Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
Following last months’s Album Club #1, This Is Not Happening returns to our traditional format. In part 1, we deep dive into an album that one of us has selected. In Part 2 we play ‘Spin It or Bin It?’ where we judge each others track selections of great new music from 2022.
Part 1 – Album of the Month
This month it’s Guy’s choice, Small World the new album by Metronomy. Spoiler Alert – Metronomy are one of Guy’s favourite bands. We discuss our expectations, reactions, reflections, dynamics in the band and if every album being released at the moment is in some way a ‘lockdown album’.
Some interesting ‘bits’ to check out;
The Metacritic album review summary can be found here
An interesting interview with Joe Mount for DIY Mag can be found here
Joe Mount doing an Instagram Live Q&A can be foundhere
Part 2 – ‘Spin it’ or ‘Bin it?’
In the second part of this episode we get stuck into the MASSIVE amount of great music that has been released in 2022. We all pick a track, introduce our track and ask the others the critical question ‘spin it’ or ‘bin it?’ We then decide on a track of the month from the list of 4.
A link to a mini-Spotify-playlist of these 4 tracks can be found here.
In order to make our selections, we all create a long list, then shortlist 4 tracks each. The 16 tracks that make up our track shortlists can be found here.
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
We usually pick a (relatively) new album release to focus on but this month we changed things up. The start of the year is a funny time for album releases and 2022 was no different. We decided that rather than spend a month and a podcast talking about something that we weren’t too passionate about, we’d take a different path. This month is the first TINH ‘Album Club’.
The format for this podcast is simple. The four of us all (randomly) chose someone from the Team-TINH to pick an album for. The album should be from the past 10 (ish) years and should represent something special that the recipient might have missed. A modern classic perhaps.
This episode was loads of fun to make. There’s loads of agreement, a little bit of niggle, a fair chunk of nerdery … something for everyone. The following are the albums that we discussed, who chose them, who they were chosen for and some links that take you to some of the things that popped up in the discussion.
First-up – Joey chose Deerhunter’s 2010 ‘Halcyon Digest’ for Guy;
You can listen to the album here on Spotify … or catch it on YouTube here The ethereal video for Helicopter can be watchedhere … or watch them perform the poptastic ‘Memory Boy’ here
Next-up – Nolan chose Kanye West’s 2016 ‘Life of Pablo’ for David (what could go wrong?);
You can listen to the album here on Spotify … or catch it on YouTube here Nolan highly recommends NORE’s podcast interview with Kanye here… … and if 2.5hrs of Kanye wasn’t enough here’s part 2
Next-up – David chose Wye Oak’s 2011 ‘Civilian’ for Joey;
You can listen to the album here on Spotify … or catch it on YouTubehere Watch a live NPR Tiny Desk performance of ‘Civilian’ here
Finally – Guy chose Enny’s 2021’s ‘Under 25’ for Nolan;
You can listen to the album here on Spotify … or catch it on YouTubehere Watch the video to ‘I want’here … and the video for ‘Peng Black Girls’ here
We hope you enjoy this episode. Let us know if you know these albums. Do you love them? What are your thoughts?
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
This Is Not Happening kicks off the New Year with a great album from the end of 2021, Joy Crookes’ debut release ‘Skin’. We discuss our expectations and reactions, similarities between this album and a certain other soul singer from London and get deep into our favourite tracks from the album. There’s lovely point of pod-synergy when Nolan predicts with 100% accuracy Joey’s favourite track and more impressively, the reason for this selection.
Part 2 – ‘Spin it or Bin it’
In the second part of this episode we take inspiration from Joy’s stomping ground and we all bring a track from South London that we love. Each of us introduce our track and ask the others if they want to ‘spin it’ or ‘bin it’;
If you’ve been reading the blog or listening to the pod then you’ll know that I love a debut. I’ve always been fascinated by the raw honesty of a debut and the breadth of ideas that they often bring. They’re often the culmination of everything that has happened to an artist up until that point. I think it was a Galagher who said something like ‘it takes you whole life to write your debut album … then the record company want another one 12 months later’. For Joy Crookes that ‘whole life’ was 22 years when she wrote and recorded this special debut album. However, ‘Skin’ is far from her first rodeo with 3 EPs and 13 singles recorded and released since 2016.
Joy Crookes was born in Lambeth and raised in Elephant and Castle, and moved to Ladbrooke Grove in South London when she was 14. During these teen years she taught herself the guitar and piano and started writing music, ‘I didn’t know then that this could be a proper job’. Joy went the You Tube route to self publish covers and then her own original music in what is now quite a common rites of musical passage.
In Oct. 2021 she released ‘Skin’. It’s 13 tracks, 42 minutes and is (all puns fully intended) … an absolute joy to listen to. Sorry. Whilst the album would mostly likely be described as nu-soul or something similar, the styles on show are vast, pop, soul, jazz, trip-hop shades of punk and even a track that feels like it could be a Bond soundtrack contender (To Lose Someone). The album feels really personal in a way that many records don’t, even when an artist in sharing their innermost turmoil. This feels like proper soul music, channeling her young (but old) soul.
In some ways it feels very much like a debut album; there’s loads of ideas thrown into the mix, she’s obviously exploring a rich soundscape that she didn’t have access to on previous recordings and there’s a brash confidence in the way that she struts and spins through the album. However, Skin totally lacks the naivety that many debuts (including ones that I love) suffer from. As we found with Arlo Parks this time last year, the signposts for her future output are numerous. She really could go anywhere on the next album … if of course Sony let her.
So, hold on tight … cause … we need to talk about Amy. My skin is crawling from even raising the topic of Amy Winehouse as it’s the worst lazy criticism possible. But, I am sorry, there are valid comparisons. But when I make these comparisons, I mean them as the biggest compliment to both artists. I loved Frank. It’s right up there on my list of faulted but adored debut albums. I properly fell in love with Amy Winehouse when I heard Frank. I felt like I knew her. ‘Skin’ has exactly the same kind of raw personality as Frank. They are both at times heart breaking and at the next moment amusing and jubilant. The broad, lush, widescreen soundscape that is employed on Skin is at times reminiscent of Back to Black. Both artists sound nostalgic and futuristic at the same time. When I say this album reminds me of Amy Winehouse I mean it reminds me of all of the things that I love about Amy Winehouse.
Lyrically, this album is a monster. Joy Crookes is a STRONG songwriter. This album really demonstrates her talent across what are quite different tracks in terms of style and subject matter. Relationships, gender politics, family shit, politics, and London are all in the mix. She writes about all of them in a personal manner that never looks the other way, is heartfelt and often well humoured. There are 1 or 2 tracks where the standard slips a little (Wild Jasmine being the track that comes to mind) but the album is strong enough as a body of work to keep momentum.
If this album was released earlier … even a month or two … I think it would have featured pretty high in my 2021top 10. It’s so easy to recommend to people. Thank you Joy, I’m genuinely excited to see what you do next.
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
This Is Not Happening‘s 2021 comes to an end with a look back at the many musical highs of a memorable 2021 and count down our top ten albums of the year. Despite the many challenges musicians have been facing in making music in a pandemic, it’s been a truly exceptional year, from the likes of Wolf Alice, Japanese Breakfast, Arlo Parks, Billie Eilish, The Weather Station and many others, but there’s only room for one winner – who’s it going to be?
We’ll also be nominating our tracks of the year, from a very tough long list of amazing records. Here are our our 4 monster fave tracks of 2021, one from each of us, below.
The full top 10s and playlists and all our music discussions over the last ten years can be found on the blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which will run alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. So check them out so to see what we like and where we clash, and comment if something catches your eye. We’d love to see what you think. You can also find our longer tracks of the year here on Spotify.
Episode #19 will see us take on one of 2021’s most underrated albums – Joy Crookes‘s incredible debut Skin – and we’ll be delving deep into it in January. The episode will land in the second half of January.
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
Episode 17 of This Is Not Happening follows Billie Eilish’s memorable new album with a slice of classy electronic music from Irishman Mano Le Tough. Dubliner turned Zurich resident Niall Mannion’s third album At The Moment saw him expand his musical horizons in lockdown, and we all got to stand back and say what it meant to us. Nolan was at the tiller this month.
In the second half of the episode, we go to the movies, picking out our favourites from original music in films, and it was a beautiful conversation blending our love for the silver screen with our love for music. Here’s our shortlist, and longer lists from Guy and David. It was an absolute joy doing this month. The tracks we chose were:
November’s album of the month and all our tracks, playlists, and chat from our last decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and all sorts more. Head down there and hopefully you’ll find more stuff to like. We’d love to hear from you on the socials (links below).
Episode #18 arrives with our favourite month of the year with of our review of 2021. We’ll be picking out our favourite Top 10 albums, and tracks of the year. Not too long to wait!
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
Episode 16 of This Is Not Happening goes as big as it gets with Billie Eilish’s new album, Happier Than Ever. Following angular synth and guitars of Lonelady in episode 15, we take an album that’s already one of the most talked-about of the year, and delve into what it means for us, and the music world. David is bringing us this album.
In the second half of the episode, we go for intros, and pick out some of our favourite opening tracks of the albums we love. It’s a mighty list, and we’ve also had some cracking shortlists from Guy here. The tracks we chose were:
October’s album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you’ll like what we’re talking about and if you do, we’d love to hear from you on the socials (links below).
Episode #17 arrives with a nod to the dancefloor from Nolan, who picks Dublin artist Mano Le Tough’s At The Moment. This next episode will be landing before the end of November ahead of our review of the year in December.
Mano Le Tough, Irish-born Niall Mannion’s career within Dance music has been one that all young music fans dream of. Initially stepping into the realm of dance music after toying with indie music in his teens he was quickly discovered (within minutes) of posting his first tracks on myspace by indie disco stalwart Tensnake in 2007. Soon after he moved to Berlin and quickly built a musical and DJ led following that most would dream of. Combing through his back catalogue, though at times limited, quality his always prevailed and so has his reputation. This from Pampa Records sums up their artist to a tee:‘living alongside sought after personal singles, two full length albums, and remixes for, among others, The Pet Shop Boys, Roisin Murphy, Caribou and Erol Alkan, Mano became one of Europe’s most in-demand DJs, with headline performances across the continent’s dancefloors and the world’s biggest music festivals. Since early 2020, however, he’s been at home, attempting to channel inspiration from eighteen months without live music, amid the anxiety of a global pandemic’.
Any self proclaimed forward thinking dance music wanker like myself will point out that Mano Le Tough is one of the most consistent producers when creating adventurous dance records. In short the hipster dance geeks think he’s pretty special. His 2014 Boiler Room set is one of my most listened to DJ mixes. He has a slew of others that I regularly revisit. He’s a DJ that anyone serious about dance music should see at least once in their life, though this should not be a precursor to this album as this album takes you on journey that at times would create dance floor moments but is more moulded to more laid back situations with a rear view on the dancefloor.
Last year we discussed on the podcast about music that was being made in lockdown and what the music would sound like. Like last months’ album, we’re starting to see the fruits ripened from 18 months of isolation. Largely hashed out in early 2020 from demos and new ideas you get the feel that this is an album of calmness away from the constant travel and DJing in the worlds best clubs every weekend. Mannion has mentioned in a couple interviews that not having his foot in a club every weekend let him to push himself beyond the traditional 4/4 structure that the majority of his previous releases always came back to. One interesting point is that Mannion is often overlooked for both his vocals and indie tinged tracks within dance music, which both shine throughout this album.
We talk a lot about album order and the sequencing of tracks. After the masterclass of Billie Eillish, this too isn’t far away from perfection, though this is more like a perfectly arranged mixtape and less an overall piece of work. The length is hefty, 50 minutes and 12 minutes long. Although I can hear brother Joseph knocking his head on his kitchen table in Chorley at the length, I firmly believe that this won’t be an issue for him as the flow of this album is seamless. For Joey, the deep guitar lead dance feels will undoubtedly sit perfectly in his wheel house.
‘Aye Aye Mi Mi’ may be one of my tracks of the year and I suspect it’s got something in it for us all. I imagine dropping this in a back room somewhere with all four of us in attendance. I can imagine David doing a funny dance to it, Joey giving me his ‘what is this’ bass face, and Guy popping up his head whilst chewing the ear off of someone to swiftly lift his fist in approval. It’s an all-rounder that sits well in most places at most times.
From the psychedelic trip hop of ‘Moment to Change’ to the optimistic dreaminess of ‘Fado Fado’ and ‘Short Cuts’ and deep tinged dance bangers like ‘Pompeii’ and ‘So Many So Silent’ there’s more than enough to peak any music fans interest and keep them interested throughout the 50 minutes. Trying to pinpoint what this album is will be something that I think all of us will struggle to pigeonhole within a genre.
Although there have been similar albums within the realm of this album released recently, most notably new efforts by the Joy Orbison and Darkside, this album has connected with me the most. Perhaps the well woven slowdown sounds have moulded perfectly with the autumnal / early winter feels that I’m adapting to. That combined with the feeling that the likes of Caribou, LCD Soundsystem and Four Tet are all cut from the same cloth makes this album irresistible.
When explaining this album, it’s hard to pinpoint. Is it dance, is it indie, is it ambient, is there a point in categorising it? Whilst writing this I’m trying to get my head around why I love this album so much? ‘No Road Without a Turn’ perhaps sums it up best for me. It’s unexpected, full of emotion, it constantly evolves throughout. Both the song and the album, is something that everyone should have in their lives.
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
Episode 14 of This Is Not Happening heads from hip-hop to pop with Japanese Breakfast‘s Jubilee. The creation of Korean-American Michelle Zauner, this is her 3rd album and sees her move from a more shoegazey, loose style into the full pop universe. Joey comes at us with it, but do we feel the same way he does? Find out! As usual, there’s playlists that run alongside the episode here.
In the second half of the episode, we head back to new music, with a favourite from us that’s been released in the past three months. Our longlist is here, see what we thought of the picks:
August’s album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you’ll like what we’re talking about and if you do, we’d love to hear from you on the socials (links below).
Episode #15 hangs onto the summer with LoneLady’s Former Things. Guy’s bringing this slice of modern Mancunian synth and guitars to the gang. That next episode will be landing before the end of September.
Welcome to Episode 73 of This Is Not Happening, an Album of the Month podcast. In Part 1, we do a deep drive review of our Album of the Month. This month Nolan has chosen an producer and artist that was on none of our radars, Dahi. He's the producer behind many massive artists including Kendrick Lamar and has released his first 'solo' album Black Boy (Alternative).In Part 2, we play Spin It or Bin It, we pick a theme and all pick songs that represent that theme. This month, taking inspiration from last months focus on Phoebe Bridgers, we are picking tracks by 'SuperGroups'.Part 1 | Album of the Month | Dahi | Black Boy (Alternative):He may not be the first SuperProducer that you might think of but its hard to deny that Dahi meets the definition. He's produced for Kendrick, SZA, Travis Scott, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino, Madonna and Dr. Dre. But now he becomes the creative focal point with his debut artist release. The album is many things but it's nothing like I expected it to be. Dahi himself described the solo project as 'African Radiohead' which I feel is weird and misplaced but apparently the internet has much to say on the topic.Join us as we unpack this interesting and intriguing album.Read the Guardian's review for a bit of background here.Read this rare interview on Music Tech to learn more from Dahi.If you'd prefer to watch an interview … Saving Connie has it covered.This playlist reminds you how prolific Dahi is.Part 2 | Spin It or Bin It | SuperGroupsThe theme this month, inspired by Phoebe Bridgers Boy Genius side project is the Super Group. We are defining SuperGroup as a collection of previously well known solo musicians or members of other groups who form a named, side project with other solo musicians or band members.The task is pick a track that fits the theme, the objective, get more 'spins' than your friends. We each pick four tracks for a 16 track play list . We then each pick select 1 track and ask the simple question 'Spin It Or Bin It'?Guy chose | Getting Away With It | ElectronicJoey chose | 'The Truth' | Handsome Boy Modelling SchoolDavid chose | 7/4 Shoreline | Broken Social SceneNolan chose | Definition | Black StarWe've been writing the blog for years come and have a look – https://thisisnothappening.net/
Episode 13 of This Is Not Happening stays in NYC with Skyzoo‘s new album All The Brilliant Things following up the 70s palette of St Vincent: Daddy’s Home. The much-respected Brooklyn MC‘s 7th album finds him writing a paen to his changing city, gentrification and history. It’s a beguiling work that Nolan brought to us get deep on as we move into season 2 of the podcast.
In the second half of the episode, we talk tracks of the summer, with a favourite from us that reminds of us the warm months. Our longlist is here, see what we thought of the picks:
July’s album of the month and all our new tracks, playlists, and chat from the past decade or more can be found on our blog at www.thisisnothappening.net, which runs alongside the podcast choices and much, much more. Head down there and hopefully you’ll like what we’re talking about and if you do, we’d love to hear from you on the socials (links below).
Episode #14 takes us into the summer and is Joey’s chance to bring us a classic slice of modern pop with Japanese Breakfast‘s Jubilee. The next episode will be landing before the end of August.
