Great news for most of you: @rivetgoth has summoned me to choose ten of my favorite listens of September ‘23. Expanding the time span to thirty days meant holding out until the end of the month just to be sure. Picking out only ten was easy to do, and whether you like me or not, you’re gonna’ have to deal with it.
#1: Replacements, The: "Unsatisfied"
#2: Cult, The: "Rain"
#3: Chemical Brothers: "No Reason"
This group of three is what happens when you’re following a mutual who’s super-obsessed about music. @tewz is an open book with plenty of audio and music video posts for the taking, plus a couple of Spotify playlists to rifle through. (Stay for the cat videos, too.) She’s my go-to and because of her, I had easy assembly of one of my recent radio broadcasts.
A fellow dee-jay asked me to fill-in for him not long ago. Now I had a double-broadcast (four hours) to set up. I had enough reserves from her to pull it off, so The Replacements’ “Unsatisfied” and The Cult “Rain” made the cut. Chemical Brothers: "No Reason" reminded me why they retained a feverish fan base to begin with, going all the way back to their “Setting Sun” days. Dare I say it reminded me of Daft Punk? Really, I thank her for everything music-wise she’s given me, ever.
#4: Crime Of Passing: "Off My Shoulder"
I love everything about this track. Unmistakably reminds me of Diat and the rest of the record follows with goth rock, post-punk / d.i.y, and coldwave. As a whole, Crime Of Passing displays a great style, aesthetic, seriousness, and urgency; all coming together and consistent as a gloomy yet smoking-hot nine-track album.
#5: Yfory: "Chwaer Pwy?"
#6: M(h)aol: “Therapy”
#7: Es: "Emergency"
I did an all post-punk / d.i.y. broadcast last month. One portion of the show had me group together female-fronted bands from Europe. That block started with Germany’s Maraudeur, continued on with Scotland’s Breakfast Muff, and then these three. Anyone paying attention knows that Europe (and especially the UK) is giving every other city scene a run for their money.
Also from Germany, Yfory struck me with their album cover (If anyone can identify that typeset, do let me know), their fluid Welsh lyrics which is new to me, and their great craftsmanship; hence "Chwaer Pwy?". I went with “Therapy” from feminist band M(h)aol because it sounds so rough. It’s the Irish equivalent of Guerilla Toss’ “Eraser Stargazer Forever” which sweeps the floor of everything. (If you really want to set yourself on fire, listen to “Period Sex”. Wow.) And, I got excited for new sounds from England’s Es. I played their opener “Emergency” at least 20 times and I still haven’t figured them out. That’s a good thing. Fortunately, the hopeful sounds of “Emergency” follows towards Less Of Everything and far away from Object Relations, and that’s from Flora Watters on keyboards, who is that special ingredient that makes Es. Their uniqueness pushes them near the very top of post-punk / d.i.y.
#8: Mamalarky: “Green Earth”
No way! What is this?! As if Palm’s Dog Milk and Mr. Elevator got a room, fucked, and made this. And I don’t know why I’m also equating Todd Rungren’s “Hello It’s Me”, maybe Peter Max, and other late-Sixties / early-Seventies standards in the mix, but this sounds amazing. It has that lo-fi, drowsy, malfunctioning feel with a wondrous charm to it. It’s really beautiful.
Now get this: “Green Earth” is on the environmentally- conscious The Eleventh Hour: Songs for Climate Justice compilation (and later Pocket Fantasy: B-Sides), and then you can clearly hear vocalist Livvy Bennett breathe in and inhale before singing each verse. Get it? Any song that can transport you to a new, undiscovered world is a unanimous winner in my book.
#9: Blonde Redhead: “Melody Experiment”
#10: Tan Cologne: "Visitation"
To describe these in one word: inexplicable. They can be a soundtrack to a future world that could very well be possible, but in the same measure possibly not. These would fit right in with the annual ‘second chance’ broadcasts I do to end the year. ‘Second chance’, meaning, songs I enjoy but simply don’t fit into a specific category, so they have one all of their own. Think Erasers’ “Easy To See”, Mega Bog’s “Maybe You Died”, New Chance’s “Real Time”, Lily’s “New Fries”, and Il Quadro Di Trosi’s “Sfere Di Qi”.
“Melody Experiment” from Blonde Redhead sounds unreal to me. I still don’t believe it even exists. If it does, it’s the definition of ‘slick’. Sonically, it has wavelengths of “Corrections” from Phil Western and a breath similar to Pixel Grip’s Rita Lukea. Don’t ask me why I came up with that. To each, everyone’s own. Tan Cologne’s new single had to be influenced by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood “Sand“; the all-encompassing heat during the pending sundown on a blazing-hot Summer day. These final two picks I’ve already heard at least thirty times, and I plan on hearing them thirty more.
Good news: I tag no one. As always, play at your own risk.
