017! S+V Mini Digest
It's a bite-sized link-fest round-up
I’ve been telling myself for a while that I would pick up the pace and start putting out more ‘sletters. Well, the time has finally come. Introducing to you the S+V Mini Digest, where I will be sharing weekly links with small tidbits of insight. I’ll still be doing the larger and more thought-out pieces, but there’s often too much to share that doesn’t fit into a neat pattern or trend.
This first one is more of a bumper edition than all the future ones will be, since I’ve been link-hoarding these past couple of weeks.
It feels weird to being making listicles amidst the cruelty and insanity of everything happening right now, but what would life be without a little song or a video to lose yourself in? Things remain very weird and dystopian in even the smallest ways. Like why am I listening to a 7-minute guided meditation narrated by Azealia Banks? And why is Instagram trying to make me talk with a dead rapper? (and calling me bro while we’re at it?)
There’s a lot of “I don’t know whether to laugh or scream” vibes, and most of the time it’s both. Maybe I’d get a lobotomy, but in this economy I can’t really even afford one. There’s a great piece about the reigning cursed vibe in ArtNet.
That aside, I’ve also been spending my time accidentally dancing next to the inimitable Dr. Orna (from the show Couples Therapy) at Floating Points’ live show, and perusing the sale of Tekashi 6ix9ine’s seized valuables, after he didn’t pay taxes to the IRS for 4 years.
*As I ramp things up, please send along to any friends or fellow ‘sletter dweebs that might be interested. And as always, smash the Subscribe button and *not* the Follow in the app, since that does very little for any of the writers involved. Have a blessed day*
Sound
We’ve seen a lot of chat about Brazilian funk infiltrating other genres, but one of the biggest songs in Brazil right now is a take on CKay’s huge afrobeats hit “Love Nwantiti”.
Related: Rema and Burna Boy are going big on the samples. Burna already dropped his “Cure & The Cause”-sampling “Bundle by Bundle” and now has this Soul II Soul-sampling single “Update”. I’m excited for his album. Rema finally cleared a sample from Sade for “Baby (Is It A Crime)”. Here for this A&R!
I’m gonna guess K-Pop star JENNIE got lucky with the timing on this one, getting Doechii on a feature right after a huge Grammy’s look.
The biggest trending song in Jamaica right now is by a 14-year old, Lyrii (no comment on the age/lyrics combo).
AJ Tracey & Jorja Smith released a very throwback R&G track (read Rhythm & Grime - it’s R&B *and* Grime) for the summer, and in a weird twist of fate it landed in the same week that R&G producer Terror Danjah sadly passed away.
NTS Radio have released an Alice Coltrane special. I’ve been really leaning into more abstract music lately, I think because - as I heard Zezi Ifore say on her excellent radio show - we need “liberation from the literal” right now. Amen.
Nigerian artist Seyi Vibez dropped this Fuji-inspired track. Adding yet more gas to my thesis that people will be going to their roots as much as possible (see also: Bad Bunny’s latest album).
Vision
Apparently there’s a real Northern Soul movement happening with young people in Bristol (shout out my hometown!). Love these videos.
Clairo cast…Weird Al Yankovic to play her in this Ayo Edebiri directed music video.
WIRED go behind the scenes of the Kendrick Lamar half time show with the creatives that put it together.
Kelela has released an unplugged album, and this 14-min documentary to go with.
Finally got around to seeing Nickel Boys. Beautiful and brutal.
Fashion brand Eckhaus Latta has a new newsletter: “expect Part esoteric homesteading guide, Part travel guide for the truly lost, Part decaying Angelino mom's endless search for the best crap out there.”
There’s a new documentary following British photographer Martin Parr.
Thought
Spotify is launching an AI remix feature for their premium tier. God save us all.
Hit songs apparently got a bit longer in 2024 (by 20 seconds).
Ted Gioia debunks the myth that the music biz is healthy right now, and says that the real excitement at the minute is around live music.
Max Read talks about the Benson Boone-iverse and “Music for Instagram Reels”
Nick Sylvester gives a compelling perspective of a real artist working on “fake” music (and Love Is Blind mentioned).
A thesis by Mo Diggs that “there has been a drought of cultural greatness for most of the 21st century so far”, and why that might be, including:
Social media has space for personalities, but not for artists. Not great ones, anyway. All the cultural figures that have been popular on social media have not been social media natives — they had the respect of their respective institutions before breaking big — and they all have works that were legible to the social media community. Back in 2014, then-famous podcast personality Ira Glass infamously complained that Shakespeare was not “relatable.” This has largely driven much of the social media gossip trap: the tyranny of relatability. The term “relatable” was not popular until the 2010s. Before then, being “unrelatable” — or weird — was OK. How “relatable” were Bowie or Prince? It’s not an accident that Lady Gaga waned in popularity and Taylor Swift rose in the ranks.
