Hummingbird's New Music Feeder
Get ahead of your friends, foes, and streaming services with our Music Feeder, a bi-monthly dose of invigorating and soul-pleasing tunes
With this Feeder, we feature an expansive indie-rock album steeped in science fiction, new releases from VanJess and slowthai, and thoughts from O-Slice about her growth and versatility as an artist.
Reptaliens — VALIS
Released in the spring of 2019, VALIS brings together elements of folk and psych-rock to create a lighthearted, dreamy soundscape rife with bubbly effects and expressions of their Portland enthusiasm.
It’s a gaseous album — that is, it can take up as much space in your environment as you’ll allow it. Played at a low volume, you (and friends?) will hear pleasant whisperings and harmonious synths, but appreciated fully, the band’s willingness to play off-kilter sounds brings never-ending enjoyment.
From their BandCamp: “Inspired by sci-fi art, cult mentality and deep connections, creating low fidelity chameleon dreamscapes somewhere between abstract expressionism and surrealism both sonically and visually. Reptaliens is a project of exploration in pop culture.”
Tune In: Best Drops of the Past Few Weeks
VanJess — Homegrown
The duo represents their Nigerian roots with a nine-song 30-minute outing of smooth, sultry tracks.
Highlights: “DYSFUNCTIONAL,” “Slow Down,” “Roses”
Anakena — No Hay Peligro
“No Hay Peligro” is a high-spirits beach-rock single from Anakena, bringing some warmth to the
slowthai — TYRON
A two-sided album that sees slowthai express himself through noisy, industrial beats on the first half, and more danceable, somber beats on the second. TYRON is a welcome follow-up to the expansive and groundbreaking Nothing Great About Britain.
Highlights: “CANCELLED” “focus” “nhs” “feel away”
KAYTRANADA — Caution
Out of nowhere, Kaytra blesses fans with an upbeat track paced by an expressive funk sample.
HYDE — Undercover
Building hype for her upcoming album, HYDE flexes her aromatic vocals, poppy soundscapes, and lusty delivery on “Undercover.”
Hear from Hummingbird’s Nest: O-Slice
We had the chance to speak with DMV rapper O-Slice, and she dropped some knowledge about the music of the D.C. area and alluded to a new album on the way.
“A lot of the music I’ve been holding on to touches so many genres,” she said. “I like to experiment. I like to be a chameleon and try different sounds, so I think with the project that I’m coming out with now it could be the first major introduction to that.”
She shared that the new album bears strong influence from her upbringing in D.C.
“There’s no way that you can grow up in this area and not have at least an appreciation for go-go — if not a deep, deep, deep love for go-go,” she says. “I highkey think that’s why the music from this area is as eclectic and wide-ranging as it is, because from the beginning our ears were trained to like stuff that was a little off-kilter.”
Furthermore, she showed love to fellow artists from the area, a logical sentiment from someone that hosts a show of the DMV’s best talent every year.
“I think we’re criminally underrated. We as a community are starting to understand the things that we need to do to bring that to an end, so I’m very excited for people to hear me and say ‘woah where is she from?’ I wanna be a bridge to people’s introduction to the area, so they can understand the level of insane talent we have.”
Check out the rest of the interview here.
FAUNA
You better grab a blanket and a picnic for this one, folks. One of our premier playlists, FAUNA is a dedication to sunny days and close friends. This features a broad array of artists (over 100 are represented) with only a few repeats.
Industry News
On Jan. 12, Spotify’s patent, titled “Identification of taste attributes from an audio signal,” was approved. As reported by Music Business Worldwide; “the filing explained that behavioural variables, such as a user’s mood, their favourite genre of music, or their demographic could all prospectively “correspond to different personality traits of a user.” Read more here.