An exploration of love, loss, beauty, and identity, the self-produced record features contributions from an impressive roster of guest artists. Among them is GRAMMY Award-winning trombonist Denzel Mendoza, known for his work with Haley Heynderickx. Other collaborators include Marthe Lasthuis of Honingbeer, Wouter van Nienes from Laplander, and Silvan van der Zwaag of Holyoke.

Much like her introspective gem “Meditating in Asia,” Birgit de Priester’s lead single and title track, “Made 4 Fun,” sets the tone. The song plunges into the tangled web of power struggles and helplessness, yet manages to keep things light with its playful, buoyant vibe. De Priester calls it “a song about feeling insignificant and losing control over your own life,” but it’s assuredly the cheeky, self-deprecating humor wrapped around it that makes it truly special.

Just a couple of years back, we introduced you to Mia Porter, a captivating newcomer who left an indelible mark with her art pop and indie folk debut EP okay. Now, the Netherlands-based artist has graced us with a soothing new composition, “Meditating in Asia,” which serves as a tantalizing preview of her much-anticipated debut album.

Collaborating with the Grammy award-winning trombonist Denzel Mendoza, Porter infuses “Meditating in Asia” with an enchanting and ethereal quality. She delves into a more ornate sound while retaining her distinctive and enigmatic songwriting. Her vocal approach, which is also reinvented, weaves a narrative of heartbreak and emotional pain in a most unexpected manner, as she sings with an ironic stoicism, “I won’t be sane nor crazy, I’ll handle it entirely, the day you leave me.”

Like every June, our team hold a very serious – not so serious – committee meeting and pick their favourite tracks of the first semester. That way, you can go on holidays with a cool soundtrack. No need to thank us. You can find these 20 entries in alphabetical order below as well as in our Spotify and Apple Music playlists, which also contain some other great contenders that were released over the last six months.

Anika – “Change”
Bobbie Lovesong – “Organic Orange”
Burial – “Space Cadet”
Cabiria – “Abrigo de Sol”
Cassandra Jenkins – “Hard Drive”
Dawn Richard – “Boomerang”
Erika de Casier – “Polite”
Japanese Breakfast – “Be Sweet”
Jordana + Magdalena Bay – “Push Me Away”
Katy Kirby – “Portals”
Kero Kero Bonito – “Well Rested”
L’Rain – “Two Face”
Mette – “Petrified”
Mia Porter – “Pivot”
Mr Twin Sister – “Expressions”
Nana Yamato – “Do You Wanna”
Rachika Nayar – “The Trembling of Glass”
Slayyyter – “Clouds”
Theodora – “For One Heart”
Tirzah – “Tectonic”

Earlier this year, we were impressed by “pivot,” Mia Porter’s debut single. Porter put out two more singles shortly afterwards, and this Friday she is releasing her first EP okay. It’s an impressive five-song collection where, following the contemporary singer-songwriter practice, the Rotterdam-based artist dwells on heavy topics and larger narratives from a personal, anecdotical point of view. As exemplified by early singles “pivot”, and “mercy,” Porter has a good ear for tasteful arrangements and a knack for writing melodies that don’t overstay their welcome. In fact, briefness is one of her trademarks: none of her first 3 singles come close to the 3-minute mark.

We are premiering the final teaser for Porter’s EP, its opener “daisies”. It’s a somewhat deceptive song. Whereas her previous singles presented themselves as groovy, electric gut-punches, “daisies” opens the record with Mia Porter singing over a gently strummed acoustic guitar, the arrangements hinting at a build-up to come. It’s not too long before we’re back in familiar territory, with a pulsating bassline driving the song forwards and her voice growing more sensual by the minute. The final pay-off comes in the form of an instrumental hook played on a 70s-esque guitar, like something taken out of a Fleetwood Mac record: a fitting high point for a song about the passing of time.

Like her previous singles, “daisies” also boasts its own video, a grainy and wholesome Varda-esque filming of elderly women in a flower garden. Watch the Pelle Nijburg-directed visuals and support Mia via Bandcamp below.

Mia Porter‘s debut track, “pivot”, that we are glad to be premiering today, explores human greed, the search for meaning, and the disconnection between man and nature – “Dirty cities, dirty minds, and all that we take / Yet we feel nostalgic and tear up at the picture of a lake.” The single is taken from her upcoming debut EP, okay, a collection of 5 songs in which she questions herself existentially as a 30-year old millennial woman.

“pivot” is built around a punchy kick and snare groove, some soft-clipped tom fills, and a meaty guitar riff. It’s a pretty straightforward indie rock shell that places Porter’s challenging lyrics front and center. Yet the song doesn’t take itself too seriously – as she sings “I feel I have to take nude pictures of myself / and then look at them afterwards and being all comfortable,” we hear a burst of lead guitar that sounds like the musical equivalent of a hand-over-mouth “Oh my word!” It’s deeply Sugarcubes, or in more contemporary terms Cate le Bon, who Porter credits as an influence. These tongue-in-cheek embellishments build throughout the track, lending playful quirk, but never getting in the way of the song’s absolutely undeniable groove. They invite the listener to share Porter’s eyebrow-raised view of our collective ego – “I guess we have to have it all / We stand up and feel so fucking tall.”

The irony of the song is reinforced by its accompanying music video. It features Berlin based actress and model Sophie Bogdan as a melodramatic superhero dancing on the rooftops of Istanbul. The hero is clad in a fabulous red outfit which, for me at least, immediately brought to mind the US version of Kate Bush’s 1978 “Wuthering Heights” video – the so-called “red dress version.” Like Bush, Bogdan’s hero is at once charismatic and ridiculous – wonderfully embodying all the silly traits of human self-seriousness. The superhero dances out the song’s outro – a truly strange, almost spaghetti western passage of acoustic guitar and whistling.

Watch the “pivot” video and support Mia Porter via Bandcamp below.