Two this week, from opposite ends of the summer frequency: Lagos street energy that wants you on your feet, and an Epsom-based art-pop project that turns your afternoon into something quietly cinematic.
Debra Can – HAPPY
Debra Can makes HAPPY an excellent Afrobeat floor-filler, a brass-and-percussion workout that is impossible to stand still to and impossible to argue with.
HAPPY runs on the best kind of syncopated percussion and a bright brass section, the two elements trading off each other until the whole thing feels less like a song and more like an event. Drawing directly from the electric atmosphere of Lagos street culture, it’s got such an energy that studio-constructed Afropop often lacks. It has already landed on Afropop playlist placements including African Heat, which makes sense: this is music designed around the moment a dancefloor fully commits. You’ll be up off your feet before you know it.
Debra Can is a Lagos-based artist whose previous single SSS (E Go Pay), released in May 2025, established her voice as one rooted in uplift and emotional directness. Her recording process is characterised by intense focus: SSS involved two weeks of late-night sessions to get the track where she wanted it, a working method that speaks to how seriously she takes the craft underneath the celebration. This is pure dancefloor energy, and we love it. More of this please, Debra.
Vela Jones – Static Air
Vela Jones delivers a stunning art-pop statement on Static Air, one of the most atmospherically assured synth-pop singles we’ve heard this year
Static Air is built on a lovely set of airy synth textures and a strong pop hook, but what distinguishes it is the brilliantly, spacious groove. It really breathes, and that restraint gives the vocal room to carry real weight. The project draws comparisons to Peter Gabriel’s approach to creating a distinctive sonic world rather than simply writing songs, and that ambition is audible here. Whatever the approach, it’s a banger and sits in a kind of dream pop and electronic art-pop world. Definitely warmer than the clinical end of synth-pop but with some of it’s sheen. It’s a genuinely impressive balancing act.
Vela Jones is an Epsom-based project designed from the ground up as a full artistic identity rather than just a recording name. The concept prioritises classic songwriting craft over novelty, which is an unusual starting point for a synth-forward project and exactly what makes it work. The visual world is deliberate and futuristic, giving Static Air a coherent context that extends beyond the track itself. It’s a brilliant debut, and we’re excited to see where this artist goes next.