There are such months when new music slows down, and where you have to look for fresh songs by yourself — and you guessed it, July is one of those. Despite not having a favourite album this time around, let’s dive into my top picks, from new bangers to old favourites !

Song of the Month

Having JETLGGD by Destroy Lonely as my song of the month perfectly illustrates digging through old playlists to find forgotten gems. The production by Zodiac is absolutely fantastic and perfectly fits the aesthetic Destroy Lonely is going for throughout his debut mixtape “NO STYLIST”. Even though I've long been more partial to Ken Carson throughout artists in the whole “Opium label” thanks to his latest release “A Great Chaos”, I can now appreciate what Lonely is (sometimes) going for. That said, it doesn’t change my perspective on his latest and debut album “If Looks Could Kill”, which I found to be a snoozefest.

---

New Releases

While I previously said that July didn’t bring with it many releases, there were still a few that I found to be noteworthy.

Bando Stone and the New World — Childish Gambino

We’ll start off with the only album that got my attention this month, the latest from singer, songwriter, actor, director, Childish Gambino ! I’ve never been the biggest Gambino fan, though I’ve always appreciated his presence in the musical landscape. Considering this was announced as his last album and a soundtrack to an upcoming short film, I had to give it a listen. It was quite a pleasant listen — the opening cut is gripping with vocals from Amaarae, and I loved hearing him on trap productions. In fact, my favourite was Talk My Shit with Amaarae & Flo Milli, in which they both absolutely steal the show, especially Amaarae with her otherworldly vocals. Can you tell I love Amaarae yet ? Unfortunately, I found this record to greatly lack consistency, and found the vocal chops from the advertised short film to be quite distracting and out of place.

Derecho — Photay

Here we have a new single kicking off a brand-new album cycle from non-other than one of my favourites experimental electronic music producer Photay ! I’ve been loving his work for quite some time now, as the way he produces just makes you float in space. It’s weird, it’s quirky, and somehow heavily stimulates my imagination without ever getting in the way of my focus. I even went as far as to recreate his Roaming cover at the start of my 2022 “World’s Most Dangerous Virus — Pegasus” video !

And I feel like this new album will be no exception — “Windswept” will quite literally be about… wind ! Throughout the record, he will try to “mimic the ‘wind’ as a powerful, deep, unpredictable and at times overwhelming spirit.” Dive into this one, you will not regret it.

A Great Chaos (Deluxe) — Ken Carson

A Great Chaos introduced me to Ken Carson, signed to Playboi Carti owned record label Opium. The latter faced heavy criticism, for it seemed like the recruited artists were just lower quality versions of the label’s originator, with the sole purpose of releasing medium music allowing him to justify the long waits between album cycles.

However, Ken’s ability to choose production that compliments his aesthetic without ever feeling redundant, as well as the way he’s able to flow effortlessly on them while still delivering chucklesome bars, changed my mind about any of those rumours. A Great Chaos is also full of hard-hitting transitions between songs, which rewards you when listening to the whole piece. In short: I loved the album.

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel as confident when it came to this deluxe version. I thought overseas was a poor single to begin with, and I found the additional seven tracks to be quite mind-numbing. With that said, I’ve still included two favourites: ss (although we would’ve been better off without the beat switch on the later end of the track) as well as mewtoo (whose hook I found rather catchy).

45 et rouge — Mairo

Those two new singles come from Swiss rapper Mairo, with whom I never really connected. Despite that, I do want to turn your attention to “rouge”. The rage-like production by Hopital hits incredibly hard, and the hook couldn’t be catchier. Despite its short runtime, the unique chorus gets the job done efficiently, though I found the “fade out then fade back in” of the production on the later end of the track to be quite jarring.

---

Rewinds

There were quite a few tracks that I went back to this month, which I’ll rapidly quick-fire through.

Alright by Victoria Monét is a low-key R&B ballad celebrating self-empowerment and unapologetic sensuality, whose groove just makes me want to do synchronised skating.

Qatari is one of upcoming French-rapper BU$HI’s earlier single, and in hindsight paints the landscape for the music he’ll later release, especially on the production side. Although 2024 is without question his year, now looking back, the only thing that worries me is the fact that he won’t be able to renew his sounds and lyrics and become redundant.

Mistral is another old single by BU$HI, which I find particularly interesting for it interpolates “Mistral Gagnant” by iconic French-variety singer Renaud. The use of this interpolation is proof of the Reunion-born artist’s admiration for traditional French music, which many wouldn’t necessarily attribute to him.

LesAlpx by Floating Points from his 2019 album “Crush” is a stunning electronical cut, with a chord resolution early into the track that will make your brain tingle. The artist is currently in the rollout of his new album cycle, and has now released three singles which I found great, but didn’t include in this month’s recap.

Pool by Still Woozy & Remi Wolf is a heart-warming acoustic cut about friendship that was apparently made in only three hours ! As always, on all Still Woozy songs, the harmonies as well as chord progressions are absolutely gorgeous — special mention to the chorus, sung by Remi first then reprised by Sven.

Only Us by Artmann is a groovy house cut that will make you feel like walking a runway in a Zara store.

---

Conclusion

Don’t hesitate to give at least one of these cuts a listen — if I managed to make you discover at least one banger, then my job here is done. As always, I’ve packaged all of those in a tight one-hour long Spotify playlist that you can shuffle !

See you next month :)