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Artist News CMU Playlists
On The CMU Stereo 2022 – Autumn
By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 15 December 2022
We’ve done it, guys. We’ve made it to the fourth and final part of our end of year playlist. That must mean it’s nearly time for a well-earned Christmas break. And now you have a playlist of 40 absolutely brilliant tracks to listen to on a loop throughout all of it. No Christmas music for us this year, only these songs.
I said it back at the start of all this, but it’s worth repeating: it was so hard to get this playlist down to just 40 tracks. This has been truly amazing year for music. It’s been painful leaving off a lot of the songs that didn’t make the cut. Some things we’ve loved haven’t made it into the final playlist, but we also couldn’t imagine losing anything that is on it either.
For this portion of the playlist, we reach the most recently released tracks – things that came out over the last few months. Obviously we haven’t lived with these songs for as long as the tracks back at the start, but every single one of them has quickly found a place in our hearts. And some of them are exciting glimpses of things to come in 2023.
First up, it’s Gold Panda with ‘The Corner’ from his new album ‘The Work’. The sample is lifted from Dean Friedman track ‘Lydia’ and, the producer says, the line he cut out – “I’m down here on the corner” – jumped out because he was watching ‘The Wire’ at the time. The track harks back to his early work, but also shows a clear progression in his sound too.
Next is one of those exciting glimpses I was talking about. Anna B Savage recorded one of our favourite albums of 2021 and has recently put out the first two tracks from the follow-up, ‘in|FLUX’, which is set for release in February and is shaping up to be another fantastic and deeply personal collection of songs.
The Comet Is Coming released their fourth album, ‘Hyper-Dimensional Expansion Beam’, in September – an incredible addition to their psychedelic jazz catalogue of which the track included here, ‘Pyramids’, is a real standout. Meanwhile, Francesca Pidgeon – aka Dilettante – released her second album, ‘Tantrum’, in October, preceding it with ‘Surrogate Lover’, which shows off her incredibly sharp songwriting and guitar skills.
One of the newer – though not newest – artists on this section of the playlist, Yemrot released his debut mini-album ‘The Sunken Garden’ in October – something we were already eagerly awaiting, having seen this incredible live version of the track we’ve chosen for you, ‘Big Tree’.
Another release we’ve been keenly anticipating was the second album from Night Works – although this wait was longer than any other here, with ‘Tongue & Groove’ arriving nearly a decade after his debut, ‘Urban Heat Island’. Thankfully, the wait was very much worth it. Also of note, a track from that debut was sampled on fellow playlistee Loyle Carner’s new album, ‘Hugo’, earlier this year.
Next we’ve got an act for whom there is rarely any great wait, but who always deliver music of incredibly high quality. Sault released their sixth album, ‘Air’, in April this year. Then, just over six months later, dropped five more out of the blue for free on their website. Taken from one of those albums – ‘Untitled (God)’ – we’ve selected ‘God Is Love’.
Now, I promised more new stuff, and this next act is certainly fresher on the scene than any other here. O – saxophonist Joseph Henwood and drummer Tash Keary – released their debut single ‘Ogo’ last month and instantly had us hooked. Their ability to immediately turn casual observers into fans has served them well over the last few months, not least securing them a place on Black Midi’s recent European tour.
Our penultimate track is from Duval Timothy, whose name has become more prominent this year thanks to his production work on Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Mr Morales & The Big Steppers’ album. But his latest solo album, ‘Meeting With A Judas Tree’, sees him taking the minimalist piano instrumentals that have drawn the attention of other artists wanting to sample him (Solange and – once again – Loyle Carner being notable examples) and warping them with effects and field recordings. In doing so, he creates a mysterious and intriguing world, which the song here, ‘Wood’, definitely demonstrates.
Speaking of intrigue, we’ve reached the final track on our playlist. Who is occupying it? Well, it’s another new artist who we’re looking forward to hearing more from in 2023.
Caitlin LM began working on music as a solo act during lockdown as a means of working through grief. She emerged from the pandemic with a collection of tracks that brilliantly blend electronic and classical instruments. Her third single – released earlier this month – is ‘Root’ and it has been on hard rotation around here in recent weeks.
Check out the full On The CMU Stereo 2022 playlist on Spotify and YouTube. You can go back and check out the write ups of our winter playlist here, our spring playlist here and our summer playlist here.
Here are the ten tracks on our autumn playlist:
Gold Panda – The Corner
Anna B Savage – The Ghost
The Comet Is Coming – Pyramids
Dilettante – Surrogate Lover
Yemrot – Big Tree
Night Works – The Divine Right Of Kings
Sault – God Is Love
O – Ogo
Duval Timothy – Wood (feat Yu Su)
Caitlin LM – Root
