ListenUp
French rockers La Femme’s hallucinatory music video, a triple threat from Baauer, G-Dragon and MIA and more new music
La Femme: Sphynx
After their debut 2013 album Psycho Tropical Berlin, the trippy beach town rock band La Femme (hailing from Biarritz, France) is back to soundtrack our spring—or at least tonight’s post-dusk adventures. “Sphynx” has the distinct pulling, hypnotic tone of the previous album, and gets more introspective. Their NSFW video—La Femme’s Marlon Magnée co-directs—is a hallucinatory journey through gaping mouths, one after the next. Best watched not sober.
Shura: Touch (Four Tet Remix)
It’s certainly our lucky day: spoke-singer for confessional heartache Shura announces her debut album, with an internet-age-appropriate title, Nothing’s Real. It includes already released tracks “2Shy,” “White Light” and “Touch”—the latter which got a remix by Four Tet, who speeds it up into a gleaming diamond of a house track, with Shura’s comforting voice shining a light through. Pre-ordering Shura’s limited edition vinyl, releasing July 2016, also gets you a coloring book and it looks like bonus track “The Space Tapes” has become available on Spotify.
Baauer feat. MIA + G-Dragon: Temple
“Harlem Shake” became a meme thanks to some air-humping Australian teens, but Brooklyn-based DJ and producer Baauer is no one-hit wonder. His latest dance track “Temple” raises the temperature with spitfire rhymes from MIA and G-Dragon (a Korean sensation armed with artistic control and fashion style akin to Lady Gaga). At the end, the fierce attitudes wash away into a beautiful, ambient soundscape that seems like it’s recreating a pastoral scene with synthetic sounds. Baauer’s debut album Aa is now out on LuckyMe, featuring collaborations with artists like Pusha T, Future, Rustie, English grime rapper Novelist and more.
Lawrence: Superficial
NYC-based band Lawrence, helmed by siblings Clyde and Gracie Lawrence and backed up by a talented slew of musicians (including a three-piece horn section), performed at SXSW this week, continuing their tour on the West Coast. For those missing out, their debut album Breakfast will keep those pop, soul and funk cravings satiated. “Superficial” is a one of the standouts, a track on which Clyde rips an unusual plethora of songwriters who seem to end up writing revengeful songs about girls who rejected them in middle or high school. “If you’re really so cool now, why are you so consumed with this grudge you’re holding from years ago,” he explains to CH. “Shouldn’t you have better things to think about?” It’s refreshing to have lame songwriters called out for once and Clyde can’t help throw a dig at himself, too, towards the end, when he thinks about his own past misfortunes: “I might forget, because I’m the bigger man… except to maybe say go fuck yourself.” Sometimes, vengeance is a sweet guilty pleasure.
ListenUp is a Cool Hunting series published every Sunday that rounds up the music we tweeted throughout the week, also found in Listen. Hear the year so far via Cool Hunting Spotify.
