Do you like instrumental electronica? My inbox has become so
flooded with it in recent weeks I’ve been practically drowning in synths and
808s – expect a lot of it from here on in. Plus other musical madness.
THE BEST:
‘Nile’ – Opal Blue
Opening with oriental flutes, warm pianos chords and synths-that-sound-like-oriental-flutes this track floats weightlessly in air for a minute before jumping into a satisfying groove of clickety percussion. It's as ambient as it is effervescent - as suitable for meditating to as it is to running on a treadmill to. Not that I'd do either.
‘Acid tide’ – Spiders
Eat Vinyl
Spiders Eat Vinyl is quite a badass band name. I was expecting a metal group. Instead, the Sheffield synth-wizards seem to specialise in zenned-out retro-flavoured soundscapes more suited for an aquarium or a planetarium. That said, this is much more textured and interesting than your usual Barnes & Noble music, plus I'm loving the nostalgic New Wave vibes.
‘Seen’ - Bruce Cohen
The cacophony of synths in the background never really settles for a melody, and yet I can’t help but find the din all weirdly hypnotic as it hums and whirrs against the looping percussion in the foreground. For all I know it could just be a dude smashing random notes on a keyboard, although I'd like to think it's more calculated than that.
‘Dark Red’ – Steve Lacy
All the members of r&b collective The Internet are releasing solo albums this year. Syd and Matt Martians have already dropped LPs – now third member Steve Lacy has decided he doesn't want to be left out. ‘Dark Red’ is our first taster of things to come. It’s a twangy forlorn soul track that opens with the singer contemplating ‘something bad’s about to happen to me’ and ends with him pleading ‘don’t leave darling/ don’t leave’. I can see why this single didn’t drop over Valentine’s week – it’s basically a pre-breakup song. Hits me right in the feels.
‘Pasta Solo’ – Myles
Manley
What starts as a dainty folk ditty swiftly trails off into left-field lunacy involving pitch-shifted doops, descending pianos and a separate vocalist called Nobody who appears from nowhere. It’s absolutely crackers. I’ve still got no idea where the pasta fits in.
THE WORST:
‘Heavy’ – Linkin Park
The problem isn’t that ‘Heavy’ isn’t heavy, or the fact that
Linkin Park have ‘sold out’ – I’m pretty sure they did that years ago. The
problem is that for pop-EDM this is utterly bland. It’s enough to make even The
Chainsmokers yawn.