complaints surrounding the very solid Census Designated, which had people complaining about (you guessed it) aesthetic-hopping. I do think that when it comes to artists of Jane Remover's calibre they're better off just not paying attention to what their listeners are saying about their music and doing whatever, a good example of people being very hard to please quite possibly because they want something that they can't quite put their finger on. Anyway! I love this song from Census, huge tune, one of a few examples in their catalog where, if you can make something as potent and overwhelmingly powerful as this, you're goated as hell for it.

MIKE, "should be!" [ft. Lila Ramani]

I waxed a little on Burning Desire being one of MIKE's finest albums last time around, and the production playing a not-insignificant part in that—so I thought this would be a good one to share as well, given that it's a rare cut that really lets his boards work as dj blackpower sing. Honestly not that far off from something you'd imagine Madlib firing off, with a touch of haunted obfuscation that reminds me of Yves Tumor's Safe in the Hands of Love.

DJ Shadow, "All My"

One time I asked DJ Shadow about the state of the world and he told me a story about being stuck in the airport...honestly, the man gave us Entroducing..., I'll allow it. As with most of his post-Entroducing... work, there's nothing too remarkable about his most recent full-length Action Adventure, but I do like how playful he gets on this cut with the footwork framework, it fits him nicely, makes you wonder how it would turn out if he locked in for an entire record that sounded like this.

Ragana, "In the Light of the Burning World"

Ragana are always reliable for this sort of Thrill Jockey metal (that sounds like an insult but I swear it's not), seems like the general consensus is that Desolation's Flower is their best record to date, truthfully I don't have the stuck-in-the-brain familiarity with their entire catalog that would allow me to say the same but it is quite good, when it comes to this track specifically the way that the drum fill sounds like it slightly speeds up on the chorus is a strange and thrilling texture to encounter.

Shabazz Palaces, "Woke Up in a Dream" [ft. Lil Tracy]

Always gonna respect what Ishmael Butler's up to even when I'm not on his wavelength, which is admittedly how I've been with most of Shabazz Palaces post-Black Up (although I think that the project plays better live than it does on record). I thought his take on drippy, depressive emo-rap circa 2023's Robed in Rareness was fascinating, certainly helped that he had his son Lil Tracy appear on this particular cut.

BabyTron, "Kai Cenat/Old Days" [ft. Luh Tyler]

BabyTron's trajectory is hard to chart because he's always been so scattershot; that said, you could probably make a case for 2023's MegaTron 2 as a right-before-the-beginning-of-the-decline moment, a few highlights abound, I was particularly struck by this low-key beat-switch two-hander with Luh Tyler, whose high-timbre drawl provides a nice foil to BabyTron's NBA-stats machine-gun fire.

The Embassy, "Amnesia"

Good example of a band that shouldn't be a blind spot for me but nonetheless is, I thought these guys' 2023 comeback E-Numbers was fairly solid, obviously the Sincerely Yours-by-way-of-New Order vibes are strong here.

Kevin Drew, "Party Oven"

Who knows if we'll ever get another Broken Social Scene album, Hug of Thunder itself felt like a gift...for now, we've got the very autumnal Kevin Drew solo album Aging to mull over, I have a longtime BSS-head friend who didn't like this one and it does skew National-y but I think it's reasonably satisfying and, in the case of this track, achingly pretty when it comes to what it's doing.

Actress, "M2 ( f 8 )"

It is so Actress to make an album of tracks named after chess coordinates, which is exactly what he did on 2023's very solid LXXXVIIII...given how brainy and far-out he can get I was surprised by the lovely and straightforward wooziness of this cut. I had Darren on the newsletter last year and it was honestly one of my favorite interviews I've ever run, you can check that out here.

Eli Escobar, "In My Bones"

Been on a bit of a tear when it comes to sharing Eli tracks from 2023, the man had a hell of a year back then...this cut is pure class, all shimmery synth maneuvers and crisp backbeat action with some house vocals providing nice textural chew in the distance, good stuff from a guy who knows his way around good stuff.