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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.

Up this week, Zedd (with Selena Gomez), Consumer Electronics and the return of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

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Zedd – ‘ I Want You To Know’ (ft. Selena Gomez)

William Skar: Back in 2013, two prize goofballs on the FACT editorial staff claimed that Zedd’s ‘Clarity’ – eighth-rate MOTD VT fodder if ever I heard it – was one of the pop singles of the year. This toxic opinion spread like myxomatosis; I remained immune. ‘I Want You To Know’, however, is great – top hook, characterful vocal, and a drop that’s more reminiscent of Joker than any of the brostep elders. (7)

Selomé Samuel: Everything that’s wrong with EDM: bland beats with obnoxious lyrics that are just there to fill the space between drops. There is nothing worth saving here. (1)

Tayyab Amin: The only thing that makes this track stand out from its over-saturated and dated peers is the clumsiness of the lyrics and vocals. (2)

Brad Stabler: I heard this first on Friday, and my thousand yard stare hasn’t left as of Sunday. But like ‘Break Free’, give me about a week or two and I’ll come around eventually if only because Zedd’s tunes, over an extended period of exposure, always wear you down to the point where you stop caring that they suck, and you just go with it. Whether you want to or not. (3)

Mikey IQ Jones: Let’s take a moment to ponder the fact that it took three people to write this. THREE PEOPLE. This is where we’re at, folks – this is pop music now. Congratulate yourselves, consumers, because you’ve helped make this pointless slice of Hi-Def flatscreen vape smoke vodka-and-Red-Bull nightclub heaven a reality. (1)

Son Raw: I want to meet a person who likes this song and then tear them apart psychologically for enjoying it, just so they can have a shitty day. So I guess you could say it’s sparked an emotional reaction. (1)

2.5

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Peasantry or Light Inside of Light’

Brad Stabler: So the gods have come back and are bringing another, more polished Yanqui U.X.O. with them? I’ll take it. (9)

Son Raw: The very announcement of new Godspeed material is enough to cause spontaneous erections in Montreal-area music dorks, and while they’ve always been too guitar-oriented for my tastes, it’s impossible not to at least respect their hyper-serious doom shtick. I couldn’t tell you if this was recorded yesterday or 99 but I’m sure that’s how everybody wants it, so no harm no foul. (6)

Tayyab Amin: I’ve listened to enough GY!BE to sense familiarity in this, yet not enough to expect the way the track turns out. I’d sat in the Barbican especially for this, to achieve maximum monolithic resonance, though it begins all swirls of dust in the desert before rolling out into a full-on homecoming parade. Sick. (8)

William Skar: GY!BE are, along with Roxy Music and Tool, one of those big beast bands that I’ve never really listened to. So, a cold read: this is beefy in a Physical Graffiti way, and stirring with it, but I’m not sure I accessed the ecstatic reverie this is clearly supposed to be pushing me towards. (7)

Mikey IQ Jones: Upon the release of their early records, the mystique and anonymity surrounding Godspeed’s widescreen agit-prog (and let’s not kid ourselves here, they are fully a prog rock band) made the group’s tendencies toward droning avant dilettantism and cinematic cliché a much easier pill to swallow; not many of the group’s listeners were as well-versed in the concepts of combining Morricone with the Melvins, or had easy access to aesthetic forefathers and peers of the group. That many of the band’s fans were also considerably younger and less informed also helped things feel and sound so epic, yet with these new recordings, I’m having trouble hearing any real expansion or innovation in the group’s sound. These pieces just sound like homogenized and somewhat diluted representations of Godspeed’s earlier discography, and I’m left feeling blank and unmoved over the course of this piece’s eight minute runtime. When you build a career out of going big or going home, and your new album is making a big deal about its relative brevity, I’d hope as a listener to be getting an intensified concentration of your strengths. This plays more like “Pleasantry” than “Peasantry” to me. (5)

Selomé Samuel: I’ve never listened to anything from these guys, but this is chill. Definitely wouldn’t turn it off if it was playing in the background. (6)

6.8

Consumer Electronics – ‘Murder the Masters’

Mikey IQ Jones: In 2015, I’ve got as much interest in this as I have for listening to a Genesis P-Orridge spoken word album; the track goes absolutely nowhere, and Philip Best’s monologue plays like a crash course in noise bloke pickup lines. This would be of questionable and dubious quality for a new hooligan to be releasing, but considering that Best has been at this shit for longer than some of the Singles Club contributors have been alive, it’s a rather sad and sorry affair. Why is it that so many practitioners of noise and industrial music seemingly feel that the final frontier is the dance floor? Sorry guys, but it’s not – that’d be the pop charts. Let’s see you get there and REALLY fuck things up; never before has the aesthetic climate been more appropriate! Stop going to Berghain and try working with Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga instead (she’s down with Surgeon!!). Then we’ll talk. (3)

William Skar: A 10, because a) it’s brilliant, and b) Philip Best can Google me and find out where I live. (10)

Selomé Samuel: I’m a pretty cynical person and the lyrics here form a dark poem in the best of ways. However, having them read in a creepy whisper over that relentless beat is not my idea of a good time. I can’t imagine a scenario in which I would choose to play this – I’d rather experience them as text alone. (3)

Tayyab Amin: I reckon Alan Moore would really like this. Conversely, I’m not Alan Moore and I feel like the dialogue is directed towards someone white which takes me out of any immersion. The words are psychosocial scare buzzword bingo and as much as I can appreciate the relatively intrepid effort, it’s not really moving me any which way. (4)

Son Raw: Now this makes my skin crawl. It’s really easy to fuck up these spoken word records but Philip Best has got some acting chops to him and the kind of voice that could make a weather report sound like piss-rotted corruption. The thump in the background doesn’t really go anywhere, but as far as DJ tools go, this can and will freak out quite a few punters on drugs, and that’s a noble victory in itself. (7)

Brad Stabler: Anything Diagonal puts out I end up consuming in one sitting. Powell’s especially tasty. But I have to fully disclose that I’m sinking into Consumer Electronics for the first time. I’m not British enough to understand what Best is on about but without him over the top this track would be nowhere as spooky – once he leaves the track starts to disappear into the background. But those first five minutes are unimpeachable. (8)

5.8

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Samo Sound Boy – ‘Baby Don’t Stop’

Son Raw: This tries really hard and piles on so many emotional signifiers that it can’t help but be epic, but when these made-for-sunrise tracks actually work, it all flows naturally. Like ending a date with a kiss and instantly regretting it. (4)

William Skar: Makes Vondelpark look like Mötley Crüe. (5)

Tayyab Amin: Nothing out of the ordinary as far as the textures are concerned, but the way they’re arranged and flung about holds the track back from falling into that boring type of aesthetic pleasure. Samo says the album’s a reflection on life’s ups and downs – I can’t imagine most memories are worth reliving and it can be better to see the rose-tints for what they are; I don’t see myself coming back to this one too often. (6)

Brad Stabler: I have a sneaking suspicion that Body High is going to make on making ‘Changes’ from LOL Boys over and over until they fold or collapse. It’s a winning formula if Mountain Dew-tinged melancholy is your thing. As a bummed out East Coaster, this isn’t for me. The mixdown is shoddy: piano shares the same space as the synths, there’s about two hi-hats too many, leaving the vocals nowhere to go. It’s a mess. But that makes it work almost in spite of itself, until you get to the halfway mark and the breakdown, where all air and interest immediately leaves the room. (6)

Selomé Samuel: This is way more toned down than previous material I’ve heard from Samo Sound Boy, and unfortunately I don’t feel drawn in in the same way. The sounds are pretty, but once the track is over it almost feels like it never existed. I feel nothing. (5)

Mikey IQ Jones: I really dig the monstrously slow build going on here; there’s a lovely air of melancholy, some slightly jarring textural percussive elements that prevent the track from falling into a parody of instrumental twilight beat music, and even the tracks more hackneyed elements get used in a simple, direct manner that hits harder than it really has a right to be doing. Samo’s claim of the album being a “cohesive statement” inspired by Here, My Dear makes me simultaneously skeptical yet deeply curious; the DJ Dodger Stadium record was a refreshing mutation of deep house, r’n’b, and techno flirtations, so ‘Baby Don’t Stop”s more subdued arrangement is a surprise, even after the solid IDM chill of his ‘Open’ single. This one’s not gonna change the world, but it’s solid. (7)

5.5

Micah Freeman – ‘The Red’ (ft. Father)

Son Raw: Well, it’s tagged as “Galloping Blues Rap” so there’s no calling it out for false advertising. Against all odds, it’s pretty damn good too – kind of sounds like a Beck record with actual heartbreak instead of whimsy. I’m still not convinced Awful Records are the real deal but I’ll go to war with the Dungeon Fam I have, not the one I want. (6)

Mikey IQ Jones: I give credit to Awful Records for continually throwing curveballs and refusing to let people pin them down; this Freeman jam certainly keeps that train rolling, throwing around some digital juke joint stomp and swagger. It pains me to say that I’m just not feeling the sleepiness of the vocal; Freeman talks about “kick[ing] your door in and fuck[ing] shit up” in reference to this track, but I’m left wishing that he’d really cut loose at some point and tap into the full-bellied vigor that the song practically begs for. ‘The Red’ isn’t a total misstep, but something just feels off about it. For the first time with an Awful production, I’m not entirely sure that’s a good thing. (6)

Tayyab Amin: This is creeping up to ‘jam’ status. How does Father sound so clean over any track? Also, it’s tagged as “#Galloping Blues-Rap”, which I’m totally down for. (7)

Selomé Samuel: Slinky and sexy and catchy as hell. I already have this on repeat. (8)

Brad Stabler: Samo Sound Boy, take notes. If you’re going to go for the sad funk, this is how you do it. ‘The Red’ is where I go all in. If Freeman’s goal is to kick the door in and fuck shit up, he’s succeeded. All of his previous releases have had a degree of hesitation and shakiness to them, but here he’s delivered his most confident effort so far, which in turn makes this yet another reason for me to swear by Awful. This is just the right amount of tongue-in-cheek homage and appropriately sleazy late night shit, so by the time Father comes in on clean-up duty I’ve been won over twice. (9)

William Skar: Blog rap syllogism: Freeman is to Awful as The Internet is to OFWGKTA. Enjoyably louche, but I’m not sure I can remember much about it, and I’m listening to it right now. (6)

7

Bok Bok & Sweyn Jupiter – ‘Papaya Lipgloss’

Tayyab Amin: singlesclub-3.2.2015 (9)

William Skar: I am, like everyone else, a big fan of the Night Slugs/Her Thumper-in-a-dumpster sound, and this perfumed take on the Classical Curves template is, for the most part, delightful. The usual stannic attack is there, but the softer moments work brilliantly – although it definitely runs out of puff in the second half. (7)

Brad Stabler: 2014 was the year where Bok Bok finally climbed Night Slugs out of the two-year rut it’s been in and got officially busy, so after expanding his palette with all the chop acrobatics on Your Charizmatic Self, it’s a small letdown to see Bok Bok dial it back so hard here. Emphasis on small: this ain’t exactly something that would go off anywhere except in the club’s opening hour, but to that end, this tune does a pretty dandy job. Maybe it’s just me, but lately when Night Slugs tries its hand at more traditional four-to-the-floor stuff, it never seems to go much of anywhere (those funky ass chords that drop in the middle of L-Vis 1990’s ‘Not Mad’ being the most offensive example). ‘Papaya Lipgloss’ doesn’t either, but it’s a comfortable ride that makes me at least want to know who Sweyn Jupiter is. This also gets extra marks for the title. (7.5)

Son Raw: The drums are absolutely smashing, but the keyboard jam on top loses its way pretty quickly. The most interesting thing to come out of Night Slugs over the past few years has been their dedication to the Club Construction aesthetic and the fearlessness that came with keeping a focus on percussion – this wanders off into the ether. (6)

Mikey IQ Jones: The only thing that this “Club Mix” makes me want to do is go to the bathroom or go the hell home. This is just crying out for a proper vocal, and while texturally it’s lovely, sleek, and slippery, there’s just not enough dynamism anywhere in this track for me to want to hold on and pay attention. Part of me hopes that someone will sample or interpolate this into a proper silky banger, but until then, I’m getting in a cab and leaving the club. (6)

Selomé Samuel: At once sparse and soulful, the keys here are really what do it for me. I’m not crazy about that “What” sample, but I do think it adds a dash of energy to an otherwise relaxed club track. (7)

7

Final scores:

Bok Bok & Sweyn Jupiter – ‘Papaya Lipgloss’ (7)
Micah Freeman – ‘The Red’ (ft. Father) (7)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Peasantry or Light Inside of Light’ (6.8)
Consumer Electronics – ‘Murder the Masters’ (5.8)
Samo Sound Boy – ‘Baby Don’t Stop’ (5.5)
Zedd – ‘ I Want You To Know’ (ft. Selena Gomez) (2.5)


Read this next: 
The 100 greatest track titles in dance music history

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