WILT_2022-38

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 18 Sep 2022 to 24 Sep 2022.

1. Wild Child – Shopping
2. Initiative – Shopping
3. All Or Nothing – Shopping
4. Qué Dios Te Maldiga Mí Corazón – The Mars Volta
5. Cerulea – The Mars Volta
6. Flash Burns From Flashbacks – The Mars Volta
7. Palm Full Of Crux – The Mars Volta
8. No Case Gain – The Mars Volta
9. Tourmaline – The Mars Volta
10. Disa Bling – Machinedrum
11. No Warnin’ (feat. Boy Boy) – Pa Salieu, Boy Boy
12. Atopos – Björk
13. Under Your Scar – Nicholas Chim
14. Nobody’s Perfect – Dave Thomas Junior
15. Midnight Dipper – Warmduscher

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2022-38

Notes

Writing takes time. Some times it is effortless, other times it takes effort. I do not know what today is, but it is time to write, so I shall try.

Some times you write better when there is nothing before or after the block of time that you have carved out for yourself, other times you give in to the compulsion that takes over you. The takeaway is that there is a structure to allow time for you to express yourself, and perhaps experience yourself. This could be one of those times.

I opened on the band Shopping because their music finally resurfaced for me. I had tried unsuccessfully in the past to remember the work of Rachel Aggs, but for the life of me I could not remember her name until a recent Instagram post by Aggs appeared on my feed. From the, I revisited the glory of Shopping’s upbeat dance-punk and low-key chaotic style accompanied by incendiary lyrics and vocal delivery.

Wild Child’s punchy opening bassline will always draw me in, and will no doubt leave anyone boppin’.

Initiative is just a very well put-together song. A sparse instrumentation on the verse allows you to pay attention to the tribulations of the writer when faced with a problematic person. When the chorus comes on, and the synths come on with an inversion, it is fine pop arrangement that will have you singing along to very catchy hooks.

I added All Or Nothing because of the cool interplay between a chorus-effected bassline and the heavily reverb-drenched guitar parts. It is highly infectious and testament to the songwriting ability of the entire unit.

We go down a rabbit hole of The Mars Volta’s latest album, The Mars Volta (2022). Brought to my attention by my friend, Rudi, what immediately struck me about this album was that it dropped a lot of its hard rock tendencies, and leaned a lot into restraint that emerged with more pop, soft-rock, and Latin beats. I added a succession of songs from the album that are representative of the moment the album’s creative direction clicked for me.

Qué Dios Te Maldiga Mí Corazón for the moment a generally progressive heavy rock band decided to shed their legacy, wonderfully infused Latin rhythms into intricate jazz-rock arrangements that are still able to create a sensation of driving rock.

Cerulea is when the soft-rock vibe hit me hard. And while the rhythm and arrangements are somewhat simplistic, the guitar work continues to be astounding, and a weaver of tonal tapestry that adds a layer of tension between the driving bassline, and backwards-sound guitars.

Flash Burns From Flashbacks features more intricate drumming and bass playing. Leaning a bit into breakbeat territory, but is fertile ground for more of Omar Rodríguez-López’s virtuosic guitar playing.

Palm Full Of Crux sees the band fully lean into a sort of Californian soft-rock vibe. The drumming is busy, and sort of feels out of context at times, but that sensation of everything falling apart at any given moment is quite an intoxicating accompaniment to Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s desparate vocals.

Man, what a song No Case Gain is. Frenetic, driving, evocative, and massively poppy. From its fluid basslines, drumming that sounds like you’re pushing a shopping cart at full speed, guitar lines that sound like you’re weaving threads between multiverses, and a vocal take that flits between psychedelia, post-hardcore, and pop, this song packs so much in under three minutes that one listen will hardly be enough.

The more acoustic Tourmaline sealed the deal for me that The Mars Volta were perfectly comfortable with the creative direction that they had set out to achieve for the new album. What always sounds simplistic and familiar on the surface, has a huge undercurrent of the band’s influences and histories over the many years that they have honed their craft.

From The Mars Volta, I decided to explore more electronic genres. I discovered some early Machinedrum in the form of Das Bling, and also checked out some drill, and No Warnin’ by Pa Salieu came on.

I decided to check out the new Björk music video for Atapos. Suffice to say I was mesmerised. Visually it is stunning, and sonically, the woodwind arrangements were from another plane of consciousness. Particularly when you combine them with the beats featured on the song. It might sound dissonant, but this how I imagine a plant rave might sound like. It’s crystal to me. The way the woodwinds never seem to have an actual melody, but still stays melodious, and the the primal efficacy of the gabber-style beat make this new innovative style, one that is supremely engaging and worthy of further listen.

We dial things back a little with a slight exploration of Nicholas Chim. He’s a friend and back in town for a few weeks, of which we’ve caught up now and then. I decided to re-listen to some of his earlier work, and by George are these strong songs. On Under Your Scar, his emotions always feel real, and the arrangements constantly evoke scenes of desolation, serenity, melancholia. A very particular time that visits Singapore, and makes me believe that Chim has been awake through these moments to write about them.

Nobody’s Perfect came on very soon after and its pensive wintery mood struck a chord with me.

Midnight Dipper by Warmduscher came on as a recommendation one Saturday morning as I was in-between errands, and the musical arrangement immediately caught my attention. A bit of Led Zeppelin meets Stevie Wonder never hurt anyone, and while I could have ended this list pensively, we are ending on a somewhat poorly curated note, because nothing stays the same forever.