Top of The Drop

By Daniel J. Springer

Each month, Daniel Springer of the Gwangju Foreign Language Network (GFN) picks his favorite newly released tunes that you may not have heard yet, along with some upcoming albums and EPs that you might want to keep on your radar. — Ed.

Joan as Police Woman with Tony Allen & Dave Okumu – “The Barbarian”
If you’re looking for three-minute hit diddies on this one, you’ll be very disappointed. But if you’re looking for masterful compositions that you can take a deep dive into and swim in for what seems like hours, this is your album. In one of the most thoughtfully executed full-lengths of the year, Joan Wasser, a.k.a. Joan as Police Woman, delivers the ninth LP of her career on The Solution Is Restless in stunning, lush fashion with the late father of Afrobeat Tony Allen and The Invisible’s Dave Okumu. The album in many ways feels like it had already been implanted in you since birth, sounding so eerily familiar and yet completely new and thrilling. This is seriously pro-grade stuff, and might be Joan’s best work to date, if not album of the year.

Silk Sonic – “Put On a Smile”
File this album under an absolutely stellar instant classic. Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak’s new 1970’s soul-dipped album, An Evening with Silk Sonic, delivers on every single level, and with the hype of already released singles leading up to the sudden album drop, it’s a massive achievement that the album is just as good, if not better. “Put On a Smile” might be the best vocal harmonies of the year if not the decade, with the maximum slap epic drum rolls and string arrangements making for a tune that would make Marvin Gaye blush.

Idles – “The Wheel”
Over the past few years, Idles have been gaining a devoted following with their aggressive and defiant post-punk sound. The band released their latest in Crawler just this past month, and it’s certainly a change in a far more personal and pensive direction. For example, “The Wheel,” while combining the aggression and gruff vocals that Idles fans are familiar with, takes a very personal tone, with lead singer Joe Talbot talking about his hopelessly alcoholic mother.

Tasha – “Dream Still”
In the Chicago-based artist’s second career full-length Tell Me What You Miss the Most, Tasha focuses on all the moments of bliss, fleeting scintillas of beauty, and lovely minutes laughing before everything in life – relationships, jobs, etc. – fall apart. As far as the execution in transmitting that feeling through music, Tasha totally delivers.

Foals – “Wake Me Up”
In announcing their next as-yet-unnamed LP due out next year, Foals are back to what they do best – making electronic rock bumps that absolutely smash everything in front of them with Yannis Philippakis belting it out in his own inimitable fashion. As a bonus, it seems the band have moved away from the self-produced method of Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost from 2019, so the overall sound is far crisper.

VC Pines – “Be Honest”
One young artist who’s definitely on the rise locally within the UK this year is VC Pines. His Concrete EP got huge airplay and support from all of the biggest outlets, and with this latest single, we see the young artist turning the page from his ruminations on being in lockdown London during the pandemic to a more hopeful motif of finding the light in the darkness and breaking the cycle of despair.

Adrian Quesada (feat. Aaron Frazer & David Hidalgo) – “One Woman Man”
In a brilliant collaboration, two of the biggest names in vintage soul have released this as part of the Look at My Soul: The Latin Shade of Texas Soul, a new original compilation from Adrian Quesada of Black Pumas. Here he teams up with Durand Jones and The Indications’ vocalist and drummer, Aaron Frazer, who’s also a brilliant solo artist and producer in his own right, in a tailor-made road trip jam.

Kaytranada (feat. H.E.R.) – “Intimidated”
Just out November 19 is the Toronto-based producer’s latest three-track EP. Here on the title track he teams up with H.E.R. for an upbeat soul-clapped bit of deep house that just has that incredible bit of extra cut and depth on the beat that makes Kaytra one of the best in the biz.

Curtis Harding – “Where’s the Love”
One of the best out there on the soul vocal tip has to be Atlanta’s Curtis Harding, who really arrived back in 2017 with the Face Your Fear LP. His latest full-length If Words Were Flowers just dropped in full last month and sees the artist contemplating over the meaning of love in his vintage, punchy manner that’ll already be familiar.

Munya – “Voyage”
In a pandemic world that’s still changing everything forever 18 months on, few are looking beyond their own little speck of the matrix as we navigate on social media and in our news feeds. For a real trip to somewhere else, Munya heads to space for a trip to the stars on Voyage to Mars for any of you out there bored with the inward life on terra.

Warbly Jets – “Let Go: Be Free”
In the band’s sophomore LP Monsterhouse, Jules O’Neill and Sam Shea have delivered a much more electronic- and beats-infused album than their debut LP. An album three years in the making, most of the new work on the album was technical, with the duo relearning (and even remaking due to a Paris burglary) their craft on the technical level, and the final product is well worth a full listen.

November Releases

Curtis Harding – If Words Were Flowers (November 5)
Joan as Police Woman – The Solution Is Restless (November 5)
Hana Vu – Public Storage (November 5)
Neal Francis – In Plain Sight (November 5)
Silk Sonic – An Evening with Silk Sonic (November 12)
Courtney Barnett – Things Take Time, Take Time (November 12)
Damon Albarn – The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows (November 12)
Idles – Crawler (November 12)
Pip Blom – Welcome Break (November 12)
Adele – 30 (November 19)
Kaytranada – Intimidated (November 19)
Sting – The Bridge (November 19)
The Darkness – Motorheart (November 19)

LAST CALL FOR 2021!

Arca – Kick II & Kick III (December 3)
Tom Morello – The Atlas Underground Flood (December 3)
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Barn (December 10)
Moses Sumney – Live from Blackalachia (December 10)

The Author
Daniel J. Springer (a.k.a. “Danno”) is the creator, host, writer, editor, and producer of “The Drop with Danno,” broadcasting nightly on GFN 98.7 FM in Gwangju and 93.7 FM in Yeosu, 8–10 p.m. Prior to this, he was a contributor to several shows on TBS eFM in Seoul, along with being the creator and co-host of “Spacious” and “White Label Radio” on WNUR in Chicago. You can find “The Damyang Drop,” his monthly collaborative playlist with The Damyang House, on YouTube and Spotify.
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