For the longest time I've really been wanting to steal @mcc's idea of an "What I'm listening to today" thread (current incarnation here: https://mastodon.social/@mcc/112356066616688565), but I don't usually have anywhere near as many insightful things to say about the songs, so I haven't.
But maybe I should just do it anyway. I will be posting these at a regular rate of "whenever I get obsessed with something or remember a good song".
So, today I am listening to this SOPHIE track I just found and had not heard before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATa-ZGPQrH4
I'm not quite an Advanced enough listener to always fully enjoy SOPHIE's more Advanced creations, but this is very Easy and ideal for comfortable listening in relaxed locations.
For those not that familiar with SOPHIE who don't understand my joke about "Advanced" in the last post, here is an example of what that is like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uERIXLWeik0
This is a song I struggled for a long time with being able to enjoy at all, until I watched the video. And that somehow clarified to me what kind of energy it was trying to bring, and suddenly I could vibe with it.
This was a good lesson about difficult art and not being dismissive of what I don't immediately enjoy.
One of favourites, though, for some reason takes the melody of the original song, but replaces the lyrics with an adapted version of an old enka song about a woodcutter living in the mountains, and mixes in the soundtrack and video of a super obscure old bootleg video game inspired by the same song. (@mcc just managed to buy this, which reminded me.)
The result is an absolute banger:
Today I have been back to something that has been a favourite for a while now, and that is underscores’ _Wallsocket_ album, but now in the Director's cut version with added tracks. Out of these, one of the most catchy is definitely _Stupid (Can't run from the urge)_: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peZwDIPyDEA
It's up there with the best of the best high-concept high-production hyperpop bangers from the album. I recommend all of it, but be warned that other parts of the album get *heavy* in terms of themes.
Tonight I am, AGAIN, listening to SOPHIE. There's been a lot of that lately. This time I am specifically craving the exquisite way this track collapses halfway through:
So on my work computer Youtube has no idea what I usually watch and is just recommending me random utter garbage, but it suddenly spat out this song, which I am now listening to and desperately trying to remember why I'd already heard it. Sure, it's the kind of thing I might know, but, why this specifically? Going somewhat mad.
"Densha ka mo shirenai / Might be a train?" - Mysterious, evocative and kind of harsh vibes, with a lovely animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpzHb5clWkE
What I am listening to today: CONNIE's album _Tek.USB_. This has the energy of listening to gabber in the nineties when it was actually fresh and revolutionary. I listened to this while driving at night and that was a mistake. I could have fucking died. This needs to be played at high volume, preferably in a residential era.
Also, this track is maybe not the best example of the album, but it makes me laugh too much not to link it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxz17IfdI8w&list=OLAK5uy_l5Hjdh7VcuDbMFm5bIA9_aTmtvCJBAxg0&index=5
What I am listening to today: I am back to Orbital's _Dirty Rat_. I can't believe it's been only two years since this came out. Feels like an eternity. Intensely angry and political, but is it even angry enough any more? Extremely of its time, but also a fucking banger.
Trying to figure out what, exactly, the absolutely brilliant line "A fake card in a fake bank machine" evokes in me.
Listen to 'Dirty Rat’: https://orbitalband.lnk.to/DirtyRatThe new album 'Optical Delusion' out now: https://orbitalband.lnk.to/OpticalDelusionSubscribe to Or...
What I am listening to today: This performance of _Dang_ by Caroline Polachek. Mainly because this slide from it will pop up in my head at least once a week.
I'm not usually the hugest fan of Caroline Polachek but this song goes hard, and the performance goes even harder. I remember reading someone suggesting that the mark of a truly great comic strip is that every panel is funny separately, not just the punchline. This is that, but for powerpoint presentations.
What I am furthermore listening to today: Kim Petras going full hyperpop finally. She's always been pretty hyperpop-adjacent, but suddenly she is going full beast mode.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuAU3sbzbBo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl2ig2D61mc
To quote a comment, "okay kim xcx".
What I am listening to today: _Dear Miami_ by Róisín Murphy. I could talk about how much I love her music in general, but actually, this one just came on randomly today and I got to get hit hard in the face again with the refrain:
Dear Miami
You're the first to go
Disappearing
Under melting snow
Each and every one
Turn your critical eye
From the burning sun
And try not to cry
What I am listening to today: The Finnish band Maustetytöt's _Ei niin kovin suuri city_ ("Not that big a city"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGPNRkG-3mo
This is kind of outside my musical comfort zone in various ways but I keep coming back to it for the lyricism and honestly highly neurodivergent performance. The lyricism may be a challenge to appreciate if you don't know Finnish, though, but the hook of the song is something along the lines of "This city killed me, but would not itself consent to dying".
What I am listening to today: Ashnikko and COBRAH collaborating on _Wet Like_: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4Kg7lp11M8
Incredibly heavy and filthy. A bassline that is hard at work drilling a borehole to the Earth's mantle.
I wish there was a full version of this clip posted on TikTok, because it is also good brain chemistry: https://www.tiktok.com/@ashnikko/video/7557040830469442838
What I am listening to today: On the old drum'n'bass today with Roni Size and Zach de la Rocha on _Centre of the Storm_: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CxsHGcPY6M
This is just such intensely concentrated tension, and Zach is absolutely spitting.
"The critics rush me like / Salman Rushdie as I / Enter the centre of the storm with Size"
What I am listening to today: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XmNNb63TVo
For... the reasons.
What I am NOT listening to today because I am too scared: COBRAH's latest album.
I don't know what's worse, if it doesn't live up to my expectations, or, if it DOES and it fucking kills me.
I've listened to one single off this, and nothing has EVER gone as hard as this: _Torn_: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s56Rx6qlo0Y
Dag Ågren ↙︎↙︎↙︎
