This might just be our most chaotic playlist to date. It’s musical (or, more accurately, emotional) whiplash as we careen from the unbridled yearning of Charli xcx’s “Wuthering Heights”-soundtracking “Eyes of the World feat. Sky Ferreira”, to the irrepressibly upbeat “Keychain” from Anderson .paak and and aespa, to Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s cinematic “Good Flirts”, and back down into the crumblings of Charli xcx’s Brat empire with A. G. Cook’s “Dread”.
But, one project we’d like to draw your attention to in particular is Kiss Facility’s debut Khazna (roughly meaning ‘treasure house’). It’s a true labour of love from IRL couple Sega Bodega and Mayah Alkhateri, which sees the pair explore shoegaze in the Arabic language. Where the genre’s forebearers like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive evoke a certain warmth in their tranqued-out walls of sound, however, Khazna feels slightly colder. On some level, it’s a reflection of the newfound relevance shoegaze has found in the digital age, recontextualising its original yearning for escapism against the profound physical isolation many experience today.
In fact, isolation feels like a bit of a trend this month, with Mitski’s eighth studio album, Nothing’s About to Happen to Me, casting the singer-songwriter as a social recluse diving deep into her own psyche – and also spending a lot of time with cats. Drain Gang star Bladee, however, takes these feelings to the extreme in the new single “Magic Misery”. Some of the lyrics don’t bear repeating here but trust us, it’s pretty heavy stuff.
Where February has really shone, though, is in a wonderful array of deep-cut singles for listeners to sink their teeth into. There’s pop gigabrains Frost Children and Ninajirachi’s cross-Pacific linkup “Sisters”, Fcukers’ gloriously nostalgic house cut “Beatback”, London producer-to-watch Amil Raja’s loved-up “i like u around”, and, perhaps deep-cut-iest of all, Texan musician ryaan burks’ dreamy R&B release “feels like love!”. In truth, each of these deserves to be our track of the month, and each of them provides the perfect opportunity to check out these artists if you haven’t tapped in already.
Album of the month: Kiss Facility – Khazna
Track of the month: Frost Children and Ninajirachi – “Sisters”
Although we post these round-ups at the end of every month, we update the playlist regularly for our subscribers – so be sure to follow us on Spotify for the hottest new tracks.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.dazeddigital.com ’
