A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 9 Jan 2022 to 15 Jan 2022.

WILT_2022-02

1. Bummer Summer – Charmer
2. Sirens – Leifur James
3. First Sleep – Cliff Martinez
4. Tidal Wave – Butcher Brown
5. Fill My Mouth – Goat
6. Let It Burn – Goat
7. Run To Your Mama – Goat
8. Queen of the Underground – Goat
9. Animal Noises – Here Lies Man
10. Right / Wrong – Night Beats
11. Charchez La Ghost – Orions Belte
12. Harmonizer – Ty Segall
13. Currency – The Black Angels
14. The Ecstacy Once Told – The Dolly Rocker Movement
15. Hold On Tight – A Place To Bury Strangers
16. Golden Dawn – Goat
17. Trippin’ Like I Do – Mystic Braves
18. Home Town – WITCH
19. Tunnel – Minami Deutsch
20. Stayin’ Alive – Tropical Fuck Storm
21. Beat It – The Traffic
22. A Distant View – Flevans
23. Antimatter Animals – Tropical Fuck Storm

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2022-02

Notes

This is a pretty long playlist, and there were two man beats in the week that just passed. One was the discovery of Goat, and the subsequent delve into psychedelic rock, and the other was catching up with KiDG and having certain conversations about how music curated or recommended by humans is so much more communal, than if it were just transactional between yourself and an algorithm.

With that setting the stage, perhaps it is time to make sense of the week.

Bummer Summer stood out from the vestiges of the previous week as being similar to the type music that Benton Falls would have put out, and which I now know is also a style developed through the mid-west emo scene.

Sirens was added the moment the beats that followed the string and piano intro came on. It just pulses with energy and purpose.

First Sleep has an unsettling sonic soundscape that just changes something in the air. It drives you to do things, which is somehow unsettling-ly productive.

We now arrive at Fill My Mouth by Goat. I am not too sure how this track got recommended to me, but I did not quite notice the song on the onset as I was probably deep in thought or work. But then at some point of the song, the flutes really stood out to me, most likely in the solo, and it is one of the moments you just pause to take it all in. The flutes are cacophonous and the percussion work is catastrophic on this track, and truly the highlight of my week.

I am pretty much obsessed with Goat at this point, and start listening to more songs on the 2021 album, Headsoup. I love the drumming and percussion work on Let It Burn, as well as the glorious fuzz bass that pretty much drives this song into a wah-wah guitar solo frenzy.

I start exploring the first album put out by the band, 2010’s World Music. At this point, the brazen Run To Your Mama almost chastises you if you happen to be scared, or negative of the band’s unapologetic music.

If you ever wonder what psychedelic rock is all about, then I Am The Queen of the Underground is my gateway to you. Sprawling, shamanistic, musical styles from all over the world intermingling with each other. There’s a taste of afrobeat, jazz, rock, black metal, all mixed into a swirling primordial slorp of pleasure before we even try to identify the different components.

I think by this time, the musical choices that appear are a result of Spotify’s radio algorithm kicking in after listening to Headsoup.

Animal Noises is a boogie rock number, that initially reminds me of The Black Keys’s Hell of a Season, and the guitar tones of The Doors’s Roadhouse Blues, but ends up being its own thing.

Tidal Wave is a smooth like butter performance without a healthy dose of chill and cool.

Added Right / Wrong by Night Beats because of some great vocal melodies backed by reverb-soaked guitars. Simple but tasty stuff.

Cherchez La Ghost is sleazy, slinky, and suavage. Why, this might just be the musical interpretation of that hideous word.

The clang of Harmonizer’s envelope filter ridden introduction immediately grabs your attention, and the song slowly builds more great fuzzed out guitar parts before launching eighty miles an hour down a desert freeway as it celebrates all the joys of sonic fuckyou-isms.

The psy-rock train continues pulling into stations, this time on Currency with some great guitar parts that will have you swaying along to a haze-fueled groove.

The Ecstacy Once Told sounds like Ennio Morricone writing something for spaghetti western set in space. But without the budget of The Mandalorian.

Hold On Tight is a love song written by A Place To Bury Strangers.

I probably listened to more Goat at this point, and probably added Golden Dawn for how the afro vibes mix so well with the rock elements. Or how the rock elements mix so well with the afro vibes. It sounds like a more acid rock version of something Fela Kuti and Ginger Baker might do.

Trippin’ Like I Do adds some upbeat folk energy to the mix. Felt a bit of Bob Dylan in this one.

WITCH really knows how to take it slow, and man, does Home Town make you slow down and feel things.

Tunnel is pure proto-beat krautrock by Kyoto band, Minami Deutsch. Very classy, and very easy to vibe to.

I’m not sure how this cover of Stayin’ Alive by Tropical Fuck Storm came to me, but I am so glad it did. The heavily distorted bass lines really sell the spirit behind this cover. Also, the outro guitar is exceptional, and the last time I heard something like that was Jonny Greenwood’s outro guitars on 2+2=5.

I definitely let KiDG know about this find, of which he rewards me with an introduction to the funk band, The Traffic, and that’s where I came across their terrific cover of Beat It. The brass and wind sections on this track a mesmerising, and the rest of the rhythm section plays with a sort of looseness that is incredibly relaxed, yet exceptionally spot on. It just sounds, free, and fun!

A Distant View features some great samples and tones amidst a minimal, but sprawling soundscape that takes you on an inspirational walk through a forest, that somehow also takes you to the edge of a cliff as you allow the elements to baptise you and you surrender to nature.

I listened to more Tropical Fuck Storm as the week neared its end, and Antimatter Animals just stood out for being both experimental, and extremely matter of fact. There’s nothing much to get about the music, apart from the fact that mainstream music is often predictable, and thus boring, and Tropical Fuck Storm does not see music or performance in such convenient templates.