Each week on the FACT Singles Club, a selection of our writers work their way through the new music of the week gone by.
With the way individual tracks are now consumed, the idea of what constitutes a single has shifted dramatically in the last half a decade, and its for this reason that the songs reviewed across the next pages are a combination of 12″ vinyl releases, mixtape cuts, Soundcloud uploads and more.
Rated and slated this week? Mary J Blige & Disclosure, Grouper, Kode9 & The Spaceape, and more.
Use your keyboard’s arrow keys or hit the prev / next arrows on your screen to turn pages (page 1/7)
Grouper – ‘Call Across Rooms’
Alex Macpherson: As Grouper always is: a beautiful mood that would be useful during one of those grey winter comedowns when you just need to feel blank and vacant for half a day, without ever deigning to sink into anything as undignified as a hook or any memorable element at all. (6)
Joe Muggs: Very very nice. Very very Kranky. Feels like it will make most sense in context of the album, as is often the way with Grouper. Makes me look forward to staying in on a winter evening drinking wine. (SPAM: Muggs in the Attic VIII: Winter Evening With Wine) (7)
Angus Finlayson: This strikes me as an odd choice for the single. It’s not the most heart-squeezing thing on the album, though it’s certainly not squeeze-free. My fave Soundcloud comment: “why is groupy sad?” She always has been mate. She always has been. (7)
John Twells: Just gorgeous – I know I’m biased but fuck it. Funeral jam for the ages. (8)
7
Rome Fortune x ILoveMakkonen – ‘FriendsMaybe’
Joe Muggs: That has more funk than a rugby team’s changing room. If Andre 3000 is going to spend his time fannying around pretending to be Jimi Hendrix, then this is precisely the sort of thing we need more of. On the one hand, it doesn’t exactly lodge in the memory, but on the other it’s very moreish. (7)
Alex Macpherson: If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends. Or in language these two might understand: bros before hoes. Nice beat, though; I look forward to the female responses (which will hopefully get rid of ILoveMakonnen’s squawking hook). (4)
John Twells: Love Rome, love Makonnen and it makes sense that they should end up throwing down together, but this tag team effort doesn’t excite me anywhere near as much as either of their big solo bangers. I think I’m just allergic to fun. (6)
5.7
Deejay Dear – ‘Unnatural’
Angus Finlayson: I can’t work out if this is more ‘Hyph Mngo’ or poppy early ‘00s breaks or a tween Four Tet. It’s nice though. My one crit would be that the buildup-to-event ratio is very unfavourable. (7)
Joe Muggs: It’s nice, but it feels a bit throwbacky – it’s Ramadanman circa 2010, but it’s also vintage Orbital / Artificial Intelligence. Bit torn, it’s lush, but it’s almost too slick… it’s one of those ones that will either get better or worse with massive over-exposure, and it’s impossible to tell which. Getting splinters in my bum from fence sitting here but… (7)
John Twells: Who could it be? Is it Aphex Twin? Is it actually music made by a deer touched by the same nuclear goo that mutatated the Turtles? Who cares really, as the track’s actually pretty ace. Sort of sounds like Floating Points’ ‘K&G Beat’ crossed with Joy Orbison’s ‘Hyph Mngo’. (7)
Alex Macpherson: Can we cut it out with the anonymity already? Both listeners and critics fetishising it, and artists and labels using it as a cheap PR trick (or as a means of hiding something, usually privilege or conflicts of interest). And if Deejay Deer is a white boy, he also needs to cut it out with using black women as an “exotic” representation of himself; did we learn nothing from the Jungle fiasco? Unfortunately, the anonymity here also extends to the not-unpleasant music. (5)
6.5
Mary J Blige / Disclosure – ‘Right Now’
Alex Macpherson: I love the idea of a Mary J. Blige/Disclosure collaboration in theory, as they seem ideally placed to save each other from themselves. Blige’s recent albums have – a scattering of phenomenal tracks notwithstanding – been directionless, overlong grab-bags rather than authoritative artistic statements; Disclosure have never quite shaken off a lingering plastickiness about their music. She could do with a cohesive sound; they could do with a lot more soul. And isn’t the idea of MJB, free from pain in her contented middle age, morphing into a house diva the most alluring possibility? What could go wrong? Well, on this evidence, everyone phoning it in. The beat is tepid even by Disclosure’s standards, MJB seems only semi-interested in her own song. Maybe she should’ve bypassed the chancers and gone straight for the real shit, by which I mean Quentin Harris. (4)
Angus Finlayson: I was open to the idea that this could be good, but nah, not really. (5)
Joe Muggs: This one slips by deceptively easily, and you could think it’s not got much to it… but it’s the very definition of a grower. There’s some really funny subtle little musical flourishes going on under the surface, and MJB is still MJB – even if she never really cuts loose, and even if the song is something you might think was a bit more Mariah / Whitney oriented, she is still very strong on this. Pretty splendid. (8)
John Twells: Not content with flogging their nauseatingly slick, watered down “house” to every radio station on the planet (why is ‘Latch’ on rap playlists in the US right now? Anyone?), Disclosure are now infecting Mary J with their hideous disease. And we thought her fried chicken advert was bad. Someone call Skrillex, Diplo and Deadmau5 – all is forgiven. (1)
4.5
Arca – ‘Thievery’
Angus Finlayson: Is this… Moombahton? Not as jaw-slackening as some of the stuff on &&&&&, but then I often feel slightly bad for artists who manage to make jaw-slackening things early on in their careers. Odds are they won’t be able to keep it up forever – and besides, there are plenty of other things to be achieved with music besides slack jaws. That said, this is a little bit dull. (6)
Alex Macpherson: The guy who held FKA Twigs back until she went off to make much more interesting music by herself? Figures his own material would be a torpid, half-arsed 3am laptop music sketch. (3)
John Twells: It’s funny how IDM never really went away, it’s just been continuously re-badged since the early ‘00s. This isn’t a million miles away from something you might have heard on an Isophlux compilation back in 1999 (L’usine ICL, maybe?) but Arca’s strength is in the tiny touches that somehow bring it right bang up to date. Is that a dancehall beat I hear buried in there? Good lad. (7)
Joe Muggs: Hrmmm, it’s a little bit “when’s it going to start?” I feel a bit hypocritical giving it a low mark as I would actually play it out, but I can only really get into it thinking of it as a warm-up / interlude track – on its own, it just feels like a sketch for something more complete. (4)
5
Kode9 & The Spaceape – ‘The Devil is a Liar’
Angus Finlayson: Is that… a quote from The Usual Suspects? Interesting to see Spaceape playing the more conventional frontman – and at a time when Kode9’s rap-inflected beats leave all the right spaces for one, too. Given the lyrical content there’s something weirdly dry and reserved about the music. Then again, perhaps its frosty demeanour is partly the source of its power. (7)
Alex Macpherson: The pitter-patter of awkward beats limping around in ever-decreasing circles. (4)
Joe Muggs: Uggh, quoting The Usual Suspects is not an auspicious start. This is pretty catchy though. Production’s crisp. Bit odd that he seems on the verge of slipping into American accents at points. Be interesting to know whether the “cultural appropriation” crew think it’s more OK for Kode 9 and Spaceape to adapt Haitian culture for their own ends than it is for tUnE-yArDs. Not the most instantly exciting thing they’ve done, but is definitely not just treading water and it’ll be interesting to hear more. (6)
5.7
Final scores:
Grouper – ‘Call Across Rooms’ (7)
Deejay Dear – ‘Unnatural’ (6.5)
Kode9 & The Spaceape – ‘The Devil is a Liar’ (5.7)
Rome Fortune x ILoveMakkonen – ‘FriendsMaybe’ (5.7)
Arca – ‘Thievery’ (5)
Mary J Blige / Disclosure – ‘Right Now’ (4.5)
