Oct 2022 - Vaporwave Dystopia Wins the Day, and Not-New Bands Make Great New Stuff

Albums

Two Shell - Icons

If you’d asked me a month ago, “Hey Ben, would you be into an electronic music concept album in which a vaporwave AI is distorted into a bass-heavy, menacing dystopia because it doesn’t want to be forgotten?” I would have said… well… I would have said yes.

And yes indeed. Icons is a techno tour de force, touching on DnB, breakbeats, and trance. It’s menacing in spite of the fact that it’s primarily major chords, and it’s such a unified vision! It’s a contender for my album of the year.

JID - The Forever Story

When I first heard JID, it was on Spillage Village's 2020 album "Spilligion" and I hated him because his verses seemed so put-on. I assumed that he was maybe a younger member of the collective who hadn’t found his voice yet. But, I think the reality is just that a few bars isn't enough time for him to spin out his ideas.

On this album, his whole thing is changes. His rap moves around through lots of different rhythms, different vocal tones, different diction, and his beats are completely different at the end of some songs than they were at the beginning. This album is a journey. I’d recommend “Dance Now” as a single, and “Surround Sound” as a more representative piece. But, really, just listen to the whole thing (and if you find your interest flagging during “Crack Sandwich” I get it. Just push through.)

Frankie and the Witch Fingers - Monsters Eating People Eating Monsters…

I didn’t expect it, but I think this might be my most-played album of the last few months. It’s a straight-ahead rock-and-roll headbang. Perfect for a 35 min drive, perfect to get psyched for something, and perfect just because.

I did some real thinking about what genre to say this is, and I guess it just falls under the unhelpful umbrella "garage rock." The whole is more than the sum of its parts here. Each track is somewhere between "good" and "very good," but what really puts it over for me is that I'm pretty sure that if you saw them live, they would just play their set straight through without stopping. Also, the lyrics are considerably more interesting than they need to be. Simulator is about the Simulation Theory, which is eyeroll-inducing on its own, but they address it with such anger that I find it compelling anyway.

Witch Fever - Congregation

I'm told that this is punk music. I suppose that's true overall, but a lot of this fits in that category a little uncomfortably. It sounds to me more like the kind of "heavy" music that people were doing at the tail end of the 90's, like something from the soundtrack to The Faculty or the first Matrix. Or maybe like Evanescence but without all the unlistenable rock-rapping (rap-rocking?). They're supposed to be amazing live. "Beauty and Grace" is the one that got my attention first, but “Congregation” is pretty wonderfully Garbage-y.

Sonnyjim & The Purist - White Girl Wasted

This is SO RETRO. The main single is "Barz Simpson," a title that's only excusable because MF Doom probably came up with it. That track was recorded before he died, but wasn't released in album form until this year, and it feels a lot like they took that one track and just expanded it into a whole universe of drug-addled 2000's era hip-hop. I'm not sure that there are any actual bad tracks on here. It’s a really good choice if you need something low-key, or if you want to chuckle at the wonderfully drug-addled universe they’ve created. Highly recommend listening attentively to the final track “Buy Cocaine Not Art.” I don’t think they wrote this story, but it’s worth your attention anyway.

La Chica - Cambio

This is some interesting experimental electronic/vocal work, sort of in the spirit of Imogen Heap or someone similarly intellectual like Ibeyi, maybe. It's all pretty cool, but the one that caught me originally was "Oasis." I looked at her site and the tour page is split into "Electronic Tour" and "Piano Tour," which is exciting because it probably means that she's actually playing all those trills. Even at its least interesting, like "Drink," her music kind of reminds me of Kali Uchis's fantastic 2016 album Isolation, so I'm not complaining about that.

Broken Bells - Into the Blue

There’s a lot of great 70’s rock stuff on here, kind of in the vein of pre-disco Beegees or ELO. My only complaint is that they put all their slow, sad stuff at the beginning. I really like "Saturdays," "We're Not in Orbit Yet..." and for a different flavor, "Love on the Run,” but for some reason those are at least 15 min into the album. This inspired me to look back at some of their hits back when they were a big deal in the 2010s. I was in a totally different place at the time, musically, but I have to say that there are some pretty great tracks on their s/t album. It's very 2010 though.

Session Victim - Basic Instinct

Jazz/funk-infused house music - great idea, almost always poorly executed. These guys, however, never miss.

Session Victim - 10,000 Hours

I love them and you can’t take them away from me.

Tracks

U.S. Girls - So Typically Now

Until now, U.S. Girls has always been someone that I wanted to get into but couldn't. She's always been a little… idk, not catchy enough? A little bit funky but not enough? But this one is clearly awesome, occupying kind of an electronic pop territory like Robyn might have done in her Royksopp days, along with some Eurythmics-y wailing in the background.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Burning

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs never quite got me in the way that I expected them to. I mean, on paper, “Heads Will Roll” sounds like exactly what I wanted in 2009. Rock music made a little more dancey? A woman with a cool voice full-volume wailing? Yes plz. But, idk somehow in practice it never really worked for my ear. I think maybe it was a little too self-aware? And if that was the issue, “Burning” works against that. It feels raw compared to their other stuff, with all the wailing ness.

Sorry - Let the Lights On

These guys are doing some interesting stuff with Beck-esque dissonant guitar stings. Their album is similar to this track in that it's really cool when it's dissonant and weird and otherwise they're like, fine. In the space of this one track though, it works for me.

Don Turi & La Chica - Connection Lost

I heard this track at the end of an episode of Los Espookys, which is how I ended up finding both of their albums as well. This track doesn't actually sound very much of their other stuff though. It feels more like a Robots in Disguise track, or maybe something Soulwax would have collaborated on with someone.

Biig Piig - Feels Right

This kind of sounds to me like a combination of Japanese Breakfast's early stuff and her current stuff. It's kind of a chill, pleasant, catchy time, with a cool guitar vamp in the verses. It makes me wish Japanese Breakfast was still doing stuff like her fantastic track "Diving Woman," which I still use when I want to be overwhelmed by a nice stereo in the dark.

Daphni - Clavicle

Daphni is super interesting, but I never want to listen to him in general because every track is a little too long. This one works for me a little better because it has more frequent changes. Nonetheless, all of his stuff is objectively pretty cool. It reminds me a lot of Gold Panda (which makes sense, since they were working at exactly the same time). This whole album is pretty good as well.

Jamie xx - Idontknow
Jamie xx - KILL DEM

Remember UK dubstep? That stuff was cool, and I'm glad to know that at least one guy is still out there doing it. Both of these tracks have a really amazing microvocal thing happening.

Yung Gravy, bbno$, Rich Brian - C'est La Vie

Make no mistake, I fucking despise Yung Gravy. Fuck you, Yung Gravy. Fuck your stupid cool-guy posturing that you do instead of like, being good at rapping or having something to say. Fuck your cool-sounding voice that made your whole career. Fuck the fact that you don't know what "c'est la vie" means. And fuck the fact that I really like this song, which has a fun bouncy bassline, flaunts a just-screwing-around charm, and doesn't overstay its welcome at a lean 2:40. Fuck all that. (I do like this song, though)

Asa Moto - Make Me Prada

This is some nice slow-paced oddball slow electronic stuff. Kind of a weird other-dimensiony soundscape.