#frankcore 2024

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore march 2024 update!!

a Lot more guitar music based than last month (this could be bad or good, you be judge) but it's mostly a back and forth between different styles of electronic and assorted flavors of rock and punk, with a few pop and rap outliers here and there. for the electronic chunk of the list, it's mostly composed of (as ever) the more percussion-driven styles of electronic: dreamy and chill breakbeat courtesy of eris drew, uk bass/electro/post-club mutations from little snake (that whole 20/20 ldn comp is solid stuff, still prefer the halftime sound from their earliest releases, but this is nothing to scoff at either), heavy hitting hard (h)drum from ahadadream, priya ragu and skrillex, d.silvestre and company pushing the gnarliest side of funk brasileiro to its more brooding limits, maddeningly catchy garage and uk hip hop crossover presented by kwengface and joy overmono, a whole section of different footwork offerings from sinistarr, heavee, dj clap and anysia kym, two portrayals of modern drum and bass sounds with dbridge presenting his signature minimal ventures, and machinedrum and tinashe bringing one of my favourite liquid dnb / r&b crossovers in a minute, and finally, the return of the french prince of darkness, mr. gesaffelstein, doing a heel-turn from the unsufferable dreck that was his previous album and diving head-first into 80s synth punk / ebm / minimal synth revivalism by way of daf and two lone swordsmen, and it is a much, much more welcome addition to his repertoire.

for the guitar side of the list: yeule's cover of broken social scene, taking the indie rock original and twisting it into an ambient / glitch pop piece, indie pop ventures from casiotone for the painfully alone (instantly recognizable band name, for sure) and alucinaciones en familia (first time there's an uruguayan project on this list! there may be more over the course of the year, my goal this year is to listen to as many albums and eps from local artists as i'm able to), hauntingly pretty and poppy neo-psychedelia bliss by broadcast (i definitely need to get into their stuff as soon as possible, i've really liked the few songs i've heard from them so far), everyone's favourite shoegaze-etc band mbv with a hit from the pre-loveless days, a very of-its-time yet very compelling emo-pop track by further seems forever, a strange yet impossibly interesting and singular blend of screamo, bedroom and twee pop as well as math rock(!) from your arms are my cocoon, and a hard-hitting and emotionally raw final blow by post-hardcore / alt rock project tenemos explosivos, the band behind my favourite album of 2022, whose discography i should definitely dive more into in the future.

as for the rest: the two solitary rap cuts in here, firstly a cut from the most recent schoolboy q project (much like gesaffelstein, a very clear improvement when compared to his last album) and later on, corroded and destructive trap and industrial crossover courtesy of shapednoise and moor mother, two artists very keen on sonic experimentation, delivering a mystifying experience every time; a strangely familiar and comforting blend of 80s synthpop and 90s soul by way of more modern indie production in the nourished by time track, an impeccable piece of electro-disco / synthpop from juliana gattas, vocalist of miranda!, one of the best pop acts from latin america, and produced by alex anwandter, also a name to watch if you're interested in pop from this side of the globe, and finally: kylie minogue with one of the best pop songs of all time, never gets old.

the one non-spotify highlight this time around is volt mix do bruxo by chediak, taking a cut from one of the most boundary-pushing scenes in all of funk brasileiro, the enya-sample-led baile do bruxo by tropa do bruxo, a collective of various mcs and djs spearheaded by ronaldinho of all people, and flipping it into a homage to the earliest forms of funk, more initially inspired by electro and miami bass. it bangs, what can you say

tube it!!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore february 2024 update !!

still lots of r&b this month, though maybe not quite as electronic inspired overall, though there's definitely a bit of that still, i.e. the kelela remix (which side note, was kinda hard to pick only one of them, the remix album as a whole is very very good, special shouts out to the tayhana remix of enough for love, the nguzunguzu & dj gay-z remix of let it go, the lsdxoxo remix of sorbet and the flexulant and bambii remix of closure) and the abra tracks (i feel like i'm slightly cheating by having two tracks by the same artist but gold on me is technically a collab sooo i'm bending my own arbitrary unspoken rule, i guess), but there's also more classic contemporary r&b with the erika de casier and they hate change collab, and also more modern, trap-influenced stuff with the ojerime stuff and the tama gucci track (love love loooove his voice and delivery, check out their stuff if, again, you dig electronic-inspired r&b stylings, he's super underrated imo).

the most predominant paradigm(?) this time around is definitely electronic, though: dusted idm and downtempo hybrids from boards of canada and vegyn, turn-of-the-2010s in your face french electro house from sebastiAn, headier techno and electro sounds from actress and grrl, murky and evil dubstep courtesy of alix perez and flowdan, different stylings of breakbeat, jungle and dnb from ivy lab, nia archives and psykh, the return of raver burial with an ever-evolving behemoth of a track, and so on. heck, there's electronic influences bleeding into some other tracks here that aren't specifically electronic: the cheeky eurodance bounce of six sex's 4 novioss, the (surprisingly!) 80s electronic influenced midtempo rhythms of yeat's team ceo or the more organic breakbeats on house of self-undoing by chelsea wolfe. latter of which brings me to mentioning that there's a surprising amount of Guitar Music™ for my standards at least, by which i mean three tracks lmao, all three of those albums from which the songs on the playlist are from are very good though, deffo check them out if you're interested in midwest emo, post-punk or darkwave respectively.

only non-spotify track i have to shoutout this time around (and it's a real good one, mind you) is lock the doors by kfc murder chicks and free.99, absolutely insane stuff, really energetic and hard-hitting hardcore stuff, i need to check out more stuff from kfcmc, i've really liked what i've heard from them tube it! (the playlist i mean)

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore october 2k24 update!

yes this is going to be more than two weeks into november already, it's what you'd come to expect from me at this point in time. contrary to what you would expect to listen to during the Scary Month, i went either full-on pop or full-on dance music, just a very edifying, cheerful vibe overall, regardless of some exceptions here and there to break up the pace.

for the pop side you have a lot of big names: charli (wasn't in a particularly bratty mood this month, went with my favourite slow cut from her self titled), kylie minogue (she's coming to my country on august next year!! finally someone that i actually gaf about coming down here, unlikely that she's gonna play something off this era but here's hoping), grace jones (i know she's definitely important to the development of pop as a whole during the 80s but i've actually never really gotten to hear much from her, should get onto that at some point), perfume, tommy february6 (don't actually listen to that much j-pop, but i definitely should get onto that at some point as well, found that perfume track through a sample on an opium-esque trap song from this year and that tommy february6 track from a hyunjin and vivi from loona edit on twitter lmao, also did you guys know ahora te puedes marchar by luis miguel is a sort-of cover of the original song tommy's covering here cause i didn't), oklou and underscores (definitely looking forward to that oklou project if there is indeed one on the way, this one's a lot more euro-trancey than i expected from either party) and juana rozas (kinda late to the party on this one, a fair chunk of this list is me featuring stuff from a few months earlier into the year, but it's a great piece of electropop coming from argentina).

in semi-related notes, we've got a couple of indietronica tracks from broadcast (finally got around to the noise made by people and i think i actually like it even more than tender buttons, real good stuff) and lucy bedroque (wasn't familiar with him at all but the ep he dropped and this track specifically are really really good, very inviting vibe and great songwriting), some artsier, technical pop excursions (possibly influenced by the sounds of uruguayan music from the 70s and 80s?) courtesy of fievel is glauque, as well as some alt-r&b/pop rap adjacent sounds from jim legxacy (hopefully black british music drops this year? december release to ruin year-end roundups? please?).

for the more edm-centric side of the playlist, kicking off in more somber moods when compared to the rest of the tracks here, with the wave-esque as over by amnesia scanner featuring the ever-present mantra of "we're so back / it's so over" throughout its runtime, as well as dejected and melancholic soul influenced by the more organic styles of house from andrew ashong and theo parrish, and mesmerizing blends of uk dubstep with post-punk guitarwork and trip hop atmospheres from commodo.

elsewhere, things are a bit more cheerful: a track from drum and bass legend ltj bukem with more of a jazz flair than you'd usually hear from him, beach-ready, peaceful and comfy chillstep from synkro, a bunch of uk garage / pop crossovers from zsela remixed by sunship, salute and oli xl (ok this one is not very cheerful to be fair but yknow, i don't really structure these very well), and a banging grime instrumental from royal-t.

as for the rest, we've got a couple of guitar-centric outliers, with a cut off of touche amore's newest project (i've seen people be a bit lukewarm on it but idk, maybe it's just cause i haven't heard the rest of their discography but i feel like it's at least on a level close to that of stage four), a jangly and upbeat yet sarcastic and biting cut from shoegaze / indie pop band lush in ladykillers, and a track off fat dog's woof. with very propulsive electronic rhythms and very punky vocal delivery, sorta daf meets idles in a way if i'm allowed to do a cheap comparison and such. finally, there's a couple of hip-hop (or related) tracks here from babyfather (need to get onto listening to more stuff by them aside from bbf, this one's built upon a mary j blige sample and it kinda has a very trip-hop-esque vibe to it, the vocals seem to emerge from a pitch-black void in a way) and a collab between korean rapper kim ximya and french experimentalist dj simo cell, delivering a glitched-out take on industrial hip hop with some slight footwork influences.

before i wrap this up, something i haven't been doing in these writeups lately has been shouting out stuff that's not available on streaming, so here's a couple of tracks that i wanted to include on this list until i realized they're not on spotify, both of them are takes on neo-soul that are a bit under-the-radar from what i can gather, one of them having a jazzier, darker edge with some influences of trip hop in the mix and the other being a bit more based on the sound design of glitch hop, both really cool and worth the listen though: a race of angels - just begin gb & steve spacek - simply so

that's it for this month, tube it!!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore september 2024 update!

ok let's see if we can make this come out at a reasonable time. so the two big-ish chunks of the tracklist this time around are firstly pop in many different flavors and sizes(?) and second a lot of emo and hardcore related stuff, which is not the most common sight in these lists as seen so far.

let's start off with the latter: first off, seminal post-hardcore band fugazi with a song off one of their first eps being a lot more direct than a lot of their following material; later on, a whole lot of emo in various iterations and styles kicking off with the extremely lo-fi and aggressive "la connotación psicoanalítica de raparse la cabeza" by shortlived chilean band conspiración autista, followed by the more mellow "fire engine red" by the (somewhat) obscure boys life with a more slacker-rock-inspired midwest sound. the playlist closes off with a bunch of emo-pop from hey mercedes (apparently a lot of people think the song sounds similar to check yes juliet by we the kings? maybe i'm just not familiar enough with that song apart from the chorus but i don't think i hear it?), taking back sunday (i'm aware that the so-called beef between them and brand new wasn't as big as it was made up to be, but in hindsight anything shading jesse lacey is very welcome lmao) and the anniversary (a lot more indietronica inspired with its 8-bit synths and what not in the chorus, it also has a cool back and forth with the male and female vocalists throughout the song, really nice stuff), and a post-hardcore / alt-rock crossover banger from make good your escape, a song that's apparently featured on a burnout game (i found it through a list on rym hehe) that has extremely satisfying guitar tones and drumwork, it even manages to make the guitar solo section sound good to me which is something that i almost never care for, props!

as for the pop, i want to start off by mentioning two songs from my home country! first, twee synthpop duo siamesa with a song that in a way reminds me of some of the more tranquil moments on something like javiera mena's esquemas juveniles (cámara lenta specifically comes to mind), it (and the album as a whole) has the naivety and sweetness you'd expect from twee in terms of sound but with a slightly more pessimistic and sarcastic edge to the lyricism, all the while still managing to maintain some of the innocent qualities signature to the genre as a whole, pretty compelling stuff overall imo. and second, though not less important, my friends' band second single! a lot janglier and more upbeat when compared to the previous one, and it's probably my favourite song i've heard from them so far. however, i would be amiss if i didn't mention the fact that i actually show up in the music video for this song! essentially since i've been their number one dickrider for the year+ they've been in the scene and i'm pretty much always around, they asked me if i was down to have my own little "subplot" of sorts in the mv which i of course accepted. i have a few gripes about how i did in terms of performance (lmao) but it's whatever, video itself is very good (un saludo al tío diego y a la tía clara), watch it and listen to it NOW!

following with other styles of pop, pairing up well with the previously mentioned track (although it might be a bit of a jump in terms of bpm, god knows this month was a bit of a mess to sort through), the jangly and cheerful cath carroll from british band unrest, yet another band i've found through friends' recommendations over the past year. elsewhere, you can see examples of the glitchier side of altr&b and pop with tracks from lapsung (emphasis on the glitch with this one, but it also has very brooding atmospheres and hard-edged industrial sound stylings here and there), oklou (a very welcome comeback with a track that sounds like walking up to the gates of heaven, hopefully a sign of a new project in the way? pretty please?), twigs (ok, this one's not suuuper glitchy per se, if anything it has more of a classic trance influence, courtesy of electronic dance music deconstructor (?) / trance pointillist (??) koreless, apparently other tracks that twigs previewed for the album are even better than this one so hype is through the roof as of right now) and jane remover (haven't really been keeping tabs on what she's been up to lately but this track really stood out with its surprising influences from cumbia and guaracha as put through a modern edm lens). on the other hand, in the form of slightly more conventional r&b stylings, we've got british girl group flo, which i actually haven't heard much of and considering how good this track is perhaps i should get more hip to them.

we've also got some electropop tracks here, with some of them being very inspired by the sounds of pop and electro house during the 2000s, those being no comma by slayyyter (apparently a very eagerly awaited track for fans of her, had never heard about it before but it's incredibly catchy and hard-hitting) and flop by bassvictim (somewhat part of the whole electroclash / indie sleaze / whatever revivalism movement of acts like snow strippers and the dare, though i personally prefer this one track to most of what i've heard from both, incredibly catchy chorus and there's a wiley interpolation of all things here also). on the opposite end of the spectrum: ttyl, loossemble's newest comeback! these couple of years have pretty much solidified me as a kpop enjoyer, and this is just a very infectious and energetic tune from members of probably my favourite kpop group ever, obviously one would've preferred to not have "rizz me" as part of the lyrics, but oh well, it is the style at the time.

as for the rest: couple of tracks from the more experimental and industrial side of hip hop, first from sound collage / noise / weirdo electronic etc extraordinaire klein on her track exclusive, i am a sucker for an incessantly looping vocal sample and outlandish delivery, it would probably be the most offputting track here for many but i'm a fan for sure; later on we've got palestinian hip hop artist julmud bringing a somewhat short yet extremely effective track with its usage of pots-and-pans style distorted percussion and punchy vocal delivery complete with varied stylings and effects, definitely a scene i'm unfortunately unfamiliar with that i should pay more attention to; and finally, newest single from elucid, half of the abstract hip hop power duo armand hammer, showcasing incredible lyrical skill and delivery over this pummeling beat filled with industrial percussion, super excited for the full project coming soon.

on the electronic side of things, we've got luvdub by the duo new york, which is a project i was mostly unfamiliar with but they appear to go in a similar vein to acts like smerz or tirzah, in the sense of basing themselves on the sound of alternative r&b and taking it to its absolute limits through the usage of very minimal beats and softspoken delivery, the reason i didn't mention them earlier is because it's somewhat hard for me to even consider this pop or r&b at this point just because it has vocals, it almost sounds like something out of the autonomic / nonplus camp, feels very minimal dnb, very uk bass. speaking of the latter, we've also got one of james blake's first productions released on hemlock almost 15 years ago (insane) with an almost undecipherable vocal sample and very playful usage of synths and effects here and there. and then we've got to mention ride by bitch ass darius, an instantly memorable name which is why i feel like some of his work, specifically the follow the sound dj mix he did has reached a pretty big level of popularity in certain music circles, and with good reason: enveloping electro / ghettotech grooves, infectious and extremely memorable melodies and usage of vocal samples, perfectly designed for clubs, it just works very well.

finally, the outlier: heavy water / i'd rather by sleeping by grouper, from what i recall i haven't been the biggest fan of what i've heard from her so far, maybe i get too distracted to really pay attention to her music but this one mashup i heard a while back got me more into this song specifically, so perhaps i should give the one album i heard another shot. idk, this time around i was more willing to get washed away by the lo-fi vocals and the acoustic guitars being combined into this enveloping, tranquil piece.

that's it for the month, tube it!!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore august 2024 update!!

already more than halfway through september lmfao i suck at this. regardless, here's some musics! this time around there's a Lot of art pop and trip hop related projects, fair few bits of electronic here and there, as well as some tracks in the more experimental end of hip hop and some more guitar-centric stuffs.

in regards to art pop (and other adjacent pop styles, sort of): jenny hval's moving, literally larger-than-life euphoria on spells, martha skye murphy with need and its more solemn and slowly enveloping atmospheres, the ever experimental hakushi hasegawa with a cut of his latest project featuring dizzying blends of jazz, pop and psychedelia, and jessica pratt stealing the show on an a$ap rocky track of all places to be featured in. as for the rest of the pop and r&b on the list: tinashe presenting an ambient-esque r&b piece somewhat in the line of oklou's galore, your-favourite-artists-favourite-vocalist cecile believe's soaring synthpop, strange blends of laidback r&b and pop vocals with latin-american soundscapes and some electronic touches courtesy of argentinian producer / vocalist moro, a cut off mag bay's newest project (solid! not my favourite from theirs but i'm more partial towards their shorter-form material anyway), and a great cut of dnb-infused k-pop from bebe yana.

the trip hop and downtempo related cuts here come from firstly james k and hysterical love project, both of them bringing curious blends of trip hop and ambient pop as well as some more influences from dream pop in the case of the hlp track; ms ray's signs in comparison is a bit cheerier, taking a bit more of inspiration from sophisti-pop and the sunnier side of downtempo, similar in a way to avalon emerson's sandrail silhouette, which is also a great track. on the other end of the spectrum, jabu and chester giles deliver a very nocturnal and dubby piece built mostly on giles' spoken poetry laid atop the somber, looming sample loops. the rest of the electronic sounds here are somewhat varied: a sickeningly short burst of "rally house" courtesy of aesthetic-extraordinaire and extremely versatile producer nuphory, a classic ukg cut from todd "the god" edwards complete with his signature micro vocal chops and rolling grooves, a distorted, club ready flip of sugababes' 2000s hit "round round" courtesy of uk-bass-sensation-that's-sweeping-the-nation duo two shell, a delightfully catchy and satisfying footwork banger from underground producer username, and jazzy and glitchy drum and bass sounds from xploding plastix.

in terms of hip hop, we've got poppy yet aggressive delivery from slayyyter and tommy genesis atop hard-hitting trap knocks, a bouncy, speaker rattling, hyphy-esque beat from ivy lab, and nana フリーク版 by chilean artist akriila, off of her debut album epistolares, which has solidified as a very close second to brat as my album of the year, partly because of cuts like the above mentioned, an extremely hard-hitting industrial hip hop banger (in a way, similar to iglooghost's coral mimic also from this year) with a defiant edge to the lyricism and delivery. i really could've picked pretty much any track from that record, it's that good imo, check it out if a varied ride consisting of club-ready perreo, poppier sounds of drum and bass and even some chilean folk for good measure sounds like a thing you'd be into.

to wrap up, the things i haven't mentioned yet: a curious blend of baggy-esque indie rock with r&b vocal delivery from tama gucci (artist whom i've always adored their voice and whose output is super underrated imo), classic midwest emo with a bit of a twee edge from everyone asked about you, dreamy hypnagogic pop from chanel beads with a bit of a similar vibe to the mica levi track from last week, and the third single off fontaines dc's romance (much like mag bay's album, it's pretty solid, though i feel like it dips a bit in quality by the second half, aside from the closer ofc).

tube it!!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore july 2024 update !

we're already in the middle of the month lmfao i'm very not consistent with this. this month's batch is just straight up anything really. fair bit of electronic though not in the most frequently seen veins on these roundups, a bunch of Guitar Music, a couple of pop and r&b tracks here and there. you know the drill

in regards to the electronic section: there's two recognizable sections of the playlist this month, one for drum and bass tracks right at the end which is not precisely uncommon for me but there usually isn't this much, and another one for idm, which isn't the most common sight here as far as i remember. the first one happened because of me going through a rym list of liquid dnb tracks and i picked two of my favourites from that batch, both coming out on brazilian label innerground, one from its founder dj marky alongside xrs, and another from the relatively obscure producer (to me at least) pennygiles, but there were a lot of highlights outside of those, check it out here if you're interested. the two other tracks here fall into crossovers with pop and r&b, which is a genre intersection i'm always keeping track of; one curiously enough being influenced by bossa nova, by korean pop power duo sumin & slom, and the other merging minimal dnb, dancehall and r&b from akriila, an artist whose recent output has made me very excited to hear her soon-to-be-released debut album.

as for the idm side, you have the absolute legends boards of canada with an expectably mistfiying track from their watershed album music has the right to children, a track from caribou before he started using that moniker that fits neatly into the whole idm-downtempo hybrid sound of acts like the aforementioned boc, and a haunting yet enchanting track from emer and ugne uma that blends clinical, spacious idm production with ambient pop idioms.

the rest of the electronic picks of this month are mostly crossovers with pop and r&b. some of them are not (one of the new singles for sophie's upcoming posthumous album reads more as a straight four-to-the-floor tech tool, and axolotl by doon kanda is a now-nostalgic piece of witch house that also feels very dancefloor heavy surprisingly) but most of it absolutely does: the witch house infused trap grooves of today by tirzah, the art / ambient pop influenced by late 80s electronic and new age stylings of susumu hirasawa, smerz working within the parameters of deep house to deliver a disorienting, hazy and glitchy r&b track, yawning portal giving a carly rae jepsen deep cut (i wasn't familiar with it, at least) the ambient trance treatment and creating a heavenly and ethereal vibe, nick león and erika de casier delivering a surprising mix of dreamy r&b with trance idioms as well as brazilian funk and raptor house (!) rhythms, promising j-pop group f5ve making their best track to date with a track influenced by 90s hardcore and ddr soundtracks, and last but not least, no me molestes mas by holy girl! i debated whether i should've shouted this one out when she dropped the track on youtube but i ended up not doing so and waiting for it to finally be posted onto dsps, and thank god it did, easily one of my favourite tracks of the year and probably my favourite track released by an uruguayan artist altogether so far this year, a lovely piece of indietronica (reminded me personally of some of the work by max tundra, but i don't think that's really the inspiration behind it) with slightly snarky yet charming and earnest lyricism, just a very wholesome and comforting song imo.

speaking of uruguayan artists, though, and moving onto the Guitar Music section of the playlist, obelisco dropped what is likely to be the best uruguayan album of the year, i picked the balladesque midwest emo single plan perfecto for the list, but i could've also gone with the more classic hardcore sounds of their other single mundo paralelo, or the many heavy and aggressive post-hardcore showings like ojos or eco, or the other emo showing of the project in the form of the song fuego (any of those would've probably been better for the flow of the playlist also, but i'm stubborn lol), it is seriously a stellar record, exactly as impressive as i expected it to be, it's varied yet quite short so i feel like there's definitely a lot of replay value to be had with it, definitely recommend it.

other picks in this category include: fucking Steely Dan of all bands (i swear, this has been the year of me actually enjoying the stuff i've been dunking on for no reason and subsequently making a fool out of myself, woe is me!), very charming folk pop from big thief, which is an act that i haven't really paid much attention to because i feel like i wouldn't connect much with them but i guess i'll have to change that at some point, a continuation of the hardcore and emo patterns with a track from refused's seminal the shape of punk to come album as well as a cut from jimmy eat world's most lauded (deservedly so) album, and finally, a 12 minute ethereal post-rock / dream pop / baggy piece from mica levi which feels very enveloping and entrancing throughout.

and to wrap up, the tracks i haven't mentioned yet: beautiful, enchanting ambient pop / r&b from TWEAKS; a classic track from janet's classic album the velvet rope which i finally ended up getting to listen to in full and it's as good as i expected it to be; and the only hip hop related thing on the playlist this month, a cut from jawnino's very solid mixtape 40 from earlier on this year, which pays homage to classic grime production with more eccentric mc-ing as well as a welcome guest appearance from james massiah aka babyfather's dj escrow.

tube it!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore june 2024 update!!

these keep coming out later and later with each month lmfao whatever. very much loaded with pop and adjacent sounds because hey, album of the year dropped, gotta rep it. some modern forms of hip hop here, some electronic stuff there, the usual stuff.

on the pop front: as i said, album of the year dropped, and while i could've chosen a lot of tracks off the regular version of the album, i ended up going with spring breakers because it works well to represent the ethos of the album and also appeals to me enjoying a mostly trashy late-00s / early-10s electropop sound. in the same vein, debut single from the collaboration of argentinian producers and singers estratosfera and qiri presents a lot of the same flare but slightly more subdued, closer to a more apathetic electroclash-esque aesthetic in a way; in regards to sounds closer to the original bubblegum bass sound, we get a revival of sorts with a few influences of hardstyle here and there from growing figure in the underground 2hollis, as well as the first of probably several posthumous sophie releases, with one of her most eagerly awaited tracks by the fans and a classic pc-music-adjacent pop sound that still works wonderfully, even after years of being in the vault. a couple of pop legends here, i actually listened to confessions on a dance floor in full for the first time and hey, it's a great record still and all of its singles are bonafide hits, and we also got robyn featuring on a single for jamie xx's upcoming album, bringing a lot of energy with a classic house beat filled with irresistible horn lines and shuffling rhythms. in a more r&b-inspired tinge, i went back to sumin's excellent "your home" album, an incredible blend of electronic idioms into classic r&b songwriting, as well as the newest single from tinashe's upcoming project, going for a more nocturnal, clubbier vibe than the surprise juggernaut hit nasty, very excited for the full album. we've also got some pop that somewhat falls under the parameters of the indie umbrella, with the charming, beautiful and comfy cámara lenta from latin-american pop legend javiera mena, some indietronica sounds from broadcast (finally getting into them proper, great album) and former hero (very much a modern take into the sound more inspired by mainstream edm tropes, in this case, taking a more midtempo prog house approach which i'm always a fan of), wonderfully jaunty jangle pop revival from fontaines d.c. and absolutely enchanting folk pop / singer-songwriter crossover sounds straight out of the 70s from jessica pratt.

on the hip hop front: keeping up to date with the modern developments of soundcloud-rap-adjacent sounds, we've got wokeups putting autotune to its limits and using that technology in an exciting and unique way, uk mcs yt and lancey foux delivering an absolute banger and contributing to the consolidation of the jerk sound, akriila and taichu bringing an industrial perreo rush of agression with maddeningly catchy hooks and lines that laps at just shy of two minutes of runtime, and iceboy violet and nueen presenting a mystifying fusion of ambient sound design and more subdued rap delivery. in somewhat less modern offerings, a surprising meetup of ed banger producer mr. flash with cities aviv, action bronson and oh no, which aren't mcs you typically see join forces very often, delivering a chipmunk-soul-esque hip hop joint, and dean blunt and dj escrow's babyfather putting their hands on lethargic r&b duo 18+'s drama, built on a mesmerizing sample and escrow's classic spoken word delivery.

on the electronic front: blood of aza and s280f delivering their signature post-club, collage-like sound in a particularly arresting manner, kamixlo presenting a surprising foray into idm and techno idioms that works very well for someone like me that isn't particularly enamored by either sound, the return of edm trap legend rustie with a track more akin to the post-trance excursions of producers like evian christ (a sound always most welcome), former noisia member thys dropping a footwork jungle banger with signature chopped up vocal lines and rolling drum lines, and closing up the list, dazegxd's take on bunny general's mek them rock, an acapella i really like and that works wonderfully with the current developments of jungle. in a semi-related note, the one outlier on the list this month, kieran hebden (aka four tet)'s incursion into jazzier sounds of rock with a particularly inviting and enveloping ten minute opus.

tube it!!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore may 2024 update!!

we're already in the middle of the month so it's a bit late for me to update this but whatever, this is first and foremost something i do for myself at the end of the day and if it just so happens that someone reads it then cool. anyway, this month's roundup is a lot heavier on the electronic and hip hop, and it's also mostly emphasizing some of the weirder, somewhat darker and hazier sides of each paradigm.

on the one hand, a lot of the electronic stuff on offer here tends to intermingle with hip hop either in terms of the usage of rhythms inspired by hip hop or by featuring actual hip hop (or adjacent) artists on the songs themselves, though there are some outliers to this along the playlist. for the former, you've got the dark yet impossibly enchanting trip hop vibes of bows, side project from long fin killie frontman luke sutherland, whose singular vocal delivery just takes the atmosphere to another level completely; there's some glitch hop / pop hybrids courtesy of baths and iglooghost, the first bringing in a very melancholic vocal performance laid over a haunting and almost oppressive instrumental and the second being a lot more ethereal and hazy in terms of its vocal delivery and synth design; later on, a Lot of sample manipulation in different veins of electronic from the fear ratio with their remix of dbridge turning an otherwise unremarkable track into a frenzied, constantly spiralling sort-of-glitch-hop "beat" with a demented sounding melody, moody good making a trip hop track with vocal samples near impossible to parse and looming, ondulating guitar lines, seekersinternational pulling audacious blends of ambient, dub, jungle and ragga that sound like you're catching pirate radio signals (could've picked a lot of tracks from that project, the group is one of my favourite recent discoveries) and carl crack delivering some of the most menacing and dizzying atmospheres through very little elements: an endlessly looping vocal line, extremely distorted boom bap drum patterns, some noise here and there, and not much else yet it manages to create an immense sense of dread (positive).

as for the actual hip hop and edm crossovers: the new machinedrum album is great, and one of my favourite tracks is this very bright and inviting glitch hop track with mick jenkins and jesse boykins iii delivering great vocal performances; hash gordon providing an immensely hard-hitting track with very aggressive and confrontational lyricism and vocal delivery over an always changing instrumental with elements of electro and breakbeat; and after a long time since it was first premiered, the skrillex, hamdi and taichu collab, which you can make the case that it's very much similar to a lot of other hamdi tracks, as it tends to be the case with a lot of his material, but hey, if it ain't broke don't fix it, the track works really well still, although i would've liked to have heard taichu having a longer verse but given that the track is mostly club oriented, so it makes sense, i suppose.

we've got a couple of outliers to these two classifications of the edm-centric tracks too: firstly, an absolute banger of a uk garage track from oomfie kelbin, wonderfully shuffling drums that just plunge you right onto the dancefloor accompanying some of the most shimmering and wavy synth lines i've ever heard put into the context of ukg; elysia crampton, sound-collage-etc extraordinaire taking an already great cut from rabit and putting a dancefloor spin on it with incesssant drum patterns and vocal samples; and miles whitaker of demdike stare alongside andy stott delivering a haunting blend of uk bass, jungle and footwork that very much lives up to its namesake.

as for the hip hop that hasn't already been mentioned: delightfully hazy abstract goodness from the ever-consistent cities aviv with his classic laidback delivery over a beat that sounds like it's playing through a vhs recording (hypnagogic pop influence, as some say); kendrick lamar perfoming an absolute evisceration of character for six minutes over one of the most drama-filled, impactful piano lines i've heard in a beat probably ever (you could argue not like us is the more defining track of the beef in the way that it manages to humiliate someone over a club jam, but man, do i love me a good callout and an amazing alchemist beat); and a really hard-hitting cut from short-lived industrial hip hop duo food for animals, essentially taking a lot of stylistic cues from dalek in terms of flow and lyricism but amping the glitchiness and aggression of the beats up to 11.

in regards to everything else on the list: different strands of r&b and soul, it's always good to have some of that on the list, starting off with a classic janet jackson joint from an absolutely essential album that i still need to get to lol, miss ravyn lenae presenting a surprisingly successful marriage of pop rock and neo-soul with expectedly wonderful vocals and hooks for days, and the second single from clara la san's debut album, with much of the same that made the last track of hers featured on one of this posts so compelling to me also present here. then, a couple of argentinian bands, with jaime sin tierra's very comforting psychedelic dream pop (i'm pretty sure that's not really the genre they're most well known for but this track fits that bill at least) and clamor's energetic and exhilarating emocore revivalism. we've also got some melancholic rock-related cuts with nicole dollanganger's crushing portrayal of her struggles with eating disorders, and dean blunt, vegyn and panda bear clashing in a longing plea for companionship. finally, some of the more edm-inspired sides of pop with always underrated fave vocalist ivy hollivana in a track that feels very in line with some of baths' work but with some modern hyperpop influence, and underscores dropping what appears to be a loosie from the wallsocket era that just absolutely rips, that bridge after the second chorus is one of my favourite moments in music so far this year.

that's it for the month!! tube it!

[frankbedbroken]

frankcore april 2024 update!!

monthly playlist, monthly post, sorry i'm too twitterpilled and i tend to be stingy with reblogs here idk. anyhow, this month's update is even more guitar music heavy than the last one, and i can't say i'm very happy about it!!!!! (/lh /hj i'm just mad because i spent years shitting on rock while simultaneously listening to rock and other adjacent genres and now people can call me out for it) it also doesn't help that this is my messiest month in terms of structure of the playlist and track selection, though there are some patterns in here.

for one, there's a fair bit of indie pop, specifically twee pop for the most part but with a few outliers such as hazards by great area, (which is more in line with the whole hypnagogic pop sound of artists like dean blunt and lolina (fka inga copeland), latter of which owns the label that song was released on, but also with some trip hop influences) and follow the light by broadcast (more ambient pop-esque than some of their other tracks i've heard, bit more hypnotic both in atmosphere and theme, i would say). of course, you've got heavenly, one of the most important acts related to the twee sound, then there's the softies that (as far as i can tell, i'm not actually super knowledgeable in the genre still lol) go in a more subdued direction with not as much punk influences as other acts like the aforementioned heavenly or another sunny day, and last but not least, my irl friends' band: cosas raras pasarán! it's been around a year and a half or so of going to every gig they've done so far, seeing them evolving and honing their craft as time has gone on, and i couldn't be happier to see them finally releasing at least a bit of what they've done so far to the public at large, it warms my heart and i'm very excited for whatever comes in the future <3 this last point leads me to the next subset of tracks i'd like to single out: there's a bit more music from my country as well this time around! firstly, sandwiched in between the twee pop tracks at the start of the playlist (this sorting-by-bpm approach is not working as well as i would like, turns out), ¿quién me defenderá de tu belleza? by amigovio, solo project from the former lead singer of indie pop group carmen sandiego, where it's mainly taking cues from synthpop and adjacent sounds, reminding me a bit of the approach javiera mena had towards pop and indie intersections during the esquemas juveniles era (very much a positive). and secondly, kira1312 and guitarbaby's fastcar, a very solid pop rap / r&b crossover with production that feels very in line with a lot of the edm trap sounds around the mid-2010s, think artists like sam gellaitry or monte booker, which is something that feels very unique and singular in the scene, it's a style that's definitely guitarbaby's own and it makes me interested in whatever she's dropping in the future. as for the pop and r&b side, occupying a large chunk on the list also: a folky and classical influenced art pop / singer-songwriter offering from clarissa connelly (the whole album is pretty damn good, but the opening track here is straight up stunning); delightful k-pop and city pop crossover from loona's spiritual subunit artms (essentially a rework of haseul's plastic candy from last year, which was one of my favourite tracks from that year, but a very welcome flip still); the lead single off of tinashe's upcoming project, a sequel to last year's excellent bb//ang3l, and heading in the direction of the club-ready trap knocks of needs from that album; submerged house and r&b from dawn richard with impossibly memorable vocal snippets (that "do you love me... anymore..." vocal got stuck in my head for the whole month after it came up on shuffle) and atmospheric production; a taste of ms. xcx's upcoming album and a very obvious addition to this month's list, i mean, come on, it's charli AND gesaffelstein on production, of course i'm going to love it; the comeback of the ever mysterious and ellusive r&b vocalist clara la san, once again delivering on her particular blend of cloudy, ambient-like production and wispy yet alluring vocals; a very solid blend of modern 2-step production with synthwork and melodies that draw inspiration from 80s sophisti-pop and contemporary r&b from bautibit; and finally a crossover of pop, footwork and accelerated funk br from duda beat, genre globetrotter that still manages to bring everything together well for catchy and compelling pop compositions.

over on the electronic side: a woozy collage of r&b idioms, dubby atmospheres, ragga vocals and broken drum beats, courtesy of the seekersinternational crew (their no parasites ep from last year is almost always in rotation for me, it's just absolutely gripping stuff for me); the comeback of mr. jamie xx, finally rolling out stuff for the release of his upcoming album, featuring an impossibly charming old-school house groove accompanied by some classic horns and vocal chops; psychedelic breakbeat to hope for a better tomorrow while seeing the sunrise to from vegyn and lauren auder; and finally mind-blowingly complex post-everything-club sound design from fitnesss (hopefully a teaser for an upcoming LP? pretty please?) and lag switch as well as little snake.

elsewhere: a couple of tracks from the new british rock / punk scene that nerds on the internet love to talk about, represented by fontaines dc and black midi; my favourite drain gang related track of the month and the competition was pretty tough believe it or not considering all they dropped during the month (it was a tossup between tldr and the track bladee and ecco did with varg2™, ultimately picked the former because it's crazy to hear ecco rap again after a long time); wonderfully jangly yet somber and melancholic midwest emo from germany, courtesy of the short-lived group 125 rue montmartre; and finally, probably the most baffling inclusion on the list, suffocate by knocked loose and poppy, i think this might be the first time i have anything metal related on these lists, but i don't know, this one just really works for me: it's rhythmically super interesting and engaging (the reggaeton breakdown!!!!) and the vocals hit that sweet spot for me where i find the tone of the screams appealing, which is sort of a make-or-break when it comes to this kinda stuff for me.

non-dsp available highlight of the month is 90 down the block by xaviersobased, i'm still yet to hear a full project from his but i can definitely understand the hype behind him, in the way that he incorporates the rhythms of late 2000s rap into more modern plugg and cloud rap production, all wrapped together into a dizzyingly loose and carefree sound that's incredibly interesting

tube it!!!

[frankbedbroken]

new monthly frankcore playlist just dropped ‼

LOTS of electronic-inspired r&b this month, most of the tracks come from me just scrolling through the quotes of this one tweet about r&b and electronic intersections. there were many, many, many tracks that i loved from that thread, some i was familiar with which gave me the opportunity to give a few albums here another spin that made me like them even more than i already did (333 by tinashe, play with the changes by rochelle jordan, take me apart by kelela, hypnos and the moon shoes ep by ravyn lenae, and aaliyah's self titled), and also some others that i hadn't heard of before that i also really really enjoyed (that d'leau track is insane, found it on a tweet with exactly one like and has less than 2000 plays on spotify, if you like full moon by brandy in terms of the glitchy yet weirdly smooth production, do check it out, it's a great track).

elsewhere, a fair few electronic tracks ranging from ambient techno to downtempo to uk bass to footwork, jungle and the intersections of both; some post-minimalism with the tim hecker and bendik giske tracks (i might have to pay more attention to the genre, it seems like the type of classical music i might be the most into); and the clear outlier here being asco al sexo by carmen sandiego, which is a funny track to have sandwiched between thicc by shygirl and skin by george riley, both songs about sex, but there really wasn't anywhere else to put it in terms of bpm and such lol

finally, couple of tracks i wanted to add but weren't on spotify: 3pecados - diciembra annie - i know ur girlfriend hates me black kray - spin da blok lyke ah fan