WILT_2025-04

A playlist of songs that intrigued me from Sunday to Saturday. Week of 19 Jan 2025 to 25 Jan 2025.

1. Demon State – The Observatory, Koichi Shimizu
2. Lichen – The Observatory, Koichi Shimizu
3. Imprisoned Mind, The Observatory, Koichi Shimizu
4. Look – David Alfred
5. Now Transiet – FLOCKS
6. Not Today – Ben Kenney
7. Robots II – The Band Royale
8. Jura – Brontide
9. Alec Baldwin’s Hair – Cleft
10. Undone – PÆRISH
11. Sink – Animal Flag
12. Oh Well – Middle Class Rut
13. Aftertouch – Ben Kenney
14. Shot Down – Nine Black Alps
15. Tough Girl – Open Hand

Hyperlink to Spotify playlist: WILT_2025-04

Notes

In continuation from the previous week, I was wondering what the parallel to Erased Tapes in Singapore could be and I had to land on Ujikaji Records and The Observatory. Not that they sounded similar, but more of a pioneering spirit when it comes to composing and performing music. If there’s any freedom to be had in Singapore toward creating more free-wheeling expression devoid of audience or market expectation, perhaps this music embraces it somewhat. Exploring music for the sake of music itself, or the pursuit of some idea and the obsession to see it through. Who knows? I’ll admit I haven’t studied it enough, nor am I currently in a mental state where I am desiring to be speak on anything grounded in reality. 

The next part of the playlist comes from seeing that Ben Kenney had recently released a new song, Fires. Kenny was quite an inspiration to me as a bass player, particularly on his work in Incubus’s later discography. It also always astounded how much of a multi-instrumentalist he was, and in his solo pursuits, how he explored melding both rock and soul together, but not in a Lenny Kravitz up-strokey way, but in a more psychedelic way that also celebrated some level of precision. 

Surprisingly, that pathway led to a bunch of other bands that were approaching guitar rock from a more textural and rhythmic angle, similar to what Kenney was also attempting. The Band Royale stands most similar in this endeavour, and there is something fundamental about their musical approach that intrigues me, that takes me back both to my youth, but also reveals some sort of window into an alternate timeline when alternative rock was more mainstream and more celebrated.