#27: Melon yellow
New music from Xiu Xiu, Horse Jumper of Love, We Are Winter’s Blue and Radiant Children + DIY song trailers
This week’s new music:
Spotify
Apple Music
I’ve been on vacation for the past few days, a short break that we capped off by venturing out to Blue Hole, a swimming spot about an hour outside of Austin. As the temperature outside popped to 107 degrees, I floated in a creek that stays a steady 75 all year long.
The main attraction for my children, however, was the rope swing. I watched as they hurled themselves off the dock, over and over, flying into the water, again and again. Splash after splash after splash. I need my phone, because I’ve got to get this on video, I thought. Except my phone was back with our towels, safely ashore, because even though it’s waterproof, if it gets wet it won’t charge for a while, a bad thing to deal with this far from home.
Which got me thinking about how I wished I had a waterproof camera on me at that very moment, which got me thinking about the classic waterproof electronics of the 1980s and ’90s, all massive, oversized yellow plastics.
Whether or not they ever saw a drop of water, they looked cool and ready for anything, attributes they were also intended to bestow upon their owner.
In retrospect, they’re refreshingly garish—identifiable, apparently, if you drop your boombox while snorkeling—a big, bright yellow that’s anything but today’s space gray everything.
Though even if there were a way to replicate the aesthetic in a waterproof phone case, I’m not sure I’d want it. Because what’s nice about a waterproof Discman is that even if it’s consumed by an anemone, your camera is still intact—because it’s not the same thing. Maybe the post about how a smartphone can do everything featured in a 1991 Radio Shack ad was really a warning.
This week’s new music
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Music
KMRU, “lattice”
Someday we’re going to look back on this time and realize how good we had it, when Joseph Kamaru was dropping pearls of meditative, ambient genius into our consciousness on practically a weekly basis. Or maybe we’re going to realize it right now. / Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube
Xiu Xiu, “Arp Omni/Veneficium”
This pair of new songs from Xiu Xiu is absolutely some of the best music I’ve heard all year. Quietly devastating, “Arp Omni” is a love song to end all love songs—I mean, these lyrics—while “Veneficium” couldn’t be more different, a dark, chaotic rocker with a bevy of riffs, all competing for the spotlight.
“Arp Omni” / Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube
“Veneficium” / Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube
Farida Amadou, “The End Of”
Whether it’s guitar—or as is the case here, electric bass—the way Amadou is able to tap, strum, and drum an instrument to extract such beautiful noises from it is really something to hear, but it’s also fascinating to watch. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp
Horse Jumper of Love, “Snow Angel”
You had me at emogaze. I’m powerless to resist this song. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
amelia courthouse, “Vihangi”
A meandering keyboard melody leads this faraway song that almost seems to drift into view before slowly departing. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Being Dead, “Van Goes”
Recalling early, minimalist B-52s (think “Give Me Back My Man”), this band is making some of the most interesting guitar-led rock right now. Eerie and peculiar, with surprises lurking around every corner. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Alan Sparhawk, “Get Still”
Alan Sparhawk’s first new music since the death of Mimi Parker—his wife and the other half of Low—is of course wrapped in grief, but hardly morose, continuing his and Parker’s unapologetic forays into whatever comes naturally. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Jay Glass Dubs, “Chewing Bricks”
Organic and spacey in all the right ways. / Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube
We Are Winter’s Blue and Radiant Children, “Uncloudy Days”
Unrelentingly beautiful, this new collaboration from members of BIG|BRAVE, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Ada is equal parts elegiac and hopeful. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Isik Kural, “Stems of Water”
The way this song warbles in, so intimate and kind, like it’s being played directly to you. It just exudes warmth and humanity. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Midwife, “Vanessa”
No one crushes your soul better. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Google Earth, “deep sea leaks”
Real second side of Low vibes (so good) on this collaboration between John Vanderslice and James Riotto—and with a whole extra layer of wonderful beat work. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Chitinous Mandible, “Field of Vision”
A remarkably tight and restrained vintage-y psych expedition, over and done in just around two-and-a-half minutes, which is saying something in the realm of vintage-y psych expeditions. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
Gerald Cleaver, “The Process”
Song length says a lot, and any song that crosses the 30-minute mark better have something to say. That’s why I find no shame, when attempting a song that clocks in at 36:54—as this one does—in skipping ahead. If there’s little discernible difference between what’s happening after the first minute and what’s happening after the fifth or 15th, it doesn’t mean it’s a worthless track—only that it’s one that won’t bear repeated close listens. But when I can hear that thread of the song, even when skipping far into the distance, and how it might change substantially over the course of my drop-ins, that’s when this sort of DIY song trailer does the job of getting me excited to hear what’s inside the song, how it all connects and evolves. And I’m not sure how many listens I’m up to on this one, but I keep discovering something new. / Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, YouTube
