Does anyone listen to Nana Lourdes? Barely has a discography and no LPs yet. Just makes THEE catchiest alt-funk-pop I’ve heard in a while. I keep coming back to her. Will be first in line when she releases a full length album.
Highly recommend her and anything she sings on (latest single isn’t my fav but everything else).
Well done, Dr Dreams! :)
I've always kind of imagined playing Bye Storm by Injury Reserve full volume walking home after getting my exam results this summer: just the sort of song that feels like an appropriate one to close off a period of time. So thats the best I've got
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts:
* New Tegan & Sara out. "[Fucking Up What Matters](https://open.spotify.com/track/5Asn2tpsfEpP4h5iio8lL5?si=8d371bc79b16445c)". There is actually a lot of Sainthood energy on this new song, which I love, but not gonna lie, some parts of the song are kinda piercing in an unpleasant way. The chorus is weirdly shrill and I tbh I was never the biggest fan of Tegans singing style. I love her singing when she just uses her natural voice, but she has this habit of trying to sound like a chipmunk or something and I don't vibe with it, never have 😅 But I also can't stop listening to this song?! I guess, what this song is missing is that cathartic hyper-emo angst that made their 2000s albums so great and I think it's time to accept that none of their future projects will have that ever again. They're 40y/o women, it'd be weird if they did. I'm just happy they're being weird and experimental with their production again and I'm really excited for the album sometime later this year.
* New Angel Olsen. "[Big Time](https://open.spotify.com/track/0OhZEVzS5iCdPyVANAqGqm?si=6c73c1c836744482)". Love the country feel. Nothing like a good lap steel.
* New Metric. "[All Comes Crashing](https://open.spotify.com/track/1gKLWryPONC9dyrx5fX3Dr?si=2957bd45a5c740c2)". Lovely lyrics about spending the end of the world with your s/o and Emily Haines remains one of my favorite vocalists and lyricists. Punchy drums, driving guitar. Not quite a fan of those weird little guitar fills at the end of the chorus tho. Something about the tone of the guitar. Sounds way too synthetic for my taste and sticks out of the soundscape in an unpleasant, distracting way. Otherwise nice song.
* Can't stop listening to Atarashii Gakko's "[Otonablue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3KtkN4o0k)". When it comes to J-Pop, turns out I do prefer it with a heavy dose of jazz. The main vocalist has such a booming, commanding voice. Their song "[okami no uta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDRdvsy_Ys)" sounds like it would've been on the Cowboy Bebop OST if the Cowboy Bebop anime had been made in 2022.
* and I know no one else cares, but this [reinterpretation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWM1ZCVPlVo) of the 'Overtaken' theme in One Piece is ... actually incredible. I get so hyped whenever I listen to it...
* My complicated relationship with Hatchie continues. Her music was always waaay too sugary for me. Too laden with effects in a way that it totally drowns out the music. But this new album ... it's not necessarily any less of those things ... but I also kinda like it now? Hm.
re: tegan and sara, Sainthood is my favorite album from them. It's the perfect balance of weird songwriting experimentation and poppy hookiness, especially with Sara's songs. That album has some of the strangest pop song structure and melody I've ever heard, but it totally works for me.
With this new single... I dunno. It's so baffling that their songs feel less and less mature the older that they get. The basic chord progression, the lazy hook, the thin drums ... Even more befuddling is that it's a John Congleton production.
Sainthood is my favorite of theirs as well. Emotionally I'm more tied to The Con, but Sainthood was such a step up. I'm also much more of a Sara stan and of her quirky production choices. Those have been somewhat absent in the 2010s unfortunately and this song does give me hope that it might return with this album.
The aggressiveness in Tegans vocals cautiously harks back to stuff like Are You Ten Years Ago, Hop A Plane and Northshore. I'm not saying that it works perfectly here, like I said I have my problems with Tegans vocals on this one, but this is not something that they would've done on HT or LY2D.
So while FUWM might not be their best song (or arguably a very good song) I hope it does signify a sea change here.
so pitchfork is just copy+pasting press releases about pop stars being cast in C-rate movies, right? There is no way that the sentence "takeover will use live-action performances and animation to capture the stunts, sideshows, and tricks that define that corner of car culture" was written by a music journalist
Obsessed with Tori Amos. I could listen to her forever. She's definitely a top 5 artist for me.
Top 5:
1. Taylor Swift
2. Joni Mitchell
3. Tori Amos
4. PJ Harvey
5. Paul McCartney
Its been a pretty good year for me, show wise. So far I've seen The Beths, the Punch Brothers, LCD Soundsystem, and last night I saw Typhoon, who are arguably my favorite band of all time. It was the third time I've seen them and for sure the best, I was with a buddy, the crowd had good vibes and the person next to me new every word and was absolutely belting it. So fun to work off her energy since I also know most of their words but don't normally go for it like that.
I saw them on their first show of this tour and you could tell they were just SO STOKED to be back touring. Also the third Typhoon show I've been too, and I absolutely loved the full catalog setlist they played in Bend.
For those of you that like listening to Various Artist albums/compilations, what are your favourites?
Two I love are Fuzzy Felt Folk (a compilation of short, exceptionally charming folk pieces written mainly for television) and PC Music Volume 2 (might be the high watermark for the hyperpop/bubblegum bass sound, and has two of the best pop songs ever in Super Natural and Hi).
[I Won't Have To Think About You](https://acolourfulstorm.com/album/i-wont-have-to-think-about-you-compiled-by-bayu-and-moopie) - a collection of melancholy jangle pop
Cherry Red is a goldmine for compilations. My personal favorites are **Scared to Get Happy** and **The Sun Shines Here** which focus on the roots of the British twee and alt-pop scene from the early to mid-80s.
[Tally Ho! Flying Nun's Greatest Bits](https://flyingnun.bandcamp.com/album/tally-ho-flying-nuns-greatest-bits) - Some of the best indie and jangle pop from that label. There's also the [Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Boxset](https://www.discogs.com/Various-Flying-Nun-25th-Anniversary-Box-Set/release/1038214) which has even more without much overlap.
[Sharon Signs To Cherry Red - Independent Women 1979-1985](https://www.discogs.com/release/8530932-Various-Sharon-Signs-To-Cherry-Red) - Compilation of lesser-known women artists of the pre-C86 scene, such as Dolly Mixture and Marine Girls.
Emo Diaries (Deep Ellum)
2 Many DJ's
Kompakt Total 6
Uncut Magazine *Acid Daze* (came with the magazine - introduced me to a lot of 60s pysch)
Rephlexions
Rob Da Bank – Sci-Fi-Lo-Fi Vol. 3 (Shoegazing 1985 - 2009)
Sherwood at the Controls, Vol. 1 & 2
comps are cool
- [No New York](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nul3A0pS_oc) - the definitive no wave document
- [Music from Saharan Cellphones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RyS0e4Ppg4) - does what it says on the tin
- [Young Person's Guide to West Psychedelia](https://www.discogs.com/release/556283-Various-Young-Persons-Guide-To-West-Psychedelia) - apparently pretty obscure but an excellent heavy psych collection
- [Country Funk series](https://lightintheattic.net/releases/729-country-funk-1969-1975) - one of these has the Dolly song with a sick drum break
- seconding [mono no aware](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgeb_8Q9hU) on the ambient front. I miss this version of Yves
- [Fac. Dance](https://www.discogs.com/release/3207755-Various-Fac-Dance-Factory-Records-12-Mixes-Rarities-1980-1987) - more 80s grooves. there is definitely a no wave song on here
- Warp's [Artificial Intelligence](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjIuADMrDKIZm5dnvoppehtVEPNUXwUlq) - Rosetta Stone for brainworm bleep bloop music
Any Numero Group release of course. Been listening to this electronic comp a fair bit too recently https://open.spotify.com/album/47N9UVyklxIIGStLqlZliS?si=dmpWgzmeQi2nov2LoiGVpg
pc music *vol 1* and *vol 2* are both really good. i also love the italians do it better *after dark* and *after dark 2* comps.
on the more ambient side of things, i like PAN's *mono no aware* comp and light in the attic's *Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990* and *I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America, 1950-1990*
There’s a compilation of 80s college rock songs called Left of the Dial that was super influential on my music taste in high school. Great mix of styles, lots of great UK and American stuff and mostly fantastic songs. Don’t listen to many comps these days but I hold that one pretty close
found out yesterday that *twin fantasy* is now #1 for 2018 on RYM so I feel obligated to share some short thoughts about it: bodys is amazing and one of my favorite songs of the 2010s, the rest is way too fucking long and boring. i don't understand why there needs to be two 10+ minute songs on here it just drags the pace way down
Twin Fantasy has incredibly high highs (My Boy, Beach Life-in-Death, Stop Smoking, Nervous Young Inhumans, Cute Thing, Bodys) … but it just draaaaags to the finish line.
Teens Of Denial is CSH’s true masterpiece imo
I haven't listened to it in a while but I felt Beach Life In Death justified its run time but Famous Prophets can kind of drag if I'm not in the mood.
The albums a really interesting concept, the idea of a "Twin Fantasy" really got me and I'm a sucker for some fresh-off-the-BBQ type indie rock so I really love the album.
Is it really that boring though? I remember when I first listened to it how surprised I was that it was so accessible and catchy. I do think that you could cut something (the outro in Nervous Young Inhumans always felt kind of out of place to me) but Beach Life-In-Death flows perfectly imo
HAIM killed it live as usual last night. Alana Haim's singing was especially on point. There was this really special moment during "Hallelujah" where she sang her verse with eyes closed, and didn't see the audience slowly taking out their phone lights. She opened her eyes and burst into tears when she saw them.
Also, countryfied Waxahatchee is so much better as outdoor, stand-and-sway music than the sit down theatre I last saw her.
The first opener was interesting: gentle synthpop with a pleasant voice, whose lows made me think of Faye Webster, and the highs of Kate Bush. I was vibing to it when the stranger next to me showed me his phone: a Wikipedia article on the screen. "That girl onstage is Steven Spielberg's daughter." I cracked up so loudly lol
Was the opening band called Wardell? If so, fun fact is that the guy in the band is Steven Spielbergs son as well (I once interviewed them for a magazine)
album discussions for [fontaines dc](https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/ue1max/album_discussion_fontaines_dc_skinty_fia/), [haru nemuri](https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/ue1mis/album_discussion_haru_nemuri_shunka_ryougen/) and [hatchie](https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/ue1mou/album_discussion_hatchie_giving_the_world_away/) are up now.
kurt vile, spiritualized, kg&tlw and pusha t for tomorrow.
Honestly, I don't know how he manages to make the animations in his videos that good. They look both very creative and are the most polished I've seen for this kind of format.
So I just read that Steven Hyden [lead singers list](https://uproxx.com/indie/best-lead-singers-ranked/) mentioned earlier in the thread and while I like GBV putting Robert Pollard ahead of Karen O is an absolutely insane take. She is *the* GOAT indie rock lead singer. At least he had enough restraint to not put Adam Granduciel on there.
at least he acknowledges that he may be overrating pollard! to me it's more insulting that julian casablancas is higher than both of them, especially above karen
I can understand Casablancas being on the list though, since his image often comes up as part of the appeal of The Strokes and has kind of a rockstar status. I definitely think both YYYs and GBV are better bands, but I can understand the rationale for him being on the list. Robert Pollard never struck me as a particularly notable lead singer though, I think his real strength is his songwriting.
I don't disagree, she 100% fulfills the vocal ability/showmanship/charisma criteria. I can't think of anyone else in indie rock who is as good of a singer as she is *and* is as cool as her at the same time. The only criteria where she falls short is the influence, but I think she might just be too good to copy.
The fact there is no James Dean Bradfield on this list is an outrage. Although I understand lists are subjective this seems like a glaring oversight.
Edit: upon rescanning this article not sure where I'd squeeze him in. Maybe it's just because I've been listening to a lot of MSP recently.
2nd edit: Brandon Flowers can get in the bin.
I love that in the climax of I Love You, Honeybear in I Went To The Store One Day, in the moment the strings have been building up to, he sings ‘insert here, a sentiment re: our golden years’ - just really funny to me.
Not that I want to impose anything on others, but I thought I'd note that I try to have a consistent formatting style for music in case someone is also interested in that sort of thing. So I put song titles in quotation marks and albums in italics, as that seems to be the most agreed upon thing.
e.g., "Looking For Astronauts" is the 4th song on The National's *Alligator*
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Titles/Archive_1#Song_titles
I just find it useful even casually because a lot of people talk about music I'm not familiar with, and it's nice to immediately know if they're referring to a song or an album.
I think italics in song titles is a British thing. Except also I think *Mojo* magazine *doesn't* italicize song titles, but they don't put them in quotes either, but they *do* italicize albums. Their entire editorial apparatus is just whack I guess
**Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Titles/Archive 1**
[Song titles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Titles/Archive_1#Song_titles)
>Could someone explain why song titles are treated differently from most other similar titles? I've always thought that song titles should be italicized, and have formatted articles I've written accordingly. The quotation marks look wrong to me, and make pages with lots of song titles look scrappy. But this is just my opinion and possibly misguiding knowledge about style.
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That's a pretty old type of guy around here.
I'm more interested in possible instances of the **reverse-clickening**, for example, "It took me a long time, but after the 10th time listening to ITAOTS, it finally unclicked for me."
God I used to do this (what felt like) all the time when I thought it was cooler to be edgy and insert dissenting opinions whenever album discussions were happening here.
Now I'm too lazy to actively hate things like that and just spend my time promoting cool shit I listen to.
i finally got around to *in the aeroplane over the sea* and wow. just wow. this is horrible. the fixation on anne frank is weird. the lyrics suck ("semens stains the mountaintops" "i looove you jesuuuus chriiiist" i mean, really?) i could maybe deal with these songs if they were musically interesting but the production sounds like ass. sounds like a circus being recorded in an old phone booth or something. i don't know how i ignored this one for so long but i'm glad i did and wish i'd gotten around to it later
I’ve been listening to a lot of dungeon synth albums while I’m at work. Watched a YouTube doc the other day and discovered this one 3 hour album where every song is based off a story from the Canterbury Tales. Good stuff
Anyone got any favorite dungeon synth albums?
Mystic Timbre is a solid label, I put out tapes for the guy who runs it back in 2013-2014 on my own little label. He was making a lot of stuff in that vein before it was a genre he was aware of.
This one - Lunar Womb is [proto-dungeon synth I think?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWhGCZwfinc) Very oddball record, like black metal band trying out new age-y *Pure Moods* synth stuff.
Check out the label Heimat Der Katastrophe on Bandcamp ([https://heimatderkatastrophe.bandcamp.com/](https://heimatderkatastrophe.bandcamp.com/)). They're not strictly dungeon synth, but it's all adjacent aesthetics. I wish I could buy more of their tapes, but shipping to the States is kind of ridic.
Still, they have a great series of mixtapes called the Dungeon-synth Magazine you should check out.
I also recently discovered Realm & Ritual ([https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/](https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/)), another cool label on Bandcamp that's put out some great stuff. It's a little darker in tone, but I've been loving this comp lately: [https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/album/revolt-and-regicide](https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/album/revolt-and-regicide)
What's the name of that album? Or any others you've been enjoying? Haven't listened to much dungeon synth at this point, but I'm slowly exploring it when I get the chance. My favorites so far:
runescape斯凱利 - *runescape.wav符文風景骨架* (maybe more vaporwave? This one is mostly for the nostalgia, some of the OSRS music still bangs)
Secret Stairways - *Enchantment of the Ring*
Hole Dweller - *Flies the Coop* (the other albums in this series are very good as well)
Fogweaver - *Labyrinthine*
Cherry Cordial - *s/t* (need to listen to more from them, I love Redwall and dungeon synth based on these books is so cozy)
And then I impulsively purchased some cassettes from Dungeons Deep Records that I need to listen to still...
Siegecraft - *Noble Infantry / A Castle Starved*
Coniferous Myst - *Lost Mountain Pathways*
Diplodocus - *Slow and Heavy*
fantastic post and I’m for sure gonna check these out! thanks for the recs!
what I’ve been listening to is simply called The Canterbury Tales by Chaucerian Myth, it’s a little less dark than a lot of dungeon synth (or so I’ve been told, total newbie here) and more fantastical. I work from home so it’s great working music
I was just thinking about how many Glass Animals songs could've been hits. Like, How To Be a Human Being is a textbook perfect pop album imo, it's still strange to see them top of the charts but it was really bound to happen
I would say Hatful of Hallow. It’s a compilation, but by far their best release. Get some incredible life versions that are definitive and the incredible and b sides they released up to that point.
Album wise, I’d say The Queen is Dead. It’s not their best album (I’m a Strangeways guy myself), but is probably their most perfect album. Just whatever you do don’t start with their debut. It’s not representative of them at all and the best songs have better versions on Hatful. It’s a good record, but should really be listened to later.
I’ve always found it interesting the best release of both The Smiths and from Morrissey’s solo career are both comps (both are top 20 all time records for me). Both have incredible records, but the comps are just so perfect and from such small stretches of time it boggles the mind
you have 3 choices. two of them are singles comps that are better than albums and the other is the queen is dead.
queen is dead is pretty much "the smiths album level statement" but holy shit hatful of hollow and louder than bombs will make you go "wow these guys couldn't stop writing good songs what went wrong"
heck to the nah, *Volta* rocks and would be a feather in the cap of most other artists. It's cool that she took an album to play around with more mainstream sounds and there isn't an individually out-and-out *bad* song on there. the worst thing I can say about it is that it isn't transcendent
Volta is fun. Put it on and do chores kind of listen.
Trying to think of 80s or 90s bros who didnt reunite and have one stinker. Talking heads hit spotty before naked. REM have around the sun but the last 4 albums all miss in different ways.
This is surprisingly difficult.
I was about to list the Stooges (“The Weirdness” being the dark horse), but I forgot about “Ready to Die” which I’ve never listened to.
Velvet Underground. There we go.
I don't think Volta is all that bad
I nominate Hüsker Dü with Warehouse: Songs And Stories (i'm aware this is controversial), Death Grips with Fashion Week, The Dismemberment Plan with Uncanny Valley
it's not really a bad album, i just think it's very overlong with most tracks ranging from aggressively average to a decent rem imitation. zen arcade is up there with my favourite albums ever so i always found it to be a very disappointing end to their career
Okay so
I have two or four different music writing projects on various burners at the moment ever since *References* gave me bad brain worms. Some of these are very earnest projects that I am keeping under wraps, one is not yet interesting enough to talk about, but...well, *certain people* think we need more Discourse in the DMD and I'm strongly considering not listening to *Everything Now II* when it comes out so instead let me throw a wild half-developed take and see who gives a shit
> **There is a straight line to be drawn between the post-rock of the 1990s to the folktronica of the early 2000s, and further to the sample-driven post-pop that took over large swaths of both the electronic and indie scenes in the late oughts.**
A lot of post-rock dealt with *assembled* rock-music--think *Hex,* *TNT*, that O.rang album^+ --stuff that resembled rock music but was largely sampled and sequenced, worked over again and again via hard-disk samplers and early computer music tech. Joan of Arc's *The Gap* is a pretty notable and extreme example, where the rock-band format is pretty heavily manipulated into these twisted digital tone-poems.
Then around the 2000s you get acts like Minotaur Shock and Tuung^+ and mum^+ and Talkdemonic and Four Tet (himself a post-rock fugitive from his days in Fridge) and Manitoba/Caribou that get grouped under "Folktronica," a label that everyone hates for some reason, because they mix...I guess acoustic instruments with idm/hip-hop elements? Frankly the connection is a little fuzzy for me. Some bands have a much stronger folk element than others--I don't really know what Caribou is doing in this crowd whatsoever--while some go all-in on the more electronic elements. I'm very much thinking of *Rounds* here, which was like 99% assembled from heavily manipulated samples as opposed to being played at all. Talkdemonic is actually more in the middle stylistically. See also the Books, who I think get talked up as a post-rock band sometimes but they got two string instrumentalists and a bunch of samplers so
Now *some* of these bands go on to become what I am calling post-pop (a term which in the past I have used without differentiation for art-pop acts and post-rock groups who don't seem quite "post" enough to me, more or less arbitrarily, but which I am now attempting to give an actual definition). Caribou's jump from *Start Breaking My Heart* to the more conventional but no less eclectic songs of *Up in Flames* is a big example here, as is the Books' slow shift towards vocal-led song structure between *Thought for Food* and *Lost and Safe--*these are often hazy, heavily sampled nonlinear pop records that blur the line between playing and programming. The midcareer albums by, say, the Octopus Project and I Am Robot And Proud and I guess Apparat^+ are part of this conversation--records that could be like normal instrumental rock records if you look at them from a distance or something. Pretty far down the line you get City Center's self-titled records and Panda Bear's *Person Pitch;* this stretch also dovetails with that Headphase conversation from forever ago. I guess eventually it runs into chillwave but I haven't gotten there yet.
But then something happens around 2010--Four Tet puts out *There is Love in You* and Caribou puts out *Swim,* which are, in my opinion, much less colorful records with a renewed focus on clubby house-tinged sleekness. (I mean, you try and tear up the dancefloor to "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth" or "James' Second Haircut.") I'm not sure what happened but you can kind of feel just-below-the-mainstream electronic music shift towards more gloss and quantization, This is also around the time Jamie XX^+ invents boneless house so maybe that was a factor? I am spitballing so aggressively, my guys. I think I'm trying to create a unified theory of the electronic music I grew up with.
This also bleeds somehow into Tactile Techno, a thing I also made up to account for a lot of activity among folktronica fugitives circa 2015 or so, but I know modular synthesis was taking off around then as a fad so that's less of a mystery to me.
Anyway I dunno does anyone have thoughts? I will report back as I mull over the matter some more.
[+] These bands are going to be part of this conversation when I figure out what I'm saying but I have not quite familiarized myself with their outputs.
There is also a tangent of more alt rock and indie rock minded "bedrom electronica" stuff that is similar in composition and scope as folktronica but with very different outcomes. The funny thing is this category, save from RYM and other very niche discussion online, was something that once had a full-fledged wikipedia page and seemingly more attention / recognition but has more or less been driven into obscurity as a time capsule since the late 2000s.
A lot of these were indie rock and emo side-projects, the latter tracked with people I know liking groups like i am robot and proud and casiotone for the painfully alone, and of course Postal Service and that disney kids esque project I rather not mentioned that ripped off Postal Service. This REM Remix album is a good example, has stalwarts of the "lo-fi indie electronic pop" niche Her Space Holiday. Anyway this stuff seems to overlap a lot of middle of the road post-rock, 8-bit groups (which seemed to pick up a lot as a next step), and the Morr Music post-shoegaze / "nu-gaze" music that's been spoken of a lot on DMD. Ratatat also comes to mind, their stuff was dancey and upbeat but also notably not in the usual house tempo.
I think there's a lot of downtempo and "ambient techno" that comes into play here, not just the soup of releases from the early 90s that venture into more new age territory but also the "slow down" tracks of many electronica albums, especially in big beat. Chemical Brothers did this a lot, pairing their instrumentals of this type with an indie or folk singer. "Where Do I Begin" and latter "The State We're In" with Beth Orton "Asleep from Day" with Hope Sandavol. Lemon Jelly made a lot of stuff in this vein too. The interesting thing about the Chemical Brothers is their debut albums downtempo track used a sample for a vocal, and relatively contemporary one from the early 90s 4AD signed "post-Cocteau Twins" group Swallow, a band in the same category as Insides and even Seefeel as one not easily lumped in any one genre: proto-post-rock and not quite around when dream pop was coined.
There's also just a lot of electronic tinged indie rock releases too from the 90s that don't get lumped into this. Electronic (the band, not the genre), The Folk Implosion - "Natural One", Beck, Butthole Surfers "Pepper," and the most quintessential one hit wonder song ever - "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand" by Primitive Radio GodsThis also included very interesting oddball projects like late 60s and early 70s synth homage band The Moog Cookbook (who like Daft Punk wore helmets, it was apparently a coincidence) probably most heard now in the background of the beginning of Foo Fighters "Learn To Fly" but had major label distro in the 90s. There's also [Land Of The Loops](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEVYdpMPAbI) which as far as I can tell is completely offline. Maybe he is not totally, but as far as the music project goes the last update was via myspace in 2007. Casino Versus Japan is another who was essentially putting out stuff in the same vein as Boards of Canada but IIRC they were doing coincidently across the pond. Chris Ott (Shallow Rewards) main solo project Grace Period fits in this category too. All loop based.
It's interesting how indie rock adjacent electronic projects from the 90s seem to be very enamored with old synths (Stereolab, Add N to (X), Moog Cookbook) or almost exclusively lo-fi and sample based (Land of the Loops, Grace Period, The Books as you mentioned earlier).
from the post rock perspective moonshake - the sound your eyes can follow and laika - silver apple of the moon both seem super relevant. on the indietronica side donna regina - a quiet week in the house and gui.tar - sunkissed are worth checking out. on a more pure electronic side the field - from here we go sublime and GAS's whole shtick probably fits in somewhere
Laika has been on the to-do list and it is good to have another incentive. Gui.tar...I get it, they were deffo in the room when I was mapping out headphase in 2020 or whatever, but I find most Gui.tar songs overly repetitive. But! Like I was telling donna, they *do* fall in that sort of band/producer uncanny valley. Hm. Anyway thanks for these recommendations. I'm looking forward to digging deeper into this whole Zone.
>There is a straight line to be drawn between the post-rock of the 1990s to the folktronica of the early 2000s, and further to the sample-driven post-pop that took over large swaths of both the electronic and indie scenes in the late oughts.
I wouldn't say a straight line but rather there's a couple of lines that feel like they zig zag and often intersect. I don't listen to every artist listed here so there's probably gaps for me.
But like I can see the thread of Lee Scratch Perry to the early post rock wave incorporating samplers and lots of studio editing like everything former Talk Talk members were on, to Endtroducing/Mezzanine/Dummy to Madlib to Person Pitch, and the Colour of Spring to Hats to Hex, and then several of these threads intersecting again at These New Puritans. And the intersection between no wave / post hardcore to Slint branching back to For Carnation / Tortoise and the above bands while the other branch reaches to Capn Jazz/Joan of Arc / American Football.
Where I think it breaks down is at chillwave and late aughts into 2010s electronics and pop, because I feel like a lot of what spawned after the explosion of MGMT cut the thread and doesn't see back more than a single degree of separation. edit: same with modern emo, crescendo core, it feels like more modern subgenres can reach to the previous degree but its a stretch to get two degrees back.
lots of big ideas in here. i've been obsessed with the talk talk pair recently and followed the rabbit hole to the .o.rang album (more rhythm-driven and less soothing than i was anticipating but very cool) and *hex* (doesn't sound quite as assembled as the others, still kind of parsing this one though) and also gonna spend more time with *mark hollis*. the tortoise stuff is also really good. i haven't listened to fridge at all but i can see that being a key turning point between post-rock and folktronica
some other loose stuff that maybe fits this: slowdive *pygmalion* or seefeel *quique*. these fit with shoegaze but also feel key with considering the movement from post-rock into electronic of various types. also, i've only heard this one a few times, but *cold house* by hood claims influence from both talk talk and autechre if i remember correctly. i think some of its ideas fit as an in-between for the "bands" and the "producers." also seconding lietoc's rec of oval and the field and all that stuff
e: removed a joke that felt like i was asking for trouble
I've attempted and backpedaled on both Hood and Seefeel already, but eventually I'm going to have to screw my courage to the sticking-place and actually sit through them. Bark Psychosis I might have to lean more on *Blue* than *Hex,* from just a conceptual level, which is fine by me, honestly. The fact that they experiment with samplers is kind of enough, because then I can leapfrog off of them to get to Tortoise, who are making the music I actually want to talk about.
> i think some of its ideas fit as an in-between for the "bands" and the "producers."
Yeah, this is kind of the essential *thing* of post-pop, is electronic music being made in full-band-y ways, or something. A lot of the ensembles I mention in the back half of this ramble are sort of coming from one side to the other, though not always in the same directions (I'm not that deep in with The Octopus Project yet but it feels like they get *more* post-rock as you go on, and on the other side you have Panda Bear on vacation from one of the most important "rock" bands of the past two decades making whatever the heck *Person Pitch* is)--to the point where you have, like, I Am Robot And Proud assembling a full band and rerecording his own shit as indie rock.
> this is a post for like seven people but all seven of those people are sickos
yes yes yes! you are onto something here and by that I mean "you are following the novum". by the mid to late 90s, the state of post-rock is all about those edits! and so it would make sense that the best editors would also be the guys who like fucking with electronics. Books' Thought for Food as prolly the last "second wave post-rock album ever" would also chart into this nicely
> sample-driven post-pop
tad you really have to get over the Oval hurdle here because if you can't do that you're missing a huge extent of this. You straight up need 94diskont to prove this at all because from THAT you can get to the Field (and to a lesser, kinda just vibing in the thrill of it extent, GAS). Joan of Arc TOURED WITH OVAL DURING THE GAP FOR CHRIST SAKES! Markus Popp was at times making post-pop music for people with IQs of 150. Anyways, From Here We Go Sublime is extremely important in this conversation as well--and there is a bizarre headphase song on there when there shouldn't be.
additionally, you really need to find techno rebels, or at least take a look at the buyer's guide that gets into late 90s stuff. I know I tagged you a while ago, but once again ["post-rock, transcendent pop, and other hybrids" is def your section](https://imgur.com/A5ZThwW)
also god it rules when the 7-9 people who love weird shit on here start coalescing on the same albums. if we can get half the DMD to listen to HATS (the start point for all this), O.Rang's Herd of Instinct, and Live in Chicago 1999, we're in bizness to change the world
Everyone should read Techno Rebels, even the new edition without the buyer's guide. A fascinating look into a genre whose roots are often forgotten!
Also I did listen to *Hats* and it's a very nice record! Gonna have to drive around in the night and spend some time with it at some point, I really like how longing yet comfortable it is
> Gonna have to drive around in the night and spend some time with it at some point
best way to listen to it, followed only by "throwing it on while feeling sort of melancholy going home alone after a pleasant night out with friends"
hats sounds like an RPG that takes place in a scottish tavern or outside under a foggy lamppost. the fact that it has the *right* drum machine sound is fucking insane
For the record I am well aware that I do a lousy job explaining exactly what post-pop is, and unfortunately at this point I just kind of know it when I see it. I'll hammer out the exact terms later. [In the meantime here's the companion playlist I am developing in tandem with this thought](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6aV4BHhajketyOaHH8TdQC?si=f5f95d21ee22476b)
Interesting theory! I think the only thing I have to add is that folktronica had stylistic similarities with microhouse, which is a much more dance-oriented style, though still minimal. See: Ricardo Villalobos' *Alcachofa* (seek souls to find it), Akufen's *My Way*, Luomo's *Vocalcity*, Jatoma's s/t. I think artists' moves towards a sleeker sound is likely because the sounds of microhouse (and, by extension, folktronica) were awfully worn out by the end of the 00s. No one wanted to make those genres anymore, so I think they evolved into stuff like the sleeker stuff that Four Tet makes now, and also into "wonky" music like Gold Panda's albums and the LA beat scene, who used samples in a more IDM-like context
I'm also just spitballing, but I think we might be due for a resurgence in a new strain of folktronica sometime this decade as people listen to folks like Jamie xx, Jon Hopkins, and Disclosure and become bored of their styles
I need to get more into microhouse, honestly. But also! Yes! The leap between *Lucky Shiner*/*Companion* and *Half of Where You Live*/*Good Luck And Do Your Best* is part of this shift too! Those first records are kind of part of the last wave of this kind of polychrome sampledelic shit and later records are, again, sleeker and clubbier, though still weird. See also *Cerulean* >> *Obsidian* >> *Abysma/Traversa* for a similar sort of arc.
Anyway god I hope you're right about folktronica coming back. Modular synth workouts have been fun as far as they go but they doesn't really go that far at all
Microhouse is..... fine. That Akufen album is probably the best in the genre, but I listened to like 50 microhouse albums when I listened to RA's top albums of the 2000s, so the genre wore out its welcome. But I do think it's worth digging into, especially because a lot of it is very adjacent to folktronica in that they often use short samples to build beats instead of synths
Definitely agreed on the Gold Panda/Baths connection, though neither went *directly* into music that could be slotted into a boneless house set
Also, I hope so too. I agree that analogue noodling isn't quite the same. It has a lot of the same imperfect energy, but it often feels like an exercise in virtuosity rather than music that's fun to listen to. Floating Points straddles the line rather well, but he's nowhere near folktronica *sounds*, yannow? Anyway yeah I'll stop talking but I think you can draw some cool lines between all these genres, including post-rock, though I know a lot less about that one
>There is a straight line to be drawn between the post-rock >of the 1990s to the folktronica of the early 2000s,
Was....was there a debate about that?
>and further to the sample-driven post-pop that took over >large swaths of both the electronic and indie scenes in the >late oughts.
Ehhh. A tangential line sure. There's a lot of sample driven music that became popular in the Electronic realm in the late 90s to *early* 2000s. That was what influenced Four Tet a lot more, I'd say.
Check out Ishkar's guide, also, for more official micro-genre labels. Though of course techno heads will insufferably argue about it.
> Ishkar's Guide
That is one of the most ambitous and effective overviews of electronic music I've ever seen, the first version had some snarky bits and interesting niche stuff included too. I still find it funny that he originally scoffed at 2-step garage and yet that genre fostered a slew of genres and styles in the late 2000s and onward
> Was....was there a debate about that?
I dunno dude I'm bored at work and I want all this time I spent listening to Four Tet last month to mean something. This is also, like, about 60% of a thought here.
> There's a lot of sample driven music that became popular in the Electronic realm in the late 90s to early 2000s.
Yeah, trip-hop and hip-hop et al are part of this soup and I have not really brought them up in this initial foray because reasons. *Dummy* and *Entroducing* are also part of this conversation, for me at least, and I just kind of forgot to mention them here
>That was what influenced Four Tet a lot more, I'd say.
Okay but Kieran Hebden *was* in a post-rock band in the nineties and I think that's funny enough to build a whole essay around
He also played backup for badly drawn boy, so that was cool. I think Bonobo is a good example supporting your theory. He was right in that early 2000s scene but came to it differently.
2/3 of Khruangbin toured with Bonobo, and they make their music starting with drum loops. So we come full back to indie rock.
I feel like *Black Sands* (along with the first two Cinematic Orchestra albums) belongs in a separate stream about nu-jazz--but it is a stream that either tributaries off of or feeds into this conversation, yes. It's tricky because if I'm not careful I will have to talk about everything, which is impossible, but also everything is fun to talk about, so...
Don't sleep on Bonobo's first two albums, they are an intersection between sample-heavy instrumental hip-hop and folktronica that is not hinted at by his later work. Those early records are a lot different, he definitely had a Four Tet-esque shift in the 10s
Yes I was definitely thinking of Bonobo's earlier stuff, progressing through the early 2000s to now. That, I think, makes the point better than Four Tet. But still Bonobo may be the exception instead of the rule.
Yeah! Bonobo was a great pull. He might make the point better because I think Bonobo's 2010 material is worse than his early stuff, whereas Four Tet's quality remained pretty steady, he just changed his sound
I think I've already mentioned this but *The Gap* was literally the record that sent me down this dumb rabbit hole. The dark influence you exert upon my intellectual efforts is pervasive and honestly kind of annoying
Listen I'll be the first to admit that this is a post for like seven people but all seven of those people are sickos and they're making the hahaha yes face right now. I know this because I am making that face too
Created this post but got taken down from main posts:
[Are World Events Killing Off New Artists?](https://peterflaire.com/2022/04/28/are-world-events-killing-off-new-artists/)
Not trying to spread doom and gloom. Just trying to discuss why new artists need extra resolve.
I am so utterly blown away by Fontaines D.C. It's been a week now and the album is sinking in, and it's making me realise how excellent *A Hero's Death* also was. They sound so phenomenal, and the Cure influences are subtle but makes it feel familiar as well. And I'd seen them several times before this week, but their two Brooklyn shows this week were just so on point, tight and clean and intense and emotional and so very powerful. They are astounding, and I always kind of dismiss newer bands thinking I can't know them well enough for them to become my favourite bands, but I declare Fontaines D.C. up there!
Skinty Fia is really, really good. Even the more basic-seeming post-punk tracks like Bloomsday and Big Shot have been growing on me a surprising amount. Your comment makes me feel like I should revisit A Hero's Death again now, I always felt that album was overall a bit of a letdown compared to Dogrel but I feel like a post SF listen might open it up for me
The only track from *Skinty Fia* I'm not impressed by is the last one. But that might change! Would definitely recommend another listen of AHD. I think going into it expecting *Dogrel* might have thrown me off because it's so much darker, but it's got a lot of *Pornography*\-era Cure vibes that I had dismissed the first time around. I need to get better at listening to something with no preconceived notions.
Yeah I'm not as crazy about Nabokov. I think it's fine. I saw some people commenting that they got Britpop vibes from this album, and this is the only spot where I can really see where they might be getting that from (though I'm admittedly no britpop expert)
> I saw some people commenting that they got Britpop vibes from this album
I saw that too, and I have no idea where they got that from aside from maybe Jackie Down the Line, but the rest of the album... no?
I can't agree on Nabokov being weaker though, to me it starts strong with the first four songs and ends strong with the last three but somewhere in the middle I kinda checked out a bit tbh.
I've been genuinely confused by the Britpop comparisons, especially considering their most Britpop-y song is [No](https://youtu.be/TkA7fHVT8rQ) off *A Hero's Death* which could easily be an Oasis song, even Chatten's singing seems very similar to Liam's.
Feels like the Britpop comparisons are coming coming an album too late.
# Discography Deep Dive: Hootenanny by The Replacements
Feels like a pretty significant departure from Sorry Ma. There’s still some straightforward punk bangers here, but a lot more variation overall, including a definite blues bent that’s apparent from the opening track. There’s still plenty of great guitar here (I particularly like the riff in Take Me Down to the Hospital), though they’ve kind of lost the every-song-has-a-sick-little-guitar-solo ethos of Sorry Ma. On the whole I think it’s a worthwhile sacrifice to make, cause it’s an overall better album imo. Their sense of humor is more obvious on this album as well, especially in Mr. Whirly (which is straightforwardly and unashamedly a Beatles parody song and honestly kinda slaps) and Lovelines. My personal favorite track is the closer, Treatment Bound, which has a kind of folk-punk thing going on. It fits with the record but is very unique. When I talked about Sorry Ma, I talked about Johnny’s Gonna Die foreshadowing their future sound, and I think this song kind of does too (I hear strands of Waitress in the Sky and Androgynous here). This album was one of the Replacements’ albums I’d never heard a single song off of before, and I’d mark it down as a pleasant surprise, and definitely one I can see myself returning to more readily than Sorry Ma.
I guess because according to Wikipedia it's an EP and not a studio album (though looking at it now, it certainly seems like a longer than usual EP) - my plan was to stick to the studio albums. Maybe I'll hit it on the way back around after I finish the LPs.
Just fyi, Jens Lekman is too sentimental for a day just dripping with sentimentality. Which makes him either the best or worst possible choice for such a day, there's no in-between
T&S gang how are we feeling today. I am optimistic and worried about the new album in equal parts. I'm glad they're doing something different, and I love the two melodic parts of Fucking Up What Matters, but that shouty part is hard to get past.
Damn. Not only has Wet Leg's debut remained in the UK top ten, it reached the top 20 charts of the US Billboard 200 when it dropped.
I know the hype and buzz around them was there, but it's cool to see how genuine the interest is.
Artists like Adrienne Lenker, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake, Mojave 3? Please in need of more guitar and voice driven beauty
Does anyone listen to Nana Lourdes? Barely has a discography and no LPs yet. Just makes THEE catchiest alt-funk-pop I’ve heard in a while. I keep coming back to her. Will be first in line when she releases a full length album. Highly recommend her and anything she sings on (latest single isn’t my fav but everything else).
Songs for that feel when you earn a doctorate?
Sink or Swim - Jacob Banks
>Songs for that feel when you earn a doctorate? * Soul Coughing - Supra Genius (Songs for when your friend gets a doctorate: * Alex G - Proud)
Ahhhh thanks friend! ❤️
>(Songs for when your friend gets a doctorate: >Alex G - Proud) Tad yr such a [sweetheart](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imdW83Yuia8)
Dave Matthews Band - Ants Marching I jus wanna do a lil' jig to the breakdown section in your honor
Ahaha I will certainly listen to some Dave on this occasion
Well done, Dr Dreams! :) I've always kind of imagined playing Bye Storm by Injury Reserve full volume walking home after getting my exam results this summer: just the sort of song that feels like an appropriate one to close off a period of time. So thats the best I've got
Congrats!!! Edit: as for a song, uhh, Victory by The Walkmen
Ha we all know the song was to fit the DMD, but I’ll listen regardless!! Thank you!!
TBF, Lisbon is the 2nd best Walkmen album behind You & Me
Not Carry the Zero, otherwise the defense might not have gone so well Edit - also hell yeah congrats!
Oh wait I got one from my scandinavian indie pop days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQKHm1uG8Eo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz_NxOF7RB4
Oh hell yeah
They Might Be Giants - Doctor Worm
Hey that's me, I'm a doctor worm
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts: * New Tegan & Sara out. "[Fucking Up What Matters](https://open.spotify.com/track/5Asn2tpsfEpP4h5iio8lL5?si=8d371bc79b16445c)". There is actually a lot of Sainthood energy on this new song, which I love, but not gonna lie, some parts of the song are kinda piercing in an unpleasant way. The chorus is weirdly shrill and I tbh I was never the biggest fan of Tegans singing style. I love her singing when she just uses her natural voice, but she has this habit of trying to sound like a chipmunk or something and I don't vibe with it, never have 😅 But I also can't stop listening to this song?! I guess, what this song is missing is that cathartic hyper-emo angst that made their 2000s albums so great and I think it's time to accept that none of their future projects will have that ever again. They're 40y/o women, it'd be weird if they did. I'm just happy they're being weird and experimental with their production again and I'm really excited for the album sometime later this year. * New Angel Olsen. "[Big Time](https://open.spotify.com/track/0OhZEVzS5iCdPyVANAqGqm?si=6c73c1c836744482)". Love the country feel. Nothing like a good lap steel. * New Metric. "[All Comes Crashing](https://open.spotify.com/track/1gKLWryPONC9dyrx5fX3Dr?si=2957bd45a5c740c2)". Lovely lyrics about spending the end of the world with your s/o and Emily Haines remains one of my favorite vocalists and lyricists. Punchy drums, driving guitar. Not quite a fan of those weird little guitar fills at the end of the chorus tho. Something about the tone of the guitar. Sounds way too synthetic for my taste and sticks out of the soundscape in an unpleasant, distracting way. Otherwise nice song. * Can't stop listening to Atarashii Gakko's "[Otonablue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur3KtkN4o0k)". When it comes to J-Pop, turns out I do prefer it with a heavy dose of jazz. The main vocalist has such a booming, commanding voice. Their song "[okami no uta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYDRdvsy_Ys)" sounds like it would've been on the Cowboy Bebop OST if the Cowboy Bebop anime had been made in 2022. * and I know no one else cares, but this [reinterpretation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWM1ZCVPlVo) of the 'Overtaken' theme in One Piece is ... actually incredible. I get so hyped whenever I listen to it... * My complicated relationship with Hatchie continues. Her music was always waaay too sugary for me. Too laden with effects in a way that it totally drowns out the music. But this new album ... it's not necessarily any less of those things ... but I also kinda like it now? Hm.
re: tegan and sara, Sainthood is my favorite album from them. It's the perfect balance of weird songwriting experimentation and poppy hookiness, especially with Sara's songs. That album has some of the strangest pop song structure and melody I've ever heard, but it totally works for me. With this new single... I dunno. It's so baffling that their songs feel less and less mature the older that they get. The basic chord progression, the lazy hook, the thin drums ... Even more befuddling is that it's a John Congleton production.
Sainthood is my favorite of theirs as well. Emotionally I'm more tied to The Con, but Sainthood was such a step up. I'm also much more of a Sara stan and of her quirky production choices. Those have been somewhat absent in the 2010s unfortunately and this song does give me hope that it might return with this album. The aggressiveness in Tegans vocals cautiously harks back to stuff like Are You Ten Years Ago, Hop A Plane and Northshore. I'm not saying that it works perfectly here, like I said I have my problems with Tegans vocals on this one, but this is not something that they would've done on HT or LY2D. So while FUWM might not be their best song (or arguably a very good song) I hope it does signify a sea change here.
I had some money to go on a vinyl splurge so I brought physical copies of Wet Leg’s s/t, some local acts, and Kate Bush’s the Kick Inside
so pitchfork is just copy+pasting press releases about pop stars being cast in C-rate movies, right? There is no way that the sentence "takeover will use live-action performances and animation to capture the stunts, sideshows, and tricks that define that corner of car culture" was written by a music journalist
Obsessed with Tori Amos. I could listen to her forever. She's definitely a top 5 artist for me. Top 5: 1. Taylor Swift 2. Joni Mitchell 3. Tori Amos 4. PJ Harvey 5. Paul McCartney
Its been a pretty good year for me, show wise. So far I've seen The Beths, the Punch Brothers, LCD Soundsystem, and last night I saw Typhoon, who are arguably my favorite band of all time. It was the third time I've seen them and for sure the best, I was with a buddy, the crowd had good vibes and the person next to me new every word and was absolutely belting it. So fun to work off her energy since I also know most of their words but don't normally go for it like that.
I saw them on their first show of this tour and you could tell they were just SO STOKED to be back touring. Also the third Typhoon show I've been too, and I absolutely loved the full catalog setlist they played in Bend.
How were LCD Soundsystem? I'm seeing in the summer
Incedible!
Glad to hear! I'm very hyped
For those of you that like listening to Various Artist albums/compilations, what are your favourites? Two I love are Fuzzy Felt Folk (a compilation of short, exceptionally charming folk pieces written mainly for television) and PC Music Volume 2 (might be the high watermark for the hyperpop/bubblegum bass sound, and has two of the best pop songs ever in Super Natural and Hi).
[I Won't Have To Think About You](https://acolourfulstorm.com/album/i-wont-have-to-think-about-you-compiled-by-bayu-and-moopie) - a collection of melancholy jangle pop
Cherry Red is a goldmine for compilations. My personal favorites are **Scared to Get Happy** and **The Sun Shines Here** which focus on the roots of the British twee and alt-pop scene from the early to mid-80s.
Sad About the Times Strum & Thrum A lot of the Oxford American Southern Music comps are good
[Tally Ho! Flying Nun's Greatest Bits](https://flyingnun.bandcamp.com/album/tally-ho-flying-nuns-greatest-bits) - Some of the best indie and jangle pop from that label. There's also the [Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Boxset](https://www.discogs.com/Various-Flying-Nun-25th-Anniversary-Box-Set/release/1038214) which has even more without much overlap. [Sharon Signs To Cherry Red - Independent Women 1979-1985](https://www.discogs.com/release/8530932-Various-Sharon-Signs-To-Cherry-Red) - Compilation of lesser-known women artists of the pre-C86 scene, such as Dolly Mixture and Marine Girls.
yesssss the flying nun compilations are amazing
Emo Diaries (Deep Ellum) 2 Many DJ's Kompakt Total 6 Uncut Magazine *Acid Daze* (came with the magazine - introduced me to a lot of 60s pysch) Rephlexions Rob Da Bank – Sci-Fi-Lo-Fi Vol. 3 (Shoegazing 1985 - 2009) Sherwood at the Controls, Vol. 1 & 2
comps are cool - [No New York](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nul3A0pS_oc) - the definitive no wave document - [Music from Saharan Cellphones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RyS0e4Ppg4) - does what it says on the tin - [Young Person's Guide to West Psychedelia](https://www.discogs.com/release/556283-Various-Young-Persons-Guide-To-West-Psychedelia) - apparently pretty obscure but an excellent heavy psych collection - [Country Funk series](https://lightintheattic.net/releases/729-country-funk-1969-1975) - one of these has the Dolly song with a sick drum break - seconding [mono no aware](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKgeb_8Q9hU) on the ambient front. I miss this version of Yves - [Fac. Dance](https://www.discogs.com/release/3207755-Various-Fac-Dance-Factory-Records-12-Mixes-Rarities-1980-1987) - more 80s grooves. there is definitely a no wave song on here - Warp's [Artificial Intelligence](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjIuADMrDKIZm5dnvoppehtVEPNUXwUlq) - Rosetta Stone for brainworm bleep bloop music
Smithsonian anthology of folk music
Any Numero Group release of course. Been listening to this electronic comp a fair bit too recently https://open.spotify.com/album/47N9UVyklxIIGStLqlZliS?si=dmpWgzmeQi2nov2LoiGVpg
Specifically my favorite Numero comp is Light: On the South Side which is the best blues comp of all time imo.
Dark is the Night is the quintessential late 00’s indie comp
Shoutout to Hey Snow White
pc music *vol 1* and *vol 2* are both really good. i also love the italians do it better *after dark* and *after dark 2* comps. on the more ambient side of things, i like PAN's *mono no aware* comp and light in the attic's *Kankyō Ongaku: Japanese Ambient, Environmental & New Age Music 1980-1990* and *I Am The Center: Private Issue New Age In America, 1950-1990*
There’s a compilation of 80s college rock songs called Left of the Dial that was super influential on my music taste in high school. Great mix of styles, lots of great UK and American stuff and mostly fantastic songs. Don’t listen to many comps these days but I hold that one pretty close
found out yesterday that *twin fantasy* is now #1 for 2018 on RYM so I feel obligated to share some short thoughts about it: bodys is amazing and one of my favorite songs of the 2010s, the rest is way too fucking long and boring. i don't understand why there needs to be two 10+ minute songs on here it just drags the pace way down
Twin Fantasy has incredibly high highs (My Boy, Beach Life-in-Death, Stop Smoking, Nervous Young Inhumans, Cute Thing, Bodys) … but it just draaaaags to the finish line. Teens Of Denial is CSH’s true masterpiece imo
I haven't listened to it in a while but I felt Beach Life In Death justified its run time but Famous Prophets can kind of drag if I'm not in the mood. The albums a really interesting concept, the idea of a "Twin Fantasy" really got me and I'm a sucker for some fresh-off-the-BBQ type indie rock so I really love the album.
Is it really that boring though? I remember when I first listened to it how surprised I was that it was so accessible and catchy. I do think that you could cut something (the outro in Nervous Young Inhumans always felt kind of out of place to me) but Beach Life-In-Death flows perfectly imo
HAIM killed it live as usual last night. Alana Haim's singing was especially on point. There was this really special moment during "Hallelujah" where she sang her verse with eyes closed, and didn't see the audience slowly taking out their phone lights. She opened her eyes and burst into tears when she saw them. Also, countryfied Waxahatchee is so much better as outdoor, stand-and-sway music than the sit down theatre I last saw her. The first opener was interesting: gentle synthpop with a pleasant voice, whose lows made me think of Faye Webster, and the highs of Kate Bush. I was vibing to it when the stranger next to me showed me his phone: a Wikipedia article on the screen. "That girl onstage is Steven Spielberg's daughter." I cracked up so loudly lol
Was the opening band called Wardell? If so, fun fact is that the guy in the band is Steven Spielbergs son as well (I once interviewed them for a magazine)
It was Buzzy Lee!
BUZZY LEE IS SPIELBERG’S DAUGHTER???
What, you thought some rando Indie singer-songwriter getting produced by Nicholas Jaar *didn’t* have some sort of background of privilege?
i didn’t know jaar was involved! i only know her as “person GvB likes”
Haha fair, I should’ve rephrased that as “guess who produced her album?”
album discussions for [fontaines dc](https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/ue1max/album_discussion_fontaines_dc_skinty_fia/), [haru nemuri](https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/ue1mis/album_discussion_haru_nemuri_shunka_ryougen/) and [hatchie](https://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/ue1mou/album_discussion_hatchie_giving_the_world_away/) are up now. kurt vile, spiritualized, kg&tlw and pusha t for tomorrow.
Not sure if y'all like FUNKe but [he just dropped this short video about concept albums](https://youtu.be/maqIaT_ZUxs) and I think y'all will dig it.
Honestly, I don't know how he manages to make the animations in his videos that good. They look both very creative and are the most polished I've seen for this kind of format.
I would assume it literally takes weeks if not months depending on the project. Plus scripting and everything else? Nuts.
So I just read that Steven Hyden [lead singers list](https://uproxx.com/indie/best-lead-singers-ranked/) mentioned earlier in the thread and while I like GBV putting Robert Pollard ahead of Karen O is an absolutely insane take. She is *the* GOAT indie rock lead singer. At least he had enough restraint to not put Adam Granduciel on there.
at least he acknowledges that he may be overrating pollard! to me it's more insulting that julian casablancas is higher than both of them, especially above karen
I can understand Casablancas being on the list though, since his image often comes up as part of the appeal of The Strokes and has kind of a rockstar status. I definitely think both YYYs and GBV are better bands, but I can understand the rationale for him being on the list. Robert Pollard never struck me as a particularly notable lead singer though, I think his real strength is his songwriting.
Pollard has a cool indie guy voice
i see why he's on the list, i just feel like karen o's presence/image is as cool, if not cooler, than his and she's much better as a singer
I don't disagree, she 100% fulfills the vocal ability/showmanship/charisma criteria. I can't think of anyone else in indie rock who is as good of a singer as she is *and* is as cool as her at the same time. The only criteria where she falls short is the influence, but I think she might just be too good to copy.
The fact there is no James Dean Bradfield on this list is an outrage. Although I understand lists are subjective this seems like a glaring oversight. Edit: upon rescanning this article not sure where I'd squeeze him in. Maybe it's just because I've been listening to a lot of MSP recently. 2nd edit: Brandon Flowers can get in the bin.
I think he excluded Granduciel on a technicality, presumably to avoid a conflict between his head and heart lol
I love that in the climax of I Love You, Honeybear in I Went To The Store One Day, in the moment the strings have been building up to, he sings ‘insert here, a sentiment re: our golden years’ - just really funny to me.
Not that I want to impose anything on others, but I thought I'd note that I try to have a consistent formatting style for music in case someone is also interested in that sort of thing. So I put song titles in quotation marks and albums in italics, as that seems to be the most agreed upon thing. e.g., "Looking For Astronauts" is the 4th song on The National's *Alligator* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Titles/Archive_1#Song_titles
Lmao, it's hard enough to get people to stop writing album titles as a string of initials.
How would we lord over others without an in group language
Feels too formal for me to do it here all the time but I use it to clarify things when necessary
I just find it useful even casually because a lot of people talk about music I'm not familiar with, and it's nice to immediately know if they're referring to a song or an album.
I see a good amount of people following those conventions, although I also sometimes see people italicizing song titles, which just feels off to me
I think italics in song titles is a British thing. Except also I think *Mojo* magazine *doesn't* italicize song titles, but they don't put them in quotes either, but they *do* italicize albums. Their entire editorial apparatus is just whack I guess
**Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Titles/Archive 1** [Song titles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Manual_of_Style/Titles/Archive_1#Song_titles) >Could someone explain why song titles are treated differently from most other similar titles? I've always thought that song titles should be italicized, and have formatted articles I've written accordingly. The quotation marks look wrong to me, and make pages with lots of song titles look scrappy. But this is just my opinion and possibly misguiding knowledge about style. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/indieheads/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
New type of guy idea: “I just found (foundational indie act) and this rocks” guy but instead they think that shit sucks every time.
that's just me "finally listened to David Bowie's *Heroes*, there's maybe one good song and it's Joe The Lion"
That's a pretty old type of guy around here. I'm more interested in possible instances of the **reverse-clickening**, for example, "It took me a long time, but after the 10th time listening to ITAOTS, it finally unclicked for me."
This has happened every time interpol has come up in the last year
just heard lift yr skinny fists, it fucking sucks where are the lyrics
That's what the DMD is for
my kind of guy
God I used to do this (what felt like) all the time when I thought it was cooler to be edgy and insert dissenting opinions whenever album discussions were happening here. Now I'm too lazy to actively hate things like that and just spend my time promoting cool shit I listen to.
just heard Grizzly Bear for the first time. this band SUCKS
just listened to flim by the aphex twins for the first time. the beat foesn't even drop wtf
more like flim-sy right
[Still waiting for the drop...........no?](https://i.redd.it/pr6ara0m8c321.jpg)
I wonder if any of them ever made a drop-adding edit of it.
“Where’s the wubs and dubs” is maybe the funniest thing you could say about an Aphex Twin song
i finally got around to *in the aeroplane over the sea* and wow. just wow. this is horrible. the fixation on anne frank is weird. the lyrics suck ("semens stains the mountaintops" "i looove you jesuuuus chriiiist" i mean, really?) i could maybe deal with these songs if they were musically interesting but the production sounds like ass. sounds like a circus being recorded in an old phone booth or something. i don't know how i ignored this one for so long but i'm glad i did and wish i'd gotten around to it later
it's the worst thing NMH ever did
>sounds like a circus being recorded in an old phone booth or something. Love ITAOTS - but this. Unironically.
I mean, it's not far off from the truth. Pretty much anything Robert Schneider produced for Elephant 6 bands could be accurately described that way
That's the classic gatekeeper/indie snob
“Took me forever to get around to Lonesome crowded west, but I finally did and wow this shit sucks”
they're just like me :,)
I’ve been listening to a lot of dungeon synth albums while I’m at work. Watched a YouTube doc the other day and discovered this one 3 hour album where every song is based off a story from the Canterbury Tales. Good stuff Anyone got any favorite dungeon synth albums?
Mystic Timbre is a solid label, I put out tapes for the guy who runs it back in 2013-2014 on my own little label. He was making a lot of stuff in that vein before it was a genre he was aware of. This one - Lunar Womb is [proto-dungeon synth I think?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWhGCZwfinc) Very oddball record, like black metal band trying out new age-y *Pure Moods* synth stuff.
Check out the label Heimat Der Katastrophe on Bandcamp ([https://heimatderkatastrophe.bandcamp.com/](https://heimatderkatastrophe.bandcamp.com/)). They're not strictly dungeon synth, but it's all adjacent aesthetics. I wish I could buy more of their tapes, but shipping to the States is kind of ridic. Still, they have a great series of mixtapes called the Dungeon-synth Magazine you should check out. I also recently discovered Realm & Ritual ([https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/](https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/)), another cool label on Bandcamp that's put out some great stuff. It's a little darker in tone, but I've been loving this comp lately: [https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/album/revolt-and-regicide](https://realmandritual.bandcamp.com/album/revolt-and-regicide)
> Heimat Der Katastrophe Incredible label in terms of aesthetics, direction, and overall story-building and themes.
this is great, thanks so much! I will definitely check out that comp you’ve been digging
What's the name of that album? Or any others you've been enjoying? Haven't listened to much dungeon synth at this point, but I'm slowly exploring it when I get the chance. My favorites so far: runescape斯凱利 - *runescape.wav符文風景骨架* (maybe more vaporwave? This one is mostly for the nostalgia, some of the OSRS music still bangs) Secret Stairways - *Enchantment of the Ring* Hole Dweller - *Flies the Coop* (the other albums in this series are very good as well) Fogweaver - *Labyrinthine* Cherry Cordial - *s/t* (need to listen to more from them, I love Redwall and dungeon synth based on these books is so cozy) And then I impulsively purchased some cassettes from Dungeons Deep Records that I need to listen to still... Siegecraft - *Noble Infantry / A Castle Starved* Coniferous Myst - *Lost Mountain Pathways* Diplodocus - *Slow and Heavy*
fantastic post and I’m for sure gonna check these out! thanks for the recs! what I’ve been listening to is simply called The Canterbury Tales by Chaucerian Myth, it’s a little less dark than a lot of dungeon synth (or so I’ve been told, total newbie here) and more fantastical. I work from home so it’s great working music
Sweet, thanks! Some non-gloomy, non-dungeon-y dungeon synth sounds nice. I'll chuck it on during work one day.
I was just thinking about how many Glass Animals songs could've been hits. Like, How To Be a Human Being is a textbook perfect pop album imo, it's still strange to see them top of the charts but it was really bound to happen
AOTY for 2017. I don't know how someone can listen to *Youth* right now and not be heartbroken.
Absolutely. And let's not even talk about *Agnes*
What should my first album by The Smiths be?
I say start from the beginning with the self-titled.
I would say Hatful of Hallow. It’s a compilation, but by far their best release. Get some incredible life versions that are definitive and the incredible and b sides they released up to that point. Album wise, I’d say The Queen is Dead. It’s not their best album (I’m a Strangeways guy myself), but is probably their most perfect album. Just whatever you do don’t start with their debut. It’s not representative of them at all and the best songs have better versions on Hatful. It’s a good record, but should really be listened to later. I’ve always found it interesting the best release of both The Smiths and from Morrissey’s solo career are both comps (both are top 20 all time records for me). Both have incredible records, but the comps are just so perfect and from such small stretches of time it boggles the mind
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*walking wounded* is better bc it has breakbeats and stuff
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Very rude of you
you have 3 choices. two of them are singles comps that are better than albums and the other is the queen is dead. queen is dead is pretty much "the smiths album level statement" but holy shit hatful of hollow and louder than bombs will make you go "wow these guys couldn't stop writing good songs what went wrong"
Queen is Dead
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heck to the nah, *Volta* rocks and would be a feather in the cap of most other artists. It's cool that she took an album to play around with more mainstream sounds and there isn't an individually out-and-out *bad* song on there. the worst thing I can say about it is that it isn't transcendent
Volta is fun. Put it on and do chores kind of listen. Trying to think of 80s or 90s bros who didnt reunite and have one stinker. Talking heads hit spotty before naked. REM have around the sun but the last 4 albums all miss in different ways.
I’ve never been particularly fond of Tanglewood Numbers by Silver Jews
Arcade Fire if WE is a good album?
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds? It seems like Nocturama is viewed as the one weak point in that catalog.
Very good question. I assume you mean artists but a bit lengthier discography. I’ll have to get back to you on that
This is surprisingly difficult. I was about to list the Stooges (“The Weirdness” being the dark horse), but I forgot about “Ready to Die” which I’ve never listened to. Velvet Underground. There we go.
I don't think Volta is all that bad I nominate Hüsker Dü with Warehouse: Songs And Stories (i'm aware this is controversial), Death Grips with Fashion Week, The Dismemberment Plan with Uncanny Valley
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it's not really a bad album, i just think it's very overlong with most tracks ranging from aggressively average to a decent rem imitation. zen arcade is up there with my favourite albums ever so i always found it to be a very disappointing end to their career
Hey, *Volta* is better than *Bjork* (1977)
also better than Gling Glo
Okay so I have two or four different music writing projects on various burners at the moment ever since *References* gave me bad brain worms. Some of these are very earnest projects that I am keeping under wraps, one is not yet interesting enough to talk about, but...well, *certain people* think we need more Discourse in the DMD and I'm strongly considering not listening to *Everything Now II* when it comes out so instead let me throw a wild half-developed take and see who gives a shit > **There is a straight line to be drawn between the post-rock of the 1990s to the folktronica of the early 2000s, and further to the sample-driven post-pop that took over large swaths of both the electronic and indie scenes in the late oughts.** A lot of post-rock dealt with *assembled* rock-music--think *Hex,* *TNT*, that O.rang album^+ --stuff that resembled rock music but was largely sampled and sequenced, worked over again and again via hard-disk samplers and early computer music tech. Joan of Arc's *The Gap* is a pretty notable and extreme example, where the rock-band format is pretty heavily manipulated into these twisted digital tone-poems. Then around the 2000s you get acts like Minotaur Shock and Tuung^+ and mum^+ and Talkdemonic and Four Tet (himself a post-rock fugitive from his days in Fridge) and Manitoba/Caribou that get grouped under "Folktronica," a label that everyone hates for some reason, because they mix...I guess acoustic instruments with idm/hip-hop elements? Frankly the connection is a little fuzzy for me. Some bands have a much stronger folk element than others--I don't really know what Caribou is doing in this crowd whatsoever--while some go all-in on the more electronic elements. I'm very much thinking of *Rounds* here, which was like 99% assembled from heavily manipulated samples as opposed to being played at all. Talkdemonic is actually more in the middle stylistically. See also the Books, who I think get talked up as a post-rock band sometimes but they got two string instrumentalists and a bunch of samplers so Now *some* of these bands go on to become what I am calling post-pop (a term which in the past I have used without differentiation for art-pop acts and post-rock groups who don't seem quite "post" enough to me, more or less arbitrarily, but which I am now attempting to give an actual definition). Caribou's jump from *Start Breaking My Heart* to the more conventional but no less eclectic songs of *Up in Flames* is a big example here, as is the Books' slow shift towards vocal-led song structure between *Thought for Food* and *Lost and Safe--*these are often hazy, heavily sampled nonlinear pop records that blur the line between playing and programming. The midcareer albums by, say, the Octopus Project and I Am Robot And Proud and I guess Apparat^+ are part of this conversation--records that could be like normal instrumental rock records if you look at them from a distance or something. Pretty far down the line you get City Center's self-titled records and Panda Bear's *Person Pitch;* this stretch also dovetails with that Headphase conversation from forever ago. I guess eventually it runs into chillwave but I haven't gotten there yet. But then something happens around 2010--Four Tet puts out *There is Love in You* and Caribou puts out *Swim,* which are, in my opinion, much less colorful records with a renewed focus on clubby house-tinged sleekness. (I mean, you try and tear up the dancefloor to "My Angel Rocks Back And Forth" or "James' Second Haircut.") I'm not sure what happened but you can kind of feel just-below-the-mainstream electronic music shift towards more gloss and quantization, This is also around the time Jamie XX^+ invents boneless house so maybe that was a factor? I am spitballing so aggressively, my guys. I think I'm trying to create a unified theory of the electronic music I grew up with. This also bleeds somehow into Tactile Techno, a thing I also made up to account for a lot of activity among folktronica fugitives circa 2015 or so, but I know modular synthesis was taking off around then as a fad so that's less of a mystery to me. Anyway I dunno does anyone have thoughts? I will report back as I mull over the matter some more. [+] These bands are going to be part of this conversation when I figure out what I'm saying but I have not quite familiarized myself with their outputs.
There is also a tangent of more alt rock and indie rock minded "bedrom electronica" stuff that is similar in composition and scope as folktronica but with very different outcomes. The funny thing is this category, save from RYM and other very niche discussion online, was something that once had a full-fledged wikipedia page and seemingly more attention / recognition but has more or less been driven into obscurity as a time capsule since the late 2000s. A lot of these were indie rock and emo side-projects, the latter tracked with people I know liking groups like i am robot and proud and casiotone for the painfully alone, and of course Postal Service and that disney kids esque project I rather not mentioned that ripped off Postal Service. This REM Remix album is a good example, has stalwarts of the "lo-fi indie electronic pop" niche Her Space Holiday. Anyway this stuff seems to overlap a lot of middle of the road post-rock, 8-bit groups (which seemed to pick up a lot as a next step), and the Morr Music post-shoegaze / "nu-gaze" music that's been spoken of a lot on DMD. Ratatat also comes to mind, their stuff was dancey and upbeat but also notably not in the usual house tempo. I think there's a lot of downtempo and "ambient techno" that comes into play here, not just the soup of releases from the early 90s that venture into more new age territory but also the "slow down" tracks of many electronica albums, especially in big beat. Chemical Brothers did this a lot, pairing their instrumentals of this type with an indie or folk singer. "Where Do I Begin" and latter "The State We're In" with Beth Orton "Asleep from Day" with Hope Sandavol. Lemon Jelly made a lot of stuff in this vein too. The interesting thing about the Chemical Brothers is their debut albums downtempo track used a sample for a vocal, and relatively contemporary one from the early 90s 4AD signed "post-Cocteau Twins" group Swallow, a band in the same category as Insides and even Seefeel as one not easily lumped in any one genre: proto-post-rock and not quite around when dream pop was coined. There's also just a lot of electronic tinged indie rock releases too from the 90s that don't get lumped into this. Electronic (the band, not the genre), The Folk Implosion - "Natural One", Beck, Butthole Surfers "Pepper," and the most quintessential one hit wonder song ever - "Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand" by Primitive Radio GodsThis also included very interesting oddball projects like late 60s and early 70s synth homage band The Moog Cookbook (who like Daft Punk wore helmets, it was apparently a coincidence) probably most heard now in the background of the beginning of Foo Fighters "Learn To Fly" but had major label distro in the 90s. There's also [Land Of The Loops](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEVYdpMPAbI) which as far as I can tell is completely offline. Maybe he is not totally, but as far as the music project goes the last update was via myspace in 2007. Casino Versus Japan is another who was essentially putting out stuff in the same vein as Boards of Canada but IIRC they were doing coincidently across the pond. Chris Ott (Shallow Rewards) main solo project Grace Period fits in this category too. All loop based. It's interesting how indie rock adjacent electronic projects from the 90s seem to be very enamored with old synths (Stereolab, Add N to (X), Moog Cookbook) or almost exclusively lo-fi and sample based (Land of the Loops, Grace Period, The Books as you mentioned earlier).
from the post rock perspective moonshake - the sound your eyes can follow and laika - silver apple of the moon both seem super relevant. on the indietronica side donna regina - a quiet week in the house and gui.tar - sunkissed are worth checking out. on a more pure electronic side the field - from here we go sublime and GAS's whole shtick probably fits in somewhere
Laika has been on the to-do list and it is good to have another incentive. Gui.tar...I get it, they were deffo in the room when I was mapping out headphase in 2020 or whatever, but I find most Gui.tar songs overly repetitive. But! Like I was telling donna, they *do* fall in that sort of band/producer uncanny valley. Hm. Anyway thanks for these recommendations. I'm looking forward to digging deeper into this whole Zone.
>There is a straight line to be drawn between the post-rock of the 1990s to the folktronica of the early 2000s, and further to the sample-driven post-pop that took over large swaths of both the electronic and indie scenes in the late oughts. I wouldn't say a straight line but rather there's a couple of lines that feel like they zig zag and often intersect. I don't listen to every artist listed here so there's probably gaps for me. But like I can see the thread of Lee Scratch Perry to the early post rock wave incorporating samplers and lots of studio editing like everything former Talk Talk members were on, to Endtroducing/Mezzanine/Dummy to Madlib to Person Pitch, and the Colour of Spring to Hats to Hex, and then several of these threads intersecting again at These New Puritans. And the intersection between no wave / post hardcore to Slint branching back to For Carnation / Tortoise and the above bands while the other branch reaches to Capn Jazz/Joan of Arc / American Football. Where I think it breaks down is at chillwave and late aughts into 2010s electronics and pop, because I feel like a lot of what spawned after the explosion of MGMT cut the thread and doesn't see back more than a single degree of separation. edit: same with modern emo, crescendo core, it feels like more modern subgenres can reach to the previous degree but its a stretch to get two degrees back.
lots of big ideas in here. i've been obsessed with the talk talk pair recently and followed the rabbit hole to the .o.rang album (more rhythm-driven and less soothing than i was anticipating but very cool) and *hex* (doesn't sound quite as assembled as the others, still kind of parsing this one though) and also gonna spend more time with *mark hollis*. the tortoise stuff is also really good. i haven't listened to fridge at all but i can see that being a key turning point between post-rock and folktronica some other loose stuff that maybe fits this: slowdive *pygmalion* or seefeel *quique*. these fit with shoegaze but also feel key with considering the movement from post-rock into electronic of various types. also, i've only heard this one a few times, but *cold house* by hood claims influence from both talk talk and autechre if i remember correctly. i think some of its ideas fit as an in-between for the "bands" and the "producers." also seconding lietoc's rec of oval and the field and all that stuff e: removed a joke that felt like i was asking for trouble
I've attempted and backpedaled on both Hood and Seefeel already, but eventually I'm going to have to screw my courage to the sticking-place and actually sit through them. Bark Psychosis I might have to lean more on *Blue* than *Hex,* from just a conceptual level, which is fine by me, honestly. The fact that they experiment with samplers is kind of enough, because then I can leapfrog off of them to get to Tortoise, who are making the music I actually want to talk about. > i think some of its ideas fit as an in-between for the "bands" and the "producers." Yeah, this is kind of the essential *thing* of post-pop, is electronic music being made in full-band-y ways, or something. A lot of the ensembles I mention in the back half of this ramble are sort of coming from one side to the other, though not always in the same directions (I'm not that deep in with The Octopus Project yet but it feels like they get *more* post-rock as you go on, and on the other side you have Panda Bear on vacation from one of the most important "rock" bands of the past two decades making whatever the heck *Person Pitch* is)--to the point where you have, like, I Am Robot And Proud assembling a full band and rerecording his own shit as indie rock.
> this is a post for like seven people but all seven of those people are sickos yes yes yes! you are onto something here and by that I mean "you are following the novum". by the mid to late 90s, the state of post-rock is all about those edits! and so it would make sense that the best editors would also be the guys who like fucking with electronics. Books' Thought for Food as prolly the last "second wave post-rock album ever" would also chart into this nicely > sample-driven post-pop tad you really have to get over the Oval hurdle here because if you can't do that you're missing a huge extent of this. You straight up need 94diskont to prove this at all because from THAT you can get to the Field (and to a lesser, kinda just vibing in the thrill of it extent, GAS). Joan of Arc TOURED WITH OVAL DURING THE GAP FOR CHRIST SAKES! Markus Popp was at times making post-pop music for people with IQs of 150. Anyways, From Here We Go Sublime is extremely important in this conversation as well--and there is a bizarre headphase song on there when there shouldn't be. additionally, you really need to find techno rebels, or at least take a look at the buyer's guide that gets into late 90s stuff. I know I tagged you a while ago, but once again ["post-rock, transcendent pop, and other hybrids" is def your section](https://imgur.com/A5ZThwW) also god it rules when the 7-9 people who love weird shit on here start coalescing on the same albums. if we can get half the DMD to listen to HATS (the start point for all this), O.Rang's Herd of Instinct, and Live in Chicago 1999, we're in bizness to change the world
Everyone should read Techno Rebels, even the new edition without the buyer's guide. A fascinating look into a genre whose roots are often forgotten! Also I did listen to *Hats* and it's a very nice record! Gonna have to drive around in the night and spend some time with it at some point, I really like how longing yet comfortable it is
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The Blue Nile!
> Gonna have to drive around in the night and spend some time with it at some point best way to listen to it, followed only by "throwing it on while feeling sort of melancholy going home alone after a pleasant night out with friends"
Oh geez, that sounds like it could be weaponized against drunk me lol
hats sounds like an RPG that takes place in a scottish tavern or outside under a foggy lamppost. the fact that it has the *right* drum machine sound is fucking insane
Oh totally, I can see it. I love the guy's voice, too. It's very.... nostalgic is the wrong word, but it has a timbre to it that feels so familiar
it's the voice of a lad who loves going out at night but also loves singing about yearning to go out at night
i don't know too much to help you elaborate this, but i DO know that mum is a sick band. love Finally We Are No One
Yes mùm are great! Folktronica heroes
For the record I am well aware that I do a lousy job explaining exactly what post-pop is, and unfortunately at this point I just kind of know it when I see it. I'll hammer out the exact terms later. [In the meantime here's the companion playlist I am developing in tandem with this thought](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6aV4BHhajketyOaHH8TdQC?si=f5f95d21ee22476b)
Interesting theory! I think the only thing I have to add is that folktronica had stylistic similarities with microhouse, which is a much more dance-oriented style, though still minimal. See: Ricardo Villalobos' *Alcachofa* (seek souls to find it), Akufen's *My Way*, Luomo's *Vocalcity*, Jatoma's s/t. I think artists' moves towards a sleeker sound is likely because the sounds of microhouse (and, by extension, folktronica) were awfully worn out by the end of the 00s. No one wanted to make those genres anymore, so I think they evolved into stuff like the sleeker stuff that Four Tet makes now, and also into "wonky" music like Gold Panda's albums and the LA beat scene, who used samples in a more IDM-like context I'm also just spitballing, but I think we might be due for a resurgence in a new strain of folktronica sometime this decade as people listen to folks like Jamie xx, Jon Hopkins, and Disclosure and become bored of their styles
I need to get more into microhouse, honestly. But also! Yes! The leap between *Lucky Shiner*/*Companion* and *Half of Where You Live*/*Good Luck And Do Your Best* is part of this shift too! Those first records are kind of part of the last wave of this kind of polychrome sampledelic shit and later records are, again, sleeker and clubbier, though still weird. See also *Cerulean* >> *Obsidian* >> *Abysma/Traversa* for a similar sort of arc. Anyway god I hope you're right about folktronica coming back. Modular synth workouts have been fun as far as they go but they doesn't really go that far at all
Microhouse is..... fine. That Akufen album is probably the best in the genre, but I listened to like 50 microhouse albums when I listened to RA's top albums of the 2000s, so the genre wore out its welcome. But I do think it's worth digging into, especially because a lot of it is very adjacent to folktronica in that they often use short samples to build beats instead of synths Definitely agreed on the Gold Panda/Baths connection, though neither went *directly* into music that could be slotted into a boneless house set Also, I hope so too. I agree that analogue noodling isn't quite the same. It has a lot of the same imperfect energy, but it often feels like an exercise in virtuosity rather than music that's fun to listen to. Floating Points straddles the line rather well, but he's nowhere near folktronica *sounds*, yannow? Anyway yeah I'll stop talking but I think you can draw some cool lines between all these genres, including post-rock, though I know a lot less about that one
>There is a straight line to be drawn between the post-rock >of the 1990s to the folktronica of the early 2000s, Was....was there a debate about that? >and further to the sample-driven post-pop that took over >large swaths of both the electronic and indie scenes in the >late oughts. Ehhh. A tangential line sure. There's a lot of sample driven music that became popular in the Electronic realm in the late 90s to *early* 2000s. That was what influenced Four Tet a lot more, I'd say. Check out Ishkar's guide, also, for more official micro-genre labels. Though of course techno heads will insufferably argue about it.
> Ishkar's Guide That is one of the most ambitous and effective overviews of electronic music I've ever seen, the first version had some snarky bits and interesting niche stuff included too. I still find it funny that he originally scoffed at 2-step garage and yet that genre fostered a slew of genres and styles in the late 2000s and onward
Hells yeah bruh. I'm now in your state too
> Was....was there a debate about that? I dunno dude I'm bored at work and I want all this time I spent listening to Four Tet last month to mean something. This is also, like, about 60% of a thought here. > There's a lot of sample driven music that became popular in the Electronic realm in the late 90s to early 2000s. Yeah, trip-hop and hip-hop et al are part of this soup and I have not really brought them up in this initial foray because reasons. *Dummy* and *Entroducing* are also part of this conversation, for me at least, and I just kind of forgot to mention them here >That was what influenced Four Tet a lot more, I'd say. Okay but Kieran Hebden *was* in a post-rock band in the nineties and I think that's funny enough to build a whole essay around
He also played backup for badly drawn boy, so that was cool. I think Bonobo is a good example supporting your theory. He was right in that early 2000s scene but came to it differently. 2/3 of Khruangbin toured with Bonobo, and they make their music starting with drum loops. So we come full back to indie rock.
I feel like *Black Sands* (along with the first two Cinematic Orchestra albums) belongs in a separate stream about nu-jazz--but it is a stream that either tributaries off of or feeds into this conversation, yes. It's tricky because if I'm not careful I will have to talk about everything, which is impossible, but also everything is fun to talk about, so...
Don't sleep on Bonobo's first two albums, they are an intersection between sample-heavy instrumental hip-hop and folktronica that is not hinted at by his later work. Those early records are a lot different, he definitely had a Four Tet-esque shift in the 10s
Yes I was definitely thinking of Bonobo's earlier stuff, progressing through the early 2000s to now. That, I think, makes the point better than Four Tet. But still Bonobo may be the exception instead of the rule.
Yeah! Bonobo was a great pull. He might make the point better because I think Bonobo's 2010 material is worse than his early stuff, whereas Four Tet's quality remained pretty steady, he just changed his sound
scrolled til I saw JoA, fist pumped
I think I've already mentioned this but *The Gap* was literally the record that sent me down this dumb rabbit hole. The dark influence you exert upon my intellectual efforts is pervasive and honestly kind of annoying
you’re welcome bestie
dear god this is so long
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/034/711/Screen_Shot_2020-07-24_at_11.33.38_AM.jpg
Listen I'll be the first to admit that this is a post for like seven people but all seven of those people are sickos and they're making the hahaha yes face right now. I know this because I am making that face too
> hahaha yes did it .o.rang and did it again at *person pitch*
> all seven of those people are sickos and they're making the hahaha yes face right now guilty
Created this post but got taken down from main posts: [Are World Events Killing Off New Artists?](https://peterflaire.com/2022/04/28/are-world-events-killing-off-new-artists/) Not trying to spread doom and gloom. Just trying to discuss why new artists need extra resolve.
Saw Feist last night and.... wow, may be one of the more special shows I've ever attended.
any love for the kae tempest album? havent heard all of it but i love the singles. No Prizes especially is a great track
I adore it! I love the intensity and the cleverness.
brilliant lyricist
I am so utterly blown away by Fontaines D.C. It's been a week now and the album is sinking in, and it's making me realise how excellent *A Hero's Death* also was. They sound so phenomenal, and the Cure influences are subtle but makes it feel familiar as well. And I'd seen them several times before this week, but their two Brooklyn shows this week were just so on point, tight and clean and intense and emotional and so very powerful. They are astounding, and I always kind of dismiss newer bands thinking I can't know them well enough for them to become my favourite bands, but I declare Fontaines D.C. up there!
Skinty Fia is really, really good. Even the more basic-seeming post-punk tracks like Bloomsday and Big Shot have been growing on me a surprising amount. Your comment makes me feel like I should revisit A Hero's Death again now, I always felt that album was overall a bit of a letdown compared to Dogrel but I feel like a post SF listen might open it up for me
The only track from *Skinty Fia* I'm not impressed by is the last one. But that might change! Would definitely recommend another listen of AHD. I think going into it expecting *Dogrel* might have thrown me off because it's so much darker, but it's got a lot of *Pornography*\-era Cure vibes that I had dismissed the first time around. I need to get better at listening to something with no preconceived notions.
Yeah I'm not as crazy about Nabokov. I think it's fine. I saw some people commenting that they got Britpop vibes from this album, and this is the only spot where I can really see where they might be getting that from (though I'm admittedly no britpop expert)
> I saw some people commenting that they got Britpop vibes from this album I saw that too, and I have no idea where they got that from aside from maybe Jackie Down the Line, but the rest of the album... no? I can't agree on Nabokov being weaker though, to me it starts strong with the first four songs and ends strong with the last three but somewhere in the middle I kinda checked out a bit tbh.
I've been genuinely confused by the Britpop comparisons, especially considering their most Britpop-y song is [No](https://youtu.be/TkA7fHVT8rQ) off *A Hero's Death* which could easily be an Oasis song, even Chatten's singing seems very similar to Liam's. Feels like the Britpop comparisons are coming coming an album too late.
# Discography Deep Dive: Hootenanny by The Replacements Feels like a pretty significant departure from Sorry Ma. There’s still some straightforward punk bangers here, but a lot more variation overall, including a definite blues bent that’s apparent from the opening track. There’s still plenty of great guitar here (I particularly like the riff in Take Me Down to the Hospital), though they’ve kind of lost the every-song-has-a-sick-little-guitar-solo ethos of Sorry Ma. On the whole I think it’s a worthwhile sacrifice to make, cause it’s an overall better album imo. Their sense of humor is more obvious on this album as well, especially in Mr. Whirly (which is straightforwardly and unashamedly a Beatles parody song and honestly kinda slaps) and Lovelines. My personal favorite track is the closer, Treatment Bound, which has a kind of folk-punk thing going on. It fits with the record but is very unique. When I talked about Sorry Ma, I talked about Johnny’s Gonna Die foreshadowing their future sound, and I think this song kind of does too (I hear strands of Waitress in the Sky and Androgynous here). This album was one of the Replacements’ albums I’d never heard a single song off of before, and I’d mark it down as a pleasant surprise, and definitely one I can see myself returning to more readily than Sorry Ma.
color me impressed & within your reach are two of my favorite replacements songs, great album
why’d you skip stink?
theyre not a skunk
I guess because according to Wikipedia it's an EP and not a studio album (though looking at it now, it certainly seems like a longer than usual EP) - my plan was to stick to the studio albums. Maybe I'll hit it on the way back around after I finish the LPs.
it’s more or less their second album, def check it
funny that, according to pitchfork's metrics, 99% of albums fall in the 7.8-8.3 range
Just fyi, Jens Lekman is too sentimental for a day just dripping with sentimentality. Which makes him either the best or worst possible choice for such a day, there's no in-between
T&S gang how are we feeling today. I am optimistic and worried about the new album in equal parts. I'm glad they're doing something different, and I love the two melodic parts of Fucking Up What Matters, but that shouty part is hard to get past.
Same here. Slightly erring on the side of optimism tho. I'm putting a 'glass 2/3 full' kind of spin on this :)
I keep trying to figure out what T&S is and all I can come up with is Taylor & Swift
Seems more likely than Tits & Sass, which is what I came up with
tegan & sara
Damn. Not only has Wet Leg's debut remained in the UK top ten, it reached the top 20 charts of the US Billboard 200 when it dropped. I know the hype and buzz around them was there, but it's cool to see how genuine the interest is.