ARI FARO – Masquerade
With so much music and other forms of entertainment to choose from, my only advice is to pick the ones that entirely arrest your attention. Those have to be special. They contrast so much with all of the rest of the information that you can’t retain your focus for more than a few seconds. Whether beautiful or grotesque, move yourself toward the art you can’t get away from. Choose something like Ari Faro’s music!
But it won’t be easy to find it. That’s not only because the creative work is getting lighter and lighter. It’s not simply because all of us humans have shorter attention spans. Sure, that doesn’t help.
It’s also a result of the fact that we’ve so much from which to choose. Can you imagine living in the fabled 1960s and only being able to choose from a few records that you could buy at the shop, and from only a few genres?
This is, maybe, why ARI FARO’s engulfing “Masquerade” begins as an ode to the kind of beautiful 1960s ballads might’ve found their way onto the soundtracks of British movies, but ends up taking production inspiration from numerous modern sources. The result is a warm, enchanting psychedelic number that you’ll find hard to turn off or forget. It’s the kind of song that you ought to choose for yourself.
Origami Ghosts – Heaven’s Gate
Maybe it’s true that the one thing that’s different between various styles is the budget and the stylists involved. Take all the money away from the prog-rock bands of the 1970s, and you will have taken their desire to overplay. Make them wear T-shirts and jeans, and you might help to create indie-rock a few decades ahead of its time.
But certainly the subject of the songs would be different? Not necessarily. Without a record label or a scene to keep happy, songwriters have the tendency to write about what they really care about. They just can’t help. And thinking about love, sex, and death is practically unavoidable for any person anyway. Put musicians in the right circumstances, and boom, everyone starts producing the same kinds of songs.
Origami Ghosts do play indie-rock like eccentric English prog-rockers of yesteryear, integrating flute playing and melodic, high-pitched singing to the mix. This Yes-like independent duo has heavy, philosophical questions on their mind as well. But it’s not like they’re trying to sound deep. It’s just that a near-death experience has forced the otherwise delightful “Heaven’s Gate” to be produced. Beautifully murky sounding and daring to give audiences something to think about when it comes to the afterlife, Origami Ghosts have written, essentially, one of the few songs that matter.
