The Music Box.
Entries about the music I like.
Jawbreaker – 24 Hour Revenge Therapy
It is a little over the top perhaps, but when I first heard Jawbreaker’s 24 Hour Revenge Therapy, I was instantly hooked. I was in my early twenties, either just graduating college or already dealing with issues of a grown-up life like rent and utilities and bills. But the record – and Bivouac before it – struck a chord somewhere deep within my core.
Adam Curtis' Can't Get You Out Of My Head // Episode 1 – Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain
Last week, I started a six-part review of the six-part Adam Curtis documentary series, Can’t Get You Out Of My Head. Today, I share my thoughts on its first part, Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain, particularly its fantastic score and soundtrack. It’s a Stranger Fiction Premium longread, so it can only be accessed by subscribers. But the playlist of my favourite tracks from the episode is free.
Heartbreak // Music of the Week / WS 14-Feb
My theme for this week's Music of the Week playlist is heartbreak. Not everything I heard was related to heartbreak – in fact most of it wasn’t – but the crumbling of a long-term relationship in the week before Valentine’s Day would inform at least some of the music one listens to, and that happened. Here's a playlist featuring Schneider TM, Kylie Minogue, Phosphorescent, Rashmeet Kaur, etc.
Bush Tetras – Boom in the Night (Original Studio Recordings 1980-1983)
The story of Bush Tetras is familiar. A band with an innovative sound makes waves in a thriving New York post-punk scene that goes on to spawn future stars like Talking Heads and Sonic Youth. They become a band’s band, with English post-punk band Gang of Four, e.g., describing their sound as ‘… both jarring and warming.’ But ultimately, they get no record deal and disband.
H O P E // a mixtape to self
Some time in 2016, I clearly felt something intensely enough to make a neck-breaking playlist of punk, post-punk, and alternative songs running at a tempo of 150 bpm +. While I was 4 years younger then, my neck was not made of rubber; I have no idea what it was that I was so enraged by that it allowed me to a make this muscular a mix without suffering any serious whiplash.
Disco Inferno – The 5 EPs
Music like the 5 EPs triggers an oddly specific sense of nostalgia for no obvious reason. I didn’t grow up listening to experimental alt-rock by a band that attached MIDI triggers to their instruments, triggering evolving samples with each strum, with each snare hit. In fact, the vocabulary of this sort of music would’ve seemed completely alien to me in the mid-90s.
Talk Talk – Spirit of Eden
When it comes to pinpointing its origin, post-rock historians tend to identify most with one of three sources: Bark Psychosis’s 1994 album, Hex, Slint’s 1991 album, Spiderland, and Talk Talk’s 1988 album, Spirit of Eden. Ignore the chronology here, if you can; after all, we’re not simply trying to identify the first of three records generally considered post-rock.
The Weather Station – Ignorance
Much of the album serves as a great example of how exceptional lyrics, when supplemented by able instrumentation, elevate good music to very good or even great music. You can sing about emotions without being mawkish. You can speak about fundamental issues without being pessimistic. You can address wrongs without being angry. After all, what goes around, comes around.
My Bloody Valentine – Loveless
My Bloody Valentine's Loveless may not be my favourite album, but it's close to the top. Bilinda Butcher’s may not be my favourite lead vocal performance of all time, but it’s pretty close to the top. In fact, Kevin Shields’s vocal takes on Sometimes and Soon are among the only ones I can think of that come close. His guitarwork in this album is the best I’ve ever heard.
Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
Musically, Frightened Rabbit's The Midnight Organ Fight is purely about simple, unobtrusive, but catchy vocal and melodic hooks. What makes it stand out in the fairly competitive playing field that is heartbreak indie is its sincere lyricism, delivered with unvarnished authenticity by Scott Hutchison (RIP). a perfect breakup album. A classic of modern Scottish music.
U Srinivas – Pancharatna Krithis Trio Mandolin
On the fifth day of the Thyagaraja Aradhana festival, thousands gather to perform Thyagaraja’s most revered composition, Pancharatna Krithikal, in unison. This set of 5 songs is considered an especial composition in the Carnatic canon. It’s a set of five krithis in five ghana ragas (special ragas whose uniqueness is brought out especially when played in medium tempo).
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
From my 16th birthday to my 18th, I listened to Geek U.S.A. about thrice as often as my second most frequently heard song (I think it was either the Beatles’ A Day In The Life or the Cure’s A Forest). I’d scroll down to number fifty-something (54, I think?) on a playlist named ‘the greatest guitar solos of all time – hq’ and there it’d be: 'Smashing Pumpkins – Geek U.S.A.'
Arlo Parks – Collapsed in Sunbeams
You’re not alone / Like you think you are / We all have scars / I know it’s hard. In the chorus of Hope, song 4 from her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, 20-year-old British singer-songwriter Arlo Parks repeats this simple message of, well, hope. This song, and the forty-minute album of which it is a standout track is like a warm breeze in the middle of a frigid winter.
The art of storytelling as expressed through playlisting
Playlist one consists of eight hits from the world after punk. It’s the soundtrack to my pacing around a room and worrying about the future. It’s a bunch of men like me stressing about the ‘kind of men’ they are and the ‘kind of world’ they inhabit. This transitions to playlist two, consisting mainly of hip-hop hits about bouncing back and ‘showing them’
Funktuation – Funk Katcheri
I’ve been listening to Chennai-based Funktuation’s 2019 EP, Funk Katcheri. The songs on the EP are mostly sung by Benny Dayal, known for his work on Rahman-composed songs like Pappu Can’t Dance, Nazrein Milana Nazrein Churana, Rehna Tu, etc. It’s a straightforward Tamil electro-funk EP, with its first two songs, Oora Paaru and Poovey being the EP’s standouts.
The Cure — Disintegration
Through most of Disintegration, the Cure wallows in a gentle midtempo; Thompson’s guitar does more repeating than noodling, Gallup’s bass rumbles patterns that are reminiscent of early Joy Division, and O’Donnell’s synths add an orchestral sparkle that has since become a staple of goth. Drones and esoteric keys handled by Smith and Thompson crackle and pop for effect.
Bicep – Isles
Combining elements of traditional house, 90s dance music, UK garage and reverby IDM with samples of music from around the world (Including Jab Andhera Hota Hai from the 1973 Bollywood film Raja Rani on Sundial), Isles is something most of Bicep’s previous music wasn’t: dance music for headphones on unkempt scalps and chairs under fat arses.
Various Artists — Uneven Paths, Deviant Pop From Europe 1980-1991
A set of experimental recordings from lesser-known European artists of the 80s that pose the question, what if this is what pop music from the 80s sounded like? What if it sounded like an understated drum machine, echoing guitars, and a bossa nova groove? What if it was African tribalism through a pop lens? What if it sounded like lush reverb-pop? Or infectious leftfield dance?
The Supersonics – Maby Baking
Apparently, when I had seen the Supersonics play live at NH7 with what was, in my opinion, too small a crowd, they had just gotten back together. I was impressed with their energy and how much they’d honed their post-punk revival sound. Over the course of a 45-minute performance, a crowd of sitters and standers became, almost entirely, jumpers and dancers.
The Folk Songs of Tamil Fishing Communities
I find the latest Tik Tok fad of people singing sea shanties particularly fascinating. This trend has got me thinking of the sailors from my own neck of the woods. For millennia, Tamil Nadu’s fishing communities have sung work songs set to the rhythm of oars beating the sea. With the advent of motorboats, the rhythms of the oars may have disappeared, but the songs remain.