obscure music recs

誄 : condolence - malikliya

a short blackgaze record with guest vocals from kakizaki risaki, a former member of necronomidol. i don't know much about blackgaze or black metal, but i was interested in the former because i'm a huge shoegaze fan, and a subgenre of shoegaze with a harsher edge may have been weird initially, but i quickly wanted to check it out. this album was one of my entry points into the genre, and i still haven't heard much of it, but i really like it now lol. the songs here hit that sweet spot of intense but emotional, and risaki's vocals not only elevate that but for some songs really make the emotion part of it.

samson & delilah - v v brown

v v brown had one retro styled pop/soul hit in 2009, released a record as part of it, and then didn't really take off. then she puts out this album a couple years later in 2013, and it's just a complete departure from her previous work - this is like, full on weird industrial art pop lol. not even rateyourmusic is that aware of it - despite the 200 ratings it has few reviews and comments, or even many list inclusions. and it's sad because this is everything a music nerd would love! weird experimental industrial sounds, thunderous vocals with a ton of reverb but not to a point of annoyance or drowning out the vocal power, era-typical electronic sounds but subverted - i don't know if any of this makes sense but really this is great. hopefully it gets its due someday.

the world in my eyes - singersen

speaking of art pop - singersen had a brief career in the early 2010s, until she faded from the public eye at some point for unknown reasons. guess she just didn't want to do it anymore idk. but at least the music she put out while active is solid. her music was produced by guy sigsworth, who closely worked with artists like imogen heap and bjork, so that's already one hell of a reason to check her out, but her music stands on its own - all of it holds down an ethereal quality, kind of as a baseline, but the atmospheres of the songs range from anywhere between quiet and buoyant to intense and roaring.

cowboy / weather the storm - a very special episode

just some fun distorted post punk from a mostly unknown nyc band. cowboy is insanely catchy, while weather the storm has more of a piercing and emotive sound to it, especially in its chorus. i would recommend the album these songs were later released on but i haven't listened to it yet orz

baby formula - baby formula

there aren't many english sources for this band so it's hard finding information on them - all i can tell is that they put out this album in 2013 and may have appeared on a chinese shoegaze compilation? idk but this album is nice. it's atmospheric shoegaze with a light ambient tone to it. it's warm but cold at the same time - i mean a lot of shoegaze is like that but this record has it down pat. i started listening to it in the fall but it's even better in the winter, and i think it'll be just as perfect in the spring. also the drums are really good. this reminds me of ringo deathstarr's first album but more relaxed

wholeness & separation - halou

i am physically incapable of saying anything bad about this album. it's one of my all-time favorites and i almost always listen to it in one go. this band is usually labeled as trip hop, but they reject it for some reason, and also this album barely resembles trip hop to me, so i just sort it as dream pop. the vocals are kind of elizabeth fraser-ish, but these are more faded and washed out, yet still grounded in the industrial-ish instrumentation. like the last album it's warm and cold feeling at the same time - sometimes the atmosphere and reverbed beats can make it feel sterile, but other times it's comforting. besides the dream pop vibes it's also really glitchy, but not to a point of being frantic, it's just glitchy and electronic at its own pace.

lights out - big deal

not much to say here - it's quiet fall-tinged folk rock, with some indie pop vibes i guess. idk i'm not good at genres but this is nice. like most of the entries here it's ambient and atmospheric, but instead of getting ethereal this stays pretty grounded. the two person vocals make some of these songs feel as familiar as conversations.

silver haze - aye nako

this sounds very 90s indie rock, or well, as far as my knowledge of that era of indie rock goes. the whole album is built in and around identity, specifically queer and black identity and how they intersect, and it's not just reflected in the lyrics, but the dynamic vocal delivery of both vocalists, kinda like the vocals in the malikliya album, uniquely elevate the emotional intensity of nearly every song. it's such a cathartic album, which even manages to shine through the distorted and washed out fuzz surrounding the record. and i don't mean that in the bad way, the distortion and fuzz is one of my favorite parts of this album - somehow it makes it sound even more cathartic than it would've if it were cleaner.

headz gone west - nia archives

very immediate jungle/drum & bass with palpable 90s dance vibes, except blended with thick, emotive neo-soul vocals. it kind of reminds me of mid 90s eurodance in that regard, with the strong vocals and dance music combo, but eurodance is much more intense - despite the fast bpm here, by way of being, well, d&b, this still maintains a laid back vibe. it's moody but in a contemplative/self-reflective way (mostly in the brief lyrics), and sometimes it gets kinda trippy. wish it was longer tbh