I'd like to go on a small ramble of the rabbit hole i've approached today, well, perhaps the past few days? I've been introduced to some new sounds, and that's always exciting! I've cried everyday for the past week over various media, I'd like to keep it that way and never have it end. Anyways, I'd like to begin by stating I am not anything of a music critic, I'm not well endowed in musical terminology. I just listen to things. So I'll spare the psuedo-deep Pitchfork introduction (or maybe this is the same and I'm painfully unaware).
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| The Famous Boyfriend - Self titled |
For a little over a year, I've been a huge fan of the indie-tronica project "The Famous Boyfriend", consisting of a duo; Andrew Johnson and Craig Tattersal. This project went on to release a handful of singles and 2 full lengths, "Making Love All Night Wrong" (Orgasm) and their self titled (555 Recordings), which can be found compiled onto a compilation via Spotify (I'm noting this because it is how I came across them). I forgot what compelled me to them, I believe it was a random related artists rabbit hole, where I had discovered other unrelated bands such as Dis- and The Vehicle Birth, which are well worth the listen too, but this is not about them. Though when I found The Famous Boyfriend, it truly took the cake. A bleak, static-y, almost drunken experience. Drum loops and repetitive vocals, cool synths, random sounds... Whatever! It rocks. It's truly special.
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| 555 Compilation |
In the midst of me being fresh to this band, or even before(?), I came across a 555 Recordings comp at my previously local record store. I picked it up because Kid606 was on it, and boy do I love me some Kid606. This compilation included awesome band such as The Famous Boyfriend themselves as well as their main project "The Remote Viewer", Empress (killer slowcore), Steward, Boyracer (I believe that is the label owners band), and Hood (amongst other bands). Hood included both Johnson and Tattersal, and that is what begins the true start of my 2 day start of a rabbit hole.
I put off listening to hood for a while, I'm not sure why, it could be due in part to me incessant obsession of something that makes me firmly believe artists don't get any better than the album or song or whatever I decided to cling on to. Or perhaps my previous disdain of the genre term "post-rock" (don't ask why, I don't know). This admittedly has caused me to miss out on a lot of awesome things, but hey, it's never too late!
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| Hood- Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys |
Now, I can't pinpoint what caused me to save a couple albums by them, but I believe I listened a bit a few nights ago as I sat by my computer. I had initially put on their 1997 release "Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys", a melancholic post-rock masterpiece, I'd say! It was already shocking how much I have already missed out on. It had the same looping looming dreariness The Famous boyfriend did. With Slint-like spoken word, dwelling piano, horns, soft but prominent vocals. I was in a disappointed daze! Of course, I had to look at the pretentious cesspool that is Rateyourmusic.com... see what folks thought. Not that I'm not confident in my own opinions, I just believe it's part of learning about an artist or band.
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| Hood - Cold House |
This drew me to listen to their 2001 record "Cold House", per great reviews all across the web. This album, while still sticking to the Post-rock, slowcore roots, included the indie-tronica efforts The Famous Boyfriend did. It is important to mention, though, they had since left the band. So this is where they exit the lineage. This album begins with the track "They Removed All Trace That Anything Had Ever Happened Here", a violin, guitar loop, and a drum pattern (is that what you would call it, like not actual drums but a beat). The same soft vocals come in, instantly I'm hooked, especially with a song title like that, always a sucker for song titles. And then I was caught off guard toward the latter half, when a nasally voice comes in something incoherent I'm not even sure is written in the lyrics accessible online. I wasn't sure how I felt about that, but I was enthralled. It's new, it's refreshing, It's driving itself away from the indie-tronica kick I've been on, whilst still drawing me closer to it.
The whole album is perfect, and I've only heard it twice now, so I can't particularly stake my claims on each and every song, and I'm not here to do an album review. Just know it rocks.
Now, the closing track "You're Worth The Whole World", that's what really got me. Especially because I was expecting a love song, per the title, and I'm always a sucker for those. Instead, I was met with weird, glitchy vocals, the same nasally voice, accompanied with a different voice speaking underneath. I felt a bit weird liking it, though the lyrics (which I frankly had to read, I have no clue what they are saying otherwise) were absurdly beautifully encapsulating. Closing with "If you can cast my face for any paint that's left", followed by the droning instrumentation that closes the album out.
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| The cLOUDDEAD in question |
Unbeknownst to me, these were two members of the credited Ohioan cloud-rap pioneers, Clouddead, Why? and DoseOne. I had posted a song off the album to an Instagram story, and someone was quick and excited to inform me of this group. Eager with interest, I've been chatting with them about these artists. I've seen their self title record in passing in talks of the alleged genre they fall under, but as I get older, the less I am intrigued to listen to um, cloud-rap. The name just doesn't leave the best taste in my mouth as I lived through the proclaimed "Xandemic" and had continually been an underground rap fan for all of my teen years and beyond. It does something to you.
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| cLOUDDEAD - This About the City |
Clouddead, though... that's way, way beyond the constraints of cloud-rap. I suppose this accredited claim is due in part to the ambient, IDM inspired production. I started with what I thought was their first release, 2002 album "This About The City/The Sound Of a Handshake". I think it's important to note this was at 6AM at my grocery store job, so my competence was low. It immediately got me, as once again, it's another thing very, very unique to itself. It almost reminded me of what i *think* Animal Collective sounds like. To be fair, I've heard one Animal Collective album, and I thoroughly disliked it. But something was different with this. Those harmonized, strange voices from the afformentioned Hood album. The wistfully dynamic production... I knew I was in for a rabbit hole, one that goes farther than I am currently aware of.
I listened to their actual 2000 release, their self titled, which actually is a compilation of various 10 inch singles released prior. Shockingly enough, it's pretty hard to tell. It sounds cohesive and intentional.
Now, I have decided this is where I'd like to stop this post, as I feel like I must separate it into parts, learn more about the Anticon label in which the members founded, and listen again so I can give the full spill, with a coherent grasp!
The point of this is to share how vast music gets, how some pretty crazy connections can be made, and how opening my hard head has helped me discover lots of awesome things! All of these artists are strikingly different, but somehow, connected.
PS - The amount of drafts I have on here is abhorrent, but frankly, i've been lacking in the sense of getting stoned and then hopping on my computer... Not to say I'm incoherent when I smoke but I'd rather spare the ramblings... So this was written not stoned, for the record. I also have been an obliterate insecure bastard. But anyways, godspeed, and if you read this, thank you!
- IONA
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