WILT_2024-14

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 31 Mar 2024 to 6 Apr 2024.

1. Uno Antes De Dormir – JXXXO
2. Lost Work – ATOEM
3. Day of Pain – BITE THE HAND
4. Nothing to Lose – BITE THE HAND
5. Feed – Going Off, Knuckledust
6. Rob’s Liquor – Jack-Knife
7. Sold Out – Sinister Feeling
8. bye – Ako
9. 新緑の巨人 (Shinryokuno Kyojin) – Kirinji
10. 偽りのシンパシー – Mondo Grosso, AiNA THE END
11. IN THIS WORLD (feat. 坂本龍一, Vocals: 満島ひかり)- Mondo Grosso, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Hikari Mitsushima
12. 春はトワに目覚める (Ver.2) – Mondo Grosso, UA
13. 迷子のアストゥルナウタ – Mondo Grosso, Hidefumi Ino

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2024-14

Notes

A bit of a mixed bag this week. We start off with techno remnants from JXXXO and ATOEM. Uno Antes De Dormir antes up with some sick pounding beats with a BPM that chooses not to let up, whereas Lost Work delves into electro territory with a very comfortable pocket that is able to hold a lot of change.

Then, I got recommended music by BITE THE HAND from the YouTube algorithm and that immediately caught my ears for being able to combine the “toughness” of the DC hardcore style but also including throwbacks to classic Metallica breakdowns. Why haven’t I come across this recipe sooner? Because it absolutely works. 

I then got sent down a path of various other hardcore bands because it was what I needed to power through a pretty intense week at work. The aggression is all there, and I think it speaks to that part of my brain that gravitates toward brutal riffs but is also open toward other styles and borrows from them to innovate on the aggression. I think what I’m trying to say is that there are many ways to throw a punch. 

Surprisingly, we also find ourselves in the realm a more contemporary era of Japanese city pop. I don’t know if city pop is even the right genre, but it’s got all the good parts avant jazz, funk and soul, combined with the melancholia that hovers around some of the more attractive pop elements. It all started when I felt nostalgic for BiSH, and poked around AiNA THE END’s discography, there which I discovered 偽りのシンパシー, a Mondo Grosso track that she performed on. This was my first time hearing Mondo Grosso but I was very very intrigued. The music seemed to fuse many elements of electronic music that I loved with many elements of jazz that I loved. Unsurprisingly, I learned that Mondo Grosso existed as an acid jazz band in the 90s, but is now the solo production moniker for the bassist/band leader, Shinichi Osawa. 

This path leads to some slight deviations like KIRINJI which I am also very interested in now, and will listen to more of them im the new week, but also into some more recent albums by Mondo Grosso that showcase the producer’s prolificacy and versatility. The music on display here is nuanced, subtle, bold and sensual. The synths dance around beats and the basslines swirl like planets orbiting celestial bodies. This is definitely a discography to dive deep into.