euth's weekly download - june 9 2026
hey gang. here's some music for your inbox. if you like the newsletter tell a friend. in this edition we have k wata, kim petras, anthony rother, jonáš gruska, & curtiss maldoon. experimenting with image links also. let’s see if your email client mangles them. web link in case of mangling.
k wata - give u space (2026)
new lp from e wata member k wata purpose built for hazy mornings and late nights. reminds me a bit of rod modell in terms of atmosphere but with woozy dubby trapish beats underneath. quite a distinctive headspace. isolated, stark, vast, a bit paranoid, creeping. not at all unpleasant though. coming home spun to an empty house at 4am, one lamp lit in the corner, incense smoke curling in dead air, staring at the ceiling. there's a track in the middle, 'whisper dub' that's a bit out of place, throwing off the atmosphere and breaking the spell a bit, but afterwards the album gets back to its contemplative hum.
not over the moon about this one tbh. i could see it growing on me. i already wrote all this and everyone seems hype on it, so you may as well check it out. idk why everyone’s calling it dub techno. there's nothing techno about it. it's basically dubstep, or dubbed out rap beats. i asked the pitchfork guy why he said it's 'rooted in classic dub techno' on twitter but he never responded. maybe it’s actually IDM. it's gotta be related to stuff by german guys and not the stuff from jamaica or houston. because i’m smart and i like it. anyways.
kim petras - detour (2026)
hell yeah. petras' first mostly frost children produced album has arrived and it’s so much fun. if you're not familiar with the producers of the future, frost children have made a quick and compelling case that they are the best in the biz with back to back LPs Speed Run and Hearth Room acting as a showcase for their broad utility in the pop music machine. follow up Sister set the template for the current wave of what im calling turbopop, alongside ninajirachi. petras seems to have claimed them as the a g cook to her xcx, with their production appearing on eight of the album's 13 tracks.
the album is just about everything i want from this kind of pop. loud, dumb, fun, with surprises around every corner. the tracks have a knack for the third act switch up, with some genre flip or melodic element materializing just when you start to hunger for something new. the album flirts with many shades of 00s/10s revivalism, with sonic references spanning dubstep, timbaland, xcx, gaga, flo rida, katy perry, and a bunch of blogged out buzz each with enough invention to progress the sound. need for speed in particular feels like an intentional mash of gaga and charli, including an a g cook impression in the third act. there’s some flashy groundbreaking production featured, real avant stuff, but it never takes center stage which i appreciate. the more i listen the more i ride for it.
pop generally is resistant to dissection, likely to die on the table, but there is an element throughout here worth talking through a bit. this crunched quality, a deep friedness. it sounds cheap, bootlegged, limewired, cheaply manufactured. knowing the producers involved this quality was precision engineered, and it has the intended effect giving the music an illicit vitality. it probably also sounds good on a phone speaker.
speaking of illicit vitality, i discovered something funny. the bandcamp release, which i was surprised even existed, is totally wrong, with live versions, remixes, and even a 1981 instrumental synth track mislabeled as the album’s tracks. i have to assume this is an intentional reference to downloading albums on limewire in the 00s, and getting some random assortment of tracks. i can't even imagine how this would happen accidentally. i’ve never seen anything like it, check it out while it's still up.
(mislabeled version)
damn it the more i listen to this album the more i like it. i dont wanna stan kim petras... ugh
anthony rother - popkiller (2004)
unreal. this 2004 record from the electro/clash icon came to my awareness when someone in a track id thread mentioned his track 'father', featured on this album. i went to check it out, and when i saw 2004 and that neon green cover i was already salivating. this album is useful in understanding the connective tissue between the int'l deejay gigolo brand of electroclash of the late 90s and the blog wave that followed soon after. throughout the album, templates for digitalism, boys noize, mstrkrft, tiga, lcd, calvin harris flow freely. electro pop on a 4x4 kick, with simple buzzy synths. not dance tracks with token vocals so much as pop songs boiled down and reduced. 'father' is a standout, using minimal tools to wring out more emotion than most of the lush, intricate, symphonic productions scattered across my usbs. 10,000 is another highlight, and i think Punks may be a pretty direct inspiration for LCD's 'daft punk is playing at my house.' the album is skipless. highly recommend.
some extra electroclash listening if you are interested -
intl deejay gigolo comps (link to the first of the five cds that comprise the boxset, they are all easy to find)
jonáš gruska - juggler (2026)
this hit my grid when daniel swan shared the gorgeous cd he designed for it, which was irresistible. it's put out by a field recordings company (making and selling contact mics and stuff), featuring its founder's field recording of a pachinko parlor in akihabara: a rarity as recording in these spaces is prohibited. i listened to the 11+mins in the car, and was completely captivated, levitated, transcending. totally enrapturing, all encompassing noise bath with emergent harmonies, melodies, motifs. absolute magic. one of the best experiences i've had listening to anything in a long time.
also included are interpretations of the piece by some of his friends. also compelling, but maybe a lot to ask. please give the title track a try with headphones, or in the car. some kind of stereo environment. don't be fooled by my speechlessness, i can't recommend it enough.
la priest - into the sky (2026)
one of the world's greatest musicians returns with an uncharacteristically boisterous single. coprod with alex ridha (boys noize), the speedy dance pop number bounces and wiggles; the maestro's custom designed, soldered, wrangled electronics bursting with life, threatening to fall apart. i may get into this in more depth later on but LA Priest, UK born founder of band Late of the Pier, is just unbelievable. go check out Inji, Gene, and Fase Luna. Fase Luna is probably the best. there's also Connan Mockasin collab Soft Hair (come back connan). he makes and produces drum machines and synthesizers from his home in Costa Rica, and occasionally blesses the world with music. the single rips and is a great opportunity to listen to everything he's ever done. barely two minutes with more resonance than most LPs. also check out those synths. they are nuts. you can buy them and then make crazy music also.
curtiss maldoon - sepheryn (1971)
i'm kind of sick of sample ID type stuff which is a shame because i used to really love it (still get a kick out of labi siffre - i got the...). the last decade of sample sources on playlists at hotels cafes and restaurants probably killed it for me. anyways i'm pushing through all that to talk about how fucking sick what madonna did with sepheryn is.
sepheryn was released on english folk duo curtiss maldoon's self titled 1971 debut, buried pretty deep. it's a dynamic folk song with dramatic shifts in energy and mood. madonna lifted the lyrics, parts of the melody, but most of all the mystical sensation from the song for her smash hit single 'Ray of Light'. i'm not aware of a comparable act of musical adaptation. the way she took the raw, magical essence of this deeply buried track, cut, polished, framed, and presented it to the world, preserving every bit of the original's sentiment, while transforming nearly everything about it. it's a miracle. ray of light is the better song, but there's something so heartbreaking and pure about the way the material was presented originally. i could get really sentimental about how this message was channeled, ignored, discovered, and elevated to the highest status music can reach. how these ancillary deep trippers carefully delivered such profound beauty from the source to the whole world, through means totally outside of their control. it's the raw essence of what music can be, what it can do. the lyrics, the melodies, the sentiment packed into them. it was a spell still working its magic on dance floors all around the world. especially this month. i could cry.
i guess that's enough for now. i think you can respond directly to this email if you want. i'd love that. for one thing i'd find out if that actually works but then also we'd get to talk about music or whatever. pretty sweet.
i feel like i owe you a perfect morning coffee evening reading perfumed air album. i think i’ll talk about this one next week but here it is if you need it now.
what case do you think i should use? lowercase still has some counter cultural vitality (counter substack really) but i get that it may be harder to read. sound off.
if anyone's on plex it would be trivial for me to give you access to my music server. that might be fun. help kick the spotify habit.
alright love you bye.