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Early April is usually far too early to be talking about potential songs of the summer, but if that’s what it takes to start pushing Nostalgia ahead of another current contender, George Ezra’s giddily mediocre Shotgun, then so be it. To be fair, the Danish pop star has a head start since her new single bears more than a passing resemblance to Drake’s recent behemoths. That cosy dancehall vibe is made even more emotional by sounding as if it was partially recorded through the wall of a house party. But better still, she trades his slightly whiny lyrics for sweet, empathetic verses about first loves, and the pain of losing them.

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After pinging around the little leagues of Atlantan rap for the best part of a decade, 30-year-old Trouble has been taken under the wing of Mike WiLL Made-It, who has produced the entirety of his excellent debut studio album, Edgewood, just as he did for rap scamps Rae Sremmurd. These longform projects allow Mike WiLL to go beyond the bass-driven backings of his hits (Formation, Bugatti et al) and explore some brilliantly weird territory. On Bring It Back, the beat is underpinned by a Norma Desmond of a melody: once pretty, perhaps, but now roughened, mad and lurching. The lyrics from Trouble and his imperial guest star, Drake, cleave to basic stuff of paper and hoes, but the medium is the message here.

Coffee tables across the land are strewn with a tasteful and poisonous kind of electronic music, full of plangent chords and sad-sack ambience to make your comedown seem deeper than it is – think Nils Frahm and the Erased Tapes roster. Jon Hopkins has wandered around and sometimes into this territory, so it’s a relief that his comeback track, Emerald Rush, really bounces. The confidence of the swinging beat is undercut by stuttering uncertainty and frayed edging, and the “drop” – such as it is – prompts a tangible chill to sweep across the track.

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The nostalgia cycle dictates that the turn of the millennium is experiencing a revival, with most current pop stars in thrall to that era, leaning towards the productions of Timbaland, Max Martin and Denniz Pop. It’s smart, then, that Louisa Johnson has veered the other way on Yes: “I want to be a Christina, not a Britney,” she told songwriter Camille Purcell. The result is the 2015 X Factor winner’s first distinctive single after generic trop-house bangers: she nails Stripped-era Xtina’s snarled delivery, also channelling the Sugababes at their most watch-out-or-I’ll-cut-you (“If you a freak like me, lemme hear you say yes”), and Ariana Grande 2.0’s I’m-grown-now breathlessness. Blink and you’ll miss 2 Chainz’s verse, but as a feature, at least he’s an upgrade from Olly Murs.

The first single from the Manchester duo’s forthcoming third album, Ecstatic Arrow, is a revelation made for spring’s sleepy awakening. Featuring one of the loveliest saxophone parts since Destroyer’s Kaputt, The Second Shift exudes calm and, in its watery, shivering synths, reflects the Alpine surroundings of its recording in Switzerland. The curious gracefulness of the arrangement brings to mind Julia Holter’s latter-day albums, while Alice Merida Richards’ assured, unshowy voice feels spiritually connected to Laurie Anderson and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier before her. Genuinely transcendent. (This track isn’t available on the Apple Music playlist unfortunately).



When the history of punk is written in marker pen on a toilet wall, you hope there will be space for Rick Froberg and John Reis. The San Diegans first formed Pitchfork in 1989 (the moody but quite sweet-natured emo-punk band rather than the hipster website), before segueing into Drive Like Jehu, who blended chop-change time signatures with pure punk energy to spectacular effect. Reis ended up on Top of the Pops with Rocket from the Crypt before the pair reconvened for Hot Snakes, who are back after 14 years with great new LP Jericho Sirens. I Need a Doctor leads it off in style: the kind of song that kicks in the swing doors of a saloon in a truck-stop town.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Leon Bridges Composite: PR

Beginning with the kind of xylophone and harp that summons birds to the shoulders of Disney heroines, this swoon of a soul song leaves no wheels reinvented but is totally spellbinding. The tale of Bridges being unable to take a relationship beyond its first flush, thanks to being a rather busy rising music star, is rendered in affectingly heartfelt, Maxwell-esque tones.

Underground dance artists playing with trance isn’t a new trend – witness DJs such as Total Freedom or Kamixlo playing rushing Euphoria compilation classics, or the likes of Lorenzo Senni and even Bicep tapping into its mouth-agape beauty (elsewhere on this month’s playlist, Gabber Eleganza flirts with it too). Rui Ho, a non-binary Chinese producer, does it smarter than most – on Supernova, taken from their new EP Becoming Is an Eventual Situation, the bassline might be straight from a Dutch meat-market club, but the effects above it are ectoplasmic and eerie.

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One of the best and most under-appreciated singer-songwriters on the planet has returned with a new album, Slowly Paradise, following the utterly essential Skullsplitter (2015) and Guitar & Voice (2012). Eric Chenaux, from Toronto, essays a kind of experimental jazz balladry – there is something truly gorgeous in the way his voice, with its quadruple-ply softness and Chet Baker romance, chafes against his improvisatory guitar. Wild Moon has a buzzing melody that moves with butterfly impetuousness around Chenaux’s surefooted vocal refrain.

Tint is outsider New York composer Zane Morris, who uses “vacant industrial buildings, lunchroom cafeterias and bedroom studios” to make his pieces. Miniature Moment, taken from his 300-copy album Ricochet Screen, sounds like it was made in the former: a metallic ringing phased into a juddering rhythm, it’s like a slice of high New York minimalism by Laurie Spiegel or La Monte Young drawn from the chaos of a metro interchange. After 12 minutes, you feel positively exfoliated.

What have you been enjoying this month? Let us know in the comments below.



