Monday, March 20, 2023

Music For Your Week

 

Unwound - The Future of What

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing one of the best American bands from the esteemed Olympia, WA scene of the 1990's. 

Their sound is one of destitution, anger, madness, and beauty as well. But not in an overt, cartoonish, Deftones-esque way... which in my opinion is low hanging fruit aggression. Rather, Unwound embrace dissonance in both harmony and chord progression to create a musical environment that's grey and depressed, with moments of churning, wild, desperate ferocity. 

The Future of What is the band's third record, originally released in 1995. Many of their most beloved songs are from this record. 


Olimpia Splendid - S/T

Speaking of "Olympia", the self-titled 6 track EP by  Finnish group Olimpia Splendid, was a welcome find this week. Formed in 2010, Olimpia Splendid are a trio from Helsinki making lo-fi, fever-dream, DIY indie rock. It was easy for me to lose myself in this release, and by the time I got to track 4, I was like... hold the fuck on a minute... is this snake charming music and I the snake? 

The write-up on their bandcamp states it best "their hypnotic music is a mix of weirdly tuned guitars, muddy drum machine loops, whispering vocals and trash can delays." They are signed to Fonal Records out of Finland, which seems a treasure trove of interesting Finnish music, so stay tuned for more choice picks from that.

thur-gone - Before Time

Here we have a simple recording of one Daniel Thurgood Bromfield, simply playing a piano. And it's not Bach or Mozart or anything, but one person's musical wanderings around the keys. From the sound of it, it's an inexpensive set up, with the microphone picking up all ambient sounds of the room and house.

The house is known as The Campbell House. I believe it's a student house on the University of Oregon campus. 

It's an interesting recording, and one can clearly hear a dryer or dishwasher in the background, and the occasional door or conversation happening in an adjacent room. A snapshot of someone else's life that could almost be your own.


There are a lot of niche markets out there in the world. Bacon flavored vodka, turkey and gravy flavored soda, and this... dinosaur themed dungeon synth. 

When you hear it, it totally makes sense... much more than meat-flavored beverages, anyway. You can probably already image what this sounds like... slow thudding, ambient synths with the sounds of dinosaurs roaring in the background. 

In a sense... very slow and heavy. A conversation starter for your water cooler breaks, if that's a thing that people still do. 




2 comments:

  1. thank you :) im so glad youre back

    ReplyDelete