• 10 Plays
  • Tessellatealt-J

alt-J - Tessellate

The hype behind alt-j led me to believe that it was just another band that sounds ‘fresh’, leading to plenty of people jumping on the bandwagon and raving about an album that they have not heard enough times to understand the intricacies behind it.

I had the chance to watch them live, but having only heard their song “Something Good” (Joe Newman’s vocals is really one of a kind, and the phrase “Get High” really sticks in your mind), I put them aside only to regret it a few days later after having the chance to finally listen to their entire album. 

Rock is too general a genre to place them within it. There are elements of folk, dub step, jazz and even a little world music, and even with such a wide array of sounds, Joe’s vocals fit perfectly into the music, his unclear intonation of words obscuring the absurdity of the lyrics. 

But it works brilliantly. 

Tessellate caused my attention as one of the stand out tracks of the album with a mix of cow bells, rumbling spacey bassline and an uneven drum beat. The vocals is used purely as an additional instrument, adding a much deeper texture to what is already a deceptively complicated track.

And when he stops and whispers “Let’s tessellate”?

Just wow. 

  • 11 Plays
  • Only FieldsGraph Rabbit

Graph Rabbit - Only Fields

Close your eyes and imagine a field of snow, each snow flake sounding like a bell when it falls. The wind gently rustles through the pine trees, and you can just hear a faint hollowing sound, like blowing softly into a straw. 

Now imagine someone sitting on a camp site, playing a slow guitar rifts, as someone plays with a little synth machines, forming very separate sounds as the bells pitter patter around you. 

You stand up as he sings and you just twirl and twirl and twirl…

That’s how Only Fields feels like, a hybrid of Sigur Ros and Owl City, with the singer sounding uncannily like Tom Yorke, the resulting lullaby of synths and bells is lengthy yet fittingly beautiful.

Word of warning though. It’s not something that you can keep on repeating. It’s the perfect antidote to insomnia. 

  • 9 Plays
  • Rose QuartzToro Y Moi

Toro Y Moi - Rose Quartz

An exquisitely seductive track from Toro Y Moi’s latest album, Anything In Return, Rose Quartz oozes charm, a mishmash of synths that gets layered upon it other effortlessly as the song progresses. Infectiously chill, Chazwick vocals, with the repeated lines of “Because I feel weak” lends an other-worldly element to the song, transcending it above any other track in the album.

Viv Albertine - Confessions of a MILF

The schizo soliloquy of Viv Albertine gives us an insight into what every guy would secretly think about:

What is going behind that perfect face of a MILF?

Sadly, it is not what you might expect. It’s a banal talk about cleaning the house, basic relationship advice and the thought of escape; basically what a mother might feel. 

Musically, the song is a gem in an otherwise bland album, the hypnotic way combination of her falsetto and her deeper grungier voice, supplemented with the same catchy bassline and a faint chant of “Home Sweet Home” further enforces the conflicting thoughts that she has.

Source: SoundCloud / BAM!

Metric - The Twist

Metric’s Grow Up and Blow Away stands as a anomaly out of their entire discography, a combination of experimental sounds that defined little of any of their remaining works in their discographies. Where Old World Underground, Where are You Now?, Fantasies and Synthetica are more rock, combining distortion with catchy basslines, Grow Up and Blow Away showcase more of the creativity and thought processes behind the band, a collage of sonic adventures with liberal use of pianos, synths, changing vocals and different musical structure.

One stand out song from their album is The Twist, a down-tempo song utilizing the vocals of Emily Haines against the minor keys of the piano to good effect, a theme song that would fit perfectly in a noir scene of a mysterious alleyway death.

A pity really. 

Source: SoundCloud / Metric

  • 521 Plays
  • InitiationThe Weeknd

The Weeknd - Initiation

The lights never dim, blinding you as you walk unsteadily into the club. Left and right, you tell yourself. Left and right. The air reeks of stale sex and desperate hearts seeking for passionate, reckless love. The music screams in your head, and the floor is sticky with the remains of last night’s shooting. Purple drank is passed around and he passes you one, nodding. You take it into your hand and feel the goo slithering into your system, viscously shutting down your senses. You feel his hands around you and you smile as you take a puff of the Black Voodoo that he is smoking. This feels right, this feels absolutely right. You feel his hands on you, a snake going up your skirt, but you are so high up in drugs that you don’t do anything. You seductively move his hands away, and walk towards the dance floor.

Strip Fucking Tease time.

Your friend scream, begging you to stop but the crew urges you on, as you stare at him, sitting down on the black leather chair in all his glory, a knowing nod and a sly smile creeping onto his face. 

You want him. That’s all you can think about. Him and nothing else. They can all stare, but you don’t care. At long as he touches you, feels you up, makes you feel like you are her Queen. As long as tonight you are his, and nobody else. 

You feel like you have everything.

He walks slowly towards you, a twinkle in his eye and passes you a tiny blue pill.

Your world, already a pulsating rotting cell threatening to burst, explodes in a psychedelic mix of blue, yellow and bloody, bloody red.

Welcome to The Weeknd.

Kids & Explosions - There is a Burning Ball of Fire in Outer Space

I was wrong. 

This. This is the best song off the album. 

The juxtaposition cannot be clearer and at its extremes. The emotional hope that comes from Sigur Ros against the suicidal thoughts of Notorious B.I.G before completing with Destiny’s Child’s Survivor?

The message is as clear as day.

Source: SoundCloud / Kids & Explosions

  • 9 Plays
  • Swear WordsKids & Explosions

Kids & Explosions - Swear Words

I like mash ups.

They offer a different perspective on any songs, often adding a totally new dimensions to what is overheard, and it becomes something entirely new and fresh. 

But not this. 

Kids & Explosions was a band I discovered back in 2010, when they released the amazing Shit Computer. A mash up album that completely turns the word Mash Up on it’s head, it takes just single phrases from songs, as well as iconic songs and creates something so fucking fresh. 

These are not mash ups. These are scrapbooks made from iconic beats from songs, reversed engineered, cut and pasted and mixed into a swirl of gooey musical goodness that cleans your ear drums and makes them begging for more.

Even his site is a scrapbook of surreal images: http://kidsandexplosions.com/

One of the songs is Swear word. It takes the melody of one of the most beautiful songs I have heard (Iron and Wine’s cover of Such Great Heights), and juxtapose it with a medley of swear words from all kinds of songs. Ironic, lyrically deficient, yet oh so irreverent.

The sheer audacity and creativity makes it one of my favourite songs of all times. 

If you can even call it a song.

Top