People like to compare the music of today to that of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. A common claim I see scattered around various internet forums is that music as an art form reached its creative peak during this time period, and music has flat-lined ever since. People who want to enjoy music today say that they were “born in the wrong generation” so to say. Well, I’ve made up my own list of artists that prove that musicians today push the boundaries of various styles of music in the same way that artists have in the past. Leggo.
Flying Lotus Ever since his debut album Los Angeles dropped in 2008, Flylo has paved the way for a new wave of experimental hip-hop. Blending elements of jazz, electronic music, and hip-hop, Flylo’s sound seems to exist in a futuristic world. His production techniques bring a larger than life quality to electronic music in which no other producer has quite reached. Each of his projects bring forth a variety of different beats and samples, whilst still remaining sonically consistent. Flylo also founded Brainfeeder records, which include similar jazz-fusion artists such as Thundercat and Kamasi Washington. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard ^^10/10 band name. Australian psych/garage rock vets King Gizzard remind me of The Beatles in the way that the quality of their music is not ruined by their incredible quantity of music. Indeed, King Gizzard have plans to release five albums this year, and they’ve already released three. A great band comes into an album with a concept in mind, and executes that concept well. That’s exactly what King Gizzard have done from album to album, as each project features a focal idea - whether it be micro-tuning, spoken word, elevator music, or endless loops. Their ambition and creativity as a group is something to behold as a music fan. Vektor Everyone loves a little metal in their life, right? If you ever want to give experimental metal a shot, I’d recommend Vektor in a heartbeat. Bringing the shrill vocal styles of black metal and the distorted guitars of thrash metal, their songs center around progressive song structures that tie into the themes of space and science fiction. Their last album sought to tell the tale that’s on the level of Star Wars - an evil protagonist seeks all the power of the universe through a stone that gives him control over time. Vektor’s music compliments their storytelling in such a way that supports the tone of the narrative, and it always leaves me with chills. I hope these bands give you an insight into the current era of music. There will always be artists that find groundbreaking ways to influence styles of music. We may not see it as much in rock music, but we certainly see this in hip-hop, electronic, and metal. So get outta here with that “I was born in the wrong generation” crap. Explore and try new styles of music, you’re bound to find musical inspiration from many artists today.
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Lomelda, a soft indie band lead by Hannah Read has just released an LP. Last year, 4E was one of my favorite albums. It was a soft spoken album with a very calming vibe. I shared her on cymbal multiple times and recommended it to quite a few people. Well, once again Lomelda may be one of my favorites this year with the new album Thx.
I expected this album to be like 4E, acoustic guitar accompanied by a soft voice. Instead, I got a whole accompaniment. The album opens up with “Interstate Vision,” probably one of my favorites. The song feels very polished, but still has that soft indie vibe they had on 4E. “Interstate Visions” is a song about being on the road (maybe on tour). She is also asking “can you feel me now? Do you know me yet?” So maybe she is falling in love while on the road. One of my favorite lyrics from this song are,”so i’ll sit with you in parking lots acting like I'm not falling for it.” The next track, “Bam Sha Klam,” builds up to this big release of her voice just belting out this textured voice. This song lyrically and technically is so amazing. Read echoes, “it’s going to be slow going” meaning her journey into all of this is going to take time. It makes you reflect inward, this journey is going to take time. I think it’s another beautiful song. As “Bam Sha Klam” closes out, “From Here” opens up. This track is more of the acoustic style Lomelda produced in 4E. There are guitars and drums, but it still has that acoustic vibe. This track is good, but compared to the previous track, it is not as powerful. The title track follows “From Here,” and also has that more acoustic vibe. “Thx” is Read urging us to go on; our lives have so much potential. “Thx” is a shorter track, but Read still showcases her shaggy, texture voice with her layered harmonization. “Out There” follows the title track, and it is based off of a fake story her brother told her. This was one of the singles, so I did some research on it. Read’s brother said he had met Elliott Smith after a show and Smith had taught him how to smoke cigarettes. Hannah Read knew this was a tall tale, and told NPR she spent six years trying to write this song. “Out There" is not about the space between physical locations, but the space between insight and ignorance. Just like the tall tale she believed in, but then lost faith and began to know the truth. "'Out There” is about never knowing. It is a haunting song, and it is definitely polished. The album progresses, and tracks like “Far Out” showcase Read’s vocal range and her ability to show infection. “Nvr” has a really good beat, and i like the simplicity of the song. “Nervous Driver” is another one of my favorites; I feel like it resonates with me. “Sorry if lately I don't want to fight/I keep waiting all night to go out of my mind/If you've got a reason, I'm sure that you're right/It's not bad to be right.” It just speaks to me; I’ve had my fair share of fights. I’ve battled my demons. It’s hard to listen to a song like this and not think of someone, and the battles you’ve had with them. The last verse also hits me, “Or just hold me close before you go/At least hold me close before I go/Don't you know I need a goodbye?/Cause I'm too nervous to drive.” There’s been times I didn’t want to leave someone’s house, not because I didn’t want to go home, but because didn’t know how they would feel when I left, or I didn’t know how I would feel after I left them. This song is really moving, and really speaks to me. It’s a shorter song, but still very impactful. The next track, “Mostly M.E.” is another emotionally jam-packed song. Finally, the last track, “Only World,” is a little longer, and spins a story about two people who thought they were on the same page, but in reality were worlds apart. The song builds up, until Read belts out her vocal range, and the song softly ends, concluding an amazing album. All in all, it is a beautiful album, all 33 minutes are haunting and breathtaking. Thx comes across as a sad sounding album. Not the way Mothers or Julien Baker portray themselves; their lyrics are inherently sad. You can listen along, and automatically feel the sadness sweep over you, but Hannah Read’s vocals will distract you and maybe make you think the song is uplifting. This album is really easy to put on repeat and listen to all day, it is so amazing. I will probably buy it on vinyl even though I am a broke college student. Maybe I’ll sell a kidney. If you don’t believe me, Stereogum said Lomelda is a band to watch. If you don’t believe me or Stereogum, listen to it yourself. Rating- 8/10 Fav tracks- every track that has a long paragraph least - “Nvr” *Side note, sorry if this review is repetitive and maybe doesn’t make sense; I am a forensic science major that has 10+ hours of homework everyday and I wrote this to distract myself. One of the most polarizing topics when it comes to underground music is genre wars. Because of the ever-expansive sonic landscape of metal, hip-hop, and rock music today, listeners tend to group a lot of their music into sub-genres, and the list of musical styles can become quite lengthy. The problem with this process of organizing music is that listeners tend to needlessly waste time on social media arguing about an artist’s “true” genre instead of having discourse about the music itself.
On a surface level, the character in the meme corrects another’s interpretation of a metal band’s sound to be under the genre of death metal. However, under further examination, the meme implies that the correction itself is absurd and unnecessary. This is accomplished through the character’s response, which is hyperbolic in nature (“progressive blackened thrash metal,” cmon son.) The smug, elite composure from the character also plays into the social viewpoint of the creator, that being that genre wars are silly and pointless. The commonplace within this meme is the shared statement that sub-genres hold great importance when discussing music. This commonplace may be held under the ideology of pretentious music discussion (to be blunt). Clearly the meme is making fun of this commonplace, as it rightfully should. Logically, the meme reasons with the audience that the idea of genre wars is ridiculous in itself. Music is an art form, and art is completely subjective. If you enjoy a certain song, album, or artist, I encourage you to express why you enjoy it. Don’t worry about pretentious music fanatics that “know more music than you do” and disregard your opinion because you can’t describe music properly. Discourse among music fans is vital in that is leads to discovery, and I only hope you take the genre wars dispute with a grain of salt. |
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