September 2024 - Don’t Think About It. It’s Still September. Trust Me on This.
Albums
Arushi Jain - Delight
There’s way too much to say about Arushi Jain to fit into this little blurb here, so before hitting on the main points, I’ll start by linking to the bandcamp page for Delight. As often happens, their editorial department has done a better job distilling all this information than any of the major blogs.
Arushi Jain was born in Delhi and moved to San Francisco at age 18 to study computer science. There’s a really interesting interview with Spitfire Audio in which she talks about her struggles with identity at Stanford. As a child, she attended a number of prestigious music programs and sang regularly, but when she arrived in the US and tried to join a group at college, she got turned down. She had only ever been exposed to Indian music and that was all she knew how to sing. It led to an identity crisis, and she briefly dropped out of school. The upside of that time off was that she encountered modular synth equipment and digital DAWs for the first time, and started experimenting with ways to express the Indian music she new through modular synth techniques.
Even today, though, she feels tension between what she does and Indian musical traditions. As she points out, traditionally, a classical Indian musician would have a guru, who “teaches you everything. They tell you what you're allowed to listen to, what you're not allowed to listen to – they guide your whole journey.” Since she’s actually making up her sound from scratch, she feels disconnected from the Indian classical tradition. “Even other musicians who are doing Indian classical music with electronics, they're still playing sitar or something, you know?”
This album is inspired by Raga Bageshri, which is a melodic framework dating back to the 16th century that is intended to capture the yearning you feel when you’re waiting to be reunited with a lover. I’m hesitant to pick it apart much deeper than that, since it’s a centuries-old format from a culture that I know little about, but if you’re interested in diving deeper I’ll get you started by pointing to the helpful musical archive parrikar.org and mention that the best-known bageshri composer of the modern era seems to be C. Ramchandra.
This album is lush and complex, and if you’re interested in her work I’d also recommend checking out her previous album, Under the Lilac Sky.
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets - AND NOW FOR THE WHATCHAMACALLIT
After following these guys for several years, I finally got a chance to see them a few months ago, and what can I say? It was exactly what I’d hoped it would be. Hard, psychedelic, catchy, and a total blast. And, as I should’ve guessed, their merch is absolutely incredible.
Perth, Australia is a bit of a hotspot hot spot for psychedelic rock these days. Off the top of my head, you’ve got Pond, Tame Impala, Spacey Jane, The Silents… and it doesn’t seem like it’s a coincidence. As Jack McEwan (vocalist/guitarist) said of drugs and rock, “well there’s nothing else to do, is there?”
To hear him tell it, the Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are a joke that got out of hand. “The Mighty Boosh was a huge influence … it seemed like it was all supposed to be random, but it was actually a perfectly-executed satire on the whole psychedelic mindset.” Even the name is a bit of a joke. The story is that the band met through their drug dealer, threw together some psych-y words together for their name, played around with some psych rock licks, played a couple shows, introduced some visual elements with tessellating cat faces, and then looked back and realized that it had gone way too far to keep calling it a joke.
This is my favorite of their albums. It’s one of the catchiest and most varied, but the truth is that they’re all pretty great. They tour a lot so it shouldn’t be hard to see them, but don’t miss the chance because it’s a blast.
Lola Young - This Wasn’t Meant for You Anyway
In every interview I can find with Lola Young, someone mentions her haircut and it turns into a metaphor for either taking control of her mental illness or her unapologetic bluntness. Usually it’s her saying that, though, so I guess… fair enough?
Much of her music is about toxic relationships and cycles of breaking up/getting back together. She has an interesting take on lyrical structure. To paraphrase, a verse should be very specific and blunt, and the chorus should be metaphorical. Her examples: a verse would be like “You can eat shit because you fucked with my plants.” - that’s about a specific person that did a specific thing - a chorus would be more like, “you throw my phone out the window / The next thing the neighbor said she's calling the feds” - that didn’t actually happen, but it’s powerful figuratively.
Musically, she’s got a really wide vocabulary. A lot of it reminds me of Amy Winehouse. The power of her voice, the bluntness of the lyrics, and the sultry jazz grooves all hit me that way. But that’s not all that’s going on. My favorite track, “I Wish You Were Dead,” has a chorus that suddenly becomes 2010’s dance-rock. “Big Brown Eyes” sounds a bit like Lily Allen. “Fuck” has an unexpected electopop edge to it. There’s a lot here.
Lola Young is definitely in the category of “rising star” (in fact she was nominated for a Brit Award for Rising Star). I expect we’ll be hearing a lot from her.
Big|Brave - A Chaos of Flowers
Big|Brave are known for their booming, throbbing, sludging guitars and deliberate, plodding tempo. It’s heavy, heavy, heavy. And heavy. For lack of a more helpful categorization, I guess I’m forced to say that they’re a post-rock band. What is there to say about post-rock? It’s like… rock, but um… post-. It can be almost anything as long it’s not catchy. Maybe it would be more useful to say that when I saw them, the crowd was a mix of metalheads and arty weirdos who stood with rapt attention for the entire set, not a single headbang to be seen.
The thing that I find most interesting about interviews with Robin Wattie (vocalist/guitarist) is that the songs on this album are inspired by “folk songs and ballads, Appalachian music and blue-collar, working-class music ... But so much of that music is written by men, … [and this record looks at] a cross-generational experience for female-presenting people, especially people of color.” You can definitely see that influence in the lyrics. Take a look at the first verse of “i felt a funeral”
I felt a funeral in my brain
And mourners to and fro
Kept treading, treading 'til
It seemed that sense was breaking through
There’s a real folk music rawness there, and an Emily Dickenson-like interest in death and the rituals around it (and in fact, that stanza actually is from a Dickenson poem).
When I went to see them, I honestly wasn’t sure what I was in for. It’s not exactly a feel-good album. I spent the first 15 minutes watching them strike huge chords and point the pickups at the amps to capture the texture of all that feedback, and I still wasn’t sure what I was looking at. By minute 16, though, I was totally captivated. It’s hypnotic, challenging, and yes, a bit oppressive.
The Allergies - Tear the Place Up
Alright, enough of all that “art.” Let’s groove.
The Allergies are known for infectious, soul/funk-infused hip-hop beats. If you’ve been following this blog for awhile, you might remember them from “Felony,” which has one of the more ridiculous vocal samples I’ve heard.
This time out, they’re working with an old-skool rap vibe that makes the whole thing feel like a Kid ‘n Play party. It’s not thematically complicated, but it is a whole lot of fun.
I want to call out the title track as a standout, both as one of the best tracks and as a totally different vibe. Instead of a groovy party, it’s a blistering “B.O.B.” style rap.
Now… unfortunately as a music blogger, it’s inevitable that I’ll have to talk about appropriation at some point. For the most part, I have a pretty open-minded stance on it, but once in awhile there’s something that has to be called out, and that’s “Hypnotise.” It’s a shame because I absolutely love that beat, but uh… if you’re a white dude, you can’t just decide to do a Jamaican accent. Sorry, man.
Other than that, though, this album is a blast.
“It’s vibes.” -Some guy on YouTube
Tracks
Nemo - The Code
Wow, this has a lot going on. Melodramatic Queen-like vocals, orchestral hits, pizzicato string sections, sudden rap verses, drum and bass beats… wow. Dare I say that it also sounds like that lady in The Fifth Element sometimes?
Anyway, this song is how Nemo won this year’s Eurovision finals. I haven’t seen much else by them, but if it’s going to be like this, then sign me up.
Wine Lips - Stimulation
Wine Lips has a ton of great music out there. It’s hard, catchy, straight-ahead rock music, not unlike The Hives. Mushroom Death Sex Bummer Party and this album, Super Mega Ultra are both pretty great.
Kessoncoda - X Is Closer to A
The combination of piano and warm electronic tones here makes a really beautiful cinematic swell. There are a number of great tracks on this album, Outerstate too, like “The Sum of All the Parts.”
Bad Bad Hats - Let Me In
It’s interesting how the sweet 90’s indie-pop vibe on this track is occasionally interrupted by that loud buzzing and that weird detuned piano, and yet it never really leaves that sunny springtime universe. Check out “TPA” also on the self-titled album for even more hot detuning action.
Amyl & the Sniffers - U Should Not Be Doing That
How is it that I’ve never put Amyl & the Sniffers on this blog?? What a disservice I’ve done to you, dear reader. I’ll make a note to call out an album next month. In the meantime, here’s one of their new singles, which… has a horn in it?
PVRIS - GODDESS
I love when pop music has a little bit of metal edge to it. In this case, tap-on guitar!
OneDa, Renne Stormz - Major Pay
I’m not exactly sure what to make of the hook of this track, but OneDa and Renne Stormz have a great flow on the verses. I also like OneDa’s “Rude Girl.”
Salamanda - Melting Hazard
This is a lovely little mood piece on xylophone and vocal stabs. It’s pretty characteristic of Salamanda, who do a lot of these delicate little productions, but this one has a bit more of a hook than the most of rest.
Mildlife - Musica (CC:DISCO! Dub)
CC:DISCO! is a DJ based in Lisbon, who runs the label Miami Daddy (which, um, I guess is also in Lisbon?). It’s a little unusual to find a funky house track like this that reaches such a satisfying climax.
Les Mamans du Congo & Rrobin - Mpemba
According to the bandcamp, this is “the first trap song sung in the Lari language.” I’m not sure how you would verify that, but it’s pretty good.
Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears - Booty City
Killer horn sections. They work just as well today as they have since the invention of the zoot suit.
Arooj Aftab - Last Night
Arooj Aftab is a Pakistani-American singer who won a Grammy in 2022 for “Mohabbat,” a song that much more clearly reflects her Pakistani heritage from the beginning. This one opens a bit more jazzy before it changes modes, and feels a little more mysterious to me, but they’re both great. Both come from an album called Vulture Prince, which is pretty varied and well worth a listen.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Mirage City
You certainly can’t say that King Gizzard is one-note. They put out about fifty-eight albums a year and of those, about twenty-three or so explore new territory for them. This one, Flight b741 is focused on a Southern Rock sound, like The Band. I don’t have the stomach for a whole album of this, but “Mirage City” is fun.
СОЮЗ / SOYUZ, Kate NV - I Knew It
This comes from an album called Force of the Wind, which is very delicate and beautiful, but Kate NV’s presence on this track makes it even more intricate.
HotWax - Drop
There are two artists named HotWax that I follow. One is an ambient electronic producer and one is a girl punk band, so when I put on the new HotWax track, I never know which of those things I’m going to get.
This is the punk one. They don’t have an album yet, but I’m looking forward to it.
Soft Launch - Cartwheels
Soft Launch is a new indie rock band from Ireland. There are a lot of interesting elements here, like a dreamy piano tinkle and some very unusual melody lines. It kinda reminds me of Supergrass?
A-Trak, AJ Christou, DUCKWRTH - Sway
I find DUCKWRTH pretty engaging as a pop/hip-hop vocalist, and if you throw in a nice dance bassbeat, you’re on track for a good time.
My First Time - Workwear
Talk-singing! Post-punk! Ironic humor!
Bunny Lowe - Little White Chapel
This is a great power ballad with an interesting stepwise melody. The diffusion on her vocals do a lot to make this unique.