We Actually Like...#6

Music

Micachu & The Shapes – Fall
Some would call it morbidly morose, but there's a quiescently haunting carousel of intimate, echoing vocals, funereally paced strums troubled by radically askew percussion that makes it the certified highlight of their latest album, which is full of similarly driven, manic everyday contingency and witty colloquial dialogues. You can stream that here; 'Never' , or you can have a gander here, at the live animations they've created and starred in, for each of the tracks on 'Never'.

(This came out in the Summer so not strictly 'this week' but definitely good enough to stretch the loose dictates of 'We Actually Like…' – apologies if it exacerbates any end-of-summer, oncoming-autumn blues)

(Tim)

Quaid
Quaid's debut on MERC is a deep, tribal piece of mechanical funk that keeps driving and driving, anchored by a couple of minute vocal samples, until it goes into the territory of the derranged about five minutes in. A focussed gem that takes the sound of Detroit into a military compound in the jungle. Like Tim's choice it's a couple of months old, but it definitely deserves a mention. Look out for more from Quaid in the future. (Joe)

Deboa & Hannah Holland – 'Fight' / Dan Beaumont & Terry Farley – Fire
There's something great going on in house music at the moment away from the increasingly staid and downright glutinous 'deep-house' scene. That New Jersey sound crossed through with a distinctly UK 'bass' (someone please come up with a better term for it. Alright Wil, why don't you do it?!) flavour is what's doing it for me at the moment. Definitely one of the most exciting strands of the 4/4 floating around the dancefloor at present. Even casual readers of these pages will have noticed our distinct obsession with the incredible Bicep lads so I'm leaving them alone for a week. We touched on the poppier side of the sound last week with Jonny Burnip's Capracara new one. Right here we present two other champions of what we're loosely terming 'New Jersey Bass' – lazy journalism I know but fk it, it's Friday. Hannah Holland has championed the deeper strands of the bassine for some time now whilst always inflecting it with that house aesthetic. Fight is the first release on her new label Native City with Deboa and it's a mighty fine bassline bouncer cut through with the playful production she always imbues…

Blaming a heavy workload I omitted to include Mr Beaumont and Mr Farley's superbly great Fire track last month so I'm including it here again. Not strictly New Jersey Bass but it crosses that divide with such style I've included here…