Topic: The Music Thread

@nessisonett Try Kontakte by that composer, he's great, an influence on Bill Orcutt, I feel.

Microphones in 2020 dropped a couple of hours ago. I honestly don’t know how to put it into words, other than to say that it’s one of the greatest albums of all time. This is a man who’s stared into the abyss, seen the very worst that life can throw at you and he lays it out for the listener. Every single moment in its one track, 44:44 runtime has meaning. I watched the official video he put out with it and it suits the music perfectly, just Phil Elverum laying out old photos from his past while musing about how he got to this position. I could only recommend that you listen to the album after having gone through both The Microphones’ and Mount Eerie’s back catalogue, or at least just the key albums The Glow Pt 2, Mount Eerie and A Crow Looked At Me as this is a culmination of everything he’s put out prior. It helps to understand his personal life as well, this is a lifetime in one song and not a particularly joyous one at that. There are artists out there that surpass music and lean towards poetry and the real greats, your Bob Dylans and Elliott Smiths of the world, and this album proves that Phil Elverum deserves to be counted among that number. It’s utterly devastating, captivating and entirely unmissable.

@LN78 I wouldn’t say it’s hyperbole. It ties together over 20 years of great albums into one experience. Granted, I have a real love of one track albums like Long Season, Dopesmoker, Feedbacker and the like, but I genuinely feel that it’s an album that everybody should experience.

Gorillaz has had no chill as of late

Definitely making a major comeback after how meh Humanz and The Now Now were

@TheFrenchiestFry Haven't really listened to their new album. I'm grateful I was able to see Damon Albarn live last year as part of TGTBTQ.

@TheFrenchiestFry I haven’t enjoyed their output since after Plastic Beach to be honest. Those first few albums are all pretty decent in their own way though.

@nessisonett Did you check out either Deerhoof or Stockhausen? What did you think?

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Yeah, I listened to The Runners Four and thought it was pretty OK. There was a weird pan on the bass to the right but other than that it was enjoyably mad and off the wall. It felt quite a bit like if Shonen Knife took more inspiration from post-punk, specifically Television. I’d probably listen to more of their albums, it was good enough that I at least enjoyed it.

@nessisonett I'm glad you enjoyed it, I prefer Deerhoof Vs. Evil, personally. I think I should check out Shonen Knife, from what you say, and do let me know if you happen to listen to Stockhausen. Kontakte is an essential release from him imo.

WAP is a bop, idc what anyone says. Loving the outrage as if My Neck, My Back didn’t come out almost 20 years ago.

@LN78 Ah yes, Ben Shapiro, this article says all you need to know about him. I’ve literally just taken a screenshot of it there, it’s still up.

Rock vs jazz anyone? What are the ups and downs of both? Which one wins it for you? Care to get the ball rolling, @nessisonett? http://www.differencebetween.net/miscellaneous/difference-bet...

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Oh lord, now that’s a debate and a half. I’m going to plead ignorance and say that it’s hard to compare entire genres of music with such sweeping terms. Both were incredibly progressive at the time but in recent years have fallen out of favour. I’d say I probably like just as many albums from both, and with that I mean that certain subgenres appeal to me and some don’t.

@nessisonett Which would you say are your favorite artists from both genres?

@Draco_V_Ecliptic Hmm, they’re such wide genres that it’s hard to say. I love Charles Mingus so I’d probably say him for jazz and for rock, it could be anyone really. In terms of ‘rock’ rock, it would be Built to Spill or Pavement.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Kino recently since it was the 30th anniversary of the frontman Viktor Tsoi’s untimely death a week or so ago. He really was the voice of a whole generation of Soviet teens and his death cemented his status as one of the greats. Can’t even remember where I heard about them but I’ve been into their stuff for years now, from their jangly early work to a bleak, crushing final album released posthumously. What’s especially impressive is that Tsoi was half Korean and his father grew up in exile due to Stalin’s deportation of Koreans so for him to become possibly the most important face in Russian music of all time, it’s quite the story. It’s probably reductive to call him the Bob Dylan or Kurt Cobain of Soviet Russia, his popularity was, and still is, unfathomably enormous. Kino’s song ‘Группа крови/Blood Type’ was voted the #1 Russian rock song of all time. It’s even on GTA IV’s OST although I think it was removed as part of the great culling of 2018 due to the licensing. Tsoi was definitely a poet though, having read several translated lyrics it’s easy to see why they resonated with so many people as they deal with themes of daily struggle and the pursuit of liberty. Given that the band’s rise coincided with Glasnost, it would have felt like the soundtrack to a time of great change. For his lyrical delivery to still impact me considering I barely speak a word of Russian, I think that’s genuinely impressive and speaks to the nature of good music that it can transcend things like a language barrier. While I have wanted to visit Moscow for years, due to certain somewhat obvious reasons I haven’t been but I do think that I’d take the time to visit the Tsoi Wall, a memorial to the man with messages from fans written down its length. If anything, it would be nice to pay my respects to a man who truly stood out amongst one of the most tumultuous periods in world history.

@nessisonett Thanks I'll check out those albums. I'm on a Bob Dylan jag at the moment, can you recommend any albums similar to Self-Portrait? (i.e mostly just him and an acoustic guitar rather than the electric, full-band stuff)

@nessisonett Really enjoyed your eulogy for Tsoi, it sounds like he was truly a great character. The language barrier is difficult for me to overcome personally, and Rammstein's music is impenetrable to me for that very same reason. Do you like any of Rammstein's music?

@Draco_V_Ecliptic I’m a Rammstein skeptic. It just sounds ludicrous to me. They sound like Right Said Fred singing along to an industrial metal soundfont.

Bob Dylan though, I could never get on with Self-Portrait, he’d released so many incredible albums and then seemingly decided to put out a late 60s/early 70s Elvis album. The version of Like A Rolling Stone on that album is rather painful. I typically avoid his albums that sound remotely like that one 😂

@nessisonett Lol!, I like that album, but I am open ears about his previous work that you deem incredible, could you suggest a couple of albums? I'm already familiar with Blonde On Blonde, Highway 61 Revisited & Bringing It All Back Home.