Features Tracks: Daft Punk, MGMT, The XX, And More

Hello, and a good Friday to you all!

The arctic chill has more or less thawed, and it’s nearly barbecue season! With that in mind, you’re probably after some of the best new tunes in existence to add to your playlist. But you don’t have time to comb through the internet, you say? Well luckily, the fabulous writer types of DIY have done the legwork for you!

If DIY were on a musical equivalent of Masterchef, the tracks below would make up a show-stopping banquet. With some ultra-smooth hip-hop, some stunningly cinematic orchestral work, and then plain good pop delivered with a flourish, there is something for all tastes here. Bon appetite!

Daft Punk ft. Pharrell Williams - Get Lucky

‘Get Lucky’ is an astonishingly exciting prospect, and that’s before you’ve even pressed play. It’s Daft Punk’s first release in 8 years besides that TRON soundtrack in 2012, and this one track has had an intensive lead-time of several weeks, as fans cobbled together various versions from snippets. This, the finished version, is dance gold. When you press play – as record numbers of people did on Spotify this week – the result is an irresistible piece of funk-pop that takes control of your limbs and heart. This is undoubtedly the best thing that heavyweight collaborator Pharrell Williams has put his trademark silky smooth falsetto to in a long time, and sat alongside Nile Rogers’ slightly nudge-nudge wink-wink riff, ‘Get Lucky’ sparkles like a snake-hipped lounge singer on one of Saturday Night Fever’s technicolour dancefloors. ‘Get Lucky’ might mark a step towards pop polish from Daft Punk, but when it shimmers and struts so effortlessly, who can resist?(El Hunt)

MGMT – Alien Days

‘Congratulations’ was a very divisive album for MGMT, some not so keen on their pop sensibility being stripped away for a more left-field sound but some like it precisely because of that. Now knowing the unpredictability of the duo, it’s unsurprising that they decided to release their newest track ‘Alien Days’ as a limited run cassette on Record Store Day. And on listening, it certainly lives up to its name with its strange exterrestrial charms - vocals spiralling into oblivion towards the end and sounds bouncing off of each other. There’s also a guest on the track, perhaps taking a hint from M83’s ‘Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming’ as the first voice we hear on ‘Alien Days’ is a small child. It’s possibly one of the strangest things MGMT have created and that’s by no means a bad thing. Anyone hoping they’d return to their poppier roots of ‘Oracular Spectacular’ may be sorely disappointed. (Aurora Mitchell)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Rà-àkõ-st (Lindstrom Cover)

Let’s face it, the writing’s on the smoke-stained wall: Sometimes Unknown Mortal Orchestra like to lock their doors, close the blinds and have away at ‘enhancing their senses’, or doing a bit of a ‘wacky baccy’ or whatever us squares are supposed to call it. How else do you explain not only the material on their ‘II’ album, but this? Exhibit B, a loony cover of Lindstrom’s electronics-only ‘Rà-àkõ-st’ really places an emphasis on the latter half of the word ‘instrumental’. The evidence is gloriously damning. Ruban Nielson and co. audibly freak out, tip over and let out a psych spillage like no other. Its six minute span might seem expansive, but it’s actually pretty selfish. You’d happily hear UMO let their inhibitions go that little bit further. Give the band a good ten years and they’ll be covering Autechre albums for 24 hours straight, like Flaming Lips but with a twist. (Jamie Milton)

Only Shadows - Be Still

Believe it or not, ‘Be Still’ is the B-side to Only Shadows’ debut single. THE B-SIDE. These guys must have frenetic, heart-felt belters in abundance. They appeared out of pretty much nowhere with a fully-fledged sound akin to your favourite moments from your favourite semi-massive indie band. The call and response vocal yelps will have you yearning along to every word. Oh yeah, and guess what, they are from the Midlands. Boom. (Jack Parker)

Chance the Rapper - Good Ass Intro

Sometimes you hear a track and you just instantly know that the artist is bound for greatness. ‘Good Ass Intro’ by Chicago rapper Chance The Rapper is the best example yet of why Chance is hip-hop’s next breakout star. Chance is a rapper defined by his boundless personality that comes across in the ebullient joy of his music. Rapping for him is not a chore, it’s just as it should be - the best job in the world. ‘Good Ass Intro’ bounds along on a combination of frenetic beats provided by producers Stefan Ponce and Peter Cottontale, warm horn bursts and a lovely soulful hook from vocalist BJ The Chicago Kid. Despite the perfect combination of these sounds it’s Chance’s rhymes that enthral. Reminiscent of the croaky voiced intensity of Danny Brown he gives it everything he’s got and leaves it all on this excellent track. (Martyn Young)

The xx - Together

The xx might not be your first pick for the tooting jazz mayhem of Jay Gatsby’s opulent parties on the West Egg in Roaring 20’s New York, but the smouldering, cinematic ‘Together’ seems perfectly placed in the soundtrack to Baz Luhrmann’s hotly anticipated take on The Great Gatsby. Brooding as effectively as Daisy Buchanan sipping on an effervescent flute of $1000 champagne, you can sense the cooling twilight, and you can feel the blue gardens with party guests coming and going like moths among the whisperings. When the stunning string section kicks in, it comes as a wonderful, magical revelation, and The xx perfectly capture the haunting loneliness that made F. Scott Fizgerald’s Gatsby so intriguing in the first place. ‘Together’ continues the emotionally charged voltage of 2012’s ‘Coexist’, and if the rest of The Great Gatsby’s Jay-Z produced score is this inventive, yet perfectly matched, it’ll be soundtrack of the year. (El Hunt)

Baths - Ironworks

Those familiar with Will Wiesenfeld, otherwise known as Baths, may know his maximalist sampling approach – overwhelming the listener with layers upon layers of ticking rhythms, celestial vocals, programmed drum machine beats and the odd snippet of dialogue from a Studio Ghibli film. New track ‘Ironworks’ roughly sticks to that formula but is much sparser and instead of the warm feeling that ‘Cerulean’ exuded – it’s damp and sticky, a lot more sombre than you might expect. It makes sense that ‘Cerulean’ was named after a colour commonly used to describe the sky with its sunny disposition as new album ‘Obsidian’ looks to be as dark as its namesake. Wiesenfeld has said that he’s always been inspired by really dark material and it certainly shows on ‘Ironworks’. It relies a lot heavier on the more organic aspect to Baths’ music – the vocals and instrumentation taking the foreground, skilled piano patterns intertwining with wonderful harmonies. The lyrics are hard to make much sense of but it’s clear that Wiesenfeld read into the Dark Ages and other such material before making ‘Obsidian’. (Aurora Mitchell)

Mac Miller - SDS (Prod. Flying Lotus)

Almost all great hip-hop is down to the relationship and balance between producer and rapper. One is largely impotent without the other. When both align in perfect form, that’s when the magic happens. This is certainly the case with ‘SDS’, the first single from Pittsburgh rapper Mac Miller’s forthcoming second album ‘Watching Movies With The Sound Off’. It’s tough to find a more accomplished and esteemed producer than Flying Lotus right now and the visionary sonic auteur provides the trippy, drugged out and submerged beat that makes ‘SDS’ so beguiling. Miller’s narcoleptic drawl is the perfect accompaniment to these almost hallucinogenic elusive sounds. The lyrics seem to refer to being lost in a kind of otherworldly dream state, “It’s harder than it seems, I’m under water in my dreams, I’m in awe, this jigsaw puzzles not complete, I’m just an idea, nothing concrete.” rhymes Miller. The title acronym of Somebody Do Something sounds strange in the context of something so languid and strung out but then again hip-hop is at its best when it’s not what it seems. (Martyn Young)