Ariel Zetina may be best known as one of Chicago's fiercest DJs (the Mother of the Windy City Club Scene, as some have suitably appointed her), but she's more than meets the eye. Having come from a theatre and poetry background, the American-Belizean artist is well-versed in cutting-edge performance art. In fact, her first foray into music-making was born out of necessity, simply because she couldn't find a piece of music that would fit a show she was working on as part of collaborative performance art group Witch Hazel. After relocating to Chicago some years later, she finally found her place and essentially herself in the city's thriving queer/trans club scene, which provided her with the impetus to fuse house and techno sounds with her own multicultural flavours.
It's no surprise, then, that her 2017 solo EP Cyst was such a concrete representation of Chicago's underground trans talents as it features a good handful of collaborators, including Alessa Schmalbach, Itsï Ramirez, Jesus Hilario, Ashara Renfroe and Zeynab Gh. And if Cyst represented the group, its follow-up Organism EP turns its focus on the individual, which can be felt through a stronger presence of Belizean punto and brukdown rhythms. It opens with Establish Yourself In My Body, a bold statement of intent built on unbending, skittering techno beats. "My body/ My body/ My body," a vocal sample repeats over a series of stark sirens. A textured, stunningly nuanced opener fitting for a dark dance floor anywhere.
I Miss The Sea picks up the torch, offering Zetina's personal seaside nostalgia for her hometowns in Florida and Belize with Afro-Caribbean drums. "How can I tell you what's in my heart?" guest vocalist Paula Nacif wonders out loud. "I miss the sea/ I miss the sea," goes her yearning croon juxtaposed with the unrelenting techno-house backdrop. Meanwhile, brukdown-inspired Putamaria (featuring Chicago-based Afro-Latinx interdisciplinary artist MORENXXX) turns a catcalling phrase into a musical component, voiding it of any negative connotations, before closer Water Nymph ends the EP on a high note with a mishmash of acid house, techno, steel drums, Zetina's Auto-Tuned vocals and giggles. Jarring, yet strangely addictive.
Quotable lyrics: "Establish yourself in my body!" (Establish Yourself In My Body).
The verdict: Organism is a thrillingly multifaceted mini-album that pushes beyond the boundaries of dance music.
Listen to this: Establish Yourself In My Body, I Miss The Sea.
THE PLAYLIST
Charblues / Ook Hak Jaak Duck Café
With the name of their band being a play on the Japanese word "shabu-shabu", it's apparent that Charblues are not ones to take themselves seriously. The Thai five-piece, made up of vocalist/guitarist Boom, guitarist Chim, drummer Gig, bassist Joe and saxophonist Un, have been giving blues a hilariously Thai take since early last year. Their debut single, How Do You Know My Father's Name?, alludes to the classic playground taunt where kids would inexplicably get off on calling someone by his/her parents' names. Hilarity then ensues, with Rao Ma Rian Pid Wan [We Came To Class On A Wrong Day] and Mod Sit Sob [Disqualified For Exams], two on-point southern blues offerings that are as clever as they are hysterical. Their latest, Ook Hak Jaak Duck Café [Heartbroken From Duck Café], however, sees them veering off the school theme and giving us a torch song seemingly inspired by Sayan Nirandorn's luk thung classic Ook Hak Jaak Café.
Ed Sheeran (with Justin Bieber) / I Don't Care
Judging from their 2015 collaborations, the obscenely infectious Love Yourself followed by the equally massive chart-topper via Major Lazer's Cold Water, the pairing of Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber seems to tick all the right boxes when it comes to one-size-fits-all summer anthems. And with help from Swedish hitmakers Max Martin and Shellback, their latest, I Don't Care, falls right in line with those earworms without having to reinvent the wheel. Over insipid, shopworn pop-dancehall rhythms, Sheeran and Bieber split vocal duties in equal measure, sharing their qualms about being at parties they don't want to be at ("Don't think we fit in at this party/ Everyone's got so much to say") before collectively finding comfort in their babies, who make "all the bad things disappear".
Eddington Again / Sweet
LA-based musician Eddington Again, or the self-described "rap game Professor X, Charles Xavier", caused a sizeable ripple when he put out his genre-hopping debut mixtape Masturgrape back in 2015. This year, the former Oddience member is returning with the follow-up EP Damani3, a five-track nugget released under the wings of UK's forward-thinking imprint Apollo Records. Lead single Sweet may on the surface traipse a more conventional soulful R&B path, but there's an experimental edge bubbling just right under, highlighting the interplay between keys and synth effects. "Say your grace 'fore you lay down/ Peace of mind so we fine when we together," he intones in a voice that could perhaps be defined as a grittier version of John Legend. "It's like a sweet breeze, a sweet breeze/ I never have to wait no more/ I got just what I need, yeah."
Hayden Thorpe / Love Crimes
Formerly of the now-defunct, well-beloved UK band Wild Beasts, singer-songwriter Hayden Thorpe teased us earlier this year with the piano ballad Diviner, the first taste of his eponymous full-length solo LP. Here, we're treated to second cut Love Crimes, a swelling stunner built on cascading piano chords, basslines and Thorpe's vivid songwriting ("I'm balaclava'ed, I'm dressed in stripes/ You in your cape and tights"). With all that is going on production-wise, still it's hard to contend with his singular countertenor, which has a nimble way of sliding in and out of a fluttering falsetto like nobody's business.
Jamie Cullum / Drink
With his long-anticipated eighth studio album, Taller, on the horizon, UK jazz pianist/singer-songwriter Jamie Cullum is making sure that each one of us is making the best out of our lives before we meet our demise with the carpe diem-themed single Drink. The track marks his first new material since 2015's Interlude and last year's King Of Thieves soundtrack, as well as his first new original composition since who knows when. "Drink, drinking in all of the sunshine/ Reminding ourselves that there's no time/ To wander around in the cold," he sings over the soaring piano melodies. "Pain," he further elaborates, "is just part of your day/ So suck it up, learn how to play." Thanks for the advice, Jamie!
