Hello everyone this entry will mark the beginning where new music I've been listening to gets summarized and written about for you to see. Gonna do this so I dont have to litter my instagram with topsters no one cares about lol. This isn't all the new music I've listened to this month but just the most memorable and usually the best of what I've been jamming, enjoy!
this here is the solo project of Thomas Bonvalet whom I'm familiar with through his crazy guitar playing in Cheval De Frisse. I didn't really know what to expect going in but I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted with all sorts of fascinating tones and textures. Each piece is titled with what instruments are used, ranging from guitar and piano to painters tape, colophane, and metronomes. I read that Bonvalet has a condition that causes extreme sensitivity to loud noises, to the point that it's painful to play amplified music so It's very intriguing that this is the sort of musical direction he went down having been afflicted with this condition. Theres an extremely deft use of timbres in combination with rhythms that recontextualize many of the isntruments used in various ways which I thought was super neat. if anyone reading is a fan of electroacoustic music this is definitely worth checking out
Blake has been my favorite band for the past like year and a half ish, so to hear that this elusive live demo tape had finally resurfaced genuinely had me jumping for joy. after getting past the intial excitement and engaging with the music itself, I think its pretty solid! Knowing this is the earliest incarnation of blake is so crazy because they still sound so tight but its definitely a lot more frenzied and jam packed with ideas. Heavy funk influence which is so sick lol. I think their trajectory as songwriters is a lot more clear with this tape showcasing their more youthful sporadicity and then gaining more focus with each iteration of the band. big standout for me is Build Nothing, the build up with McIntyre's beautiful emo vocals is so fucking awesome.
I think this one is the winner of the month. I'm so surprised they hadn't been on my radar sooner but I think with the fall of hotstuff productions it kinda takes me a while to get hip to any new screamo these days. Sesame are kind of like if a screamo band had the attention to atmosphere that a slowcore band does, which all combines into this really dirgy and depressive onslaught further emphasized with production that actually serves the songs. A specific feature of this band I find really fascinating is their ability to play with tempo as a way to keep everything dynamic. they'll play the same riff over and over and just speed it up on a whim in a way akin to an off the cuff emotional outburst thats worked into the song. I feel like what makes it interesting is that while the songs definitely seem hard to play, they're not so much technical in terms of moving parts as they are stream of consciousness, and I think they ended up capturing something really potent here. so excited for whats to come from them
I've been meaning to check out Dizzee Rascal for the longest because my understanding is that he's one of the key figures for bolstering Grime music in the UK underground. After listening, it's very easy to see why cause this guys really fucking unique. It was shocking to realize Danny Brown basically just americanized this blokes swag. There's so much charm to his delivery and cadence that makes the songs kinda fun. Its really unfortunate though that its the album STRUCTURE that kills its momentum. Theres just too many songs and the back half just drags man it really just drags. Dizzee Rascal is awesome though you cant deny that and the production is forward thinking as hell.
The same person who put me onto Ichiko Hashimoto has put me onto another jazz trained art pop enigma by the name of Maki Asakawa! This album is interesting cause it contrasts these more textural soundscapes with some more standard bouncy vocal jazz tunes. There's some funky weirdo '80s cuts as well which are fun. I think what holds this back for me is that I'm not super sold on her voice as the leading instrument in many of these songs. Just lacks a little something for me and I know I'm wrong for it but I just think Ichiko Hashimoto does a similar style in a way that's a little more aligned with my preferences. (also whats up with Kitsune and 夢なら sounding really similar? is this like some standard ballad form I'm not aware of because it feels like they're drawing on really similar sound palettes lmk its so cool)