Topic: The Music Thread

@nessisonett What do you think of Sleep Token? My brother reckons they are going to be bigger than Muse.

@LN78 They seem to have passed me by but I had a little listen there. They remind me a bit of Deftones, with a similar melodic take on progressive metal but with slightly poppier vocals. I could see them doing well in the UK metal scene as their promotion and merchandising is really impressive for a smaller act but I think they’d probably have to release a more accessible album to really break into the mainstream. There definitely seems to be a new wave of rock and metal coming through but TikTok is where most acts are having big success and the genre just doesn’t lend itself to that instant hit nature.

@nessisonett Really? What are a couple of experimental Mingus albums that you could recommend? I take it Black Saint would be one of them.

I'm continuing my weird and psychotic journey of cataloguing and organising all of my Spotify playlists. Really into it this week. I finalised a bunch of playlists for the best music of every decade starting with the sixties, which I've been working on for like four years or something, but we're like done now. Done done. Happy with the running orders and everything. And yeah, at some point I'll hear a song from 1964 I never heard before and I'll have to slot it in but I'll allow that.

I'm now cataloguing my favourite albums of each decade because that's where we're at now. At the minute it's going to be twenty per decade but who knows. I got twenty for the eighties and twenty for the nineties. Doing the 2010s now because I hate the 2000s.

What a life.

@TheBrandedSwordsman Probably Black Saint of course and then Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus. All over the place for sure but in a really fun way.

@johncalmc I have one 64 hour playlist that I just put any song I like into. Been adding to it since about 2014 and it’s interesting to see my tastes changing.

@nessisonett I wish I had one of those. I have a playlist called "Every Song I Have Ever Liked" that I add every song I like to but I started it long after I joined Spotify so it's not really chronological or autobiographical since loads of songs were added at the same time when I first did it. It's 400 hours long.

Weirdly gutted about coming so close with Eurovision. I obviously get why Ukraine won and beating them would have been a foreign policy disaster but it does feel as if we just came on the wrong year!

Limp Bizkit, the cast of Allo Allo, Napalm Death, and the Cheeky Girls... together at last.

Noel Edmunds on the bill without Mr Blobby!

Blobby will be there. That lad never misses the chance to show Edmunds up.

Currently revisiting the NIN back catalogue. I'm finding that some of the early albums that I listened to when I was a teenager are still my favourites but the With Teeth album has got something about it...

Apart from NIN I've listened to plenty of Filter and Rammstein but wanted to see if anyone could recommend anything I've missed?

Viagra Boys* are playing in my city tonight. It's sold out. When it sold out, I was like "oh well, I didn't buy tickets, so that sucks, but I've already seen them so it sucks a little less".
Today, an email reminded me that I did in fact buy those tickets - it was 2 years ago and the date was moved twice due to covid.
So I guess I'm seeing Viagra Boys tonight.
Classic Voltan

* a groovy post-punk band from Sweden
Music video for reference

@Voltan Definitely a case of paying it forward for the future you. Enjoy the gig 😄

@Voltan Brilliant, I wish I’d gotten tickets to see them in Edinburgh but I was skint at the time! Hope you enjoy, they’re a great band and definitely the sort who’d be better live.

@nessisonett Yeah, I already saw them in 2019 and it was great.
This time it's a bigger venue but one I'm not familiar with - hopefully it will be at least as good

Fell down a rabbit hole of late 00s Scottish gang diss tracks. Lyrics are laughable although I doubt anyone else can even understand them! Also have absolutely no clue how Yat Yat has 1.7 million views 😂

Well Viagra Boys were brilliant. Nice venue too, pretty big one - I'd say there were about 1k people there (educated guess).

@TheBrandedSwordsman Bitches Brew. Where to even begin with this one? There is so much going on, so many instruments doing so many different things often at the same time. If I put this album on while doing other things, it becomes noise. However, blocking out the world and intentionally absorbing it’s madness reveals a brilliant, edgy, emotionally electric cacophony of both style and substance that is completely arresting. There really is so much to digest, especially for my fairly jazz ignorant ears.

The album opens sounding like a light jam session. Only the guitar punching through every once in a while reminds me that there is a method to the madness, even if I don’t understand it yet. A gesture of trust between myself and the musicians that I will be rewarded if only I remain engaged. On my first listen, this entire opening (Pharaoh’s Dream, I think?) didn’t really do much for me. Now, a few listens later, I love it. I love the dynamic volume changes (jazz in general seems to capture this better than any other genre that I’ve listened to. It’s not just turning something down in the mix, it’s the musicians actually playing quieter and louder, sometimes in tandem, sometimes not, in a way that I just don’t hear elsewhere, outside of classical). I love the random flurry of Miles, as if he’s playing in a realm between notes, something that can hardly be put to paper. It all culminates in what I can only describe as a skin crawling, spider-like climax. Like little arachnids busily weaving webs only to be caught up in their own design.

Then Bitches Brew. The reverby echoes of trumpet blasts work well to differentiate this track from the last. It’s a winding, meandering thing that always feels to me like it’s on the edge of losing itself, like a car drifting around a corner, only to be brought back by the touch of a skilled driver.

Easily my favourite section is Miles Runs The Voodoo Down. To my ears, this has to be the shining example of what Jazz Fusion is all about, and is just an absolute blast to listen to. There’s almost a dueling nature between the guitar (which would absolutely triumph in this section of not for Miles’ ridiculous answer) and trumpet here. If I had to describe it in a word, I’d use groovy, though that certainly doesn’t aptly describe the utter insanity that unfolds around the 3/4 mark. All of the instruments have their moment, really. Keys really punch through here too. Overall, this section is an absolute home run for me.

This album has really opened my ears to Jazz Fusion. I do wish I had a better understanding of where and how it fits within the wider culture of jazz as it appears to be quite the revolutionary achievement. With that said, my lack of knowledge here hasn’t changed my opinion that this album is something special. I still don’t fully understand it and maybe never will, but I’ll keep on listening, each time gleaning something fresh, something inspiring, something encouraging from it.

Thanks for showing me this. My apologies for the rather long delay in getting back to you on this. I really wanted to give it the proper listens it deserves and the proper time to form a valid opinion. It’s a genre I’m not overly familiar with. Thank you for your patience and for the awesome recommendation!