Bone Gunn – Prime
Genre: Punk, Hard Rock, Alternative Rock
Similar artists: Nine Inch Nails, System of A Down, Rusted Root, King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard
In the early 1990s, an essay titled The End of History and the Last Man proclaimed the U.S. liberal democracy to be the winner of the war concerned political doctrines. According to this, no other philosophy could rule the world in the future. Also, the hegemony of the U.S.A. would go uncontested for the rest of humanity’s history.
Well, this worked out brilliantly, of course. While that idea did not come to fruition, something similar can be said about rock music. History has largely ended for it. Sure, there are some addendums added to the book. But, the main chapters have all been written as far as most people are concerned.
This allows musicians to comfortably quote from multiple sources without fear of causing confusion among their fan base. Bone Gunn’s Prime, for example, digs into the group’s passion for glum, psychedelic groups from numerous eras. It’s a winning strategy overall, with the resulting single unwillingness to submit to strict genre delimitation. The groups that Bone Gunn is quoting had one thing in common, distrust for the future. The future is here and, similarly, it has a distrust for its own destiny.
a-tota-so – Far Enough Ft. Damien Sayell
Genre: 90s Rock, Math Rock, Indie Rock
Similar artists: mclusky, Nirvana, Idles, Shellac
For the time being, living in the modern world doesn’t require a great deal of commitment. People change from one day to the next. Loyalty to one’s principles is not a character trait to be desired. Rather, it’s viewed as a vulnerability that makes a person stubborn and inflexible.
For those that enjoy art that exists on the fringes of the underground, there are few alternatives. The effort to avoid the mainstream changes not just the minds of certain individuals, but their opportunities as well. In other words, alternative music, for example, becomes the hill to die on for people who truly love it.
a-tota-so’s Far Enough brings the doctrine of full commitment to their precise, grunge-inspired sound. This is not music made by people that might look to write a radio hit in the near future. And, it’s not made for people that would demand this, or that would trust anything about the future anyway. a-tota-so make music for dissidents in a time of extreme moderation.
