On the first Friday of every month since March 2020, music platform Bandcamp has waived its fees to help support the many artists who have seen their livelihoods disrupted by the pandemic. Over that time, fans paid artists and labels more than $56 million dollars—money that helped cover rents, mortgages, groceries, medications, and much more. If you are one of the 800,000 fans who’ve participated, cheers to you for being human.
The next Bandcamp Friday will be on Fri/3. Here at 48hills, we appreciate your interest in our suggestions. It’s your help that makes a significant difference.
SEVEN DAVIS JR. — I SEE THE FUTURE (Secret Angels)
Seven Davis Jr, the San Francisco electronic music producer extraordinaire, releases his new full-length project I See The Future. It’s the follow-up album to his Ninja Tune debut Universes from 2015. Recorded between 2013 and 2021 in various locations—as evidenced by the available tracks on the pre-order Bandcamp page—it promises to be a joyful melange of quirky-funk house, with plush soundscapes and those sticky grooves. Some come with throwback flair, such as the Lil Louis feels on “Escape The Matrix,” while other tracks “Figure It Out” or “Records” move at full jacking dancefloor burn.
With uplifting messages of perseverance, I See The Future is just beaming with that inner light, and is deserving to be blared, understood, digested at bass-knocking levels.
“The album’s called *I See The Future* because it’s mostly a collection of songs I’d been keeping in my vault for whatever reason,” Sev states on the Bandcamp page. “Instrumentals I’d been really sitting on, letting cook longer than usual. Songs that needed more time, in this case, years, to form. Usually, it hasn’t taken too long to get ideas out but for this project, I wanted different results. Plus so much happened in the world it’s made me become a different person/artist. So my process is different. All in all, it’s fun uplifting vibes about enjoying life and moving on to better, hope people pick up on that.”
I See The Future will be released on Sev’s Secret Angels imprint on December 17th. Pre-order it here.
8ULENTINA — DEPARTURE
Track “Atmosphere Without Detail” is a haunting, jutting, two-step drum and bass knocker of a mood that catches ears with its stirring atmospherics circling within the rhythmic structure. Its far-stretching sound is an alert for your podhole. 8ulentina is the co-founder of the now-defunct Club Chai label and East-Bay party, which was co-run with Lara Sarkissian—but 8ulentina recently relocated to New York. Like their music, the producer is still traveling.
Departure, the six-song EP released this September, comes filled with various shades and ideas the artist has traversed in the past. Slight reminders of “On My Way,” the split EP that the two founders worked on, so symbolic of their trans-Bay relationship.
But a progression is evident. New arrangements broadcast tree-trunking heavy thuds, advancing with squelching beat-box noise-techno. These colors on “Eye To See” featuring Age Reform, operate with a flute riding over cracking snaps and bullet clicks. Much like this most of Departure, it’s a momentous, loud, breakbeat symphony of disruption.
Get it here.
LATANYA ALBERTO — FUTURITY
There is a version of R&B that never gets antiquated. When these songs, wrapped in the artistry of the blues and funk, swing back messed-up situations to tell the stank truth, you betta’ listen. Otherwise, you might get caught up in a sitch down the road that you had fair warning about.
Dutch soul songstress Latanya Alberto continues in this lane, the neo-soul carved out by Badu, and that Yazmin Lacey subsequently refined. “Futurity,” a song that speaks about having the power of ambition and potential in terms of art and sensuality, shapes just such a deeper groove.
Born and raised in Amsterdam to Surimenese and Curaçaoan parents, Latanya Alberto can pen a scenario and then vocalize it with simplicity and truthfulness while delivering the medicine. “Futurity” follows the release of Latanya’s EP “The Royal Escape” from earlier this year.
Purchase the new earworm here.
RISA T — GALAXY (CoOp Presents)
The almighty CoOp Presents imprint, coming to you straight out of London, has found yet another star among their Selectors Assemble crew. The Tokyo-born, London-based producer Risa T finely attuned her musical roots through many rigorous years of classical music training. On her debut “Galaxy” EP, she proves those fundamentals went to good use. On this five-track explosion of bruk, future beats, footwork, and humid London tempo, Risa T settles in with her own version of this heavyweight business. With remixes from label bosses Alex Phountzi and IG Culture, we have yet another example of how this cultural movement keeps growing and expanding under the tutelage of trailblazers paying it forward. Risa T’s Galaxy will keep those bass-bins rattling long into the new year.
Purchase the EP here.
