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gemtvusa · 7 months

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Sony QD-OLED 55 inch BRAVIA XR A95L 4K Ultra HD TV

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thebandcampdiaries · 1 year

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Wild Fire presents: Just Friends

Wild Fire is a band with a focus on creating original music that explores various styles. The backbone of Wild Fire’s sound is found in pop, rock, and country, but there is also a lot more going on; as the pair is always eager to explore different styles and new vibes.

Wild Fire, the sister duo known for their captivating harmonies and relatable lyrics, is excited to announce the release of their latest single “Just Friends”. The song is a lighthearted, yet poignant exploration of the blurred lines between friendship and romance. "Just Friends" is also the lead single off of their upcoming album. In fact the sisters are crowdfunding the new album, due out in the summer of 2023. If you would like to check out their crowdfunding campaign and become of part of their journey, CLICK HERE: https://wildfiresings.com/new-album-campaign

"Just Friends" is a departure from Wild Fire's usual sound, with a driving beat and infectious chorus that is sure to get stuck in listeners' heads. The lyrics explore the dynamic between two friends where one person wants more, but the other is content with things as they are. The song is both relatable and nostalgic, capturing the fleeting moments of youthful indiscretions that many of us have experienced.

Clocking in at about 3 minutes and 36 seconds, this song packs quite a punch and it feels like a truly stunning introduction to what Wild Fire is all about. Not only is the performance amazing, but the songwriting is on-point too. The production quality is off the charts, and the song has all the crisp clarity the audience would expect from a contemporary rock number. In the words of Wild Fire themselves, A.K.A. Kelli and Kayla Iutzwig, “The Best singers draw from experience.” This is one of the reasons why this song is so mesmerizing and easy to connect with. Much like the rest of their discography, “Just Friends” is another page of Wild Fire’s amazing story of rising to the top of the music scene and earning fans from all over the world with their amazing sound. Although they are still teenagers, these two amazing sisters already showcase maturity beyond their years when it comes to their songwriting and performance chops. They consistently receive praise from fans and industry insiders alike, and if “Just Friends” is any indication, this is only the beginning for these talented girls!

This release is highly recommended to fans of artists as diverse as Phoebe Bridgers, Francis Moon, Olivia Rodrigo, Taylor Swift, and many more. What makes Wild Fire’s music so special is that Kelli and Kayla are constantly growing and exploring new ideas, song after song. This constant ability to refresh their formula and keep things interesting is undoubtedly one of the main perks of their music, and their infectious personality seals the deal! “Just Friends” is only one of the many fantastic releases available on streaming platforms from the duo. Wild Fire has released a number of amazing singles, including popular tracks that have been featured on major playlists and garnered hundreds of thousands of streams.

Find out more about Wild Fire, and do not miss out on “Just Friends.” You can connect with Wild Fire on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. In addition, the duo’s music is available on Spotify and Youtube, as well as other digital streaming services.

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ravetaper · 3 years

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Voyd / Svdden Death - EDC Las Vegas 2021 Live Set

This is a 75-minue audio recording of Voyd (Svdden Death) at EDC Las Vegas 2021 live set, Saturday, October 23, 2021. The performance took place at the BassPod stage, and began at 12:30 AM the following morning.

Rave Tapes · VOYD (Svdden Death) Live at EDC Las Vegas 2021 [full set, stereo]

Ahhhh VOYD!

At a festival dominated by bright colors and happy imagery, Voyd offers a refreshing departure. Sure, it's bass music, but the vibe hits different. The tracks he plays are slower and ominous-sounding. His mask and outfit seem occult. But it's so much fun! It's like a guilty pleasure feeling as if one is participating in a dark ritual. It may be schtick, but it's wonderful nonetheless. And the music is 100% legit.

The first time I saw Svdden Death was at EDC 2019. I caught the tail end of his set and instantly regretted not getting there earlier and recording it. I knew right away that Svdden Death/Voyd/Danny Howland was something special.

When Svdden Death came to LA in February 20202, going to the show was a no-brainer. It was awesome! The first half of the show was more mainstream riddim and dubstep. The second half of the show was performed as VOYD. During the Voyd into, Howland was rigged in a harness and got lifted 15 feet into the air, appearing as if he was magically hovering over the decks! The crowd went insane! Listen to the set here: Svdden Death Live at the Hollywood Palladium 2020.

This set at EDC was ideal. It conveyed that eerie Voyd feeling while delivering ground-shaking beats. Of course, Howland looked the part, donned in the skull helmet and spiky jacket. The visuals were tamer than what I had seen before. I personally like the animated imagery of demonic warriors, devils and witchcraft. Visuals like that really fit the Svdden Death/Void persona. The visuals of this performance were mainly undulating patterns of red and black, accented with occasional blasts of pyrotechnic fire. At a stage shared by a dozen other performers, artists are limited in how much stage production they can control. Perfectly understandable, perfectly acceptable.

Several times during the set a small mosh pit opened to my left. I understand people’s desire to mosh, especially to this music. I get it. As long as the moshers stay respectful of the people outside the circle, it’s not a problem. But the nature of moshing is chaotic and it’s inevitable that some moshers get pushed hard into the crowd. I’m usually able to keep my mic upright and save the recording even with the moshing going on. Luckily, I got through this set without a major mishap.

I have to say the sound quality of this recording is flippin’ off the charts. Even I can’t believe I was able to capture sound this good. Yes, I did a little processing to clean up and boost the signal, but damn, the final product sounds amazing. All frequencies are heard, from the sub bass to the crispy highs. Stereo separation is correct. Props are owed to the Basspod crew for properly tuning the sound system for this set.

So enjoy the recording! It’s a doozy!

Listen to Svdden Death on Apple Music!

Follow Svdden Death on SoundCloud!

Listen to Svdden Death on Spotify!

Follow Svdden Death of Facebook!

#voyd #edc las vegas 2021 #edc #svdden death #live set #sudden death #dubstep #rave tapes

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xmystophalesx · 2 years

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Best New Metal Releases Weekend of February 4th, 2022

We head into February with more than a little momentum coming off a strong opening month of the year. The strength of the Heavy Metal genre and all of its multitudes of subgenres never ceases to amaze me. I mean, let’s be honest here, this music is not tearing up the sales charts. This music is being created by fans for fans. This is a long and hard road if you want to do this as a living. That just speaks to the love these artists have for this music. That all being said, let’s look at the highlights of what I came across for the week of February 4th.

This was a strong week for Thrash Metal once again and it didn’t take long to come across the album that could very well be the best Thrash Metal album of the year thus far. Atrox Trauma came out of the gate swinging with their release, “On the Line of Nothing and Something”. Blistering riffs and leads explode all over this album without losing that bit of groove that Thrash Metal is known for. I would be shocked if this isn’t on the list of best Thrash albums by the end of the year. It really is that good. Next up we have Vorga with “Striving Toward Oblivion”. A Melodic Black Metal release that had me preordering the vinyl online after the very first listen. From the epic sounds the song structures create with the absolute perfect production, everything about this album screams top tier. Even the cover art is worthy of note, as it is amazing as well. One good Melodic Black Metal album deserves another, and I didn’t have to wait long before I came across Mystic Circle and their first release since 2006 with this self-titled album. Not sure if the band was on a hiatus or actually broke up and reformed, but whatever the case is, they have come back incredibly strong. Heavy focus on melody on this album, sacrificing none of that Black Metal anger and heaviness. It reminds a bit of everything that I liked in the Yoth Iria album that ended up being my number one album of last year. Next up, we have a new release from the Melodic Death/Progressive Metal band Persefone. Nothing really new going on here, but this band doesn’t need to do anything new as what they are doing is incredibly well done. This is one of those bands that has the ability to take you on a trip through one of their songs. If you aren’t exactly sure what I am talking about, listen to the instrumental track “Leap of Faith” on a quality set of headphones and you will understand. The beauty that Persefone can create within their songs to the dirt, grime and anger the band Abhoria throws your way with their self-titled debut is quite a jump. You usually dont find this type of quality from a debut album which makes it even more impressive. This blend of Black and Progressive or even Technical Death Metal at times, is even more impressive coming out of Los Angeles. This is usually an area that Europe has been dominant in for a very long time. Hopefully, this signals more to come from the USA. We started this highlight section off with a Thrash band and we are going to end it with one as well. Atrox Trauma was a bit more on the serious side while the band Tymo and their release “The Art of a Maniac” are a bit more in that good time style of Thrash. Not necessarily in the lyrical content, but you can tell this music is written with the thought of a good mosh pit getting started. Just a catchy and fun album from beginning to end with some absolutely killer solos. If you like Thrash and you don’t like this album, I would be absolutely shocked.

Until next week and, as always,

BANG THY HEAD!

Those Who Bring the Torture-Cosmos Osmosis (Death)

Tine-Mergae Maris Profundi (Symhonic Black)

Brutalfly-I was an Experiment (Thrash)

Shatter-Death of the Universe (Thrash/Death)

Akrasia-Act of Will (Thrash)*

Detset-Vermeil (Melodic Death)

Kings and Liars-Transition Animals (Hard Rock)

Opposer-R3cod3d (Melodic Death/Thrash)*

Atrox Trauma-On the Line of Nothing and Something (Thrash)**

Tribut-Juicio Final (Power)

Vorga-Striving Toward Oblivion (Melodic Death)**

Shaylon-The Initiation of a Timeless Voyage (Symphonic Power)

Infected Plague-Horrors of the Terminal Earth (Death)

Human Harvest-Flesh Sermons (Death/Grind)*

Kill All the Gentlemen-Black Canvas (Melodic Death)*

Tlepsh-Hexed Sword (Melodic Black/Death)*

Krvvla-X (Black)*

The Final Sleep-Vessels of Grief (Melodic Death/Progressive)*

Craniotomy-Ripped Out by Violence (Death)

RF Force-RF Force (Heavy)

Mass Worship-Portal Tombs (Death)

Mystic Circle-Mystic Circle (Melodic Black)**

Persefone-Metanoia (Melodic Death/Progressive)**

Acranius-Mercy Denied (Death)

Golgothan-Leech (Death)*

Lunar Tombfields-The Eternal Harvest (Atmospheric Black)

Vanaheim-Een Verloren Verhaal (Melodic Death/Folk/Viking)

Monastery-Divine Damnation (Death/Thrash)*

Nihilum-Cascading Darkness (Black)*

Abhoria-Abhoria (Black/Death)**

Darvaza-Ascending into Perdition (Black)*

Chemical Annihilation-Resurrection (Thrash)*

Seismic Burst-Redistribute (Thrash)

Zeke Sky-Intergalactic Demon King (Heavy Progressive)

Kurokuma-Born of Obsidian (Heavy/Doom)*

Near Death Condition-Ascent Fron the Mundane (Death)

Tymo-The Art of Maniac (Thrash)**

Saxon-Carpe Diem (Heavy)*

All worthy of a listen if you like the genre

*= standout in that genre

**=best of the week regardless of genre

Pick of the Week goes to Vorga - Striving Toward Oblivion with 4.75 deep bulldog stares out of 5.

#black metal #metal #classic rock #death metal #folk #hard rock #hardcore music #music #punk #rock #melodic death metal

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gemtvusa · 7 months

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Sony QD-OLED 55 inch BRAVIA XR A95L 4K Ultra HD TV

Our best color ever. Definitive contrast.

BRAVIA XR A95L QD-OLED 4K HDR Google TV

Intelligent and powerful TV processing

Movies on us with BRAVIA CORE

Level up your gaming with HDMI 2.1 features

Product guides and documents

Comparison Chart (PDF)

Sony 4K and 8K HDR TVs

A95L Series

A80L Series

X93L Series

X95L Series

Z9K Series

A90K Series

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thebandcampdiaries · 1 year

Video

youtube

DJ Thadz presents: "I'll Be Ok"

December 2022 - DJ Thadz has recently dropped a unique release titled "I'll Be Ok", which sets the bar higher in terms of giving the audience a truly insightful and unique combination of electronic music, and modern EDM with a melodic twist. "I'll Be Ok" hits the mark with a big sound and a rich, detailed tone.

The song’s drum beat has a rather unique vibe with a trap-inspire hi-hat sound. Yet ,while there is a bit of a hip-hop twist to the beat, the song has a distinctive EDM flavor, especially when it comes to crafting amazing melodies that are so unique and easy to relate to. The melodic female vocals are truly spot-on, serving the track well and adding more to the distinctive flavor that makes this release so special and catchy. The production quality is off-the-charts, with a balanced tone that highlights every element of this production. “I’ll Be Ok” is a perfect calling card for DJ Thadz, who is actually showcasing some of his very best work yet with this amazing release!

DJ Thadz’s music comes highly recommended to listeners who enjoy the work of artists like Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Martin Garrix and Alesso, only to mention a few. The music is just as personable and dynamic, but DJ Thadz brings a breath of fresh air to the genre, giving the listeners a remarkable experience and a new take on the contemporary EDM sound sound that feels effortless and natural, especially due to DJ Thadz’s production and vibes. The instrumentation matches the mood of the vocals, channeling a lot of emotional intensity while still offering a smooth and appealing sound. This is electronic music at its best, and it also has a very appealing vibe that speaks to a broad audience.

Find out more about DJ Thadz, and listen to "I'll Be Ok". This release is currently available on some of the best digital streaming services on the web, including Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/5xvHJgtEJHkuE8ujCyinxD?si=LxgYcmPpS6iB2ETerjvN9Q&nd=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xcspo9alzn8

@djthadzvevo4333

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grimelords · 4 years

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October Playlist

My October playlist is finished and it’s complete from Rico Nasty to Rachmaninoff. I absolutely guarantee there’s something you’ll love in this 3 and a half hours of music, and probably something you’ll hate too! Something for everyone!

If you’d like to have these playlists delivered to your inbox instead of having them randomly appear on your dash, please subscribe to my tinyletter here.

listen here

Santeria - Pusha T: In anticipation of Jesus Is King I relistened to the entire Wyoming Sessions project a few times, and a year removed from all the hype and controversy here's the thing: it's fucking great. The individual albums ranged pretty widely in quality and felt slightly unfinished for how short they were sometimes, but taking the project as a whole 5-album 120 minute playlist it turns out it's a masterpiece. My personal tracklist goes Ye/Daytona/Nasir/KTSE/Kids See Ghosts, which isn't release order but I think makes it flow the best - both Kanye albums bookending it and the less impactful Nas and Teyana Taylor albums buried a bit further in where you can appreciate them now that you're deep in the mindset of the whole thing rather than alone on their own.

Puppets (Succession Remix) - Pusha T & Nicholas Brittel: This remix is such a perfect match: Pusha T’s corporate villainy finally given a context and prestige it deserves. It’s also short enough that it could feasible be the actual theme song next season, which would be a marked improvement imo.

Use This Gospel - Kanye West, Clipse & Kenny G: I am and remain a Kanye stan, even after everything. It’s nice to see him going back to the extremely uneven mastering of MBDTF era, it’s a sound that is uniquely his and it’s fun to see him revisit it. The thick vocoder harmony is so soupy you get lost in it, and the way it opens up to include the full choir in the No Malice verse is beautiful. Kanye reunited Clipse through Christ and we have Him to thank for that at least. The Kenny G break is great, and the grain and dirt on the whole track when the beat kicks in is so gritty you can feel it.

Man Of The Year - Schoolboy Q: I didn't love the Chromatics album they surprise released but it did thankfully remind me of the time Schoolboy Q sampled Cherry for Man Of The Year. Taken exclusively on lyrics, Man Of The Year is a triumph: he's the man of the year and it's all worked out but the sample and the beat underscores the dead eyed melancholy that runs through the whole of Oxymoron of never winning even when you've won.

Cold - Rico Nasty: This song fucking tears your face off. Imagine STARTING your album at this level of intensity. She just goes straight to 100 and burns the house down. Outside of Lil John so few rappers can get away with just straight up screaming in the adlibs but the way she just lung tearingly screams GOOOO through this is fucking sick.

Fake ID - Riton & Kah-Lo: TikTok songs are becoming their own genre, but it’s a very nebulous sort of a mood encompassing everything from aughts pop punk hooks to skipping rope raps like this. It’s a strange new way for songs to blow up that everyone seems compelled to write articles about but my take on it is it’s exactly the same as ads were in the old days. Remember how many songs did absolute numbers because someone put it in a Motorola ad? Same thing except you’re not being sold a phone this time, so in some ways it’s better. Anyway, this song bangs. The spirit of 212 era Azealia Banks lives on even if she’s doing her best ever since then to kill it.

Doctor Pressure - MYLO & Miami Sound Machine: There was a very good era in the mid-2000s where you could just put mashups out as singles and they’d chart, it was sick. My only two examples are this and Destination Calabria but I’m sure there’s more. Drop The Pressure is a masterpiece but as an alternate version this mashup is equally masterful.

If You’re Tarzan, I’m Jane - Martika: Martika is unfortunately best known for the 1989 one hit wonder Toy Soldiers, a sort of boring overdramatic ballad which is best known for being sampled by Eminem in 2004 in his quite bad super duper serious song Like Toy Soldiers. I say unfortunately because every other song on her first album is great, it’s all hypercolour 80s synthpop and I love this song especially because it is so completely stuffed with activity it becomes dizzying. It gets so lost in itself that they completely abandon the dramatic pause before “I’m Jane” for some reason toward the end and instead just layer three different tracks of vocal adlibs. Every part of this song is great, the weird ‘o we o we o’ chant before the second verse? The neighing horse guitar before the bridge? The musical tour of the world IN the bridge? The part where she says ‘I want to swing on your vine?’. This song has everything.

You Got Me Into This - Martika: Every part of the instrumentation in this is amazing. The bass sound, the main synth, the extremely athletic brass, the wonderful echoing 80s snare that’s as big as a house. I just love it. She also does some really intriguing slurs on the word ‘love’ all the way through, just moving it around absolutely anywhere.

Space Time Motion - Jennifer Vanilla: I love when someone has such a clearly defined aesthetic and mission from the very beginning. Jennifer Vanilla is the alter ego of Becca Kaufmann from Ava Luna who I've had in this playlist before but never competely investigated. Jennifer Vanilla feels like an episode of Sex And The City where Samantha gets really into Laurie Anderson and she is incredible. This video is the best mission statement I’ve ever seen and is currently criminally underviewed so please do your part and support the Jennifer cause by watching these two videos.

So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings - Caroline Polachek: Caroline Polachek said watch me write a Haim song and did it. Apparently the very early versions of this album started when she was in writing sessions for Katy Perry, but then it started to turn into something else and she took it for herself, and I think you can hear that. With more normal production and a little faster this is a hundred percent a Katy Perry song, but instead it’s completely uniquely Caroline Polachek and it’s all the better for it. And also Katy Perry must be furious because her new songs are simply not good at all.

Electric Blue - Arcade Fire: I just love the obsession of this song in the outro, chanting over and over and over “Cover my eyes electric blue, every single night I dream about you”

Promiscuous - Nelly Furtado and Timbaland: I got a youtube ad for one of those Masterclass videos the other day and it was Timbaland teaching production. This ad went for five minutes for some reason and I watched the whole thing and it made me admire Timbaland even more. He’s demonstrating his compositional technique which is basically to just beatbox, and then loop it, and then add some extra percussion layers with more beatboxing and hand percussion, then loop that and add a little melody by singing or humming. ‘It’s that simple’ he says. Then later he goes back in and puts in actual drums or synths or whatever. I was stunned because suddenly a lot of his music makes sense. Without the barrier of instrument or timbre to get hung up on it allows him to write from this instantly head-nodding place of just making up a little beat you can sing and dance to immediately. Listening to a lot of his music now you can hear the bones underneath everything so clearly, all his beats are supremely beatboxable and all his melodies are very hummable, they’ve never overcomplicated by instrumental skill or habits, they just exist to serve the song.

Serpent - TNGHT: TNGHT are back baby and this song is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It feels like afrofuturist footwork from another dimension, the mbira sounding lead against the oil drum percussion in this cacophony of yelps and screams that just builds to an irrepressible energy without a bassline in sight.

Ghosts Of My Life - Rufige Kru: I'm reading Mark Fisher's Ghosts Of My Life right now and some good person has put together a spotify playlist of all the songs he mentions. He has a whole essay about why this song is sick so I’m not going to go into it here but it’s interesting to hear about someone growing up with jungle when it’s a genre that has always felt very niche to me. I guess partly as a result of it never really making it mainstream as a genre here, and also me being a little too young for it.

Renegade Snares - Omni Trio: My biggest introduction to drum and bass comes from the game Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition and this really great song from the soundtrack that is finally on spotify after a very long absence. At almost the exact same time as I discovered this song with its spacious piano and repitched snares, I discovered Venetian Snares and breakcore in general. Having no particular frame of reference for breakcore as an offshoot of drum and bass only amplified its appeal to me as a completely alien genre that sounded like nothing else I’d ever heard, and so my personal history with drum and bass is a story of walking backwards into it after the fact which is interesting if not helpful.

Punching In A Dream - The Naked And Famous: The Mark Fisher book also mentions the Tricky song which I’ve never heard from which The Naked And Famous got their name and I thought ‘man remember The Naked And Famous, they were sick?’. The sort of harder edged Passion Pit instrumentation mixed with pop punk, a winning combination.

Vegas - Polica: My favourite part of this song is the unexpected blastbeats after the chorus, using their two drummers to their full advantage and just shaking the song by its foundations every now and then lest you get too comfortable.

Right Words - Cults: I’m beginning to suspect I may be the last surviving Cults stan but if this be my lot I’ll gladly do it

Running From The Sun - Chromatics: The new Chromatics album got me to relisten to their definitive document Kill For Love, and something new I appreciated this time about an album I love a lot is its length. Kill For Love is almost 80 minutes long and it luxuriates in that length. It’s sequenced perfectly so it never feels like it’s long for no reason, but large chunks just completely space out and go out of focus in the soft neon light and the second half of this song is a good example. The whole thing just evaporates into smoke and it feels perfect. If this were a shorter and more concise song that had a proper ending it wouldn’t feel right, this whole album has no straight edges at all and it’s all the better for it.

Chance - Angel Olsen: I cannot belive this song. This feels like she wrote her own version of My Way looking forward instead of back. Instead of the ruefully triumphant "I've lived a life that's full / I've traveled each and every highway" it's “I don't want it all / I've had enough / I don't want it all / I've had a love." before the turn from the future to the present at the end, where she gives up on a forever love in exchange for right now. I love how raw this vocal take feels. It's not her best voice but it feels very very honest as a result. She's just singing her heart out in this huge showstopping closer. In an interview she said "I didn’t love the recording of it very much, and now I just feel in love with it as a closing statement, because it’s a way of saying, ‘Look, I have hope for the next thing in my life.’ I’m not going to anticipate negativity or hate or an end. But instead of us looking towards forever, why don’t we just work on right now?"

Something To Believe - Weyes Blood: This album just keeps paying dividends. I’m systematically going through long obsessive periods with every single song on it and now it’s Something To Believe’s turn.

Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely) - Brigid Mae Power: Without meaning to, Brigid Mae Power seems to have created some incredible fusion of folk music and stoner metal. The way this song absolutely sits unmoving on one deep and resonant chord for so long is amazing. When it does change chords it feels like a full body effort to get up and shift. She has a similar feeling to Emma Ruth Rundle, who more explicitly wears her metal influences, but Brigid Mae Powers' strength is in how much it resembles the traditional folk side of the spectrum. Her voice is also amazing, with the huge effortless runs she goes on about halfway through just coming unmoored from the song completely and floating off into space.

Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ - Josh T. Pearson: I had a real problem with Josh T. Pearson for a long time because of how he presents as so authentic on this album, and as I’ve previously discussed in these playlists the concept of authenticity in country music is a source of neverending anguish for me. But his newest album The Straight Hits! has largely cured that for me because it’s not good at all, is extremely contrived (all the song titles have the word ‘hit’ in them) and he’s shaved his beard and replaced it with one of the worst irony moustaches I’ve ever seen. So now I’m free to enjoy The Last Of The Country Gentlemen as a character construction, which allows me a far deeper and truer engagement than the idea of a man actually living and thinking like this which is frankly a little embarrassing.

Codeine Dream - Colter Wall: I love this song, it has that feeling that great folk songs do of feeling like you’ve always known it. The strongest moments on this Colter Wall album to me are in songs like this that chase this particular feeling of morose isolation, and where he leans away from storytelling like his biggest hit Kate McCannon - a kind of cliche country murder ballad. This song is fantastic because of the way it wallows in this black depression not as a low point, but as a reprieve from the lower previous point. Things are as bad as they get now, and they’re always going to be like this, but at least I don’t dream of you anymore.

Motorcycle - Colter Wall: I only just found out about Colter Wall this month and have been listening to this album over and over. When I first heard him I though it was strange I'd never heard of him before because he's obviously some old country veteran based off his voice, but it turns out he's 24 and this is his first album he just sings like he ate a cigar. I love this song especially because it's so straighforward. It's a simple and supremely relatable mood: what if I bought a motorbike and fucking died.

Who By Fire - Leonard Cohen: I watched American Animals a couple of weeks ago and it’s a great movie, highly recommended. This song plays near the end and I waited for the credits to find out what this great song was, and like a rube found out it’s only one of the most celebrated songwriters of all time. I’ve never had much of a Leonard Cohen phase, somehow. In my mind I always get him mixed up with Lou Reed, which I’m learning is actually way off. I love the harmony vocals in this, and the way they move around into the shadows in the ‘who shall I say is calling’ parts.

Words From The Executioner To Alexander Pearce - The Drones: Alexander Pearce was a convict who escaped Sarah Island’s penal settlement in Tasmania with seven other convicts in 1822. He was recaptured two months later alone. In 1823 he re-escaped with a fellow convict, Thomas Cox and again was returned alone.He was executed by hanging later having eaten six men during his escape attempts.

It Ain’t All Flowers - Sturgill Simpson: I found this album going through the Pichfork 200 albums of the decade list and I feel like a fool for not having heard it sooner because now I am completely obsessed. Sturgill Simpson is doing the very best work in country music right now because he's looking backwards with one eye and forwards with the other and this song is a great illustration: a perfect Hank Williams Jr type country song with big voiced hollers that morphs into a surprise psych freakout for the whole second half.

Desolation Row (Take 1, Alternate Take) - Bob Dylan: I’ve always liked Desolation Row a lot as a song but the acoustic guitar on the album version is simply not good, it's just kind of mindlessly playing this long directionless solo the whole time and over the course of a song this long it really adds up to just being annoying. Luckily because it’s a Bob Dylan song there’s a whole universe of alternate takes and mixes and this is a great pared down version I found without it. The best kind of Bob Dylan songs are the ones where he just makes an endless stream of allusions and bizzare imagery, and this and Bob Dylan's 115th Dream are my favourite examples of it.

Living On Credit Blues - El Ten Eleven: This is a groove I get stuck in my head a lot, and this is also a song I think would work well as a theme for a tv show. I've been meaning to do a 30 second edit of it just for my own amusement, maybe I'll do that soon. El Ten Eleven are a duo where one guy plays drums and one guys plays a double necked guitar/bass and looping pedals and somehow against all the odds of that description they manage to make emotional, driving instrumental music of very deep feeling, like this song which is one of my all time favourites.

Dusty Flourescent/Wooden Shelves - Talkdemonic: This is sort of a companion Living On Credit Blues, and Talkdemonic are similarly an instrumental duo with good drums. This entire album from 2005 is highly recommended, it's a sort of halfway between the post rock of the time and a kind of acoustic hiphop instrumentals that ends up sounding very rustic and homemade, like a soudtrack for a winter cabin.

Turnstile Blues - Autolux: This is a perfect song, built around a perfect beat. Every part just fits perfectly.

Fort Greene Park - Battles: The new Battles album is finally out and I absolutely love it. I cannot think of another band that has shed members in the same way as Battles; originally a quartet on their first album, then a trio for their second and third and now down to a duo for their fourth album - and somehow still performing material from their first album live. The paring down has seemingly only servers to focus them and the new album sounds fresh but still distinctively Battles, with no sense of anything lost or missing. This song is my standout so far, and the guitar line in particular is so good and interesting to me because I don’t think I’ve ever heard Ian Williams play something so distinctly guitar-y in his whole career. This is a straight up pentatonic riff with bends and everything. Filtered through his usual chopped and looped oddness it feels like he’s almost gone all the back around the guitar continuum and is this close to just doing power chords next album. And I’ll support him!

Diane Young - Vampire Weekend: I've listened to this song a lot in my life and I only looked up the lyrics the other day to find out that the opening line is 'you torched a SAAB like a pile of leaves' which I somehow never noticed. What a power phrase. There's also this very good quote from Ezra about it: "I had this feeling that the world doesn’t want a song called ‘Dying Young’,“ says Koenig, "it just sounded so heavy and self-serious, whereas ‘Diane Young’ sounded like a nice person’s name.”" and he was right to do it. This song is 100 times better because he’s saying Diane Young than it would be if he was saying ‘Dying Young’. That’s a songwriting tip for you.

Monster Mash - Bootsy Collins & Buckethead: Hey did you hear Bootsy Collins and Buckethead did a cover of the monster mash? Thank god for freaks.

The Dark Sentencer - Coheed And Cambria: There's not that many bands that I absolutely loved as a teenager that I've completely abandoned. I've moved on from a lot but I'll still keep up with them if they have a new album or something. Coheed And Cambria are one that I've almost completely turned my back on. They've had 3 apparently pretty patchy albums since I stopped listening after Year Of The Black Rainbow, which was extremely bad and really taught me what people mean when they say an album is 'overproduced'. On a whim I decided to see what they're up to now and listened to their album from last year and guess what: it rocks. It's got everything you'd expect from them: big riffs, bad and confusing lyrics, his weird high voice, overwrought and overlong songwriting, cheesy muscleman solos. Everything about this band is sort of cheesy and embarrassing and takes itself way too seriously, but I'm discovering slowly that that's what's so good about it. The weird pulp sci-fi story and mindset that underpins this whole band is ridiculous and overwrought and as a result it gives the music a reason to exist the way it does. It’s so big and dumb because the story it serves is so big and dumb. It feels exactly like reading Perry Rhodan or some increidibly long and dense but not especially good series like that, it’s pulp music and that’s what I love about it.

Romance In A (6 Hands) - Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano works for 4 hands (where two guys sit next to each other on the same piano) have always seemed to tend towards the realm of the gimmick or party trick, and works for 6 hands (where three guys do it) even more so - but this Rachmaninoff piece is just beautiful and I can’t believe I haven’t heard of it before this month. It doesn’t overload everyone with a million things to do, it just builds this very wide harmonic bed for the simple melody to swim in - then the way the melody transfers over to the middle register is just magical before the tension of the final section takes over and builds.

Love's Theme - The Love Unlimited Orchestra: I’m so glad I got to learn about the Love Unlimited Orchestra this month. Aside from having one of the best names in music, they were Barry White’s backing band and had their own solo instrumental records too. Here’s a fun aside: Kenny G was a member when he was 17 and still in high school. This is a genre of music that has seemed to totally disappear into the realm of parody and farce only which is sort of a shame because it is unironically very beautiful and dense in its own way.

Dancing In The Moonlight - Liza Minelli: Can you believe I thought Dancing In The Moonlight by Toploader was an original until the other day when my girlfriend played this Liza Minelli version that predates it by several decades? This also isn’t the original! It was written by a band named King Harvest in 1972, with this version AND a version by Young Generation both coming out in 73 and a whole bunch of others in between (including a Baha Men version in 94) before Toploader finally had a proper hit with it in 2000. Truly the world works in mysterious ways. This version is the finest I think, it just goes and goes, frenetically unwinding at a breakneck pace before opening up into a flute solo of all things and then winding up again even and finishing in a kick line breakdown. Absolutely no limits.

Girls - Royal Headache: The sheer amount of power and melody that this song manages to pack into a minute and a half is incredible, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard a more instantly relatable opening lyric than “Girl! Think they’re to fine for me! Oh girls! And I’m inclined to agree!”

Pov Piti - Matana Roberts: In anticipation of Matana Roberts new volume of her Coin Coin album series that just came out I relistened through the three previous albums and they are even more powerful than I remembered. This song serves as a pretty good mission statement for the whole project, and the heartrending tortured screams that open it set the tone for the rest of it. Matana Roberts sings the injustices of slavery into being, and her sing-song delivery highlights the trauma - her indifferent delivery mirroring the indifference of the world at large. The way she rattles off this story like she’s gone over it a million times and grown numb to the facts only accentuates the pain in the telling, a pain that rises to the surface in the screams of her instrument and herself.

Kingdoms (G) - Sunn 0))): This new Sun 0))) album is one of my favourites they’ve ever done because it’s so straightforward and back to basics. Every song is just ten minutes of straight up no-nonsense, big, rich, drone. They even put the notes in the track names so you can drone along if you like.

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