Love Memo / S'Women

This split LP from Seattle hip-hop label Crane City Music provides two entry points into that city's flourishing underground hip-hop scene. It's two records for the price of one! "S'WOMEN" is the highly-anticipated solo debut from THEESatisfaction's Stas THEE Boss, while "Love Memo" is a runaway EP success from EDM wunderkind Chong The Nomad. Both artists are producers, singers, beatmakers and queer women of color creating distinctive music that expands our very definitions of genre. Each project has amassed a wealth of accolades and album-of-the-year nods from national and local publications such as Pitchfork, Tom Tom Magazine, Earmilk, The Seattle Times, KEXP radio, and The Stranger. Chicago's Dusty Groove Records praises the split vinyl, citing "hypnotic, abstract hip-hop vibe, moody beatcraft, insistent beats, and vocal samples... It's solid all the way." Seattle Weekly calls this release "a perfect pairing." Chong The Nomad's "Love Memo" landed "2018 Record of The Year" acclaim from The Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, The Stranger and radio stations KEXP and 107.7 The End. In their review, The Stranger praised Chong The Nomad's techniques of live-sampling ukulele and beat-box harmonica, alongside "heavy funk beats, marbles-scrambling bass frequencies, and torqued distortion_ Holy shit." NYC's Tom Tom Magazine says that "multi-instrumentalist and producer Chong the Nomad is shaping the future of dance music." Pitchfork called Stas Thee Boss's "S'WOMEN" a "sharp solo debut doused in heartbreak and identity." She subtitles the record, "an aquatic explanation of failed female companionships." Most songs are dense 120-second pops. French chefs have a name for their tiny, tasty morsels: "amuse-bouche" or "entertaining to the mouth." Let's call these songs "amuse-oreille" because they greatly entertain the ears_ They're little explosions of audio delight.