Per @sound_sounds@ recommendation, I listened to Andy Shauf's "The Party." It's a pretty amazing album the chronicles a party from multiple perspectives. It's lyrically awesome, well delivered and the melodies really grow on you. It's a really solid album. Thanks s_s.
Glad you settled into that one. I was worried it might slip past you, because I know how much you would enjoy it. I think I told you that I saw him live as well. Excellent show. First, the mix was just perfect. Sounded so good. Second, they would do little improvisations here and there, during each song. Made it really fun and intimate. Not sure if you tours the states yet. Be on the look out!
(You transposed the two parts of sounds_sound)
I've been boning up on my music theory and came across this interview with Jacob Collier which has been turning my brain to mush for the past week. Here's someone else's analysis of negative harmony which helps clarify things a bit.
Thanks for sharing this, it's quite fascinating. I've been in a bit of a slump music wise and this has given me the impetus to start exploring again. It's given me a idea for a little project to start honing the front-end web skills I've been learning too. I'm going to try to create a website tool that allows a user to generate the negative harmony for a selected key. From my googling, it appears there's a gap in the market which lays out that info in a simple and nicely presented away. Especially as this subject seems to be all the rage at the moment following the Jacob Collier interview. Though a brief search reveals that the guy who created this site on the circle of fifths very recently registered the domain 'negativeharmony.com', so he probably has a similar idea to me. I'll have to see if I can come up with better domain name.
https://severedheads.bandcamp.com/track/beautiful-arabic-surface First new Severed Heads in, like, 20 years. Lovin' it.
It took a few days for me to get into it, but Arcade Fire - Everything Now has really grown on me. I found this series of videos on samples in popular songs, which led me down a rabbit hole that eventually led to discovering Breakwater - Release the Beast. It was heavily sampled by Daft Punk for Robot Rock, but I really think Release the Beast is a far superior song.
Too Many Zooz performing live in a subway station tunnel in New York. Just amazing, the sound they produce. It is somehow optimistic in how upbeat it is. Laibach made in on my list after being mentioned on the Last Week Tonight show. Its Tanz mit Laibach was used as an election soundtrack somewhere, I believe.
You might like their collab with Moon Hooch. I adore Moon Hooch, they have such a nice energy and flow to their songs. Recommended listening: NPR Tiny Desk and EWI and Milk and Waffles
Needle Points and The Orange Drop I started doing what I guess is the friendly music-related equivalent of "opposition research" and looked into local bands playing the same genre (psych rock) as us but a few "tiers" up so to speak. Both of these bands are standouts to me. (If you like either I'd check out Needle Points' other album and see if they're playing near you as they are currently touring in the US).
"Rocket from the Tombs was always doomed," said singer David Thomas. "Everything from Cleveland was doomed. Rocket from the Tombs is totally inconsequential and irrelevant. Pere Ubu is totally inconsequential and irrelevant. That is the power of Cleveland. Embrace, my brothers, the utter futility of ambition and desire. Your only reward is a genuine shot at being the best. The caveat is that no one but your brothers will ever know it. That's the deal we agreed to."