February is Music Writer Exercise Month #MWE • Page 67

Air - Moon Safari.

90s French dance music that ISN’T Daft Punk.

It’s slightly more ambient and “background music” than I was perhaps expecting, layers of sound, as opposed to big loud songs.
Creates a nice atmosphere throughout, and the songs flow well from one to another, which is always nice.

 

Guys I'm in love

 

Catching up from missing this on the weekend with Blowout Comb by Digable Planets, a three piece hip hop group, influenced a lot by jazz in the beatmaking, a bit like Tribe or De La Soul.

The beats they're rapping over are quite sparse, drums and keys with a bit of bass, and occasionally some brass, but for the most part they're kept pretty simple, a basis for the three of them to shine. I didn't catch too much of the lyrical content, which is pretty normal for a first listen for me, but I can see they're highly regarded in this world.

I liked how the three vocalists all had their own personalities and styles, so even on a first listen, i can easily distinguish between them, and they work really well as a group.

 

Southern Accents is pretty bizarre, as far as Petty albums go, but there are some amazing songs on there.

 

have you heard Hospice? that’s kind of thee one for them.

 

southern accents is top 3 petty imo

 

Lil Ugly Mane - Volcanic Bird Enemy and the Voiced Concern
Yooo this is so good! Outsider pop, way different than any of the other things Mane has done. I love this.

 

Hospice is the only Antlers record I could get into, but when I'm in a very specific mood (thankfully not that often), that one really works for me. Probably only listen to it once a year or something though.

 

Still catching up from the weekend, I listened to To Be Kind by Swans from 2014. I didn’t realise this was two hours long, with a 33 minute track before picking it though.

This is a loud album! It feels almost like a live record, or a gig where it’s punishingly loud, particularly here where repetition plays an important part of the sound. It’s an ugly album, and a pretty relentless one.

I’m not sure how often I’ll be back to it because of the length, but it was a pretty engaging and interesting listen.

 

@George I know you have a soft-spot for late-career albums so I think that Alberta Hunter record could be very much your jam.

 

Tried to untangle my thoughts about Jack Johnson, an artist I think I (and everyone else) maybe underrate.

 

I had very little exposure to Jack Johnson until I met my wife, who is enough of a fan of his first few albums to put on a JJ playlist every so often on weekend mornings. I was surprised how much I enjoyed pretty much every song that came on, but in much the same way you're describing. Pleasant to listen to, but without a lot of depth. I've toyed with the idea of doing a deeper dive into his catalog on my own to see if there is something there for me to really sink my teeth into. I think your comments here have swayed me toward giving it a shot!

 

i think his early records are good but overrated for a time even though they seem kind of forgotten now and the recent records are just okay but underrated

 

I don't know that name at all, but always like to hear late-career records! Will mark her down to check it out.

 

Apparently had quite a successful career from the 1920s-1950s and then her mother died and she decided to give it all up to become a nurse, and did that for like 20+ years until they made her retire.

So she went back to singing. Haha

 

I'd recommend his latest, for sure. He made it with Blake Mills, who is probably my favorite producer working right now, and the two of them really cooked up something special together.

 

Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising from 2019. This is super Mitski-esque, all I could hear throughout it was how much it reminded me of Mitski. There are plenty of other influences here, bits of Joni Mitchell, bits of 70s soft rock, bits of ambient sounds but all I could think about was Mitski. Probably a bit of an unfair comparison, but for a first listen, I couldn't think of anything else.

This was pleasant though, and I think she's got an excellent voice - songs float in and out, and occasionally slip into background music, but plenty of drama to them when they work for me.

 

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity from 2016.

This band have the most impenetrably vast discography, I’m sure if I asked 10 people what their favourite King Gizzard album was, I’d get 11 different albums.

They released 5 albums in 2022, including a double album, and 3 separate albums in October. I do wonder with ludicrously prolific bands like this whether there is some quality control sacrifice, and whether they’d be an infinitely better band if they released a lot less. I’m sure fans would disagree though!

Anyway, this album seemed like a fun way to start, 9 songs that all run into one another and the last songs plays straight through to the first one. It does feel like one big song, but that’s kind of fun. Musically, this is very 70s prog, great guitar tones and energy to it, and there’s a little bit of scuzzy early metal tones here, which works well.

No idea where to go next from here, but they seem like the sort of band that I could dip in anywhere and probably have a fun time!

 

I heard that album and liked it a lot. They almost immediately lost me with Flying Microtonal Banana and a release schedule that's impossible to keep up with.