Artists

Afrobeats is the sound you heard on pop radio for much of 2016. It’s not to be confused with Afrobeat, the funk-based form that Fela Kuti made famous in the 1970s. (It’s a common error that even a New York Times story recently made.) Afrobeats emerged from Lagos, Nigeria and Accra, Ghana in the mid-to-late 2000s, and serves as an African response to post-millennial hip-hop, electronic music, Jamaican reggae and dancehall, and R&B. There are tracks that rely on familiar tropes—Auto-Tuned vocals, English-language lyrics about partying and sex—as well as build upon distinctive traditions like highlife and Afrobeat, resulting in songs that could only be African. It has informed some truly sublime music, like Maleek Berry’s sensuous, hip-swaying “Kontrol,” and WizKid’s “Ojuelegba,” a mesmerizing striver’s anthem about scraping together an existence in Lagos. The latter was featured on The Fader’s best tracks of 2015 list, a sign that Western tastemakers are keen on African pop.Much of what the U.S. mainstream has heard of Afrobeats so far are watered-down, chart-topping approximations like Drake’s “One Dance,” and Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself.” However, it thrives online, gathering hundreds of millions of YouTube views, and turning artists like Yemi Alade (whose “Johnny” has accumulated 75 million views thanks to its colorfully frenetic video), Mr. Eazi, DaVido, and others into virtual cult artists. WizKid has toured with Future, and his most recent album, Sounds from the Other Side, yielded a modest hit in “Come Closer,” a collaboration with Drake. D’banj’s new album, King Don Come, includes a number with Gucci Mane, “EL CHAPO,” that gives Southern trap form a distinctly Nigerian twist. It’s anyone’s guess whether the rise of Afrobeats results in African musicians cracking the Billboard Hot 100, or turns out to be a fad that burns brightly and dissipates. Regardless, it’s a sign of how global music has returned to prominence in America—as if Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito” hadn’t proved that already—opening up a new world of Afrobeats to discover.

The xx have taken their time releasing the follow up to 2012’s Coexist. There have been rumors (and even this extensive New Yorker write-up from 2014 on the making of the album), but nothing has materialized and fans have been scrambling for clues as far as what the album might sound like. Jamie XX’s solo album was a full embrace of dance culture, but it’s unclear whether this more signals a broader move for a band in this direction. This playlist, a compilation of the music they’ve been listening to in the studio, and released alongside news of a larger world tour, is probably our best signal to date. Some of their picks are not surprising. “I’ll Be Your Mirror” negotiates brittle classic pop melodies with the hedonistic grime and baggage of Velvet Underground, a juxtaposition that The xx have mined in their own work. With its tear-drops keys, and its overlapping male/female vocal harmonies, Drake collaboration with PartyNextDoor, “With You,” sounds like a reworked track from The xx’s debut. And, yes, like all of us in 2016, The xx are going to be listening to Sampha, Frank Ocean, and Solange. But there are some surprises here. The inclusion of Ace’s glam-tinted pub-rock classic “How Long” is a bit startling at first, but the bright hook and easy groove mirrors the more sanguine moments from the last xx album, and the inclusion of No Wave pioneers Liquid Liquid and proto-punkers Suicide show that they’ve been immersed in the modern experimental lands of modern music. But even if the new album ends up sounding nothing like any of this, they’ve certainly given us an enjoyable playlist. Nina Simone’s “Baltimore” is a late-period jewel that matches her singular vocal phrasing with a reggae-tinged interpretation of a great Randy Newman song, and “A Forest” remains one of the Cure’s strongest track. -- Sam Chennault

I:Scintilla guitarist Jim Cooke shares a captivating playlist representing their hometown Chicago. This is Chicago.

If theres anything more intimate than baring your soul with a lyric, its inviting the world into your record collection. Over the years, Thom Yorke has granted us both, giving us a peek into the psyche of one of modern rocks most celebrated and enigmatic figures. There may be entire websites dedicated to decoding his words, but when it comes to the music that makes Yorke tick, we can go directly to the source. The Radiohead frontman has never been shy about revealing his influences. Since OK Computer and especially Kid A, hes been turning alt-rock diehards into IDM geeks, jazz freaks, and underground hip-hop heads.But to truly comprehend how his musical mind is wired, theres nothing quite like seeing how he can put together a playlist or, better yet, DJ a party. Over the past decade, it seems Yorke has found just as much thrill in promoting other peoples music as his own, from assembling iTunes playlists to playing top-secret DJ shows to publishing Radioheads "Office Charts," an extensive collection of mixes featured on the bands deadairspace blog. Here, we dig up a few of his notable works as both music curator and DJ to tap into some of his creative—and physical—energy.THOM YORKE’S 2007 iTUNES PLAYLIST

Six months after the release of his stark electronic solo debut, The Eraser—and in the midst of recording Radioheads lightest, most romantic, work, In Rainbows—Yorke took to iTunes to present his favorite songs at the moment (i.e., January 2007). As a playlist maker, Yorke is admittedly a bit all over the place. But when you piece it all together now, his collection certainly works as a sort of deconstructed primer for his then-new solo effort and future works with Radiohead and Atoms For Peace. The addition of Bat For Lashes enchanted, ethereal pop points all the way to the sweeping ballads of A Moon Shaped Pool, while the ominous piano and rolling snare beats of The Dears "No Hope Before Destruction" portend In Rainbows funereal closer "Videotape" (even though, in the accompanying liner notes, Yorke admits he doesnt know much else by them).These grand, dramatic pieces get cut up by the sort of dark, glitchy grooves Yorke has increasingly embraced: Hes a sucker for Madvillains rhymes and Quasimotos loose, vintage production; he loves the "lizard bass sound" of Boxcutter; and is hypnotized by the maddening, menacing post-rave loops of UK producer Surgeon, an artist he discovered after OK Computer. And while the sleazy bass of Spank Rock is a bit of an outlier here, the inclusion of Liars—who Yorke would eventually remix—seems just right, especially when he accurately describes "Drum Gets a Glimpse" as "more terror from the subconscious."GLASTONBURY SECRET FUSELAGE DJ SET (2011)

Fast forward four years and Thom could be found hitting the decks alongside producer pal Nigel Godrich in a "crashed aeroplane fuselage" adjacent to the 2011 Glastonbury Festival. The story goes that the duo played a killer four-hour set, but Yorke would later only reveal 17 of the songs played on deadairspace. This was one of a handful of surprise DJ events that year, including a couple at Los Angeles Low End Theory with Brainfeeder boss Flying Lotus (a union that gave rise to perhaps the greatest GIF ever). This would all happen following the release of Radioheads somewhat divisive eighth album, The King of Limbs, which was dominated by loops, samples, and broken-up beats of Yorkes creation. It also came with the great unveiling of Thom the modern dancer. With those beats and dancing moves in place, his rising role as DJ seemed a natural move.These tracks make for a pretty pumping party, one seemingly co-signed by Diplo, who, along with his label Mad Decent, is represented here in various forms (with Blaqstarr, Major Lazer, and Boy 8-Bit). The set is also punctuated by moody British electro (Nathan Fake), a UK jungle classic ("Original Nuttah"), and Public Enemys hard-hitting politics ("Night of the Living Baseheads"). The mix pounds—aggressively and unrelentingly—more so than any Yorke creation ever has, and we certainly wouldve loved an invitation. (Note: Track 2 in Yorke’s 17-song sampler, Felix da Housecats "Madame Hollywood," is not available on Spotify.) LIVE FROM A MOON SHAPED POOL/RADIOHEAD OFFICE CHARTS (2016)

Five years on and with a brand-new album ready for show, Yorke would accompany the release of 2016s A Moon Shaped Pool with a six-hour compilation of tracks that had been featured on their blog under the innocuous title of Radiohead Office Charts. If you were looking to dissect Thom Yorkes brain, this is probably a good place to start your examination. Or if you simply want to discover some seriously awesome experimentalists—from Nigeria (BLO) to India (Charanjit Singh) to Syria (Omar Souleyman) to Germany (Christoph De Babalon)—to go alongside classical concertos (Bach), New Orleans jazz (Sidney Bechet), and Yorkes go-to faves (Modeselektor, Madvillain), this is your one-stop shop.Despite a jumble of sounds that span genres, nations, and generations, this collection feels expertly curated. The vibe is overall cerebral yet chill—exactly what youd expect from the guy who just helped spearhead one of the years most haunting records. In fact, any track from A Moon Shaped Pool would fit right in. Actually, any Radiohead or Yorke track period would make perfect sense here, as a fascinating distillation of his existence as both major music geek and major music innovator.Want more playlists and articles like this delivered directly to you? Sign up for our e-mail here, follow us on Facebook, or go directly to the source and subscribe to our Spotify account.

The most striking vocalists have always had an otherworldly quality about them, from D’Angelo’s subverbal warble to angelic high tenor of Smokey Robinson. Thom Yorke is no different, and, like those other singers, he’s able to convey something deeply humanistic in his otherness. Stripped from the context of Radiohead’s heavily textured sonic experimentation, the beauty of Yorke’s voice is arguably more evident here. It’s also interesting how you can track the progression of modern alternative music through this playlist, how it evolves from the sadsack balladry of the late 90s and early naughts to the IDM-informed formalistic experimentation of the past few years.

Photograph: Misha Vladimirskiy/FilterlessThundercat’s playing is instantly recognizable, and his warm, slap-happy space bass has rounded out the tracks of Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar and Erykah Badu. His 2015 to 2016 run -- including collaborations with Kendrick, Shabazz Palaces, and Kamasi Washington, as well as his own, excellent EP, The Beyond, Where The Giants Roam -- has been monumental. Here, he curates a playlist of his favorite basslines. Joe Henderson’s “A Shade of Jane” is sly and virtuosic modern-day post-bop jam, and you can hear the seedlings of Thundercat’s own bass style in “Spring Yard Zone,” which was originally the music for Sonic the Hedgehog video game. It’s a little hard to accept that the bassline for Spandau Ballet ranks among the all-time greats, but this is a generally enjoyable, sometimes revealing playlist.

Since 1989, Tim Burgess has been the frontman for Manchester rock chameleons The Charlatans UK. But in recent years, he’s enjoyed a second career as a globe-trotting DJ/label impresario/roving musicologist, recounting his adventures in twobooks. His latest album is Same Language, Different World, an electro-soul collaboration with one-time Arthur Russell associate Peter Gordon.“My playlist is made up of songs from the start of the day and the end of the night. Each morning, I post a Breakfast Banger on Twitter and some nights I can be found DJing—this playlist is the pick of those songs. But it might not be obvious which ones are from the day and which are from later. Enjoy!”—Tim Burgess

The productions of Montreal musician Tim Hecker move electronic music to unexpected places. His early work fused the dry, pulsating rhythms of techno with the bare minimalism of Brian Eno. Alongside other avante garde electronic artists and collaborators Ben Frost and Oneohtrix Point Never, Hecker has carved out a music vocabulary that mines the ethereal underpinnings of dark industrial spaces. Aaron from Beats has compiled a great playlist of his influences, which range from the modern classical of Philip Glass to shoegaze pioneers My Bloody Valentine.

I add not a letter to the obituary that The Quietus published almost four years ago. These days I’m kinder towards Transformer and listen to Ecstasy a couple times a year (listen to the widescreen canvas given to “Big Sky” by Hal Willner).Visit our affiliate/partner site Humanizing the Vacuum for great lists, commentary, and more.

Since 1999, Carpark Records has been at the forefront of indie rock’s 21st-century evolution, releasing foundational early records from the likes of Beach House, Toro y Moi, Cloud Nothings, Dan Deacon, Speedy Ortiz, and many more. But this month, the label is looking back, by shining a light on two forgotten contenders in the early-’90s Chicago scene: Wendyfix and Remy (pictured above), both of whom featured Hyman himself on drums. With reissues of Wendyfix’s We Have the Cracks and Remy’s self-titled EP hitting stores this week, we asked Hyman to create a playlist that charts his transformation from aspiring 1990s indie rocker to founder of one of the most vanguard record labels of the 21st-century. I’ve been asked to chronicle my music listening habits from the early ’90s to the founding of Carpark in the late ’90s. I feel like I had three eras of music listening during this time.

1. COLLEGE

In the fall of 1991, I moved to Chicago to go to college at Northwestern University. I was super-stoked to start DJing at their college-radio station, WNUR. The first week I got there, my friend Jon Solomon (who was also in wendyfix with me) told me we should get tickets to this Nirvana show. I’d never heard of them. But our radio station was playing the first single, “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” a lot.

Nirvana, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”

It was the first show I went to at college and, to this day, is still the craziest. It was at the Metro. Good thing we bought our tickets a week or so in advance, because there was a line all the way down Clark Street to Addison of people wanting to get in. There were so many people crammed in there that, when people were jumping, my body was literally lifted off the ground with them. I had to go to the back towards the end because I felt like there was not enough air to breathe. The show was a couple weeks before Nevermind came out. Soon after, our college-radio music director pulled the “Smells Like Teen Spirit” CD single from our library because it was getting too popular.

Aphex Twin, “Pulse Width”

I was also a big Anglophile at the time and would pick up a copy of the NME or Melody Maker just about every week from our student book store. There was a pretty interesting feature about an artist called Aphex Twin that fall. I decided I wanted to hear what it sounded like. I went to Reckless and Dr. Wax but no one had it. Finally, I had to take the El all the way down to Lincoln Park to visit the Tower Records at Clark and Fullerton. They had the biggest “import” section in town then. Selected Ambient Works 85-92 was mine!

Stereolab, “Peng! 33”

Towards the end of my freshman year, I remember reading a really interesting feature review in the NME about a new band called Stereolab. I still remember buying their debut full-length, Peng, at Reckless on Broadway right before I went home for the summer.

Polvo, “Can I Ride”

In my freshman year, I was keen to get involved as much as I could with independent music. I interned at Touch and Go Records most of that school year. By the time I took the El down to Sheridan and transferred to a bus that went down Irving Park past Western, it took almost an hour and a half to get there from Evanston. The office at that time was in an old industrial space, I believe. Dave Yow (The Jesus Lizard) and Britt Walford (Slint) seemed to be doing a lot of carpentry work there. I remember those dudes being really funny. One of the perks of interning was that I got free music. One day I was given an advance promo “cassette” of Polvo’s Cor-Crane Secret. It was a clear cassette with no paper art in a plastic case. Still have it somewhere….

Wendyfix, “Ridge”

In my sophomore year, I started playing drums in a band with my friends Jon Solomon and Ted Pauly from WNUR. We were named Wendyfix after a local high-school tennis star. Jon was away most of my junior year, so we brought on Brian McGrath to take his place. There weren’t too many indie bands in Chicago doing the quiet/loud moody guitar thing then. I recently decided to digitally release all the tracks we ever recorded. “Ridge” was always one of my favorites.

Remy, “Coco Pebbles”

In my junior year, I started playing drums in another band with more WNUR friends, Peter Schaefer and Matt Walters. Remy was more on the Pavement/Polvo/Archers of Loaf tip. “Coco Pebbles” was one of the few jams we recorded before I graduated and moved away.Here are some other tunes that played a big part in my collegiate life:Unrest, “Cherry Cream On”Spacemen 3, “Come Down Softly to My Soul” *Slint, “Washer”Faust, The Faust Tapes *Bedhead, “Bedside Table”The Incredible String Band, “You Get Brighter”Seefeel, “Imperial”Big Flame, “Every Conversation” *Boredoms, “Hey Bore Hey” ** = not available on Spotify

2. NEW YORK CITY/CHICAGO/GLASGOW

I graduated college in 1995 and moved to New York. One of the things I ended up doing there was working as the indie music buyer for Kim’s West, which was a record store/video rental place at Bleeker and West 10th street in the West Village.I wouldn’t have had this job had Other Music not opened that same year. I started at Kim’s West working as a video-rental person. But the music buyers at Kim’s Underground (also on Bleeker) opened Other Music and suddenly Kim’s Underground was in need of music buyers. So the music folks at Kim’s West went over to Kim’s Underground to get things organized. And I ended up filling in the indie-music buyer spot at Kim’s West.I listened to a bunch of dub, French ye-ye, drum ‘n’ bass, MPB, ’60s/’70s easy listening, and IDM during this time.I moved back to Chicago for a year from 1996 to 1997. I worked briefly at Reckless Records and spent a lot of time at Dusty Groove. After Chicago, I went to Glasgow, Scotland for a 12-month graduat- school program for Popular Music Studies.I slowly stopped listening to indie rock around this time. I thought it was a dying genre. All the new music I was consuming was slowly transitioning over to digital and electronic music. I had burnt out on indie rock.Prince Far I, “Plant Up”Autechre, “Clipper”Maurizio, “M07A”Alec Empire, “Bang Your Head”Caetano Veloso, “Tropicalia”The Congos, “Fisherman”France Gall, “Mes Premieres Varies Vacances” *Marcos Valle, “Mentira”Plug, “Drum ‘n’ Bass for Papa” *Roger Nichols and the Small Circle of Friends, “Love So Fine” *Rotary Connection, “If I sing My Song” *µ-Ziq, “Brace Yourself Jason* = not available on Spotify

3. BACK TO NEW YORK CITY

I moved back to NYC at the end of 1998 and ended up working at my friend Rich’s record store Etherea in the East Village. All us record clerks there were pretty tight. Dance-music culture was our thing. Indie rock seemed passé. We had a weekly DJ/electronic music night and spent a lot of time listening to 12 inches at dance-music shop Temple Records a block away on Avenue B.Here’s some tunes I spun a lot during this era:Dopplereffekt, “Speak ‘n’ Spell” *Aril Brikha, “Groove la Chord”Giorgio Moroder, “From Here to Eternity”Eddy Grant, “Time Warp” *Frankie Knuckles, “Baby Wants to Ride”GAS, “Eins” *Jorge Ben, “Hermes Trimegisto Escreveu”Isan, “Clipper”Casino Versus Japan, “It’s Very Sunny”Lime, ”Angel Eyes”Moodymann, “Misled”Pepe Bradock, “The Charter” *Sparks, “Beat the Clock”Thomas Bangalter, “Turbo” *Throbbing Gristle, “Hot on the Heels of Love”Tones on Tail, “Lions”Tuxedomoon, “No Tears”Closer Musik, “One Two Three (No Gravity)”I was mostly buying techno, house, and electro 12 inches at this time. I was DJing a lot. Our night, Invisible Cities, put me in touch with a lot of the electronic artists that initially released music with us. Carpark was born! That means the end of this playlist. How Carpark moved away from exclusively electronic is a playlist for another time.* = not available on Spotify