NINE SONGS I LIKED THIS WEEK IN LIST FORM: EXISTENTIAL RE-DO
About a year or so ago, more like two years, I guess, I got to participate in a documentary filmmaking workshop. The movie me and my time wanted to make (generational trauma generated by parents participating in war) never made it through, but that's OK. But other than failing at making documentary cinema, we also had masterclass-type deals with established writers, producers, and directors about what it is that makes a good documentary. I don't remember any of them, but one thing stuck with me since then and it was the concept of "access." That the reason people would be interested in your film (interested in funding it, going to see it, etc.) is the notion that you, the filmmaker, are somehow promising the audience exclusive access to something or somewhere. That you are uniquely positioned to tell a story that had not been told. I think the reason that concept stuck with me is that a lot of what we take in as "content" online for the past decade or so has been dominated by this idea. For instance, I'm semi-obsessed with people eating cool stuff on YouTube, mostly because I don't have access to most of that stuff. And I, as well as many others, really enjoy the "reacting to music" format as well, because I don't have access to listening to some of my favorite music for the first time. I don't wish I was 15 again, because being 15 was horrible. But listening to "Holy Wars" or "Blackened" for the first time was amazing, and getting to see people do that is a cool thing.
I also think a lot of the metal niche sub-categories kind of work on that idea. The Norwegian scene in the 90s is a great example. Not everyone can be a kid from Oslo in 1991, and wanting to have that access is part of the allure of that music – other than it being great, obviously.
Thing is, for most of my life I have been operating in the exact opposite of this premise. I write about American and English war literature – who cares what a kid from Israel has to say about that? I obsessively promote and write about (mostly) American avant-garde metal scenes. Who cares what a kid from Israel (OK, not a kid) has to say about that? What kind of unique "access" do I have over, say, people on the ground at the site of said musical happening, that can just hop a bus and see whatever it is I'm yammering about nine million miles away? That question has been nagging me a lot these days, for two reasons.
The first is that the premise on which this blog has been mostly established – finding cool new obscure music isn't something most people would take the time to do, and I can do that for them – is not obsolete. Everyone has "access," the same kind, and some people have WAY better access than I do. Which means, I guess, people read my nonsense because they like how I present it, or the specific music I choose, but it's getting fuzzier to understand what unique substance I have over any other person.
The second reason is that the local aspect of who I am and where I am is getting too big, and bigger everyday. These are easily the most horrific times in the life of this country/area in my lifetime, and it's the closest it has been to out-right collapse since the 40s. For some, I guess, that collapse is a good thing, and whatever crisis we are undergoing is just the natural result of decades of exploitation of injustice. That might be the case, but the crisis is still real, and the daily dilemma's I go through everyday, anchored mostly in pondering out loud whether I can raise my kids here, are plenty and physically oppressive. All of which is to say, I'm not sure I can be the dude live from somewhere (s/o White Zombie) writing about riffs to an audience who, for the most part, already knows about the riffs.
I keep telling myself this isn't a crisis (I'm talking about the site now, not the world) that spells an end, but one of transformation, a shift not unlike the one I made five years ago to focus more on talking with artists about art and writing about the art I love in a more personal or unapologetically weird way. So the weird needs to get weirder, I just need to figure out how. Because I'm losing my mind over here, and this writing has stopped helping me. And so I need to find a way to make it help me again. Let's see how it works:
Gigan – "Erratic Pulsitivity and Horror," from Anomalous Abstractigate Infinitessimus (Death Metal – Willowtip). Gigan help because Gigan reproduce the real chaos and violence that is the essence of much our experience, and it changes it. One of the reasons I listen to very noisy music is because it, ironically, blocks out the even horribler noise that is the incessant thinking and assaulting of the world into my pink soft center. Music like this is then the stand if for that horrible unstopping attack on me from the outside by re-establishing that attack as something I can take and even enjoy. It's a healing too-muchness, and it isn't done right that often. On that note: New Mylingar album when?
Man's Gin – "One Man Down," from The Reprobate (Folk Rock – Profound Lore Records). Within the context given above, Man's Gin is one strategy to deal with the all-out war that is everyday life. I guess you could call that strategy something like ritual/the call of tradition, the tradition in question being that Western (as in Western US) tradition of almost psychotic independence combined with the crushing and inescapable reality of the void that is your landscape. Very happy to see Erik Wunder get his shit together and finally release this (along with a pretty formidable band of collaborators), my AOTD interview with him remains one of my favorites.
Sedimentum – "Le Labyrinthe Sempiternel," from Derrière les Portes d'une Arcane Transcendante (Death Metal – Dark Descent Records / Me Saco Un Ojo Records). Riding the wave. If the world is a wave of razor blades and acid, ride it. I don't get death metal as becoming violence, I don't even get death metal as mimicking violence, I get death metal as dealing with violence. There was a while there that Sedimentum were almost next big thing, also owing to the fact that they had a Blood Incantation-eque logo and a very good demo. But this to me sounds like the best they've gotten since that (still very good) demo. Riffy, atmospheric and nasty. Kind of closer to what I wanted the most recent Grave Miasma album to be.
Moyamoya – "Bodies," from Demolition 2024 (Post-Hardcore/Metal – Independent). That soft center I was talking about above in that lengthy whatever-it-was piece that opened this post and that marks yet another milestone in the slow crumbing of this blog into whatever form it may take in the future, sometimes it's the star of the show. Sometimes you want that soft stuff hanging to feel the pain even more but also to show others that it's doable. Whatever Moyamoya means, and whatever music they make, I am forever on their side. Fuck it, I'll do a "FFF" too: Intercourse playing hip hop beats.
Pulchritude – "I See You in Lights," from Wrapped in a Chasm (Blackgaze/Atmospheric Black Metal – Independent). Getting even pinker and even softer. to the point of dissipating into a warm colorful wind over a desert of unfeeling (wow, great emo lyrics, Ron). Anyone listening to this jangly, Fender-led jaunt through the fields of melancholy will think about Sadness, which has been crazy releasing these days, even more than usual. But that comparison is only partly apt. This is Sadness had Sadness had been left to melt like emotional butter in the sun, leaving only hurt and a Fender.
Gospel Tremors – "Ventra," from Gospel Tremors (Alt Metal – Independent). Speaking of surviving an impossible emotional reality, this sounds like something I would be very into when I was 15. The almost-nu metal vibes, the soaring melodies, the disorienting riffs. I should be cringing at most of this, but it sounds good and it feels real. Cool.
Teeth – "Apparition," from The Will of Hate (Death Metal – Translation Loss Records). I should have mentioned the new Teeth album long ago, mostly because they're one of the bands I've written about the longest in this stupid place (first reference here, Jan 2015), and one that has continued to get better and better. But I just didn't. Funny how that works. They're still great, they still sound like a bizzare nightmare, and this has to be the most "death metal sounding" they've been in a while. Just straight up riffage.
Föhn – "Bereft," from Condescending (Doom Metal – Hypaethral Records). And, of course, there's always the possibly of microscoping into the airy particles that make up even the most dense of harsh realities and dwelling in both the infinite spaces that makes us as well as the time or new time it creates of a forever nothing. Have never heard of these people/band, have heard of them now and it's beautiful. And that cover is the best cover.
Psychonaut 4 – "Vai Me," from ...Of Mourning (Depressive Black Metal – Immortal Frost Productions). The undisputed Kings of Making Me Feel Horrible are finally back with more music to make me feel horrible. "Sana-sana-sana – Cura-cura-cura" from their previous (and wonderful) full length, Beautyfall / სულდაცემა remains one of the most haunting tracks ever. So, they're back, sounding kinda sorta more rockin' and yet somehow still like creatures of the deep about to dissipate into poison. I'm a very happy miserable person now.
Vomitrot – "Vomitous Execrations," from Emetic Imprecations (Death/Black Metal – Transylvanian Recordings). No, Vomitrot will not save the world, the Middle East, or me. But it's good, sloppy death metal. And we need that sometimes. Fun story, I randomly handed out band stickers I had laying around in the office to my students and accidentally got one of them into Vomitrot.
FIVE MORE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
ONE: New Black Curse album coming this October. I said what I said.
TWO: Vinyl/CD reissue of the wonderful Swallowed album Lunarterial now up via Dark Descent and Me Saco Un Ojo
THREE: If you're into that indie-that-sounds-like-a-proggy-dream thing, Tel Aviv-based trio Nemerei Niyar (Paper Tigers) released a very cool new album.
FOUR: Whatever
FIVE: Epic doom that sounds heavy and nasty? Check out this track from Italians Xanthar. Very nice.
ONE LAST THING, PROMISE: War metal done right? This new Apocalyptic Noise/Blood Resistance split.
