Northern Transmissions: Weekly Roundup 2.12 – 2.16

January feels like a month where nothing happens for so long, and then Everything Happens (that’s February). As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to see the first 31 days of the year as a recalibration, a reset of sorts. February comes in strong with new music releases, birthdays, Job Stuff, Family Stuff and everything in between. This week, it feels like we’ve shifted into high gear across the board. There are so many new songs out! So many tour announcements! So much everything! Here are just a few of those things:

Saya Gray – AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE 

The first time I heard Saya Gray, I was completely blown out of the water (metaphorically, because I live on land). 2023’s “QWERTY” was fresh in ways that scratched all of the nooks and crannies of my email-poisoned brain. Listen to even the first track, “DIZZY PPL BECOME BLURRY,” and you’re met with fluttering piano pressed up against breakbeats and sample paradise that swirls around in a miasma of hypnagogic pop. Her new track, “AA BOUQUET FOR YOUR 180 FACE” is a similarly textured romp through samples, ominous melodies and perfectly crafted alt-pop that delivers on its promise. Qwerty II is out 3/28 on Dirty Hit.

Kim Gordon – I’m a Man

“It’s not my fault I was born a man,” Kim Gordon sneers on “I’m a Man,” the second single from her new album, “The Collective”. With foreboding, machine-like synth and bass lines, “I’m A Man” taunts and threatens the listener with a meditation on toxic masculinity. Gordon, one of the founders of legendary experiential / noise group Sonic Youth, seems to not only retained her edge over time, but sharpened it as well. The track is accompanied by a music video (directed by Alex Ross Perry), and features her daughter, Coco Gordon-Moore. “The Collective” is out March 8th. 

Mike Lindsay – Lie Down

Remember the quiet evenings. On Mercury Prize-winning producer Mike Lindsay’s debut solo effort,  supershapes volume 1, he explores the extraordinary in the ordinary, the “miraculous in the mundane” as he puts it. “Lie Down,” the lead single from the project, is a stunningly mind-bending work of experimental pop that might make you move, groove, bop around and everything in between. With jittery percussion dancing around somber saxophone melodies, the song intentionally wants you to feel ill at ease. “There is an unsettling, never-ending cycle of sevens on this track, you never quite get to relax,” Lindsay said. Quite beautiful at times, “Lie Down” explores what it means to enjoy time alone, to have a night in and to “remember the quiet evenings.” supershapes volume 1 is out 14 June via Moshi Moshi Records.  

sunnbrella – Have Your Say

Almost exactly one year ago from today (2024 A.D as I write these words), Prague by way of London producer David Zbirka released his debut album Heartworn under his moniker sunbrella. Through twelve impossibly sacchrine, sun-drenched and soaring tracks, the record seemed to both pay  homage to dream pop elders of years past (helloooo Airiel and Asobi Seksu), and carve a path forward that felt distinctive and fresh. Now (again, almost one year later exactly!) sunbrella releases “have your say,” a glitchy and hypnotic track that speaks to the loneliness that one can feel in a Big City. In his own words, Zbirka wanted to lean “more heavily into cold, bright, and digital production but hopefully with a melody underneath,” adding that it’s a “mix of shoegaze, breakbeats and an 8-hour+ screen time.”

Four Tet – Daydream Repeat

As the saying goes: Four Tet. As a Valentines Day surprise (because he looves us <3), the legendary producer dropped “Daydream Repeat,” from his forthcoming record ‘Three (out on March 1st).  “Daydream Repeat” is a bouncy, uptempo track with a playful piano run that keeps us company throughout.  It is, as the kids say, Very Good. 

words by Conor Rooney