Zola Jesus rises again

Four years ago, I wrote a solitary blog post about Zola Jesus (Nika Danilova to her mum) noting that she made music in the vein of Florence and the Machine, without any of the recognition or fanfare.

She's released a couple of albums in the interim, sadly without much to show for it, but her new single made my ears prick up like Bugs Bunny when he spots the sexy lady rabbit from the Cadbury's Caramel advert. It turns out Zola recently signed to Mute Records, home to Goldfrapp and Depeche Mode, and some of their gothic pop stylings have rubbed off on her.

Dangerous Days, the lead track from the forthcoming album Taiga, is sideways synthpop, that manages to be angelic and sultry all at the same time. Can you even have sultry angels? What would that look like?

The good news is you can get Dangerous Days for free by sending Zola an email (or, rather, donating your email address to her record label) on her official website.

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Tove Lo is habit-forming

"I eat my dinner in my bathtub / Then I go to sex clubs."

How's that for the opening line? It comes from Habits, an extremely good but cruelly-overlooked single released last year by Swedish pop star and whiplash hairdo disaster zone Tove Lo.

Turns out I'm not the only one who thought it deserved more recognition. In fact, New York production crew The Chainsmokers are so keen for it to become a hit, they've done a massive Calvin Harris/SubFocus-style remix FOR ZERO PENCE.



Here's what they say: "We are MAJOR fans of Tove Lo. In fact we are certain she is going to be a massive name in music VERY soon. Habits is one of those unique blend of feelings, its gangster, sexy, relatable, and fun... In fact we aren't quite sure why its not on the same level as Lorde's Royals. So with that in mind, we set out to create a song that complimented the vocals and the subject of the song but brought it into the club arena."

They've done a pretty good job, I think you'll agree. 

And if you download it now, you can lord it over your friends when Tove Lo becomes properly famous in, let's say, July.

Tove Lo - Habits

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Three fantastic future soul songs (and one old school one)

I have four tabs open on my browser, three of which contain a sophisticated, innovative slice of futuristic soul. The other one has a new song by Prince. They're all worth a listen...

1) Solange Knowles - Cash In
A slinky, soaring love song, this is Solange's first new material since last year's groundbreaking True EP. It takes a while to get going, but when the harmonies kick in at the 2-minute mark, all the hairs on the back of your neck will go "ping".

Cash In is the last track on Saint Heron, the alt-R&B compilation Solange has curated for Saint records. For some reason, it's not available on iTunes or Amazon in the UK - but you can download it from Fairshare Music, which gives all of its profits to charity, so you can feel good about spending your £7.99 even if the rest of the album is rubbish (NB: it isn't).




2) Mapei - Don't Wait
Stockholm's Mapei mixes Djembe drums with sitars and doo-wop finger clicks on this propulsive love song ("if it wasn't for you, I would be on my own"). For the first three minutes her voice is fed through a vocoder (sounding very much like Imogen Heap's Hide And Seek) and then, suddenly, she breaks into a Double Dutch skipping chant.

On paper, it shouldn't work. In your ears, it sounds incredible.




3) Neneh Cheery - Blank Project
After 16 years away, Neneh Cherry is readying a new solo album for next year. One track features Robyn - but sadly we can't hear that yet. Instead, this is the title track. Produced by FourTet, you're in for some simmering electrojazz and a chorus that seems really slight, then sticks in your head for the rest of the day.

OK, it's not quite Manchild but then what is?





4) Prince - Da Bourgeosie
Prince isn't kicking the ball as far forward as the other artists on this post - but this is a fantastically funky old-skool studio jam, nonetheless. Reminiscent of goofy, spontaneous Vault tracks like Cloreen Bacon Skin and Movie Star, Prince seems to be making it up as he goes along - riffing a lyric that about a "bearded girl at the 'caba-ray charles'" over a delicious Paisley guitar riff.

"No mammals were harmed during the recording of this track," noted Prince on his 3rdEyeGirl Twitter account, shortly after giving the song away as a free download. What a nice chap.

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Rizzle Kicks do a free MP3

This just arrived in my inbox, so I thought I'd share... Rizzle Kicks are giving away a new song, for no particular reason other than they feel like it. They clearly haven't been taking business lessons from The Joker.

Nasty is the name of the track. It rumbles along on an old skool "tip", and appears to be more Rizzle than Kicks. You can watch below, or download via this Soundcloud link.

Top marks for the line: "Sitting on the couch can only get me so-fa". Gyles Brandreth would be proud.

Rizzle Kicks - Nasty

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