WILT_2024-18

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 28 Apr 2024 to 4 May 2024.

1. Harness (The Alchemist) – Black Tusk
2. Dance On Your Grave – Black Tusk
3. Blackened – Toke
4. UTOPIA – SPIT NEHC
5. Amber Eyes – Daevar
6. Too Late – .22lr
7. CREASED – Nü Crosd
8. Ecchymosis – Lect Drecs
9. Astral Flowers – Fabiano do Nascimento, Sam Gendel
10. A Day In The Park – Monaqee, Antônio Neves
11. Triumphant Buttress – Salami Rose Joe Louis
12. As The Planets And The Stars Collapse – Shabaka
13. Mouthfeel 1 – Sam Gendel, Josiah Steinbrick

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2024-18

Notes

This sounds so cheesy but this week’s playlist is a bit yin and yang and damn does it not feel good to get that out of the way. In fact, it’s so bad it’s actually in the way now. 

But what else can you do when you start the week with listening to the new Black Tusk album, The Way Forward, that featured a few gems and also uncovered a few more from the recommendation engine? Harness and Dance On Your Grave start off strongly as one would expect from Black Tusk with gnarly detuned guitars with a healthy dose of punkish intensity. 

Blackened by Toke takes us into the realm of stoner metal and the riffs are top-notch haze, but then UTOPIA by SPIT NEHC quickens the tempo with some very tasty hardcore. 

Then comes Amber Eyes by Dear that has the kind of low-end guitar growl that always makes me sit up to take notice. I listened to their discography a bit this week and really enjoyed it but didn’t include more than I needed to. Reminds me of True Widow with a bit more shoegaze elements.

The last two songs that round out the chapter started by Black Tusk include Too Late by .22lr and CREASED by Nü Cros, both very intense songs that are heavily influenced by various aspects of post-hardcore and screamo. 

Ecchymosis by Lect Dress is an outlier that I cannot place how I came across in between chapters. However, it is a wonderful exploration of guitar tones with glorious use of pitch-shifting and harmoniser effects. 

I also started listening to the new album by Sam Gendel and Sam Wilkes, The Doober, but unfortunately I did not include anything from the album. However, that album led us down recommendations that include Astral Flowers, by Fabiano do Nascimento and Sam Gendel, a beautiful duet of guitar virtuosity and Gendel’s exceptional wind work on the flute. 

A Day In The Park by Monaqee and Antônio Neves offer some early-evening grooves on the Fender Rhodes and saxophone, while Triumphant Buttress by Salami Rose Joe Louis continues with cosmic explorations and beats. As The Planets And Stars Collapse by Shabaka expand the inner cosmos with a searching arrangement, and finally we land and end with Sam Gendel and Josiah Steinbrick’s Mouthfeel 1, a yearning soundscape of sine-waves and dope frequencies.