Le Bain on Friday / Blog post 02
October 18th, 10 til late. Your last chance to swim in the pool this year.
Charlie here from DJ duo We Take Manhattan. Welcome to all the new people who came to our party at Le Bain in August! On Friday we’re throwing another rager with two guest DJs. Deep Thrills is visiting from LA — he’s got a Charli XCX remix that you may have already heard on her socials. The other guest is local producer xJermsx — we remixed his debut track. Both will hop on the decks over the course of the night. Live performance by me at midnight… your chance to hear my songs before everyone else does. The pool is still open but it’s about to close for the season. RSVP here and bring your friends. There’s also a photo/video recap of our last party on the (free!) ticket page when you download the ITM app (pronounced “item”).
Okay, it’s blog time. If you missed the previous one, the format is I start with a recap of music happenings I went to, then I write about tracks I’ve found recently, both the good and the bad. So first local music, then internet music.
On Sunday I Citi Biked to Bed-Stuy and saw a free concert at the amphitheater in Herbert Von King Park. I got there just in time to hear sadie play 4am. I heard the song start as I docked my bike and walked through the golden sun, following the autotuned tones of her voice to find the venue. Heavenly. A real “wow I’m lucky to live in New York City” moment. Then I caught the country girl set. Maurice’s project has an ethereal sound with lots of breathy falsetto vocals that are somehow always pitch-perfect live. He also played flute a few times, which was sick. I’ve been in the studio with him and Ashwin recently, putting those flute skills to use. You may be able to hear the fruits of our labor at Le Bain on Friday around midnight… Ashwin was last-minute running sound at the amphitheater show — he says he’s looking for more production/mixing clients, so if you make music and you want it to sound a lot better, message him.
CRATE-DIGGING
An abbreviated “DUDS + GEMS” this week because I’ve been preparing for Friday so I’ve spent less time on TikTok and don’t have any DUDS to laugh at / grudgingly respect. Gems only this week.
GEMS:
“I Might Be Fake” - Master Peace
I found this track on everyone’s favorite Chinese dancing meme app. Getting fed solely indie sleaze related videos on a daily basis for a couple of weeks may have involved me ingesting a lot of cringe content, but it was all worth it when the chorus of this song popped up in my feed and I was instantly hooked. TikTok’s algorithm is useful, if only for its ability to show me different new music than Spotify does. To get new listeners (and it clearly worked with me!) Master Peace is really leaning into the label that everyone loves to endlessly debate. Many of his videos mention indie sleaze and its revival — one of the captions reads “UK BLACK INDIE SLEAZE????” — and his posts frequently cite musical references from that era, notably Bloc Party (which you can hear a bit in his vocal delivery). While there are a ton of artists name-dropping on TikTok to find new fans, this guy actually has some of that era’s names giving him their stamp of approval by appearing on his album. At the end of the LP there are two alternate versions: “I Might Be Fake” gets a redux with OG indie sleazer Princess Superstar of “Perfect (Exceeder)” fame taking the second verse, and an alternate cut of an M.I.A.-inspired track features vocals from Santigold. Definitely gonna keep an eye on Master Peace, I have a feeling he’s just getting started (and I hope he keeps making great music videos). New York musicians love LARPing as Londoners. It was about time an actual Londoner got in on this whole thing, whatever you want to call it.
“Get Your Brits Out” - Kneecap
Another track from across the pond, but coming from a much better island. Kneecap are a rap duo from the North of Ireland. Their lyrics are half in English, half in Irish. If that sounds inaccessible to your American ears, just listen to this song as loud as possible and I promise you’ll be dancing around your living room. A goofy intro sample sending up the BBC News theme gives way to a crazy bass line that’s like a figurative teacup smash. A movie about these guys just came out that dramatizes (and presumably fictionalizes) their origin story and rise to fame. Are they the first musical artists to play themselves in their own biopic? Now I’m curious. The film’s also got Michael Fassbender as a former-IRA-now-living-in-hiding-but-coming-out-of-hiding-to-see-his-son’s-rap-group-perform father. I went to see Kneecap at Knockdown Center last month, which was a fascinating mix of two distinct audiences. Half the crowd were American fans wearing keffiyehs — the Kneecap guys are vocally pro-Palestine both online and IRL at their shows. The other half the crowd were lads and lasses wearing green soccer jerseys. The football-kitted hooligan half loved to mosh a little too much for my physical comfort, but that’s to be expected I guess. All credit to the gf for playing me this song and turning me on to Kneecap in the first place.
“Hot Chick” - Uffie
I’ve been going down an Uffie rabbit hole. It all started the other week when I told Mattie I had pretty much only heard “Pop the Glock.” Honestly, I hadn’t really bothered to listen to more because I found that production kind of annoying. He patiently informed me that some of Uffie’s best stuff isn’t on streaming. Exhibit A: “Hot Chick,” filled with 2006 party-girl attitude and a bass line that references Prince’s “Hot Thing,” courtesy of producer Mr. Oizo. Mattie explained that there were two different producers who worked with Uffie in the early days, Mr. Oizo and Feadz, each with a different style. Once he played this track for me, I went back and listened with fresh ears to the stuff that is actually available on streaming, and man am I embarrassed it took me so long. I’m not saying anything particularly original here (and I don’t want to relitigate late noughties beef), but it’s kind of amazing to hear how much she clearly influenced Kesha. Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans is a cornucopia of different sounds — “Give It Away” is a tender uptempo synth-y ballad, while “MCs Can Kiss” has so much raw Beastie Boys swagger that Mike D made a remix. Okay, I’ll stop now. Begging Ed Banger to put “Hot Chick” on Spotify…
“JOYRIDE - Extended” - Kesha
Speaking of Kesha, I feel like no one was talking about this song when it came out in August? Which makes sense, because Brat kind of hoover’d up all the attention this summer. But by all rights this track should be a huge club hit, and the sub in the intro of the extended version is ear candy that you’ll only be able to taste on real speakers. Another track shown to me by the lady. Who needs TikTok when you’ve got a gf with good music taste?
That’s all for now. If you want to listen to all the GEMS from this post and the previous one, I’ve made a Spotify playlist.
See you on Friday.
Charlie