My favorite "dad rock" band is easily Steve Miller Band. I think it's because they do a lot of that experimental stuff (especially with synths), but they also have a lot of roots in blues and classic rock. This song is more of a deep cut, but it's one that I think combines these two sides of the band really well. The way that harmonica sounds like a synth too, it's so damn cool.
I haven't listened to a lot of ambient stuff recently, so I was scouring for some new tracks to listen to and came across this. It's so genuinely haunting, yet calming in a strange way. I also love how the texture opens up as the song progresses. The vocal samples really sold it for me though. This LP kinda reminds me if Kikiyama and Cristoph de Babalon had a baby, it's awesome!
A while back, I heard this song in a store I was in, and it reminded me a lot of those 2000s soft pop rock songs that were so popular, just with some more synths. I've really enjoyed it since, and I've made it a point to add it to my current music rotation. I've been feeling some of that faux-nostalgia anyways, and it scratches that itch for sure.
I'm aware that I'm a bit late to the party, but I've been wanting to listen to some of Peggy's and Danny Brown's music, and since I've been listening to a lot of rap recently, I figured I'd give this album a spin. This is easily my favorite song from the project. I love the sample choices and how they're implemented, as well as the juxtaposition between the contrasting rap styles/inflections. Clearly, I gotta listen to more of their respective discographies.
So one of my friends recommended me a bunch of songs to listen to a while back, and this was on the playlist. This is easily my favorite song that she suggested! I love the combination of alt-rock with cool synthesizer choices. I think the lyrics are also really interesting, I'm not sure if I've figured out the meaning but I like lyrics that make you think and feel something, even if you can't quite place it. He's definitely a new artist I gotta explore more!
NEW KING KRULE EP JUST DROPPED AND IT'S INCREDIBLE FROM FRONT TO BACK! LISTEN TO ALL OF IT NOW!
Egg punk is a genre I've been getting more into lately. It's sort of nonsensical, zany, but in that sort of hard rock kinda way. Snooper definitely fits this bill with their music, and I'm personally a big fan! This is the "demo" version of their song, which I like a lot more. Probably because it has that weird charm, but has the right amount of energy. I hope to listen to more artists in this genre, as I think it encapsulates a lot of my own music taste!
My friends have been getting me into The Garden, going as far as to make me a playlist with songs of theirs. Out of what I've heard so far, I think this one has to be my favorite. I love whatever that weird sample is that plays, as well as the cheeky lyrics. They kind of just making music that sounds weird, and I'm a big fan of that philosophy! I'm definitely going to listen moe of their stuff this summer for sure.
I've been exploring some older synthesizer works again and I happened to stumble across this wonderful piece! It was written for the Synclavier, one of the first digital synthesizers. Not only are the timbral choices very vast and interesting, but I love the different "movements" throughout, with very unique sections that are quite contrasting to each other. Usually electronic music from the 70s/80s can be very formless (in a bad way), I think this isn't like that, which works in its favor.
I will fully admit that I'm not an expert on the King Gizzard catalog. If you saw their discography, you'll understand why. However, this is one of my favorite songs by them! Yes, it is a ten-minute track, but it does not disappoint. It's got a groovy beat (in 5/4, my favorite time signature) and some cool switch ups towards the middle. It's a chill rock banger, and a song I come back to pretty often.
So I've been relistening to Todd Rundgren recently, specifically the album "A Wizard/A True Star". It's a really cool album with an interesting production history! While there's so many tacks I could've chosen to highlight, I've been playing this one a lot. I think it encapsulates Rundgren's unique, yet versatile compositional style, plus I love the instrumentation too.
I'll be honest, I don't listen to hip hop very often. There isn't a specific reason, I just tend to listen to other things instead. However, I do have a soft spot for older hip hop from the 90s. This song especially scratches that itch for me. I love the chorus, the samples they chose, and how they implemented it all together. Maybe this year I'll listen to more hip hop.
Feeling a bit pseudo-nostalgic, so I chose to do a pseudo-nostalgic song! When I was a kid, I used to listen to a lot of interestingly produced beats on SoundCloud. While I haven't explored any of ThorHighHeels' music until a year or so ago, her stuff brings me back to that place. This track especially envoles that same feeling of intrigue and wonder that other artists' beats did when I was younger. The fact that Thor wrote this song about her newly adopted cat is just really sweet too.
The hardcore, drum n bass scene is something I've been interested in getting more involved in. I wanted to showcase something I found while snooping around for some neat tracks, and this song slaps sp hard. I love the beat, I love the timbre of the synths, I love how harsh it is while also being super groovy. It scratches all the itches for me, and I can't get enough.
I've been listening to a lot of Roxy Music lately, and I didn't know what song I wanted to showcase. I decided to go with this one, as it includes some fun synthsizer work from Brian Eno. Yeah, he was in a band before he went solo and created some ambient music! It's such a strange song, but I love how these different timbres/musical styles combine. It definitely showcases the experimentation of the band. Once Eno left, Roxy Music would become a lot more like a traditional rock band, though still writing good tunes. You should listen to Roxy Music if weird, experimental art-rock is your thing.
You know, I'm kinda surprised I haven't uploaded a King Krule song to my Song of the Week list, but better now then never! This is such an underrated track to me. I think especially in terms of production, it shows what Archy is so good at; making sad boy bangers that sound like a bunch of instruments wailing into a microphone. Personally, I'm a big fan of the delay used on the vocals, it's the first time I've noticed how effective it can be in a song. The saxophone goes hard too, as well as those warbly synths. Truly a wonderful King Krule song.
Another cool woman electronic composer! Not only was Else Marie Pade well known for being a part of the Danish Resistance (which included spitting at Nazis), she also was the first Danish person to engage in the style of concrete music (aka musique concrete). Think proto-proto-plunderphonics, with an heavy emphasis on creating music through found sounds in the area you live in. This is one of my personal favorites from her catalog, she knows how to take samples and morph them into something completely different, something that wasn't common in this style. It sounds so haunting too! Else deserves so much more love, in my opinion.
We're going real old school now! The beat just goes so incredibly hard, and I love the timbre of each of the instruments, especially the piano. I am a huge fan of the sound of those out of tune pianos. It definitely has an older aesthetic to the songwriting, but so what? It's just a fun song!
This time around, we got a vaporwave plunderphonics banger! This song just scratches itches very few other tracks can for me. I love the beat, I love the timbre of the samples, I love how it's kinda offkey. It's all in all just pure vaporwave goodness! I hate how it keeps getting removed from straming services every 5 minutes, because I think anyone whose a fan of vaporwave/plunderphonics should give this track its well deserved love.
Inspired by Soviet/European post-punk bands of long ago, Utro brings a sound that's unique yet feels grounded in ideas you've probably heard before. I think this entire album is pure Russian punk awesomeness, but this track really solidifies my point. It's simple, yet effective, and rooted in a sonic aesthetic that sounds unlike anything else I've personally come across.
If you've played the RPG Maker game "Space Funeral", you're most likely familiar with this piece. I just think Ruth White and her music is so cool! I especially am a fan of this piece, as it has these really interesting timbres that create this haunting, yet has this sort of prog rock feel to it. A lot of her stuff is a lot creepier than this, but I think this shows her ability to write a really sonically neat work, especially with generated sounds that are more familiar to our ears!
An absolutely incredible song from an absolutely incredible album. Most of the songs on "If You're Into It, I'm Out Of It" consists mainly of hardcore drum n bass and breakbeats, but there are a couple of truly mesmerizing dark ambient tracks. This one is the least unnerving of those tracks, but it still has a bleak sound palate that is unlike anything else. A real highlight from one of my new favorite music projects!
Here's another vaporwave cut, and a really cool one in fact! The vibes are very awesome in this track, and I'm especially a fan of the instruments/synths used. It's a song I've been going back to more and more often recently, so it deserves a shoutout here.
Sticking with the ambient theme I've got going on right now, I've included what is one of my personal favorites from Eno's Ambient series. It is the first of what would be several collaborations for Eno, especially with Harold Budd. I love the combination of the sweeping, calming yet creepiness of the soundscapes, with Budd's delicate and evocative piano playing. The way this was produced too is wellcrafted, and it gives a wonderful sense of quiet unease.
A really cool and relaxing guitar arrangement for what is a really cool Aphex Twin piece. A lot of the tracks on this album are good, but this one is easily my favorite. It's just expertly crafted, and hearing an electronic piece be converted to an acoustic instrument so flawlessly just makes my head explode a little bit.
Time to visit a pure punk banger, with a strong queercore twist! This band is not only so invalidating to me as a horny, genderqueer, he/him lesbian (the lead singer is a transmasc lesbian, and the band talks about gender issues a lot in their albums), but their music is just pure hard rock goodness. I love the percussion in this song especially, the "whip" sound effect is intimidating and awesome.
It's time for some drone music, and what better way to express my love for the drone than with this! The ways notes float in and out of each other, the touches of higher frequencies to balance out the lower ones. It's so calming, easily an underrated track in my opinion.
It's just really good, classic, chill vaporwave. The song's got a bit of a seductive feel to it too, which isn't something commonly invoked in this particular genre, but I like it so I'll take it when it comes. Expereinced best while looking at some skyscrapers at night (kinda like the album cover suggests).
"Summertime, and the livin's easy" indeed. Easily my favorite song from Sublime, full of really amazing samples from George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and the Beach Boys. Despite the subject of the song, it's so fun and feel-goodthat Sublime was really good at crafting. It really does go hard when you're doing outside chores during the hot summer days too.
This song rules actually. It comes from Sakura , one of my favorite instrumental albums ever, which makes sense considering how much of a wizard Susumu Yokota was. This is one of the more jazzier, more upbeat tunes, and it's just so awesome.