New LA Adds: Beach Party, Jonwayne, Nguzunguzu and Brightner
Beach Party - “Fun”, “I Can’t Surf”: Fun beachy California lo-fi garage rock bizness. If you’ve heard Wavves or Fidlar or Ty Segall (who produced this) you’ve definitely heard this before but it’s a formula that doesn’t lose its appeal.
RIYL: The artists I just mentioned
Jonwayne - Rap Album One: Jonwayne is a rap purist, but not one that looks backward trying to recapture some lost golden era. He instead constantly pushes the genre forward, rapping over stuttering Brainfeeder-style bedroom beats (“The Come Up, Pt. 2”) and operatic psych-freakouts (“Reflection”) in a world-weary yet impossibly dextrous voice. I hate everything I just wrote music writing is hard but basically listen to this album it’s really good.
RIYL: MF Doom, El-P, Jeremiah Jae
Nguzunguzu - Skycell: Cavernous, kind of terrifying, hyperdigital post-everything dance music from the Fade To Mind records crew. Sounds like what you listen to as you speed through the metaverse from Snow Crash- total information overload house-grime&b.
Recommended track: "Mecha"
RIYL: analyzing tumblr culture, Wiley’s devil mixes, Visionist, weird modern art
Brightener - Make Real Friends EP: Indie garage pop with nice harmonies and appropriately crunchy guitars. Lyrics can be a little bit grating at times but there’s a really nice earnestness to this that, to me, somehow sets it apart from its ipod-commercial-core brethren. I think it’s partly because the vocals are mixed lower so they aren’t the focus but maybe I’m just in a good mood. This all sounds like faint praise but I actually like this a lot.
RIYL: Vampire Weekend, Girls