run⇡ #001: Ski Aggu, BENNETT, Hudson Mohawke, Basstripper, Kwengface

cousin.world is a newsletter about global music.

Each week, I update one of the following playlists with 10 ascendant tracks from global markets and provide analysis to explain how they’re breaking:

• run ⇡ — club tracks from euro & UK dancefloors

• cherry soda ⚭ — breaking k-pop, c-pop, p-pop and city pop

• the grid ✚ — sounds of urbano, reggaeton, funk

• magnitude △ — afrobeat, dancehall and amapiano rising

For this first edition of the newsletter, run ⇡ contains tracks from German gabberpop artist Ski Aggu, Belgian DnB producer Basstripper, UK rapper Kwengface’s collaboration with Joy Orbison and Overmono and, at the time of writing, the top trending viral song in the world from BENNETT.

This playlist is about techno, house, drum and bass and any-and-all club genres being exported out of the UK and Europe. Next week, Cherry Soda attempts to do the same for global pop sounds, with a particular focus on East Asian exports.

I am making this resource to hopefully demystify how songs are getting big internationally and inspire any artists, labels or teams looking overseas for their next collaboration or new connection.

If you have any thoughts on today’s mailer, please shoot me a reply 💌

1. ‘Theatre★’ — Ski Aggu, $OHO BANI (Germany)

Ski Aggu is a rapper and gabberpop artist responsible for one of the summer’s biggest viral hits in the GSA region: ‘Friesenjung’. A collaboration with fellow German artists Joost and Otto Waalkes, the single currently stands 70.7m Spotify streams, sits atop the influential German rap playlist Deutschrap Royal (1.2m followers) and claimed the #1 spot on the German singles chart back in June. Since then, Aggu has been steadily releasing collaborations with some of Germany’s most popular young rappers. Among the latest is ‘Theatre★’ featuring fellow Berliner $OHO BANI.

Released two weeks ago and immediately peaking at #1 on Spotify Germany’s Daily chart, the single is charting a similar trajectory to ‘Friesenjung’ with heavy support from some of the region’s most influential playlists (Modus Mio, Deutschrap Brandneu, Hot Hits Deutschland) and appearances in trending charts across Switzerland and Austria. As with all of Aggu’s releases on UMG imprint label Jungeratze, the track benefits from his large audience on Tiktok, where he promotes new releases with pranks like sticking himself to a wall with duct tape, which seems to go down well with his 308k followers.

One of Aggu’s early viral successes came in the form of ‘Party Sahne’ (2022) which exploded onto Tiktok across the GSA region with a handful of posts breaking half a million likes a piece. Regularly releasing singles and collaborations with peer artists since 2020, Aggu’s ascent is buoyed by Germany’s increasing openness to streaming after many years as an outlier on the continent for its preference towards physical formats (now a 75% streaming market). Here’s Aggu in conversation with Aria Nejati (head of hip-hop for Apple Music GSA):

2. ‘Vois sur ton chemin’ - Techno Mix — BENNETT (Germany)

As I write, ‘Vois sur ton chemin (Techno Mix)’ from German producer BENNETT is #1 on the Global Viral Chart on Spotify. The single, released by Dutch dance heavyweights Spinnin’ Records on August 4th, adds an almighty donk to the original choral arrangement performed by a children’s choir in the French film Les choristes (2004).

Currently standing at an impressive 20m+ streams on Spotify, the track seemingly benefits from a Venn diagram of overlapping audiences across gaming, eurodance and ‘songs to test the bass response of your car speakers’. Editorial support includes key European dance playlists like Main Stage, where BENNETT is the cover star, and Dance Rising. On Tiktok, the bulk of the track’s usage is in France, then evenly split between Spain, Belgium and across GSA. According to the top comment on BENNETT’s launch post on Tiktok: “it’s giving Hogwarts”.

3. ‘In The City’ — Basstripper (Belgium)

Belgian drum and bass producer Basstripper released ‘In The City’ (and B-side ‘Wasted’) via DnB Allstars Records (distributed by Believe) in July. Like a lot of brands in drum and bass, DnB Allstars has a solid online ecosystem, including a well-followed YouTube channel and its own network of playlists across services.

The genre generally has a great online community carrying a lot of these tracks forward. US Tiktok creators, who I guess you might call EDM Influencers, are often posting these new releases to millions of engaged followers, like theonlymajed and HATO. In fact, HATO also has a Twitch account where he streams about new electronic music, another great platform for the genre thanks to the music often being used in gaming recaps. Add to that various Reddit and Discord communities — /r/dnb has 232k members — and you get a pretty active and passionate audience.

Earlier this month, ‘In The City’ was peaking in the top 5 of Spotify’s Viral Chart in markets like Austria (#1), Australia/NZ (#2) and the UK (#3). Spotify’s own Massive Drum & Bass playlist with half a million followers has the track as well as the Discover Records playlist brand, whose two biggest playlists are dedicated to the genre.

4. Freedom 2’ — Kwengface, Joy Orbison & Overmono (UK)

The potent combination of drill rapper Kwengface and two of UK electronic music’s most currently recognisable names is proving to be a massive engine behind their new single ‘Freedom 2’. Able to benefit from both rap and dance playlist ecosystems, the track fits simultaneously on flagship playlists like Rap UK while also featuring on key electronic/mood playlists like POLLEN and Altar.

Developing a cult following since his earliest releases in 2018, Kwengface has performed for major session brands like COLORS, Plugged In and Daily Duppy; brands known for breaking UK rap, grime and drill artists. Combining his 1.2 monthly Spotify listeners with Joy Orbison’s 656k and Overmono’s even million gives the track a massive prebuilt audience.

‘Freedom 2’ was released as part of a 5-track remix package of the original track ‘Freedom’, out as of August 10th on Kwengface’s own label Kwengface LTD.

5. ‘Ascending Into The Clouds’ (ft. Elisabeth Troy) — Hudson Mohawke, Tiga, Elisabeth Troy (UK)

For her first vocal feature since 2016’s ‘Chasing Sunrise’ with Metrik, Elisabeth Troy — voice of UK garage anthems like MJ Cole’s ‘Crazy Love’ — teams up with Tiga and Hudson Mohawke for the latest release under their LMZ (Love Minus Zero) side-project.

As well as benefitting from the solid global audiences of the respective artists, this track has already been adopted by playlist brands like Castle Collective, Ministry of Sound and DJ-specific playlists like Axwell’s House Party since being released on the 18th of August. For Troy, this will mark her 19th single release either as a featured or headline artist (per Discogs).

Hudson Mohawke will play a headline show at London’s Fabric this Friday.

+ Five more…

‘Fly Away XTC’ — KETTAMA (Ireland)

Taken from the Fallen Angel EP, the latest release from Galway producer and label KETTAMA and G-TOWN RECORDS. Learn more via Beatportal.

‘The Ghost’ — Tonic Walter (Germany)

Melodic techno from German duo Tonic Walter, who do a great job of breaking down the production process of this track over on Tiktok.

‘Prada’ — cassö, RAYE, D-Block Europe (UK)

Another cross-genre moment between RAYE, D-Block Europe and emerging producer cassö, out on Ministry of Sound. Learn more via GRM Daily.

‘Make You Scream’ (yunè pinku Remix) — VTSS (Poland/UK)

A recent collaboration between powerhouse producer VTSS and yunè pinku, released last month on Ninja Tune. Check out this profile on VTSS from 2021 over on Mixmag and yunè pinku’s Dazed Mix.

‘How It Feels’ — Barry Can’t Swim (UK)

The latest single taken from UK producer Barry Can’t Swim’s new album When Will We Land is out now via Ninja Tune. You can use the same plugins as him via this handy interview with MusicTech.