Greetings and smellutations, dear friends! I do hope your week has been agreeable to your constitution, and you’re coming into the weekend with all limbs intact.
We have another excellent week of New Music, and I’ve found nine titles that are enriching my life. Maybe you’ll feel some way about them.
A single from Guelph, Ontario’s Noah23 was dropped on Wednesday. His album that came out at the beginning of February is on rotation at Casa Enemjay, and I’m pleased to see him working with the legendary MC Kool Keith on Forbidden History. Produced by DJ Wardove, it’s three minutes of deep bass and stoned beats, with contemplative samples.
A multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer from Los Angeles made one of the more exciting releases that came out this week. Known only as Low Leaf, she has released her seventh full-length, MiCRODOSE. It comes with a unique energy, as the artist utilizes harp and piano to accentuate sketchy beats and Low’s warm vocals.
I featured an Afghan Artist based in Berlin around this time last year named Farhot, who released an EP on the occasion of the Persian New Year. He’s back again with a single, in celebration of Nowroz 1402. The track features rapper Khan, and excellent downtempo production with winning hooks.
A label from Guatemala with deep spiritual roots called Resueño released their first compilation album this week. Cacao Dance features over thirty artists across 21 tracks of music, spanning over two hours. It’s the work of Electronic and organic artists from around the world who share a connection with Cacao, and its many positive properties. Meditative and calm.
From Olympia, Washington comes a rip-roaring rough and ready Punk trio called Fugitive Bubble. Aggressive, high-energy drums drive Delusion, their ten track, eighteen minute album. Through fits and starts, their singer frolics with athletic enthusiasm.
In the City of Haale, Germany, south of Berlin, is a Punk/ Experimental Label called Turbo Discos, that consistently releases good albums. This week an artist named simply Jonas, has released a lo-fi gem, as UMA VOX. Golden Agers is eight tracks of guitar-driven Post Punk-Pop, with woozy riffs and double-tracked vocals that sound like they are run through a Leslie Speaker. Features a cover of EXWHITE’s Estray.
A hotly anticipated Hip-Hop collaboration between New York’s JPEGMAFIA and Detroit’s Danny Brown is blowing my speakers this week. SCARING THE HOES is JPEG’s production; booming beats and creative rhythm play. Danny’s rhymes are fast and furious.
Transcendent vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant is so good she could sing The New York Times Saturday Crossword and make you cry. On most of her latest album, Mélusine, Cécile sings in French, making it largely incomprehensible for me, but the New York Artist’s voice is so evocative, it transmits emotion so effortlessly. Fortunately for a Music lover like myself, she doesn’t just rest on being a pretty voice. She is a dazzling pianist, and has an ear for the Musical road less travelled.
A solo bedroom producer named James Goodson, from Richmond, Virginia, has made an early contender for my favourites of 2023. Recording as Dazy, his new album OTHERBODY is eight tracks, and twenty minutes of the hookiest and clever Pop writing I’ve heard in a long time. Goodson’s double-tracked vocals recall Brian Wilson or Alex Chilton, and the harmonies and arrangements are flawlessly odd and fresh. It also brings to mind the output of The Beatles in the mid-1960’s. With this kind of pedigree it was bound to be my Feature Pick for the week.
Hope you’re able to find something of value to you. If you don’t, maybe just a reminder that you are valuable will suffice. Be kind to yourself!
Smell ya later!
New Music Jason’s Picks 
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