Weekly Assembly is a collection of our favourite new releases!
Work It Out (feat Froya) - Dizkopolis
GENRE: EDM / SYNTH POP/ ELECTRONIC / DANCE
RATING: 4 / 5
Work It Out is a liberating track that harnesses a vibrant pop energy. The beat pulsates with passages of retro-sounding synths. It's a starry French house party that you find underneath the chorus, complete with funky basslines and electric guitar jangles. Dizkopolis and Froya coming together brings us one of the most riveting electronic pop tracks in Malaysia for a long time. It doesn't shake the room as much as some of Dizkopolis's earlier tracks like Class of '91, but it's the perfect amount of clean as it gives the center stage to Froya's vocals. UFOF - Big Thief
GENRE: PSYCHEDELIC FOLK / FOLK / ALTERNATIVE
RATING: 4 / 5
Adrianne Lenker's voice often pulls the weight of Big Thief's music, with its inimitable quality of both being raw and silky at the same time. With UFOF, the band takes us into a dreamier world of extraterrestrials, as she sings with a somewhat haunting restrain and melancholy about an abduction. Having recently signed to the label 4AD, Big Thief shows that they've barely scratched the surface when it comes to what sounds they can muster in the pursuit of crafting stories in song. This time it's a sci-fi daydream that creeps in at an unexpected pace. House of Glass - Cage the Elephant
GENRE: POST PUNK / INDIE ROCK
RATING: 5 / 5
House of Glass is nothing like the band's previous single. Hell, it's nothing like any Cage Elephant song ever to exist. The spirit of David Byrne seems to have possessed their sound, with a braver, syncopated post-punk song that has their fans comparing them to the Voidz. My isolation is an illusion, sings frontman, Matt Schultz, using the next album as a vehicle to navigate the emotions he felt after a recent breakup. The talk-speak manner in House of Glass gives it a deliciously haunting feel.
Oh Tragedy - Fi7i
GENRE: ELECTRONIC / FUTURE FUNK
RATING: 5 / 5
Sampling Anita Sarawak's Tragedi Buah Epal, Fi7i takes the retro songstress into a hypothetical future where everything is funkier. Fi7i's production has been consistent for every recent track that he's released, and Oh Tragedy is no exception. There's a very attention-grabbing urgency in the breakdowns and the bass, like you could imagine a chase scene through a dance club in a cyberpunk film, especially as the horns become drowned in flanging effects. You better run, and you might as well dance.
No Drug Like Me - Carly Rae Jepsen
GENRE: POP RATING: 5 / 5 To me, Carly Rae Jepsen sealed her pop queen status with her 2015 album, Emotion. There's something about her proudly catchy tracks that make Carly Rae Jepsen always a fun listen. In No Drug Like Me she leans in stronger into an electropop production. It screams power and pulls you in with dancey synth beats that is both retro and fresh. No Drug Like Me is the strongest amongst the three tracks she's released, the two other being Party for One and Now That I Found You.
Manifest - Andrew Bird
GENRE: FOLK / INDIE FOLK / ALTERNATIVE FOLK
RATING: 5 / 5
"She's in the air/ Radical and free / Not a goddamn care / She's obliged to no one", sings multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird, heralding an era of more direct, unfiltered songwriting in his single Manifest. The track is off of his upcoming album, titled somewhat conceitedly as "My Finest Work Yet". However, Manifest is not a bragging anthem, in fact, it's the total opposite, leaving us to believe there must be a tinge of irony somewhere. Andrew Bird said in a statement: “‘Manifest’ traces our evolution from single celled organisms to modern man — then takes it further, post-mortem, to when a plant or animal becomes a fossil fuel fracked from the ground and released into the atmosphere from combustion engines like ghosts — "The after-life of energy". The gorgeous track is self-effacing. Mr. Bird questions our progress as a species obsessed with ourselves in a universe that honestly does not give a rat's ass ( I started to question my manifest destiny / My claim to this frontier ). You can hear the light kind of soul in the violins, the devil-may-care indifference in the whistling, and a sobering anthem for all of humanity.
Survival - Segi
GENRE: GARAGE ROCK / INDIE ROCK / POST-PUNK REVIVAL
RATING: 4 / 5
Segi is a band who pride themselves in absorbing a variety of influences in their songs. With the exception of cuts like Pergi, their sound still often revolves around a very noir overtone - mysterious and subtly seductive, regardless of subject matter. Survival is them embracing that and taking it up to the next level. The steady suspense of the track builds up over a repetition off a bassline and drums, leading you slowly to that peak moment when the lead guitar pierces through to complete the plot. Survival is also a sign of growth from the band, as the production and arrangement feels tighter and more powerful. It's a hard-hitting track on overcoming the odds; proof that sometimes less is more.
Manbogi (ft. Mckdaddy) - Basick
GENRE: HIP HOP / RAP RATING: 3 / 5
As an introduction to his new label Outlive, Korean hip hop artist, Basick, breaks out this smooth, dark trap cut with Mckdaddy. Manbogi's suave persona acts as a launching pad for Mckdaddy's more firey verses. A solid beat.
Boasty (ft. Idris Elba) - Wiley, Steffon Don, Sean Paul
GENRE: HIP HOP / RAP / GRIME / DANCEHALL
RATING: 4.5 / 5
Boasty is a remix of Wiley's single back in 2018 of the same name, but collaborating with DJ Driis aka famous British actor, Idris Elba, Sean Paul & Stefflon Don makes it an absolute banger on its own. The track marries together UK grimes and tropical beats as each rapper flaunts their flow in their own patois and style. Stefflon Don comes in well as she stands out among Wiley and Sean Paul, but Idris Elba takes the freaking cake with his Pacino flow. Boasty is also one of the of the few times in a long time that I've ever felt happy about a Sean Paul verse. Fun and bouncy, Boasty is not short of fire bars either. The music video is also a fun trip into Wiley's tendency to not show up at important events, including his own birthday party.
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