Essential Tracks This Week: JPEGMAFIA, Caribou, and more

This deep into summer, it’s likely that you’ve already got your Song of the Summer picked out. But because there’s still over a month to go, it’s not too late to add a few more to consideration. Today we’ve got four more Essential Tracks to queue up, from a house spin on an ’80s dance classic to two emcees going hard and sounding like they’re having a blast doing it. Here are our picks for the best songs of the week.

JPEGMAFIA – “JPEGUltra!”

Amazing things happen when JPEGMAFIA and Denzel Curry team up together. Curry, fresh off the release of his awesome new album King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2, kicks off the brash and brazen fanfare of “JPEGUltra!”, a song that goes hard as hell with its blast of horns and endless stream of trash talk (“When you fall off, bitch, I’m yellin’ ‘Timber!’“, “I shit talked my way right into a bag“). There are more introspective and deeper songs on Peggy’s newly dropped I Lay Down My Life for You, but this is easily JPEG and Denzel at their most fun.

From I Lay Down My Life for You, out now via AWAL

High Vis – “Mind’s A Lie”

High Vis are the rock band that’s appeared the most times in the Essential Tracks column on Treble over the past three years, and they’re not about to have that title usurped just yet. The London group lean deeper into club sounds on their latest, with a diva’s looped vocals against a bass- and drum-heavy backing, washed with jangly guitars and Graham Sayle’s unmistakable bark. But while it feels as if it might eventually explode into a post-hardcore roar, it remains within this subtler shade of club-driven gloom. It’s a fascinating and highly satisfying first taste of new album Guided Tour, and an unexpected detour at that.

From Guided Tour, out October 18 via Dais

Caribou – “Volume”

There’s more than a twinge of nostalgia in Dan Snaith’s latest single, which the title in part gives away. It’s inspired by M|A|R|R|S’ “Pump Up the Volume” and even interpolates that song’s recurring sample into a house track that’s as immersive as it is physical. Coming off a recent album as Daphni, Snaith is clearly still in dancefloor mode and I’m here for it—everything he’s released this year has been an absolute banger, and “Volume” just might be the best of the bunch so far.

Out now via Merge

Tribulation – “Tainted Skies”

Tribulation described their latest single as “fairly straightforward,” which perhaps undersells just how much fun this band can be when they get right to the good stuff. Don’t get me wrong—I love the pageantry. The Swedish metal band are second to none at building eerie atmosphere and weaving the stuff of fog-machine nightmares. But they’re also basically a goth-metal party band, and “Tainted Skies” makes that perfectly clear. They’ve got the riffs and the catchy choruses to go with them—turn it up!