August 2023 - Sludge. Sludge. Sludge.

Albums

Saya Gray - 19 MASTERS

Sometimes you hear an album and you think, “Do I like that? I can’t tell.” 19 MASTERS is one of those. It’s undeniably brilliant - complicated production, composition, lyrics, moods - but do I like it? Pretty often, those kinds of albums end up being some of my favorites once I give them enough time. I’m not sure if I’m there yet with this one, but I hear more in it every time I put it on. For one thing, there’s no symmetry here. Every song starts in one place and ends in another. The choruses, to the extent that it has any, hit differently every time they come around, and it blearily meanders from one sound to another. She’s making art, clearly. It’s not a summertime bop.

For another thing, there’s a dizzying array of inspirations and sounds at work. Picked acoustic guitars, filters sweeping over the vocals, hazy guitars, The Blow, St. Vincent, CocoRosie, fucking Lorde?

Take some time with it. Put it on at night when you want to go to bed sad. Put it on on long drives, when you’ll have time to put on Parliament after.

Gabriels - Angels & Queens

This is how you make soul/gospel/jazz fresh and modern: first, add some subtle, sludgey electronic elements and harmonies, then add some heart-wrenching lyrics about the contemporary backslide of American values from progressiveness to conservatism, then be an earth-shattering vocal talent.

And I mean, obviously I say that last thing to kind of be funny, but you really do need all of those elements. There are plenty of incredibly talented vocalists, but not many of them feel as relevant and vital as Gabriels. Jacob Lusk is an astonishing singer, as you can see here on this 2011 American Idol performance, but you could be forgiven for thinking that he would pass into obscurity like nearly everyone else that succeeds on that show. Not so for him.

It helps that their live shows are absolutely electric, and that they have a bit of a sense of humor when they put together music videos, but I still think that none of it would be nearly as interesting if not for the somewhat muddy sonic context for all of it.

At any rate, as everyone said at the end of that American Idol clip, “WOOOOOOOO!!!!”

Sexual Purity - Beautiful Scar of Society

Last month I promised that there would be more goth shit, and here it is! More dark wave! Or cold wave, maybe, since they’re from Ukraine? Sounds more dark wavey to me, so I’m going with that. Sigh.

Sexual Purity is as gothy as they come. It’s essentially someone muttering unintelligibly over some hazy, dark round thumping basslines. As you can see from their various music videos, they lean heavily into the kind of traditional goth aesthetic. It’s hard not to be reminded of the incredible Death’s Head Theatre public access show, famous now for being endlessly parodied, but undoubtedly a source of real comfort for people in small towns who want to know that there’s someone out there like them.

It’s also hard for me not to mention Boy Harsher here, who are easily my favorite dark wave band on the planet. It’s hard to explain, and hard to capture on video, but they played one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. The best video I can find of them onstage is this one, which doesn’t come close to capturing what I experienced at the Brighton Music Hall in Allston. I’ve talked to a few different people who were there, and everyone has described that show as just vibrating with barely-contained sexual energy. I know that sounds ridiculous and maybe kinda pervy but I’m not the only one who’s said so! Anyway, I bring it up because Sexual Purity sound a lot like those guys. Like… almost identical. I would say, though, that Boy Harsher hasn’t really captured their sound as well on albums as Sexual Purity have. And as hilariously on-the-nose as their videos are, I suspect that Sexual Purity would also be a pretty fucking fantastic show. Too bad they don’t seem to tour here.

Grian Chatten - Chaos for the Fly

This is really everything you could hope for out of a solo project. As the front-man of Fontaines D.C., Chatten has a well established career in rollicking post-punk, and as dark as those albums can get sometimes, they tend to stay in a high-energy fury, and don’t really sink into the kind of dwelling-on-a-bad-time that happens on Chaos for the Fly. And while it’s a wide departure from what Fontaines D.C. has done, it’s not completely unrecognizable (see “Fairlies” for more of a rock vibe).

I’m tempted to say that this is folk music, at least in spirit. It has a serious Nick Drake misanthropy, and a Leonard Cohen storytelling, not to mention some confessionalism. It also reminds me of The Postal Service in that it takes this kind of rumination into a new place by introducing modern production and drum machines. It’s really effecting and demands your attention.

As a side-note, the title refers to something Morticia Addams said: “Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” And like, I just respect the hell out of that choice.

MEUTE - Tumult

MEUTE describe themselves as a “techno marching band.” Before you go rolling your eyes (as I did), you should know that they mean it literally. They are, in fact, a marching band (as seen here marching - albeit slowly), and their catalog includes lots of direct covers of electronic tracks, such as “The Man With the Red Face” by Laurent Garnier. One could split hairs and point out that these are house tracks, not techno, but that would be obnoxious and who wants to do that? (I do. I want to split hairs, which is why I pointed it out just now).

They capture some of the best of both worlds - the hypnotic repetition of electronic production and the vitality of live horns, and just in general, they’re a lot of fun.

Tracks

Windows 96 - Caligula

In case it wasn’t obvious given that his name is Windows 96, he does vapor wave. What’s great about vapor wave as an aesthetic is that it attempts to interrogate the utopian vision of the 20th century by juxtaposing nostalgic/calming imagery from the 90’s technological era with uncomfortable compositions and general silliness. It’s a wry piss-take on triumphalism, basically. Now, what I just said applies mostly to vapor wave as a visual art movement. So how does it work in music?

Well, a direct take would be to put these kind of round, calming tones and low-tempo beats and combine them with uncomfortable vocal samples, as Two Shell did on Icons. I love that album.

Windows 96 does something a little more subtle, by leading you around in circles and refusing to resolve the chord changes. It’s an interesting listen, especially if you’re only half-listening. It doesn’t really give you a chance to tune all the way out.

I’m going to take a slight detour and mention that, like any modern artistic movement, vapor wave has a dark fringe-right counterpart called “fash wave,” (i.e. “fascist wave”) which uses the same general sound, but combines it with samples from things like Hitler speeches. I hate that that exists. Don’t listen to that. Don’t listen to gabber, listen to psytrance. Don’t wear cottagecore, wear goblincore. And listen to Windows 96.

And, if you like this track, he has a lot of stuff out there and it’s all pretty solid. Dig around.

The Huntress and Holder of Hands - Doctrine

I love when people come up with something new to do with traditional genres that otherwise haven’t changed very much. “Doctrine” takes bluegrass to a new place by adding some bottom-heavy harmony. It actually kind of reminds me of The Hu?

GIFT - Gumball Garden

My love of contemporary psych-rock is well documented.

Hubert Lenoir - DIMANCHE SOIR

I spend this whole track thinking “I know I’ve heard this song!!” but clearly I never have. It has a laid-back dreaminess that could come from any era of hip-hop, but the constant shifting of production effects puts it squarely in the SoundCloud era (although it’s not mumble rap. More on that below).

Playaphonk - Phonky Town

TIL about a genre called “phonk” which is a useful term because it seems to capture a sound that I didn’t know what to call. I figured maybe something like “screamo-hop” since Scarlxrd seems like he might fit in there (although I guess maybe that’s “metal rap”?). Anyway, it’s really gritty, lo-fi hip-hop. I have research to do. More next month.

Automatic - Automaton

A couple months ago I went to see Le Tigre, which reminded me of this very specific bubble-genre of electro-punk that existed in the mid-2000s, and put me on a brief Robots in Disguise kick. “Automaton” is channeling all of that energy. Dancey electronic and shouting.

GA-20 - Fairweather Friend

Just some old-fashioned blues-inflected rock music.

Golden Bug & Vega Voga - Tokoyo No Kuni

I’ve managed to glean that Tokoyo No Kuni is a legendary land in ancient japanese literature. I can’t find a whole lot on the concept and the wikipedia page is in Japanese. So.

Anyway, that makes sense for what the song sounds like, no?

Commodo - Deft 1s

Sludge!

Chicano Batman - Blank Slate

I really appreciate the ways in which this track feels broken. The chorus is such a straightforward hook, but everything else is strange and doesn’t quite fit together. It’s a little too gritty, the production slips out of symmetry, and there are weird rhythmic hiccups all over the place.

Lil Yachty - the BLACK Seminole

So, to start with, I hate Lil Yachty. But let’s talk about that for a moment.

Ever since the term was coined, it’s been very fashionable to hate mumble rap (if you don’t know what that is, see: Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Yachty, Lil Pump, 21 Savage, Ski Mask the Slump God), but I think the worm will inevitably turn on that. I think it’s an old guard/new guard thing, and before long, the people who grew up with this stuff will become the ones making the value judgements.

Ok so what is it and what’s supposed to be good about it?

Well, the typical explanation is that it’s a response to traditional hip-hop in which the word is king. Since the genre was invented, rap songs have been about what you’re saying - maybe you have “something to say” or you have technical excellence, or speed, or flow, or intricate rhyming patterns. It’s about the words. Mumble rap turns it on its head - it’s no longer about what you say but how you say it. You can slur your words and apply so much autotune that you’re inscrutable. So it’s no wonder that people hate it - it flies in the face of everything that rap is supposed to stand for.

Now, all of that said, I hate 99% of the mumble rap I’ve heard. It tends to be major-chordy autotune that just feels like poppy shlock. But I want to make an effort with it because clearly it’s the way of the future (or rather it’s the way of the present).

Ok back to Lil Yachty. As mentioned, I hate him. But it’s for all the same reasons I hate mumble rap. It’s less the mumbling than the major-chord poppiness. This track, I kind of like. It’s a different vibe - apart from the “rap” it could be at home on a 60’s rock album. And it goes somewhere - the track isn’t the same at the end as it is in the beginning.

Nonetheless, I’ll admit that I put it here partly just so that I’d have an opportunity to talk about mumble rap.