WILT_2024-06

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 4 Feb 2024 to 10 Feb 2024.

1. Vlad the Impaler – Kasabian
2. Club Foot – Kasabian
3. Atlantis To Interzone – Klaxons
4. Golden Skans – Klaxons
5. The Prayer – Bloc Party
6. Going Steady – Death From Above 1979
7. Blood On Our Hands – Death From Above 1979
8. Sabotage – Beastie Boys
9. Niki & The Dove – DJ Ease My Mind
10. & Down – Boys Noize
11. Deadly On A Mission – Alex Metric
12. I Want I Want – Digitalism
13. Idealistic – Digitalism
14. Hearts On Fire – Cut Copy
15. Mountain at My Gates (Alex Metric Remix) – Foals, Alex Metric

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2024-06

Notes

This playlist started from me signing up for a spin class at my organisation’s social activities programme. I wasn’t that interested in this particular activity, but I thought I’d see what the fuss about spin was, and also hang out with some colleagues after work hours in a bid to be more social. Incidentally, this particular activity was also open to family and friends, and when I told Jenna she seemed interested to join because the cost of participation was attractive due to the subsidy. With all this cooking in the background, there was also an option to include song requests and Jenna requested that I put Vlad The Impaler by Kasabian because it was one of her favourite songs and for working out. This one song then put me on a path to revisit a particular phase in my life when music was frenetic, dance-y, groovy, full of attitude and a haze that takes me back to late nights, sweat-drenched clothes and the catharsis of youth.

The dirty distorted basslines of Kasabian fueled my fascination with punk-infused dance and rock but with a rising BPM, Klaxons was always up there in the set just before and after midnight, banging in each new day as the night dragged on into infinity. Golden Skans I remember was the recommendation of tastemakers like Juice magazine and that truly shaped my appreciation of nightlife in the years from 2007 with Home Club as the base of most of my social activities till 2014. It was also at this time that I was reminded of the crushing basslines that came courtesy of Death From Above 1979, and hot damn did I want to play in a band like that (and maybe still do).

During this period, the electro genre was probably something I was following rather closely. With outfits like Digitalism and Boys Noize being effortlessly cool, bringing shades of Justice with them and the sound of envelope-filtered basslines that could induce bouts of mass hysteria. The music was so dirty that it still hasn’t dug itself out of whatever hole that punters were digging at that point in time (seriously, just check out & Down by Boys Noize). However, there were also some very melodic anthems with the indie crowd, Hearts On Fire being the obvious choice, but damn did my heart go out to DJ Ease My Mind by Niki & The Dove because I was such a sap for unrequited love.

If I could sum up the Electro sound, it would go to almost anything by Alex Metric, particularly his remixes of indie rock songs. While I leave you with a little sampler in this playlist, what I really wanted to bring to the reader’s attention is Stylo (Alex Metric Remix) by Gorillaz that can only be found on YouTube. 

The next part of this set of notes is that it’s currently nearing the end of day one of the Lunar New Year, and we’re soon entering day two. As usual, I’m in Penang during this period, but I did manage to have a reunion dinner with my family on the eve of the new year and increasingly I sense the significance of being with the people you choose to be with beyond the traditions and practices that you were taught to uphold without context or empty encounters. We might be all on different journeys and at different stages, but coming together is a time when we can potentially be there for each other rather than just walking our own roads.