Fuzzy Prophet – Brief Levitation
Similar artists: Guided By Voices, my bloody valentine, The Saints
Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Rock, Garage Rock
Generally speaking, nobody feels like they need to hear someone else’s trouble when they have their own to deal with. Generally spekaing, outside of work and family life, people just like to be made to forget about all kinds of troubles. With this mind, what a good poet can achieve is amazing. The moment that the advertising sector really finds out how that works, their profits will rise exponentially.
Great poets are held in high esteem and are able to say anything that they want. More often than not, they treat the world to a summary of their woes and troubles. Yet, they leave the audience smiling. Quite often, they treat the world to stories that nearly indecipherable. But if the story has been told well, nobody ever seems to mind.
Fuzzy Prophet’s “Brief Levitation” is punk-rock poetry. It’s a very confident debut release, one where the songwriter is as interested in action heroes breaking bones as he is about using the most appropriate rhythm. There’s nothing contrived about this Lo-Fi affair, and very little that sounds pretentious. It’s a punk tune that could be covered well by any competent group. And, that makes for a storng song. Keep ‘em coming!
Sakawa Boys – Out Of The Dark
Genre: Shoegaze, Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Most rock singers look up at the sky or at their shoes when performing in front of an audience. That’s understandable. What they do is terrifying. However, by hiding themselves away, they also rob the audience of the chance to truly interact with their work. What’s worse, those performers tend to use the same strategy when going away to write and record music.
There’s no great music without a bit of friction. And, arguably, there’s nothing great about the modern world unless you find a bit of that friction in your own life. Indeed, it’s not just the world right now that works in this way, but ancient fairytales as well. None of them have the hero conquering everything without effort. The hero has to mess up, see the errors of their ways, and find ways to overcome them. That’s an action blockbuster right there. And that’s punk rock.
Punk-rock doesn’t have to use screaming anymore. Not in every song. There’s plenty of punk energy coming through on Sakawa Boys’s “Out Of The Dark.” But the song also feels like a ceremony on which festering wounds are sown shut. It’s a song about facing up to demons of the past, thanking them for their service and sending them on their way. Musically, it draws from murky post-Britpop, ethereal indie-rock and even a bit of the aforementioned angry punk-rock. It doesn’t beat its drum too loudly, though. Sakawa Boys are about making a chance and then making an escape.
