Did you watch the Grammys? Absolutely riveting, wasn’t it? Totally, cured my insomnia. Anyway, it’s weekly roundup time. Artists featured this week include Father John Misty, Toro Y Moi, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Brendon Moon, Billain and Schoolboy Q.
THE BEST:
‘The Next 20th Century’ – Father John Misty
‘The nazis that we hired for our wedding band…’. That’s
certainly one way to open a track. Father John Misty delivers some of his most dense
and vivid lyricism to date in this gloomy closing song from his new album. The
instrumentation has an ominous quality that gives it an end-of-the-world feel.
I also love how he (SPOILER ALERT) ambushes us with that wailing distorted guitar
solo half-way through. Certainly not what I was expecting in an FJM track.
‘Déjà vu’ – Toro Y Moi
Talking of unexpected wailing distorted guitars, have you
heard this new Toro Y Moi song? He’s drifted a long way from his early
chillwave origins, and is now making psychedelic bluesy rock. It has a Rolling
Stones/Beatles vibe at first and then goes a bit Hendrix-inspired at the end. Even
if it is drawing heavily on old sounds, it still feels quite playful. I also appreciate
how well he’s able to pull off that nun bonnet. The song is set to appear on his
upcoming record MAHAL.
‘Blood In The Snow’ – Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs is the wonderfully named solo
project of British-American indietronica artist Orlando Higginbottom. According
to Higginbottom, this new song ‘is about melting glaciers and wanting a
daughter’. It’s made up of some chillingly frosty synths, topped with
vocals soaked in a icy reverb. And yet there are still moments of
warmth such as those gorgeous harmonised ‘oohs’.
‘Fear’ – Brendon Moon
This Sydney-based singer-songwriter has quite a unique vocal tone as can heard in his new single ‘Fear’. I love how his voice glides softly over the tumultuous guitars. The track also has some really intense and creative drumming. Most of the alt rock I get in my inbox nowadays is just Radiohead or QOTSA
worship, so it’s great to hear an artist that sounds a bit different.
‘Interceptor’ – Billain
After a long and beautiful cinematic introduction, ‘Interceptor’
blasts the listener with some absolutely grotesque distorted bass before plunging
into a chaotic drum-and-bass drop. The kick sounds like a Transformer being thrown
down some stairs. It’s mental!
THE WORST:
‘Soccer Dad’ – Schoolboy Q
I was expecting the marching band beat to evolve at some
point, but it doesn’t. In fact, it only gets more irritating as the track goes on.
I’m sorry Q, but ‘Soccer Dad’ is a miss.