Aug 2024
What I've Been Listening To #
it's hard to write about ambient! wow
three - Black Decelerant #
What draws me to Reflections Vol. 2: Black Decelerant (by Black Decelerant) is that despite it being mostly textural and drone-based, it's an expressive and compelling listening experience that doesn't fade into the background. Even without reading the context and intent behind the record, it's very emotive and evokes the same mournful atmosphere as Tim Hecker's classic Konoyo. The name of the record is apt here, this isn't music that passes through and dissipates into the air. Instead it reverberates inside, inspiring contemplation.
Listen to three by Black Decelerant here.
Blindness - The Fall #
After my misadventure at Primavera 2018 (my passport was stolen lol), I had attended a few London day festivals that I had free tickets to but hadn't seen a festival line-up that I would have gone out of my way/wallet to see*. The line-up for Rally this year however was a compelling mixture of great line-up and artists that I wouldn't be able to see individually, so I broke my two-year festival attendance hiatus.
Rally 2024 was a really great time! Despite the torrential - but thankfully intermittent - rain, it was easily the best day festival I've been to. The line-up was so strong that even after I had seen all the acts that I had wanted to see (Nourished By Time (rain water promise in the rain, haha), ML Buch), I had a great time following my friends to see the acts they wanted to see (Chanel Beads, Armand Hammer, Actress).
The line-up addition that made me get off the ticket-buying-fence was the Detroit ghettotech legends HiTech. These days (99% sober for 5+ years, neurodivergent... I get bored lol), I find it hard to stay up to the time that DJs I'd wanna see would play a headline show. HiTech played at 6pm (perfect!) in a tiny tent full of indifferent punters seeking refuge from the weather (annoying!). Despite the daylight leaking through the tent, the copious rainjackets and standard festival ambient chatter - HiTech's high energy set mixing footwork, crunk and techno transported the tent to the sticky floors and low ceilings of a basement club. When you hear this music at full volume on a decent PA system, it's hard not to argue that juke and jersey club aren't the best genres of music ever created. Though I was too far away from the front to be in the Hennessy zone, it was the most fun I've had seeing a DJ set in years.
For some reason HiTech came on to Blindness by The Fall, which in my mind is now inextricably tied to the great time I had at Rally and at HiTech.
* that isn't Outbreak! going to the edition that's next closest to me having a driving license (convincing other people to come with me be damned!)
Listen to Blindness by The Fall here.
Moon Over Marin - Dead Kennedys #
To continue the theme of songs unrelated to the actual artists that I saw live (lol), this month I went to see Poison Ruïn and Home Front. The only thing in common between the two bands in my mind is that they are both “-punk”, use a synth at some point in their recorded output and totally rule live (you gotta see 'em!). One of the songs that Poison Ruïn played sounded familiar to me but I couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t until a friend who hadn’t attended the gig said “I heard they played Moon Over Marin” that I realised I hadn’t done my punk due diligence and listened to Plastic Surgery Disasters. Turns out, it still holds up as a classic punk record and it's great using it to drown out the Northern Line in 2024. You just don’t hear that surf rock sound being used in anything that isn’t edgeless sleepy-time BGM played by the first opener on the bill that you regret turning up early to see and so aren’t fussed about being in the queue for the bar the entire time they are on stage for (no hyperlink). In conclusion, you should listen to this record (if you haven't already lol)!
Listen to Moon Over Marin by Dead Kennedys here.
No One - Integrity #
Related to not doing my punk due diligence, I had never heard of Integrity until a bandmate brought up Dwid Hellion's vocal stylings. They sound exactly like all the heavy music I like but released the album this cut is from, Systems Overload, in 1995(!!!). It's clear this record has a huge influence on metalcore and it slots in very neatly amongst records by the likes of Converge and Botch which came out years later. Mandatory listen for all metal and hardcore enjoyers, don't know how I went so long without hearing this record!
- Previous: July 2024