From A Hardcore Distance

RIP Magic “Screwdark”

There are moments in “Screwdark” that sound like three DJ Shadows DJing at each other like the Spider-Man meme, or someone trying to Zaireeka the entire Mo Wax catalog. It’s a loud and cluttered sound, but the style is bold and the groove is definitely there. The half muttered, half rapped vocals are mixed so low that you could miss them entirely, but I like the Shy Ronnie vibe in the context of this stylish cacophony.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

April + Vista “Very Bad News”

April + Vista are basically an R&B band filtered through the aesthetics of the second half of Radiohead’s discography. This may seem odd in the abstract, but in practice it highlights how much oddball R&B was already in that music, and how cool it’d be if Erykah Badu actually worked with Jonny Greenwood. “Very Bad News” is groovy yet grim, and particularly indebted to the ominous orchestration of Greenwood after he’d spent some time writing film scores.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Chenayder “Wonder”

Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life” and the DNA remix of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner” were formative pop experiences for me as a kid, so of course I’m a mark for this song, which has a very similar beat to the former and melodically interpolates the latter. Vega gets a songwriting credit here, which strikes me as overcautious – it’s not quite the same tune, and I suspect Chenayder landed on this melodic flow coincidentally. She’s certainly going for a different feeling as she sings about a torturous unrequited love. Her words are a little more bleak than her delivery, but how upsetting can you be when you stack harmonies this beautifully?

Buy it from Amazon.