Listening Diary 26

Global grooves & somber moods

Good morning! I hope you had a pleasant weekend. Here are ten tunes that I recently enjoyed listening to. The first five, one a day for the working week, are free for all to hear and consider. The next five however are exclusively for my paying subscribers. For the full suite of tunes and other fun bonuses, subscribe now at $5 a month!

“Long Distance Runner” by Castles (Fiction or Truth?, 2013)

Here’s another track that I came across in the Kurt Ballou production playlist that I mentioned in the last Listening Diary (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, consider becoming a paid subscriber!). No relation to the great Iron Maiden song by almost the same name, so don’t expect any classic metal gallops. Do expect chop-heavy post-hardcore. While the drums and bass go nuts, the guitars anchor the listener by keeping it real simple. What really takes this song over the top is the chorus, which feels like it flies in from another album. Those vocal harmonies really “change the rules” of what feels possible on the track. Powerful stuff!

“School Revolution” by Voice of Baceprot (Retas, 2023)

I won’t lie, I was probably predisposed to check this Indonesian power trio out after binging through We Are Lady Parts! with my roommate Ashna Ali a few months back. Fun show! I won’t take it personally that the music journalist and drummer are the source of all the drama. Anyway, Voice of Baceprot don’t have anything in common on musical level with the fictional Ladyparts. Instead of straightforward punk, this trio specializes in high energy groove metal, full of breakbeats, slap bass, and semi-rapped vocals. The bass playing is the real star here, and I can’t wait to hear what this band sounds like once they get more reps under their belt.

“Anumati” by Chepang (Swatta, 2023)

Chepang blew my mind out of the door when I saw them earlier this year opening for Gridlink at Saint Vitus. I was delighted to learn that their recorded output on Swatta is capable of the same bewildering effect. It is always hard to single out a single track on album as varied and eclectic as this one, especially when so many of the tracks flow directly into each other, but this tune should give you a good teaser of what makes this band so fascinating. I’m always a sucker for grindcore that isn’t afraid to get a little pretty or psychedelic, and Chepang have no problem being both without losing any of their hyper-aggression.

“The Gold Of Having Nothing” by Victory Over the Sun (Dance You Monster to My Soft Song!, 2023)

Shouts out to Calder Hannan of Florid Ekstasis (who just dropped a new album of their own!) for putting me onto this album. Victory Over The Sun’s work was a bit too micro-tonal for my taste, I’ll fully admit to still being in the “lacking object permanence” stage of babydom when it comes to that stuff, but this album is a slam dunk. On the surface level this tune’s wild change of registers and moods might scan as total chaos, but if you follow the central motif each of the shifts in style and tone make perfect sense. Whether the band is playing artsy post-punk, King Crimson style prog with dueling saxophones, or crunchy death metal breakdowns, Vivian Tylinska never loses the core melodic thread that animates this incredible song.

“El Khala3 Wel Dala3” by Aya Metwalli & Calamita (Al Saher, 2023)

Call this post-research for DU#33. After considering the legitimacy of a bunch of British dudes playing psych rock inspired by North African music, the very least I could do was keep an ear out for the genuine article. Enter this excellent track by way of Egypt & Lebanon. Unlike Sexwitch’s slap-dash psychedelia, this tune develops patiently and completely under control, while still achieving the same dizzying sensation. Big fan of the way the guitar darts in for faster patterns while the bass and drums pound out the pulse. The keyboard also reminds me of Silver Apples by way of Portishead.