Artist-Curated Playlists

U.K. electronic producer Matt Cutler, a.k.a. Lone, is releasing his first-ever mix collection this week through the venerable DJ Kicks series. Here, Cutler gives us a glimpse into his touring life with a special Dowsers playlist featuring the music he listens to on the road.

"I decided to put together a playlist based on my own private playlist that I use for travelling to shows. Basically, for me, this covers pretty much every angle of what Im into musically. This is perfect for long journeys—I go through so many different moods and mind states when travelling, so I need the most extreme mixed bag of treats. Stick on shuffle and see where it takes you..."—Matt Cutler, a.k.a. Lone

With anticipation for her upcoming sophomore effort, Melodrama, at a fever pitch, Lorde has retreated back to her favorite place of solace—as an acute observer of everyone else. Even the title of her new Spotify playlist, Homemade Dynamite, feels a bit like a cheeky inside joke pulled from some faded memory. While the 20-year old artist is best known for layering her timeless, soulful voice over a nu-goth aesthetic, Lordes other essential quality is that shes unwaveringly sympathetic towards her listeners. While most of the songs on Homemade Dynamite could soundtrack a night at the club, Lorde takes the entire evening into consideration with the same meticulous attention to detail heard on her 2013 debut album, Pure Heroine. Similar to the compassionate but authoritative friend everyone should have, Lorde has already anticipated that you’ll need something to perk you up (Amine and Kehlani), something to help soothe your feelings at 3 a.m. (Bon Iver and Weyes Blood), and something to tell you that you are a million bucks the morning after (Santigold). Under Lorde’s curation, Future’s “Mask Off” and your dad’s favorite Paul Simon song, “Graceland,” feel cut from the same cloth; they are two tales of escapism designed to reach all corners of her audience. These selections are indicative not only of Lordes desire to address the extraordinary moments of relatively mundane affairs, but also affirm the experiences of her listeners in the process. Depending on which side of middle age you’re on, ordinary experiences are either aspirational or nostalgic. Lorde’s universal appeal derives from the fact that she consistently accounts for both.

In the spring of 2017, Tijuana avant-electronic duo Los Macuanos released their third album, Epilogo, an equally impressionistic and visceral work that reverberates with the unrest felt all over the world this year. Their Dowsers playlist of key influences also doubles as a history of politically provocative electronic music.

Los Macuanos are very much a product of our time. Reared along the US-Mexico border, on the eve of a very bloody cartel war, weve inherited a trauma and an ultra-political awareness.Upon migrating to Mexico City in 2012, the atmosphere became even more charged. Amidst that year’s tense, fraudulent presidential elections—which many perceived as make-or-break for the country’s democracy—restless youth were eager for socio-political change. All this, while the rest of the world endured seismic events like massive government data leaks, the Arab Spring, and the Occupy movement, to name a few.Though protest or politically keen music has been sparse in the current generation, a dissentient spirit has risen in an array of electronic sounds across the globe, from Fatima Al Qadiri and Vatican Shadow’s war simulacrums, to James Ferraro’s evocation of barren capitalist wastelands, to more existential explorations in the works of artists like Lotic and Elysia Crampton.With Los Macuanos, we sought to echo this spirit via Epílogo (Nacional, 2017), our third formal effort, which has served as a kind of registry of Mexico’s volatile political milieu, as well as a summary of the sounds we consumed during those tumultuous times.There are common threads, however, in all the works featured on this list: a global-mindedness that still references regional politics; an exploration of the body and identity as affected by larger systems of oppression; and a decolonial and hyper-aware approach to cultural referencing. It is, in broad strokes, the sound of living in the perpetual, perceived end of history.THE PLAYLIST1. “Endzone” is something of an anomaly in Fatima Al Qadiri’s seemingly homologous catalog. You won’t hear the typical Middle Eastern flourishes or swelling sawtooth pads. It is, in fact, a work of great restraint, using a lone pulse to foreground field recordings of the Ferguson protests to truly chilling effect. One writer described Brute, the album in which it’s featured, as “apocalyptic political theater,” which could be an apt description of this playlist.2. Elysia Crampton is an artist whose entire character is inherently political. In the past, the US-Bolivian producer has made mention of their peripatetic lifestyle as something that has inspired their work, as well as a wide array of influences that span traditional Latin American music, avant-garde, jazz, and queer theory, among many others. Their approach to music making, however ineffable, largely functions as a kind of deconstruction and rethinking of identity and the body. It is the sound of liberation.3. Much like Crampton, Lotic can also rightly be characterized as a highly conscientious artist, albeit elusively so. Like his own persona, his music is more often implicitly politicized, through explorations of the body in sound. It delves into a gamma of emotions that derive from his own experiences as a gay black man living in a white heteronormative world: from anger and angst to ecstasy and feelings of confliction, which can themselves conflict.4. Tzusing stands out among other contemporary techno producers, in part, because of the deft manner in which he references his Eastern roots, both instrumentally and thematically. In past interviews, he’s described this practice as appropriating his own culture, a problematic concept. This, nevertheless, speaks to the state of globalization and the increasingly overbearing influence of Western politics on the rest of the world.5. Very little is known of late British producer Bryn Jones—better known by his Muslimgauze handle—other than the fact that he left a prolific body of work, and had an almost pathological obsession with the Muslim world. Nevertheless, the imprint he left on electronic music can be heard in a vast array of artists (many of which are on this list). Though it is said he never visited the Middle East, his works were directly inspired by the region’s ongoing unrest, and serve as a prime example of instrumental electronic music’s early excursions into subtextual politics.6. Vatican Shadow is the work of Dominick Fernow, who also operates under the Prurient moniker. More so than many current electronic music artists, Fernow has achieved such a level of rigor and aesthetic focus that he has managed to create an entire imaginary universe through his discography: shadowy military operations, cryptic historical snippets by way of titles, and portraits (both physical and sonic) of the various characters that comprise the sisyphean War on Terror. It’s all tension, no release.7. In NYC, Hell, 3:00AM, James Ferraro’s more impish sonic excursions are replaced with gaunt production and a pitch-grey landscape of late-capitalist gloom. “City Smells” is as good a summation of that full-length’s aesthetic aims, kicking off with the same disembodied text-to-speech vocals that appear on the album’s opener. The sparse R&B tinges are bookended by audio clips of what are presumably news reports from the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It haunts and resonates as the implicit underlying motif of the album, which offsets the glitz of hyper-gentrified New York City in the early 21st century with the specters of disaster capitalism.8. Shackleton is one of those artists that we were listening to during the group’s inception, and rightly, a lot of that project’s sonic and conceptual cues parallel our own. The pathos-laden “Blood on my Hands” is one of the rarer musical works to reference the 9/11 attacks, with its sparse lyrics and a driving ethno-beat that embodies the UK-producer’s tracks. It echoes a lot of the artists featured here: It’s less about a message and more about the mood.9. Terrestre is 100 per cent on point on Secondary Inspection, and “Ejido del Terror” is its flagship production. One of the more venerable acts to come out of the early-‘00s wave of electronic music from the Tijuana-US border, Baja-bred Fernando Corona was diligent enough to break off early from the increasingly kitschy indulgences of Nortec Collective. On “Ejido,” he mastered the formula of micro-tech-house with a smidge of norteño bombast, albeit with a quietly foreboding undercurrent. The album was released in 2004, just a few years after the 9/11 attacks, and already Corona was predicting what would become of the increasingly draconian standard: an ultra-vigilant, militarized border. The wall, or so it would seem, was being built right before our eyes all along.10. “Verdad” (meaning “Truth”) is about as political as overly-abstract producer Siete Catorce can get. Parallel to the song’s melancholic melody is a sample of Mexico’s most infamous TV station’s logotone. Televisa, the channel in question, was blamed for the purportedly fraudulent 2012 presidential elections, during which an angry throng accused the media powerhouse of imposing president Enrique Peña Nieto through its propaganda, thus sparking the #YoSoy132 movement. The logotone evokes a sort of eternal recurrence, as much a prison as an assurance of familial warmth. The work itself is highly intertextual, and only makes sense when heard alongside his earlier song “Mariana,” whose melody it reprises. The whole number could, among many other things, serve as a commentary on the proverbial big lie, as told by the media: of true love (to echo cheesy Telenovelas) or, in the case of Mexico, of real democracy.11. In Amat Escalante’s elegiac, surreal short film about the Mexican revolution, El Cura San Nicolás Colgado, the titular priest and his two young companions trek across a desolate rural landscape, scarred by the remnants of carnage, only to conclude their journey inside a fast-food restaurant. It’s a seemingly anachronous moment that pulls the viewer out of the fantastical celluloid experience and into the hyperreal. The scene haunts with a rare, gelid beauty not unlike that of Burial’s 2007 track, “In McDonalds.” The track, like the film’s closing scene, appears to long for something that has been lost: a lover, a culture, or merely the evocation of something that may never have existed.

Lancaster, U.K. psych-punk pranksters The Lovely Eggs return on Feb. 23 with their most ambitous album yet, the Dave Fridmann-produced This Is Eggland. Here, they make us a playlist of escapist, space-bound anthems that reinforce the album’s underlying theme——that Britain is rotting to the yolk. “For the last couple of years, it seems like the world has gone fucking mad. On one side of the planet, weve got a bigoted, racist misogynist as president of the most powerful country in the world, and on the other side weve got a little island tearing itself away from Europe to ‘make Britain great again.’ Its division, its separatism, its xenophobia on a global scale. We are eating each other alive, drowning in a sea of capitalism where families who dont have two half-pennies to rub together have got a fucking black Range Rover parked outside their two-up/two-down house on HP. Everyone is competing to live like millionaires. Range Rovers on terraced streets. Council estate girls with Gucci handbags. Pan-fucking-Dora. The middle class are choking on Prosecco. The constant need for more. We are the dog chewing on its bloody arse stump. It is absolutely insane. We feel like we are aliens living on a strange ridiculous planet. So weve made a playlist themed around outer space. These days, this is where feel most at home. Away from it all. On our own Planet Oeuf."——Holly Ross and David Blackwell, a.k.a. The Lovely Eggs

For doom metal trio Lucifer, the term heavy is for sure a contemplative affair. As they drive their stake further into the ground of a genre that few words describe better, one that harkens back to a time when "heavy" was first-ever used to describe music in the late 60s/ early 70s, theyre simultaneously making a statement that not everything heavy is extreme, and not everything thats extreme is heavy. Sonically paying homage to what we now know as the arena rock and proto-metal of then with their brew of blues-influenced fuzzy guitars and deep, (yes, heavy!) tones today, the band -- led by captivating front woman Johanna Sadonis and Hellacopters/ Entombed mastermind Nicke Andersson -- isnt just a carbon copy of their forefathers; they offer versatility to that vintage sound. With their second offering Lucifer IIout this summer, the band sat down to discuss what heavy means to music and how its not actually exclusively attributed to the obvious. Check out their playlist of what could also easily be conceived as their influences above and/or right here. Says the band: "Heavy is quite a loose term, especially when it comes to music. Here are some heavy songs by artists you may or may not think of as particularly heavy. Most people probably don’t think of Journey as a heavy band. When Johanna told Nicke that they were, his reaction was a stubborn No way! But he was schooled. Hammer Horror by Kate Bush doesn’t exactly sound like Sleep but it gets pretty heavy at times. It’s hard not to surrender to Badfingers’ eerie super fuzzed chorus of Give It Up. Wilson Pickett screaming Heavy Metal Thunder! is just plain heavy. Get hit by some unexpectedly heavy shit and enjoy!"

Former Fools Gold singer/ current solo artist Luke Top may appear to explore indie pop pleasantries in his sonic output (check latest single "Ive Been Working" for reference), but when it came to making us a playlist, he showed his many moods.Says Luke: "[Its] a small sampling of some of the mood altering songs that I carry deep inside me everywhere I go. The way they influence my behavior and thinking is immeasurable but immense. They color me in to create a creature of feeling rather than a caveman adrift."Listen above or go right here, and watch out for The Dumb-Show EP coming in October.

Los Angelians Massage (ex-Pains of Being Pure at Heart) are apparently creatures of habit. Formed from a group of friends just trying to sharpen new or existing instrument skills the way they did when they were young, the band started rehearsing and going out as a group regularly -- the way they did when they were young. First they were playing the songs of their heroes like The Breeders or The Feelies, and then in a sound all their own. Once they realized they were onto something, their debut record Oh Boy was born, (as was their tab at their favorite bar) and their habit was fully formed. Or, as their bio so eloquently states: "Massage is a five-piece from Los Angeles performing jangly pop and enjoying poutine at Jays on Mondays." So heres their playlist for those Monday nights out.Says the band: "Every Monday after band practice all of Massage goes to the same bar — shout out to Jay’s on Sunset — to have a drink, eat poutine, and talk about music and life. It’s a simple enough tradition, but it in addition to being a convenient place for us to sip beers together, it’s a great setting for listening to music in one of its most strangely powerful, and, frankly, cool settings: a half-full dive bar. This playlist is our ideal slow night at the bar music — tuneful but a bit warbling; sweet but a bit sad; kind of obscure but strangely familiar."

Its possible you havent heard of Matt Holubowski just yet, but this French-Canadian folk artist is making some pretty big waves alongside some artists you might recognize: like The Cures Robert Smith asking him to play Meltdown Fest and Ben Folds bringing him out on his last tour. This self-proclaimed "young man making old music" utilizes the classic guitar-and-voice combo that lends itself to singer-songwriter gold reached by his heroes Leonard Cohen, Elliott Smith and Andrew Bird, and will be releasing his debut LP Solitudes in the US at the end of August.As he prepares to make a splash in the US, though, Holubowski is first being celebrated in his hometown of Montreal at Osheaga, so we asked him to in turn celebrate his hometown with us by putting together a Montreal/ Quebec-centric playlists.Says Matt: "Montréal has got something unique about its musicality. It was partly born out of a deep divide that over time has become its greatest strength, language, one which has permeated the musical scene over the years, but also through its cultural cross between good ol’ Americana and European flavour.Some of these songs and artists have had a great impact on my own writing, and I’ve since had the pleasure and privilege to rub shoulders and collaborate with a couple of them.There’s a certain mysterious vibe and energy to all of these, and I don’t know if the commonality lies in their being Montrealers/Quebecers, or if they just happen to fall within my own palette, but in any case, these are all great for a dreamy voyage into our new old city."Listen above or go right here.

Matt Sharp recently resurfaced with the first piece of new music in three years from his art-pop outfit The Rentals. "Elon Musk Is Making Me Sad" is the lead single from The Rentals upcoming fourth album, which Sharp is working on with Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Nick Zinner, Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann, and a backing choir hes christened The Gentle Assassins. But for his Dowsers playlist, Sharp steps out of The Rentals usual synth-smeared sound world to indulge a more private obsession:"Each song on this playlist is taken from a much larger playlist of my favorite old soul songs. The music has often served as the backdrop and soundtrack to many a hot night at my place in L.A., while having a few friends over to throw one-pound bags of corn, 30 feet in the air, into a six-inch diameter circle."—Matt Sharp

Matthew Stubbs and the Antiguas music blends classic psych rock with elements of blues and afrobeats. Check out their self-titled debut and hear the music that inspired them here. From the band:This is some of the music I was listening to during the writing and recording process of my debut album. Ive always been into Blues & Soul music, but Im also very interested in other styles. Im drawn to Afrobeat, Garage, Dub, Psych Rock, and I love music production. When I listen, Im always listening to the performance and melody of course, but my ear tends to pay a lot of attention to the way the music is mixed and produced. I love distorted, blown out vintage tones, but also crave lush hi-fi sonics and low end. Thats what has inspired me and I hope that comes across in my own music. This playlist touches on all of those things. Enjoy!