38: How umru laid the building blocks of hyperpop

A jam-packed episode of No Tags this week, but we had a lot to
catch up on. Central Cee’s debut
album Can’t Rush Greatness is out (02:56) and it’s UK
drill’s biggest album to date, almost by default.
Eusexua (10:07) might be the record that finally sells us on
FKA twigs? And we talk about the grey zones of
desire in Babygirl over in film corner (18:32).


But then onto the main event: we’re joined this week by NYC DJ
and virtual pop
architect umru (30:09). A key member
of SoundCloud’s class of the mid-2010s, umru officially graduated
to the hyperpop top tier in 2017 with his work on Charli XCX’s
game-changing Pop 2 mixtape.


He’s since worked with the likes of Hannah Diamond, Tommy Cash,
Hyd, Dorian Electra and more while releasing his own music on PC
Music and, this year, LuckyMe. He’s also one of our favourite
DJs, with an anything-goes approach that feels firmly in the
legacy of faves like Total Freedom, Evian Christ and Ryan
Hemsworth. We also talked about his past life running parties on
Minecraft, leak culture, pop’s Splice era, and the link between
PC Music and Pirates of the Caribbean.


A little housekeeping: after a small delay the second pressing of
No Tags: Conversations on underground music
culture should be arriving in the next week, so if you
missed out the first time, head to Shopify to place your order.


In the meantime, if you’re enjoying No Tags, please do rate,
review and subscribe on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask
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