Peter Hook bringing fantastic psychedelic synths, that classic New Order-esque bass line and head bobbing percussion (hear those clickety-clicks?) to 2D’s more-than-usual, done-with-life vocals.
Damon Albarn, in his new series of musical collaborations in Sound Machine, ventures back in time, recreating Plastic Beach glory days of hailed Gorillaz sound. Is this Albarn’s way of joining in the 80s Nostalgia craze sweeping music and film today? Think Dua Lipa’s 80s pop album, Wonder Woman’s own New Order soundtrack, Stranger Things…
Though it is easy to dismiss the track as another attempt catering to nostalgia sheep (including myself), there’s something so likable about it that seems to separate itself from the rose-colored glasses that is nostalgia illusion. Perhaps its the contrast of the vocals with the synth backing or the framing and lyrics; it doesn’t listen as 80s New Wave re-packaged but more as re-interpreted. Give it a listen and stay tuned for more Gorillaz up to the end of the year.
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This blog has been a clear fan of Synthpop and by extension, New Wave and therefore inevitably Peter Hook’s work in New Order. The band is credited to have been the first to make rock music for a dance crowd (or dance music for a rock crowd), uniting the two genres in a crowd-crazed, titillating synth and guitar vortex-inducing discography. More on New Order and Damon Albarn’s ouevre soon.
An almost geometric, fractal sound. No wonder this album is named ‘tesselate’. Soft synths, layers upon layers, sounding like a 1000 layer crepe cake would taste, fragmenting and dissolving.
This song is just the thing for a languorous, dreamy summer filled with delicious procrastination. A heavy base lacquered upon a resonant snare-drum riff creates a dark background to set off Moonlight Breakfast’s sparkly, gossamer vocals. The track inspires mindlessness of cosmic proportions, dreamy music escapism at its best.
This song needs to be longer. Jamming in an fantastic falsetto, Johnny Utah coaxes, no coerces you into full body wiggles and head-bobbing for a full 2:26 seconds. The track is defined by sly, tongue-in-cheek and teasing lyrics matched with a snappy guitar riff, a new addition to the infamous ‘bedroom-pop’ genre dominating spotify and apple streaming services for most of 2019. Though lo-fi at heart, the sharp and snazzy production gives you an earworm for the ages.
Music like this, completely independently produced by artists who’ve never lived in a world without the internet, is a 2019 symptom of the decades-old changing climate of the industry. Now YOU can produce music DIY, and even if your production skills aren’t up to scratch and your bedroom soundproofing is somewhat problematic, any imperfection can contribute to an aesthetic choice.
An aesthetic, one of dreamy anachronism (due to your outdated or vintage equipment adding ‘analogue warmth’) with streaks of quirk and authenticity… a complete contrast to the over-produced and chrome-finished pop tracks dominating the charts. It’s an empowering production process and therefore an empowering listen.
Johnny Utah who was a regular guy with a regular bedroom but with 50 Mbps of internet speed, is now a musician with a substantial following, susceptible to the likes of Tik Tok. Garnering followers with his viral tweets, his internet personality of fun and antics is as much a part of his music.
“for anyone who doesn’t quite have their life together. Very rarely do we learn from any mistakes other than our own. Sometimes we make a mess, but that’s just how it goes”
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I knew as soon as I heard the very first 2 seconds of this track, that it would belong to my all-time favorite list: a list of songs that I maintain on those virtual post-its on PC, with one click could quite dangerously disappear and I’d have to rack my memory to start all over again.
All the Rest are the newest addition to this list, and its no wonder that this song resonated with me… much more than any other in the past few months. Most of these songs on my list follow a pattern; they have not much in common in terms of genre but more in tone, generally uplifting but existential, energetic but wistful. Songs to listen to so you can take time to momentarily sulk and feel sorry for yourself, but then move forward with life.
‘Our Youth’ draws pangs of familiarity, with sharply recognizable 80s chords (think Eurythmics), catchy, high-pitched vocals and body-swinging ‘pa-pa-para-para‘s. But this isn’t just another peppy indiepop track, as the lyrics mull over future unknowns, misfortunes and naivete just as much as the next brooding, millennial ballad to hit the charts. The exception is that the band packages disillusionment with some semblance of hope, leaving you optimistic rather than bereft.
Magdalena Bay began writing ’90’s music from the future’ together since high school. Listening to this track of theirs is quite like time-travelling in a glitch-infused tornado of neon color. Pulsing beats, jarring vocal chops and a carnal base topped with contrasting lofty vocals and synths all build up to a thrashing climax: Jamming, clashing, brain-dazzling electronic sound.
Both recent graduates of college, the duo have found solace in pop in expressing a nostalgia for another time of freedom and self-expression.
In an interview with Atwood magazine, the band commented on how today’s pop music has indulged into the sound of the past, on a global scale. The band argues that this is a reflexive response of using that blinding brightness of 80s and 90s sound to counter the dominant currents of darkness surrounding pop in the past few years.
Amazingly, Magdalena bay are also responsible for all of their glitch-crazed graphics accompanying their videos and campaigns, essential to creating ‘the vibe’ of their music according to the band.
Think of: Leon Bridges, Nile Rodgers, Sade, Marvin Gaye
Heavy with sex appeal, Tommy Down’s new funk-inspired track mellows disco synths and guitar into a languid, unhurried seduction. The chorus is simple with Down repeatedly chanting ‘super, super-ficial oh yeah…’ , lengthening each syllable to create a dreamy, sultry landscape of a smoke-filled underground bar.
The imagery of this track is vivid partly due to the melody but also partly due to the lyrical narrative that Down builds; citing Arctic Monkeys as lyrical inspiration, Down wanted to tell a story with this track, taking his listeners on a meandering path from beginning to end.
A few days ago the music channel Majestic Casual on YouTube published a short note to its viewers explaining its radio silence.
Citing personal issues and a sense of non-purposefulness, the YouTuber asked viewers to answer a few questions, ‘what inspires you about majestic?’, ‘what connects you to this journey?’ and ‘what keeps bringing you back?’. In honor of the music channel that sucked me into the complex, layered world of electronic music, I think I could answer those questions in a few words.
YouTube is a fantastic place to find new music, and I think one of the primary reasons why is because the music itself is never separate from its identifying visuals, be it album covers, curated photos, art or even animations. Some of the most spectacular albums of the past few years have had equally memorable visuals, Jamie XX’s geometric dances to Flume’s deeply saturated bio-inspired visualizers.
Rory Seydel, creative director of LANDR, a music promotion platform, quotes ‘seeing will always be part of hearing’ in an argument that album art will always be critical for success. And just like how a great album cover would convince you to buy a record, images on YouTube work quite the same way; these little worlds flash in your recommended, drawing you in to new music like a moth to a flame.
In other streaming platforms, this connection is quite dilute, often lost in the overwhelming flood of recommended tracks. Majestic, along with its contemporaries such as TheSoundYouNeed and even better, Colors, weaponize visual material to catapult music to new audiences. Majestic uses a curated selection of photography and art from various platforms such as flickr and instagram, Colors uses extremely specific hues to create the atmosphere of their artists.
Though it has taken awhile for Majestic to find its stride in pairing the perfect image with a track, the channel’s most well-known promoted tracks are inextricably linked to their visual accompaniment. These range from a literal (but no less compelling) translation , such as Mura Masa’s Miss You or a translation of rhythm such as Mura Masa’s Move Me or even purely just a translation of feeling such as Tom Misch’s The Journey. Mura Masa and Tom Misch are some of the many artists that gained immense popularity through this incredibly intuitive combination of still image and music, the former a peek into a whole universe of experience the tracks explore.
Majestic created a brand for itself with white lower-case text centered upon the video frame. The ‘Est. 2011’ date stamping the branded logo on both track and image creates ownership over content despite its crowd-sourced origins. Other channels have have emulated this combination but often not as well, missing the consistency in quality of aural-visual pairing (including a specifically designed name, logo and font).
Even if the music is good, its the quality of the package that really pulls viewers in, elevating the channel’s content from flippant, passive listening to engaged and productive music exploration. There are so many channels now doing exactly what Majestic intended to do, branded white text on colorful images ubiquitous in my recommended. Yet only a few really do stand out.
So yes, what inspires me, connects me and keeps bringing me back to Majestic is that I’ve found much more than just music on this channel… and eventually the channel has persuaded me to much prefer YouTube over any other streaming platform.
In a landscape of information overload, I’ve formed attachments to these tracks that I would have never have found if not for Majestic’s unique delivery of content… a technique that is much more than just the characteristic of another YouTube promotion channel.
I’ve linked some of my current favorite tracks from the channel below.
A few days ago the music channel Majestic Casual on YouTube published a short note to its viewers explaining its radio silence.
Out the Other 