Baker's Dozen: Kesha, Fredo Bang, Melody's Echo Chamber

This is a free post from Larry Fitzmaurice's Last Donut of the Night newsletter. Paid subscribers get one or two email-only Baker's Dozens every week featuring music I've been listening to and some critical observations around it.

And the very thing that form copy is describing is what you're seeing right in front of you—only, it's for free! For now, at least...as previously mentioned earlier this week, a lot of the stuff that would typically be behind "the paywall" will be free for the next month in order to give new potential subscribers an idea of what they'll be getting if they take part of the fabulous "birthday layoff" sale I'm currently running.

And what is that "birthday layoff" sale, you ask? We're talking 39% off the first six months of a monthly subscription, or the same discount off of a year of the annual subscription. You can grab the monthly sale ($1.83/month) here, and the annual sale ($18.30) here. You won't regret it, and you'll be keeping this 100% independent publication alive and well, too.

Now, for the uninitiated, a brief explanation of what the "Baker's Dozen" actually is: Once or twice a week, I send out a playlist of stuff I've recently spent some time with that came out over the last five or six years, along with critical observations made about said stuff. (Right now, the actual span I'm working within is 2021-present, but by the end of the year I'll be finished with 2021 for good.) The purpose of this is to cast as wide a net as possible regarding a musical survey, both for my benefit and yours: There's a lot of music that comes out these days, and someone has to try to listen to all of it! The taking-my-time approach also allows me to offer appraisals of zeitgeist-y things after the heat has cooled, which—in my opinion—is much preferred to being the 1,000th critic in 2024 to say "MJ Lenderman is brat."

So if you like what you see here, make sure to grab that subscription sale so you can keep seeing it when it goes back to being for paid subscribers only. OK, on with the show:

BKTHERULA, "OCB"

Last year's LUCY was far from the strongest BKTHERULA project to date; stylistically it all felt just a tad too scattershot, but there was the occasional moment or two (like this track) where she locked in to her strongest mode, which is the weightless and sour-sweet plugg-ish rap that she's made her name on over the years. Seems like she'll be dropping again soon, which I'm looking forward to even as I didn't love this record.

Kelvin Momo, "Dludlu" [ft. Steve, Mgiftos, and Yumbs]

Sifting through massive amapiano releases is a huge and highly daunting task; it's music that's designed to make you feel like you're riding a groove for hours, so picking a highlight from, say, Soweto guy Kelvin Momo's 2021 record Ivy League is all about zoning in on the details before you zone out completely. I love the fleck of a guitar hook that rides through this track, and of course the bass line is irresistible.

Kesha, "GLOW."

There's plenty of positive things to say about Kesha, but I've always been somewhat mystified at the tendency for music writers to spin the well-intentioned goodwill towards her into actual praise and acclaim for a catalog that has been largely comprised of terrible music...she is obviously not without talent, but nearly every record she's put out has been an absolute brick, from her country flirtations in the mid-2010s to the miserable turgidness of 2023's Gag Order. (I have a friend who recently went to Bonnaroo and returned in absolute disbelief that the crowd went absolutely crazy for what she deemed to be a subpar Kesha live set, but in fairness there's no crowd more willing to look past the quality of the music itself than a festival crowd.) Last year's . (that's Period, not a typo) was easily the best thing she's ever released to my ears, even as it only had one or two keepers; I find this hyperpop-lite rip to be moderately appealing even though "pop star does small hyperpop thing" is so dated that Doja put it in the grave circa Planet Her. I think Kesha will always have a career—arguably, she's already on her way towards becoming one of the "pop stars that older rock stars respect and admire"—but the recent moves made by artists like Slayyyter and Kim Petras (even as I'm no fan of the former) do suggest that her nachos are being more capably served by other chefs.

Seven Davis Jr., "Let's Travel..."

Speaking of nachos, we'll talk about Channel Tres a few weeks from now, who undeniably sliced some scallions atop Seven Davis Jr.'s cheese-covered tortilla chips for better or worse. Plenty of exactly-what-you'd-expect pleasures from Seven's 2021 record I See the Future, I like how this track is somehow relentless and breezy at the same time, you get swept up in it but it never feels too insistent.

Nilüfer Yanya, "Cold Heart"

I still need to write about My Method Actor on here at some point, but Nilüfer's one of those people who just keeps getting better with every release, this highlight from last year's Dancing Shoes EP is indicative of how often she's dropping gems in the type of releases that are usually considered stopgaps by other artists (see also: her excellent 2021 EP Feeling Lucky, which included the indelible "Day 7.5093").

Luigi Tozzi, "Epica del Ritorno"

Some gorgeously dense dub-ish techno from Rome's Luigi Tozzi, his 2021 release Deep Blue: Volume 3 really pushes the ambient stuff into the red, but there's also flashes of melody that ebb and flow, like being underwater and seeing light refracted through the surface.

Fredo Bang, "Street Lights"

Pain rap with a surprisingly lilting touch from Fredo's 2022 tape Two-Face Bang 2, zero in on the lyrics and there's plenty of sorrow but the production is disarmingly sunny and light on its feet, miles away from something you'd get from someone like Morray or Rod Wave.

Gallant, "Dynamite." [ft. Brandy]

Something I didn't know until right now is that Gallant is a fellow alum of NYU's Gallatin school...when the study (rubbing hands emoji here) is individualized, indeed. I've never really caught on to his stuff to much, to the point where I've often confused him with several similarly-named artists, but I was taken aback by this lovely Brandy collab from 2021's Neptune, when it comes to Ms. Norwood's 2020s renaissance it sits nicely between one of the best R&B songs of the decade period and the scatalogical SNL skit that was The Front Room (say it with me: M-E-S-S MESS!).

The Twilight Sad, "CHEST WOUND TO THE CHEST"

I reckon the Twilight Sad took a lot away from their mega-stint supporting the Cure on tour, this year's solid IT'S THE LONG GOODBYE definitely felt more similar to Robert and Co.'s swirling goth-iness than anything else the band has done previously. I had an excellent time chatting with James about returning to recorded music after seven years away, you can check that one out right here...would love to get another one from these guys slightly sooner next time, but no pressure!

benny blanco and 6 Dogs, "Lost"

Purely anthropological choice incoming...you can't even say to people "remember 6 Dogs?" because, well, who remembers 6 Dogs? This cut from benny blanco's sign-of-the-times 2021 showcase Friends Keep Secrets 2 is only notable to me because it sounds like 6 Dogs is saying "Smoking on a poop." I sure hope not!

Lisa Mitchell, "I Believe in Kindness"

Aussie Lisa Mitchell was apparently on Australian Idol way, waaaaay back in 2006, to the point where she actually became famous in her home country...every week I'm learning more and more about a country-slash-continent I'll never visit (too many spiders). It's a pleasant surprise that she makes very un-Australian Idol music, 2022's A Place to Fall Apart doesn't exactly break the mold when it comes to indie-ish singer-songwriter fare but she can clearly conjure up engaging-enough textures, which is far from nothing.

Hoavi, "Flay"

Another slice of dub techno for your headspace, this time from Russian stalwart Hoavi...I need to check out the record he put out this year but 2021's Invariant was lush with this stuff, typically befitting a Peak Oil release of course.

Melody's Echo Chamber, "Looking Backward"

We'll talk about last year's Unclouded at some point, but I was lightly tickled by how much the prior Melody's Echo Chamber record, 2022's Emotional Eternal, still sounded like the music of her once-collaborator Kevin Parker of Tame Impala...I mean, is the bass line here not a dead-ringer for a Parker contraption? I'm not complaining of course, as a Tame Impala defender at large it pains me to say this, but she might've done this sound better here than he actually did on his most recent outing.