What have you been listening to this week?

I am embarrassed to admit that I've only recently found DOMi & JD BECK's debut album, and was absolutely blown away when I listened to it. They're so young but so, so unbelievably good. I highly recommend watching their live shows as well; watching DOMi play a melody, bass, and sub bass at the same time is mesmerizing.

• Daylight Dies - Dismantling Devotion. Death/Doom from US/NC.
• Daylight Dies - Lost to the Living. Same sound as in Dismantling Devotion but it's missing something and feels like a poor copy.
• Deafheaven - New Bermuda. Post-Black/Shoegaze from US/CA. A "controversial" band in that many metal elitists don't acknowledge them as being metal, which I can see their argument as if you take away the trappings of their sound (no distortion, blast beats, shrieked vocals) then you have essentially the shoegaze moniker listed above. On the other hand, if you do that to any other band then you've also essentially changed their sound as well. Regardless, I enjoy the sound they've created on Sunbather (listed next) and refined on New Bermuda, with the melodies hidden beneath the black metal wall of sound.
• Deafheaven - Sunbather. This album is structured slightly differently than New Bermuda, in which here each actual song is separated by typically an ambient-sound interlude. One of which ends with an annoyingly high-pitched tone that seems to exceed the current volume setting, and which I always skip.
• Death - Human, death metal (gee really) from US/FL. Opinions vary on if Death was the first band to do "death metal" but they are unarguably the ones to make it more widespread. Their Human album, which like every other one they've released has a different lineup, and is where you start to hear their sound really progress and play around with different time signatures and song structures.
• Death - Individual Thought Patterns. Another album, a new lineup, and IMO the songs just don't hit quite as hard as on Human. It doesn't help that the Relapse Records re-release has a poor mix and the sound is muddied compared to the other albums.

And this week I've purchased:

• In Mourning - Afterglow (melodeath)
• Helloween - Keeper of the Seven Keys Pt 1 (power)
• Vanden Plas - Christ 0 (prog)
• Nightrage - A New Disease is Born (melodeath)

Progressive Metal

Periphery

Primarily have been listening to their new album Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre. Songs I recommend starting with from the album:

• Wildfire
• Wax Wings

ERRA

Their new self-titled album is great. Top songs for getting into it:

• Snowblood
• Diversionary

Animals as Leaders

Recommend their latest album Parrhesia. Recommended songs:

• The Problem of Other Minds
• Red Miso

Nu Metal

AVOID

I've been listening to Cult Mentality. Check out:

• Can't Take This Away
• Whatever

I really got into indie pop with Men I Trust and Crumb recently. I think my music taste evolved recently with Arctic Monkeys’ new stuff: their change to slower music with TBHC and The Car.

All the music linked above is very setback and relaxed indie rock.

Kinda funny how 40% of the top level comments feature metal. Don't really see that anywhere else. Anyway, not sure if it counts but I've been getting as many people possible to watch this video I found. "What These 60 Iconic Bands Sound Like to People Who Love Them Vs. Hate Them"

Just today I found The Golden Age by Wires on Bandcamp's daily featured list and I bought it after one listen. It's really good math-prog-alt-post-rock. Also all the art is awesome, each track has it's own art for it and now I wish every band did that.

My musical tastes are a little all over the map: Open Mike Eagle and Jeff Rosenstock are both usually in heavy rotation, but this week I've been on some kind of old time music kick.

Sierra Ferrell: https://youtu.be/6fPqmceCf90
The most beautiful voice I've heard.

JP Harris: https://youtu.be/6ttYq5THfns
Old song, wonderful rendition.

Been listening to the Foo Fighters latest album, But Here We Are. I didn't care for it at first but after several listens it has grown on me and I enjoy listening from start to finish.

Also on Wednesday I saw Incubus in concert for the 5th time, and their openers, Paris Jackson and Badflower, were both surprisingly good! I tried to listen to more of Paris' catalogue on the drive home but I think she must have carefully selected the tracks to play live as the others that I listened to were just kind of slow and not exciting.

New track I found this week Nothing Ever Happens, by a relatively small artist, Darryl Rahn. Might not be an entertaining listen for most but I find it's a comfortable listen, and I keep going back to give it a listen.

I recently discovered a new genre, Dungeon Synth, that I'm really vibing with. It's been perfect for DnD prep and would probably go great with some old pulpy fantasy novels.

On the Drum n' Bass side I've been listening to High Contrast and Calibre.

For Hip-hop I've really enjoyed Paris Texas's new album MID AIR. Apple music recommended recently Hieroglyphics and they've been great chill music.

Also found a couple albums that I was surprised I liked, first was Poppy - I Disagree a multi-genre mashup but is mostly Pop-metal, I'm not much of a pop person and was honestly a bit put off by the first song in the album, but the heaviness of it convinced me to continue and I'm glad I did.

Second was Kim Dracula - A Gradual Decline In Morale another genre mashup, this time more nu-metal and rap with some schizophrenic cutaway gags.

The Kinks. Right now I can’t get over “Working at the Factory” which I think is the culmination of Ray Davies songwriting.

For me, this week has been a sit back to chill and mellow artists. Chelou, Mø, Milky Chance, Broken Back, and Slender Bodies are ones that come to mind when I think of this post. One of my favorites I've heard this week specifically is Cabin by Chelou. It just has the perfect sit back and relax vibe to it. I use Youtube Music and these artists also start really good stations that you can add to throughout the day.

Going to see Pokey Lafarge for the first time live in Italy next week, so I'm going through his albums. I'm mostly familiar with his older stuff but his new stuff is super fun too.

Search: Pokey Lafarge - Fine to Me. It's his hit from his latest album I think, and the music video is super fun too.

I’ve started playing the piano so I’ve been listening to some movie scores that I’ve been practicing. Lots of modern minimal stuff, with unsettling sounds.

I received a couple of CDs from Discogs this week so I've mostly listened to those:

Grope - The Fury

Danish groove metal from the 90s. This was their second album and arguably their best.

Tom Waits - Mule Variations

This was the album that made me a fan of Tom Waits back when it came out but somewhere in the last 20 years I lost my copy so I had to buy it again. Lovely album.

I'm currently listening to George Winston's piano album Summer (1991), which is fitting as I sit on my patio in upper-70s temps and read during the late-night/early-morning hours (I'm a night owl). This album is calm and pleasant, with motifs that seem familiar but are generally new.

I also recently discovered the novelty Wiener Song by Daniel Thrasher, which is catchier and better than it has any right to be.

The Bombpops, I love punk music sung by women!

Today I listened to three Darkthrone albums in a row:
Old Star
Circle The Wagons
Astral Fortress

My favorite band released a new single titled Soul Capturer which should be on their album that's coming out in September. They've also sent out a single of their 22-minute epic song Defeat, which I find particularly beautiful. The vibe is generally experimental pop with a lot of analog.

• Animal Collective - Soul Capturer
• Animal Collective - Defeat

I've also been digging Squid recently

• Squid - Swing
• Squid - The Blades

And a few throwbacks from a recent road trip playlist:

• LCD Soundsystem - Dance Yrself Clean. Right about 3m there's an epic drop, but to really get the effect you have to listen without skipping.
• Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener. If you're into low-fi indie sleaze, here you go.
• Panda Bear & Sonic Boom - Whirlpool. Pure gold from the king(s) of shoegaze