
Binary Sunset – Pas de fleurs
Boxers need to get their noses broken sooner or later. It’s just the way it is. That’s why their trainers, in an act of mercy and goodwill, often offer to break it ahead of a big fight. At the very least, the boxers know what’s coming next.
You got to scrape your knees to learn to run. You end up wearing thick eyeglasses if you are determined to read your way through the classics. And, if you really want to have good taste in music, it might be wise to get your heart broken a few times and/or develop a taste for melancholy and anxiety.
Sure, the alternatives might sound better. What if you end up with your vision a perfect 20/20, your knees in working condition, and your heart not broken? Yeah, but that might also mean you’ll end up listening to Sabaton while cleaning your gun collection. It could get much worse.
Binary Sunset’s “Pas de fleurs” is pretty, subtle guitar music for people who’ve never been fully satisfied and don’t intend to start now. Those are the best kinds of people, of course. And this is the kind of music you’d expect to hear spinning on a turntable in a classy, obscure record shop. Just embrace the melancholy already!
JBNG – Mound of sound
Every few months, you’ll read a think piece published in some important magazine (now reduced to the format of a fancy blog) talking about the inevitable demise of rock n’ roll.
They’ll bemoan the state of current rock music and the lack of resources. Rock stars used to be able to drive their Rolls Royce through swimming pools. Now, most of them have to work very hard to make enough money for gas.
But do most of us really need our favorite rock bands to be bigger? Do we need the music industry to balloon to the size it once was? The majority of us do just fine as fans of underground bands or as underground artists ourselves.
Some of us still live off it. Not necessarily the money from the recordings, but everything else they provide. JBNG’s “Mound of sound” is a lo-fi alt-rock that feels made by someone who wouldn’t know how to approach each day without making music and trying to share it with the world. The sound itself is convincing, as is the approach. What else do you need? Sure, a chocolate-colored Rolls Royce would be nice, but a musician driving that around would be such a cliche.