cousin.world is an update on global music as told through four playlists:

• run ⇡ — club tracks from euro & UK dancefloors

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

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

• magnitude △ — afrobeat, dancehall and amapiano rising

For run ⇡ #005 I am looking at The Blessed Madonna’s new one with Clementine Douglas, new BICEP, francophone rap, a Swedish streaming hit and yes, Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

Hit me back to chat and stay tuned for cherry soda ⚭ #005 next week. 🫰

run ⇡ 

1. The Blessed Madonna, Clementine Douglas — ‘Happier’ (US/UK)

Anglophile DJ The Blessed Madonna has released another UK banger, this time with rising Birmingham-born vocalist Clementine Douglas. Both artists currently cover Spotify UK’s mint playlist (5.8M followers).

Starting out selling mixtapes at raves in 90s Kentucky, The Blessed Madonna describes herself as a “Londoner by the grace of God.” Before Clementine Douglas, she’d already collaborated with a fair few UK artists including Florence & The Machine, Elton John and The Chemical Brothers, as well as regularly headlining some of the country’s biggest parties like Warehouse Project, Field Day and HOMOBLOC.

Among The Blessed Madonna’s biggest tracks is her Fred Again collab ‘Marea (we’ve lost dancing)’ which is about to break 300M streams on Spotify. She was also enlisted as the remixer-in-chief of Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia album which casually included features from Madonna and Missy Elliot.

Clementine Douglas’ name has been appearing on UK dance records since her 2020 debut with GotSome. She has since featured on major releases from producers like Chase & Status, Dom Dolla, Dillon Francis and David Guetta.

2. BICEP — ‘CHROMA 001 HELIUM’ (UK)

Last week, BICEP announced a new album, label imprint and event series called CHROMA, while sharing the project’s first single ‘CHROMA 001 HELIUM’.

In a press release, written up here by Mixmag, the duo describe the new project as “ambitious” and state their intentions for the new label imprint under Ninja Tune to be “underground-focused”. The article also outlines a visual partnership with creative director and designer David Rudnick, who is known for his work with Warp-signed trance producer Evian Christ and being allegedly ripped off by Kanye West and his Yeezus cover art.

BICEP’s presence in electronic music dates back to 2009 when the duo started a blog called Feel My Bicep. In the years since, they’ve collected accolades like BRIT Awards, a #2 album in the UK, countless major festival appearances and, most recently, a sold-out show at London’s 15k cap megavenue Drumsheds, where CHROMA was first teased. Of BICEP’s 3.5M monthly listeners on Spotify, the highest concentration are based in London, followed by Sydney, Melbourne, Dublin and Amsterdam, which is quite typical of their flavour of UK club music.

3. Shay, Gazo — ‘A l’envers’ (Belgium, France)

Belgian rapper Shay released her new album Pourvu qu’il pleuve 2 weeks ago via Because Music and this is the latest single.

‘A l’envers’ features a verse from Gazo, a Parisian rapper who has topped Spotify France’s daily streaming charts with no less than 13 singles. He also released a single the day before this one with fellow French rapper PLK called ‘Ça mène à rien’. Thanks to these two releases and his new album LA MELO EST GANGX, released in December, he is the third most popular artist on YouTube in France today.

‘A l’envers’ is the fourth single from Shay’s album, following ‘Sans Coeur’, ‘Commando’ and her biggest, ‘Jolie Go', which currently stands at 26.6M streams on Spotify. A fifth of her 2.5M monthly listeners on the platform are based in Paris.

If like me you can’t speak French, you can learn more about Shay from this Numéro interview, which called her “the new rap princess”, back in 2020. If you’re lucky enough to understand, you can instead tuck into her album promo run with Brut, GQ France and Quotidien.

4. Owen, Asme — ‘Lean & $prite’ (Sweden)

In Music Ally’s latest Country Profile on Sweden, published in October, IFPI Sweden’s Ludvig Werner says streaming “has managed to reach even the fringes of Sweden’s population,” adding that it has become “like electricity” to Swedes in the 15 years since Spotify launched out of Stockholm.

It follows, then, that if you’re having a #1 on Spotify in Sweden, you’re doing pretty well over there. The track currently topping Spotify and Apple Music in the market is called ‘Lean & $prite’ — a sort-of cover of Kid Cudi’s ‘Day ‘N’ Nite’ — from Swedish artists Owen and Asme. This track is Asme’s second streaming hit in Sweden, following his 2021 track ‘Färger’.

Figures from 2022 show a whopping 94% of revenues in Sweden’s music industry were driven by streaming, with CDs and vinyl accounting for 2% and 3% respectively.

5. Sophie Ellis-Bextor — ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ (UK)

I know (I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know) you are maybe already sick of hearing about this but after being featured in Saltburn, the film that everyone watched over the holidays, Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s 23-year-old pop classic ‘Murder On The Dancefloor’ is still one of the top streaming tracks in the world.

The track hit #1 on Spotify’s Global Viral chart on Jan 17th and landed top 5 viral chart placements in over 30 markets. It now stands at over 330M streams on the platform and is being thoroughly run ragged on TikTok. It first peaked at #2 in the UK singles chart back in 2001, the same position it occupies today, decades later. As of Feb 2, you can now buy or stream additional versions of the track including sped up, slowed down, acapella, instrumental and an extended mix.

The music industry is adapting to the phenomenon of catalogue tracks becoming massive overnight hits thanks to placements in popular TV shows and films, in turn making these syncs like gold dust for rights holders. Back in 2022, Eamonn Holmes (author of a book about the fall of EMI called Selling The Pig), wrote about the importance of these opportunities for “heritage artists” (citing Kate Bush and Metallica) in The Guardian.

It has been true for some time that the current frontline music industry is being propped up by streaming income from back catalogue. This combined with recent moves from Blackstone-backed catalogue buyers Hipgnosis — who are trying turn old songs themselves into the next hot investment product — is tilting the landscape in favour of old over new as the nostalgia loop tightens. Read this great piece Mass Hipgnosis on Baffler to learn more about that.

+ Five More…

6. Ski Aggu — ‘Z0RNIG [2024]’ (Germany)

I wrote about Ski Aggu back in the first ever cousin.world mailer. His new track ‘Z0RNIG [2024]’ is currently #1 in the German singles chart.

7. Logic1000, Rochelle Jordan — ‘Promises’ (Australia/UK)

‘Promises’ is the fourth single from Logic1000’s upcoming album Mother and features British-Canadian vocalist Rochelle Jordan. Read more on DJ.

8. Silva Bumpa, Megan Wroe — ‘Without U’ (UK)

Cute new UKG from Locked On records signee Silva Bumpa featuring vocals from Bolton newcomer Megan Wroe. Yesterday he discussed his first encounters with the pioneering garage label on their Instagram.

9. Alok, Mondello’G, Ceres, Tribbs — ‘LET’S GET FKD UP’ (Germany)

This Tiktok speed techno hit has been hanging around the top 10 on streaming charts in Germany and Austria since it came out 2 months ago, if that is your sort of thing…

10. I. JORDAN, Felix Mufti — ‘Real Hot n Naughty’ (UK

Yesterday, UK producer and DJ I. JORDAN announced the release of their debut album I AM JORDAN, while sharing this new one featuring Felix Mufti. The record is coming out in May via Ninja Tune.